Back in the van and our way to Calgary. Ponoka is home to the World's Largest Bucking Saddle Bronco & Rider. It is located off Hwy 53 at the Stampede Grounds. Beside it is what looks like a new tourist information centre. My boys took advantage of the opportunity to buy themselves each a bag of chips. I, of course, looked for more brochures. I'm hoping to get enough of the various places to use in my scrapbook. While in Ponoka we forgot to look for the small church. I was on a deadline to get to Calgary before the family picnic.
We also stopped in Red Deer. I got a picture of the Teapot marking Glenn's Tea House and the Windmill on the Doughnut Mill (both off Hwy 2 S along Gasoline Alley). While in the Doughnut Mill, we bought a few fresh pastries. As we were leaving, I got a picture of two statues on a truck. I thought it was ironic to see them sitting for sale on the truck bed as we were busy touring similar attractions around Alberta.
On our way into Airdrie I saw the large cowboy that we missed when we were out with Hubby. It is located in a RV lot if I recall correctly. Once passed Airdrie it was time to find Balzac. Hint number one; don't blink or you will miss it. We pulled off the hwy and turned onto SecHwy566. There is a very cute little restaurant: Rocking Horse Dinner. It actually has a rocking horse on the building. No one seemed to know where I might find the cacti in Balzac. Oh well, off to my Bio-mom's house. On our way, we noticed a small collection of Cacti on the E side of Hwy 2. I certainly wouldn't say they were in Balzac, nor would I go out of my way to stop for them. I soon discovered that these green metal catcti are a plenty in Southern Alberta. From the CrossIron Mills Shopping Outlet caught my eye - not because of the size but because there appeared to be some type of sculpture or build in design on the building and I was trying to figure out what it was supposed to be - perhaps a bird.
Unfortunately, Navi isn't updated with all the new roads in the Calgary area; in fact, she doesn't seem to like Calgary much at all. I ended up taking Stoney Trail to far SW. The good part about that was I found a Starbucks. I called my Bio-mom to tell her I was lost, but asked if she needed me to pick up anything. I talked to her hubby and got some directions; although, i lost tract of the right and left turns. I picked up some plastic forks and got back to to Sarcee (I think).
Navi told me to turn left when my gut told me to turn right. However, I went with Navi and ended up going to far E, in a whole bunch of barely moving traffic, due of course to construction. I pulled off and ended up going to far S. In the end we did a huge circle and ended up at the same intersection where I should have trusted my instinct and gone right. We were back on course. Eventually we arrived at my Bio-mom's house where we were to spend the night.
After a lovely family reunion type picnic, we went to the Bow River to enjoy a new event called Lighting up the Bow. Somehow on the walk there the battery managed to fall out of my camera. How do these things happen to me? This was an unfortunate event to be without a camera. There was a drumming circle, which Magoo and I joined for a bit. I also would have gotten a great shot of a bird flying with a fish in its mouth. Missing these photos opportunities was hard enough, but once they started dropping the lite balloons off the bridge and into the river my heart sank as I thought about all the missed opportunities. Magoo had no problem about bugging me with "look at what you missed" or "you should get a picture, wait you can't".
It was really cool watching the balloons fall from the bridge to the water below. The balloons were being herded through the river by a group of kayakers. At first we didn't understand why they were being dropped in slowly in small groups. Every once in a while, we'd chuckle as a group of balloons would get stuck on the string and not fall properly, or as they'd drop to the waiting kayakers and hit them. However, near the end we went and stood on the bridge to get another perspective - from the bridge you couldn't see the spaces, and it really did look like the balloons were lighting up the river.
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