I’m letting you know that you probably need an entire pot of coffee for this post…its a long one.

As part of our grand master list this year of major reno’s, which we have yet to fully show off, we also had to do a few major exterior upgrades. The solar was pretty big and the other was 6 new tires on the rear end.  The tires we had were old, the sidewalls were cracking. Of course we plan to spend a lot more time on the road starting this fall, so it was best to replace them all 6 on the backend. Todd planned to do this in between events that we had going on; after Stampede but before our 2.5 week driving trip. Each existing tire had to be taken off the rim, rim cleaned then new rubber put on. This probably would have been more than enough time if we took it into a shop to get done, but Todd wanted to do it himself, in a not shop. He’s never done this before, so first up was jacking the bus up, putting wood blocks underneath, remove tires. This took more time than expected for so many reasons, but mostly because the lug nuts were probably 34 years old and some had to be welded to socket to get them off and two had to be cut off. There was a lot of swearing….but he got them all. All the rims had to be cleaned with a wire brush to get 30 years of crap off them so the new tires would seal to the bead. A tire shop wouldn’t take the time to do this properly. Then he started putting the new rubber on. Tires (rumble.com) This also took more time that he thought, its not that easy and takes some coordination of tools. Once the tires were all re-mounted on the rims, then he had to put them on the bus. Todd did buy brand new lug nuts for the 4 main back tires. Torquing them took some serious muscle – wifey stepped in a few times to offer some help! I was glad to get the tires done and relevel out the bus after 2 weeks of being slightly off kilter! Here is a video of the joyous occasion: New Tires (rumble.com)

We did manage to take a couple days off in between tires to go golfing with friends, have a summer BBQ and an awesome afternoon on the lake! Highlights of that were basically everything! We did manage to save a boat full of new boat owners who broke down; they appeared to be pretty oblivious about all things related to boating, operating a boat, being in a boat or just general boat etiquette. We also got hit on the dock by an equally idiotic retard who was on a seadoo for the first time and didn’t know how to operate it, so he slammed his nose into us without any real care in the world that he did – so that was also interesting. But during our last tour of the lake, we saw a herd of wild horses down at the lake hiding from the heat. Summer weekend (rumble.com)

Completed a few more jobs before we loaded up the bus to head out on our 2.5 week trip through northern Alberta.

The first stop was our 5^th annual visit to Big Valley Jamboree in Camrose, AB!  Here is an overview of camping; BVJ Campground Overview (rumble.com) On the agenda this year were big names like Cody Johnson, Lainey Wilson and Keith Urban. There were a lot more performers (Kip Moore, Riley Green, Brett Kissel, etc) than just those ones, but those were the headliners. Our camping group was smaller, only the main core of 7 and I personally appreciated the “no drama” for a change.  Here’s a few photographic evidence; BVJ pics (rumble.com) No crazy stories to report, except that the weather turned on the last day which included lightening, wind and rain and although Keith Urban was sitting in a fancy bus “green room” behind the stage playing mock instruments with his band, they put his performance on hold for 30 mins and then had to cancel him. We were both looking forward to this one all weekend and super bummed when they pulled the plug on him. Jill’s fave was Lainey Wilson – she puts on a great show and had Alberta’s own Terri Clark open for her and then come on stage with her for her Poor Poor Pitiful Me duet – so awesome! Here’s a short video of that: Lainey Wilson in the flesh (rumble.com)

By Monday at 1, we were on the road heading towards St. Albert for a 2 day stint at the Kinsmen campground. We were in St Albert for a wedding 5 years ago and found this campground that was directly linked to the all the bike paths and it felt like you were out in the country. This is why we decided to pitstop here for a couple days of RNR and bike riding. We had pre-booked site 23 and from the booking email, thought we had prepaid for the site and all we needed to do was drive in to our spot. It took about 90 seconds after we found our spot for the campground hosts to chase us down and begin to scold us up one side and down the other for not reporting to the office first! The retired 80-year-old couple running the campground had been doing it for 8 years and definitely did not like people who didn’t follow their rules! Their issue was that we didn’t read the sign that says “report to office”, but the sign wasn’t posted in a spot that is easy to see when you pull in. Funny thing was the guy in the 5^th wheel in front of us did the exact same thing and we were both equally as scolded. It didn’t phase us other than we both broke out laughing a couple times. We finally got to our site and had a great 2 days touring with our bikes. This place is very big rig friendly, unlike the people who run it (not as friendly!) I have no photographic evidence of anything from here!

