In this installment we pick off after completing day one and staying the night in Lodgepole, Alberta. Sunrise at the GBC campground means we are ready for day two. We travel south today.
The route for today is from Lodgepole back to Calgary via secondary highways.
I took advantage of being up early to take a quick self guided walking tour of the hamlet of Lodgepole. The cemetery looked fresh and empty.
This gate looks somewhat less than effective.
The Pine Inn for those that do not camp when they stay in Lodgepole.
Once the boys were up we were able to play this inflatable football themed ring toss game I had bought for the trip.
The day got under with breakfast and prizes from our hosts in Lodgepole. Piles and piles of prizes.
We won this folding knife multi-tool in a random luck draw. Predictability all the kids immediately attempted to claim it for themselves. Of course it has since been forgotten about and sits in the Tercel’s glovebox.
After the prizes and breakfast the teams started to trickle out of campground.
Not something you see too often; a limousine camping.
The directions were pretty clear, you could de-tour to nearby Drayton Valley for cheap gasoline as well as any needed supplies and then turn around to continue south. Somehow my brain read them as go to Drayton Valley and continue. Subtle difference which left us uselessly heading east instead of south through oil field supply country.
And farm country.
After driving for half an hour through endless road construction zones my brain finally twigged that we might not be on the right path after seeing this tractor. Sure enough we needed to turn around and venture back through the road construction.
We did get to see this classic International pickup on our way back through Drayton Valley.
The noisy sunroof was driving me nuts so for today we did not attach the ears or pig to the roof. I had some electrical tape and attempted to seal it up to quiet it down. Spoiler alert; it worked a tiny bit but not really.
The scenery looks generally looks like this up north. Lots of trees, big sky and straight roads.
As mentioned before oil field services are a big industry up here but times has been a little lean these days with pipeline projects stalled or blocked leading to sights like this field of trailers.
A rather nice looking classic Volkswagen with a canoe on top. It seems like most of the Seventies examples came in that green or an orange. Team Plan B ahead of us. Our nose still holding on somehow.
As we headed south it became more farm country mixed in with oil extraction.
I am not sure why the piles of trees are for. Clearing the land, I assume, but they look like they have been there a while.
As we continued south a black bear dashed across the road and the van in front came very close to hitting it.
There was a series of other classic cars that passed us including this Camaro. Perhaps coming back from a Sunday car show.
One of the challenges was to find a yeti and we managed to find a few including this one.
I love small town decorations on buildings like this saloon.
Hello Chevy Chase! Sometimes missing a checkpoint meant turning around but as a bonus you would get to see the other teams coming down the highway.
And the Ghostbusters.
You would often get a friendly wave from the other competitors.
Here is a fun one. I noticed that my phone had a built in lip stick filter that converts red to pink. This would have been perfect had I been brave enough to paint the Tercel.
Classic vehicles seemed to be a bit of theme of the day as we drove by another vintage vehicle, this time a Jeep.
As we entered the town of Sundre, Alberta we were greeted by another classic car, a Jaguar XJ6 wearing aftermarket wheels.
Sundre is home to Pioneer Village which was sadly closed but we could see the external buildings at least.
There is apparently a famous taxidermy museum here with 170 interesting animals from around the world.
There are four acres of old buildings and farm implements.
A fantastic collection of motley vehicles taking a short break. We will also break there and finish off GBC 2019 in the next installment.
Full The Great Beater Challenge 2019 segments:
Great photos once again. Yes, I think you should have painted the Tercel that colour. It’s a definite improvement.
And if you want to live forever, move to Lodgepole. The cemetery is empty.
One of my high school friends lives in Grande Prairie, when Alberta oil slowed down he got a job on a drilling rig in the North Sea. So he commutes to Scotland every 6 weeks, what a nuisance 🙁
When I saw the picture of the Tercel in hot pink, I thought of that opening scene in Cannonball Run 2 where the Lamborghini Countach is first white, and then gets its white paint washed off and is now red.
I thought maybe you did something like that to the Hamborghini, David. ;o)
Is it possible that the owner of the Jaguar at Burger Baron Pizza is the delivery driver?
Possible but maybe unlikely given that it has a for sale sign in the front window.
Great write up and wonderful photos to look through. I sure have a soft spot for 1978-1979 Monte Carlos like the one in the bottom photograph.
The fun continues! I enjoy getting the slices of life in out-of-the-way Canada. I look forward to the exciting conclusion.
Very nice photos. Again, another beautiful lead pic. Lush country, glad there appears to be no sign of drought. I like how the tractor operator is staring directly at the ‘nose’ on the Tercel. Can’t blame him. 🙂
I’m guessing the scrub was left out to ‘cure’ and will be eventually used in a firepit or fireplace.
Love the pink Tercel. And ‘The Way We Were’ taxidermy museum! What a coup if they managed to get Barbra Streisand one day! 🙂
Looks like Alberta has had as much rain as BC this summer. I don’t remember a September with everything still so lush.
Great pics, and another vote for the pink Tercel. Love ‘The Way We Were’ taxidermy museum – Barbra Streisand may want to hire extra security. 🙂
Yes but is there a mounted animal nature trail?
No way Northern Ontario is 80 billion km across. Anyone who’s ever driven it knows it has to be at least 100 billion…
Just awesome pics of beautiful country. Nice job, and that looks like fun.