From Josh:

June 17, 2021

After leaving Grasslands National Park, we continued our way east on some secondary highways in southern Saskatchewan. We made our way through Gravelbourg, a small francophone town that was featured in a recent season of CBC’s “Still Standing”, a TV series showcasing Canada’s struggling small towns. While much of what we wanted to see was closed due to COVID (the French bakery/cafe was top of our list), we did manage to get a personal tour of the local Cathedral from the same guide that was on the show! It was a great experience, and June actually seemed very interested in all of the art inside. We had planned to be in the Winnipeg area this week, but with Manitoba pretty much closed to non-residents, we needed to find somewhere else to hang out for the week while we waited to see whether Ontario was going to open up.

We wanted to be close to the Saskatchewan/Manitoba border, to give us the possibility of driving right across Manitoba in one day. I seem to have lucked out in finding Moose Mountain Provincial Park in SE Saskatchewan! It is a large park that actually has a community inside of it – apparently the only park in the province like it. There are a number of lakes – one of which has a nice beach and is swimmable – as well as golfing and lots of walking/cycling trails. They even have full service (water, sewer, electric), pull-through sites! We were able to get 6 nights in a huge site with a massive lawn area! We’ve been mostly relaxing here – we had one beach day, but otherwise have been hanging around the campsite and trying to slow down a bit.

June has had a few more rough patches the last few days too – she is having more blood show up in her stomach drainage and has been more upset/irritable at times too. We’re hoping this will pass soon. Today she slept on and off all afternoon & it’s nice to be able to just let her do that when she needs it. With Ontario having just announced they are removing their travel ban, Saturday we are continuing east – it will be a long drive day from here to western Ontario!

From Josh:

June 14, 2021

Grasslands National Park is Canada’s only national park that represents a prairie grassland ecosystem. It’s located in Southern Saskatchewan and is broken up into two parts that are about 150km apart – the West-East Blocks. We recently spent four nights in the West Block and were really surprised by how much we liked it there. I booked us there as it is one of Canada’s Dark Sky Preserves – areas of the country where there is virtually no light pollution so you can get a clear view of the night sky. But there is much more to Grasslands than that! We enjoyed walks through the native prairie, biking around the campground, learning about and seeing wildlife, exploring the backcountry by truck, and experiencing some insane weather.

There is a herd of wild Bison at Grasslands that were re-established thereafter nearly becoming extinct. They roam freely, grazing on native grasses, and are generally undisturbed by people and cars. In addition, we saw Coyotes, a Badger, Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs (different from the common Gopher), and lots of different birds.

Our time in Grasslands was quite the adventure though, and to be honest we were pretty fatigued by the end of our time there. The day we arrived it was very windy – so windy that the auto-leveling system in our trailer was confusing and wouldn’t level itself. The wind kept picking up our plastic leveling blacks and blowing them across the prairie That night, we experienced the first of two major prairie storms. Torrential rain, high winds, lightning, and thunder – it was the first storm we’d experienced in the rig and we were quite nervous.

From Josh:

June 9, 2021

We recently got to spend about 18 hours in Dinosaur Provincial Park in SE Alberta and wish we had a week. It was unbelievable there, with hiking and exploring to do for days! I got myself stuck halfway around the campsite loop (the park’s website said we could fit in our site – which we did – but the road to get there was WAY too tight) and had to back out, and then continue backing around the loop road the wrong way, right into our site. It was an adventurous introduction to the park, and I was pretty proud of myself for being able to do it without damaging anything! I’m sure we greatly amused the twenty-somethings that were watching the whole thing unfold. Once we were set up we headed out for some short walks along a 3km scenic loop drive in the park and got to see 2 real dinosaur skeleton fossils exactly where they discovered them.

On our next visit here we’d love to do one of the guided walks with a park interpreter to see even more fossils! We were treated to some dramatic skies and a lightning show near the end of our visit as well. Can’t wait to go back there – a trip highlight so far!

From Josh:

June 4, 2021

We’ve now been out of our house and on the road for a full two weeks. Can’t believe it – it’s flown by and we are nowhere near feeling like we’re done yet, which I suppose is good! Road life seems to suit us well so far – we are enjoying seeing and doing new things together. June has been doing reasonably well since the last update – she hasn’t had any seizures, and overall seems to be feeling well most days. She is still having intermittent pain in her head and blood showing up in her gastric drainage, which we are still assuming is coming from her sinuses. We have been using a steroid nasal spray along with a humidifier at night to help give her some relief which seems to be working. Other than that, nothing major to report, which is always a good thing for June.

