Ponoka Stampede
Ponoka is a small Canadian town in Alberta with a population of 7,000 people but the number of visitors arriving for the Stampede in their RV’s was astounding.
An overview of a small section of the RV camping
Many more RV's
Surprisingly we found ourselves a nice grassy spot with
plenty of room in the grounds of the Royal Canadian Legion Club.
Our friendly elderly neighbours were farmers from the bordering state of
Saskatchewan with a lovely accent distinctly different from the average Canadian
one.
We could have gone to the much bigger world famous Calgary
Stampede just down the road from Ponoka, but we decided on a smaller stampede
and I’d bought tickets back in Australia for the Rodeo and the Chuckwagon
racing.
Luckily we got talking to a couple of local guys who were
able to explain some of the rules. Each
race has 4 competitors with 1 Chuckwagon, a driver and 4 thoroughbred horses.
There are 2 other riders per team, who have to keep up with the chuckwagon as it
races around the circuit. Once the gun goes off, they hurtle around
the arena while the crowd in the grandstand stamp their feet as the chuckswagons
tear past. It’s a lot of fun and
the skill of the horses is incredible.
It was 32°C and the unexpected heatwave in Ponoka gave the
clown in the arena plenty of material to work with and he had the whole crowd
laughing either about the heat, or the French, who seemed very unpopular in a
redneck town like Ponoka. We baked in
our front row seats but were lucky enough to find some empty seats further up in
the stand in the shade.
All aboard! Getting to and from the Stampede from the campgrounds
We left Ponoka and decided to go north up to Edmonton, so we could have a look at the famous West Edmonton Mall. The 800 shops, casino, hotel, water park, ice skating rink and an indoor seal show didn't really impress us, and we had the worst coffee of our entire trip.
Edmonton Mall complete with Ice Hockey Rink
We left there and went south again almost back to where we started to Drumheller
- land of fossils and hoodoos.
We've hit the school holidays now so, it's nice to see kids everywhere,
but impossible to find a camping spot.
Drumheller
Drumheller is part of the Canadian Badlands Trail and the reason for our visit
was the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology.
We spent hours wandering around, but the highlight was the rare “Black
Beauty” the most intact T Rex skeleton which was found by 2 teens on a fishing
trip in Alberta. it was an incredible
display of dinosaurs and we know now that the state of Alberta is full of
fossils. There were kids everywhere who were having a blast.
Wayne - near Drumheller
Inside the Last Saloon - The best jukebox you'll ever see
Original skeleton of a T-Rex
Original T-Rex skull
We've been able to slow down a bit now, so spent 3 nights in Calgary, but
because the Calgary Stampede was on we moved around a bit because everything was
booked out. We even had time for
haircuts - Alan's took 15 minutes and mine 2 hours.
My hairdresser was a fanatic and cut my hair with something similar to a
pair of nail scissors. We rode our
bikes into town and joined in on the Canada Day celebrations with the masses of
people there.
When we returned from a walk around our RV park, we watched in awe as an older
woman (older than me)
arrived on her own driving an enormous Dodge Ram, and towing a triple wheel 5th
wheeler. She asked us to keep an eye out while she reversed into a tricky
camp spot and manoeuvred her rig in without a problem.
Once she’d settled in, she invited us to have a look inside her home.
Inside was 3 queen beds, one which could be lowered from the ceiling above an existing bed, and another in the main bedroom up front. Everything was dark and dingy inside with hardly any windows and dark bulky furniture. She had 2 huge dogs and although the RV was relatively new it looked rundown inside. Of course it had multiple slide-outs to triple the size as well.
This is an almost identical setup to her rig
During our travels we've paid a lot of attention to various RVs and although
they are enormous, they have very few windows.
Our motor home is no different and we get most light out of the front
windscreen and skylight. The
windows which open are tiny and we’re so thankful Australian caravan designers
know what the average Aussie camper wants.
We finally found a solution for the wobbling iPhone/GPS while we drive
A drive through oil change in Calgary, although driving through wasn't an option!
