Day 177 Medicine Hat, Alberta

Day 177 , walking towards the elevator on the third floor, great hotel for families.

The courtyard in the lobby.

Does this mean my roomie Jeremy needs to grow up?

Day 177 is a non-event day, meaning no relay activities are scheduled. Heading out from the hotel. A few of us were rostered to G.A.M. That involves checking out businesses and venues for their accessability. The information will be transferred to the Rick Hansen Global Accessability Map website. This website was launched in October, and is like a trip advisor  where people can rate places on a scale up to a high of 5.

First stop was in Seven Persons, Alberta, a town of less than 300. I went to check it out as it was the site of our medal bearer meeting point on Day 178

This meat deli had a replica grain elevator attached to the building (that was not wheelchair accessible) (but if you ever go there, get the pork jerky, it was very good!)

The red pin on the lower right shows Seven Persons, we have a long way to go still in Alberta, across to Calgary (lower yellow), and Edmonton, (upper yellow), that will take us all the way to Day 206!

At the top of the replica grain elevator, overlooking the town, which consisted of mostly pre-fab homes.

Some interesting town names that are not stops on the relay.

The locals in Seven Persons told us about a place called Red Rock Coulee, that was not to far away, so we kind of got a bit side-tracked and headed east on a secondary road.

It was a gorgeous drive and we hardly saw any other traffic along the way.

We spotted this abandoned farm along the way, and that was worth a stop.

Inside one of the sheds I saw this vertebrae and some other bones that looked like they hadn't been there long. There were also some tracks in the snow leading up to the shed and it looked like something had been dragged.

What's left of one of the outbuildings

Looking inside, the home had really deteriorated

Looking down the well outside the house.

I kept trying to imagine a family being raised in this place so many years ago.

No, I don't think this is the place for me.

The birds have found a new home here..

When I looked out from the house, I once again tried to imagine what this place must have been like when it was a vibrant farm. It looks like this land hasn't been farmed for awhile.

Looking back to the shuttle

I don't think going upstairs is a good idea.

The old wind mill (or wind pump)

That's as far as I'm willing to go!

 Beneath the wind mill was an old pump made by Monarch Machinery in Winnipeg

Another abanoned home across the field.

There were various pieces of machinery strewn all over.

An old combine.

Green acres is the place for me.................

Back on the road to Red Rock Coulee

Red Rock Coulee. This place was remarkable, the rocks were confined to a very small area, check this link out to learn more.

The sign says we can also call them "sphereoids", (or huge curling rocks)

They rocks dotted the landscape.

Far away in the distance the zoom on the camera picked up a couple of more abandoned buildings.

I'm not sure what the green is on this rock, but  I'm lichen it!

Some of these boulders were a pretty good size.

But no match for this Canadian explorer.

Looks like another planet

Interesting indentations

tracks in the snow

Across from Red Rock Coulee, the vast farmland of Southern Alberta.

Heading back, the view looking forward...

and looking back.

The Red Rock Community Park, not quite sure where the Red Rock community was.

We passed by 3 bucks lying down in a farm field. By the time I stopped they were up and moving.

Back in Medicine Hat, I took this pic of the Saamis teepee. Up close this structure is massive, over 20 stories high.

Back to business, we headed to downtown Medicine Hat to check out the accessability of some of the stores and restaurants for the Global Accessability Map.

Crossing the historic Finlay Bridge, built in 1908,

which crosses the South Saskatchewan river.

St. Patrick's roman catholic church, built in 1912-1914

 Split the difference, 1913

The accessability of this bistro was mediocre, not a lot of room to get around small washroom, and high counters. (but the soup and sandwich special was very good)

Leaving downtown back to the hotel putting an end to day 177, where did the time go?