May 30, 2005

May 30, 2005

West Hawk Lake day 13 of 113

DAY 347

 

Today was a beautiful, warm, sunny day, from beginning to end.

This morning I made some phone calls, from the pay phone. Our cell phone reception in the campground is almost non-existent. I used the pay phone to conduct some business, dialling toll free numbers, while Joanne drove out towards Falcon Lake to use the cell phone to phone our sisters to advise them that we'll be coming to Winnipeg tomorrow, and would like to mooch meals from them. I telefiled Misty Venture's quarterly GST remittance report, then phoned Ontario's Ministry of Transportation. I returned three license plates to Ontario last August for cancellation and refunds, and have not heard anything back from them yet. After being on hold for 15 minutes, I got an agent who pulled up my 3 license plate numbers, and they all show as being cancelled and refunds issued. Great ! That probably means the refunds were in the batch of November mail that Sharon forwarded to us in December, which we never received. The agent assisting me initiated a trace on the three refund cheques, and somebody, some day, will get back to me. I'll try not to hold my breath !

After lunch I installed the second tow hook on the front of Dee-Dee, then filed the fibreglass repair on the dually hip. It's ready for drilling and reinstallation of the mud flap. I unloaded the firewood in the back of the truck. We've been towing a load of firewood from the Missouri Ozarks since last November. We didn't have many camp fires this winter. We cleaned and waxed another section of the trailer. Finally, we went on a hike. West Hawk Lake campground is built around a huge granite rock outcropping. There is a hiking trail up, over, around, and back down the cliffs overlooking the lake. It's a short, but difficult hike that takes about an hour. Of course, we took a garbage bag with us, and picked up a lot of litter. Some of it's too disgusting to mention. When we got back down the cliff, at the water's edge beside Miller Beach, Bo needed a drink from the lake. He walked into the lake until he began to float, then had his drink. He sure does like to play around in water. I hope the algae that has just bloomed on the lake won't upset his stomach. We got back to our site, and visited with Elvira, the maintenance supervisor. We took Bo for a training session, then I left to go fishing at Star Lake, about 3 km. away. I fished for about 2 hours. Didn't catch anything, but it was very pleasant to sit on the dock, in the sun, on a warm day, watching ducks and loons.

I returned to West Hawk for a late supper, then we did a walk around the campground, meeting and greeting and offering assistance to today's arrivals.

DSK

May 29, 2005

May 29, 2005

West Hawk Lake day 12 of 113

DAY 346

 

Today was partially cloudy and cool, and partially sunny and warm. It rained a bit in the afternoon.

I've had quite a busy evening, meeting and greeting and assisting incoming campers arriving after the campground office had closed. There's been 6 so far. A couple from Kelowna in a Class B van conversion, a 3 generation family from Quebec in a large Class A motorhome, a man from Calgary in a tent, a couple from Holland in a Class B van conversion, a pair of men from Germany in a Class B, and a couple from ? in another Class B. Lots of Class B van conversions in tonight.

I got up early this morning, walked Bo, showered, then fell asleep again until noon. I spent the afternoon doing maintenance and improvement projects on Dee-Dee. First, I continued the fibreglass repair on the dually hip. I did the third and last application of fibreglass. Tomorrow I will file it to finish it and it will be ready for drilling. When we go to Winnipeg in a few days I will try to buy the rubber I need to rebuild the fender flap. After the fibreglass repair I replaced the curb side battery tray. I disconnected both batteries, removed the curb side battery, removed the battery tray, installed the new battery tray, replaced the battery, reconnected both batteries, and then, the toughest part of the job, reset the radio. Once I disconnected both batteries, the radio lost all its settings in memory. This radio has too many bells and whistles for an old man. Whatever happened to on / off / volume and tuning knobs ? Automobile radios shouldn't need an operator's manual that looks like a bible. Finally, I worked on installing a pair of tow hooks under the front bumper. A heavy duty truck like Dee-Dee needs front tow hooks, I think. I only got one of the two installed. The rechargeable drill ran out of juice after drilling one side. It's pretty tough to drill half inch holes through a vehicle frame with a wimpy rechargeable drill. I'll install the other side tomorrow.

I walked around the campground, meeting and greeting. I cleaned up the 3 sites occupied over the weekend by a group of young adults in section D. I filled an entire garbage can with the litter left behind by 6 people camped for 2 days. Sheesh ! Joanne left to go to Falcon Lake for some groceries, and about that time, the campground office closed. Then campers started arriving. First were the family from Quebec. None of the 4 adults spoke English, and my French is pretty weak. I got them into a site suitable for their rig, and was able to direct them to the bathrooms and showers. When Joanne returned from Falcon Lake, she was able to be of more assistance to them than I was. We barbecued a great supper, and while it was cooking, we cleaned and waxed another section of Harvey. I walked around the campground again, making sure all the late arrivals were comfortably set up. I chatted at length with the man from Calgary. I brought him back to our site to show him photos of New Mexico and Arizona. When I got to the trailer, Joanne was chatting with Dan and Robbie, the 2 Park Patrol staff on duty tonight. When they all left, two deer came out of the woods and began grazing behind the picnic shelter. I rushed over to the van with the 2 men from Germany, to see if they were interested in seeing Canadian wild life up close. They were ! They came out and took pictures with a movie camera and a still camera while the 2 young deer grazed and nuzzled one another. I started to work on today's accounting and journal entry at the picnic table at dusk, but I was getting eaten by mosquitoes so I came indoors. First encounter with mosquitoes here. Guess it won't be the last !

DSK

May 28, 2005

May 28, 2005

West Hawk Lake day 11 of 113

DAY 345

 

Today started out cloudy and cool, but warmed up considerably in the afternoon when the sun began to shine.

This morning we took Bo out to play with two Leon Berger dogs belonging to one of the park staff. The older one is 22 months old, and the pup is 14 weeks old. The pup is twice the size of Bo, and weighs over 30 pounds. The older dog is the size of a pony ! They both have very nice temperaments. They are a giant breed of dog, and Bo seemed a bit overwhelmed at the older one's size, despite the fact the he would roll over onto his back and submit to Bo. I spent the morning working on the interior step from the living room up to the bathroom. The step was loose. I had to measure very carefully, and drive screws into the back of the step, from inside the pass through storage compartment. It was rather difficult to squeeze myself into the storage compartment, and work in there.

We had lunch, then I took a nap. Courtney and Joe came over. We had filled out some forms and a contract that Courtney came by to pick up, and we had a form that had to be filled out with her. We took Bo for an obedience training session. He's almost back to where he was before Saskatchewan. Once we stayed at the park in Saskatchewan with all the rabbits, and then again at my sister's yard filled with rabbits and mice, he regressed a great deal in terms of obedience and behaviour. We cleaned litter out of half of loop A. We’re not responsible for cleaning litter, but I really hate litter in a campground setting. Actually, as I type this, I realize I hate litter anywhere ! I walked around the entire campground, doing my job, which consists of meeting, greeting, and assisting campers. The campground host's responsibilities are akin to being a campground ambassador. We like it. It's certainly not hard work. It beats inventorying endless containers of chemicals of all sorts, like I did at C.A.R.E in Livingston, Texas in January. We cleaned and waxed another section of the trailer. I worked some more on the fibreglass repair I'm doing to the dually hip where the mud flap ripped out. I filed the first application of fibreglass I applied the other day. I thought one application would be enough, but after filing I realized that 2 or 3 applications will be necessary. I did the second application today.

I sat at the picnic table and watched two deer grazing for quite awhile. It's lovely to be in this kind of environment, with deer as daily visitors. We barbecued for supper. After supper, we had an arranged "date" watching a movie. It's been a long time since we've had a "date", and an even longer time since we've had a "date" with a dog cuddled between us on the couch.

DSK

May 27, 2005

May 27, 2005

West Hawk Lake day 10 of 113

DAY 344

 

Today was cloudy and cool, with frequent rain. Actually, that was a good thing for today. This weekend is the second most troublesome weekend of the year in Provincial Parks. The Victoria Day long weekend has an alcohol ban in the campgrounds. This is the first weekend of the year that campers are allowed to have booze in the campgrounds. Today's weather kept most of the problems back home in the city. There are only 8 campers in the campground tonight last time I checked with the office. And it's too cold and wet to inspire them to sit around a campfire drinking themselves into oblivion.

It was too cool and rainy this morning to do outdoor chores, so we decided to go exploring by truck. We drove west on Hwy. 44 to Caddy Lake, then north on Hwy. 312 to Long Pine Lake at Ingolf, Ontario. We thought there would be more of a town at Ingolf. There's really nothing at Ingolf except a lodge and convenience store, and a few cottages. We drove back to Caddy Lake to explore the campground there. It's been about 30 years since we've been to Caddy Lake campground, and it certainly has changed a lot. What used to be the waterfront campground is now the site of a lodge and rental cabins business. The campground is now behind that, away from the lake, on swampy land. We drove back towards West Hawk on Hwy. 44, then turned south a short distance on Hwy. 301 to Star Lake. Last weekend one of the West Hawk staff had told me about an unmarked public dock at Star Lake where the walleye fishing might be good. We drove down one of the Star Lake cottage access roads and found the unmarked public dock and beach. What a great beach. I hope we have an opportunity this summer to go there with Madeleine and Amelia. We had packed a picnic lunch, and were going to have a picnic at Star Lake, but it was cold and drizzling, so we drove back to West Hawk and had lunch in the trailer.

After lunch I napped for awhile. Cold, rainy days inspire me to snooze. Same with Teddy and Bo, apparently. After napping, I took the laptop and headed to Major's Service Centre about 2 km. down the road, to use their computer phone jack. They have a public use computer with Internet access. I just unplugged their computer from the phone jack, and plugged in my laptop. I retrieved e-mail, and updated my blog for the first time in 10 days. I would still like to find a better arrangement for modem access. The woman who owns Major's doesn't seem too thrilled with me unplugging their computer to plug mine in. When I returned to the trailer, I found Joanne sitting with Courtney, our "boss", and Joe, one of her colleagues. Courtney had finally come by to meet us, give us campground host hats, shirts, name badges, and documents relating to the campground host positions and responsibilities, etc.. It's about time ! We chatted for a long time, and she left everything with us to review. There is a contract we need to fill out. There's posters and activity books for children. There's orientation and training manuals for us. Bo spent much of this meeting on Joe's lap, licking him on the face. We talked at length about the noise from the bar adjacent to the campground. Last night was terrible, as it had been the previous Thursday. The bar gets around the rule that prohibits them from having the speakers on the patio on after 11:00 P.M. by cranking up the volume inside the bar to a horrendous level, so that customers on the patio have loud music. Every minute or two the door from the bar to the patio opens, and the music inside blasts out at an obnoxious level. This went on from 11:00 P.M. until 1:30 A.M.. I could hear the thumping of the bass while I was inside the shower house at 11:30 last night, and that's about 1000 feet from the bar ! Additionally, the bar patrons outside on the patio seem to communicate with one another mostly by screaming and shouting and shrieking and hollering at the top of their lungs. I don't know ! I remember what it's like to be young, and hanging around bars. I don't recall that it was necessary to shriek and whoop every couple of minutes ! ! !

