» photo album 2010/0628 ~ Motorhoming! Saskatoon, Waskesiu, SK

June 28

Late in the afternoon we left for Saskatoon to stay at the 16 West RV Park for 2 nights, which is close to the Credit Union Centre where we’d be seeing Dream Theater and Iron Maiden the next day. In Chamberlain we stopped for some food, and we arrived in Saskatoon around 8pm. The park is nice, but we ended up on the last row without any trees (but an unobstructed view over the surrounding meadows). Unfortunately wifi isn’t working in this part, because two of the three antennas are down due to the recent storms. Oh well, the Blackberries both work fine 🙂

June 29

During the day we’ve just been relaxing on the campground. Because of the strong wind and the hot sun outside, we stayed indoors a lot, where it was nice and cool with the wind blowing through and soccer on one of the few TV channels we got there.

Around 6.30pm we got a cab to the Credit Union Centre to see Dream Theater and Iron Maiden! After some confusion about what line was for which kind of tickets we got in faster than expected, ran into a few friends and went to our seats. They closed the upper ring we originally had tickets for and got some better ones in the lower ring (also in the back). The arena isn’t so big, so we could see the stage well and we loved our seats. The bands were both awesome, both LaBrie and Dickinson were in great shape and they played our favourite songs 🙂

When we wanted to leave we saw it was pouring down. We waited for a while, also for the parking lot to clear a bit, ran through the rain to find a cab and the driver brought us to our motorhome in the thunderstorm. Our site was already soaked! We got out of our wet clothes and waited for the storm to pass… for hours!! Even for a prairiestorm it was crazy, constant lightning, downpours, hail (pretty scary to hear that on the RV) and wind rocking our RV all night even after the rain stopped after 2am (and left everything around us flooded). Luckily I didn’t know about the tornado watch at that point…

June 30

We woke up very early, around 6am, and saw the flooding around our site wasn’t so bad that we’d be stuck. Since we had no reservations in Waskesiu, we decided to drive there right away. The earlier we’d get there, the better our chances would be to get a spot. While leaving the campground we saw that many sites and roads were completely flooded! Outside of the campground the trout pond was now extended to the roadside and the ditches on the other side were completely filled with water too. On our way to the 11 (we didn’t have to go downtown) we saw some flooded parking lots, fields etc. Later on we heard that it had been the worst storm in 30 years!!

At 10am we arrived at the Waskesiu campground (Red Deer, formerly Trailer Park) and we could get one of the last sites!! We were so afraid we wouldn’t get a serviced spot, but we did, woohoo!! So happy! Esp. since we’re having problems with the house battery at the moment. We got site # H4, one of the bays in the bushy area, which was awesome as they are big enough and more private, which is of course nice when the campground is completely full (when we were there in August last year it was almost empty). We had some breakfast and then went to sleep for a few hours, biked to town, had supper at the Asian House (mmmm!!!), sat outside for a while and had a much needed shower.

July 1

Happy Canada Day!

After we got up, we went straight to town for the pancake breakfast at the community hall. A long line-up, but it was a good deal with pancakes, sausages, juice and coffee for $5. At 12 we watched the parade go by, which was a lot of fun, esp. the obviously mandatory water activities (throwing water and getting hosed down, esp by the fire truck at the end)! We then moved to the visitor centre, where a few artists played and we sang Oh Canada while the flag was being raised. Quite a special feeling for us as newly landed immigrants! After that we went back to the campground to relax and barbecue. In the meantime the Riders were playing their first game of the season and I was trying to keep up with the score by the Facebook updates. It got more and more exciting and the game ended in overtime. Things were happening so fast that updates weren’t able to keep up! But in the middle of confusion it turned out we won, hooray!! Gotta look for a replay of that game on our TV box when we get home!

July 2

When we woke up we checked the Soccer World Cup news to see how Holland did against Brasil… much to our surprise they had won!  This means Holland will be in the semi final on Tuesday! Nice way to start the day 🙂

We walked to town for a while, but knew we had to keep an eye on the weather, as thundershowers were expected. We thought it would be wise to have an early meal there, so that we didn’t have to barbecue later on anymore. We ended up at the Angry Taco, what used to be the ice shop (next to the grocery store). Well that wasn’t our best idea. It took them so long to get us food, that the rain got there before we were done, it was expensive (ok, Waskesiu IS expensive I guess) and partly cold. Nico never got his refill, even though they said he did. Needless to say we won’t easily go back there and didn’t leave a tip. So we walked back in (fairly light) rain and waited out the storm in the RV. Around 8pm the sun was back and we checked out the sunset at 9.30pm.

July 3

After breakfast we had a nap again – looks like we’re both coming down with a cold! Must’ve been that damn Saskatoon storm! Later in the afternoon we biked around for a bit and went to eat at Asian House again. Nico couldn’t get that awesome Chow Mein (with chicken in black bean sauce, made spicy) out of his head, haha! After we got back we sat outside for a while and took the bike to the beach for the last sunset. I’ve never seen sunsets as pretty as Waskesiu’s, but these few weren’t as spectacular as the ones we saw last year.

July 4

We left around 11am, after dumping our black water tank (toilet) and grey water (dirty water), and unfortunately Nico also wrecked part of his bike on the bike rack by bumping into a tree when backing up by himself! Uh-oh!
As we were both not feeling well, it wasn’t the best trip of all, but we managed to get home. We took the bigger highway (11 via Saskatoon) this time (instead of the 2 or 6) to have better roads. In Dundurn we stopped at Kathy’s motel and restaurant for lunch and the burgers we had were delicious! Around 5.30pm we were finally home. Bummer that we’re feeling sick now, but this week was great!

Saskatoon 16 West RV Park

Fairly open pull through sites, some back in sites, pretty nice with some trees, we had a site in the last row though, without any trees, overlooking the surrounding fields. Full services, didn’t check their washrooms, wifi available but 2 of the 3 antennas were down due to storms and we didn’t have it in our spot. We payed $33.35 for a site with 30amp power and water.

Red Deer (formerly Trailer Park) Campground, Waskesiu, Prince Albert National Park

3/4 of this campground are fairly open pull through sites, 1/4 is in a more forested part with bays, no fire pits. This time we had a site in the more forested area (H4), full hook up, $35.30, NP parks pass is needed. Frequented by deer and occasionally elk and black bears. The Service Centre was modern enough and clean, great! I think it’s about 1 km to town, with shops, few restaurants, hotels etc. One of 2 national parks in SK, and the most beautiful SK park we’ve seen!!