Just a Walk Around Town

Last Saturday, Ron and I went for a walk around town.  The weather was still really nice and the trails looked golden.

Pincher Creek has over 8 kilometres of trails.  The most popular of the trail goes along the creek.  We sometimes choose this route to try and hide from the strong winds but on this day, there was only a gentle breeze.  

Most of the time, a deer or two greet us along the walk through town. We often wonder where else could we live where deer coexist in the town with people and their pets.

On this day, I was noticing just how nice this little town is.  Murals are painted on a few of the buildings depicting the history of the town.  

At one point, we stopped to visit a young Mountie with his husky.  Of course, a horse and a Mountie would have been a little more impressive but at least this guy cheers for the right team.

A couple of ducks were enjoying the fall flow of the creek.

Across the creek, a man was out for a walk with his cats!  That was a first.

We walked through the Agriculture Grounds.  The golden leaves behind the white fence made for another picture moment.

The last stretch of our walk is a bit of a hike.  The trail heads up along a cliff.  Across the creek is a great off leash dog park.  After I catch my breath from the climb, I always enjoy the view.

From there, we head past the many saskatoon berry bushes which supplied us with a lot of fruit this summer.  The last little up hill gives us views of the mountains to the west and south.

After almost two hours, we arrive back to our unsold house.  It would be nice to see a sold sign on the front lawn but while the house is still ours, we plan on enjoying the area.

On Sunday, we had a couple little guests from church.  They sure can liven up our house!

We were threatened a few times that we could be frozen. 🥶

Goodbye to Summer

On Monday, we used the last warm day to take the motorcycle for a ride.  

The weather was amazing and our destination was perfect. Of course, we went to Waterton.  We rode down the road to Red Rock to have a tea break. We walked up to the falls to get a few steps.  The fall colours are different in the west from the east but still beautiful.

We drove into the village and found a table along the lake to have our packed supper.  We went for a little walk.  

We made our way down the Akamina Road to Cameron Lake.  The last time we had been to the lake, we had used it as a trail head to do the Carthew Alderson hike.  I was thankful this time that we stopped for a tea and then got back on the motorcycle.  Getting back into the village on the back of the motorcycle was much easier than climbing over a mountain to get there.

The days are much shorter this time of the year so we headed for home before dark. 

We parked the motorcycle back into the garage and put our helmets on the shelf.  They will probably sit there now until spring or they get packed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yes, we are thankful for a safe trip to Ontario.  We are thankful for being able to spend time with family and friends.  We were thankful that we had a nice place to stay at the lake. 

We are also thankful to be home.  There is nothing like your own space.  To be able to climb into your own bed is pretty nice.

After arriving home, we have stayed pretty close to the house.  Ron has been busy outside working on the neglected yards and cleaning our very dirty car.  Yesterday, I caught up on laundry and today I worked on preparing a thanksgiving dinner for us.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Oh My

Today we travelled from morning to night.  We went from Ontario, through Manitoba and into Saskatchewan.  We gained two hours by crossing two time zones.  We left Thunder Bay just after 7:00 a.m. where it was already warm and muggy.  

The morning was beautiful with a nice sunrise.

We crossed northern Ontario through lots of construction and even came upon a bit of an accident.  

The roads ran between rocks and trees.  

The clouds blocked the sun most of the day but we were treated to a rainbow along the way.  

Since we were trying to make time today, our stops were short.  Thank you Dave and Cheryl for supplying us with teas, coffees and a few pastries.

We drove into Manitoba and were immediately greeted with a much different landscape.  

We crossed through this province and into the “land of living skies.” The clouds hung low and we went through more rain.  

Even though it had been stormy most of the day, Saskatchewan came through with a beautiful sunset.

Ron continued to drive through rain.  The skies darkened and my eyes felt heavy.  After 1400 kms and over 14 hours of driving, we pulled into Moose Jaw.  

Thankfully, our day of travelling will be much shorter tomorrow.  We will be able to sleep in our own bed with the “For Sale” sign still in our front yard.

Day 2 - Sudbury to Thunder Bay

I do like travelling but it is definitely tiring.  We were up early and ready to leave the hotel in Sudbury before 7:00.  Ron started off driving since it was still dark.  

As it started to brighten up, fog hung over the trees and in the fields.  

There were still lots of maple trees which caused our journey to continue to be what we were looking for.

We stopped in Sault Ste Marie later in the morning for gas and picked up lunch.  I took over the wheel as we drove along Lake Superior.  The shoreline was gorgeous.  

The slightly curvy road around huge rocks along the lake gave us another beautiful day of scenery. We stopped to eat our sandwiches at a nice lookout.

We stopped in Wawa to take a picture of the goose. Fun fact… the goose is 60 years old and is made of steel.  I happen to be half Steele and am also 60 years old and have been called a silly goose. 

We continued down the highway and were getting a little tired but our goal was to get to Thunder Bay.  As our exhaustion settled in, our minds turned to Terry Fox who had to stop his journey in Thunder Bay in 1981.  

By the time that Terry had arrived in Thunder Bay, he had run 5,324 kilometres.  This young man died at age 22 but his desire to raise money for cancer continues to this day.  

Before we left the trailer, the kids were doing the Terry Fox Run at school.  Emma had read to us the information that she knew about Terry Fox. His run started and ended before Ron and I were even married and now our grandchildren know about his Marathon of Hope.  

We finally rolled into our hotel and ordered a pizza for a late supper.  Time to sleep and get ready for another day of travel.

From the Trailer to Sudbury

We started our long trip back to our unsold house.  We left the trailer around 8:30.  It was another beautiful morning at the lake but all good things must come to an end.  It was a wonderful September at the trailer. Dan and Barb were the best hosts.  

We had told everyone that we would start our trip back to Alberta when the leaves were at their peak for colour.  We did it!

Our destination was to go through Algonquin.  

As we started our drive through the park, we were thrilled to see the perfect display of fall colours.  We had already enjoyed watching the leaves change around the trailer.  We had also watched many leaves fall from the trees so we weren’t sure about our drive but we were not disappointed.  

We stopped at a trail and hiked with many others to the Lookout.  It was a beautiful view and we congratulated each other on picking the perfect timing to travel through northern Ontario.

We continued through the park , enjoying the views.  We stopped at Canoe Lake and snapped a few more pictures.

Once we were on the west side of the park, we put some miles on.  We arrived in Sudbury around 6:30 and settled in for the night.

Only about 29 hours to go….

Goodbyes are Done!

It’s always nice coming back to Ontario and saying hello to family and friends.  Saying goodbye is not so nice.  The difference this time is that as soon as our house sells, we will be back.  That could be in a month, few months or perhaps a whole year.  We know that it will happen sometime.

Jenn and the kids were supposed to come and visit yesterday but then Jenn got sick so our goodbyes were over the phone, texts and messaging.  Today, we went to church with mom and dad and then out for lunch with them.  With Napanee being the church that we grew up in and got married in, we were able to see lots of old friends.

We went to mom and dad’s after the restaurant and had a little visit.  

Mom pulled out a cake from the fridge and cut us each a piece.  Austin, Tina’s youngest son, had brought a cake to mom and dad’s on Friday.  It would have been Tina’s 56th birthday.  I took small bites on my piece of cake, choking back the very near tears and wishing that she would walk in the door and yell at us for eating her cake.  

When Tina first got sick I sent her a Three Sisters Willowtree ornament. Mom had brought it to her house.  I am now able to take it to mine.  

Saying goodbye is hard but making memories to take with you is a lot easier.