Gawd ... I've turned into Old Man Sackerson ! ( A customer on my newspaper carrier route when I was a child )

We walked around campground loops H and C, picking up litter. We walked Bo on a training session. We chatted with the middle aged woman in the truck camper on our loop. She and her husband are from Peterborough, headed west. We had supper, and while Joanne went to Crescent Beach Cottages across the road to do some laundry, I put on my official campground host cap and went wandering around the campground, saying hello, introducing myself, etc.. That's my job ! I gave a Provincial Parks poster and Provincial Parks activity book to a couple of young children. I stopped at the campsite where three young women were sitting at their picnic table, surroundedby beer cans and pop cans all over the ground, and offered them some garbage bags. Subtle and diplomatic, eh ? Two of the women seemed somewhat preoccupied by their friend puking her guts out. And it's only 9:00 P.M. on Friday night. You might want to consider drinking those beers a little slower, girls.

DSK

May 26, 2005

May 26, 2005

West Hawk Lake day 9 of 113

DAY 343

 

Today was mostly cloudy, and quite cool. When I went outside this morning to do some chores, I put Bo out on his chain. After working on the other side of the trailer from where he was for about 15 minutes, I went around to check on him. He was shivering ! Poor baby Bo. Little Alabama dog isn't hardy enough for The True North Strong And Free < snicker >.

We still haven't seen our "boss" Courtney, after being here for 9 days. If we were younger, I suppose that might result in us spinning our wheels. At our age, and at this point in our lives, we'll just use this to our advantage. We are extremely annoyed at not seeing her, and not receiving any guidance, or having our responsibilities defined, or her expectations for us explained. However, we'll just define the job for ourselves, thank you very much. We've answered a few questions from campers. We've lent a few items to campers. We've cleaned up quite a bit of litter after the long weekend. Okay ! ! !

We met this morning with Paul Duncan, a real estate agent from Falcon Lake, and the listing agent for Mad Dogs, the snack bar at the Manitoba border Information Centre that's for sale. I reviewed the financial statements, and we explained to Paul what we're looking for, in general terms. This particular business is interesting, but from my perspective, a tad over priced. That's probably a function of an owner who's not really all that serious about selling ... yet ! We saw a lot of those in the world of PET VALU franchisees.

I worked on making some phone calls, but could not get decent cell phone reception in the trailer. After a bunch of dropped calls, and calls where the reception was terrible, I gave up. We drove to Falcon Lake. Joanne did grocery shopping while I sat in the truck with the cell phone and the laptop and made phone calls. I phoned Roger Gran-Ruaz, my investment broker in Ottawa, to get some money. When we started this journey, I had kept as much cash as I thought we would spend in a year. After 49 weeks, we're out of money, so I didn't do too badly on budgeting. I phoned Mechtronics, the repair shop in Tillamook, Oregon that rebuilt Dee-Dee's transmission a month and a half ago. I had sent them an e-mail shortly after leaving Tillamook, with some questions I had. They did not respond, so today I phoned them to get a response to my questions. I tried phoning Ontario's Ministry Of Transportation to get some information on the 3 license plates that I sent back to Ontario for cancellation and refund last August. I've received no refund, and no response to 2 previous letters I've sent them. After getting a lot of run around, and buck passing, I finally gave up when Joanne returned to the truck after finishing grocery shopping. I'll resume my efforts another time. Some governmental agencies and bureaucracies make it nearly impossible to deal with them.

After returning to West Hawk, I wasn't feeling well, so I took a long nap. While I napped for a couple of hours in late afternoon, it rained. I got up for supper, then spent the evening working on the computer, setting up new bank account information, and updating financial records. We watched half a movie on CBC, but the reception was poor, and it became too difficult to watch a movie about Cirque du Soleil that was so visual, with such a bad picture. I took Bo out for a long evening walk. He was demanding to go outside. He had been inside all day except for a brief period this morning. He's very high energy, and gets restless when he's been cooped up inside the trailer all day.

DSK

May 25, 2005

May 25, 2005

West Hawk Lake day 8 of 113

DAY 342

 

Today was partially sunny, and a bit cool.

When I opened the trailer door first thing this morning there was a deer standing just outside the door munching on tree buds. We startled each other. My first job this morning was to install a trailer hitch on the truck, to tow the waste water tote to the sanitary dump. Then I brought the tote down off the roof of the trailer. We spent part of the morning, and part of the afternoon, using the tote for the first time, to dump all the holding tanks. It took a long time, but we were learning by trial and error. Now that we've ascended the learning curve, and know what we're doing, and how, it shouldn't be too onerous a task on a weekly basis. If we use Harvey's internal facilities sparingly, we should only have to empty the tanks weekly. The first one to fill after our first week here was the kitchen tank, from washing dishes. The tote was almost full after dumping the kitchen holding tank and I had to tow it to the dump using the truck. The toilet tank, and the shower tank each filled the tote only about halfway, and I was able to pull the tote to the dump by hand.

While Joanne did laundry across the highway at Crescent Beach Cottages, I drove to Major's Service Centre to buy a fishing license. Back at the trailer, I did some tax accounting, and paid some bills. We walked Bo, and cleaned loop B of the campground. I have decided to clean the litter from one loop of the campground per day. After tidying loop B we did a training session with Bo. Then I went off to fish for a few hours. I didn't catch any fish, but I did watch a pike follow my lure all the way to shore without taking it. I shared my rocky point with a pair of loons, and a beaver. I saw the beaver swimming toward shore right where I was fishing, so I stopped moving and sat there quietly. It swam to within about 20 feet of me, then saw or smelled me. It slapped the water loudly with its tail, and dived under, resurfacing a couple of hundred feet away. I'm enjoying all the wild life we're seeing here.

Still haven't seen our "boss" !

DSK

May 24, 2005

May 24, 2005

West Hawk Lake day 7 of 113

DAY 341

 

Today was cloudy and cool, with rain all afternoon. The day started out poorly and ended poorly.

This morning I prepared myself a cup of coffee, without the cup. What a brain fart ! I put coffee and water in my one cup coffee maker, closed the lid, pushed the start button, and walked away. Forgot to put a cup under the spout ! Quite a mess to clean up !

We spent most of the day in Kenora, running errands. We left late in the morning, heading east on Manitoba Hwy. 1 / Ontario Hwy. 17 for 55 km. / 33 mi. to Kenora, Ontario. First stop was the Information Centre, all the way through town, on the eastern edge of the city. From there it was all the way back through town to the hospital on the west side. The Information Centre sent us to the hospital, as Kenora doesn't have a walk in clinic. Joanne was going to go to a walk in clinic to get the referrals she needs to have the cancer follow up examinations she needs. At the hospital, she was sent hither and yon, just to get an appointment in three weeks with a nurse practitioner who apparently can arrange the referrals / appointments she needs for the examinations and tests she needs. From the hospital we headed for the Bank Of Montreal to open new accounts. This branch of the bank is on the Lake Of The Woods water front, and has its own dock. I've never seen banking by boat before. They weren't able to take care of us immediately, and gave us an appointment for 45 minutes later. We walked over to Canadian Tire ( also on the water front, and not only does it have a dock, it has a marina ) and I bought some hardware I need to rebuild and replace the dually mud flap. Back to the bank, where it took over 2 hours to open 2 new accounts, a Canadian dollar account, and a U.S. dollar account, and link them to our Canadian and U.S. MasterCards. Opening bank accounts is not as simple as it used to be ! After the bank, we had a very late lunch, then headed to Wal-Mart for some supplies, then Extra Foods for some groceries. Joanne discovered that she had lost about ten dollars worth of Extra Foods grocery vouchers received as fuel discounts when filling up Dee-Dee. Finally, we filled up with diesel, and headed out of Kenora, west on Hwy. 17 back to West Hawk Lake.

It was a long day of running errands, made worse by bad weather. We got a late start, and by the time we got back to West Hawk,it was after 7:00 P.M. Supper for the animals was late. Supper for us was even later. While sitting down to eat supper, I knocked over my full glass of Diet Coke ! All over the table, all over everything on the table, all over the floor ! AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH ! ! ! !

The highlight of the day came while I was outside just before supper. Two deer came out of the bush, wandering through the campground, munching on tree buds. I tossed them some dog biscuits. They weren't interested. I tossed them some carrots. They liked those ! With patience, and tossing the carrots closer and closer to me, I managed to get the smaller ( younger ? ) of the two to finally come close enough to take a carrot from my outstretched hand. Cool ! I've never hand fed deer before.

I just went outside ( 11:15 P.M. ) to investigate the sound of a woman's loud voice. It was a young couple who had just stopped for the night, and were setting up their tent in the dark. Obviously things weren't going well. Been there, done that ! The woman was in tears. I startled both of them by approaching in the dark while they were obviously having an argument. Have a nice night, folks ! Things will look better in the morning.

DSK

May 23, 2005

May 23, 2005

West Hawk Lake day 6 of 113

DAY 340

 

Today was sunny and warm.

This morning I walked across the highway to the District Office to see if our boss Courtney was there. She wasn't. Today and tomorrow are her days off. I chatted with Tina, the Campground Attendant Supervisor and told her we still haven't had our responsibilities defined for us. She seemed a bit exasperated that Courtney still hasn't come over to see us. I spent the balance of the morning working on repairing the edge of the fibreglass dually "hip" where the bolts in the mud flap ripped through when I ripped the mud flap off trying to wedge the trailer into our site last Thursday. My fibreglass repair skills have improved with experience.

We had lunch, then I napped. We spent the afternoon cleaning and waxing another section of the trailer exterior. It's coming along well, and at this rate the entire trailer will be cleaned of bugs, tar, salt, and road grime, and waxed in 2 weeks. We took Bo for an obedience walk, then walked Bo and Teddy around the campground. It's almost deserted now. There's only a few other campers left. We got a couple of large garbage bags, and walked around cleaning up the litter left behind by this weekend's young campers. Once again, I guess if their mommies aren't around to clean up after them, they're content to live like pigs. I dislike litter anywhere, and I particularly detest it in a wilderness environment. What a lack of respect for the environment ! What ignorance !