Our next trek was up to Heart Valley, outside of Grande Prairie, to visit some friends on his family homestead. We had been talking about coming up here for quite a while, and this was finally going to work out! The most excitement on this 6 hour drive was the pitstop to Crooked Creek for donuts and cinnamon buns for Todd – this place is famous in the area for both baked goods and everyone around stops here. I was able to pickup a jar of dill pickle salsa – oh yes it is delish! We had a great time on the old family homestead touring old buildings and cars and equipment, walking through farm fields, quadding down to the creek and beaver dam (Quading (rumble.com)), creating video’s in the wild**, picking up tree debris on the property and cutting down broken tree limbs from the 50 year old tree because of the 100 MPH / hour wind that went through the week before, buying pie, fresh cream (and anything else that was for sale) from the Hutterite colony, picking endless raspberries from the garden, visiting extended family, hanging by the campfire, chatting, and eating all the delicious food. Here’s a few pics: Heart Valley or bust (rumble.com)

Ruby’s custom RV pad in Heart Valley

Are you  wondering what this ** was for? Are you familiar with Buc-ees? (About – Buc-ees) If not, do some googling about them or you can check out one of our old blog posts here: https://www.wheelsonthebus.ca/where-the-beaver-never-sleeps/  They have a few claims to fame like biggest gas stations in the world, cleanest bathrooms etc. Buc-ees has a crazy following and it could even be a cult!! When we met our friends down in Texas 2 years ago, Louise was adamant that she needed to go to Buc-ees and see what all the hype was about. She swagged out HUGE! When we saw her again at the homestead, she had new swag from her most recent visit to the Buc-ees in Tennessee. So we thought it would be fitting for her to wear her swag while we were down at the beaver dam, calling for beavers, since Buc-ees mascot is a beaver. Here is our version of the theme song down at the beaver dam: Buc-ees the call to the beavers (rumble.com)

Our time came to an end (See you later (rumble.com) end after 5 days and we packed up our Ruby for another 6-hour drive to the next destination…Gregg Lake Campground. This is located about 25 km north of Hinton in the William A Switzer provincial park. We discovered this area in 2019 on our way back from Yellowknife, and we knew we needed to come back to do some camping. If you have never camped in this provincial park, you are missing out! If you like camping, hiking, biking, canoeing, kayaking, paddle boarding, fishing and just generally being outdoors, this park has all that. We were perfectly perched on site F-15; no neighbors on one side and at the backend of a camping culdesac, with a path to the lake. It is a very quiet campground, family oriented (of course), big rig friendly and although there were lots of locals, there were also quite a few Europeans. We also couldn’t figure out why the campground was never full, mostly half empty the entire time. Not sure if it was because of the Jasper wildfires and people have changed their camping plans…that seemed like the most logical reasoning to us.  We spent 3 days hiking, biking, walking – seeing all the sights possible. The Athabasca lookout was 1 km straight up and the scenery was amazing! Athabasca Lookout (rumble.com)

