Wednesday to Tuesday, June 6 to 12, 2018 (St. Albert Kinsmen RV Park, Edmonton, AB)

Travel day Wednesday...but we didn't have far to go, only about an hour, so we didn't rush this morning. It was after 11:30 when we said goodbye to Dave and Leslie. Thanks so much for showing us such a great time! Take it easy on that leg, Dave...wishing you a speedy recovery and good luck with the marathon!

We had an uneventful drive as we headed east on Trans Canada highway 16 towards Edmonton. We have reservations for a week at St. Albert Kinsmen RV Park (St. Albert is a suburb of Edmonton).
After stopping at the office, we continued on to site #43 that we had reserved...it is the same site we were in 2 years ago while visiting Edmonton.

We got levelled off and unhitched. As Steve was connecting our pathetic extension cord so we'd be able to plug in the TV (to watch some over-the-air TV) and charge our devices, he discovered that the power post only had a 50/30 amp plug...and he didn't have a 50 or 30 to 15 amp adapter. A couple of nearby campers offered to check their inventory but no luck. Thankfully the campground host had one and lent it to us!

We had a quick lunch and then headed off to find Canadian Energy to pick up the new inverter/charger that Steve had ordered. The wiring adapter kit hadn't arrived yet, but it was expected to be in by mid day tomorrow. Adam was great to deal with there and gave Steve a courtesy discount because he was in the wholesale business in a previous life saving us $471.00! Looking forward to Rob's Mobile RV Service installing it on Friday.

Back home, I finished setting up everything inside while Steve finished his set up outside. With that done, it was time to sit outside in the shade and enjoy a bevie. The sites are very long but a little close together...we've been in much worse.

Thursday we didn't do much other than take a quick trip over to a local Save-on-Foods to pick up a few groceries. I will be doing a major shop just before we leave next Wednesday, but we're out of a lot of the essentials right now, so a mini shop was required now.

We also had to stop at All West Plastic Fabricators. Steve had to get a face plate made up for the new inverter System Control Panel. Zantrex makes adapter cables so that you don't have to rewire when upgrading from the old to the new system, however the old and new System Control Panels are a completely different size and they don't make an adapter face plate??? How dumb is that...it cost us $47 to have one made from black ABS!

Steve's Uncle and Aunt, Gordon and Esther, had invited us over for happy hour and dinner. Friends, Gweth and Don, who we met on one of our Cabo trips were joining us for happy hour. We had an absolutely lovely visit while Don and Gweth there but, I can't believe we forgot to take a picture! So I pulled out a photo taken last time we were here when they had invited Steve and I over for dinner...

After a couple of hours, Don and Gweth headed off and Esther and Gordon prepared dinner for us (a bit of a surprise since we thought we were only going for happy hour LOL). We continued our visit over a delicious dinner...including ice cream and fresh sliced strawberries!

Steve's getting the hang of taking selfies using the timer function!

 Thanks for a lovely evening Uncle Gord and Aunt Esther!!

We were looking forward to Friday...it's the day we get power again! However it started to rain so we were getting concerned. Thankfully the rain stopped just as Rob and Mark from Rob's Mobile RV Service arrived shortly after 9:30. If our old inverter/charger was still available Steve would have swapped it out himself, but this was a whole new system.

The old Zantrex ProSine 2.0 inverter/charger below was much smaller and only weighed 24lbs.

The new Zantrex Freedom  SW 2012 2000 watt, 100 amp inverter/charger is much bigger and weighs a whopping 58Lbs!

Mark and Rob did a great job!

This was a totally new system to them so it required a call to Zantrex to get through some of the programming on the System Control Panel to finally get the power on. You would think that a newer system would be more user friendly, however this system seems more complicated... I guess because it can do more...our old display just had the "keep it simple stupid" enable/disable and charger rocker switches. I'm sure it'll be fine once we get used to it.

Old above and new below with the face plate we had to get made...

About 3 hours later, everything was working...we have power, YAY! I put away the extension cord, returned the adapter to the office and set up everything "electrical" inside...while Steve cleaned up everything outside. With the new inverter/charger being so much bigger than the old one he had quite a time fitting everything back in the basement storage. After 8 years on the road, he had 'a place for everything, and everything was in it's place'...unfortunately he had some major re-arranging to do.

Finally, we got the satellite dish set up and tuned in...all is right with the world now!

After dinner, Steve enjoyed his bowl of Chapman's Blackjack Cherry frozen yogourt. Dave and Leslie had put us onto it and it is now Steve's fav!

Well, the forecasters said there was going to be a big change in the weather come Saturday and Sunday...and they were right on! We woke to heavy clouds but the rain didn't start in earnest until later in the afternoon.

It started to sprinkle out a bit when Steve and I decided to go for a walk...we were going to take the path but opted for a walk around the campground. Steve then decided he was going to work on all of the pictures he had taken at the rodeo...so he spent his afternoon in his recliner with the laptop.

I hummed and hawed about ignoring the threat of rain and going for a walk down to the big Enjoy Centre, not to far away. I finally decided to go for it...taking my umbrella, of course!

It's a very busy Saturday morning out on the soccer field! The RV Park is almost totally surrounded by playing fields, soccer, rugby, football, lacrosse etc. Very handy for out of towners to stay here. In fact the RV Park filled up last night because of a lacrosse tournament.

