and we are home . . .

We talked about where to go next. And you know what? Home started to sound pretty good. We had lunch at the park and then put the old GPS on "Go Home".

And home feels and looks good! The RV will be back in storage tomorrow and we look forward to spending some time on our deck.

Beauvais Lake near Pincher Creek, AB

Beauvais Lake Prov Pk
Site #11, $30 (x3) p only, cell but no wifi

Sunday morning we were packed up and on the road at 10:30 am. Our first stop? Pincher Creek liquor store. That's why we had to leave Cardston -- lol -- not really.. (but maybe?).

Check out at Beauvais isn't until 2 pm but we pulled in to a decent spot in the 'first come first serve' area. Some Prov. Parks mark all their best sites as Reserve and we get left with the worst. Thankfully this is not the case in this campground. By 2 pm the weekenders were vacated and we plus a few more seniors had moved in. A typical Sunday in the campgrounds during May and June. 

from our campsite

We did a quick bike tour of the area and Ron thought he'd found the jackpot along the road. Disappointment. It was wet and rotten.

We did enjoy a nice campfire in the evening and roasted marshmallows. 

Ron is checking out one of the old homesteads, the Lynch Cabin.

There are a lot of Grouse in the area. We hear their frequent drumming. We have really enjoyed all the different birds at the various campgrounds we've visited this year. We are making good use of the Audubon Bird App on Ron's phone. There were Grebes nesting near the shore. I'm not sure what is holding her nest up?? 

The Conservation Officer came by on day 2 and told us a bear had been spotted in the campgrounds and we were told to pack away our barbecue and stove at night.

There are many hiking trails in the area. Ron checked out the Beaver Ponds and the old Smith Homestead. 

It was a great three nights although we experienced more wind than we would have liked. This is certainly a windy part of the province. One of our campfires was cut short because of the wind. That was the main reason we chose not to extend our stay.  Of course last night was perfect!

Our Cardston weekend

We did three nights in Cardston. Our underwear was washed, groceries were purchased, tanks were emptied and re-filled (hooray for full hookups!) and we enjoyed some free internet. We spent a good portion of the time indoors or in truck -- Because cool and windy. There were games of "Sequence" played.

I love being able to google the places we are visiting. So much to learn. Did you know that Cardston has had a ban on alcohol sales for over 100 years. There are no liquor stores and no alcohol is sold in restaurants or at any recreational facility such as the local golf course. The town is 80% Mormon and the Mormon temple, a granite monolith that was built over 100 years ago on 4 hectares of land is visible from almost everywhere in town. I'm thinking the other 20% of the population must be Indigenous with the town located on the edge of the Blood Indian Reserve. 

We always enjoy our driving tours. We happened upon a huge fishing derby at Payne Lake, not far from Waterton Lake.  This photo shows only a small portion of the units gathered around the one side of the lake. There were many more crammed in behind from where I stood. It was a beehive of activity -- all ages with fishing lines in the water.

We checked out a few other camping spots in the area but none really captured our interest.  We drove through "The Great Canadian Barn Dance" facilities which is displaying "For Sale" signs.  We remembered kicking up our heels in the big red barn many many years ago and a quick google search tells me that you can still head on over for their Friday night Dinner and dance party.

A couple of other sightings we found rather interesting. On our countryside drive through small town Hillspring there was a fellow out running his horse. The cowboy was in his truck driving down the wrong side of the highway holding the rope tied to his horse. The horse ran alongside in the ditch. We've seen people exercise their dogs this way, but this had to be a first! And we see very small town Glenwood is home to a large Saputo Plant - a large dairy producer. I had noted this label on my Armstrong Cheese and our Cottage cheese yesterday. Who knew!?

The campground was busier than we expected for the weekend. We were told that people come for the golf. There is a group from Calgary (currently 3 units) who rent for the entire camping season for just this reason. We did check out the course and yes, a very nice 18 holes.  

This evening the wind finally let up and we sat out for a short fire.  Tomorrow we plan to move on to Beauvais Lake south of Pincher Creek.