We drove out of West Hawk, 2 km. south on Hwy. 44, then 2 km. east on hwy. 1 to the Manitoba Tourist information Centre at the Ontario border. We had 2 reasons for going there. First of all, we wanted to see the snack bar adjacent to the Tourist Information Centre that is for sale. Joanne found the listing in Friday's newspaper. Secondly, I needed to retrieve the MasterCard bill online, and we can't get a digital cell signal in the campground, only an analog signal. We had been told that we could get a digital signal at the Tourist Information Centre. I went into the snack bar called Mad Dog's, and chatted with the owner as if I were a customer, while Joanne phoned her sister. She had phoned her earlier from the campground, but kept losing the call due to a weak cell signal. Mad Dog's sells ice cream, soft drinks, Slushies, and that sort of stuff, as well as hot fast foods like burgers and fries. We'll phone the listing agent in Kenora tomorrow and get more information. I climbed into the back of the truck, hooked up the laptop to the cell phone, and retrieved the MasterCard bill. We drove back to West Hawk, and went to a local business called Major's Service Centre, a convenience store and gas bar that we were told has internet access available. I chatted with the employee there about their internet access service. She didn't know much. I'll have to go back some other time and talk to the owner.

We returned to the campground. I filled a large garbage bag to overflowing with litter left in two campsites' fire pits. I really, really, really detest campers who think that fire pits are garbage cans ! ! ! Filthy, wet towels, drinking glasses, aluminum cans, clothes hangers ... all tossed into the fire pits !

We barbecued a late supper in a peaceful campground. I worked on today's journal while I barbecued, listening to song birds. A pleasant change from the loud music we've been subjected to all weekend. Joanne noticed last night as she walked back from the bathroom that 2 young women were so engrossed in opening their car doors and trunk to allow the loud music out that they failed to notice the deer walking across their campsite behind them.

DSK

May 22, 2005

May 22, 2005

West Hawk Lake day 5 of 113

DAY 339

 

Today was sunny and warm, until evening, when it began to rain heavily again.

Today was another fairly lazy day. This morning after showering, I made myself a cup of coffee, and wandered around the campground, chatting with various staff. I chatted with the office staff about good fishing locations, here at West Hawk and a few miles away at Star Lake. We still haven't met with Courtney. One of the reasons I'm anxious to talk to her is to ask if there is somewhere that I can have access to a phone line, for modem access. The cell signal I receive here is analog only, preventing me from using the cell phone to connect to the internet.

This afternoon I puttered around with some minor maintenance chores, then washed and waxed a small section of the trailer. While in Winnipeg I bought a new bug and tar remover with wax. It works like a waterless wash and wax. I've decided to tackle a small section of the trailer on a daily basis, and clean all of it over about a 2 week period, on a repetitive, constant basis. The previous method I've employed isn't working well. Every 2 to 3 months, when the trailer is so grimy that it's grey instead of white, and the front is black with bugs, we wash it top to bottom. It's hard to find places that will allow washing of the trailer, and doing the entire trailer all at once is a huge job. I see most other RV'ers cleaning small sections of their rigs on a daily basis, and I'm going to give that a try.

We barbecued burgers for supper, the first time we've barbecued since arriving here at West Hawk. We're taking Bo for frequent walks. This is a nice place, and we all like it.

I am, however, a little disgusted with finding that every time I go to the bathroom, the urinals and toilets are not flushed. Joanne says it's the same thing in the women's bathroom. I guess if this generation of young adults doesn't have their mommies along to hold their weenies, wipe their asses, and flush the urinals and toilets for them, it's not going to happen !

DSK

May 21, 2005

May 21, 2005

West Hawk Lake day 4 of 113

DAY 338

 

Today was cloudy and cool, with rain all day. The rain finally stopped, and the sky cleared around 7:00 P.M..

The picnic shelter behind our campsite was occupied all day by wet, young campers seeking refuge from the rain. They came over three times today. Once to borrow an axe, once to borrow a saw, and once to borrow a can opener. We haven't yet seen our boss, to have our job responsibilities defined to us, but apparently, according to the maintenance staff, being here, being friendly and helpful, and lending a can opener occasionally is just about the extent of our responsibilities. I guess I can live with that. It's certainly not the toughest job I've ever had. As soon as the rain stopped, there was a mass exodus out of the campground, to the bar at the West Hawk Inn beside the campground. I've just walked Bo, at 10:00 P.M., and the bar is really hopping ! Loud music, loud voices, lots of whooping and hollering. The Park Patrol staff at the campground entrance say they are expecting the worst tonight when the bar closes. The kids have been cooped up all day because of the rain, and they seem pretty rangy tonight. Joanne commented awhile ago that the young campers of today seem like a different species than us. It's true that when we were young campers 30 years ago, we weren't the same. But her comment still makes me chuckle. We've become our parents !

Today was a day conducive to doing nothing. Despite the fact that I have plenty of work that needs to be done, including much that could have been done indoors on a rainy day, we mostly did a lot of nothing today. I got up early, walked Bo, went for a shower, had a cup of coffee while reading yesterday's newspaper, then went back to sleep until noon. After lunch, we napped all afternoon. Nice work if you can get it ! HA HA HA ! We watched a movie that I picked up at one of the Escapee parks' video exchanges, a 1940 film starring W.C. Fields, called the Bank Dick. I walked in the rain to the convenience store beside the West Hawk Inn and bought today's newspaper. I read the paper for awhile, and then when it finally stopped raining, I went outside and did today's 10 minutes of preventive maintenance. We had the last of our Alberta perogies for supper. We watched the last half of a movie on CBC about the Jamaican Olympic bobsled team called Cool Running.

DSK

May 20, 2005

May 20, 2005

West Hawk Lake day 3 of 113

DAY 337

 

Today started out cloudy and cool, but by early afternoon the sky had cleared, and it warmed up. It turned out to be a very pleasant day, and warm evening. I am typing this sitting at the picnic table beside our trailer at 11:30 P.M. Bo is sitting on the picnic table beside me, snapping at moths attracted to the lantern light. The campground is quiet. The much anticipated drunkenness and rowdyness is non-existent tonight. Let's hope that lasts for the entire weekend. The Park Patrol staff are on duty until 5:00 A.M., and are making their presence obvious. So are the RCMP who drive through the campground every couple of hours.

We wanted to go out to buy some groceries at Falcon Lake this morning. Since we still had not met with our "boss" Courtney Killaby, I went to the campground office to find out when we might expect her. I didn't want to be out at Falcon Lake when she came by. Courtney was going to be working the "long weekend late shift" tonight, from 7:00 P.M. to 5:00 A.M., so Sylvia said we should expect that Courtney would come by some time this evening. She didn't ! We are still uncertain of what our job responsibilities are, but obviously not much is expected of us this weekend.

We started out by driving around and exploring a bit. We drove around West Hawk Lake townsite. It was smaller than we expected. A couple of resorts, a couple of gas stations, none with diesel, a bar, a restaurant, a marina, our short stay campground, and a seasonal campground with semi-permanent sites. We drove northwest on Hwy. 44 all the way to Caddy Lake. We turned around, and drove down the back road route to Falcon Lake, which is 11 km. / 7 mi. from West Hawk, if you take the main highway. Falcon Lake has a medium sized, full line grocery store. We bought some groceries, then I walked over to the nearby bakery and bought some baked goods. We drove around Falcon Lake townsite. It too was smaller than we expected. A few resorts, grocery store, convenience store, restaurant, bakery, doctor's office, two short stay campgrounds, and a golf course. We drove into the main campground to introduce ourselves to the Falcon Lake campground hosts, but the designated campground host site was vacant.

We drove back to West Hawk, had lunch, read the paper, I napped ... nice work if you can get it ! I spent the late afternoon and early part of the evening puttering around with some maintenance chores, and wandering around the campground, introducing myself to staff. The lady who has the firewood concession for this campground showed up around 5:00 P.M. and set up beside the large picnic shelter behind our campsite. She came over and introduced herself, and chatted with Joanne while I did some repairs on the roof of the trailer. While trying to shoe horn into this site, I did some minor damage to the radio antenna mounted on the roof of the trailer. I had to repair it, and reseal it with rubber roof cement. We had pizza for supper, then walked around the campground with Bo. We did that quite a few times today. Bo likes this place. So do we. Ann, the firewood lady had started a fire in the huge stone fireplace in the picnic shelter, so after she left, we took over her campfire in the picnic shelter, and spent the evening in there with Teddy and Bo.

It was a lovely, peaceful, relaxing day.

DSK

May 19, 2005

May 19, 2005

West Hawk Lake day 2 of 113

DAY 336

 

Today started out cloudy and cool, but got warmer as the day progressed.

We spent much of today sitting around waiting for Mark from maintenance to come and trim some tree limbs, and for Courtney, the Park Ranger / our "boss". Courtney never did show up. We’re still awaiting some orientation and training from her. Mid-morning, Mark showed up and cut some large limbs from a birch tree at the back of our campsite, to enable us to get Harvey into our site by entering from the rear, from the main campground road. At the same time as Mark showed up, so did Elvira. I gather that Elvira is the supervisor of the campground staff. We chatted for awhile while Mark and a female colleague trimmed the birch tree. Chatting with Elvira has left me somewhat concerned about vandalism and theft problems in this campground. The large bar at the West Hawk Inn right beside the campground contributes in a big way to the problems of vandalism, theft, and rowdyism in this campground, especially on long weekends. Traditionally, the upcoming Victoria Day long weekend is the worst. It’s the first long weekend of camping season, and young people have a lot of steam to blow off after the long, hard winter.

After they left, we carefully squeezed Dee-Dee and Harvey through the trees, and into the campsite. We really had to squeeze them in. Once in, we realized that one more limb needed to be removed, to enable us to extend our bedroom slide. Mark drove by, and I stopped him to ask that he return to cut one more limb. He said he would be back later. Apparently he forgot ! We did not finish setting up the trailer in the site, nor did I unhitch, because I knew I would have to back them out of the site to allow the limb to be removed. We spent most of the afternoon waiting for Mark’s return. We took a long walk around the entire campground. There was only one other camper in the campground. At the far north end of the campground, we found the camper’s beach, known as Miller Beach. Just east of Miller Beach, there is a rocky point jutting out into the lake that looks like an ideal place for fishing. I’m looking forward to some relaxing times fishing from that point this summer. We returned to the trailer, and I went to the campground office to request that Mark be called to come and trim the tree. It was staff quitting time. Sure enough, he had forgotten about us.He rushed over, I backed the truck and trailer out of the site, and he cut the limb. Finally, we were able to get settled in the site, unhitch the truck, get the slides extended, lower the stabilizers, and hook everything up. Our site has 30 amp electricity, and water. We will be using the bathroom and sinks in the trailer as little as possible, to minimize the frequency with which we need to dump the holding tanks. The campground bathrooms are within a couple of hundred feet, as are the showers. We need the exercise.

