Interesting trip…

It was a not very interesting trip, until we wanted the trip to stop.

First of all, Nan corrected me on the lost sausage location. It’s Mundare Sausage, not Muenster Sausage, and it is outside Vegerville (home of the worlds largest Pysanka, by the way), not outside of Camrose as we originally thought.

We are CERTAINLY not in the mountains anymore…

Ok, so we drove without incident from Calgary, up the QEII highway to Wetaskawin, then over to Camrose and on to Wainwright. This had us about 5 hours into our journey and getting close to dusk. We stopped in Wainwright to stretch our legs and let Andrew burn off some steam in this very nice park along the highway. Oh yeah…. we almost ran out of fuel. We were about 20 minutes gone from Camrose when I looked at the fuel gage. whoops. This was the first time I looked since we left Calgary. Seriously, how new am I, jeez… Anyway, the trip computer said we had 51km left in the tank, with 41km left until Wainwright. Boy, that takes a lot of trust… but we made it, and put in 90 litres… uh huh. The tank only holds 92. we were close, but lesson learned… I hope.

Here is our sojourn into Wallace Park…

Andrew seemed to get the idea that this was something special… 

You put your head in the lions mouth to drink from the fountain! LOL

Jeez, you think the long shadows would have signalled that the sun was going down, now wouldn’t you… see below for the explanation.

We get back in the truck and drive on to the east. I know of a regional park that is right near Marsden, and while I haven’t been to the EXACT spot that the park sits, I have driven past the sign many times. We did stop for some cash at a little store in Marsden and I asked the lady how far it is to the campground. “Oh, 5 minutes or less”, great, thanks. We hit out on the highway and drive for about 5km. The entire time I am saying, I thought the sign said the access was only 2km… We drive for a bit more and then we turn around. Just when we turn around there is a sign that says Manitou Lake Regional Park, turn left. So we did. CRAP,  Gravel… ! the sign says the campground is 6km down this road, so off we go at 30km/hr. We get to a sigh that says turn right, so we do and drive, oh… 10km!??! Now the sun has set and we are facing west into a bug filled windshield, and harvest dust filled air, and Uh-oh, DEER! everywhere! so now the mojo is pumping and I still can’t see anything, and then… well… the road ran out. nothing but a dirt track. So… ticked off, we turn around. We get back to a road that looks like it goes back into Marsden, so we take it. as we turn left there is a sign that says turn left to get to the campground. WHAT!? we came down that freaking road. “Uh, Traci, do you want to go find in” “NO”. ok, let’s hit the highway again.

Now it’s dark and a 1/2 hour later than we wanted to travel. North Battleford is 1.5 hrs away still. Ok, let’s pull off at the first park we see. Well, we did see 2 separate signs to 2 separate parks, and when we pulled off to find them, there were no more signs. Did I mention it was dark! So… what now. We are getting close to Indian Country. there are 3 MAJOR reservations between here and North Battleford, and they have never been known for their safe harbours… if you get my drift.

We end up driving to Cut Knife. Now, Cut Knife is a pretty big town along this road, so when we see the sign for the campground, we, obviously follow it. Just as we enter Cut Knife proper, the pavement runs out. Yep, the town is all gravel. Strike 1. Then there are no signs to get to the campground. Strike 2. Then the only person on the street looks like an Axe murderer to Traci (he looked pretty dodgy to me too) Strike 3.

Hey, I got an Idea! Let’s go to North Battleford! Well, we did, and we are VERY happy we did. David Laird CG is great and we had a VERY restful sleep, and nice time in the morning playing out in the site, had great FREE showers and an really nice cup of coffee. We didn’t even unhook the rig as my deft ‘black of night’ parking skills had us as level and comfortable as can be.

 

So that is it, you are caught up now and we are really happy to be is S’toon as we call it.

Good day now…

I will leave this one up in the air for you…. get it?