Home Again

Well it looks like that's it for Camping 2021. Good meals, some great campfires and lots of pretty.

One thing we know for sure. We have become fair weather campers. The chilly winds and the cooler weather are no longer appreciated. And with our weather app showing some of this > ❄ <  next week, home sounds like the place to be.

So by 10:30 this morning we were headed south. The 5th wheel is now back in the compound. Fifteen days of laundry is piled beside the washer. 

I'm a little sad we won't be doing a camper style Thanksgiving this year. However, we will NOT miss those damn flies.... ugh, they are so bad this time of year! And I am looking forward to some soaks in the tub again! Cheers to Fall Camping . . .  

Staying put

Well we paid for three more nights here. That adds up to 8 nights at Rolling Hills and 7 nights here. We are not too adventurous in our travels this trip. It is just easier not to move! And the colours are amazing here!

We've had a fair bit of wind, but fortunately it let's up in the evening and we've enjoyed some great campfires. It helps that we have the Sport Brella. It certainly keeps in the heat!

We had hoped to stay camping until after Thanksgiving, but the weather isn't cooperating.  We had a taste of cold this am when we awoke to 0C. We might have headed home except I had already started the breadmaker which will take 4 hours. Also tomorrow's forecast of 27C is kind of attractive! The rest of the week not so much!

So it was off to Hanna for milk and yogurt to get us through a couple more nights.  It's always kind of sad to visit Hanna and see all the boarded up businesses and empty buildings. Places like "The Tipsy Cow Bar" made me smile though. I actually googled it and see that they were fined $1200 for ignoring covid shutdowns. 

At present we are the only unit in this loop. The other loop has 2 units. 

Oh, this park boasts a selfie booth. I took a photo and left one of my painted rocks.

The Alberta Oasis

Prairie Oasis Campground 

Site #34: $35. (x7) p only water shutoff, wifi

Here we are at Prairie Oasis, south of Hanna, AB. One can certainly say we are creatures of habit. We seem to keep showing up at the same campgrounds year after year.

I will miss the sunrise, the lake out our door and the loons. However, "Breezy" seems to be the word on my weather app these days and our well treed site here is slightly more protected.

There were only 3 camping units when we arrived. One unit looked like this! Dad, who drives a cattle liner on his working days camps with his young daughter and the dog!

Two more units arrived later in the evening and I suspect the upcoming nice weekend will draw a few more.

Our days continue... Walking, biking, reading, campfires plus a cocktail or two.

Oh yes, we were an extra 20 minutes on the road driving here. We had to wait for this "Motel" to cross the bridge.

More from the Hills

The weather has been great temperature wise but unfortunately the past two days have been windy. This morning Ron paid for two more nights. Wind with an RV does not make for good travel conditions.

This is certainly not a bad place to be wind stayed. It's a great campground complete with wifi. (YAY!) We are very comfy here. We have been treated to awesome sunrises and pretty sunsets. And the leaves changing colour..wow. 

We continue to enjoy our walks and biking. We have sat at the campfire every evening. The loons swim by and serenade us as they have made this a  stopover on their way south.

We took a "wind break" yesterday and drove the 11 km to Kinbrook Prov Park to check out the camping there. People were just packing up to go home and obviously it had been a busy weekend in that campground. We were lucky and happy that this Campground was much quieter.  Normally it closes on the Wed after the long weekend, so people possibly weren't aware of the longer opening this year.  We then drove another 20 min to Brooks where we picked up a couple items from the grocery store. Everyone was masked which was good to see.

Oh yes. Our one major complaint. The frickin flies. I know it's a fall issue for us every year but they are SO annoying. We may wear out the fly swatter. Also those damn little ankle biter flies...ugh... and ouch!

Well another 250 steps to log and I believe it might be cocktail time.

