Love the hoodos

My least favourite thing to wake up to when camping? Snow on the picnic table. What we awoke to this morning. Not much, but still . .

And it was Zero on the thermometer. We had heard rain through the night, but it was a bit shocking to see the white.

However, there is plenty of beauty at Writing on Stone as always.
Here is a peak (through Ron's eyes).
Love the fall colours.

Wednesday was a "jacket on jacket off" day. It was crazy -- Hot when the sun was out, cool with the cloud cover. It was a relatively quiet day in the park even with the bus load of Medicine Hat children who arrived to tour the Interpretive Centre. We could hear their 'enthusiasm' as they lunched in another area of the park.

Such cool landscapes! Love the hoodos.

Kitty update: There are 4 and maybe 5 kittens who have lived here over summer. The Park staff tell us that they have set traps, but apparently they have only managed to catch a few raccoons. It was chilly this morning and one has to wonder if they would even survive the winter? Ron may or may not have put out some of our salmon dinner scraps.

We said our goodbyes this morning and are now on route to the U. S. of A . . .
We will probably head to Dick's RV in Great Falls, where there will be internet.

Writing on Stone Prov Pk

Site #A21 (*good site) - #27, p only, cell on hill, Internet at Visit Ctre, Temp 16C

Tuesday --->

We made the 45 minute move to Writing on Stone. This park has always been another favourite of ours.

 

There is a tenter next to us plus one other unit in the campground. Also there are these two. 

I think they must have been abandoned here as kittens. They are very skittish and run when we come out of the RV or try to approach. The tenter tells us they have been hanging around the 4 days he's been here.

 

We did our usual scour of the campground. Ron on foot and me with my bike. This time it was me who came up with enough firewood for our daily fire.  We enjoyed sitting out for a couple hours but ended up having to bring out the umbrella when it started to sprinkle.  When we packed up and moved indoors it quit. Oh well, I opted for the electric heater versus more fire.  Later it was dinner and a movie. RV style.

 

There is no cell or internet in the campground. I can pick up a sliver of cell service at the top of the hill which allowed me to post this. We've paid for two nights here.

 

             Hoodos along the Milk River at Writing on Stone campground

Alone at Gold Springs Park

Site #16 - $30, p/w (water not great), poor cell but Internet, Temp 18C

Ack...WIND!! I'm glad we aren't pulling the 5th wheel today. Hopefully it lets up for tomorrow!
Temperature wise it was pretty nice at 19C.

Gold Springs Park, Coutts, AB

I think we are the only campers left in the park. There are maybe 10 seasonal units that haven't pulled out yet, but it doesn't look like anyone is staying in them. So it is just us and the caretakers. Quiet beauty!

Great view of the distant Sweet Grass Hills, Montana

We drove to the Milk River grocery today. Because Bacon. We prefer not to buy this in the US and we will likely be there come bacon day next Sunday.  Also, Ron had to buy a new regulator for our barbecue. We had to opt for steaks in the frying pan last night as the barbecue wouldn't light. That part is now replaced and we are back cooking.

The Old Hotel in Milk River, AB

Other than that plus a short afternoon fire, we've had a mostly indoor day. I changed the bed and did some cleaning. I baked some bread and made a pot of chili for dinner.  Ahhh...camping!

The plan is to spend a couple days at Writing on Stone before we cross the border.

The Trip Continues

The truck purred along just fine. We are now camped at Gold Springs Park near Coutts.

 

Last night was the first night we have not sat out at the fire on this trip. At 9C it felt a little too chilly for these old bones.

 

Also, we laughed.  Those late nights around the fire I talked about? I'm a little embarrassed to admit that we are usually indoors by 9 or 9:30 pm. But hey? It gets dark early this time of year and it FEELS like late nights around the fire!

 

Our evening indoors was spent catching up on Internet related stuff and then looking back at past travels. Lots of reminiscing and chuckles. It's great to have a travel diary to help us remember all the good times!

 

Today the sun is shining and we are back outside. Hopefully we'll have one of those 'late night fires' again!

Sunday means Bacon (and eggs!)

 

Friday! The truck comes home!

We just got the word that we've been waiting for. Our truck transmission has arrived from Lethbridge and the shop will pick us up at the end of today when it's installed. Big relief! Tomorrow we should finally be able to move on.

 

Weather-wise it's been a great week and we've certainly enjoyed the evening fires. Our food supply has held out. If nothing else, there was always the breadmaker and a good supply of flour, so we would have been good for awhile. Plus we had wine! We are just far enough from town and at the bottom of a steep hill or we would have been able to ride bikes to town. Oh well, being stranded wasn't so bad. (Now that we see an end to it!)

No doubt it's Fall!

I did manage to find a spot in our RV where I can pick up a sliver of cell service. Otherwise we would have felt pretty isolated here.

 

The plan is to head to Gold Springs Campground near Coutts.  That campground closes for the season on Tues, so we'll have to come up with a 'new home'.

