Our Trip to Canada

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June 12^th, 2008: Day 7

On June 12th, Julie and myself happily celebrated our 7 month anniversary, but at the same time we were unfortunately kicked out of our room at Holiday Inn Express because they were booked for that room for the day. We quickly packed the car as Ruth talked with the manager about the jammed bathroom door and the non-functioning phones and somehow managed to get one of our two days in the Inn totally free, again. I had never heard of this before…

Just as we were about to leave, a housekeeping lady ran outside with my cellphone charger in her hands… as it turns out, I had left it plugged in next to the desk in the room. I thanked her gratefully and we set out in search of another lodge in the same area.

We arrived eventually at a Day’s Inn in Leduc. Don and Ruth left the car to inspect the rooms, and there was a nice monument of an oil pump outside, so I moved in with my camera.

After taking these photographs I decided I needed to relieve myself, so I went in and did so, then tried to find Ruth… I found her, but Don was nowhere to be found, and after searching the halls and opening several locked rooms, we discovered he had gone back to the car to wait for us. How excellent.

We decided against the Day’s Inn and went across the street…

Leduc is a town that thrives on the constant in- and out-flux of people influenced by the Edmonton International Airport, so as one might expect, it contained several lodges, hotels, motels, inns, even outs, so it stands to reason that right across the street from the Day’s Inn was a lovely little Travelodge. It looked horrible from the outside but we decided to check it out anyway. What we found was far from what we expected.

Not only was Rose, the receptionist, a very kind person, she gave us the senior rate (after Don became a few years older) and gave us a beautiful, large room with a kitchenette and big refrigerator. This made several people very happy, but quite possibly the happiest person that day was Don, for he now had a kitchen to cook in. The lodge had a whirlpool but it was in the breakfast eating area; not exactly the best place for privacy. Despite this minor downfall, everyone was happy that we found a lodge before three in the morning.

We went to Sobeys, which just happened to be across the street, where Don bought some ingredients for a meal he had in mind. While he did that, I looked for the inevitable… and I found the most amazing selection of Jones Soda yet, worthy of drool.

The flavors included Fufu Berry, Root Beer, Sugar Free Cream Soda, Green Apple, Berry Lemonade, Strawberry Lime, Blue Bubblegum, Sugar Free Black Cherry, Cream Soda, Orange & Cream, and Lemon Lime.

We had a very nice chicken dinner cooked by our native master chef and settled down for the night in what seemed to be the nicest lodge yet.

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