I was back in the Calgary area for visiting friends and taking care of business. I decided to hit Didsbury first to visit Colette, as I had ended my travels with Carolyn a bit north of Calgary. Didsbury was pretty much east of me, not too far away. After that, I’d head to Calgary, where I had some RV work planned. Join me for some local stuff around my home area.
Cabin on the private training grounds near Bearberry
We went to visit some private grounds west of Sundre. This is a place where you can do retrieve work with dogs; so areas with open short grass fields, with some water for the swimming retrieve stuff. It does make for some nice scenery. I either go off on my own, or sometimes help with the training for a bit. It is interesting, but only for short periods for me – I’d not pick up the hobby to train dogs all day like some people do. But it is a hobby you could combine with a nomad lifestyle, especially since the serious trainers all go south for the winter to keep training where the water don’t freeze.
Decour is interesting
Since we were in the area, we stopped for a bite to eat at the Bearberry Saloon. It’s a quaint little bar on the edge of civilization. In fact, I’ve taken the motorcycle from my boondocking spot over to the bar in a previous visit to the area. It’s not too often I have boondocking close enough to civilization to have the option to go out for dinner. They have nothing special for beer, but the burgers are pretty good. The customers are a mix of day trippers, local acreage owners, and farmers in the area, with the last one being the least common in the area. It’s not quite a tourist trap yet – it still retains that local hole in the wall feel where you can overhear locals talking about the local grizzly bear mauling that resulted in a death not too long ago.
Bearberry is west in the Rocky Mountain Foothills. There is a dog training area out east at Bigelow Reservoir a day use area we went to as well. I had more time to wander around on my own there, as Colette was training with a friend out there, so I took old Mr. Cache for a walk around the lake. He didn’t appreciate being excluded from the retrieving, but once we got far enough away he was happy to trot about sniffing the things dogs sniff.
I was happy to photograph the things I photograph: old falling down farmstead buildings left behind in the middle of nowhere. This one being way out of town, there is no graffiti as the vandals would have to travel a hell of a long ways just to tag an old house in the middle of nowhere. No one would see it, except for the occasional person there at Bigelow Reservoir. These are scattered all over the place, relics from the days when farmers farmed much smaller plots of land, and it really was the “family farm”.
Most of the gopher “hole” dioramas to be seen at the gopher museum
One example showing the humour
On the way back from Bigelow, we went through Torrington, home of the “World Famous Gopher Hole Museum“. I say that in quotes as that is how it is listed on the googles. I dunno about “world” famous, but it is quirky enough that people come from far away to see stuffed gophers in dioramas depicting various scenes out of Western Canadian Life, with a bit of “dad humor” thrown in. I had never been there, despite passing through Torrington many times. It is worth a stop; do throw in a donation in the box. Stuffed gophers don’t grow on trees ‘ya know, they need to grow in holes in the dirt, get killed, then gutted and stuffed for your amusement. We have many gophers in Alberta, the growing and killing is pretty much free. The stuffing and scene building ain’t.
Maesies Nook entrance
There was a bit of dining while I was in the area too. Didsbury punches above its weight in terms of local eateries, mostly because there are not many chain eateries in town. That is changing, so I hope the local unique places can hang on. There is the K&W Drive-In, a real burger and ice cream drive through from the old days. It’s so much better than the DQ but they really need to get with the times and take payments other than cash. Maesies Nook is a great place to grab breakfast at an old style breakfast eatery attached to an old style Motel. It’s a throwback to the old school breakfast places that used to be everywhere before chains smothered most of them out.
1906 Bistro. Patio out back for more people
Then you have The 1906 Bistro. a modern take in a heritage building on the main street of Didsbury. It is notable for having Germanic style cuisine, something you don’t see much anymore in Alberta, not that it ever was common. Yes, there are a few good German food dishes to be had; I should know having been raised by German immigrants. If you eat at the 1906 Bistro, leave room for desert; the ice cream dishes are to die for at this place. Really, there isn’t anything I’d say is crap in Didsbury, even the hole in the wall bar serves good pizza and cheap beers if you are on a budget.
Dinner at Thuan Hoa
Colette had to travel down to Lethbridge for an overnight work trip. She had the brilliant idea of having me tag along and visit with Trever and Lori, whom I had missed visiting on the way up from the States that year. It gave her some company for the long drive there and back, and me a chance to catch up with old friends. We all went out for dinner at Thuan Hoa Vietnamese restaurant, which is now my new favorite Vietnamese place. My old favorite, Saigon Night, in my home neighborhood closed up. I found out when I went by to pick up prescriptions; man I was bummed at that. Thanks to the influx of Vietnamese people in the 1980’s there are a ton of other places to pick from, in fact the reviews of the new place that opened up in the space are very good so I’ll have to give it a try sometime.
