The Hippy Van of Hope.

On May 16th 2011, savage forest fires tore through the Town of Slave Lake unexpectedly and with little warning. The fire devastated a community, leaving 374 properties destroyed, including the public library, municipal buildings, businesses and residences. The forced immediate evacuation of 7000 people was swift and left the remaining emergency response crews literally fighting for their lives.
See more at  http://bit.ly/lRTEWr

My town, Athabasca was the closest emergency resource centre, where 1000 evacuees came to seek temporary shelter, many with just the clothes they were wearing. Immediate call to action was for supplies. Food, water, clothing, toiletries, pet food, and bedding were all in dire need. As part of the collection effort, the Hippie Van of Hope was unleashed, collecting donations from the nearby town of Boyle and then transported to the resource centre located at the Athabasca Multiplex.

Incidentally there were 4 van loads of food, water and supplies that came out of my office to support those in need. All donated by local residents.

Not enough can be said in praise of the volunteers and staff who housed, fed, clothed and tended to the needs of the evacuees for over 10 days. With many challenges comes many conquests and our community rose to the occasion like never before seen. It brings a tear to my eye just knowing the outpouring of support our community was able to provide. I love this town.

Every Garage Sale Matters.

You ever have one of those days where "you just had to be there to believe it"? This is a story about one such day. True to form, we get up bright and early with no real plan and decide out of the blue, to go to Edmonton and spend the day garage sale-ing. Like weeds, these signs have been popping up more and more as the spring continued, so we thought it best to get a head start.

Lil blue is running like a top, and we are on our way. Several stops in the country along highway 2 made for some pleasant breaks but no real treasures were found. Carry on...

Just outside of a town called Morinville, an elusive little sign pointed to a sale across the highway. Of course I had completely missed the sign and didn't see it until it was too late to stop "Aren't we going to that one?" qquestioned Meryl. I was reluctant to stop and pull over, it was such a busy road and we had already passed it by half a km. "Just go, with your luck it will be the one sale that has a garage full of VW parts or something and you will forever regret not going" - I love that man's rationale. "Highly unlikely" I laughed, but pulled off the road to turn around just the same.
Upon arrival, we wondered what function this old decrepit building had served in the past. It was so long and narrow, we were left speculating about it's purpose and origins.
Inside was filled with all your typical G-sale items. Some cool things though, like an antique ring that flipped open and had a mirror inside. (score)
So here we are wandering around the first room, when my eye catches a handwritten sign "VW PARTS - BACK ROOM".
No flippin WAY!!! This is just too ironic for me, I call for Meryl's attention to the sign and he bursts out laughing!!! "Let's go"

The piles and piles of parts, everything from heaters to engines, seats, steering columns. Pretty much every thing except for a chassis. What a joy to rummage through it all. Mind you I don't typically need many parts for lil blue, I settled on a VW vintage Emblem as my memento of this day.

Moral of the story - Listen to Meryl on garage sale day, he knows what he is talking about....

Remember this story though, as it turn out I could have used some of those vintage parts the very same day... Stay tuned.

Our first stop on our Diner & Drive In Alberta Tour

Having a destination for the weekend makes everything so much easier. While I love the random spontaneity that is our life, knowing where I am going has made things a lot more fun. So begins the diner's and drive in tour.
This week we selected the famous Jacks Drive In in Stony Plain. This colorful tiny little burger house had 7 staff working both the front counter, drive in window, kitchen and milkshake stand. Quite an efficient army as the joint was certainly jumping. Kids from soccer practise, along with their parents and grandparents were everywhere, not to mention all the other locals who were out for the night.

I loved this place, it lived up to everything we were hoping for. When Meryl and I were kids there was the local burger place that was always packed no matter what hour. This place brought us that feeling, of when we were younger, seeing everyone you knew and finding out about the folks that were there that you didn't know.




Ice cream obscene. The kids ordered cones so big they defied gravity! And might I add, awesome soft serve.

Meryl and I had burgers and a single order of fries that fed our whole family. The service was amazing, when Meryl went back to get another cone, she gave him two - because she had to make him wait!!! (It was a damn good cone to but I was much to full from the burger to truly appreciate it!!)

We are going to keep this on our itinerary of places to stop once our tour is over, you can bet we will be coming back.

Sleeping in your own VW bus bed.

Makes me wish I was a kid again. What a great piece of functional art

http://bit.ly/lACwaD