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1 to 15 July 2018 16 to 31 July 2018

Monday July 16, 2018

We have to change site, our is already reserved by someone else. We are now in a 2 services site. By 10 am we are all set-up at our new site.

We were supposed to help Jérémy and Kristin to move right after lunch, but because of Jeremy"s dental appointment, we will meet them at 2 ish.
So I am at Jeremy and Kristin's place by 13:45 and the move starts. We load up Jeremy's washer and dryer on the trailer and take them to Kristin's house. At Kristin's house, we took Kristin's washer and dryer back to Jeremy's house. We took a few other things too.

Gabriel is staying at the MH with Grand-Maman.

Tuesday July 17, 2018

Jeremy comes in early this morning to say goodbye to Gabriel, he has to go back on the road with the Snowbirds. He will be back in a little over 3 weeks.

Grand-Maman and Gabriel having fun.

Another bike ride before lunch. One more 6 km for us. Here are some birdhouses along the trail.

All the bridges in Wakamow have Native Tribes name.
This one is the Assiniboine bridge.
Let's have fun!

While I was busy, Gabriel took my new sunglasses...

He is looking at me like he does not have my glasses on... Little rascal.

Asher came over to play with Gabriel. We let them play inside because it is so hot outside.

They play so well together, I can even read my book in peace...

When I say it is hot, +32°C outside and this is now even counting the humidity.

A good day in Wakamow.

Wednesday July 18, 2018

Gabriel just woke up! He was in bed and asleep by 7:35 last night.

Another great moment with our Grandson.

Time to get to work before it gets too hot.
Some branches are touching the MH. We need to cut them off.

Gabriel has to do some work to...

Out for another 6 km this morning. We even stopped at the Burger Cabin for an ice-cream.
A big ice-cream cone chocolate dipped.

We had the good (not so good) idea to buy the big one as it is just a little more expensive for Gabriel.
Well, it is 30°C in the shade. The ice-cream is melting fast and Gabriel talks all the time.

Grand-Maman and Gabriel reading some stuff about snakes. Gabriel is very good at reading.

Even if it is hot, we still have a fire.

Gabriel spent most of the afternoon at Asher's place.

Thursday July 19, 2018

Time to go back home. Michele is going straight home with Gabriel while I make the first stop at the dump station.
My next stop is at Crystal Glass to get the windshield changed on the MH.

Now the windshield should be changed before we leave Saskatchewan. Let us hope it will not be like the awning last year...

Just has I got home, the worker in the front yard ask me if I can wait before I get in the driveway because the cement truck is coming.
It turns out the truck is right behind me. I said "no problems". They are hard at work.

Kristin came home just before suppertime. We chatted a little and went about our business. Gabriel is sleeping in the MH because Kristin is on call today.

Friday July 20, 2018

Another hot day in the forecast. The pool is turning a little green. Last night I scrubbed the inside and added bleach. I also washed the filter. This morning I clean the pool some more and added the shock treatment Kristin bought yesterday. So, I shocked the pool!

Gabriel is having fun with his airplanes.

After working on the pool, it is time to fix a leak in the shower.
First I have to remove the doors.

I do a deep cleaning of the bottom part of the shower. The arrows point where the leak are occurring.

With the shower clean, I now work on cleaning the doors too.

Michele went with Gabriel for some Yard Saling, while I put some sealant around the shower.

After working inside the MH where it is so hot, I changed into my swim trunk and joined Michele and Gabriel in the pool. The water is so refreshing and clean. Gabriel warming up in the sun.

Me, I am warming up in the shade.

Gabriel is invited for a sleep-over at Joshua tonight.
Nicole leaving with Gabriel and her crew. Good night Gabriel, have fun.

It is so quiet in the house!

Saturday July 21, 2018

All the sealant is dry, time to put back the doors. The right hand side door goes on in about 15 minutes. The left hand one took one hour and half. I had to go to town to pick some new screws and even then, the doors did not want to get on easily.

Finally done.

We got a text from Kristin telling us she will be bringing in her table from her house tonight. We moved Jeremy's table to the garage. We had to have supper in the living room.

Gabriel did not appreciate one of my jokes?

Two of the love of my life.

A good day, we are preparing for our trip to Grassland National Park tomorrow.

Sunday July 22, 2018

We are on the road to grassland N.P. We have to go through Moose Jaw to get to highway #1 west.

Gabriel in his seat in the living room of the MH. Grand-Maman is busy with him.

A quick stop at Swift Current's Walmart for a few things and lunch.

Gabriel asked us for a map to see where we were.

We just left Swift Current and are on our way to Val Marie and the Visitor Centre of Grassland N.P.

They are good candies!

Hummm, the prairies, they sure are flat.

In Val Marie we stopped at the visitor centre. It is the last place you can get water for your RV because the park does not have enough water to fill RVs. The only water they have is to do dishes and stuff like that.

