Sunday
;
Sunny and cool
Today
was our final day of pre-departure preparations. The
U.S. border re-opens tomorrow. Finally,
after nineteen months, we will able to return to the United States
for the winter season. Our
objectives for this winter season are to get rid of our Yuma, Arizona
property and possessions.
Joanne spent much of today
loading stuff into the camper. I refilled the camper’s freshwater
tank, purging the winterization plumbing anti-freeze in the process.
We are grateful that the weather for tonight will not be below
freezing. Otherwise we would have to leave tomorrow with the
camper’s plumbing still “winterized”.
I spent a part of the evening
on the phone with a Tracfone “technical support” agent (in India,
apparently) attempting to get our US cell phone reactivated. She
assured me, repeatedly, that there would be no problem, she had
accomplished it !
Monday
; Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada to Hillsboro, North Dakota, U.S.A.
NO … YOU HADN’T
ACCOMPLISHED IT ! ! ! ! ... <SPUTTER>
<taking a deep breath,
trying to calm down> Oh, goody … <sarcasm> ... my annual
US cell phone reactivation drama has begun !
Sunny and cool today. By the
time we finished our departure preparations, chatted with neighbours,
and took our “early” exercise walk, it was noon. We departed
Steinbach, headed west to Pembina Hwy. 75, then south. We will stay
on Pembina Hwy. 75 / US Interstate 29 until Kansas City.
About
a mile before reaching the US border at Emerson, Manitoba, crossing
into Pembina, North Dakota, we were delayed for half an hour or so by
a serious vehicle accident near the border. A small
car had
rear ended a semi-trailer flat deck loaded with steel.
No apparent
damage to the large truck, but … the car was demolished. The
driver of the small car had obviously been injured. There
were many police, fire and rescue vehicles on scene. Traffic had to
squeeze down to a single lane, on the shoulder, to get by.
Crossing the border today was
easier and quicker than we had expected it would be. The female CBP
officer did not even want to see our Covid vaccination “passports”.
There was no line-up in the “RV lane”, despite there being a
line up almost a mile long in the commercial truck lane. HUH ? Why
?
A
few minutes after crossing the border we stopped
at a closed truck weigh station to have a
late lunch.
And turn on our US cell phone for the first time … <fume> …
discovering that it was NOT
reactivated ! I planned to use my laptop to phone Tracfone at the
Wi-Fi equipped rest area where we were planning to boondock
overnight. Adding to my cell phone drama, the rest area’s Wi-Fi
was non-functional tonight !
As we returned to the truck
cab after having lunch in the camper I noticed a large pile of …
something … in the parking lot behind the weigh station. Obviously
an overweight truck was forced to dump some of its load. It looked
like a pile of … coconuts with roots ? HUH ? I picked one up and
sliced an edge off using my pocket knife. It smelled like … a
beet. I cut a very small piece and ate it. HEY ! Must be a sugar
beet ! I gave a small piece to Joanne who tasted it, and decided we
should take one and … bake it, see how it turns out. <shrug>
Okay !
We
stopped to boondock overnight at the Elm River Rest Area near
Hillsboro, North Dakota, about halfway between Grand Forks and Fargo.
We
arrived at 4:15 PM, with just enough time left before darkness (at 5
PM) to take our “late” exercise walk around (and around and
around and around) the rest area. BRRR
… pretty chilly !
Tuesday
; Hillsboro, North Dakota to Flandreau, South Dakota
Very cold … below freezing …
overnight, sunny and cool during the day.
We
had difficulty finding freshwater today. We stopped at many truck
stops and rest areas looking for a functional water spigot with which
to refill the camper’s freshwater holding tank. We like to top up
the freshwater tank daily, if we can. This far north, this late in
the fall season, everyone has turned off their outdoor water spigots
for the winter. We finally found one functional at a Cenex fuel
station near Summit, South Dakota, at 5 PM, shortly
before
nightfall.
We did not reach our planned
destination for tonight. Spent too much on cell phone drama !
We
left the Hillsboro, North Dakota rest area this morning about 10:45
AM, after
our early exercise walk.