A couple of deer wandered by our site, munching on tree buds. That’s very lovely, except that they leave a scent that Bo then feels he must track. His “enthusiasm” when he picks up a scent is a little discouraging. He forgets all his training, and becomes completely undisciplined. This problem has been persistent since the campground in Saskatchewan with rabbits, and increased while at the Danelak’s, whose yard has many rabbits and mice.

It seems like we can only get 2 TV channels out here. CBC and TVOntario. YIKES ! Guess we’ll be playing a lot of Scrabble this summer.

DSK

May 18, 2005

May 18, 2005

Lorette to West Hawk Lake, Manitoba

DAY 335

 

Today was cloudy and cool.

Sharon treated us to a French Toast brunch this morning, then we hitched up and prepared to leave. We drove northwest on Hwy. 207 a short distance back to Hwy. 1, then east on Hwy. 1 to West Hawk Lake, about 140 km. / 85 miles away. West Hawk Lake is just a few miles west of the Ontario border, just a few miles north of Hwy. 1 on Hwy. 44. As we exited off Hwy. 1 onto Hwy. 44, we entered Whiteshell Provincial Park. We met Kristen at the park gate, introduced ourselves as the West Hawk Campground Hosts, and chatted for a few minutes. We proceeded to the West Hawk Lake Campground, and met Sylvia in the Campground Registration Office. She directed us to the Campground Host campsite, no. B-8. We drove over to the trailer dump station back out on Hwy. 44 beside the fire hall, and dumped our holding tanks. It was a struggle to get Dee-Dee and Harvey into the B loop of the campground. It proved impossible to get them into site B-8. We wrestled them into site B-7 with great difficulty, had a late lunch, then walked back to the Campground Registration Office to advise Sylvia that we couldn't get into site B-8 unless if significant tree trimming took place. She sent us to the Whiteshell Provincial Park District Office, across Hwy. 44 from the campground entrance. There we met Tina, who seems to be in charge of the campground staff. We chatted with Tina briefly, and she called for a couple of maintenance staff to come to our site to trim trees. We walked back across the highway, and down to the campground boat launch and docks, to see the lake and beach. Very nice. By the time we got back to our site, a couple of young men were there with an extremely long handled chain saw to trim tree limbs in our site to enable us to get Harvey in. They trimmed a bunch of limbs very quickly, loaded them into a truck, and were off. We made another attempt to back Harvey into the site. I still couldn't get in. AND ... in this attempt, I ripped a $137 dually mud flap off the street side rear. I was furious ! ! ! Joanne and I had a brief, but heated exchange about the mud flap incident. It left both of us angry and upset for the balance of the day. When the maintenance staff came by to pick up the last of the trimmed tree limbs, I advised them that we would require more tree limbs to be trimmed, to allow me to enter site B-8 from behind, from the main campground road. There's no other way for me to get into this site, and it's the site that's designated as the Campground Host site. None of the sites in this fairly large, but fairly old campground appear to be big rig friendly. We have encountered difficulty before trying to get our big rig into provincial campgrounds that were designed and constructed 40 or more years ago, when the largest things coming into the campgrounds were folding tent trailers. It was the end of their work day, so they will return tomorrow for more tree trimming.

We tried again to squeeze into site B-7, where we had already been parked for awhile awaiting the maintenance staff. We were so upset that we couldn't even manage to get into a site that we had already been in ! We moved over to site B-5, and will stay here until B-8 becomes accessible ... hopefully ! We walked around the campground, exploring a bit. We met Billie, from the janitorial staff. We had supper, then walked down to the lake again. The evening was becoming quite cool. Bo likes West Hawk Lake !

As I was returning to the trailer from the comfort station ( showers and bathrooms ) at dusk around 9:00 P.M. I had a close encounter with 4 young deer who were munching on the buds on the low hanging tree branches. I stopped walking, and they munched their way slowly closer and closer to me, until they finally scampered away when somebody else came walking down the road making noise.

DSK

May 17, 2005

May 17, 2005

Lorette, Manitoba

DAY 334

 

Today was sunny and warm.

After showering this morning, I sat down to have a cup of coffee and chat with Sharon. We engaged in a heated argument that blew the morning. What a waste of time ! Mine and hers ! You'd think that one of us would eventually get wise enough to learn from past mistakes, but apparently not !

Joanne and I spent the afternoon washing Harvey. < sigh > What a big, tough job. That included hitching up, relocating the trailer to the other side of the Danelak's circular driveway, then unhitching again. In addition to a great deal of road grime, the trailer was covered in little black spots that were almost impossible to remove. I don't know whether they were salt spray from the ocean, or acid rain, or road tar, or tree sap ? ! We scrubbed and scrubbed, using a bug and tar spray, and an abrasive scrub pad. I've got to try to figure out some better method and / or schedule for washing Harvey. When we finally finished washing the trailer, we cleaned up, changed, and headed out to run some errands before heading to Carlson's for supper. We filled up with diesel, picked up a part I special ordered from a GM dealer, and bought some beer for Bud. I would have liked to run more errands, but we were battling rush hour traffic, and Joanne said we had to start heading to Carlson's, more than a half hour drive from where we were shopping. I don't much like being in big cities any more.

We got to Carlson's, and gave Madeleine and Amelia some trinkets and souvenirs we had picked up for them during our travels this winter. Lorri and the girls gave Joanne her belated birthday gift, which served to remind me of the UPS / General Delivery fiasco in Livingston, Texas in January. We had dinner, then went outside to play with the girls in the back yard until their bedtime. I told them a silly bed time story, then while Lorri put them to sleep, we chatted with Doug for awhile about our upcoming summer "job" as Campground Hosts at West Hawk Lake. Before leaving the Carlson's, I retrieved e-mail and updated my blog. On the way back out to Lorette, we stopped at Wal-Mart in St. Vital Centre to pick up a few items, arriving just a few minutes before their 10:00 P.M. closing. Once back at the trailer, we did some evening chores, then I did today's accounting and journal.

On to West Hawk tomorrow !

DSK

May 16, 2005

May 16, 2005

Lorette, Manitoba

DAY 333

 

Today was sunny and warm. It was a really nice prairie spring day.

This morning after showering I phoned a local GM dealer to order a new battery tray for the truck. The existing one is corroded, and I think it would be wise to replace it. I received a phone call from the owner of a mobile, upscale coffee business on Vancouver Island, near Victoria. We saw the business as we drove up island from Victoria a month ago. We're sort of interested in the business concept. It's like Starbucks on wheels. I had taken some pictures, and left my name and phone number, with a request for the owner to call me. I found the two dinette chairs we left in storage here at Danelak's last summer, and returned them to the trailer. Joanne wants to have all four dinette chairs in the trailer for at least this summer while we're at West Hawk Lake. I took Bo for obedience training. He's still doing a little poorly, having regressed lately. We applied flea treatments to both Teddy and Bo, and administered Bo's heartworm medication. I just tell Bo it's a dog biscuit, and he scarfs the pill down. Stupid dog. I phoned Dawson Servicentre to check on the truck. They had diagnosed the problem and already had it fixed. It was a leaking rear axle seal. They replaced it, and cleaned the leaked / sprayed axle grease from the rear brakes. As soon as Bud was home, shortly after lunch, he drove me into town to pick up the truck. After paying the truck repair bill I went to the auto body shop behind the service station, and asked for an estimate on having the passenger side door repaired or realigned, or whatever would make it close easier. They gave me an estimate on having the hinge pins and bushings replaced, and in the meantime, did a "quick and dirty" body shop trick door realignment at no charge. When I got back to Danelak's, I washed the truck. By then it was late afternoon, and I decided Bud and I should retire to his new gazebo and have a brew. Bud had been working on spring yard work all afternoon. We sat in the gazebo, and each had a couple of beers. Joanne was in the trailer preparing supper for all. By the time Sharon returned from work, Joanne had supper ready. We had one of my favourite dishes, a wild rice and sausage casserole. We had supper early, as Bud had to go to Tae-Kwon-Do. I read the paper while Joanne and Sharon cleaned up after supper, then I brought Bo into the house for a bit of a visit. Andrea came home with her new boyfriend, Kevin. It was the first time Joanne and I met Kevin. I returned to the trailer, and worked on today's accounting and journal, waiting for Bud to return. When Bud returned home, I showed them the rest of our travel photos, then we sat around and chatted until late into the evening.

Hey ... the Northern Lights are out dancing again tonight !

DSK

May 14 & 15, 2005

May 14 & 15, 2005

Lorette & Winnipeg, Manitoba

DAYS 331 & 332

 

Saturday ; Today was cloudy and cold.

We spent most of the day doing "big city shopping". We've been putting off making some purchases lately, waiting until we were in Winnipeg. Lorette Marketplace for groceries, Canada One RV for RV accessories, Canadian Tire for auto supplies, Princess Auto for auto accessories, Wal-Mart for a vehicle battery and household supplies, Dollar Store for household supplies, Home Depot for some maintenance supplies, and finally Shoppers Drug Mart for some toiletries and cosmetics. By the time we were finished all that running around and shopping it was time to head to the Carlson's for supper.

When we arrived at the Carlson's, I went in first to brief the nieces on what to expect when meeting Bo, while Joanne waited for a minute in the truck with Bo. We got the girls dressed to go outside ( thanks to the fact that May in Winnipeg is considerably colder than Texas in January ) then we brought Bo into their back yard to meet the girls. After an exuberant meeting, we went for a long walk. Actually, I'm the only one who walked. Madeleine, Amelia, and Bo ran ! And Nash ! Nash is Doug's sister's son who was spending the weekend at the Carlson's while his parents do some renovations to his room. Nash lives with a large dog, so Bo was neither intimidating, nor particularly interesting to Nash. Overall, Bo behaved very well all evening. He seems to enjoy being around children, and behaves quite well around them. Doug was quite generous in allowing us to have Bo in the house, considering his allergies to animal fur. His allergy symptoms increased in severity throughout the evening, until we finally put Bo in the truck a couple of hours before we left. By then it was too late, I guess, as Doug continued to suffer from itching eyes and breathing difficulty. After the lengthy ordeal of putting the three children to bed was completed, we showed our travel pictures to Lorri and Doug, until everyone was tired and falling asleep.

