Talk about a busy weekend!  We rolled into Lethbridge on Friday during the great Rogers blackout!  Remember the Facebook blackout?  Ha!  You forgot already.  Anyway, the issue was mostly that we had to use real maps to navigate and try to call our friend in Lethbridge to tell him we would arrive at 3pm, as planned.

We managed to work through all of that and have an amazing tour of the Lethbridge Military Museum and the Vimy Armoury, where 20th Independent Field Battery, RCA (that’s artillery for those who don’t speak military talk) is housed.  I cannot say enough good things about the military museum!  You’ll have to visit it yourself when you are in the area.

After our visit, we went for dinner at the local Legion and retired to our campground a few kilometres west.  We made plans to meet at the Exhibition Grounds the next morning to see the most incredible tribute to the military history of Lethbridge – The spirit of Alberta, a 6 foot long bronze statue.

On Saturday morning, we did our visit to the Exhibition Grounds, then made our way to the closest glass repair company.  Our little buddy, the Q, had suffered a windshield injury and needed immediate attention.  We were assisted by a lovely young man, who instantly recognized Leon’s Artillery t-shirt, and were on our way east in no time.  Thank you to Crystal Glass for the amazing service!

On our way east, we stopped for lunch at the loveliest little campground in the town of Grassy Lake, along highway 1.  We had a yummy chicken salad and discussed where our next destination might be.  I soon realized that we were close to Dinosaur Provincial Park and we turned north.

At the entrance, we stopped for a photo op and started chatting with a lovely couple from Oka, Quebec.  We decided to stay the night at that campground and ended up taking a hike with our new friends and spending a wonderful evening in their kitchen tent, safe from the nasty, nasty mosquitoes.  I am not exaggerating when I say they were numerous and hungry!

Spending a night among the hoodoos in this beautiful landscape is truly special.  I was awakened by the wind and got up to close to skylight when I realized the stars were incredible.  Then I noticed a flash of light and thought there might be lightning about.  The skies were clear but there was light that would appear in the east in 2 different spots.  I wasn’t sure if it was the Northern Lights or just some weird lightning activity.  I work Leon up at almost 3am to show him.  As I fell asleep, I was looking out my window and may have seen some fireflies.  I was once more awakened early in the morning by the sun in my eyes.  It was the sunrise.  Of course, I promptly shut the blind and went back to sleep…

The view from our campsite
Looking right from our campsite

Today, we took a car tour and brief walk among the hoodoos and fossils before leaving the park.  We said so long to our new friends and continued our route east into Saskatchewan.

It is here that we found a Caribbean style campground, complete with Tiki Bar, along the highway.  We had a cocktail while we did the laundry (it’s not always glamourous eh?).  Leon starting talking with another couple who were from Comox and on their way home from their trip to PEI.  You can bet we had lots to talk about!