We were out of the motel before 8 a.m. and decided we'd drive as far a Barriere before having breakfast. K wanted to show me where he stayed and ate while he was working on the project with the Simpcw First Nations. We had a full bacon, sausage and egg breakfast at The Station Restaurant in Barriere and were all ready to start driving.

We hadn't gone too far north when a large deer crossed the highway. All the cars swerved but the deer quickly disappeared into the brush. The scenery along the way was high rolling hills and as we got closer to Jasper the hills became jagged mountains. We followed the North Thompson River for a large part of the way. Mostly it was a slow flat river but in a few areas it became rough rapids. The lakes and rivers that we passed in the Rockies were beautiful shades of blue, turquoise and green.

The railway line runs along most of our route today and we are surprised at how many freight trains pass by loaded with freight cars or containers.

We saw lots of signs warning us of deer, moose or other animals who might be on the road and besides the deer, we also saw about a dozen mountain goats in Jasper National Park. We passed a Bison Ranch in Alberta and saw a large herd of bison in the field. It immediately made us crave a bison burger until we remembered the size of our breakfast.

We made a brief stop in Jasper for gas and drinks and were amazed at how much its changed since we last passed through. Of course, that was more than 25 years ago. The town has grown from a quiet centre to a busy tourist town. There are shops, restaurants and tourist attractions galore.

We arrived in Edmonton before 7:30 p.m. and with my excellent navigating found our way to the Varscona Hotel in Edmonton's historic Strathcona neighbourhood. Considering that we'd been travelling for almost 12 hours, we didn't feel too bad. After checking into our room, we walked along Whyte/82nd Ave which was filled with pedestrians and chose a Greek restaurant (Yianni's Taverna) for dinner. The meal was heavy on meat and starch (potatoes & rice) and although it was tasty, it wasn't as good as most of the Greek restaurants that we've been to in Vancouver. After dinner, we did some more walking around the neighbourhood before returning to the hotel for the night.