Edmonton

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada: Last evening DT and I drove into the City of Edmonton. Three years ago, we spent three days here and found it to be a lovely city - full of parks and gardens. The Saskatchewan River cuts a deep canyon through the middle of town and along the banks is a green space with parks and trails. We located the company Hospitality Center and Commonwealth Stadium.

This morning I have turned to shameless commerce! I made a sign (I have a HP DeskJet 340 Travel Printer!) for the motorhome window and for the bulletin board in the RV Park office: FOR SALE - 4 Opening Ceremony Tickets... everyone is talking about how they can't get tickets to the Opening Ceremonies... I would rather have my teeth pulled than sit through all that pageantry... so hopefully we can make a few bucks. The tickets are so expensive, we could pay for our entire stay's camping - about $105 US per week - if we sell only 2 tickets! Now, we wait for "bites".

Report from Lisa: Last night Lisa had a dinner party! Salmon Ravioli and Salad Caprese. She also made Shirley Bartley's Raspberry Bombe! Last night, after the party, she phoned to tell us all about it! Successful! Now she is rushing around to get the place clean and animals to the kennel - Lisa and Jen are heading up to the Gorge for a concert in the amphitheatre and they will sleep overnight in a TENT! My Princess in a tent? This I gotta see!

We did drive into the NIKE center and get our ID, so we can hang with the athletes. (I pose myself as a Russian shot-putter - hey, if I were a foot taller I could easily pull it off!) At the NIKE center we found many old friends, from many old track meets. As usual, NIKE does it up right. The hospitality center has sofas for lounging, big screen TVs to catch the latest action from the track, fully catered meals available all the time, drinks, video games, internet and bags and bags and bags and bags of NIKE gear for their athletes. The place is crawling with gorgeously fit men and women. The Ethiopian distance women were there today, and also the Cuban coach and a few of the Cuban athletes. Everyone asked about Lisa - Lisa interned with this group last summer in Sacramento at the Olympic Trials. I assured them she would arrive on Tuesday. If you don't already know: Lisa is flying in to join us for a few days before heading back to Washington, DC and school.

Edmonton is in all her glory because of The World's and there is much excitement in the city because Prince Edward and his wife, Sophie, are here for the games. But, at 5 p.m. the city was getting ready to shut down sections of the streets for the men's marathon, so we drove back to the camper - to watch the race - and of course the Opening Ceremonies - on TV. We have sent our tickets off to the stadium for "selling"... who knows if they will be sold. We thought we had sold them this morning! A man came up to the window of the motorhome, read the sign on the window and knocked on the door. Maybe his English was not so good - he was Danish - because he thought our motorhome was for sale! (Thinking back, we should have asked him what he'd give us for Goldie!)

Speaking of Goldie... we phoned Holiday Rambler this morning about the slide room. DT barely had the words out of his mouth, when the HR rep said - Stop, I know your problem, that part has been recalled - and transferred him to another office. Anyway, it seems HR didn't put enough braces on the slide motor, so they sent everyone another brace. Everyone, except us. One has now been Fed-Exed to us here. We are to have it repaired and send Holiday Rambler the bill. We have seen a "Mobile RV Repair" guy in this park - we will have him stop by and re-attach the motor. Hopefully, he will know what he is doing - and our Trouble-O-The-Moment will be solved.

Tomorrow we head into town to Commonwealth Stadium for a day of our favorite sport. No, NOT golf. The women's 10,000 heats have been cancelled and they will only hold a final.

RV Park: Glowing Embers RV Park in Spruce Grove, Alberta