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