Day 19 - August 23

We left Golden this morning around 8:30.  Had a really good sleep despite the trains thankfully.  We stopped at Lake Louise around 10:00 a.m.  Had a walk around there, did pictures for others and had some taken of us by them.  Made coffee in the van and carried on again.  Arrived in High River, AB around 1, had lunch in the van in a parking lot and found the visitor information.  We knew there was a Rodeo in town but it only said at the Rodeo arena but no address and our tourist information book did not provide any camping in High River.  The info people gave us a great map of High River and directed us to camping down the road in Claresholm.  I called the Claresholm campground and made reservations and then we found the rodeo arena and parked there until the gates opened around 3.  Napped in the van.  The reason there is no camping in High River is because of the big flood last summer.  They will not completely recover from this for the next 10 years they think.  We could certainly see all the abandoned houses boarded up and their downtown seems to be in reconstruction mode.  They are also re-contouring the banks/levies of the river.  Lots of work.  As we were finding our spot in the grandstand, we hear our names being called and there is Rick and Tania VanderPloeg and their 4 children! They used to live in Owen Sound.  So cool.  We did know that they lived in High River during the flood, but weren't sure if they remained.  We sat with them during the rodeo.  Really nice.  The rodeo was good, semi-professional.  The horses and bulls sure were impressive as well as the folks who got on them.  Now we are at our campground in Claresholm and think we will attend the CRC  near Granum tomorrow morning.  Good night everyone!