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