Unhappy campers in Taber

Taber Municipal Pk
Site #44 - $25, p only, poor cell in window

We are not racking up the miles on this trip. Yesterday, we drove 100 km south of Newell to the Taber Municipal Park.  Actually we are quite happy we made it that far. The truck started acting up part way.  We suspected and worried that it was the transmission.

 

We pulled in to Taber, inquired about transmission shops and this morning we left the truck with Minute Muffler. Not a lot of choices in this town, but this mechanic was recommended.

 

In the meantime, this isn't such a bad park to hang at. We've been here before. The campsites are decent and the wood is free. (Although Ron's successful collection from Newell Lake has our firebox pretty full. The unfortunate thing is that there is no cell service and no internet down here along the Old Man River. I do not like being out of touch anymore.

                The wood man doing his thing with a found pallet

 

 Old Man . . . the River that is ;)

And now we just received the bad news. An $850. bill to remove, diagnose and replace our badly damaged transmission with the $3500. new transmission. In other words, about $4500. to get us back on the road again. Not exactly what we had wanted to hear. There are no car rental places in Taber, so we are stuck in our campsite. At least until Saturday. That is assuming the transmission will arrive from Lethbridge on Friday. Damn. It rather takes the enjoyment out of this camp trip. I'm not sure what that will mean going forward now.

Not much else to say. The weather is great, so there's that. The aphids remain horrid. I have never seen such swarms. The air is thick with them until late evening when the sun goes down. Gah....

Those uninvited guests

I did find a weak in/out cell signal when I prop the phone in one of our windows. If you are reading this today, Tuesday, it means a successful connection.

Newell Lake

Kinbrook Island Park
Site #107B - $29 p only, poor cell, Temp 26C

We left the worst of the bugs behind at Dinosaur. Here with the Maple trees it's aphids... Oh my gosh... swarms and swarms.  One must keep their mouth shut when bike riding. A lid on top of one's drink is a necessity. At least they don't bite!

 

The weather has been great. We were treated to a most beautiful sunset our first night here.

 

 

Other than biking and Ron going for a couple walks, we've had a lazy few days.  We did pick up a few groceries in Brooks.

 

We are enjoying the fall colours. One can almost see the leaves change hourly. The evenings have been warm and we've had some late night campfires. Ron has done well keeping us in firewood.  Yesterday he saw a 10 foot long 4x4 post laying on the shore while we were biking along one of the trails.  He headed back with his saw and brought it home in pieces. Good for a couple more nights!

The park is fairly busy this weekend. We spent the day on the beach and reading. We will hang here until Monday morning.

                                Beautiful Beach!

Moving On

We enjoyed our stay at Dinosaur PP.  It would have been better if the mosquitoes weren't so horrible. And the flies. And the wasps. Even though we were marinated in bug juice, the mosquitoes were constantly in our face. Or finding that one missed spot not covered with repellent.  Normally they aren't so bad this time of year, but with the heat and all the water laying around, there was a  hungry new hatch.  It was the main reason we chose to move on.

                                                Dinosaur Country ;)

A whole 60 km. to Newell Lake, south of Brooks. Same heat, but hopefully (so far!) not so many mosquitoes. There are quite a few more campers in this park, like us, taking advantage of the awesome fall weather.  We've committed to three nights. We have lost our wifi, but there is cell service - although sketchy. Right now Ron is out scouting for firewood.   We should be good for a night or two!

 

Day 1 in Dinosaur Country

Site #11 - $29, p only, no cell but Internet avail now, Temp 19C

No cell service at Dinosaur Prov. Pk, but we have 30 min. of Internet. I assume this is per day, but not sure??
Anyway, it will allow for some connectivity! If I go quiet, it's because I have used up all my minutes.

(We have paid for 3 nights of camping.)



The weather was 19C when we arrived, so that was pretty awesome. Lots of sun and not a cloud in the sky.

We had to make use of bug spray as the mosquitoes are still out and about. They are annoying for sure!
The park is pretty quiet. Probably less than 10 units. We did our usual bike tour and I nearly ran over a large snake slithering across the road. He disappeared in the bush before we could check further. May or may not have been a rattler.

                     how cool are these new yurts

                                                      cozy!
We enjoyed some Atlantic Salmon for dinner and then sat around the campfire. Such a beautiful evening. The night sky with all the stars was AMAZING!

                                                 our cozy digs!
Our portable heater is now running so we are pretty cozy inside. It feels good to be camping again.

Slow Start

It's been a late start to our Fall RV trip. There are many reasons for this, but the main one is probably weather. It's not easy to get up for camping when much of AB (not us!) has been shovelling snow. Crazy September.

 

After much debate (polite term for arguing) we have decided to camp closer to home and keep our driving and travel to a minimum. We may regret this choice and we may come up with a new plan after we have been out for awhile.  For now, this is the decision.

 

The RV is packed, the sun is shining and we are now heading off to Dinosaur Provincial Park. Fingers crossed this warming weather trend continues!

Arriving at Dinosaur PP