One hundred years ago, Cathy’s grandmother taught in a one room school house in Peace River, Alberta. Cathy’s great grandparents homesteaded in Victoria, Alberta which was a Methodist mission and a Hudson Bay fort. Subsequently they farmed in Smoky Lake and Athabasca. So we decided to travel across north Alberta and visit these places, and make some local contacts at the various town offices and library archives.
One of the things we wanted to do is go to a rodeo. At the Bonnyville Pro Rodeo near Cold Lake Alberta, we had an amazingly fun afternoon and evening watching calf roping, barrel races, bull riding, chariot races and chuck wagon races. If you have not seen a rodeo in person, try it out and I bet you will love it.
All across Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, the canola is in bright yellow bloom. Our best moose sighting of our whole wilderness trip was two moose standing in a canola field. Also, we saw the elusive Canadian lynx. The camping has been amazing with nice weather and beautiful sites.
Our final must-do was to visit Whiteshell Provincial Park and the nuclear town Pinawa on the east side of Manitoba. When nuclear technology was in its hayday, Joe and his brother worked summers at the AECL nuclear research site here, and it was very nostalgic to visit. The site is being de-commissioned now and it will take longer to finish this than it took to set up the reactors in the first place. Nice to celebrate Joe’s birthday here.
I’ve been enjoying your trip!
Cousin Bev
Hi Joe and Cathy. Happy belated birthday Joe. We have loved living your wonderful adventure with you through your blog. Have a safe trip home and we would love to see you and hear all about it in person.
Safe travels 😍
Kind regards, Joanne Hawkins
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