I got up at 3:30am to use the washroom only to discover that the air conditioning unit leaked water clear across the room. I dried it up as best as I could and went back to sleep. About an hour later, the same thing happened. This time I headed down to the front desk and all that they could do for me at that hour was give me towels and say that they would look into it in the morning. At 7:30am, I got dressed and on my way to breakfast, stopped by the front desk again. They said that they would try and find me another room.
I had a few things planned for today before going to the big show. First up was the Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market. This is Edmonton’s original indoor farmer’s market which has been operating every Saturday since 1983. The market has approximately 130 vendors selling everything from fresh produce, baked goods, meats, handmade crafts and local art. Their focus is on local and Alberta-grown or produced goods. I strolled through the market and managed to pick up a few things.
Since it was only 9:30am, I thought why not head over to the West Edmonton Mall. It is the largest mall in North America with over 800 stores and services. The hard part is figuring out what entrance to park at so that you are closest to the stores you want to see. Besides all of the shopping, there is an indoor waterpark, hotel and an NHL-sized ice rink. I spent a couple of hours navigating the mall and getting to all of the stores that were on my list.
I was starting to get hungry and tired so I decided to pick up lunch from Banh Mi Zon on my way back to the hotel. The staff at the hotel were able to give me a new room but it was on the first floor. So I went packed up Room 222 and got settled into Room 106. A good part of the afternoon was spent relaxing and napping due to the crappy sleep I had last night.
At around 4:30pm, I made my way over to Robin and Leeann’s house. Darren, Robin and Jenn had not left for the Calnash Trucking Ag Event Centre so it was nice to hang out for a little bit. The three of them left around 5:00pm while Leeann and I stayed back. The show was scheduled for 8:00pm and since it was a 1-1/2 hour drive to Ponoka, Leeann and I left around 6:00pm.
When we arrived, we learned that the show would not be starting for at least another hour or so due to events for the Fall Classic All Breed Horse Show running behind. Since we had some time to kill, we headed over to A&W for a bite to eat. Once we got back, we did not have to wait long before the doors were open and we were allowed into the arena. By now it was 9:30pm.
The show started with Darren and Robin each arriving by horse drawn cart. What an entrance. For the next 1-1/2 hours, the guys sang a wide assortment of Elvis songs covering every decade. Besides singing from the stage which was a partial shipping container on a flatbed trailer, they made sure to get into the crowd. Everyone goes wild when they do that. It was a lot of fun and it was so nice to see both of them performing again.
The show ended at 11:00pm and Leeann and I left right away since our help was not necessary to tear down. We got back to the house at 12:30am and the rest of the gang arrived at 1:30am. Of course the night did not end there. We had to stay up and reminisce about the old times and I finally got back to the hotel just after 3:00am.
Be First to Comment