By noon we were in Fargo. We refilled with diesel at Love’s, then
failed to find a functional water spigot at either Love’s or the
nearby Flying J. We parked at McDonald’s, I connected to their
free Wi-Fi,
and used VoIP on my laptop to phone Tracfone. I was on the phone
with a technical support agent (in India) for 37 minutes before he
finally conceded that my problem was beyond his technical expertise
and he would have to have a higher level of technical support agent
phone me
back,
perhaps in fifteen minutes or so. I don’t think so ! I suggested
that he refund the money that I paid for a phone card upon the …
<ahem> ... attempted
reactivation
of last Sunday, and
I would go to a local Wal-Mart in Fargo, buy a new SIM card, and
activate that ! He readily agreed, and connected me to a refund
agent … <rolling my eyes> … who promptly refunded my phone
card purchase.
We drove to a nearby Wal-Mart.
The middle aged white woman at the cell phone counter was unable to
find any Tracfone SIM cards in their cell phone counter storage
cabinet. HMPH !
We
had lunch while parked at Wal-Mart, then drove
to a nearby Target store. The cell phone counter was staffed by a
young, Asian male. Oh, glory be ! He sold me a one dollar Tracfone
Sim card kit, which actually contained three different Sim cards, and
each SIM card fits three different sizes of SIM card slots ! The
instructions/procedures were somewhat incomprehensible to me. The
Asian kid disassembled
my phone, loaded
the SIM card into it,
and then… <sputter> … used
his cell phone to activate
it ! AND … then prevented me from buying the wrong type of phone
plan card. He identified the correct type of phone plan card for my
(archaic) cell phone, and used his cell phone to “load” the card
to my phone. <blink blink>
Oh, sure … but can he
parallel park ? <ROFLMAO>
Thanks, kid !
We
continued southbound on I-29 through the southern half of North
Dakota and the northern half of South Dakota. Around 4 PM we stopped
at a rest area and went for our late afternoon exercise walk. After
finally refilling the freshwater tank we drove for about an hour in
the dark before stopping for the night at
a rest area.
For supper we had cabbage borscht from MJ’S Kafe, the Mennonite
restaurant half a block from our Steinbach condo. It was a bit thin
and bland so … we “enhanced” it with yesterday’s “foraged”
sugar beet. HA HA HA ! That made it better !
Wednesday
; Flandreau, South Dakota to Council Bluffs, Iowa
Cold, foggy, raining all day,
sometimes heavily.
We left the rest area this
morning around 10:30 AM and continued southbound on I-29. At Sioux
Falls, South Dakota we stopped at Flying J and refilled the truck
with diesel fuel. Not a full tank, it was too expensive. We’ve
decided to stop buying diesel fuel at Flying J. They are always more
expensive than the competition because they always have the best
locations. As expected, the water spigots at this location were
turned off for the winter, so we were unable to refill the camper’s
freshwater tank.
Awhile later we stopped at
Vermillion, South Dakota, at a large “fuel stop/travel center”
and topped up with much cheaper diesel fuel. AND … refilled our
freshwater tank at a functional water spigot.
At Sioux City we crossed over
the Missouri River from South Dakota into Iowa. We stopped at a rest
area to have lunch and dump our waste holding tanks. Iowa’s rest
areas have RV sani-dumps. WOO-HOO … thank you, Iowa. At Council
Bluffs, Iowa, across the river from Omaha, Nebraska, we stopped at a
Wal-Mart to replenish groceries. We were dismayed to see that 100%
of the Wal-Mart customers in Council Bluffs, Iowa were unmasked,
despite 100% of the Wal-Mart employees being masked, and prominent
signage upon entry encouraging customers to wear masks. <sigh>
A harbinger of things to come, no doubt.
We stopped for the night by
5:30 PM at a rest area a bit south of Council Bluffs, far short of
our planned destination, due to heavy rain and darkness.
Thursday
; Council Bluffs, Iowa through Missouri to Kansas City, Kansas
REMEMBRANCE
DAY ; LEST WE FORGET
Sunny
and mild, the weather is improving.
This
morning we walked around and around the rest area until “the 11th
hour of the 11th
day of the 11th
month”, when we observed Remembrance Day with a recitation of In
Flanders Fields, then two minutes of silence “TO REMEMBER”.
A
few minutes after 11 AM we departed the rest area and continued south
on I-29. As soon as we crossed from Iowa into Missouri we found a
fuel service station with a functional water spigot, and refilled our
freshwater tank. We
didn’t refill with diesel there, it was too expensive. Shortly
thereafter, at
Mound City, Missouri we refilled the truck with diesel. We
stopped for lunch parked at a shopping mall in St. Joseph.
