Yellowstone Grizzly RV Park

Great sites. We have trees, a picnic table with a paved patio and grass.

West Yellowstone,MT

Scene when we left Great Falls this morning. View of the Missouri River from a scenic overlook. Cliffs that lined the road.

Where we stopped for lunch, along the Galatin River.

Had a wonderful drive today. The scenery was spectacular. We followed the Missouri River for quite some time and then the Galatin River. Drove through mountains, farm land and horse and cattle ranches. Saw "amber waves of grain"- acres of wheat, where the deer and antelope were playing, well not at the same place but I did see them on the way ;-) Eagles and hawks, geese a couple of turkeys and lots of ducks. There was fields of blue sage, meadows of wild flowers just an all around great day. We did run into rain off and on. At one point the temperature went down to 45! It is in the 50's right now and getting quite chilly. I made a cake and it didn't rise very well, realized we are at a high altitude, almost 7000 feet. We are at the Yellowstone Grizzly RV Park. We will be here for three days. This park is practically at the entrance to Yellowstone National Park. We overlook a field so there is hope for some wild life out there. Part of the rules is to keep food and grills under cover because of bears--oh joy.

Great Falls, MT

This is the exit sign for our campground. I have never seen a zero exit before. We think it is funny. The next one is the little map in our window. It shows all of the states we have camped in. Amazing how many we have colored in since we have been gone. Owen moved just as I snapped the pic of him cooking, at least it isn't a butt shot ;-)

A productive day but not very exciting. Owen changed the tire on the truck. (The tire split right at the tread so will have to deal with the manufacturer.) Not an easy job, all the equipment such as the jack was in the back seat which has all sorts of stuff in it and the spare was under the back end of the truck. While he did that I did laundry with about eight other people. Took way longer than usual. I then paid bills. Just a couple of pictures today. We will be off again tomorrow. It will be another long day, at least a 6 hour drive.

Great Falls, MT

We are staying at Dick's RV Park in Great Falls. It is a pretty good park. We have a tree, grass and a picnic table. There is more than one bathroom/shower room for the place. Cable TV and free WIFI. BTW, we got kicked off the Internet last night. I guess our blog was too big for the server with all the pictures. Just as we were getting ready to leave this morning we got a message saying we were off. Oh so happy to be out of Canada. Cell phone is operational again. Have a slow leak in a tire on truck. That is the project for tomorrow for Owen and I will do laundry. Necessary evils.

Great Falls, MT

This is the High Level Bridge in Lethbridge, AB. It carries freight by rail to Vancouver. It is a mile long and 300 feet high. It is the longest and highest of its kind in the world.

We had lunch at a rest stop on the highway today. This was a sign we noticed as we ate. Owen was very happy :-) A view from the highway once we were in Montana. A total change of scenery, again. Just a variety of shades of brown then huge fields of green then some humpy bumpy hills. We saw many grain elevators and "dipping giraffes" aka drills. Entered the US at Sweetgrass, quite happy to kiss Canada goodbye.

Lethbridge, AB

Marathon drive to Lethbridge today. Mostly uneventful until we went through Calgary. Made Boston seem like a walk in the park. It was six lanes of insanity. We were very glad we had made the decision not to stop there but to drive through closer to the border. I did take one picture out of the window that shows the outskirts of the city. It is just homes as far as you could see for miles. We are staying at Bridgeview RV Resort. There is a really nifty railroad bridge close to this place but you don't really have a view of it from the park. I hope to get a picture tomorrow when we leave. It is rainy and quite chilly. We went through a stretch where the temp went into the 40's. It is in the 50's here and off and on showers. Discovered that I had been putting AL for Alberta when it should be AB, I hope to correct that after posting. We should be in Montana tomorrow, yippee! Looking forward to dealing with US citizens again and maybe the prices will be a bit more reasonable. Canada charges for everything, most of the showers are metered and vary from $1 for 2 to 8 minutes of water. We have had to pay for marginal internet service for most of our stay here. They do have really funny road signs, they don't usually have words on them, they are little (and I do mean little) pictographs. I will miss trying to find and read them. Don't spend a lot of money on materials for signage.

Edmonton, AB

Went to the Muttart Conservatory and the Telus World of Science. Nice day; flowers and then an IMAX movie at the science center. The Muttart consists of 4 pyramids each with a different show: a temperate climate, an arid, a tropical climate and one that changes every eleven weeks. The grounds were also very beautiful with flower beds galore with paths and lots of lawn. The Science Center only had the movie as a draw for us. We saw a movie we hadn't seen before, sort of a kid's cartoon type but quite enjoyable. Our kind of movie ;-) We hit the road again in the morning. Hope to have WiFi if not then on Thursday. See you then.

West Edmonton Mall

Ice rink, sea lion show and jumping.

This is the water park, slides on both ends. The pool is actually a wave pool but there were no waves when we were there. The bungee jump is at the top left of the picture. Just one shot of the amusement park roller coaster.

The place is huge and has four phases. You definitely need a map to find your way around. The ice rink was at a major intersection so we were there quite a bit. We spent 6 or 7 hours and never went into one store. So much to see and do, you could easily spend an entire day there and not get bored.

Edmonton, AB

The drive today was uneventful. A few showers and clouds a big temp difference-90 down to 50's. Drove through farm land with many oil/gas wells, two of the biggest industries in Alberta. Went by/under the 2nd longest wooden rail road trestle in the world. It is 2414 feet long and was built in 1914. It is part of the Canadian National Railroad and is called the Rochfort Bridge Trestle. We are staying at the Glowing Embers RV Park. It is a huge place, we need bread crumbs to find our way around. It has almost 300 sites and has one set of rest rooms/showers at the office. We are about as far away from them as we could possibly get. We are staying for two nights. Last night we went to the West Edmonton Mall. This is the largest shopping and entertainment center in the world. It has over 800 stores and 100 restaurants. It also has an amusement park, water park, ice rink, sea lion show, pirate ship/deep sea adventure (bumper boats & a submarine), mini golf, bowling alley, bungee jumping and trampolines with harness to jump (think Vivian's jolly jump up). It also has movie theaters, with an IMAX. We saw Harry Potter in IMAX with the opening in 3D. Didn't get back till after 10 so no blog last night.

Valleyview, Alberta

We travelled to Valleyview, Alberta today. Drove along acres of farm land and lots of oil wells. This is a picture of a well. Next is Beaverlodge's claim to fame, a 15 foot beaver. This is the RV park we are staying at, Sherks. Out in the boonies but really nice and quiet. It is owned by a lady with one arm. We will stay here tonight and then head to Edmonton in the morning. We are back in Mountain Time, two hours difference, we lost an hour today.

This picture shows gas flares at a gas well. We saw quite a few of these on our drive today. This was neat because it was two of them.