Glad to be settling down

Spent the day getting things set up which entails digging out the items that we pack up while travelling, setting up my computer desk, emptying tanks and filling water tank, setting up the dish and requesting a satellite change via phone, we cannot use the same satellite that we use in Alberta, some cleaning (travelling is a dirty business) the windows on the road side of the rig are so dirty we can hardly see through them from driving on wet roads but will wait until another day, we do not have that much ambition today, dusting and vacuuming will suffice for today. The dogs are great, it will take them a few days to realize that we are staying here, they let me know when I take them for walks that are thinking it is another travel day as they keep an eye on the truck if Woody is not with us, as I always walk them just before we leave a campground while Woody hooks up the rig, so when I start walking they keep looking back to see if the truck is going to move. The campground is not in as good shape as previous years and there are many stickers and such around, the poor puppies get them stuck in their feet and face. The one type of sticker is easy to pull out but the other one is sticky and has to be cut out; these get stuck in their fur. We spoke to Charlie (work camper and friend here) he said they just couldn’t keep up this summer due to the many monsoon rains here and Charlie says if they unable to keep the wild grasses and weeds cut they go to seed and then the only way to rid the ground of these pesky items is to burn them with a torch, raking does not help much. I try to keep the dogs on the road which is clean but of course the dogs seem to find any sticker that found its way onto the road. It is a beautiful warm day and we spent a good part of it just relaxing, well I spent the day mostly at home and Woody ventured out for some visiting, big surprise there eh! LOL. Some of our friends arrived earlier and of course Jim and Anne (Activity Coordinators here) stay the year around. Life is good!

The rest of the trip

I am going to fast forward the rest of the trip, did not take any pictures as we have many pictures along the way from previous trips. From Lewistown we travelled to Hardin, Mt. the shortest day of our trip, from there to Wheatland, WY, seeing snow on the hills and sometimes right up to the highway but lucky we have not had to drive in any snow. There was snow on the ground in the campground at Wheatland and it is very cool but roads are good. From Wheatland we drove to Pueblo West, CO and happy not to see snow in this area as we had hit some snow driving over Monument Pass, lucky it was cold enough so the snow was blowing around and not sticking to the road, we are still wearing our heavy fall coats. We were happy to leave the snow behind and drop into the desert. We planned to stay a couple of nights in Pueblo West to visit Charlie and Dawn, but ended up staying 4 days, had to replace the tires on our fifth wheel. Woody noticed a bulge on one tire so changed all four. The tires had to be ordered and then the Mobile Service came to the campground and took tires off the tire shop to make the change. We have used this Mobile Service previously and know they are reliable and good so not a bad place to have the tires changed. Also gave us more of a chance for visiting and we do love visiting Charlie and Dawn, you just don’t find friends like them everywhere. From Pueblo West we trekked over Raton Pass (no snow at all) to Santé Fe, NM spending the night, dropping into Albuquerque (Santa Fe is at 7000 ft.) on our way to Deming, NM we are seeing trees with some fall colours but still many trees are sporting their summer green leaves, what a beautiful sight, we take the shortcut (Hatch Hwy #26) and arrive at Deming, NM which lies in the wide open desert with the always present mountains in the background, it is warm and windy, we only spend one night, arriving at Tombstone Territories Park November 21^st our 2200+ mile (3600 km) trip at an end. We actually did not require any jacket at Deming and it was beautiful drive albeit quite windy the last 3 days of our trip and I so love travelling through Texas Canyon on I-10, it is such a unique area, awesome formations of rock along with some mountains rising up out of the desert. We are tired but elated and feel so blessed to have arrived safely.

Trekking South, Day Two

A good day of travel, crossing the border took a little more time than usual (they were very busy) but no issues at all. After travelling through some fairly flat grassland in northern Montana the landscape changes to small mountain ranges, which we know continues for the remainder of the trip. The whole trip is really beautiful driving up, down around the mountains and hills, dropping into valleys with mountains of various sizes, some covered with various vegetation from grasses, bushes and dotted with trees to bare volcanic rock and some are major outcroppings with very interesting rock formations. We travel through Great Falls where we change to Hwy 87 to travel east to Lewistown, MT, finding our way to the Hwy 87 interchange, this has always been a challenge, our GPS wants to take us on the wrong exit and the route is not well marked at all, but we made it, I was smart this trip and I marked on our road map the correct exit number to take or easiest route through Great Falls. We always use a road map as well as the GPS because you cannot always trust the GPS directions. We arrived at Lewistown late afternoon with plenty of time to set up, relax and enjoy our evening.

