not the nicest campground ever.

ready to get the heck out of SK.

arriving at Alberta just southeast of Medicine Hat.

My brother's snazzy Bimmer - it has coffee cup holders but probably shouldn't.

Brent and Sharon have a very old but endearing cat.

Trusty KLR parked after it's long effort to get me here... and awaiting some attention.

Sharon is a keen gardener.

as seen at a Calgary WalMart.

Brent's impressive microfibre car-washing cloth collection.

Brent washing his older BMW passion project.

We went to a car show.

My nepher Shawn and my neice's husband both had a car in the show.

Some of the local car enthusiasts were having a car show, this is Shawn's BMW that he has laboured over to get mostly period authentic. He won an award with this car at the show last year.

Shawn's BMW

One of Manny's cars

Brent had one of these rare-ish BMWs for a while.

There were lots of MGs, including a couple of nice Midgets.

Midget interior.

a Jaguar E-type race car.

this is plated and gets driven to the shows it's in.

Got stuck here for about 15 min just before Drumheller. Some road resurfacing.

My brand new rear tire from a couple of weeks ago was nearly done and my brother's garage seemed like a good place to change it. I ordered a new one but it was going to be a week coming so I decided to take a quick tour of AB for a few days.

in Drumheller I had a quick lunch. It was way over 30 degrees down in this valley and crowded with tourists. The badlands were cool, though.

Scenic prairie scenery

The bike is working well, still disliking the strong AB headwinds though.

Lots of this kind of thing out here.

Due to crowds and heat, this is the closest I got to the big dino, I've been up inside it before, though.

I stayed at a community-run campground in Stettler, AB. It was just $20/night but had no services, no shade and a long walk to a single washroom for the whole place. It's clean, though. First chance I've had to try the new poles for a shady shelter, very windy and hot here so although setting it up was no picnic, it's been great to have. Next time will be easier/quicker.

I decided to stop overnight in Stettler at the municipal campground. It's fairly common in the west for these small towns to have a campground run by either the town or the Lions Club.

the morning weather in Stettler as I got breakfast going.

thanks to a leisurly breakfast and a super-chatty neighbor it's another late start.

This is the Legends Golf &CC outside Edmonton where I used to "play" golf back in the day.

I'd been looking forward to a dinner at Doan's for weeks, now this... though I seem to recall something about an upcoming retirement and closure when I was there in '17.

The KLR locked-down and hunkering against all that this skeezy end of Edmonton can throw at it. For lots of reasons I booked a motel for two nights here - $50 per night and it's by far not the worst place I've stayed even on this trip.

Dinner at Doan's stand-in - it wasn't as good as Doan's but it will have to do.

One reason this motel is so cheap is all the trains, this is the view out my bathroom window.

Just left of centre you can see Canterra Suites, where we lived for a couple of weeks waiting for the movers to bring our stuff from Vic.

Updating at the motel.

I stayed here two nights in Edmonton, one of the cheapest motels I've ever stayed in but by far not the worst place ever.

It's wet in Edmonton today, some rain for my running around before I leave town.

Rural decay east of Edmonton

Lots of railway and other level crossings out here - you've got to keep your eyes open.

Gas is cheap in AB, I paid as little as $1.32 for regular.

drying rainwater showing us the zen way to a balanced life.