On to Edmonton, Alberta

Sunday, August 22 we left Dawson Creek and the Alaska Highway, headed to Edmonton. Weather was still cloudy and rainy, and smoke from the forest fires joined the clouds to make the sky very hazy. Rolling hills gave way to flat plains, broken up occasionally by forested areas. The farther we drove, the flatter the land became, though.

The sweet housekeeper in the breakfast room at the Days Inn insisted on taking our picture in their lobby before we left :)

Ernie's relieved to finally have some grain fields to look at!

Sunday night we stayed in Whitecourt at the campground that had the highest rating, but we were disappointed--bathrooms were very disappointing, interior roads were muddy and full of potholes, and everything seemed run-down and poorly maintained. Ernie had been freezing all day and just couldn't get warm, and his knee started bothering him again. Our bed was just downright wet (not just damp, but wet), so sleep was not easy! We took our time leaving in the morning, though, hoping the rain would again get ahead of us. We planned to drive only about 80 miles Monday to give the storms time to get far enough ahead of us that we wouldn't catch up.

Beautiful fields between Whitecourt and Edmonton with some blue skies! Ernie even got to watch some farm machinery in the fields!

Catching up to the clouds again . . . but the fields are beautiful! Some of the haziness is caused from the wildfires in BC that has drifted into Alberta

I had researched campgrounds near Edmonton, and from reviews I read there was only one worth checking out. We drove through it, but it was still very wet from all the rain, and the storm clouds looked very dark and ominous again! We were just so tired of the rain and damp, so we found a new Motel 6 in Stony Plain west of Edmonton at an extremely reasonable price and checked in. Normally I'm not too thrilled with Motel 6, but this one is very nice. After checking the weather, we decided to stay Tuesday also to make sure the weather would stay ahead of us. Staying another day also gave me a chance to catch up on the blog and gave Ernie a chance to rest his knee. We've both enjoyed the break, and are ready to go again tomorrow, through the prairies toward Winnipeg (after driving through Edmonton--hopefully after morning rush hour ends). Now we just have to travel fast enough to stay ahead of another storm system moving in from the west! We're hoping for sunny skies over the prairies tomorrow!