The Enjoy Centre...

Those are all greenhouses up top...the centre houses Hole's Greenhouses...a hugh shopping area for any and all possible plants, shrubs, bushes, trees, flowers, including all of your gardening accessories.

The place is huge!

I wandered around upstairs, which also included an olive oils/vinegars tasting bar, a bistro and cafe, a cooking utensil shop, as well as a wellness spa and yoga centre.

Next, I took the escalator downstairs and checked out Amaranth Whole Foods...there is also a big deli, a bakery and a wine store that sells unique wines that volume sellers do not carry.

At least the rain held off until I got home...just...a few minutes after I walked in the door, the pitter-patter on the roof started.

Yup...that looks like rain! But no thunder and lightning! Drats! I love to see/hear a big storm...as long as there is no damage by hail and that quite often accompanies them.

On the news the weather reporter called these clouds that we could see from our site a squall line. It was east of Edmonton and included rain, the threat of a tornado and winds up to 110 kmh. In fact Dave and Leslie live northeast of Edmonton and texted that they were getting hail and what looked like the formation of a tornado...yikes!

It absolutely poured ALL day Sunday...so we spent the day inside. We really didn't do much...Steve worked on pictures (as usual).

Tonight we're going over to Gordon and Esther's for a family barbecue, so late afternoon we got cleaned up and dashed to the truck. It was socked right in...

We had a great time visiting with Steve's cousins. Left to right...DJ (Heather's husband), Yoland (cousin)...holding Cedar, Heather (cousin)...holding Marty and Esther...holding Suede...
Steve had noticed they each had a dog so decided to take this photo by yelling out "Ladies...show me your puppies"! LOL!

We had a wonderful dinner...not a great day for barbecuing though...poor Uncle Gord...it was windy and rainy so he got a little wet out there! Left to right around the table...Yolond, DJ, Heather, Gordon, Steve, Esther and Alex...

After a great visit and dinner...it was time to say goodnight and dash back out to the truck in the pouring rain and wind. Thanks for a great evening, Gordon and Esther!

As it just so happens Steve's sister and brother-in-law are on a 97 day tour of Europe and were in France visiting the WWI grave sites of Uncle Gord's Uncle, Daniel Gardner on his mothers side...

Nadine said  Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, author of In Flanders Fields is buried 20 plots away...

 And on his dad's side his Uncle Arthur Oaks...

 Apparently Arthur lied about his age and joined up at the age of 17 and died just 75 days before the end of the war.

That was a nice touch Nadine having those crosses made with their photos!

 Monday morning we were up and out shortly after 8:00. Of course it was still pouring but there was a wind warning added to the forecast later today...and wind was an understatement!! Our first stop was WCI to have the passenger door camera replacement installed. It's an interesting place, they do police, fire, utility vehicles and much more. After a stop at Trail Blazers RV for a new 50 to 30 amp adapter cord, we headed home.

Now the rest of the afternoon was very exciting...not! We loaded 3 bags full of laundry into the truck and headed off to the laundromat in St. Albert. Yes, I had a mountain of laundry to do! After a fun couple of hours, we headed home...whew...glad that's done!

Oh...and the wind had really started to whip up! A wind warning had been posted with wind gusts up to 90 km/h. Even though the satellite dish was staked to the ground with 12" spikes, the wind blew it over but luckily nothing broke. By dinner time it was really rattling the trailer and the slide toppers were flapping like crazy so as soon as we finished eating, we pulled all but the bedroom slide in. Nothing like going to bed at 7:00 to watch TV. A few hours later, we ended up pulling in the bedroom slide as well, leaving just enough room for us to get in.

Tuesday with the wind still howling, and the slides still in, we headed out for breakfast. With the slides in we only have access to half the fridge and bathroom. Today was our major stock up day. We leave tomorrow for a couple of weeks in northern Manitoba fishing at Reed Lake where Steve's brother, Dave, has a fishing camp. After breakfast, it was to Costco (and the Costco liquor store) and then the Real Canadian Super Store...we also topped up with diesel ($1.20/litre).

It was still howling out when we got home, so we couldn't put out the slides yet, but I managed to get the stuff that needed to be refrigerated in the fridge. While I was doing that, Steve was outside flushing the black tank, putting some water in the fresh water tank, filling our extra water jugs, checking all the tires and generally putting everything away in prep for leaving. I helped him a bit and then we hooked up the truck and trailer. I went back inside out of the wind to work on our blog update...yes, we're behind again!  My office...LOL

Not much living space when the slides are all in! This is the one negative to having slide toppers. Luckily we haven't had to do this very often in our 8 years on the road but this was the longest stretch!

By about 4:30 the wind had subsided enough to put out the slides...YAY! Time to get to work putting the rest of the groceries away and start packing up a bit.

We plan on pulling out of here tomorrow morning at 8:00. We are meeting Gordon and Esther at a
Flying J truck stop for breakfast and then we will all travel east/north east to Manitoba. There will be no cell service up there...so I will definitely have some catching up to do when we get "back on the grid". So we will sign off for now...stay tuned, we'll be back in a couple of weeks!