Carstairs, AB to Devon, AB -- 164 miles
The day started with fog and drizzle. It rained during the night; not much, but enough for the dripping on the roof to lull us to sleep. We got away from the RV park about 9:00 am and headed north toward Edmonton, stopping for gas in Red Deer, a fairly large town of 80,000 or so, located approximately halfway between Calgary and Edmonton. A little south of Red Deer there was a subtle change in the terrain -- what had been essentially flat pasture land and fields of yellow canola slowly transitioned into low, rolling hills with more and more trees. It was not unlike anyplace one might see in the middle section of the US.
Jeanette had seen mention in the Milepost of an unusual church in Red Deer, an award winning architectural design, so we detoured off the highway and into the city to find it. St Mary's Catholic Church was built in the late 1960's, one of the first post-Vatican II churches which got away from the old shotgun design of long rows of straight pews on either side of a central aisle. At the time the design was quite controversial, but in retrospect, it is a good example of modern church design. The exterior is a free-form, rounded brick shape, appearing almost like an ascending spiral. Inside, the seating fans out from a centrally-located, skylit sanctuary. A small section of the nave is subtly divided off from the main portion of the seating to create a sort of Eucharistic chapel. The Tabernacle sits on a free-standing pedestal and like the Altar, is lit by an overhead skylight. There are no other exterior windows in the nave, and since we were visiting the church during the day, the artificial lighting was turned off and the only light came from the two skylights. This resulted in a very dramatic lighting effect, but one not so conducive to picture-taking.
Back on the road we stopped at a rest area and ate the rest of last night's pizza for lunch, then continued toward Edmonton. Since we planned to stay at at an RV park in Devon, a small town just outside the city, we turned off Highway 2 near the Edmonton airport and proceeded west for seven miles to Devon. We checked into the park about 1:00 pm and went directly to the Devonian Botanical Gardens, just four or five miles north of our RV park. While not as spectacular as the Buchert Gardens in Victoria, BC, the Devonian Gardens are quite pleasing in their own way. The gardens are located in a wooded setting, with each theme section woven into a series of clearings connected by brick pathways. We especially enjoyed the Japanese gardens, which are arranged around a large pond fed by a gurgling stream, creating a very serene setting. The only downside to the gardens was that the mosquitos were out in force, attacking us whenever we stopped to take pictures of the myriad variety of plants. We would have liked to stay longer, but we were discouraged by the bites we were getting. I guess we should get used to this, as the skeeters will only get worse as we get farther and farther north toward Alaska.
Today is our grandson Zach's 18th birthday so we called him at his summer job as a camp counselor in Marble Falls, Texas to wish him happy birthday.
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