Day 24 – Sunday June 11/17

Today was planned as a day of exploration of Fort Walsh, but we did that yesterday. So we thought we’d have a relaxing day. As it turned out that wasn’t quite the case.

We had a malfunction of the awning for the trailer and Michael sliced his thumb while trying to repair it. Nevertheless breakfast of bacon and eggs was delicious and was followed by the weekly ritual of restocking our daily vitamin and prescription containers. Why not do the laundry we thought and catch up on Friday and Saturday blog posts while the clothes are in the machines? We headed to the campground laundromat and proceeded to do both jobs. Unfortunately we didn’t get anywhere near finished the blog work before the laundry was washed and dried. We decided to abandon the blog for the moment.

By now it was lunch time. We made tuna wraps and headed to a lookout site high up in the hills of the park. It was breezy and cool with lots of flies, so we had another trucknic. From this lookout we could see for about 100km to the northern horizon.

We also went over to "Bald Butte" (photo from the parking area) - 

which we didn't ascend as the path down into the valley and up into the butte - at least a kilometre long - felt just to steep and rugged for today!

 On our way back to the trailer we stopped for our shower which we had postponed from this morning. We have taken to rating shower facilities on our travels and found this one to have plenty of free hot water, but the enclosure had no place to sit while dressing and too few clothes hooks – only a 3 out of 5.

Finally today we managed a nap but it was delayed as Nancy had a Skype video conversation with Jamie and Roland in Seattle. This is a Sunday afternoon tradition for the Chapples that hadn’t taken place since we left for the trip. In just three weeks Nancy could notice changes in Roland. Children do grow so quickly at two and a half.

Supper was pan fried steelhead salmon from the fish farm we visited last Sunday where Nancy’s grandson Lee is working. It was a real treat. We heartily recommend this fish to anyone.

Nancy did a day’s worth of dishes while Michael rehabilitated the awning but will need to get a replacement part when we pass through Medicine Hat tomorrow. He also greased the stabilizers at the corners of the trailer. They were full of dust from the wind storm and roads.

We are ending the day with two hours of blog work – three days' worth to write, edit and post. (We know some of you will have missed the daily update. We hope to be back on track for tomorrow.)