Brooks/Alberta Travelodge

We drove south from Calgary back towards Lethbridge to meet up with Adam, Laura, Nick & Allison. Along the way we camped out in some small towns, Nanton & Claresholm, which were nothing more than a collection of small shops and cluster of houses.

We arrived in Lethbridge on a Thursday evening, and this was the night that the mullet was created. Kristina has taken on her brother Simon in a competition as to who ...

... us to dive into the most impressive spread of food I have ever seen. My first taste of homemade pumpkin pie, wow!
We drank beers, played cards then headed home to drink more beers!

It was great to see both Adam & Laura again, and to meet more top people like Nick & Allison was brilliant. Oh and Nick and Allison gain extra points for naming their extremely cute kitten Bruce Campbell after the amazing b-movie actor.

... were celebrating the birthday of their daughter Suzanne, and we were able to meet nearly the entire family! They were so good at putting us at ease and making us feel like part of the family. We ate great food, drank a lot of booze (beer, wine, jagermeister & rum), played music, danced and exchanged tales and opinions until the sun came up (well almost).

So the second day in Medicine Hat we rose ...

... has proceeded quickly and may finish by mid October. Don admits that it may take a bit of an adjustment but he will be ready for a change of pace!

We also got word that we finally have a firm sale for our house and now the scramble begins to work out the logists of the 'move' and departure for a winter in the south again. It looks like we will be back in Almonte for much of the month of November.

... from the heights and I suspect many people opt for the shuttle bus to bring them up from the parking lot (it was not available in this off-season time.)

From there I visited downtown Okotoks and ate a wonderful lunch at the Divine Cafe. Just delicious fare. A lovely visit with family nearby topped off the day.

Riding in Glacier National Park can't be beaten except for the construction. Mind you the benefit was being stopped on some of the highest vistas of the park for more photo ops. The three stops made the ride very long but the weather was perfect and you could chat with the other poor souls trapped in the traffic jams as they waited to roll through loose gravel.

Still 'just' managing! I go for more x-rays on monday.

Finally spotted the doe and two fawns that others had noted in the field. Facebook has been a boredom prevention tool this week. Computer is working much better.

Today they started to work on the barley. Its a bumper crops this year. The weather is hot, dry and dusty. Lisa took some pictures of the harvest on monday and here they are.

A hot summer day to go for a drive in the convertible. We plan on dining at a place called Evelyn's Memories Inn but find it is closed. A former CP Rail dining car looks inviting. We enjoy a great lunch then off to Vulcan. Yes the Starship Enterprise is parked here

... As you approach park the prairie grasslands suddenly dropped off, leaving us in a whole other world of hoodoos, pinnacles, coulees and buttes. We could only imagine how the pioneers who visited these badlands for the first time must have thought. No wonder they described this place as "badlands." If you will click on the video ...

... borrowed a tent and we spent HOURS poring over the instructions trying to figure out why it didn't look right...until we realized they were the WRONG instructions! haha Mike tried to play monkey and climbed up a tree that had a broken branch overhanging our tent, trying to get the branch down. He ended up with serious bark burn when he slid back down the tree. Oops. The beach was great and it was hot and ...