5 Hour Adventure

Not all adventures have to be long, or far away, or even planned. Some adventures start with two friends just needing to get out of the house. This adventure was so unplanned that we didn't even know who was driving. We stood on the sidewalk in confusion. She was waiting patiently by the passenger door my car, while I collected my things. But none of those things were my car keys! The one thing we knew for sure, is that we had to start at the Elk and Owl for coffee!

You know you are getting great small town service when the proprietor greets you with, "are you getting a macchiato today, or are you going to try something different?" (Always a macchiato!) I don't even go out for coffee often, maybe once a month! Before I left, I made sure to pick up a bag of my favorite beans.


I have no idea what I will do with this fabric from Beaver Creek Mercantile, but it is so symbolic of my dream of travelling across Canada that I had to have it!

Since my human co-pilot wanted some blueberry breakfast sausages, we turned North on the Cowboy Trail and headed to Caroline Meats. Not only did we find sausage, but I discovered that they carry Sylvan Star cheese from Sylvan Lake.

We had decided to take back road, since there is a lot of big truck traffic on Hwy 22. I do love a back road, they tend to be much more interesting. As we travelled, we saw a tiny sign on a power pole, with an arrow, that said, simply, "Fabric". I made an educated guess that this must be the way to Beaver Creek Mercantile, a quilting shop in the country that I have heard much about. 

A quick google search told us it was open, and my friend's GPS, Bob, attempted to give us directions. Bob was woefully misdirected. We found the mysterious sign again (we actually drove past it and had to back up, it was a very small sign) and followed it's arrow. Sure enough, we found the place easily, without Bob's dubious help. It was a phenomenal two story quilt shop. I see now why people rave about it. As it turned out, my companion knew the clerk. They had a lovely visit, while I perused the glorious aisles. I'm not even a quilter, but a quilt shop is much like visiting an art gallery.

When we finally turned back towards Sundre, it was about 4:30, and my son texted to ask if I would be home for supper. "I don't know. Am I going to be home for supper?", I enquired of my friend.  At that point we decided we would keep the adventure going. 

This is where things went slightly sideways (metaphorically speaking, we didn't hit the ditch or anything!) Between Caroline and Sundre there is a local market, called BMM Consignments. I had only been there once, and from the other direction. I knew it was either on the Burntstick Lake Road or the Bearberry Road, something with a B. 

Again, we google it for the Road number and hours. It is on Township Road 334. Again, Bob the GPS tried to give directions, which made no sense to me. I told Bob he didn't know what he was talking about, judging the poor, innocent GPS on his previous attempt. Even though my human navigator told me several times we need Road 334, every time I was hearing 343, which we were on. Nothing looked right and I was ready to call it quits and just go for supper. 

Then the cartoon light bulb above my head went off and I realized that I was switching the numbers. Bob had indeed been giving the right directions. I apologized to Bob, and we found our market. BMM Consignments is a blend of consignment collector items, like trains and comic books, and locally produced products like food and bath products. I picked up some hot sauce and tangerine honey for the boys and some interesting things for the freezer; chicken somosas and stuffed potatoes. I managed to restrain myself around the chocolate covered almonds and homemade fudge.

Shopping all done, it was time to try out our newest local restaurant, Harvest Heights. Primarily Chinese food, they also have some Thai, Vietnamese and Japanese dishes. Since I couldn't decide, I had Chinese Hot & Sour Soup, Japanese Takoyaki as an appetizer and Pad Thai for a main course. They were all delicious, but I may have overdone it a little! 

All in all, we were out and about for 5 hours. A great time of exploring our backyard on a winter's day and visiting with a good friend. And almost a full serving of leftover Pad Thai for lunch tomorrow!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hurry Up and Wait

Leif, Saga and I are off on another grand adventure. This time our non-troll travel companion is my Mom! This trip has been on our mind for years and in planning for months. It will cross a lot of things off the adventure list. Speaking of lists (one of my favourite subjects), many were used in the preparation of this adventure. The very first, and most exciting, being - what places do we want to see? This is Mom's dream trip, so she got to take point on this. As you may have guessed by the currency, we are heading to the UK. Unlike last time, we used our trusty AMA travel agent, Lori. It was lovely to sit back and let her do all the hard work!
Read more

What Do You Mean, It's not Named After Me?

Dur means hill, ham means island, so Durham is a hill on an island. This was our first stop after leaving Leeds.  I could have spent days here.  The market square had some lovely volunteers to help direct tourists. They showed us where to find a free public bathroom- very good information indeed!
Read more

Traveling Through Time and Space

Image
Our first full day in London, which we were on our own for, was spent at the British Museum. But first we had to learn some things. Museums are free here, as culture and heritage are available to everyone. What we didn't know - you have to prebook your start time. Fortunately, we stopped to talk to the hotel concierge first.  That done, we then had to figure out how to get there, on the London Underground.  This turned  out to be actually quite straightforward - once we got to the right train station. The overground and underground are just across the street from eachother. It was Mom's first time on a subway- a new experience that she can check off her list! We gave ourselves plenty of time, and took the opportunity to walk around a bit. We have been impressed by how green London is. There is a beautiful park every few blocks. And one had a coffee shop. We could learn a thing or two about that!
Read more