We even went to a beaver ranch, well maybe we went to 2 beaver ranches! Apparently, during the early 1900’s the beavers were almost extinct due too  trapping. So back in the day, they made beaver ranches – bringing both male and female beavers into these fake cement houses to mate but beavers mate for life. and when they put the male and females together, they didn’t like each other and wouldn’t mate; hence these ranches went out of business in less than a year! The beaver is Canada’s national animal and for them to be extinct is crazy to think (also I feel like there is a beaver joke in here somewhere….). We toured the area for three days, and did all the things. William A Switzer park (rumble.com) Then landed about 7 km down the highway to the Halfway Campground (@Littlereddoor you need to camp here!) which was probably one of the best sites we’ve ever been too! (Says Jill). Halfway Campground (rumble.com)

Our last day in the area was overcast, so we went for a drive through the Jasper park and out the other side to Mount Robson. Neither Todd nor I actually know if we have ever been here before. If we did we were both too young to remember. We both knew we had been to Jasper as kids, but not sure on Mt Robson. Firstly, we drove through Jasper park and everything was closed due to the wildfire. We took some pics and vid’s of the black trees – it kinda looked like an apocalypse. We made it to the BC/Alberta border and finally able to stop/pull over and pee, eat and take a short 3 km walk/hike. And then for the next hour I made Todd pull over at every historical site or blue tourist activity (cause this is what Jills mom used to do – or so her 9 year old brain thinks she made us do!). But in all the short stops we found out a few interesting tidbits like where the name Yellowhead highway came from and that the Yellowhead Lake on the BC/Alberta border, is the start of the Fraser River that travels all the way to the west coast and dumps into the Pacific Ocean between Ladner and Richmond, BC. Who knew this? But just at the start of Mt Robson provincial park is the Overlander Falls – which is the Fraser River barreling down the mountain. IT. WAS. GORGEOUS. Check it out: Overlander Falls (rumble.com) We also were going to attempt a 14 km return bike ride up the Berg and Kinney lake trail, but we locked our bikes onto the bike rack and then forgot to bring the key with us! 

One of the things we love about this bus life is the variety of places we get to see, our front yard and back yard changes all the time. Places you wouldn’t see if you stayed in a hotel or airbnb, but we get to see them all the time!

After 2 1/2 weeks on the road with all the various camping options (bookdocking, 15 amp and 30 amp power), Todd has figured out how produce power correctly in all scenarios with our new solar setup!

Now are you wondering why I called this one “The post of many names“? Its because I had a hard time picking a name for this blog, here were some of the blog title options I didn’t pick, and there were more, but these were my fave:

“Noodle wine”: (Backstory: ”Hey Todd, do I have any wine in the cooler? Yeah I’m pretty sure you do. Oh good, we’re having noodles so I need wine. He then starts to laugh uncontrollably, tears running down his face. So you need wine to eat noodles? Yes I do! OK noodle wine it is!”

“Is that a wet beaver or dry beaver?” (Backstory: Louise’s 84 year old mum was also at the homestead in Heart Valley. We told her we were going down to the beaverdam to look for wet beavers. She said oh how do you find a wet beaver? I don’t think i need to say more here….)

“We’ll pack a lunch” (Backstory: every time we plan a day trip, doesn’t matter where we are or what country we are in, Todd always says this 4 word sentence prior too the actual activity we plan to do. For example, We’ll pack a lunch and head to the beach/hike/trail/bike ride. I told him he should trademark it.)

“The Exploration specialist” (Backstory: When travelling around, we have a habit of doing not one or two activities a day, but more like 4-8 activities a day. We like to explore every back road possible in the area. I started calling him this name.)

After longer journey’s you know I love stats, so here are some for you:

• Total km/miles driven in Ruby: 1000 miles/1632 km
• Total # of mosquito bites Jill got in the first 15 days: 4
• Total # of mosquito bites Jill got in the last 4 days: 150
• Total # of mosquito bites Jill got on her butt when she had to pop a squat on the hiking trail: 3
• Total # of Parks Canada vehicles we saw between Hinton and Jasper: 657
• Total # of RCMP vehicles we saw between Hinton and Jasper: 150
• Total # of federal employees we saw not working between Hinton and Jasper: 807
• Total # of times Todd said We’ll Pack a lunch (on this trip): 26