Fallis and a Ghost Town

Beautiful day for a drive.  We grabbed First Officer Spock and headed west on 16A and stopped at Fallis on Lake Wabamun to see the cabins where we used to stay when I was a kid.  Here is the green one -- in the shade.  There was no motorhome there in our day.  It's hard to believe that the six of us managed to fit quite nicely in this 2 bedroom, single toilet, single sink shack.

On the left you can see a chimney standing alone -- that's all that's left of the yellow cabin - they tore it down because of mould.  The blue, red and white cabins are all still standing, but uninhabitable.  The nice family who owns the property have childhood memories of the place too, and won't tear the old cabins down until they need to.  The husband is a boy whose family had a cabin down the lane when I was a child.  I think he hung out with my brothers.

  Such great memories of this place.  So dappled and green and sweet smelling.  It made me very happy to know that the same families still come here.  And Carmen, the owner, knew everyone, including my cousins (who kept going out to the lake a few years after we stopped).

After Fallis, we kept going west to Entwistle, and then turned south on 22.  We drove past Drayton Valley and onwards to Em-Te Town.  Yes, that's right, Em-Te Town.  This is a "ghost town" -- recently made, I'm sure, but very authentic looking.  According to their press, movies and tv have filmed there.  But it is VERY cool looking, and we were the only visitors in the place.  We had a nice lunch and poked around taking photos.  Only the saloon was open, but after peering in the windows, it's the exteriors that really capture the feel of the place.

Brian at the Sheriff's office.  Spock checks out the sod roof.

Meg at the "Lost Women Hotel"

Summer is Here

and it is time once again for weekend drives in the country.  We did this a bit last year and really enjoyed it.  Highlights from last summer:  seeing the big Pysanka (Ukrainian Easter Egg) at Vegreville,

and of course the giant kielbasa sausage at Mundare.  Mundare is also the home of the amazingly beautiful hidden gem, the Basilian Fathers' Museum of Ukrainian Religious and Cultural Heritage.  Awesome!

This year we began our peregrinations with a drive down highway 21 to Camrose - a very nice town with a couple of lovely restored Victorian homes visible on the main drag.  We stopped at O'Shea's Pub for a good lunch, and then headed to Viking.  Viking is about an hour east of Camrose, and downtown Viking was completely silent on a Sunday afternoon.  Only the Cold Beer store was open.  Otherwise main street was deserted.  Viking did, however, welcome us to their troll park.

Velkommen to Viking Troll Park!

This park features a large stone troll-ish looking thing, as well as a sword-brandishing Viking cut-out.   Excellent!!  Also attractive was this Viking long-boat.













The summer drive may not be as cosmopolitan or adventurous as our European holiday, but there is something about small-town tourism that really calls to us.  This is a great part of the world and we are going to document some of the reasons why.