North into Canada!

We are finally in Canada and it has been a whirl wind adventure so far! Our schedule for the first five days was hectic to say the least. Right now we are in Rocky Mountain House, Alberta. The campground is really nice and their Wi-Fi is working and we have some time to actually take a break so as time allows I will crank out a few new postings.

Getting across the border into Canada was time consuming but at least no RVs or occupants were searched. Only one member of the tour had to discard all of his fresh chicken and eggs because Canada is really worried about possibly spreading avian flu but five of us did get selected for the random Covid19 test. Since it is a week later I can state that as expected all of our test were negative so on with the tour.

The delay at the border did make it a little hectic getting to our first stop which was at the Remington Carriage Museum in Cardston, Alberta. If you have any interest in antique horse drawn vehicles this is a must see place for you. It is advertised as the largest museum of this type in the world and the majority of it was the collection of one man!

Many of the carriages had interesting stories and the one pictured below was one of them. Mr. Remington had gone to a prestigious auction with hopes of buying the carriage. It seems that another individual also wanted the carriage and the bidding war began. Finally the the winning bid was in Remington’s favor and after the auction he encountered the other bidder. In the following conversation the other bidder said he stopped bidding because he knew that his wife would divorce him for buying the carriage. Then Mr. Remington revealed that had he not bought the carriage his wife would have divorced him! Thus the carriage that saved two marriages. This carriage also had the honor of carrying Queen Elizabeth during one of her two visits to the Calgary.

Along with displaying all of those beautiful carriages, carts, wagons, and sleighs the museum also featured a very large repair and restoration facility. Our tour guide explained that during warmer days the shop people spend most of the day educating visitors about the tools and procedures used in repairing or restoring horse drawn vehicles. Interestingly not all of the work is on museum pieces. They also do restoration work on private coaches. The most recent project is the black object sitting near the rear of the area and it has been a work in progress for almost two years. I have no idea what the cost for this restoration.

We have a very busy schedule and I will try to update more adventures soon.