 

Sunday ; Today started out partially cloudy, and a bit warmer. By early afternoon, the sky cleared, and the temperature warmed up quite a bit.

This morning I visited with Bud and Sharon while I had a cup of coffee before showering. After I showered, Joanne and I accepted their invitation to join them for a Sunday brunch of our old Kirby family recipe of apple fritters. We spent the balance of the morning, and half the afternoon, sitting around, chatting. I very unwisely brought Bo into the house, without taking into consideration that Lily the cat has never been exposed to dogs. Bo ran into the family room, and a moment later Lily came screaming out of the room, with Bo in hot pursuit. Lily ran across the house, and into the master bedroom, at which point Bo lost sight of her. Bo and Teddy play chasing games, so Bo thinks if a cat runs, he should give chase. Unfortunately, Lily doesn't understand that Bo is playing, and is not a threat. Being chased by Bo quite literally scared the shit out of Lily. I'm very sorry ! Rather stupid and inconsiderate of me !

Bud and I burned a CD on their new computer. It plays fine in Dee-Dee. I had burned a couple of CD's that I wanted to share with Bud, but my laptop burns CD's in a format that won't play in the truck, only on the computer. Doug's theory is that my laptop might burn CD's in an MP3 format which the CD player in the truck doesn't recognize. Anyways, the CD that I burned on Bud's computer plays fine in the truck.

We returned to the trailer to get some chores done, and allow Bud and Sharon to get on with their day. I did yesterday's accounting, and journal. The sun finally peeked out, and started to warm up the afternoon, so I went outside to get some outdoor chores done.

I spent way too long working up on the roof of the trailer, trying to secure the waste tote to the roof rack. I guess I'm a little paranoid about this heavy 32 gallon plastic tote flying off the roof of the trailer at 100 km. per hr. / 60 MPH and hitting the windshield of the car behind me. When I finished obsessing about that, I drove into Lorette and had a propane tank refilled. We refilled the fresh water tank, and connected the trailer to the Danelak's outside water hose, now that there seems to be no more risk of freezing over night. We joined Sharon, Bud, and Andrea for a supper of pistolettes, a Cajun dish that Sharon learned from a Cajun cookbook we sent to her when we were in Louisiana. After supper, Sharon, Bud, and Joanne watched the season finale of Survivor while I worked on burning some CD's. After much frustration, and 5 ruined CD blanks, I discovered that if I burn a CD onto my CD-R/W blanks, they won't play in the truck, but if I burn them onto Bud's CD-R blanks, they play just fine in the truck. Last thing I did was drive the truck into Lorette, and leave it at Dawson Servicentre. Bud followed me, then drove me home.

When I walked Bo just before midnight, the Aurora Borealis were rolling and dancing across the northern sky. Ahhhhh ... welcome home !

DSK

May 13, 2005

May 13, 2005

Lorette, Manitoba

DAY 330

 

Today was cloudy and cool.

Bo is behaving very badly. I'm angry and disappointed. He's unresponsive to commands that he has mastered long ago. He's unruly around Sharon and Bud. He's unruly in their house.

This morning I finished assembling the large waste tote, then hauled it up onto the roof of the trailer to see if it can be stored up there, tied down to the rail around the back of the trailer roof. It can. I need to buy some bungee cords for it. I took the truck to Dawson Servicentre in Lorette at noon. I had a service appointment at noon. They can't look at it until Monday ! I said I would bring it back Sunday night or Monday morning. There's no sense being without the truck for the entire weekend if they're not even going to start looking at it until Monday. Bud was with me because he was going to drive me back. When we got back to Danelak's, Joanne had made lunch, so Bud joined us in the trailer for lunch. I found another wood tick embedded into the top of Bo's head. After lunch, I worked on the truck batteries. The curb side / main truck battery has been boiling the last couple of days. Today it was boiling after just a short trip into Lorette and back. I removed the battery in anticipation of replacing it tomorrow. I was going to relocate the street side battery to the curb side, but I decided to clean the curb side battery tray first. It was so badly corroded that I broke 2 of the 5 bolts holding it in place. I removed the tray, cleaned it, and reinstalled it with only 3 of the 5 bolts. I'll have to buy a new tray and bolts very soon. I installed the battery from the street side over to the curb side. Everything was fine with that battery. I bought it in Potosi, Missouri in November, so it's almost new. I put the bad battery into the back of the truck. The sides of it are bulging outward, and the electrolyte inside has boiled away enough to expose the plates. It's a Canadian Tire battery with a manufacturing date of August 2001, with a 3 year total replacement / 8 year adjustment warranty. I'll go to Canadian Tire tomorrow and see if they will honour the warranty even though the battery was in the truck when I bought it, and consequently I don't have the original bill of sale for the battery. I cleaned up, then went into the Danelak's house to get online, retrieve e-mail, and update my blog.

When Sharon returned home from work, Bud and Sharon treated us to a wonderful roast beef dinner. After dinner, I spent the evening showing them photos of our travels, from September to February. We'll resume with March photos, perhaps on Sunday evening. We also listened to some of the music albums we bought on our travels, specifically a Zydeco album from Louisiana and a Native Blues album from the Sunshine Coast of B.C..

DSK

May 12, 2005

May 12, 2005

Brandon to Winnipeg / Lorette, Manitoba

DAY 329

 

Today was mostly sunny, but cold. Our outside water line froze over night !

This morning I did regular preventive maintenance, then prepared Harvey for departure. We drove across Meadowlark Campground to their dumping station, dumped the holding tanks, refilled the fresh water tank, then headed out, east on Hwy. 1. We drove into Portage La Prairie, filled up with diesel, bought some supplies for Bo at PET VALU, and bought groceries at Safeway. We ate lunch in the shopping mall parking lot. We drove though, and out of Portage La Prairie, continuing east on Hwy. 1 toward Winnipeg. We both had mixed feelings about the new phase of this adventure that is about to begin. Arriving in Winnipeg, visiting with family, then starting our West Hawk summer job for 16 weeks. We haven't been around family a lot lately. We haven't stayed in one place for 16 weeks since we started this journey.

On the west side of Winnipeg, we exited Hwy.1 and got onto Hwy. 100, Winnipeg's Perimeter Highway. We drove north around the west side of the city, then east around the south side of the city, then a bit south around the east side of the city, before getting back onto Hwy. 1 eastbound, for just a short distance to Hwy. 207. I don't understand why all cities don't have a ring road / Perimeter Highway ! A short distance southeast on Hwy. 207 towards Lorette, and we were at the Danelak's ! I backed into, and down their long driveway, and we were "home", so to speak. Bud was home when we got there. He came out to greet us. We went inside and greeted Andrea, and Lily the cat. Sharon arrived home an hour or so later. We chatted, had dinner, then watched The Apprentice.

Late in the evening, I returned to the trailer, and had to begin to figure out what to do with this huge waste tote I bought in Virden yesterday. It was still in the box. I stored it inside the truck last night, then put it on the bed this morning. I removed it from the box, threw the box outside, partially assembled it, then left it in the hallway outside the bathroom. I've got to deal with it first thing tomorrow. I did today's accounting, then today's journal.

DSK

May 11, 2005

May 11, 2005

Moosomin, Saskatchewan to Brandon, Manitoba

DAY 328

 

Today was sunny but cold. It's hard to accept that the forecast calls for snow tomorrow and / or Friday !

This morning Bo escaped out the door of the trailer. His behaviour was appalling ! He ran around the forest for about 15 minutes ignoring our commands and pleas. BAD, BAD DOG ! ! ! He ran around the forest, nose down, sniffing, oblivious to us ! Bad, bad dog ! His obedience training session this afternoon was back to basics, and very firm. I'm angry, and disappointed in him. Surround him with some rabbits, and he becomes wild !

This morning I removed and reinstalled the city water inlet AGAIN, cleaning off the pipe thread sealant I used, and sealing the threads with Teflon tape this time instead. I sure hope that stops the leaking into the wall. The carpet on the floor of the pass through storage compartment is soaked underneath a couple of large Rubbermaid totes I have in there. When we get to Winnipeg / Lorette, I'll remove the totes and leave the storage compartment door open for a few days to give it a chance to dry out in there. I crawled underneath the truck to investigate the fluid that has leaked onto the inside of the curb side rear tire. Yesterday I thought it might be a leaking brake line. Today I think it might be a leaking differential seal. I phoned my sister Sharon to let her know we will be arriving in her driveway tomorrow afternoon, and to ask her to make an appointment for me to take the truck in for service on Friday.

We left Fieldstone Campground late this morning, stopping in Moosomin to fill up with diesel before heading east on Hwy. 1. We passed from Saskatchewan into Manitoba. We stopped at the Manitoba Travel Information Centre, which is closed until Victoria Day, and had lunch in their parking lot. Does the Province Of Manitoba think that people only cross into Manitoba between Victoria Day and Labour Day ? ! I had to reset all clocks and watches today after crossing from Saskatchewan into Manitoba. Both provinces are in the Central Time Zone, but Saskatchewan doesn't observe Daylight Saving Time. Saskatchewan is on the same time as Alberta in the summer, and Manitoba in the winter. We stopped in Virden to buy some groceries, then as we were about to enter the highway again, on impulse I stopped at Four Seasons RV, a very large RV dealer. I was still looking for a 32 gallon waste tote, in stock, at a good price. We will need one for our summer job at West Hawk Lake. Our assigned site doesn't have a sewer connection, and I don't want to be moving the trailer every few days to the dump station. Four Seasons RV had what I wanted in stock, and at a good price. I negotiated an even better price. Old habits die hard !

We stopped for the night at Meadowlark Campground in Brandon. We walked Bo, working him hard, and firmly, bringing him back to an understanding about who is Alpha Dog, and who isn't ! Joanne made my favourite spaghetti recipe for supper. I did a bit of computer work, and we watched a bit of TV. Joanne did some laundry, washing the pants and jacket that I spilled Lucas diesel additive on while I was filling up with diesel this morning. While eating supper, I felt an itch on the side of my neck, and when I scratched it ... YIKES ! A wood tick embedded in the side of my neck. I haven’t had to deal with wood ticks since 1987, the last summer we spent in Manitoba before moving to Ottawa.

I need to figure out where to store this huge 32 gallon waste tote.

DSK

May 10, 2005

May 10, 2005

Moose Jaw to Moosomin, Saskatchewan

DAY 327

 

Today was sunny, but cold. The strong north wind blowing this morning was frigid ! It made this morning in Moose Jaw colder than anything we experienced in January in Texas !