The Castle is Rolling

Started our trek south today, weather is nice, cool but sunny with little wind.  We drove straight through to Milk River, AB (about 650 Km or 403 mi) and for us with stops for puppy walks and a quick fuel stop about an 8 hour trek.  We purchased a small extra fuel tank this summer so we could make this leg of our trip without having to fuel up at a regular gas station as there are not many options to get a big rig like ours into a gas station along this route which means we have to stop unhook the rig then fuel up and hook up again. Pulling the rig on a good day 500 km is about our limit.  We also wanted the extra tank so we didn’t have to sweat bullets about fuel as we have done on previous trips wondering if we will be able to make our next stop if we run into windy conditions as there are areas we drive through on the trek south that do not have any services for miles.  Milk River is about 20 km (12 miles) from the border so it puts us a good position to cross the border and reach our next destination in good time.  We are never sure how much time we might have to spend at the border, depends on how busy they are and if they decide to check the rig, etc.  We always like to leave lots of time for border crossing either direction we travel.  The campground at Milk River (Under Eight Flags) is a nice clean small campground and reasonably priced.  Wi-Fi and cable are not available at this campground so we hope the weather is good tomorrow, it did look good when we checked before we left this morning so if the sun is shinning when we get up we will be on the road early. 

Halloween

The only visitors we had were Chris, Michelle, Caitlin and her friend which is usual for us since being at Imrie Park, it is in a rural area and most people that know we are still here do not have kids that would be out for trick or treats! We always buy some treats in case we have visitors we would not want to be embarrassed besides we can always enjoy the leftovers and/or share them with whomever drops in the next few days, they won’t last long as Woody has a huge sweet tooth eh! The weather was pretty nice for here, no snow, high today was 52F (11C) but it cools off big time at night with a couple of degrees below freezing predicted for tonight.








Caitlin (right) and her friend.















Michelle, you can tell it is a little cool everyone is wearing heavy jackets.













Chris is hiding out behind the girls.



We are very happy that Chris and Michelle make the effort to bring Caitlin over, this will probably be the last year for her to trick and treat, she is getting to that age when she will be considered too old to go out trick and treating!

Hello friends

Just a quick update to say I am sorry I have not been faithful regarding posting news on our blog. I have several excuses, yeah I know there is not an excuse in the world that is good enough eh! We are enjoying our time here in Alberta for sure visiting family and friends, looking after the park, etc. A couple of major projects have been eating up my time that I would usually spend working on the blog. The first one was my website, the host I am using lost everything even the back up of my website, so I had to start over building it all again, still not finished with that. The second project is building Woody a website to display his knife and leather craft items; that is still an ongoing project and I have made his website a priority as people are asking if he has a website. If you want a sneak peek at the unfinished website check it out here: http://woodysknifeandleathercraft.com. Not sure how much time I will be able to spend over the next month as our friend Dave Rice from Pennsylvania is here for a month visiting, he and Woody will do some bow hunting starting Sept. 8th (season opening day) so wish them Good Luck! Dave arrived August 28th and we are having an awesome visit! I cannot believe how fast the time is flying by, it will be no time until we are heading south.
Hope you are all having a great summer and living each day to the fullest!

Woody is busy

The last post I ended with the question “Why is Woody so busy?” so better answer the question. After the Huntfest ended he had a lot of catching up to do around the park, is working on some leather projects one being a knife sheath for our daughter Deb, she left the knife here while visiting earlier and is waiting patiently for Woody to complete a new sheath and another knife sheath which was ordered via email from a person who saw his work at the Huntfest.

Deb's knife sheath.




















Old sheathe with knife and accessories

















Front view, old and new.













Back view, note the pockets for the accessories.

I think the finished product is awesome!

Storm

Couple of weeks ago we had a horrendous thunder storm with strong winds, some hail, heavy rain, loud claps of thunder, and a gorgeous display of lightening, the park had water laying in every low spot and took a couple of days to dissipate. Besides knocking our internet dish off kilter, the park was without power for 4 hours, we were happy we had a generator and felt bad for all the folks in tents, it was the worst storm we have witnessed at the park. The campers in RV's that did not have generators at least had their 12 volt lights, water, etc. There is a hand pump that campers can use if they require water during power outages as our main water system requires power to run the pump as in all rural water system applications. No damage occurred at the park other than some trees falling in the bush and on the hiking trails and all campers were safe. During the next few days the weather was unsettled, with rain showers and because the dish is sensitive to the weather I did not think much of it when I was unable to download email at times, or while trying to access some websites they would time out before successfully loading, this is normal as our signal is not good here at the park, we are on the cusp of the satellite footprint. I decided after a few days that something was not right as I was experiencing these issues on clear days. I restarted the modem as this is always the first thing to try when issues arise with our setup, seemed to help some, but then the next day while trying to download email I watched the modem transmit lights, they were completely blanking out, not normal! Okay dish must be out of whack, we will have to retune. I was also wondering if the trees were causing grief as we had to mount our TV dish higher to get a decent signal earlier this summer due to tree interference. Woody had noticed also that he was having trouble downloading email, etc., and said he could raise the dish about 6 inches and retune it, well it took awhile before he had the time to accomplish the task, in fact we finally got it tuned properly today after trying a couple of days ago but got interrupted before we really had it tuned properly. Why is Woody so busy? Well you will see in another post! EH

