We arrived in one piece at the Starlite Wilderness Hospitality Complex quite late last night and just barely had time for evening tea (Earl Grey, hot). The motel was ok, but definitely not one of the better ones in this galaxy. The sign on the door gave an indication of the quality of the tenants: “Please do not back into parking stalls. Carbon Monoxide is bad for you”.
The card-key triggered the door lock, but the door wouldn’t open until our erstwhile captain gave the handle a body blow that would give even a Vulcan pause.
[ed. note: Luckily Mountain Sapphire packed their hockey gear.]
A few minutes of open door and the temperature dropped to Jurassic levels, not great but cool enough to get to sleep. And we were tired, so not even the sounds of the O2 machine and CPAP kept us awake for long.
Next morning it was off to the breakfast lounge for a toasted waffle and syrup and a hot-cross bun. Then back to the room to pack up and head off to our first gig, our one and only morning performance of the tour, at Points West. Due to the careful planning of the trip, our journey to the venue lasted only 4.8 minutes.
The venue seemed aptly named, being that the door to the entrance hall does indeed point west. The audience was great and really enjoyed the music. Our voices held out for the duration, and nobody threw anything at us. In fact, the even asked us to come back again! The trip gets better as we go along.
Next, a quick teardown and load the gear in to the bus. The captain got the engine going with only a few cranks on that thingy in the front that turns the engine. And we were off to Lacombe for our afternoon gig.
We found some interesting sites along the way, like the Erskine Antiques and Collectibles where we found some old wire-rimmed eyeglasses that were said to belong to a starship captain.
We drove past Nevis, but unfortunately, I was in the middle of a yawn and completely missed it.
We had to slow down going through Alix and spotted a sign for “The Gritty Paw”. Some further investigations are required.
ed. note: Further investigation reveals:
The Gritty Paw is a dedicated, one-on-one dog grooming salon located in Alix, Alberta, at 5404 50 St. Operating by appointment, they provide personalized, stress-free care for breeds of all sizes, avoiding the noise and chaos of traditional, multi-dog grooming environments.
A Great Place to Grow Thinking about moving? Alix is safe, welcoming place to raise a family. We have a great school and plenty of programs for kids and adults. It’s an ideal spot to put down roots.
Whether you’re visiting or planning to stay, I hope you find Alix as welcoming and vibrant as we do.
Municipal Census – May 2024 The Village of Alix Municipal Census is complete. As a result we can say that our population is at 781 persons.
Alix has a great public library. We think it’s wonderful that this small community has built a library that ties the town together. You can sense their love of community on their Facebook page.
The library is very excited to announce that Sue Duncan is now our permanent Library Manager! If you don’t have a library card already, pop in and sign up for your free membership today. – Facebook
Somebody at the Alix library has a great sense of humor (humour?). Their Facebook page posts these titles:
Here are a few more humorous (humourous?) pictures from their Facebook page:
At Tees, we saw the signs for “Tees Bees” and “The Doggy Ranch”, both worthy of future visits, I’m sure.
And finally, a quick burger at the A & W (which we are told stands for Aught-dogs and Wootbeer).
Then we made our way across town to the Red Maple Combustion Engine Heritage Museum where we had another enjoyable performance with a great audience.
After that, everything is a blur. We spent another small fortune on fuel for the bus and made our way back down Highway 12 to Highway 21 where we turned South and made a mosquito line to Lethbridge. (A mosquito line is like a bee-line but has many turns and in one case a u-turn).
Arrived in good health at the Captain’s sister’s residence where we settled in for another well deserved rest.
[ed. note: Elder JA didn’t mention if they called ahead.]
