Drumheller, Alberta - the Dinosaur Town for all ages!

Welcome to Drumheller, Alberta.

My hubby and I had to go on a business trip, so we packed up our Merryacht, and went to Drumheller Alberta, and wow is all we can say.

We made it, safe and sound.  Here is my wonderful husband.
Drumheller the "worlds largest Dinosaur" is here!  

 We took a side trip to enjoy some of the attractions the town has to offer, and there are many.

This little town is crazy for anything Dinosaur and they have status of them everywhere. It's really cool....

Flowers anyone....

Can I please get a ride in your sidecar?
There are dinosaurs everywhere, having all kinds of fun.

The Royal Tyrell Museum - is a leading centre for palaeontological research - it's a masterpiece - yes, it's a reason to plan the trip...it delivers in every way...... and it has more 130,000 fossils....

 It is simply amazing and words can not describe it. You could take thousands of pictures.  The exhibits are fantastic, and incredibly informative.  You can even touch old fossils.  There are all kinds of events going on in the museum for participation and increased learning....The kids we saw were having a grand time, and  "Wow" is all we can say.

The Hoodoo's
Geological formations caused by effects of erosion caused by wind , water and frost. 

These formations are incredible. 

Visit the website below to learn more..simply awesome, you can hike up the formations below.

make sure you visit the following websites for more in site to Drumheller.

http://www.hoodooresort.com

traveldrumheller.com

Visit Wayne by crossing 11 - one way bridges and don't forget to visit the "Last Chance Salon" which is chalk packed with nostalgia. 

Hope you get there, you'll be glad you did....take yourselves, and or your grandchildren.  It's a once in a lifetime experience!

L&D

..and then there was a loud bang!

Oh yikes, I didn't see that coming...

That was the words that came to mind when we went to leave Harrison Bay after a wonderful, sun filled Easter Long Weekend at the lake with friends....

Everyone else had left, we finished our packing, and loaded up to leave.  While driver Len was leaving the park, and while me the trusty spotter was being his helpful assistant guiding him past the obstacles to leave, our tire on the rear passenger side came in contact with something, and there was a very loud bang!

Oh crap what was that!  it sounded as if a large transport truck releasing it's air. Driver Len stopped the motor home instantly and yelled, "what the heck was that."

I quickly scanned the area around, to see what had just happened, and you can imagine how sick I felt when I looked down and realised our rear passanger tire had come in contact with the new stairs/steps that had just been built at the lake.  We were both in shock.  We had just replaced all the tires in the motor home.

I looked down and seen the damage; the sidewall of our new tire was blown out.  The bang was the side wall being torn out and releasing the air in the tire.  Not nice, not nice at all.

What a sinking feeling, we could not believe what the heck just happened. All was going well, or so we thought.

As mentioned while I simply turned my head for a second in another direction, making sure we were clearing something else when we clipped the step/stairs with the tire.  Can you believe it, what a crappy thing to happen just when you were heading home.

We always say, "when life hands you lemons, make lemonade,"  I hope we can be this optimistic at a time like this.  It always seems like a great saying, but not sure how well we'll put it into use.  Well moving forward Husband decided on the next plan of attack.

Driver, Len said he was not prepared to call a tow truck and/or service truck out because it was Easter Sunday, and everyone would be eating dinner at the time it happened.

We pondered some more, and decided to stay another day.  Yahoo what a great compromise to a crummy situation.  We had Monday off because of the holiday anyways, so Len backed the motor home into the spot we had just left.  We pulled out the awning and set up camp!  Why not ;make the best out of a bad situation.  It was hot and we could use  a tasty cold beverage (like a beer or cocktail) now anyways.

The culprit; newly poured concrete steps/stairs.  A tight turn to leave which has since been cut/filed off.

damaged tire and scuffed rim.  Rim can be soft hammered out, but the tire needs replacing

Happy Monday mid-morning the Kal Tire service truck arrives and brings us a new tire.  Yahoo

It's hard work for the Kal Tire man, and it's a very hot day too.  

our damaged tire - now remove from the rim - can not be salvaged

Our tire was replaced, and we are very thankful that no damage was done to the body (fibreglass or otherwise) of the Merryacht, and of course, we tried to make the best of a crummy situation. 

 Another great adventure in our motor home.

Len and Debbie

We are home...

We are home...boo hoo...it's bittersweet....