With freezing hands, I did the regular preventive maintenance, then began preparing Harvey for departure. Getting my hands wet while refilling the fresh water and dumping the holding tanks was misery ! As we were pulling out of Prairie Oasis Campground, the phone rang. It was MasterCard phoning ( again ) to ask some questions about my application for a U.S. $ MasterCard. They also phoned yesterday. How many days in a row are they going to phone ? How many MasterCard employees does it take to process one application ? I shouldn't be surprised. I already knew that most bureaucracies of any kind have difficulty understanding and / or accommodating the affluent homeless. We headed east on Hwy. 1, as usual. We stopped in Regina to fill up with diesel, and to shop at Village RV. I wanted to see if they had two RV accessories I want. They didn't. In a parking lot adjacent to the service station where I filled up with diesel, I wanted to check out a potential problem under the truck. I discovered evidence of a fluid leak on the inside of the curb side inside rear tire. I think it might be a leaking brake line. While crawling under the truck, with the engine running, and Joanne in the driver's seat, I nearly had an accident / serious injury. It was a close call ! It left both of us quite upset for most of the rest of the day.

We stopped at Indian Head for lunch. We drove through to Moosomin where we stopped for the night at Fieldstone RV Park which is now privately owned, but used to be a Provincial Park. WOW ... what a great business coup. Buying a park that the province spends millions of taxpayer dollars developing, then decides that they don't want it any longer for whatever reason. We parked in our site, then took Bo for an obedience training walk. For the first time in a very long time, he did abysmally ! Prairie dogs, rabbits, snakes in the grass ... Terrier heaven. He couldn't focus. We gave up on training, and just went for a long leisurely walk. When we returned to the trailer, I found a wood tick on me. Later, while watching Amazing Race, I found 3 wood ticks on Bo. Uh-oh !

I went into the pass through storage compartment to get the computer printer. I discovered that the floor of the pass through storage compartment was wet. I think the city water inlet that I installed the other day must be leaking down into the wall, and then under the carpet of the storage compartment. < huge sigh > I'll try to identify and solve the problem tomorrow morning. I've got to admit that I'm getting discouraged by all the maintenance and repair chores that this lifestyle demands.

Our spirits are low tonight.

DSK

May 9, 2005

May 9, 2005

Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan

DAY 326

 

Today was sunny and warm.

We decided to stay here today and do chores. This morning I did regular preventive maintenance, then went to the motel office to pay for another night. I phoned the township of Herbert to get information on their serviced town lots for $1.00. Yeah ... it's true ! 50 ft. x 100 ft. lots with hydro, water, sewer, and gas, for $1.00. The only catch is that a home must be constructed on the site within a year. An RV port is not acceptable to them. Too bad. I took the laptop to the motel office, and plugged into their modem access phone jack at a desk in the lobby. It turned out to be an error in judgement. There was no Moose Jaw local AOL access phone number, so I used the 10 ¢ a minute 800 number. After being online for about an hour, with a very slow connection, and being bumped off a couple of times, I realized this was costing me more than the Wi-Fi service available in this campground. Talk about a brain fart ! Disgusted with myself, I signed off and went back to the trailer and connected through Wi-Fi. Once on Wi-Fi I retrieved e-mail, updated my blog, and retrieved updated investment data.

This afternoon I paid the Pensionable and Insurable Earnings / Canada Pension Plan shortfall owed by Misty Ventures & Developments. I did some business accounting. I did some maintenance work, installing the hardware I bought yesterday. I did some minor repair to the trailer's 30 amp power cord. We took Bo for an obedience training session, then gave him a bath.

Joanne did a lot of laundry, and vacuuming.

I barbecued supper, then brushed Bo while we watched a bit of TV. He sure is gorgeous after a bath.

DSK

May 8, 2005

May 8, 2005

Dunmore, Alberta to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan

DAY 325

 

Today was cloudy and cool.

After doing regular preventive maintenance this morning I climbed up on the roof and finished repairing the two spots on the roof. We prepared to leave, drove over to the one water spigot in the campground, and refilled the freshwater tank. We ran out of water this morning just as I was finishing my shower. We've never run out of water before. The limiting factor has always been the shower holding tank capacity. It always fills before either the toilet holding tank or the kitchen holding tank does, or the fresh water runs out. But Joanne used a lot of water cleaning the dust in the kitchen yesterday, so we ran out of water before any of the holding tanks filled.

We drove from the campground 6 km. down a gravel road ( very slowly ) back to Hwy. 1, then headed east on Hwy. 1. As we approached the Saskatchewan border, we passed the Alberta Tourist Information Centre on the opposite side of the divided highway, and noticing that there was a trailer dumping station, we made a u-turn, and went back to empty the holding tanks. We continued, heading east on Hwy. 1 again. We crossed into Saskatchewan. We switched drivers for awhile. Joanne drove for the first time in a very long time. She's only comfortable driving on relatively straight, relatively flat, divided highways. While she drove, I reclined the passenger seat back to snooze for a short time. When I woke up, the seat back mechanism had jammed, and I couldn't get the seat back to return to the upright position. < sigh > It was really difficult to sit upright with no seat back. The next time we stopped, I was able to fix it. We stopped in Swift Current, buying hardware at Canadian Tire, groceries at Co-op, supplies at Wal-Mart and a Dollar Store, and to refill with diesel. We ate a late lunch in the Canadian Tire parking lot. We considered stopping for the night in Swift Current, but it was a bit too early to stop for the day, so we decided to try for Moose Jaw. Back out onto Hwy. 1, eastbound.

We detoured off the highway again at the town of Herbert, just to take a peek at the town. The township has a billboard on the highway advertising serviced lots in town for $1.00 ! HA HA HA HA HA ! We had previously been told about this by another RV'er. Apparently some full time RV'ers have taken advantage of this opportunity, just to have a permanent fixed address in Canada. I took the phone number off the billboard, and will phone tomorrow and get more information. There must be a catch of some sort. I guess the township makes this offer just to get rid of town lots and increase the town tax base. It makes sense. Herbert is a small town, 50 km. / 30 miles from Swift Current, with not much going for it, at first glance.

After driving around Herbert, we got back out on the highway, headed for Moose Jaw. We drove quite a bit more today than we usually do, but driving across the Canadian Prairies is quite easy, and very boring. We made it to Moose Jaw, stopping at Prairie Oasis Motel and Campground. It's a large motel, and large campground, and entertainment complex with indoor swimming pool, waterslides, hot tubs, restaurant, mini-golf, etc.. We might stay here tomorrow and get caught up on laundry, e-mail, blog, and other chores. We need to give Bo a bath before we get to Winnipeg. He stinks ! I barbecued huge beef ribs for supper, served with baked beans, coleslaw, and a barbecued beet. Barbecuing a beet was something I wanted to try. It was great ! I let Bo gnaw on a beef rib bone after supper. I thought if he was going to get his chin all greasy chewing on a bone, it might as well be just before I give him a bath. WOW ... he sure can clean a bone !

DSK

May 7, 2005

May 7, 2005

Dunmore, Alberta

DAY 324

 

Congratulations to Joanne on her 4th anniversary as a cancer survivor. Four years ago today she underwent her first cancer surgery, following a diagnosis of ovarian cancer. I will never forget the agony of driving her to the hospital that morning, listening to her phone call with her sister. As we were driving to the hospital, Lorri phoned from Winnipeg elated about the birth of Amelia two days earlier, eager to share her joy with her big sister, unaware of Joanne's cancer diagnosis, or surgery scheduled for that day. Joanne was struggling to put on a "happy face" for her sister's phone call, while she hid her fear, and belief ( at that time ) that she faced a death sentence.

Today was cloudy and cool, with a light wind. It was a good day for outdoor maintenance work. I spent the whole day doing maintenance chores, while Joanne spent the whole day cleaning. Every nook and cranny was covered in dust from the gravel road the other day, including the contents of each drawer and cupboard. She removed everything from each cupboard and drawer, washed it all, then washed the cupboard and drawer interiors. I did the regular preventive maintenance, then started on repairs. First I got up on the roof, and did the first application of rubber roof cement on two cracked areas on the roof edge. First the areas needed to be cleaned, then rasped, before the application of rubber roof cement and reinforcing screening. Then I removed the Max Air vent cover from the bathroom roof vent, and cleaned both the Max Air cover, and the roof vent underneath. Having the bathroom vent fan assembly out for rebuilding created a good opportunity to clean the roof vent and cover. Next I removed and replaced the city water inlet. The one I bought yesterday has a traditional backflow check valve, like the original one that was installed in the trailer. The replacement one I purchased and installed a couple of months ago in Bakersfield, California, had a different, more modern style of backflow check valve. I wasn't very impressed with how it blew up the other evening, so I switched back to the traditional design. Then came the biggest job of the day. I disassembled the bathroom vent fan assembly, and rebuilt it using cannibalized parts I was able to buy yesterday at Cactus RV in Medicine Hat. They took me upstairs into their used parts storage area, and helped me find the obscure parts I needed. They have an inventory of essentially brand new parts, like roof vents, that get removed from trailers when they install upgrades. It was a long, difficult job to disassemble, rebuild, and reinstall the bathroom vent fans, but I felt a sense of accomplishment when it was done.

I made perogies for supper. MMMMM ! ! !

DSK

May 6, 2005

May 6, 2005

Taber to Dunmore, Alberta

DAY 323

 

Today was sunny and very warm.

I started the morning with regular preventive maintenance, then climbed up on the roof of the trailer to do a thorough examination of the edges. I found 2 more spots with some cracking that need to be repaired. I'll get to that within the next few days. We prepared the trailer for departure, then drove over to the trailer dumping station in the campground. We refilled the fresh water tank, and dumped the waste water holding tanks. That set us up for at least a couple of days of not requiring serviced campsites.

