Tour Day - Stettler Town and Country Museum

Fellow RVICS-er Wayne Wooden Loves Garages and Old Tools

RVICS projects involve three and a half  days of work on the project and Friday is 'tour' day where the team chooses a local attraction to visit, usually followed by lunch somewhere nearby.

For our first RVICS tour day the group went to the the town of Stettler, about 35 minutes drive. Stettler is the closest town with a supermarket so we have made several trips to Stettler so far.

For tour day we visited the Stettler Town and Country Museum, one of the many local heritage museums (most villages have one) but with a reputation of being one of the best in Alberta.  It was indeed excellent.  We took a lot of pictures and even after sifting through them there are a lot to share.  These will be spread out over several posts, but read on for the first batch.  Enjoy!

Tail Gate Grilling

On the first Saturday after our arrival in Alberta we went into Red Deer and among other things purchased Ken's Fathers Day present - a Weber grill! It was immediately put to use making cedar plank salmon. The grill fits perfectly on the truck tail gate and even with all of the tool boxes it can ride in the bed.

Ken made his favorite Caesar dressing and the combined result was Cedar Plank Salmon Caesar Salad.  Roughing it in the Arctic Fox.

Conrad, Montana

Remembering a Forgettable Breakfast in Conrad, MT

We continued heading north into Montana, which had some very beautiful stretches along the way. We considered spending the night in Great Falls at the Pilot travel plaza but decided to press on for a few more hours.

We accomplished a few more firsts as RVers at the Pilot station by breaking out the 'stinky slinky' to dump gray water and also taking on some potable water before heading out.

We stopped at a rest area along the I-15 planning to stay the night but it was so desolate that we decided it wasn't for us.  We drove on and found Pondera RV Park in Conrad, MT.  It was our first RV Park stop.   The managers were very helpful and friendly and having the power hookup was a bonus.  By this time we had pretty much figured out the toilet and water heater systems and actually began enjoying showers with warm water and no longer needed to strategically plan bathroom breaks. Water that had traveled with us through the Mojave was not too bad for a cold shower, but the water taken on in Montana definitely needed thermal enhancement and the water heater does the job well.

In the morning we walked into Conrad and had breakfast at the Home Cafe.  We love local breakfast cafes, especially good ones.  In spite of there being a number of locals in the cafe (always a good sign) this cafe will not be one will we look forward to coming back to. Home Cafe - home of the Mexican omelette that makes Taco Bell seem authentic.  The lesson is that your distance from the southwest should influence menu choice.

Legacy Flight Museum

Legacy Flight Museum - Rexburg, ID

We headed out of Boise to Rexburg, ID to visit the Legacy Flight Museum, another Harvest Host destination.  Unfortunately they were preparing for an airshow later in the week and could not provide us a place to park for the night.  They did point us to a camp at Warm River which turned out to be a very nice alternative. Look for a future post on Warm River and Mesa Falls.

We enjoyed the afternoon at the Legacy Flight Museum which included an amazing collection of military items of all sorts that is a private collection of a man and his son.  It included all sorts of small personal military relics, uniforms, rare guns, etc.  Truly a labor of love and a bonus to the display aircraft.  Enjoy the photos.

Trip Planning with Harvest Hosts

From the Harvest Hosts Gallery

Traveling with our Arctic Fox trailer will be an entirely new experience for us.  Up to this point a road trip has meant driving our car or truck as far as possible each day and staying in hotels/motels along the way (as few as possible).  But our upcoming trip with a travel trailer will be different. Overnight stays at a Flying J truck stop or Walmart will be fine when we are pushing through to a destination, but we are wanting to stop and smell the ranunculus a bit in our travels to and from an RVICS project. Experience will tell, but we think we have found the perfect way to experience the journey to and from our RVICS assignments. Read on for the scoop.

The Family Homestead

Homestead Quarter Section Near Kinsella, AB

Taking a break from trip preparations to contemplate travel plans - While in Alberta we hope to visit what was the family homestead near Kinsella, a small village located at a crossroad in Alberta. In 1910 Grandpa Henry Candy and his brothers Richard and Thomas immigrated to Canada from Cornwall, England. Each obtained a quarter section near Kinsella.  Ken's mother Eileen was born on the homestead in 1916. The family eventually migrated to Los Angeles when Eileen was six years old.

Thanks to the kind assistance of Heather Northcott, Reference Archivist of the Provincial Archives of Alberta, we were able to locate the specific quarter section of the Henry Candy homestead and access archive records using the Alberta Genealogical Society's homestead database and Library and Archives Canada's Western Land Grants Database.

Recent Satellite Image of the Henry Candy Homestead Property 

Read on to learn more details.