Awesome Weekend

The Huntfest was a success, not just for Wild TV but also for Woody, he received awesome feedback, promising contacts and generally the whole experience was grand. There were some other leather smiths at the Huntfest, one was a saddle maker, and a couple of others with various items, he received very positive feedback from them and receiving positive comments from others in the business is awesome, means a little more than wife and friends telling him he does a great job. He was totally worn out after the three days but very, very happy and excited.

Woody's table at the Huntfest, left you can see 2 of his trophies from Africa. The hides and skull mounts attracted attention plus decorated the table nicely.

Woody did not have many items to display, most items he has created are already in the hands of the person he created it for most were his own items.

Above and right are pictures of the booth beside Woody, these folks had no problem looking after his table when he needed to leave his table.

He hopes to have a table here again next year as well as one at the Cowboy Gathering in Stony Plain and will create some show pieces to display!

Opportunity knocks!

Today is a beautiful day, sunny, warm and a special day it would have been my parents 70th Anniversary, I remember my parents daily, they were both such good people and on this day I remember all the celebrations and special times we were lucky enough to enjoy together.
This weekend Woody is at the Huntfest in Edmonton, a very large trade show sponsored by Wild TV and other companies, (e.g. Cabela’s Canada, Toyota, Alberta Outdoorsmen, Western Sportsmen Magazine to name a few) for hunters, fishers, archers, ATV enthusiasts etc. This show is the biggest one in Canada with shows in Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Edmonton. Check out http//:www.huntfest.ca for more information, there is so much going on at the show with speakers from some popular hunting shows, target areas set up for archers, an ATV track, and more! Woody is displaying his leather crafts at the show and is receiving very positive comments regarding the leather projects on display which does not surprise me at all; his work is unique and very well done. The great thing is the feedback gives him confirmation that it is not just me, his friends, etc., think his work is good but total strangers are impressed, too cool! I created a DVD (which he will run on his computer) of all the items he has created as he only does custom orders so did not have stock items to display, most were his personal items except for a couple that he has yet to deliver, I also created business cards and order forms using the logo we created, he choose the name, I created the logo with the computer, printed it out then he tooled the letters onto leather, it turned out awesome. Woody took pictures of the logo then it was easy to transfer and size for the business card and order form. I love doing that kind of work and Woody loves doing the leather, so together I think we make a good team. Woody took his hides and skull mounts from Africa to decorate his table and create interest. Lucky for me the park is not full this weekend, one group here for a birthday party and Woody made sure everything was set up for them. He had to be there early yesterday, left at 7:00 AM to get set up, returned around 7:30 pm, long day but he was pleased and excited to be part of the show and had some time to talk to other exhibitors, even a couple of outfitters there from Africa who were impressed with his trophies from Africa. Today he left at 9:00 and will return about the same time as last night; tomorrow the show closes at 5:00 pm so will be home a little earlier. Huntfest is a great opportunity for Woody to gain some exposure and feedback for his knife and leather crafts, maybe even some orders, which would be a huge bonus eh. All in all it has been an exciting time for both of us!

Family Gathering

We were lucky again this year regarding the weather for our Family Gathering, the weather was nice albeit a little cool in the evenings but we thank God we were able to gather once again with our family, temps from 72.5F (22.5C) to 82F (27.9C). The pictures tell the story.



Tracy and Keith's truck and trailer.
















Tracy and Keith love this picture with trees as the backdrop and oh yeah the kids look good too!










Caitlin, Michelle and Christopher, we do not many pictures of them together.











Keith, Gordon and Myrna.











Woody cooking up a storm, everyone brought food for the huge brunch!











Lindsey and Brooklyn playing a game, appears to be a very serious game!














Lori, Myrna's and Gordon daughter enjoying the sun!













Evening spent around the group fire pit.














Sisterly love, Brooklyn and Lindsey, Tracy and Keith's daughters.










The posts you see in this pic, installed as seating when the park was developed are just a pain in the back, after this weekend Woody removed and was thanked by many regular campers of the park.











