I surveyed the mess below me from my bed in the RV – everything I needed to make coffee was somewhere in this pile, or randomly stuffed in a cupboard. But coffee being a high priority item in packing had at least gotten a prominent spot in the cupboard, and I could find a cup of some sort to decant into.
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| A mess I will deal with today |
Water was from my electric kettle, quickly salvaged from “outside”, being outside the RV, but inside my garage, where I did not want to turn on the propane. Having to open doors to ventilate, and then close everything up again was a lot more work than just grabbing the kettle. Having power was going to make my life more convenient and comfortable in the next few days. A space heater is onboard my RV so between the kettle and the heat, coffee the first morning “out” in my RV was pretty much like in a house.
Today’s plan was to unpack the mess in my rig and at least get things sorted out well enough for a little trip to visit a friend an hour north of me. I planned to stop along the way in Water Valley, to check out a local campground for my first adventure out in the RV.
I unpacked the boxes from the RV, only keeping what I was sure to need right away. I was going to be back here in the garage soon enough to sort out the mess and figure out exactly what I needed to take with me and what was going to be left behind. Today was going to be about taking my first trip out to see a little nature in the RV.
Of course everything takes longer than expected, so I’m not on my way until after lunch. At least I still have time to check out the Lion’s Club Water Valley campground on my way north. If it looked good, I’d be back for at least a night to de-compress a little after the stressful month of hurry up and move.
I let the googles pick the route for me and end up going west from highway 2 on a rural road I had not been on before. The fall colors this year have been holding on for a long time so things were still looking orange and fall like rather than the normal dead you see in this part of Alberta by October.
Water Valley Campground is split into a north and south part, separated by the Little Red Deer river. I only had a limited amount of time to visit, so decided to just visit the south part this time, which had a day use area. I could see the north part from the river, it seemed to be more of the same, just camping.
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| South Registration Booth |
Entering, I see the registration booth and directions to the day use area. I drive my rig through the trees on the narrow road, making a sharp left to park in the day use parking. Time to go explore the campground! The campground is a mix of smaller and larger sites, some treed and some in the open. Any size rig would be able to fit in the larger sites. The campground is not very big, so I end up at the north end looking across at the fall colors near the north campground.
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| Some Fall Colors looking towards Water Valley Campground North |
I walk up to the Little Red Deer River, not really a river at this point but more of a creek. There are little fishes in the water. Perhaps on a return visit I could pull out the rod and see if anything bigger lurks in the pools. I want to stretch out my legs a little more so head upstream – following the river under the road and hug the embankment to stay out of the water. Everything is private land around here. It seems everyone has to deal with people wandering about, as fences come right up to the embankment – the edge of the private property at the water right of way. The river cuts right up to the embankment, forcing me up on it, now walking right against the fence heading upstream. I see trees ahead and some little rapids. Then I see the next cross fence with the “Beware of Dog” sign. I decide it’s not worth the squeeze and dog risk to continue on and turn around, all of a quarter kilometer up from the bridge.
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| Little Red Deer River downstream of the bridge |
I content myself with a picture of the river back where I started. Not much for hiking around here for sure! It was going to be a short stop anyways as I had to get on to my destination further north. A visit overnight, then back to Calgary to take care of business.
