My Copilot Is A Troll

As I sit in the quiet of the morning: cat on my lap, electric fireplace on, very strong coffee in my cup, watching the sky slowly lighten, I find myself reflecting.  Today's dawn bring's Fair Day.  The Sundre School Fair started in 1918 and may be one of the only school fairs left. It was the first ever community event we participated in when we moved to Sundre in 2007. Donovan was just starting Kindergarten and we didn't have a pet for the Pet Parade. So he took a slug from the garden, carrying in proudly around the circle of 5&6 year olds. He made the front page of the paper! What a welcome to a new community.  A few years later I happened to be chit chatting with Joan, who ran the community side of the Fair. I mentioned that I had a couple ideas, and she said, "Welcome to the committee!"  It's now been about 10 years. When Joan moved, I took over for a few years, until my husband got sick. Joan stayed involved,  until we lost her this spring...

Yes, you read that correctly.  The Trolls took us on a Fairy Door treasure hunt, in Clive, Alberta.  It was the Sunday of Labour Day weekend. I have spent every spare minute lately working on Sundre's Fall Fair. That morning I already spent 5 hours weeding the garden (my son thought I went to get a massage - I wish!) It was too beautiful a day to miss out on, and my last full day with Rob's daughter, Daphne, before school starts.      Clive is an adorable town, just East of Lacombe. If you appreciate small town history, this is a place for you. The whole town is maintained post card perfect. The older buildings and some of the lots have plaques telling the history of that spot. We parked on one end of Main Street and strolled up and down looking for Fairy Doors. The project started a few years ago with 5 doors; recently four more were added. Each door opens, revealing another scene.  ...

You may be thinking,  haven't the Trolls been here before? Yes, they have, about 3 years ago, on their first road trip. Today they were sharing the experience with others, who hadn't been. Rob actually worked for the Carriage House Theatre in the 90s, a paid acting position, but had never been to the museum. Even though his family all live in Magrath, he and his kids have never been to the museums and historic sites in the area. We never play tourist at home! Good thing they have me, to remedy the situation.  Leif and Saga are ringing  up the phone bill! The Remington Carriage Museum in Cardston is beautifully curated. There are a few carriages you are allowed to sit in. Some have a video, to recreate a journey or teach about harnessing a horse. I love that the enclosed winter sleigh is called a caboose! I miss cabooses! (caboosi? cabeese?) Riding a Caboose to School The Trolls do love miniatures! They were excit...

In addition to yardwork, holidays, camping, lakes and mountains- summer had a lot of family events. Milestone birthday parties, family reunions and weddings. For Rob's niece's wedding in Magrath, we packed up Gudrid and are camping in his parent's driveway.  Highway 2 South of Calgary is a very pretty drive. We stopped at a Japanese Korean restaurant in Claresholm for supper, Antrée. The food was fantastic. The lovely thing about a bento box, besides how cool they look, is that you can try lots of different dishes. I chose a Korean seafood pancake. It was so rich, I could only eat half. Good think we are traveling with a whole fridge! Directly across the street, from the driveway we are "camping" on, is the Magrath Museum. Our driveway campgroud gets low marks for traffic noise, but high marks for the view. A couple weeks ago, We got to see my Great-Grandmother's wedding dress in a museum. Here we got to see photos and the cattle brand of Rob's...

We were up bright and early in our Hinton dorm room. Part of my preparation on Thursday was making rhubarb muffins. So all we had to to is fill gas and hit the road because breakfast was taken care of. Today was going to be a good day! There is no road trip without red licorice I had only been to Jasper twice briefly in the past. Neither time was long enough to explore. The first was chaperoning a school ski trip (with an infant). The second was coming home from BC, and the weather was so bad we had to stop for the night. This summer, until September, all the National Parks have free admission. So if you can, take advantage of that and visit a park close to you! We have 48 National Parks in Canada, and I want to see them all! An interesting thing I noticed as we drove, which I have never seen before, was some of the campground signs. Being new to RV ownership, I had never paid attention before. Many of the National Park campgrounds had maximum RV size at 25 ...