Fall Camping 2021

Rolling Hills Reservoir Campground 

Site #26: $40 (x8) p only wifi

Well this great Fall weather forecast has lured us back camping. It took us a little longer to prepare this time as much of the food and supplies had been emptied out before summer. Also we experienced an unfortunate little incident a few weeks back. A "homeless fellow" (???) broke in to our trailer at the storage compound and spent some time there. I was therefore very thankful we had emptied out most of our food supply!  About the only edibles available to him were Ichiban soup and a jar of honey. There were bits of dried noodles everywhere, including in the bed. So yes, he was "camped out" for a night or two.  He used the can... ugh... and left a crack pipe and lighter on the night side table. It appeared he left in a hurry leaving the door swinging open behind him. That is what alerted our neighbours driving by. 

The police checked things out and removed the pipe.  They said we were lucky as many places are left totally trashed. I don't expect we will hear any  more as no major damage was done. It just took a lot of scrubbing and laundering to remove the unwelcome presence. One certainly feels violated. 

Anyway here we are at Rolling Hills Reservoir south of Brooks and about an hour out of Medicine Hat.

It felt good to be camping again and it didn't take us long to get 'back in the groove'.  We love the quiet of the off season.  There are only a few campers hanging at the campground with us. We went for a couple of walks, did a little reading, painted a couple rocks to hide and just enjoyed the views.

That weather? Perfection! We were cozy by the campfire and we were treated to a spectacular full moon rising over the water. 

Last night I had one of the best sleeps I've had in a long time!  That warm weather continues today. Although a little less wind would be welcome today! 

Well time to get some footsteps in!

Roasting on the Oasis

Well it's not very often we have used our air conditioning in the fifth wheel. This trip was the exception. Holy hot! Like 30C+ and this only the first week of June.

Understandably were a lot of day use people driving out for the day. This is a great beach only 30 min. from Hanna.

We spent one aft with our toes in the water but mostly just hung out in the shade. Evenings cooled down enough to allow for a fire.

I painted and hid a few more rocks. A couple were found and posted on Facebook! Always fun for me!

Oh. When we unhooked in this campsite, the RV rolled slightly forward and a little off the wheel blocks. On Night 4, middle of night and this starts to bother Ron. What if we roll further ahead and off the jacks he thinks. (Yes this after 4 nights.) So naked old man is outside, putting chaulks in front of wheels. Fumbling around, no glasses. I guess he figured no glasses, noone would see?? (Hoping!!??) But I kind of wonder if that is why 3 neighbors pulled out the next morning??

We debated staying longer than the 6 nights, but with the campground filling for the weekend and a prediction of thunderstorms on Saturday, we packed up and headed home Friday morning. 

This was not best time to discover the truck air conditioning was toast... ugh it was a 2 hour 27C sauna. Back home never looked so good!  And once again, yay for air conditioners.

Round 3 - Prairie Oasis, Hanna, AB

Site #32: $35. (x5) p/w

The week forecast was HOT HOT. So Prairie Oasis sounded like the perfect place to hang. We loaded up the RV Sunday morning and 2.5 hours later we were enjoying a cold one. 

The beach was busy, but all those Sunday day-users headed home for dinner. We were surprised to see a number of young families arrive to camp however. Usually we just get fellow Seniors this time of year. Things are certainly different during the Covid times. Parents not working and kids not in school.

Someone was in our usual site so we parked next door. I think I like it better. Ron didn't like the dandelion puffs, so they got broomed. Lol...

But I have to admit, it did look better after! 

As predicted the weather has been awesome. We've enjoyed walks along the beach and throughout the campground. 

We've had two great evenings around the campfire.  We will be chillin' out here until Friday or Saturday.... (Ha! Right! "chilling out" in the upcoming 28C, 32C and 34C temps.)

Storm Stayed

Thurs: I was afraid to get out of bed. And yes, my fears were realized. That "s" word. Our neighbours who checked out early were probably the smart ones.

However, if we would have gone home Wednesday, we would have missed out on a very lovely evening around the fire. This Sports Brella is awesome. It protects from wind and holds in the heat. Thank you, Dave!