We headed east on Hwy. 3 towards Medicine Hat. We stopped at a small sausage maker in the town of Seven Persons, and bought some fresh sausages. Just as we approached Medicine Hat, we stopped at Bruce's RV Parts & Service. My list of repair parts required has grown in the last few days. I wanted to try to buy as many of the repair parts as I can get while we're still in Alberta, where there's no Provincial Sales Tax. I bought 2 of the 7 items I require. We continued into Medicine Hat, turning onto Hwy. 1. We stopped at the Tourist Information Centre. Joanne went in and got directions to 3 more RV dealers nearby while I walked Bo, then Teddy. We ate lunch in the parking lot of the Tourist Information Centre. Then we drove in the wrong direction, 10 km. west on Hwy. 1 to Redcliff, to Holiday RV. They had none of the 5 parts I still required. We drove back east on Hwy. 1, back through Medicine Hat, stopping at Cactus RV. They were very helpful and had 2 of the parts I required. Four down, three to go. We stopped at Wal-Mart, and while Joanne went in to do some shopping, I worked on RV repairs in the parking lot. When she was finished shopping, we filled up with diesel, and headed out, east again on Hwy. 1. About 10 km. out of town, we stopped at Sterling Trailer Sales. They had none of the remaining 3 items I still require. We continued east on Hwy. 1 another 10 km. to Dunmore where we stopped for the night at Cavan Lake Campground, a small unserviced campground operated by the municipality. We shoe horned into one of the little sites, then took Bo for an obedience training walk. I barbecued some of those nice fresh sausages I bought earlier today. We might stay here tomorrow, and I'll spend the day repairing things while Joanne continues cleaning the dust created by travelling on that gravel road yesterday.

DSK

May 5, 2005

May 5, 2005

Hill Spring to Taber, Alberta

DAY 322

 

Happy 4th Birthday, Amelia.

Today was sunny and very warm. Now that we're out on the open prairie, there's no hiding from the intense sunlight.

Joanne's objective for the day was to visit Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump Interpretive Centre. We phoned Amelia to wish her Happy Birthday, then left the campground, heading west on Hwy. 505 for about 15 miles, then north on Hwy. 6 for about 15 miles, back to Pincher Creek. We stopped in Pincher Creek to fill up with diesel, and buy groceries. We asked ourselves again this morning "how do we know we're back on the Canadian Prairies" ? 1. The frozen food section has 8 feet dedicated to different brands of perogies. 2. There are drunk Indians on Main Street before noon ! For my American friends who don't know what perogies are ; NYAH NYAH NYAH ! HA HA HA HA HA !

We drove out of Pincher Creek heading north on Hwy. 6 a short distance to Hwy. 3, then east on Hwy. 3. We decided to take a back road shortcut to Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump, so we turned north on Hwy. 785. After a few miles, Hwy. 785 became a gravel road. We drove 35 km. / 20 miles on gravel. When we got to Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump, we went to put Bo in the trailer while we went into the Interpretive Centre. I opened the door to the trailer, and it looked like the inside of the trailer was filled with smoke. I stepped into the trailer, coughing and choking, realizing the cloud inside was dust ! Today's lesson was ; never drive the rig for a long distance at high speed over a gravel road ! The next thing I found was that the cap on the sewer drain under the trailer was missing, shattered by flying gravel underneath the trailer. < sigh >

We spent the afternoon at Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump, a historic site where buffalo were driven over the edge of a cliff by Native hunters. It was interesting. I wonder who paid the millions and millions of dollars that was spent on this Interpretive Centre ? I guess that would be us, the taxpayers !

We left Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump heading east on Hwy. 785 to Fort Macleod. The road was paved from Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump to Fort Macleod. There is an expectation that the approach to Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump will be from Fort Macleod, so that section of Hwy. 785 is paved all the way. At Fort Macleod we turned south for a few miles on Hwy. 2,then east on Hwy. 3 again. We passed through Lethbridge and continued on to Taber. We stopped for the night at Taber's municipal campground, which apparently used to be a Provincial Park. I took Bo for an obedience walk while Joanne began to clean up the thick dust in the trailer. She discovered that all the lower cupboards and drawers at the back of the trailer were filled with an extremely thick layer of dust. This includes the cutlery drawer and the kitchen utensil drawer, which look like somebody actually poured grey flour into the drawers. < sigh > Joanne spent the entire evening cleaning.

We watched Survivor, and were in the middle of watching The Apprentice when there was a bang, and the water pump began running. This campground doesn't have water hook-ups at each site, so we're on our own freshwater tank. I jumped up and shut off the water pump switch, then went outside to see what happened. The backflow check valve in the city water connection had blown right out, and there was a stream of water on the ground extending a long way out from the trailer. < huge sigh > Gee whiz ! This is the city water connection that I just replaced a short time ago in Bakersfield, California. I put a hose connection plug in the city water inlet, and that solved the problem for tonight.

Some days just don't go very well, do they ?

DSK

May 4, 2005

May 4, 2005

Waterton Lakes National Park

DAY 321

 

Today was partially sunny and warm, down on the prairie where we're camped. It was partially cloudy and cool, up in the mountains in Waterton Lakes National Park, and it rained heavily for a short time in the evening back at the campground.

Today was all about good fortune, combined with good timing. Joanne commented on the drive back from the National Park that "we've seen horses pissing, Whitetail Deer shitting, and Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep humping" !

I started the morning by doing my regular preventive maintenance, then completed the repairs to the trailer roof. It was pleasant to be outside in the morning, being serenaded by the singing of meadowlarks. I haven't heard meadowlarks in quite awhile. I unhitched the trailer as Joanne prepared a picnic lunch and we set off for Waterton Lakes National Park, the Canadian side of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. Fifteen miles west on Hwy. 505, then 15 miles south on Hwy. 6. Just before the entrance to the park, we turned off the highway to drive through the bison paddock in the rolling foothills at the base of the Rockies. It was a slow, circuitous drive down a narrow, winding one lane trail, and we saw six bison. We entered the National Park, and drove towards Waterton Village. Just before the village, we saw The Prince Of Wales Hotel, a lovely looking, grand, old hotel high on a hill overlooking the town. We drove up to see it. It was still closed for the season. But ... as we drove into the parking lot ... HOLY SHIT ... a large herd of Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep walking slowly across the parking lot towards the hotel front entrance. I parked, and jumped out with the camera, following slowly behind them, shooting pictures. They walked across the front deck of the hotel, and over to the windows of the ground floor hotel rooms. They began munching on the remnants of last season's flowers in the flower boxes underneath each hotel window. WOW ! I walked slowly to within about 50 feet of them, taking pictures. When the biggest males starting giving me dirty looks, I retreated. I got back into the truck, and tried to count them. There were at least 15 !

We drove down from the hotel, and into town, exploring the pretty little tourist village. The town was mostly deserted. Tourist season hasn't begun yet. WHOA ! On the lawn in front of a cottage, there were 2 Mountain Goats, resting and grazing on the lawn. I jumped out of the truck, shooting pictures as I walked a large circle around them. They seemed rather unconcerned. We drove around the village, and into the campground to check it out. We drove out of the village, looking for the 16 km. / 10 mi. road up into the mountains to Cameron Lake. We wanted to have a picnic lunch at one of the picnic sites along the road up into the mountains. We drove high up into the mountains, and stopped at a picnic area beside a cool, clear, mountain stream. We had lunch, then drove the rest of the way up the mountain road to Cameron Lake. The road was closed 2 km. from Cameron Lake because of snow. We turned around, and slowly drove back down the mountain, stopping frequently to take pictures. As we got near the bottom of the mountain, we came across a large herd of Mountain Goats on the road, and on both sides. I turned off the engine, and coasted slowly downhill towards, and through them. Joanne took some pictures out her window, as I kept Bo silent. After passing right through the herd silently, I restarted the truck, and backed up slowly. They didn't seem too concerned as I backed through the herd, taking pictures out my window as Joanne kept Bo silent. Actually, it's not that hard to keep him silent when he sees large animals. He's afraid, and only growls very softly, until we're well away from them, then he does his brave, loud barking routine. We drove the rest of the way down the mountain, and into the village again. I was going to turn back onto the highway, when Joanne said facetiously "let's go back into town and see more wildlife". We drove back into the village, and stopped at Cameron Falls on the edge of town. We went for a hike up the steep hill to the top of the falls to take some pictures. We hiked back down, and continued to drive around the village. As we got to the campground, which we had seen earlier, we were surprised to see a huge herd of Whitetail Deer grazing on the nice lawn in the campground. I took more pictures, until the memory in my camera was full. Gee ... I shot 65 pictures today ! And the auxiliary memory card for the camera was back in the trailer. I guess that's the end of my picture taking for now. I was thinking that it would be just my luck to run into Sasquatch now that my camera memory was full.

We drove back to the campground. I took a short nap. We took Bo for a long obedience walk around the small lake, to the big barn and main buildings. As we approached the main buildings, a very friendly black cat came running out to visit us. I put Bo into a "sit / stay", then repeated "leave it" commands. He sat there nicely, silently quivering as Rose the cat came over and sniffed him. Good, good dog, Bo ! Excellent work ! ! ! What great progress from the unruly terror he was when we got him in Alabama less than 5 months ago. We explored around the farm yard a bit more, taking Bo over to the corral to see the horses. So far today Bo has been up close to bison, Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep, Mountain Goats, Whitetail Deer, Prairie Dogs, Canada Geese, ducks, horses, and Rose the cat. Quite a day for a little dog !

DSK

May 3, 2005

May 3, 2005

Fernie, B.C. to Hill Spring, Alberta

DAY 320

 

Another sunny, warm day, although the wind is extremely strong where we are tonight, just east of the base of the Rocky Mountains. I guess the wind blows down the mountains, then rushes across the rolling prairie.

We slept very late this morning. I guess it's because we changed time zones yesterday. The first thing I did was phone our Escapee friends in Pincher Creek, Alberta, Gord and Lil Casey. We knew we would make it as far as Pincher Creek today. At the Escapees Chapter 44 Spring Rally in Mesa, Arizona, Gord and Lil had invited us to visit them when we were passing through the Pincher Creek area on our way back to Manitoba. We phoned them repeatedly throughout the day, but there was no answer. We'll try again tomorrow because we're going to stay in this area for tomorrow.

Yesterday I noticed what looked like a small rip in the edge of the rubber roof of the trailer. I climbed up onto the roof this morning to examine it. I found two small tears right on the edge where the rubber roof wraps over the side of the trailer. This is the second time I've found some areas of the roof that need patching right where it wraps over the edge. I guess after a few years of exposure, the rubber roofs of RVs start to get dry, and crack at the edges.

We left the Snow Valley Motel & RV Park, stopping for diesel before we were out of Fernie. Continuing east on the Crowsnest Highway, I was worried about how tough it would be to cross over the last range of the Rocky Mountains, through the Crowsnest Pass. It was a non-event. The Crowsnest Pass is a fairly gentle climb up and over. Unlike the exceptionally tough mountain passes from before Osoyoos to about Cranbrook ! I thought the most southerly route through the Rockies was going to be the toughest, since it's the least travelled of the three routes through the Rockies. I seem to recall that Rogers Pass and Kicking Horse Pass on the Trans Canada Highway 1, north of here, through to Banff and Calgary, were more difficult than the Crowsnest Pass that we drove through today. Maybe my memory is faulty. It's been over 20 years since I last drove through Banff and Lake Louise into B.C.