We didn’t have a mascot when I went to this school, which I’m just fine with.
When I’m in Calgary I’m visiting my step-mom. She still lives in the house I grew up in in Forest Heights, which has seen a lot of changes since I moved out many moons ago. I didn’t understand that old saying “you can’t go home again” until I lived it with age. The old hood is not the place I grew up in. The ethnic mix has changed having received a heavy dose of immigrants from various non-European places. The local businesses cater to the new customers so you have mix of new cuisines and services in the area with a few holdouts from the old days still around. It definitely has a different feel to it.
I could care less about your color or culture but I do care about your actions. This place needs to be fixed or torn down at least.
Anytime immigration surges the same grumbling occurs about the foreigners ruining everything for locals. A generation later, the old ethnic vibes are celebrated for adding character and unique experiences to an area. Italians and Germans that were the foreigners being complained about are now the locals complaining about, say, the (subcontinent) Indians who have a concentrated presence in northeast of Calgary now. While the neighborhood changes, people’s nature does not.
I didn’t take a picture with the ignitor in, so I just drew it in blue
My furnace had returned to cycling warm/cool again, so I had a new fix to try for that. I was going to be replacing the ignitor unit, as it was possible that the unit was incorrectly sensing a flame out as it heated up. That would produce the same symptoms as the temperature limit switch tripping – a cycling of cold-warm air as the unit heated up and stopped sensing flame. Getting at this unit was not easy. Besides taking out the furnace, I had to open up the back compartment to get at the exhaust / burner area. You need to remove the supply line to the gas valve then unscrew the whole valve/burner assembly to remove it from the furnace so you can actually see the burner. It’s not straightforward. Everything is recessed so you need long screwdriver handles to get at screws way down between walls and pipes. I ended up finding a Youtube video showing me how to remove the gas line, it’s a real pain. Unscrewing the gas valve/ignitor assembly is easier, only then once you have removed it from the furnace can you actually see anything. The ignitor did seem a bit loose, so I was hoping I had found the culprit. I cleaned up everything I could see while replacing the ignitor, then put everything back together. You will need either replacement foam gaskets from a dealer (recommended) or you can use high temperature gasket seal wherever a foam gasket seal is done. This is not ‘spec’, so I don’t recommend it. I see no reason why this shouldn’t be fine other than being more of a pain to get apart again, but I am not a certified gas tech. Being mid summer, my testing was minimal, but the furnace was back to blowing hot air in the RV at least for the 5 minutes I could test.
What my Dometic fridge burner assembly looks like with the cover off so you can see the burner
I did have some RV maintenance to take care of too. I inspected and cleaned up the propane burner of the fridge, hoping that would solve my issues with it going into ‘check’ mode on a fairly regular basis. The check mode thing wouldn’t be so bad other than the fridge will not fire up to cool again on propane until you clear the code by power cycling the fridge. I can say my cleaning has helped on that front, but I still get that darn ‘check; light every once in a while.
Anode was due. It should be one solid cylinder from end to end.
I also cleaned up the propane burner for the water heater. I noticed it was sometimes flaming out and refiring for the brief periods I had it on to heat my water. A cleaning of the burner elements seems to have fixed that issue. I also replaced the anode on the unit. Not all tanks have an anode, but if yours does you should be replacing it every few years. The whole point of the anode is that it corrodes rather than your tank. It’s an easy replacement, but it’s amazing how many people don’t bother. At five years, I was worried the anode would have been completely consumed, but there was still a good bit left. It did need to be done though. The amount of water scale in the heater was another matter. I had bits of scale in the system for ages after cleaning out the tank – I just could not hope to get all of it out by rinsing. Fortunately, after an initial surge of scale clogging my kitchen tap (vinegar soak to get it cleaned) I had just the occasional bit of scale coming out. I’ll have to research how to properly clean out the tank at some point.
No ideas
I had my usual run of medical, dental, house maintenance and catching up with friends in Calgary too. It usually means I end up there for at least a week. As usual, there was to be follow up that would require my return to Calgary. My motorcycle repair was going to take longer than expected. I might as well head out and explore a bit rather than wait around Calgary. I had a new tool for my adventures I was looking forward to try out: Starlink Mini! It was going to be a game changer allowing me to adventure to places with no cell service and remain connected to the rest of the world. Join me next time for my first adventure in a remote corner of southeast BC with with no cell service.