Shortly
before reaching Kansas City we veered off I-29 onto I-435, a “ring
road” around the west side of Kansas City, the Kansas side, not the
Missouri side. While on I-435 we crossed from Missouri into Kansas.
Near the intersection
of I-435 southbound and I-70 westbound, at the NASCAR Kansas Speedway
car racing track, we left the freeway and entered a very large
shopping area surrounding the NASCAR Kansas Speedway. We found our
way easily to Cabela’s and selected where in their massive parking
lot we wanted to boondock overnight. It was only a little after 3
PM, so there was about two hours of daylight left. We used our GPS
to navigate the short but complicated route to Nebraska Furniture
Mart, an extremely large furniture store, with more square footage
than any Wal-Mart. We wanted to buy some Kansas City style barbecue
brisket at Blind Box BBQ, a highly rated “barbecue” restaurant
embedded within the furniture store. After finding the restaurant,
and perusing their menu, and watching their clientele being served, I
decided that if I was going to indulge myself in way too many
calories for a “barbecue” meal, it was going to have be better
than that !
We
found
our way to a nearby Wal-Mart store and replenished groceries. The
Wal-Mart store had signage posted at their entrances requiring
shoppers to be masked. About half the shoppers were masked, mostly
the black and brown skinned people. About half the shoppers were
unmasked, some
with
confrontational looks on their faces. “Go ahead … challenge me
!” That was most of the 30
to 45 year old white
skinned people, male
and female
! ! !
****ing hillbillies ! ! !
We returned to Cabela’s
around 5 PM just before nightfall. We went into Cabela’s and I did
some Christmas shopping … for myself. And we wandered around the
immensely huge sporting goods store, viewing the stuffed animal
displays and massive aquariums filled with all manner of fish. Santa
bought me some fishing stuff for a trip to Northern Manitoba next
summer.
Friday
; Kansas City to Topeka to Wichita, Kansas to Braman, Oklahoma
Overcast,
clearing late in the day, very cold, very windy. A
few minutes of light snow falling around Topeka, Kansas.
We
went inside Cabela’s this morning at 10:30 AM to do our early
exercise walking around the perimeter of the store. HA HA HA … the
“demographics” in the guns section of the store was amusing …
and telling. Lots of 30 to 45
year old males, all maskless, all wearing caps, most wearing
camouflage clothing, most looking like some sort of white supremacist
survivalists. Proud Boys ! Boogaloo Boys ! Promise Keepers ! Duck
Dynasty ! Rednecks
and hillbillies all ! ! ! Joanne
surmised that they probably all have assault rifles in their pickup
trucks. As
we passed a display she
wondered
if she should buy herself one of the “conceal & carry”
purses. HA HA HA <SNORT> HA HA !
We
left the Cabela’s parking lot at 11 AM heading west
on the Kansas Turnpike toll freeway. About an hour later we paid our
toll and got off the turnpike at Topeka, looking to buy lunch at
Lonnie Q’s BBQ, an extremely highly rated, very small barbecue
joint on the outskirts of Topeka open five days a week from 11 AM to
1 PM only. As we were pulling into Lonnie Q’s parking lot an old
woman with Parkinson’s driving out of the parking lot rolled down
her window to bemoan to us that Lonnie was already sold out of
“cheezy taters”. Really ? How sad ! HA HA HA ! As I was
wrestling the truck and camper into a too small parking spot, Lonnie
himself came running out the front door and over to our truck to warn
us that he was already sold out of almost everything for the day ;
barbecued beef brisket, spareribs, pulled pork, sausages. All he had
left was barbecued turkey and baked beans. HMPH ! We left.
We
got back onto the turnpike, now heading south towards Wichita. We
stopped at one of the many service centers / rest areas along the
Kansas Turnpike to refill with diesel and search for a functional
water spigot. We found a functional water spigot near the Valero
fuel islands. Joanne wanted to have lunch before refilling the
freshwater and diesel, so we parked near the McDonald’s. While she
prepared lunch I connected to McDonald’s free Wi-Fi and checked
e-mail. After lunch we returned to the Valero station for diesel and
freshwater. While backing up to the fuel island that had the
functional water spigot I bumped the top rear corner of the camper
against a covered sidewalk’s roof <FUME>
causing minor cosmetic damage to the corner of the camper roof and
breaking a marker light.