Although a few people headed home, there were still many checking in. You can always count on die-hard long weekenders despite some ugly forecasts.

So, Thursday was mostly spent indoors. We watched curling on my tablet and Ron did his daily Ancestor and dead people searches. Yay wifi! I did get out for a couple walks and yes there were other crazy people out and about. 

As mentioned earlier, I love to paint and hide rocks for the little ones to find. I label them all Facebook: "Medicine Hat Rocks" and some people will post their finds there. It warms my heart to see my rocks being found and posted!

Friday arrived and we had planned to head home. There was no snow accumulation in the campground, but unfortunately the same was not true for Medicine Hat. In fact, the highway eastbound from Redcliff to Med hat was closed in the morning due to a semi rollover and a multi vehicle accident. So decision made. Another night of camping. It turned out to be a great day. No wind  makes such a difference. Really..an afternoon delight.

And with empty fridge and no clean underwear it will be back to city life tomorrow.

Tues: "It's All Good in the Trailer Hood"

Sunday and Monday were perfect in the Rolling Hills. Today?? WIND! Yikes, like BIG wind.  Thankfully we are a bit protected at our site. On the upper rows of this campground, hang on to your hat! And your kids!! You can't tell how windy it is from this pic. There are white caps on the water. We are hearing zero visibility on Hwy 1 near Brooks from blowing dust.

I forgot to mention the funny thing that happened when we checked in here. Ron came for me when our first choices for a campsite were not available. I went back into the office with him plus our campground map to point out another choice and to see if that one was available. The check-in lady looks at me and says "You have an old man."  My mouth was literally hanging open (underneath my mask of course) and I was left rather speechless.  I looked at Ron then back at her with wide eyes not quite sure what to say.  "Your MAP... your map is old." she says. We had quite a chuckle and Ron informed her I had both - an old man and an old map! lol...

After the Sunday crowd left, things have been pretty quiet. Well, except for those lawn mowers. This place just opened last Friday and the yard maintenance staff are busy. This has to be one of the cleanest, best kept campgrounds we visit. (Much to Ron's disappointment -- there are no surprise treasurers to be found here!)

We continue to enjoy our usual biking and hiking.  This big guy ran out and startled us during yesterday's walk! I've never seen such a huge jackrabbit!!

I have painted and hidden a few more rocks in the playground. Hopefully the little weekend visitors will find them.

It's great to have wifi here.  I actually caught a few ends of the World Curling Doubles competition that was shown on YouTube yesterday and today. Go Canada go!

We are hoping we can make it to Friday without the rain or snow showers they have hinted at. I am opting to use the weather app that isn't showing that particular forecast.

We may not be able to have a campfire this evening due to the wind, but I do believe a cocktail is in order. Cheers!

Round 2 - Rolling Hills Reservoir

Rolling Hills, Rainer, AB

Site #26: $40. (x6) p only

Our mobile RV Mr Fix-it stopped by on Thursday and patched our leaking water tank and hot water heater for $60 !! You can't beat that service. We should have used him for our other repairs. I'm pretty sure he would not have charged anywhere near the $900 we paid at the RV shop!

After taking a look at at the weather forecast we decided to try another campout. This morning, Sunday, we brought the trailer home, packed up some beer and beans and here we are at Rolling Hills Reservoir south of Brooks. Just over an hours drive from the Hat.

The weather wasn't looking great for the upcoming long weekend so we decided we'd only stay to Friday morning. However, after paying for the 5 nights, we now see that the ugly weather could be creeping in as early as Thursday. I hope we don't regret that extra night! Anyway today was perfect. There are people on the beach and in the water!? The weather was awesome at 26C. Summer!?

At our last camping spot we saw nesting geese and eggs. Today we enjoyed all the gosling's. It was a great day of biking, walking and an evening fire and sunset.  It was particularly enjoyable when the weekend crowds and boaters headed home. So quiet and peaceful!  Looking forward to a great week!!