Part 5: Heading south

Tuesday, Aug 23^rd

We arrived in Gull Lake, Alberta this afternoon. We have sailing friends from San Carlos who live here, Andy and Deb. We had a great time visiting there for a few days. Andy has a small sailboat that is docked here. Of course, the weather was perfectly calm, so we had to settle for a bike ride along the lake and some sightseeing. Gull Lake was founded in 1913. The houses along the lake are unique, to say the least. Some are real old little summer cottages. And some are new “old” looking. And some are just big and new. Definitely a variety in styles.

We visited the nearby town of LaCombe. Thy have preserved their history in a unique way. The backs of the old buildings in the downtown area are painted with murals depicting what the buildings were originally. These pictures don’t do them justice.  The artist was able to portray the everyday images with an amazing 3D effect. There are many beautiful old houses and buildings on the main street and in the downtown shopping area. 

 Pictures of Gull Lake and LaCombe

Friday, Aug 26^th

We traveled south through Calgary. Off the highway I saw the most unique building of
the trip yet. It was a restaurant called Ric’s Grill and it looked like a miniature space needle with the restaurant on the top.  Pictures of Calgary

We crossed the border into Montana south of Lethbridge and picked up Interstate 15 into Great Falls.

Saturday Aug 27^th

We continued on Hwy 87 to Billings. We stopped at Sam’s and then headed on south to Buffalo, WY. When we called Jimmy and Nadine to let them know we were on the way, we had a pleasant surprise! Friends from Anacortes, WA, Vicky and Ole, were there visiting.  We knew we were in for a great visit.

Sunday Aug 28^th thru Friday Sept. 9^th

We have had a great time in Wyoming with Jimmy and Nadine (and Vicky and Ole). We went up to their cabin a couple of times and had a great time on a Poker Run over Labor Day weekend in the mountains.  Having never been on a poker run, I had to be educated. Basically, you buy one or more poker hands for X amount of dollars and you draw cards from the pile at each stop. So I bought several dollar hands and 2 $5 hands, and got absolutely nothing at the end. But it was a lot of fun. We did a lot of off-roading and celebrated Jimmy’s retirement. 

Pictures of Wyoming

 Jim even found time to do some more stone and stucco work on the house. We saw hundreds of antelope making pigs of themselves in the hayfields along with a lot of deer. Oh, and it’s official …. Wyoming has definitely rubbed off on Jim. He has a beautiful black Stetson and some lizard skin pointy toed boots….I do love a cowboy. In the immortal words of Big n Rich “Save a horse, ride a cowboy”…..Yee Haw!