Calgary, Alberta Canada

Canola field

We're in Alberta, Canada after an easy border crossing.   The yellow flowers of the canola crop are everywhere for miles and miles.  The roads are good and not crowded.  Calgary looks fresh and very clean.  The weather is perfect! 

We arrived at Bow River's Edge beautiful campground !   Even more beautiful because there are showers and washer/dryers available for $3 loonies a load and showers $2 loonies for 5 minutes!  Pete and I have perfected the art of the 5 minute shower.  A loony is $1 Canadian (about 75 cents) and a toony is $2 in Canadian.

Bow Rivers Edge Campground

Our Adventure Caravan group welcomed us into the group of 22 RVs.  It is fun getting to know all these new RVers.  There is another doctor couple (Family Dr and pediatrician), a hospice nurse and her husband from Cincinnati area and a veterinary pathologist of all things! So many interesting backgrounds and everyone has been SO NICE! 
The staff on this trip are great.  The Lead couple has done this trip about 7 times.  The Tail gunners who follow everyone out are trained and certified in RV inspections and anything that could go wrong.  We feel we are in good hands.   The whole group is friendly and almost all are over 60 and retired.  Some are still working but work on line and do computer IT work.  One poor guy broke his pelvis on the trip but he smiles and keeps going with a walker!  Another lady broke her foot and is walking with a boot!  This is not a trip for sissies!  Pete and I are both still in good health!

Coffee and home made donuts at the campground

  Everything is taken care of and a large bus appeared  around 10 am to whisk us to the Calgary Stampede!  It is one of the largest rodeos around and so professional!  We had great seats in the covered grandstand.  The park had all kinds of other venues for agriculture,  animals, demonstrations going on--like the Ohio State Fair but much newer and cleaner.  The competitions were amazing!  We had a great buffet lunch at the private clubhouse there and then stayed for the Chuck Wagon races and the SPECTACULAR evening show.  Drummers descended on wires from the top of the grandstand down to a lower grandstand.  The live singers and dancers group called the "Young Canadians" were fantastic!  To cap it all off was one of the best fire works displays we've ever seen!

Chuck wagon race

                  

The next day on the way back for the finals of the rodeo we went right by the Olympics ski jumps.
Quite impressive.  The finals of the rodeo were something I think we will remember--all 4 Bronco Bull riders were thrown off and so 4 new bulls brought out and 3 out of 4 riders were ejected the second time.  The survivor won $100,000 which we think he should save for future medical bills!

Day three a bus took us to Heritage Park for lunch, a tour and time to see the grounds.  It reminded us of Greenfield Village in Michigan.  Again, all very clean and well done.  The antique gas pumps and cars were great.  Pete and I are sitting in a 52 Chevrolet which was just two years newer his first car a 50 Chevy.  Pictures not included due to technical oversight!

One of our blog followers wanted to know more details of our daily living.  Cleaning is pretty easy.   Exercise  is done outside or in. We have about 14 feet to spread out in and it is absolutely spacious when we turn the front seat around!  Everything has it's place--at least when we start out!  Now that we're with people we might actually see again, we've upgraded our wardrobe choices a bit,...we are no longer wearing the same outfit everyday until it gets soiled!

 The Bailey Buggy has wall to wall carpet, sky lights, an attic fan, air conditioner, flat screen TV, DVD player, DVR, a printer and very convenient toilet facilities  less than one step away from our king size bed.  There is surprisingly very adequate storage apace/. All these amenities make up for the less than spacious living area!  The galley kitchen offers a microwave, frig, two burners (never used), 20 inches of counter space.  All of this supports fabulous dining—meaning that if you’ve exercised enough, ANYTHING tastes fabulous!

Sky lights on a rainy day!

Classic Galley kitchen!

Relaxing in the evening

Our closet!