Cochrane Calgary and Madison Hat Bye Alberta Hello To The Moose
- terryhills4
- Jul 5
- 4 min read
We came through the beautiful Rocky Mountains from Golden BC back to The Bow River Campground in Cochrane outside of Calgary. We stayed here last year and it’s a great base to go to the mountains to go into Calgary to hang out in a pretty nice city.
Couple days after we got settled in I went to a concert with my cousin Scott. I got the tickets a couple of months ago at this really cool venue at the university. The show by Mike Campbell and The Dirty Knobs was awesome especially from the fourth row. Those who don’t know he’s the lead guitar player from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. The drummer was also a member of the Heartbreakers and it was an overall great performance. A tribute to Brian Wilson, who passed away a couple days before from The Beach Boys and it ended off with Sundown by Gordon Lightfoot. The band had nothing but praise for their trip across Canada. 😎
We spent a lovely Sunday at cousin Scott and Crystals house and hung out with their beautiful cats and wonderful daughter Caroline. Always nice to hang out and play some guitar and chat about the family gossip. 🤓
We decided to have one more blast into the mountains, and we jumped in The Mini and drove to the Banff Hot Springs. I hadn’t been in this particular Hot Springs for a very long time. The late 1980s from what I remember. It’s pretty nice to sit in the hot water and look at snow on mountains. On our way back, we stopped in beautiful Canmore and had a nice lunch on the main street. Beautiful scenery and a lot of cool artsy stores with lots of nice prints and paintings. 🤓
Myself and Monika decided to go separate ways for a little touring. I dropped her off at the Calgary Zoo and she checked out all the beautiful animals some being rescue animals. Her highlight being the penguins that she’s chased around three cities and two provinces. 😸
I decided to go and check out The Hanger Flight Museum. Lots of cool airplanes, including a Lancaster that used to be outside Calgary international airport for many years. It’s now restored and inside. Lots of cool things to see ✈️
We packed up and gathered up everything and headed off to Medicine Hat Alberta for our next stop. When we drove West last year we never came this way, so we never went through Medicine Hat. Interesting place we both agree. It has The Worlds Tallest TeePee. Interesting stories around it with history of aboriginal peoples from the area going back hundreds of years..
Lots of history in this town, including quite a few old motels with very cool old motel signs.
A very nice revitalized downtown area that we did lunch. we even saw the new Brad Pitt movie about Formula One while we were in town.. it was the premier day and anybody can go to New York or London but ours was the best. They call it the gas town I guess due to the gas plants you see outside of town.
During the second world war, there was a prisoner of war camp, and one of the building still exists. It closed in 1946. Interesting story for sure.
After a few days, hanging around in the desert, we headed towards Moose Jaw Saskatchewan.
It was an interesting drive across the flat prairies. it was a little windy and on the east side of Swift current, we encountered a company moving a large building. They had those escort trucks and one of them in front of us turned out to be a complete asshole and drove like one. We’ve been to Moose Jaw before and it is nice here with our campground featuring McDonald’s and a local bar restaurant. They had a sidewalk on the streets festival that we checked out. It’s a good place with a nice downtown and to just stock up on supplies.
You’re driving along the very flat prairies on the Trans Canada Highway 1 and all of a sudden you start to see in July what looks like snow. Turns out there’s a Salt Lake that produce quite a bit of salt. You sure learn a lot as you travel.
After the heat wave broke our last full day in Moosejaw we spent a few hours at the thermal bath, sitting in the sunshine, swimming in the hot water where we had a couple of cold beers poolside. I highly recommend a visit here summer or winter as it’s a beautiful spot in downtown.. There is also a casino attached.
On a sidenote, this is where Peter Gzowski who had a CBC show in the 80s and 90s called Morningside did his last show. I got to meet him once in the 80s when I was doing fire alarm in a CBC building on Parliament Street and when he was done yelling at me he was a nice man.
As we prepare to depart Moose Jaw and head to Regina I must say it’s been a wild journey across this Prairie province
Thanks to everybody for following along
I hope we hope you’re enjoying it
Cheers 😁
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