Fifteen kilometers later, we leave the pavement for a gravel road. Michele is driving the car because behind the MH it would be full of dust and rocks.

Gabriel is my copilot for the rest of the trip. His sharp eye sees everything and he tells me about it too!

This gravel road is not too bad. Yes, cows are at large here.

We drove by the small colony of Black-tailed prairie dogs inside the park. We will get back here for sure.

The park campground of grassland N.P. The campground is surrounded by a fence to keep the bison from coming in contact with us!

No campfires for us during our stay here.

Our site, not much shade here! We only have electricity here. Remember, no fresh water either. They do have a dump station close by. They only have dry vault toilettes and no showers.

The wind is blowing pretty hard right now, so cooking will take place indoor. Gabriel is still full of energy.

Each site has this type of post, it is to hold your lantern.

WOW! come to think of it, Monday we were in Wakamow and now we are in Grassland National Park.

Monday July 23, 2018

Gabriel and I are talking about activities for the day.

The first hike we will do is the one next to the campground. It is the Tipi ridge trail.
First we have to try our hand at lasso.

What is that on the fence? A Common Nighthawk.

On this trail, they have set up 2 red chairs for the hikers to sit and enjoy the view of the valley.

And the craziness starts!

That is a nice view from the red chairs. The Frenchman River.
What a view!

Gabriel and Grand-Maman are doing the "Yo Man".

We hiked 3.3 km before we made it home for lunch.

Next, we are driving the Ecotour Scenic Drive and stopping at the first 7 stops. This will be about 1/3 of the total drive.
Shortly after we leave the campground, we cross the Frenchman River and what do we see?
A bison walking up to the road and the bridge where we are.

He stops right next to the bridge, scrape the ground and rolls in the scraped area to scratch his side and back.

To see the video, click here.

Our next stop is at the Black-Tailed Prairie Dog Colony. This is as far north as they go in North-America.
First we hike the short Top Dogtown Trail across the street. An easy 0.74 km loop.

The trail takes us to another view of the valley.

It is really dry here, we need to keep hydrated.

Here we are at stop #4, we have another great view of the Frenchman River Valley.

Gabriel turns his binocular around and now he sees us far far away. I run to him and I seems to grow really fast as I get closer. He is a little surprised.

Stop #5 has a short trail leading us to the river.
The grass is so high, we almost lost Gabriel!!!

We are very quiet as we get closer to the river and what do we see near the water? A young fawn. Gabriel was the first to see him.

We are a little surprised to see that Gabriel likes to walk so much.

Stop #7. This is the biggest of the two Canadian colonies of Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs. They estimated the number of prairie dogs at around 1000.

Gabriel got an Xplorers book from the Visitor Centre. He has some observation to do and note, quiz, and one of the activity is to observe the sky and its stars.
So, when we took Gabriel from our bed to the bed in the living room, we took him outside to look at the Big Dipper and other constellations in the sky.

We had a busy day, Gabriel is burnt-out.

Tuesday July 24, 2018

Gabriel is very helpful, he just helps you when you ask, like this morning, he helped me make his bed.

We are going to drive the last 2/3 of the Ecotour Scenic Drive and hike a trail.
Farmers in Western Canada have a sense of humour. Like putting old boots on fence post for miles! Even on a hay bale.

The scenery is just beautiful here.
Our first hike for today, it is the Riverwalk Interpretive Trail located at the Two trees Site. Why that Two Trees name? We assume it is because there are two big trees on the way here!
I am going to point out a few things in the next few photos, like this garden cart not looked up.

These two tipis are for rent, you only have to fill the registration form and put money in an envelope and you are good to go.

Notice all the very nice chairs. They must have 15 on them at this site. They are not locked on anything.

All those items not locked up are not stolen. Would that happen in you area?

After half a sandwich, we head for the Riverwalk Interpretive Trail, it is a loop of 3.5 km.

We are looking for birds, deers and other critters.

A Loggerhead Shrike.

We are getting close to the Frenchman River. We are in a sea of tall grass.

Gabriel does not complain and loves walking trails.

A mule deer looking at us from a distance.

We could not wait to finish our hike because we forgot to bring water bottles and the sun is shinning...
We have had other half of a sandwich and talk about what we saw during our walk.

It turns out this will be our only hike today, Gabriel is running out of steam.

On our way back, Gabriel saw some Pronghorn in a field as we drove by. He sures has a sharp eye this one.

As usual, we came across the free range cattle before we came to the park. We stop and check them out. I do a quick start with the wheel spinning and the young calf got out of the way really fast. Gabriel is laughing so hard...
Now, don't get all excited, no cows were armed in anyway...

Gabriel's hawk eye saw a deer in the field, I had to back up to confirm and sure enough, there it was.

