Prairie Trecking.....

Early yesterday morning, we hitched up the enclosed motorcycle trailer, loaded our stuff and headed off over the Canadian Rocky Mountains for the neighbouring Province of Alberta.  Our destination?  Edmonton, the Provincial Capital...and also the home of our son and daughter in law, Deni and Courtney.

Just had to haul the Harley with us....for those nice prairie rides.

Only 60 minutes from home and we were in mountain country.  Traffic was light, the sky was blue, coffee was at hand, the iPod was playing and we were in for a nice 12 hour drive.

The day before, we said our good byes to our favourite west coast Aunt Kay.  We attended her funeral in the morning, then the internment; followed that with a nice lunch at the Catholic Church where we typically got to see and chat with folks we had not seen in several years - some cousins too!

Thompson River north of the City of Kamloops, BC.

Jeanette kept busy with the camera.  The further north we drove, the more bugs splattered against the windshield.  You will see further evidence of those splattered bugs in this blog.  Could not be helped! 

Other than required fuel and bathroom stops, we motored along.

The only holdups to our trip were two major highway construction stops; one for pavement and the other for blasting loose rock from the mountain side.  We could shut off the engine and wait it out.  When traffic resumed though, it was a crush of cars trying desperately to pass....and get going.  The melee was something to watch.  We did see some fool-hearty driving though! 

First time we ever see a train on this route - just north of Valemount, BC - on Highway 5 - mere minutes from joining on to the Yellowhead Highway No. 16.

We were heading east towards Jasper on Highway 16.

Shortly after leaving Highway 5 for Highway 16, we were in beautiful Rocky Mountain country.  Below is the best  photo we could take of Mt. Robson - in Mt. Robson Provincial Park.  The peak was clouded over - and often is.

Stunningly beautiful country.

Jeanette and I never tire of driving these great highways through such pristine and beautiful country.  Yesterday was no exception!

One of the numerous rivers and streams we saw en route.

Before long, we arrived at the entrance to the Jasper National Park gates.  We stated our intentions to continue our drive through to Edmonton, Alberta.  No fees required when driving through the park.

Jasper National Park, in the Province of Alberta.

Speed limits are reduced in several sections of the park because of wildlife that feed near the highway.  Today was no exception.  We got to see some wildlife

Rain showers were threatening....but we only endured a few drops on the windshield.

This awesome buck Elk was ignoring the tourists who were busy with cameras.  He was but one of several we saw in the park.

Only ten minutes or so past the east end gates and the mountains were fading in the rear view mirror.

 We left Jasper National Park and we're greeted with typical prairie puff clouds, trees and rolling hills.  Shortly after, we entered the town of Hinton, Alberta.  We required a fuel fill up and we were rewarded with much cheaper Alberta gas prices.  The Province of Alberta - unlike our Province of British Columbia - does not add high local, municipal and Provincial taxes to its gas pumps.  BONUS!

Puffy Alberta clouds.

We spotted a Tim Horton's restaurant and we were instantly drawn to grab a couple of Tim's coffees.  As soon as I turned off the engine, a dark - really dark - storm cloud that was hanging directly over us opened up.  It rained 'cats and dogs' for ten minutes.  It came down fast and furious.  After that, the dark cloud moved on, the sun reappeared and the steam began to rise from the heated pavement.  That's typical Alberta weather.

Taken from a distance - while driving south on the Wayne Gretzky Drive - the downtown Edmonton skyline.

Mere minutes later we had arrived at Courtney and Deni's Edmonton home - our stop for barbecue dinner and overnight,

Well.....it seems we were so thrilled to be at their home - enjoying chats and food - that we did not take any photos last evening.  Oh well...we will return here in eight days or so...and we'll take lots of photos.  We did enjoy a really nice visit....! 

We are heading off to Jeanette's family farm this morning. There is work to be done there.  More on that in a later blog.

Thanks for dropping by.