The two largest cities in Alberta are linked by the main but very busy Highway 2, they being Calgary in the South and Edmonton in the North.

There is an alternative for covering the vast prairie parklands region and I chose to follow Highways 21 & 56 which carry the name of The Boomtown Trail.

The name refers to the ability for travellers to visit the many small towns and some not so small that display the Boomtown architecture of their heydays. Some of the towns have adapted to modern purchasing methods and the ability for travellers to do what was once a two week journey at best into a single day's journey.

Others have fallen by the wayside and carry little more then a town limits signboard.

I left Calgary and travelled via the cropped fields of Southern Alberta noting the encroaching urbanisation East of Calagary as once fields of wheat and silage are now new housing developments.

Strathmore was the first town and as I had been there the weekend before for a round of the Canadian Short track Championships it was a drive by visit to visit in more detail Three Hills before heading North to Trochu,Rockyford where the local general store is owned by a Korean couple who have ëscaped"the urbanised scene"and happily settled in a small town where the store also supplies hot food, a butchery, deli and pretty much whatever else in the food line one may need even Cherry Blossom candy! Cherry Blossom was once to Canadian what Kit Kats are to Australians and Fry Cream Bars were to the British, sadly CB are not seen in the modern Canadian store but they graced these shelves next to the year round sales of fireworks. Trochu show remaining buildings from it's boomtime also.

The town of Deurnie was visited as it was once the home to friends. Delburne is the home to Anthony Henday museum which has a replica pioneer cabin and the former railway water tower

Then it was on to Erskine, named after the British jurist Thomas Erskine. The town holds a deep dark past as it was the site for then the worst mass slaying in Alberta when John Clark murdered seven citizens on June 3,1956 before committing suicide.

Stettler a town named after early Swiss settler Carl Stettler who also served on the first town council. He built the original National Hotel in 1906 barely one year after the settlement began. The site while renamed The Settler Hotel still operates to this day.

Passing by Rochon Sands Provincial Park I diverted into the home of the world's largest Lamp light (12m) in the town of Donalda. The local cafe owner thought his day was made but alas the tourists where only photographing the town murals and many vacant buildings as they made their way to a home cooked family meal in Camrose.

However before the meal a visit was made to Downtown Camrose which in August hosts thousands of Country music fans to the annual Big Valley Jamboree. Camrose is the location of some of the richest farming lands in The Prairies. Camrose is also the divide between The Prairie and the Boreal Forest lands known as Aspen Parkland after the large numbers of Aspen that flourish. The growing town of around 20000 serves the surround farmlands that use the Stoney Creek and Battle River for irrigation. However with lows of -40oC Camrose must rely on housing farm stock supported by locally produced silage for the winter months and so we saw enormous barns many times larger then the homes and machinery sheds on every farm. With lows like that one can understand why camrose is the home to the oldest (1911) ski club in Canada, The Camrose Ski Club (originally called Fram Ski Club by the Norwegians settlers who introduced ski jumps to the Canadians often attracting crowds of 3000 back in the 1930's), but then a popular sporting club in Camrose is the Camrose Swimming Club but it operates year round from a modern indoor pool at the recreation centre.

Not being able to catch up with any one of Camrose's 6 Olympic winter sports athletes we arrived at our supper venue.

The last few kilometers,covered in darkness as it was now well after 11pm after supper (dinner) with the relatives of Ernie who unfortunately had sold his motorcycle but as it was a Harley I wasn't too concerned but it did show that my ABC's of Motorcycle travel reaches well off the main highways indeed onto trails such as The Boomtown.