Since our last post, we’ve moved on from Hinton/Jasper (after spending our last day at Talbot Lake in Jasper NP) and spent 5 nights in a really nice campground just outside Edmonton in a town called Devon. We had a lovely grassy spot overlooking the North Saskatchewan River and used it as a base to explore the Edmonton area. Unfortunately, many of the things we wanted to see or do were closed but we got to see the Alberta legislature & day-tripped out to Elk Island NP where we saw beavers and Bison. We also took the opportunity to slow down and enjoyed a few days relaxing on our site. Oliver bought himself a new RC boat and loved being above to drive it just across the street from our site!

Today we arrived in Drumheller AB and after getting set up went for a drive to explore the badlands around the Royal Tyrrell Museum and see the surrounding area. It is stunningly beautiful here!

Today’s Eat: Spicy Mango Poké Bowl made by myself and the #kwalkhypeteam

The process 🥣:
My favourite parts were ripping the seaweed, peeling the onion, and squeezing and mixing the mayo and sriracha to make Spicy Mayo. I have been dreaming about trying my Mango Pulp. I can’t wait to see how it tastes, but I think I will marry it. The prawn and crab smelled sweet. Making your own poké is LOTS of work. I wouldn’t recommend it. 1/5⭐️

Eating It 🍴:
Wow! This was scrumptious and amazing! So it was a little bit restaurant-style, it didn’t taste homemade (to toot my own horn 🎺). The Mango Pulp was a little bit sour and juicy. Mixed with the Spicy Mayo it tastes sugary and creamy. I would get more and eat it again. I recommend you try my Spicy Mango Poké Bowl! 5/5⭐️

Ingredients: Sushi rice, mango pulp, spicy mayo, alfalfa sprouts, cucumber, red onion, avocado, corn, prawns, crab, seaweed, and sesame seeds.

Follow me on instagram @kwalk.eats !

-Kayla

From Josh:

May 29, 2021

Since we left Vancouver on Tuesday morning, our days have been pretty busy! We drove a full day to Clearwater, BC where we camped before continuing on to Mt. Robson Provincial Park for a night. We had planned to spend 3 nights there, but with our delayed departure due to travel restrictions, this was the part of our itinerary we had to shorten up which is unfortunate as we had a beautiful camp spot in the forest with mountain views between the trees. We’ll definitely go back there one day.

We arrived early enough in the day to fit in a bike ride up to Kinney Lake – the first stop on the way to the famous Berg Lake at the base of Mt. Robson. It was 7km one way uphill to the lake, falling the river the whole way. We were able to ride almost the entire way without walking! Stacy and Oliver had to jump off their bikes during some of the steeper sections to push the back of June’s bike trailer to help her and I get up those parts. Pulling an extra +/- 100lbs uphill makes for an excellent leg workout. The ride back down was worth the effort – 15 solid minutes of fun, fast downhill riding!

We’ve now made it to Hinton AB, just east of Jasper National Park. We’ve been enjoying (socially distanced) visits with Stacy’s sister playing disc golf and going to the local bike park. June had an exciting ride down one of the trails here too (see video – she was not hurt)!One more day here before heading east to Edmonton.

Rainbow 🌈 Bit cupcakes with vanilla whipped frosting and rainbow sprinkles; made by myself and the #kwalkhypeteam

Making the Cupcakes 🧁:
We poured in the cake mix, my first favourite part was cracking the eggs. Then we mixed in the ingredients and cooked them in the oven. My next favourite part was putting the cupcake in my hand and playing with it. I turn cupcakes upside down and roll them in sprinkles because I have Rett Syndrome and limited hand use, this is the easiest and most fun way to decorate! I love it!
4/5 ⭐️, would make again.

Eating the Cupcakes:
I loved them! They were moist and sugary. The bottoms got a little bit burnt so they were a little bitter but the icing helped. I enjoyed the crunchy sprinkles. They looked pretty and colourful!
5/5 ⭐️, would eat again

-Kayla