It was a beautiful summer evening for visiting around a campfire.











Guess you know this guy, I sure do not have many pictures of Woody, he is always taking the pictures.












Keith and daughter Brooklyn.











Lindsey loves to read and tried getting her book up in time to cover her face, she hates pictures, typical teenager eh!















Brenda (Myrna and Gordon's oldest daughter) and husband Gary.


















Jennifer our oldest granddaughter (Daughter Deb's oldest daughter).















Lori, Gordon and Mryna's second daughter.














Just hanging out.








Hanging out around our campfire. Yours truly, Michelle, Keith and Tracy



















Caitlin and Dad Chris.

Daughter Deb's camping set up.

















Oreo was catching a snooze until we interrupted her.











Keith and Woody splitting some wood with a small wood splitter we had borrowed from a friend, worked very well.
















Woody, Keith and Chris














Woody dressed up our little deer!





















Tracy and Keith's new dog, a Chocolate lab, isn't she cute!

Tracy and Sadie.

Chris and Michelle's set up.
















Cookie and Milo, a dog who our granddaughter brought with her, she was babysitting.


















Muffin and Milo, Milo is a beautiful, well behaved dog and loved our little dogs, even tolerated Muffin jumping at him.



Scott dropped in the meet the gang.













Mryna and Gordon, Mryna has been my friend since we were kids.












Jennifer and Tracy, time to say goodbye!


I realize as I post this we do not have any pictures of Deb, not sure why, Deb were you hiding?

The whole weekend passed by very quickly, too quickly as usual but we are blessed to have been granted this weekend together!

A new toy

Woody bought a new inflatable boat to replace the boat he sold to Scott, this boat is a smaller lighter boat that he can use by himself, the larger boat with wooden floor required two people to carry it to the water as well to get it on the truck. The electric motor we have will fit on this new boat which is great!

Getting started and it takes a bit of work to blow it up with the pump provided with the boat.












The boat is blown up in stages, has more than one chamber for safety.










The floor is blown up and the next will be the inner chamber the tan ring you see. The motor mount has to be installed also as well as the rope that is threaded through the black rings and it comes with inflatable seats, pretty cool.
I know he cannot wait to try it out at Salters Lake!

A wonderful day!

Cloudy with showers today, Woody worked on the knife sheath he was making for Dave and completed it just in time to give it to Dave before they headed home, it turned out very nice, Dave was so pleased, he insisted on paying Woody for the sheath and the work Woody had done on the knife, a knife that Dave had made years ago. Woody went to town and I spent time collecting fees from campers one camper brought over a huge portion of cake for us as they were leaving, I tried to say no but she would have no part of no, so I humbly accepted the gift set it on cupboard wondering what we were going to do with so much cake! Sure a good thing we have some freezer space in the parks kitchen fridges, because we sure could not eat it before it went bad, I phoned the kids and let them know we had cake to share but they were not home, decided we would save it our family gathering in a couple of weeks. I spent most of the morning choosing pictures to use on the blog and resizing for uploading to Blogger, I always have to resize as Woody and I both take pictures at the highest resolution possible and they are too large to use for email or on our Blog. Before Woody returned from town 2 nieces arrived for a surprise visit, I have not seen either for a very long time, in fact it has been so long I did not recognize Sandra when I opened the door, although the face was somewhat familiar I thought it was someone wanting information about the park which happens often. The young lady standing before me said “Oh we are so happy you are home!” and I stood there thinking I should know this person’s name she obviously knows who I am, she then said it’s Sandra, Carolyn (her sister) and I come for a visit and she hoped I didn’t mind that they came unannounced but they didn’t have our phone number. I was flabbergasted to see them and so very happy they had taken the time to track us down and come over for a visit! What a wonderful surprise, we visited awhile before Woody came home, and continued for the whole afternoon, time flew by so fast, Sandra and Carolyn came laden with goodies, homemade muffins, chips and dip which they left here for us, I tried sending some cake home with them, Carolyn said no thank you, I just threw some cake out and I couldn’t interest Sandra either! After they left as I wrapping up the cake for the freezer I thought was a terrible hostess I had been, we did share some beverages but I did not put out the muffins on a plate or open the chips, the goodies they brought were on the table where the girls had put when they arrived, I guess I was excited about visiting with them nothing else mattered, sorry girls I was so rude, next time I promise I will be a better hostess. Good thing Woody thought of beverages and taking some pictures as this visit was certainly an occasion to be remembered! Thanks sweetie for taking the pictures and thanks girls for your visit!




Carolyn.














and sister Sandra.








Thanks again girls for looking us up, come again soon eh!