Unchartered Territory

VLT’s – Tourist Traps – Poopy pants!!

This second leg of our trip has proven itself to be an exciting one!! First off, we have an Unchartered(ish) route. My personality is quite compartmentalized and detail focused and I have left this behind in Edmonton….say what??? Is that even possible? Yes Friends, it is – I mean, its not pretty but its a lot less stressful?? Hmmm, I’ll let you know when I have it figured out;)

We headed south and were able to catch up with Nick’s Cousin in Red Deer and his Step Brother and Awesome Family in Lethbridge, lots of fun!!! I mean, the poor restaurant that we decided to go to in Lethbridge with 4 kids under 3 and 4 barely mature adults, is still picking up the pieces;)

Crossing the boarder was easy and quite uneventful except that we didn’t have our dog food in its original bag and they made us take it in to the AG expert and she ended up clearing it. Apparently Lamb and Goat from Canada is not allowed in the States….we had an outbreak of some type of mad ‘cow’ in lamb and goat and lamb and goat are found in a lot of dog food! Another Handy Travel Tip – Keep your dog food bag!!! They didn’t care to see the vaccination records I went to great effort to get….go figure;)

Versys has work in Douglas, Wyoming and that is where we were headed. Montana and Wyoming are beautiful States, lots of open sky (like home), rolling hills and absolutely no one around…..like forever, I think you could go days without seeing another person (am I being dramatic again;)

We met up with Guy, he came out to our ‘trailer house’, as the kids like to call it! Jake and Lily immediately assumed he arrived to play ‘paw patrol’ with them instead of having a beer with Dad – I mean boring, right…what would you prefer??

Nick had a meeting the next day and Met Guy on site for the afternoon. It was 39C out and our RV Park had a pool -SCORE!! Even bigger score…we show up to the pool and there is an 11 year old girl that is excited to see Jake and Lily. She loved the kids, kids loved her, mom kept everyone alive (including myself;) with the extra help. It was a great day! When Nick got home, we went and had some sketchy Mexican for Supper (always a good idea…I think, I mean what could go wrong) and then we went to the Local Legion and met Guy for a drink. The kids had a seat at the bar and when they grew tired of the adult conversation they hopped down and straight up Sat at the VLT machines for an hour (on and off of course, its not like they’re addicted;) Of course we were responsible parents and didn’t give them any money – we didn’t have any left after we bought the drinks;) Haha!!! We did get them to drive us home though….!!! I kid of course. We had a great time visiting with everyone and they were all lovely.

We made our way to Denver, Colorado Next!! Reminded us so much of Calgary, on a larger scale. We spent a day wandering downtown and happened to come across a ‘SLOW FOOD’ Festival – Very Cool. https://www.slowfoodusa.org . We all had a great time!! There was a woman from the Czech Republic Busking with her Violin and she was amazingly talented. The kids fell hard for her and her music – boarder line stalkers;) The kids danced their little butts off and LOVED giving her money, it was cute and hilarious to watch – they are currently obsessed with the Ballerina movie on Netflix so they finally had a decent platform to practice their moves;) hehe!! The crowd loved them too and they had their own audience and even inspired others to join them. Its so amazing to see things through your children’s eyes, completely special!!!

We left Denver and wanted to check out the Garden of the Gods (https://www.gardenofgods.com), It looked amazing but I’m not sure we really thought it though – Like maybe one of us should have thought about where we were going to park our big trailer house while we went for a hike? Or maybe assume it would be super touristy? Or that we shouldn’t pull into any parking lots without knowing they were packed with people and cars and people and tight corners and strollers and cars, did I mention our trailer is 38′? What a stressful little time for us!! We finally got out of the parking lot and realized we could drive through the Park but what they don’t tell you is that you SHOULDN’T Drag your trailer house Because the Rocks Narrow and you barely fit through, all the while people are watching you and wondering WTF you are doing. ‘Oh, I see, they’re from Alberta…that explains it;)

We get through that fiasco and hit the road once again! Road Trip Snacks for everyone, whoo hoo!! ‘Hey Kids, do you want Blueberries, Grapes and Strawberries in your snack containers?’ – Time Passes – ‘Do you think we should have an apple? Maybe Mango, Yes and Yes!!!’ We find a great spot to stop that has a park and sprinkler and the kids have a BLAST!! It was a cooler day, only 25C;) but the sun is hot and it did the trick BUT so did the fruit. When we got back in the truck, our last 2 hours of the drive took 3 with all the bathroom breaks!! We finally get to our RV park and the kids were outside running around and that’s when it happened – Lily pooped her little pants, It came on quick and unexpected. Poor Girl!! She wasn’t too concerned – she went to try and go down the slide 1 more time until we stopped her – Can you imagine that disaster;) If we could all be as care free as Lily in that moment, what a way to live!!!