The trip home was uneventful. 

Golf Update re: El Centro:

Golf was awesome, ended up playing two games the last week while away.

No need to keep score, as the big deal is who loses on the 9th buys the beer...luckily it was not me!  Yahoo...I did not have the worst score on the ninth.  This seems like a good plan to me - not keeping score...not sure who's idea this was but I liked it. 


El Centro was great, and we  met a lot of really great people and look forward to seeing them in the future.  We even met Elvis...okay a great guy who got rocked into singing and dressing like the King...he was a very good sport.   We keep teasing him that when we see him in our local store, we'll yell out "hi Elvis."  We won't but it was fun teasing him about this.

Roger and Sharie the "dune buggy" gang are happily remodeling there pad and keeping busy checking out countertops.

We met a group of people who are old car enthusiast, who collect and love the vintage collectable cars.

And...then there was HH (happy hour)...who doesn't love happy hour...

So Cheers from us to you, and it was great meeting you all..and look forward to getting together in the summer.

BBQ at our place, bring your vintage rides...plenty of parking available...

See yah all soon.
L & D

Another Beautiful Day in El Centro - GOLF Anyone

Golf Anyone!

Yes, it's about 75 degree's here already and beautiful.  We've all just returned from breakfast out and had time to catch up with each other.  A continual stream of events is always planned.  Albeit you are not obliged to attend, they can be, and are filled with lots of laughter and just plan old fashioned good times.  Vacation Life and/or Retired Life does bring a new mind set as to how you will or will not greet each day.You decide what and when you do or don't want to participate, in anything.  That's the true fun of it all.  You can be as busy or as lazy as you want.

Now GOLF on the other hand is another story completely. With the executive 9 hole course there, you see  all types of golfers.  The beginners (that's me), the couples (that's us), and the impatient (that's me), and of course there are always those wonderful regular, weekly, daily, and some times more than twice per day golfers (not me or us), that enjoy this game often. I classify  "OFTEN" of the more than once per day, 7 days per week type of golfers. They are what I deem as the serious golfers, actually truth be told they just love the game.

I got excited about taking this game up (not sure why, as I have been enjoying being a lazy bum for the last month).  I have set everything aside to just relax and enjoy the beautiful sunshine of El Centro.

The game is scheduled and some new friends (Gary and Marie) join us to be a foursome.  I was lots of fun, none of my balls went for a swim in the water and I managed to be able to get in some decent shots.  Putting is another issue, and I definitely need practice   No none kept score.  Okay, no score were on paper, but I think I did not do too bad for my first time in about 20 years.

I look forward to trying it again.  In fact we have a tee off time of 11:15 am today, and I best get going and get organized.

I purchased a cart to put a golf bag on for 6 bucks yesterday at the yard sale event held in the RV park yesterday, and I also got a bag of mixed balls for a buck.  I'm feeling ready to go to the next game...okay ...well almost just need to get my own clubs and more practice time in.

I'll keep you all posted on how the golf turns out today.

Elvis and his lady have left the building.....

Okay, it's not really Elvis and his lady but you get the drift.  Driver (Len) and I have left.  Len and afriend of ours Tim, both took this grueling 2 day course and passed the air brakes ticket/endorsement and we are off on our big trip.

It was a little hectic getting everything ready and finally driving off on our adventure.  We are calling this our first big adventure!  Our previous adventure was when we purchased our Merryacht from T & K, and brought her home...so off we go.

Len and I have finished and are just about to leave the yard, when our Son took this picture of us.
He too is in shock that we are getting away...finally.

We crossed the border and proceeded along with view to eventually getting down to El Centro, California.  We have left more than ample time to arrive there and are in no hurry to get there.  We want to take our time... we figure "better safe than sorry", as they say.

The Merryacht was wonderful to travel in and it's great that we don't have to worry about booking hotels/motels etc., along the way.  The weather on route to our first destination was uneventful. A little rain and wind towards California but really nothing more than this.

We stayed overnight at various places including a couple of rest stops and at the Rollings Hill's Casino which has a great full services area to park and relax for the day/night.  It was pouring cats and dogs when we checked in and we both got soaked doing the hook ups, but we are excited about heading further south to some SUNSHINE!  When we woke up there was sunshine, and a little wind, but it was SUNSHINE.  Yup that's what we are looking for SUNSHINE! We'll take it anyway we can get it.

