On Friday August 16th, I travelled from the cottage in Nordegg to Red Deer to pick up Chris. After we scouted around for a while we headed over to Rimbey. There we met up with Natalia, Arturo, Sharon and Margarit and had lunch together. After lunch we headed over to the Grand Hotel. We had pre-arranged to be here on this date, for another episode of the Beer Parlour project.
The turnout was reasonably good and we had a great time visiting with the staff and other patrons. I shot about eight or ten sheets of 4x5 film, plus a bunch of stuff with my smaller 35mm gear. We were told that business is not as brisk as it was in years past. Covid really put a dent into things... for all restaurants and bars. And in Rimbey, the Grand has significant competition from several other venues. Back in the day guests, and touring bands, would write something on one of the ceiling tiles. There was tiles from many of the great Arena Rock bands from western Canada that were big back in the day. This included Prism, Trooper, the Headpins, April Wine, Gerry Ducette, and more.
We got a laugh out of the roll of toilet paper that was hanging above the bar. It has a portrait of Justin Trudeau on every square....!
We also got a laugh out of the fact that the attached restaurant advertised an all day breakfast, but closed shortly after noon. It was dark and locked up when we arrived at about 3:00.
Once the evening wound down, Arturo and Sharon headed back to Edmonton. The rest of us headed west to Nordegg and settled in there for the night.
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