We stopped for lunch at a roadside historical exhibit called Leitch's Collieries. It's the ruins of a coal mining and processing operation from the early 1900's. It was interesting, with a selfguided tour and historical explanations around the ruins. After lunch, we continued on towards Pincher Creek. As we came through Crowsnest Pass, the Rocky Mountains seemed to end abruptly. One minute we were in the mountains, the next minute we were on relatively flat ranch land. Again, my recollection of the more northerly route is that after the mountains, there are rolling foothills for quite awhile. We turned off Hwy. 3, heading south on Hwy. 6 to Pincher Creek. Since we were unable to contact our friends, we continued south through Pincher Creek towards Waterton Lakes National Park. We stopped about halfway from Pincher Creek to Waterton Lakes National Park, about 30 miles from each. We are going to stay here tomorrow, and take a day trip to the National Park. I am unwilling to pay the exorbitant fees to camp in a National Park. The camping fee and daily park user fee, together are over $40 !

We are at the Great Canadian Barn Dance & Family Campground. It's a campground on the prairie, around a man made lake. During the summer, they have weekend barn dances and dinners. They opened the campground for the season on May 1. We are their first guests of the year. Since we have the entire area to ourselves, we allowed Bo to run around like an idiot, off leash. Boy ... what a high energy little mutt. He ran at full speed down to the lake's edge, and seeing all the Canada Geese just off shore, ran into the water to chase them. He doesn't get very far from shore before his feet don't touch the bottom, and he's floating / swimming. That certainly slowed down his chase of the geese. And ... he sure smells bad when he gets all wet, and hasn't had a bath lately. Actually, he has been smelling particularly bad whenever he gets wet since all that romping around in tidal pools he did at Saltery Bay on the Sunshine Coast of B.C.. After setting up in the campsite, I got up on the roof of the trailer and began patching the two small ripped areas. It's particularly hard to patch the roof right on the edge, where it wraps over, which, of course, is where it keeps cracking / tearing. I did the first application of patching, and will do another application tomorrow. When I was finished, we took Bo for an off leash obedience training session. He won't heel off leash, so after a few minutes, we returned to the trailer and put his leash and choker on. Much better ! Like most dogs in formal obedience training, he recognizes that being on the choker means it's time to pay attention and "work".

It was much too windy here to barbecue tonight, so while Joanne prepared supper, I did today's accounting, and began working on today's journal. I got the TV set up for watching Amazing Race, which is on at 10:00 P.M. tonight.

DSK

May 2, 2005

May 2, 2005

Creston to Fernie, B.C.

DAY 319

 

Another sunny, warm day.

This morning I did my regular preventive maintenance, then phoned my investment broker in Ottawa to clarify some changes made recently to a couple of my investment funds. We pulled out of Pair-A-Dice RV Park, and as we drove through Creston, we filled up with diesel. We continued heading east on Hwy. 3 / Crowsnest Highway. The mountains all around us were looking more rugged as the day progressed, although the highway was more flat than it has been in the last few days. That might change tomorrow as we cross the Crowsnest Pass. We saw three deer on the side of the road. We crossed from the Pacific Time Zone to the Mountain Time Zone. We stopped at Cranbrook to buy some supplies at Wal-Mart, and some groceries at Real Canadian Superstore. We continued on to Fernie, where we are stopped for the night right in town at Snow Valley Motel & RV Park. We've noticed in quite a few towns in B.C. that some small hotels and motels also have a few serviced RV sites. Here in Fernie, this motel is the only RV park around. It seems a bit odd, because in Creston, which seemed like a similarly sized town, there were six RV parks. The Fernie ski hill can be seen from our campsite / parking spot. It's about 5 miles out of town. It looks like a great "bowl" ski area. There seems to still be a lot of snow on the ski runs, but the clerk at the motel says the ski runs closed April 15.

After setting up, I changed all the clocks and watches one hour forward, then we took Bo for an obedience training walk in the residential area behind the main street the motel is located on. The RV park is behind the motel, facing the residential area. While I kept Bo in a "sit / stay", Joanne walked about 100 feet down the back lane, and gave a "come" command. While running from me to Joanne, Bo decided to divert to where another little dog was loose in his own back yard. Next thing you know, there's two little mutts rolling around in the dirt, snarling and growling. We both ran, as the lady in the house came out to see what all the kerfuffle was in her back yard. Bad dog ! Kind of embarrassing ! When we returned, I decided there was time to remove the kitchen roof vent in the trailer to clean it before I began preparing supper. WOW ... what a lot of filth. I decided to clean the bedroom roof vent as well. After removing and cleaning the bedroom roof vent, I figured I might as well do the bathroom roof vent / fan as well. The bathroom roof vent incorporates two small 12 volt fans. I should have stopped while I was ahead. It was a long, tedious job removing, disassembling, cleaning, reassembling, and reinstalling the bathroom fan vent. As a result, I didn't start barbecuing supper until almost 9:00 P.M.. And as I was tightening the last screw through the plastic frame of the vent into the ceiling, the plastic frame cracked and broke. AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH !

DSK

May 1, 2005

May 1, 2005

Creston, B.C.

DAY 318

 

Today was sunny and very warm.

The day started with a minor crisis that caused us to decide to stay put for today. At 7:00 A.M. I received a phone call from Allen Bindle, the Park Ranger at West Hawk Lake. He was phoning with final details about our Campground Host job at West Hawk Lake this summer. He forgot that we are 2 time zones away from Manitoba. I decided to stay up after the phone call. I went to the kitchen to begin preparing myself a cup of coffee. Our kitchen sink had a one lever faucet. I hate those ! When I pushed the faucet lever back to turn on the water, it snapped right off, and a fountain began spraying up. If we had been on our own internal water tank, I could have just reached over and flipped the main water pump switch off. But, we were on the campground's outside water connection. By the time I dashed outside, around the trailer, and turned off the water, there was a bit of a mess in the trailer. Water had sprayed up onto the underside of the kitchen cupboard, and the under cupboard fluorescent light fixture, all over the wall and window, all over the counter, and was running over the edge of the counter into the stove, the lower cupboards, and onto the floor ! < sigh > I woke Joanne up to come and help me with the clean up. By the time we were finished cleaning up the mess, and I removed the broken faucet assembly, it was close to 9:00 A.M., so I figured the stores would be open soon. I got directions at the campground office to the one ( of three in town ) hardware stores that was open on Sunday, and set off to buy either replacement parts or a whole new faucet assembly. The hardware store didn't have the necessary repair parts I needed, so I bought a new faucet. Neither of us likes single lever faucets, so I bought an old fashioned, two handle, low tech., regular faucet. I was back home, and had it installed by 11:00 A.M.. Allen Bindle said it was snowing at West Hawk, and that was another reason why we decided we should stay here today and slow down our travel eastward. The news on TV yesterday showed pretty cold temperatures in Calgary. We're about 2 days from Alberta. Might as well stay here where it's warm in the Kootenay region.

We spent the day doing some work that we've been procrastinating doing. Since we had Wi-Fi here, we did a whole lot of online research, mostly about West Hawk Lake, and Newfoundland. I think we might head to Newfoundland after our summer assignment is over in early September.

We also did a large job, draining the bathroom grey water and black water holding tanks, then filling them full with clean water, and a chemical that's supposed to clean the level gauge sensors. There is a system monitor panel in the kitchen that indicates the level in each holding tank, battery charge level, etc.. In most RV's, the level gauge sensors for the waste holding tanks get stuck permanently showing full tanks, because the level sensors in the tanks get dirty. Common thinking in the RV world is that one must just learn to live with that, because these sensors are pretty much impossible to clean. However, products are made to clean the level sensors, and I wanted to give it a try. It would be nice if the sensors actually worked accurately. Wish me luck.

I took a nap in the afternoon. We walked Bo on a training session. He did exceptionally well. Some days he's so "on". I guess that makes up for how unfocussed he was yesterday. Joanne did some laundry. We barbecued an elaborate supper, since we had lots of time, and felt well rested. I retrieved a bunch of investment data, and updated my investment files. We both prepared a bunch of e-mails and sent them. We channel surfed through 55 TV channels.

DSK

April 30, 2005

April 30, 2005

Rock Creek to Creston, B.C.

DAY 317

 

Today was sunny and cool. I think it was cool only because of how high up in the Kootenay Rockies we were for most of the day.

We left Rock Creek this morning heading east on Hwy. 3, which from this point east is called The Crowsnest Highway. That's because it eventually leads to the Crowsnest Pass through the Rockies. Most of today was spent either ascending, or descending very high mountains. There was hardly any time when we were driving on flat ground. The ascents and descents ranged from 20 to 40 km. / 12 to 24 miles long ! Hauling Harvey uphill for a solid hour at a time is extremely hard on Dee-Dee ! On the longest, steepest sections, Dee-Dee's maximum capability was 40 km. per hr. / 25 mph in first gear at 3000 RPM. On one of these long, steep ascents, struggling at 40 km./hr. we came across five Bighorn Sheep in the middle of the road. I didn't want to slow down and lose what little momentum we had, so I just kept chugging on towards them. They split on the road, letting me pass right through the group ! WOW !

We stopped at Grand Forks to fill up with diesel, buy some groceries, and drop some mail at the Post Office. Grand Forks is a pretty little town. One of my mother's brothers settled here over 50 years ago. He started a furniture and appliance store which I think is still owned and operated by ( distant ) cousins of mine. As we drove through town, we passed a furniture and appliance store. I wonder if it's my cousins' ? Grand Forks doesn’t seem like it’s large enough for more than one furniture and appliance store.

At least a couple of times today, we were at such a high elevation in the Kootenay Rockies that we were surrounded by snow, driving by lakes still frozen. The Kootenay Pass Summit elevation was about 6000 feet ! We stopped at a snowmobile trail access area, and I took some pictures of Bo in the snow. As were walking back to the truck, a couple of snowmobiles came driving out of the snow covered forest, drivers in full snowmobile suits. An amusing contrast to us standing out there in short sleeved shirts. No wonder I felt so cold !

We stopped for the night at Pair-A-Dice RV Park in Creston. There is an Escapee RV Park in Nevada by the same name. This is the area of B.C. with Dukhobors and polygamists. After getting backed into the really tight squeeze campsite we were assigned, we took Bo for a training walk, I did some work online ( this campground has Wi-Fi ), barbecued another great supper, did today’s accounting, journal, and photos, and we watched a bit of TV ( this campground has cable TV ).

DSK