Smeds Dagg Cross Canada Adventure 2013: Blog Post No. 3

We crossed into Alberta east of Pouce Coupe B.C. on Thursday afternoon, June 27, and carried on to Grande Prairie, then to Tamarack RV Park a little south of town, which we had reserved on the advice of a friend in Victoria. It had all the required amenities, including laundry facilities, but nothing special. After dinner Rhonda’s friend Erin (a former student from North Vancouver) and her 10-year old daughter came over for a visit.

It was well after 11:00 AM when we left camp and continued on towards Edmonton. This turned out to be a long driving day, with only a brief stop in Whitecourt at a Tourist Information Centre/Museum, where they gave us some good information and we had a nice look at the museum. Once in Edmonton we headed straight downtown to the legislature area, where we enjoyed walking around the grounds and the kids played in the fountains/pools in front of the building. We called my cousin Bob and made arrangements to meet tomorrow, then went down to a park by the river and had dinner followed by a walk around. Although the flooding here (along the North Saskatchewan River) was not nearly as bad as it had been further south near Calgary, there was still lots of high water and mud around. Finally we headed to a Wal-Mart in the southwest part of town and camped for the night in their parking lot. This was the first day of our holiday that we didn’t visit with some of our friends or relatives.

Saturday June 29 was all about West Edmonton Mall. We met Bob and his wife Bonnie for breakfast in a restaurant on “Bourbon Street”, and then they hung out with us while we wandered around the mall and shopped. After they went home we headed back to the motorhome for lunch and to visit Salty for a while, then went back into the mall to “World Waterpark”, which bills itself as the world’s largest indoor wave pool and water slide park. We had several hours of fun there, with Rhonda being the biggest daredevil and doing 3 of the 4 extreme rides, while the rest of us stuck to the intermediate and advanced rides. Finally, we left the mall after 9:00 AM and drove east for about an hour to crash in another Wal-Mart parking lot, this time in Vegreville.

We got a late start, and went into Wal-Mart to buy a few things, but it was too late to get breakfast at the McDonalds there, so we went around the corner to Timmy’s, which was better anyway. We drove to the east end of town to check out the giant Ukranian Easter Egg and the other things in the park there. Our last stop in Alberta was at the Lloyd Mall in the border town of Lloydminster, to visit for a few minutes with my cousin Jon’s daughter Ashley, who is working in a store there.