Day 100 (OMG) – July 12

Partially to save time as we headed to meet Ken and Renee and partially to celebrate day 100 of our trek we skipped breakfast in the beautiful BRT and were on the road by 8:00 heading for Canmore for breakfast and possibly a sighting of Mike from CBC’s Air Farce. We drove through town and stopped at the Good Earth restaurant for breakfast and some wifi time. Canmore is like a Banff that shrunk in the laundry. Like Banff it is pristine with mountain views in every direction, even the odd Ferrari can be seen.

Outside of Canmore there were a lot more signs of road reconstruction in the wake of the recent floods. Roadside debris and sections of complete road washout were visible. The spectacular mountains of the previous day quickly passed into our rear view mirror as we headed east into the rolling grass covered foothills. The jagged grey and white edges of the Rockies were replaced with a rectilinear patchwork of greens and neon yellow fields that stretched in all directions under a huge blue sky spotted with building cumulus clouds.

We followed a leisurely route through the right angled network of secondary roads north and east through the fields until we reached Olds where we turned on to the #2 to pick up some speed. Our proposed lunch appointment with Ken in Ponoka threatened to become a supper engagement if we didn’t make better time.

Ken’s timing was perfect as he and his adopted dog Skeeter arrived at our appointed rendezvous, the Ponoka Tim Horton’s, only moments before us and surprised Diane by knocking at her door as soon as we parked. After a quick lunch and gassing up we headed towards Ken’s cottage at Red Deer Lake north of Calgary.

The cottage has half log siding on both sides of the exterior walls and natural pine finish boards on the interior partitions. Ken and Renee have been working on it for several years and with the exception of a few finishing touches it is complete, well appointed and very cozy. Kens homebuilt cedar strip canoe hangs over the patio doors and adds a great touch to the cottage decor. Renee was working and going to be late arriving at the cottage so we sat down without her to the delicious barbecued chicken supper that Ken had prepared.

Renee’s arrival later that night was signalled by the appearance of their original dog, Maggie, a Bouvier/Labrador cross, walking into the living room, much to Skeeter’s delight. We had a great night catching up on news and Ken’s new airplane servicing business.

Day 101 – July 13

As we had no plans to drive today so we slept in guilt free. Ken prepared a delicious cooked breakfast of eggs, bacon and home fries. After spending some time recovering from the breakfast feast we headed out with Ken to visit the Provincial Reynolds-Alberta museum in Wetaskiwin, about 30 minutes away. The museum has two main sections, each in its own building, one that emphasizes automobiles and farm equipment and the other that focuses on aeronautical history.

The automobile building has a great selection of vehicles ranging from a Dusenberg and a big finned Cadillac longer than the BRT to an array of vintage fire engines and tractors. There is a mock 50’s style garage with an area for kids to build little race cars and a mini drive-in theatre, complete with window speakers at each seat, playing vintage movie clips. There are electric, steam and gas powered vehicles dating from the early 1900’s, many cars from the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s in various stages of restoration, some of which you are even allowed to sit in.

There is a full in-house restoration shop you can view from above with several projects underway and a very interesting display of a vintage Dodge that has been half restored. One side is in original, rusted and dented condition and the other side has been painstakingly restored, really emphasizing the skill and effort required to bring a vehicle back from the brink.

The aeronautical building, although somewhat smaller, has dedicated its perimeter walls to dozens of panels commemorating the fascinating lives of members of the Aviation Hall of Fame. The display boasts one of the few dully restored WWII vintage Hurricanes, an awesome fighting machine with its twelve .303 machine guns, a replica of Alexander Graham Bell’s Silver Dart, numerous helicopters and a lot of flight related paraphernalia.

The drive back to the cottage took us through beautiful agricultural land with its brilliant canola fields contrasted against the darkening skies of an approaching storm front. Luckily the storm veered away and did not interrupt Ken’s steak barbecuing.

We ended the night with a campfire that eventually got called at around midnight due to showers that finally built into a full fledged rainstorm.