July 7 - On the Road Again

We got up relatively early and packed up the van - we did a very quick job of it. We just sort of folded the tent and placed things very arbitrarily. After speaking with the campground hosts the day before, I added a couple more stops to our planned list for the day.

Stop number one was going to be a short walk up an old glacier path. I had my tiny map from the campsite in hand and a very vague idea of where it was - towards Elk Point. I must have driven for about 45 minutes, going up and down a small stretch of highway before I finally saw the tiny sign for the RR that I needed. Now, most people likely would have given up after the second time turning around, but not me. I am way to stubborn; once I get an idea in my head we are going to follow through. Once we found the turn off, it was still a short drive down some dirt roads. We hit the dead end and saw the parking lot that the camp hosts had described...a small patch of dirt by a farm house.
Then we found the sign for the path. It stood behind a "Do Not Trespass" sign. Hum, I recall them saying something about the farmers being okay with people doing this walk, but the grass looked like it hadn't been disturbed in a long time. Remembering that we were in bear country, I decided that it wasn't worth the risk. So, the boys stood behind the sign and I got a few pictures of them pretending to walk up with path. The drive wasn't a total waste. I also got some great photos of old farm buildings. Plus, it became another silly thing that mommy did on the trip for us to laugh at.

Okay so maybe the first of the camp hosts ideas didn't pan out; this didn't mean that I wasn't going to backtrack to another small town: Heinsburg: Iron Horse Trail Ghost Town. It is located on Hwy 45. We stopped at the Railway Theme Park to view an impressive restored 60,000 gallon Wooden CN Water Tower. It is located in it's original spot. The boys were none to impressed with this impromptu stop. What they failed to see was this historical relevance and natural wonders of the views. Frog Lake (near Heinsburg ) is also home Frog Lake Massacre Historical Site, although we didn't stop in.

Once back in the van the boys were pleased to be back on our original journey route. In fact, my youngest (then 10) was very excited about seeing Pete Fiddler, located in Elk Point. He had just learnt about him in grade five social studies. Pete Fiddler was a British surveyor, map maker, chief trader and explorer who had a long career in the employment of the Hudson's Bay Company. First stop in Elk Point, the beautifully redone, green information booth.
Here I was given an abundance of information, which of course worried the kids. I think they saw more attractions being added to the list. To be honest I can't recall whether they were right. Pete Fiddler certainly is larger than life - 32 feet high. He is located along Hwy 41.

We continued up Hwy 41 and turned off onto Hwy 29 to St. Paul, home of the World's Largest UFO Landing Pad (or is it Canada's Largest?). Maybe it was the World's First UFO Landing Pad? Attached to the Landing Pad is a small UFO exhibit, where you can see crop circles and reported UFO sightings. It is also where the tourist information centre is located. Here I bought the boys each a small souvenir.

I also had a wonder visit with the guy at the booth. We talked about how much I was missing my daily Starbucks visits, and the fact that I needed a good cup of tea (as someone who sells tea...I did have a small collection of loose leave with me, but nothing substantial. He provided me with a very long list of big things in Alberta. The boys sort of rolled their eyes, thinking great here we go with more stops, and boy were they ever right. It was looking at that list when I started to realize that perhaps I wouldn't see all of the "big things" in Alberta.

Bonnyville was our next planned stop. We were looking for an "Angus Shaw". Me in my ignorance thought that we were looking for some type of cow statue. We'd been to Bonnyville once before for a hockey tournament, but never left the main drag. Little did I know, that from our hotel window I'd been looking straight at Angus Shaw.

The first order of business was to find a nice spot to enjoy a picnic lunch. We found a beautiful spot by Jessie Lake. The boys were grateful for the opportunity to run around and stretch their legs. I was grateful for the chance to study my new list. I also asked a couple of local women where I might find the large Angus Shaw. I was glad to see that they too were a bit confused at first. One finally realized that I must be talking about the large wooden person statue. Instantly not only did I know it was located by the museum, but it made sense to me who Angus Shaw was. He was known fur trader and somewhat of local politician. I guess that I did pay attention in school.

On route to the museum we were cut-off by a turning truck. I off course honked my horn. Looking in the rear view mirror I was the truck do a u-turn. I didn't think much of it initially until the boys pointed out that the truck was following me. Keep in mind that I am on a main street through town. However, when I turned down some street, the truck also turned. When I went back onto the main stretch of road, the truck also went back onto the main stretch. I turned onto Hwy 28, towards the museum so did the truck. Now my heart was pounding and the boys were freaking out. I was on my cell phone with hubby, and he told me to drive by the local RCMP to scare the truck away. I pulled off the Hwy and headed back into town. The truck simply drove by.

We pulled into the museum parking lot and just sat there, too scared to get out of the car. I had trapped us. Heart racing, we quickly got out of the van and ran towards to museum entrance. We sort of stood their in shock before finally asking if we could go and get a photo of the Angus Shaw statue. It is 7 meters high. Once I was done with my many photographs within the museum ground, we hesitantly walked back towards the parking lot - what would we do if the truck was waiting there. Of course, it was not. We picked up some ice cream from the little museum shop and hit the roads again.