June 26th to 30th - Devon AB

June 26th - Thurs - Devon/Edmonton
Had a nice breakfast, headed to the West Edmonton Mall and walked and walked and walked! I cannot imagine going there to shop very often unless you know the store that you want and which entrance is closest. We watched a sea lion show that was very good. There were lots of people in the waterpark/wave pool but not what I would consider a lot of shoppers for the number of stores.
From there we went to a casino that was on the way back - unfortunately! Oh well, we had fun. A stop for some groceries and a quiet evening including some more walking around the park. The park has over 200 sites with many permanent looking rigs.

June 27th - Fri - Devon
We had a “stay home and get things done” day today. Terry cleaned the truck while I cleaned inside the rig. We went for a bike ride on a trail that goes along the river and a golf course. We got to the end where the trail makes a turn to come back down the other side of the golf course. It also goes up a hill. Terry wanted to come back the same way we went but I wanted to continue on, so we did. Mistake! Seemed there were way more ups than downs. And the downs were very steep and rutted with tree roots. At a Y in the trail, Terry took the downhill side and we ended up having to ride a little ways on the side of the golf course before ending up on the road back to the RV park. On the way back to our site, we stopped and talked to a couple (Bill & Darlene) who stay here for most of the summer. They invited us to come back later when they would have a fire going.
We went to see Bill & Darlene about 8:30. Another couple (Arden & Pat) joined us and the next thing we knew it was midnight.

June 28th - Sat - Devon
This morning we went to Fort Edmonton which has 4 areas depicting different years in the history of Edmonton. There is a fort and 3 different streets that have houses and businesses of the period. It is nicely done but I think we have seen too many similar recreated buildings to be as impressed as we should.
We came back to change into shorts and pick up Dolly before going to Les & Wendy’s for dinner. Les & Wendy were neighbors in San Carlos. They live in Beaumont which is a suburb of Edmonton and only about 15 miles from here. We sat & talked and had a nice dinner.
Les had just bought an electric bicycle so he can ride around town. Terry was quite taken with it and figures we need to get a couple.
We were about 8 minutes from Devon at 10:55 when we remembered that gates at the campground are locked at 11. But we lucked out - the gates weren’t locked yet at 11:03 when we drove up.

June 29th - Sun - Devon
Took a short drive to the Leduc #1 Discovery Well today. It is billed as “the Canadian Petroleum Interpretive Centre”. In 1947, Leduc #1 was one of the first successful oil wells in Alberta. There is a great film created in 1957 about the well and others in Alberta and how they changed the economy of the province. Many incredible models of different oil rigs are very interesting.
We continued on to Leduc just to see the town and pick up a few things. Browsed through a Canadian Tire store and found that the electric bicycles were not on sale any more so Terry can quit trying to figure out how to get them and get rid of our current bikes.
After dinner we took a bike ride on the trail beside the golf course and went looking for golf balls. Terry was a little reluctant at first but got the fever and found more than I did. We ended up with 33 balls, scratches and fluff from trees all over us. I was just getting out of the shower when a couple that we met here in the park - Bill & Darlene - came to visit. We had our fire pit all set to light but it was just too hot.

June 30th - Mon - Devon
We went into Edmonton this morning to the Telus World of Science facility to see the Body Worlds anatomical exhibit. People will their bodies to a group that uses a process called Plastination to preserve the bodies. Then they “cut & slice” to show skeletons, muscles, nerves, blood vessels, etc. Kind of gruesome sounding and I had to try to forget they were actually live people at one time in order not to be queasy. I think it would be really interesting to someone in the medical field. We took a different route back to see more of Edmonton and stopped for diesel & groceries.
We had invited Les & Wendy over for dinner and they arrived about 2:30 just as I was finishing some dinner prep. We sat outside and followed the shade around as it was hot. We had the air conditioner on in the 5th wheel so it was cool enough to eat inside and then we (probably) bored them with pictures.