Sunday, May 8th, 2011
We were up at 7:45AM to a damp morning with the trailer windows fogged. Joan dug the dehumidifier out. We are spoiled from all the good sunny mornings in Arizona.
There were quite a few units in the campground when we arrived home last evening. A pickup with camper parked next to us was gone before we got up. This campground certainly receives a lot of use.
Jeff and Jodi arrived at about 9:45AM. We went to Okotoks with Jeff's pickup. He wanted to fill it with gasoline. Some of the restaurants were not open yet. Folks were lined up out into the street with those that were. We wound up going to Wendy’s and enjoying a very nice burger and fries. From there we went to Wal-Mart and created some inflation. We now have everything we will need for some time. That Wal-Mart sold groceries like those in the United States except the prices were higher. There were no benches for old farts like me to sit down, relax and wait for the others. The gallon of milk was $4.37 and not the $1.26 we paid at Apache Junction. The cows must be more contented around here. They should at least be more wealthy.
The cloud cover had decreased to the point it was mainly a nice sunny day with a bit of a breeze. The cloud did cover the sunshine now and then.
We were back at the trailer by 12:30PM and Jeff and Jodi were on their way home. Jeff wanted to get his nose into the books. This was mother's day so there was not much more for us to do but lay around the trailer. Dick, Donna and the rest would be very busy with mother's day.
Quite a few of our neighbours at the campground had hitched up and were gone when we got back. It was beginning to look a bit lonely again. There are four Class A motorhomes that are parked up near the office with full hook-ups. Those living in those motorhomes are in charge. Their wives work in the office and the men are out and about looking after things. All four spend their summers here in this campground and their winters down south; California, Arizona, Texas or some similar place. They have a sign they hang outside the motorhome of the one that it is on duty especially during the night.
They keep busy. Today is Sunday but the one on duty has been out and about raking and cleaning up in general, mainly the sites that had a unit on it when we left this morning. 12 noon is check out time. Those here after that will be here until the next day at least.
Those in charge usually do the same at another campground in the winter down south. They make a small wage over and above the free camping at each campground. The conversations with the border patrol at their border crossings each way would be interesting.
It was fairly warm in the trailer when the sun shone but did get a bit chilly when the sun did not shine. About 3PM Joan and I decided to go for a walk and I took the camera.
This is the Main Gate to the park and campground. The dump station described earlier is just inside a little ways on the right.
That large log inside that elevated roof must be a good conversation piece if nothing else. This is just inside the Main Gate down past the dump station.
The kids playground is always busy and just to the right of the roof with the large log in it.
The baseball field is just to the right of the kids playground.
The campground we are camped in is just farther down on the right from the baseball field.
This is our truck and trailer on site 11. They look rather lonely now that the others have left.
These are the four motorhomes of those in charge I tried to describe above. That fifth wheel trailer in among them does not help the description. That fifth wheel came in a couple of days ago.
This mural is painted on the end of a building just up from the park Main Gate. It is titled “Old Women’s Buffalo Jump”. This was the way the first nation people killed buffalo. They chased them off a cliff known as a Buffalo Jump. This one is not that high and no doubt the reason it is called “Old Women’s”.
When we took the photograph of the mural we noticed lightning and heard thunder in the black clouds to the west. We headed back to the trailer. I managed to unhook the HF antenna and get inside shortly before it started to rain. The rain soon changed to hail and we received a couple of good thunder cracks and lightning flashes from the clouds overhead. Here in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains one can get all sorts of weather in one day. I simply opened the trailer door and took this photograph. The white piece on the left is a corner of the trailer door.
There was no checking into the Aurora Net on 7055 kilohertz around 5PM local time. With this storm in the area one would hear nothing but healthy crashes of static. We had to put the dehumidifier back on and turn up the furnace a couple of notches. Even at that the windows remained fogged. The hail soon changed to heavy rain. The campground was getting fairly dry and now it is back to sticky mud. They claim the sticky mud is the reason Alberta has oil. There are places in this province where one can stand in the mud and watch it climb up their boot. At least it seems that way.
Another of Jeff's movies ended another great day. The rain quit during the movie but it remained overcast until dark.