We decide to do the kids geocaching. It is three things he has to find to complete a quiz for a prize.
Gabriel found all three of them, we completed the quiz and we will give it to the visitor centre tomorrow.

Back from geocaching, we relax watching prairie dogs playing around.

Click here for the video.

All the adults have a big belly...

Gabriel is filling out his Xplorers book from Park Canada so he can get a certificate and a gift.

Another great day in Grassland National Park of Canada.

Wednesday July 25, 2018

Our time in Grassland National Park is coming to an end.
A big breakfast before we pack up and leave.

Michele is driving the car to Val Marie. We will stop at the visitor centre for Gabriel's certificate and hooking up the car before we continue on our trip to Eastend. Gabriel is my copilot for a short while.

Not far from the campground, we stop to dump our used water tanks.

And a last 17 km of gravel road to get to Val Marie.

We stopped at the Visitor centre in Val Marie and showed Gabriel's Xplorers Book and got his certificate and gift.

Gabriel received two "dog tags" from Grassland N.P. and a signed certificate from Park Canada.
Bravo Gabriel!

After all this, we got back on the road and headed to Eastend. Gabriel could not resist a nap.

It is only 178 km between the two places, but 118 of those km were terrible. A disgusting road.
As we got nearer Eastend, we are more into farming and oil country.

We were all setup before lunch. We had a very good banana bread from Nicole for dessert, thanks Nicole.

After lunch, we went to the village to pay for our campground.
Gabriel, loves this car.

The campground has a small playground and Gabriel is pretty happy about it.

Gabriel playing and having a Mr. Freeze.

Our own rapper.

For more information about the village of Eastend, click here.

Thursday July 26, 2018

Gabriel woke up late this morning. Why not have a big breakfast with MatteMuffin.

Today we are going to visit the T.rex Discovery Centre.
Gabriel must play with the rocks from the road.

Next, we take a stroll on the trans-Canada trail in the village.
The Frenchman river and pretty flowers along the trail.

There is a small suspension bridge over the river, it belongs to the local golf club.

A quick walk of about 2 km.

We still had time before we went to the T.rex Discovery Centre.

T.rex Discovery Centre, here we are!

The windows are also mirrors. Our campground is located behind us in the valley.

In the main hall of the centre you have this giant map of Saskatchewan. One of the employee told us it is almost more popular than the T.rex.

One of the activity is to look for fossils in a rock. Gabriel is hitting the rock pretty hard and he found the fossil of a trilobite.

Gabriel has to identify it between other fossils.

Gabriel is now a Trilobite discoverer.

The famous T.Rex behind Gabriel.

Gabriel was not too sure about his head in the mouth of the T.rex...

Gabriel's foot compared to a T.Rex footprint.

So much to see!

The great explorer.

After the visit, we had lunch just outside the centre.

The kids are looking for a large fossil in the sand. This family comes from Poland and they are on holiday in Canada for two months.

Grand-Papa being silly and Gabriel with his souvenir.

Michele bought this a few months ago. Time to do some digging for fossils.

Gabriel starts with the tools supplied with the kit, but ends up using a real hammer.

We can see some bones!

He can do the assembly of the fossil now.

WOW!

Next, a shark fossil.

We all had a great day again.

Friday July 27, 2018

This morning Gabriel and I went out for breakfast. We had breakfast at Charlie's.

Here is a little story.
Eastend is a village of about 500 people. Everyone knows everyone.
While we were having breakfast, I saw people coming in, get behind the counter, take something, get to the cash register and pay, take the change. The cash register is wide open, walk out. Nobody blinks an eye!
It is nice to see a place who people thrust each other.

We also had a very good lunch made by Grand-Maman.

Over the winter, we bought a small toolbox and some small tolls for Gabriel
I guess it is time to give it to him.
He cannot believe it is all for him. He is very happy.

We go out for another walk this afternoon.
The bridge again.

One part of the Trans-Canada trail is on the sidewalk of the village.

It is hard to tell, but the trees are very tall in the valley.

The trail is along the Frenchman river.

Welcome to Eastend, established in 1914.

We head back to the campground by the main street. We forgot to bring a water bottle again! Gabriel can hardly walk anymore...
We even took a long break.

As we arrived at the campground, we saw an old steam tractor and it was running.

The mini-golf opened right at 6 pm. We all had to play a game.

Gabriel is not too bad a golf player.

This weekend are the Dino Days in Eastend. They are having a big fireworks display tonight and it is at the campground!
We had to wait until it got dark enough, like 10 pm.

We are ready. A laser saber fight first!

Here we go!

We are impressed by the quality and the length of the fireworks display. For a village of 500 people, it was very good.

Saturday July 28, 2018

Poor Gabriel, he went late to bed and we woke him up early this morning. It is time to hit the road and get back home.
We made a stop in Swift Current and bought some peanut and caramel ice-cream cones for the road.