We have ran away from what seems like constant wet rainy weather, the grey dull sky's of our home and travel south towards sunshine, lots of sunshine..we hope.

We traveled further south towards El Centro through Mt Shasta.  Wow is all I can say, it was covered in snow and looked beautiful. The pictures we took don't quite do it justice as the peak was hit by sunshine and really looked outstanding.

We traveled to see T & K the couple we purchased the M-home from as planned and spent a wonderful evening with them playing cards and eating Kathy's famous "potato strudels "  OMG these are wonderful, and she bestowed us a frozen package from her freezer to ours, for our trip.  YUMMO ! as Rachel Ray say's YUMMO,!  these little babies are fantastic.

T&K taught us this really great new card game called "the no name card game," as no one can remember what it's called so they re-named it, "the no name card game."  We had as mentioned lots of laughs and enjoyed there company tons. Its played with 4 decks of cards and you use the jokers too!  It was great to see them, and great for them to see their old motor-home too.  The next morning we headed off again in the sunshine towards our first destination.

We arrived Sunday Night in El Centro - and the sun was SHINNING!   Fantastic, our dream come true sunshine was our goal and we made it.  We had pre-booked our spot at the RV resort (#88) and because the office was closed by they time we arrived, we just drove to our spot and parked!  We got so lucky, as our spot faces the fairway on the first hole on the golf course!  What could be better than this!   The only thing is, we must watch out for stray golf balls coming our way, but other than this, no worries.  Our view is awesome.  What could be better than to look out towards a small but quaint golf course with only 9 holes (Par 3/par 4).  Some might call it an executive course, or something of this nature, as I am not a golfer I'll just say wonderful.  We love green space, so we are thrilled with our spot.  Len has a T-time with the guys for Saturday AM - the loser at the 9th hole buys the beer.  Seems like a  good deal to me!

We are getting settled in much faster than normal due to our dear friends David and Cathie who have been so kind to help us get set up and organized, and to introduce us to lots of great people.  This really does feel heart warming to have new friends already.  We are so lucky to have them, and appreciate all they have done for us.  We've been very busy and have already attended a 50's dance complete with live music, we've been invited to several HH's (happy hour's) and even attempted to host our own, which had to be rescheduled unfortunately due to high winds.  I've attended a open sewing afternoon and worked on a quilt I started and hope to finish (binding and all) on this trip.

All and all we have no complaints, everything is wonderful and our small space living has improved each day.  It does take some time to get used to living large in a tiny space, but...we are determined to figure it out.

We now have a toaster oven and a portable table top BBQ - 2 musts for living in a motor-home and R'ving. We had our first BBQ Steak and veggies last night, and have used our toaster oven lots. It's a great must have item for sure.

I must run as Driver (Len)  is making cabbage rolls....yikes, not sure how we are going to cook them all (there are 3 pans and not enough oven space), we'll figure something out. They look beautiful all tucked into the pans and now for the creative cooking part....

Thanks for dropping by.

Debbie

PS:  I started making some place-mats for our kitchen table too

2 Day Air Brakes Course

Yup, that's right - Driver (Len) needs to take a 2 day (all day) air brakes course for the motor home.

I will finish the final packing while he is busy learning and passing this course.

I have created all these crazy check lists...yes I most probably have gone a little crazy, but our trip is long, and we need to be organized.  Okay that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Like at Christmas time, I have been making my lists, and I will for sure be checking them twice, to make sure I have not forgot anything.  I know we all probably say, "if we forgot something, no worried we'll buy it".  This is true, but I always find it great to exercise for my old memory to try to remember to bring it the first time around.

Just waiting for my king's course...and we'll be off, towards the sunshine.  YAHOO - imagine lots and lots, and did I say lots of sunshine.  I'm dreaming of it already.

Enough of this rain! I hope not to see rain for some time.

Here's to keepin' dry.

You keep in touch, and we'll keep in touch.

Deb

Planning Stages

Len and I are gearing up for our trip.  We are reviewing the final plans for this trip.  Gathering maps, making our route and making sure we have some warm clothes put aside, as it's cold out there!

We had ordered a winter cover for our motor home and it has arrived.  We are very excited to have this until the storage unit is build to house the Merryacht during the winter months.

Please send us an email - and a meet up spot to : merryacht2@gmail.com.

Talk to you soon.

L & D