Wending Our Way Home

 We had a lovely drive home from Lethbridge today.  It took us 6 hours instead of the usual 5 because we stopped to take pictures along the way - it was a beautiful summer day in Alberta.

The last couple of times we've made the trip, we've gone off the highway to check out some of the little villages along the way.  Today we explored the beautiful little village of Arrowwood, located near Gleichen.  I had to check it out on the internet when we got home to see what it's history is.

It was incorporated in 1926 and with its three grain elevators was a distribution point for wheat from the local ranches which was sent throughout Canada.  The current population is 247 people.  Their pride in their village is evident everywhere.  The community has entered in the Communities in Bloom competitions every year and were winners in 2002, 2003, 2004, 20005 and 2006.  They competed nationally in 2007and won special mention for the residential component of the competition.  Here are a few pictures I took of the village.

We only saw a few stop signs but each of them was growing out of a flower barrel.

The water tower is just used as a landmark now since they've got a new water system.

The remains of an old wagon with it's bed filled with flowers decorates the new shopping center consisting of six businesses across from an RV park housing 4 RVs.

This little honeysuckle cottage is currently for sale.  Any takers?

This looks like a renovated church.  It's located at the corner of 1st Ave. and 1st St.  I don't think there were more than 4 streets and avenues in the whole village.

This is the United Church with a cute stubby steeple.

The restaurant - the only one in the village - was nicely decorated with vines painted on the walls.  It even has a dining patio attached.

Along the sidewalk beside the restaurant is a fence with the brands of the local ranches carved into it. The picture is of the smallest of three sections of fence.

This house was for sale too.  You might want to enlarge it to read the sign at the left.  I don't know what they do for law enforcement in the village - maybe they just post signs to shame the offenders!

Five kms. down the road, around a bend and down a hill from Arrowwood there's this quaint blue one-lane bridge across the Bow River.  When approaching it, you need to watch for approaching traffic and just one of you can cross at a time.

 

And at the side of the road across the bridge there is a patch of wildflowers, or weeds, whatever your perspective is.  Thistles are too beautiful to be called weeds, as long as they're not in my garden.

Farther along the road I've seen this old homestead so many times but couldn't stop on the bridge to take a picture.  Lloyd found a lay-by and I ran across the highway to get this picture.  I've always wondered why that particular spot was chosen for the home and why it was abandoned.

Here's a zoomed in close-up of the homestead.

And this is the last picture I took.  An oil well in a field of Canola.

So we're home safely now.

Pat.