We
refilled freshwater and diesel then continued south on Kansas
Turnpike heading for a catfish restaurant in Wichita. At Wichita we
got off the turnpike, paid another toll, and used the GPS to find the
catfish restaurant. It was permanently closed ! <SIGH>
Back onto Kansas Turnpike
heading south to the southern end of the turnpike near the border
with Oklahoma. Another toll ! We crossed from Kansas into Oklahoma
and almost immediately stopped at a Native American (do they use the
term “Indigenous” here in “Merka” ?) casino with a “cheap
rez gas” fuel bar. We thought we might treat ourselves to dinner
in the casino to make up for the barbecue and catfish restaurant
failures. We went into the casino, wandered around, were not
inspired, and left. We refilled with cheap diesel, drove a few more
miles south, and stopped to boondock overnight at the Oklahoma
Welcome Center / Rest Area.
Upon arrival we went for our
“late” exercise walk around the rest area, but it was already
dark, and extremely cold and windy, so our walk was a tad shorter
than usual.
Saturday
; Braman to Oklahoma City to Elk City to Erick, Oklahoma
Sunny and mild. It seems as
if winter disappeared overnight.
Before
leaving the rest area this morning we went for our early exercise
brisk walk around the rest area for about fifteen minutes. When we
left the rest area we did not continue south on I-35, we drove east a
few miles into the small town of Blackwell to dump our waste holding
tanks and refill with freshwater at the town’s sani-dump station at
the fairgrounds. Having a little difficulty finding our way to the
fairgrounds, I made the stupid mistake of asking a couple of boys
around eight or
nine years
of age for directions.
ME ; Can you tell me where the
fairgrounds are ?
THEM ; Sure ! Right by the
skateboard park.
ME ; OK … where’s the
skateboard park ?
THEM ; Right by the baseball
fields.
ME ; <sigh> OK …
where’s the baseball fields.
THEM ; You know where the
Dairy Queen is ?
ME ; NO !
THEM ; <both pointing
generally southeast>
ME ; OK … thanks … bye …
<sigh>
Eventually we found the
fairgrounds … across the street from the Dairy Queen … right
beside the baseball fields. Never did see a skateboard park ! After
dumping and refilling we returned to I-35, continuing southbound to
Oklahoma City.
Once in Oklahoma City we found
our way to Rudy’s Country Store & BBQ for another attempt at
“southern” food. WOO-HOO ! Found it, and … IT WAS GREAT
! We bought half a pound of spicy chopped beef brisket (with
extra “sissy sauce”), potato salad, and three bean salad, taking
it out to the camper to eat for lunch. MMMMM ! We’re looking
forward to having it again in a couple of days at their other
location in Amarillo, Texas.
After lunch while finding our
way to a Wal-Mart we saw a Lowe’s and stopped to see if they had
“cut to size” roller blinds. I have been trying to replace the
duct tape repaired roller blind on the camper’s entry door since
the spring. I had one cut to size at Rona in Penticton, BC, and
refused to accept it because the cut edge looked like it had been
chewed by a beaver. Exactly the same story on the second attempt at
Rona in Medicine Hat, Alberta. Well … today I finally got a
decently cut to size roller blind at Lowe’s in Oklahoma City …
BUT … it took three staff and … <sputter> … FOUR
attempts to get it cut to the right size. There was a
problem with the measuring calibration on the blind cutting machine.
<shrug> There goes three more cut to size roller blinds tossed
in the garbage by the store, for a total of five in the garbage to
get one cut and sold to a customer !
After buying a few items at
Wal-Mart we decided it was too early to stop for the night in
Oklahoma City. We decided to head east on I-40 towards our next
“foodie” destination. On the way to Elk City, Oklahoma we
stopped at Love’s near El Reno, Oklahoma to refill an empty propane
tank. We have been running our camper’s propane Wave 6 catalytic
heater on “high” for about fifteen hours per night, from the time
we stop driving around nightfall until we depart the next morning.
At that rate we used an entire thirty pound tank of propane in just
four nights. SHEESH !
GPS guided us off I-40 at the
exit to Elk City, which we never found/saw ! Dipsy doodling around
cow pastures filled with Longhorn cattle for about 3 ½ miles brought
us to the very crowded parking lot of Simon’s Catch, a very highly
rated catfish restaurant, sitting out in the middle of nowhere,
surrounded by … pastures filled with Longhorn cattle ! Nary a mask
in sight inside the restaurant, filled to overflowing by very obese
old men wearing bib front overalls and filthy caps. Well … at
least they didn’t appear to be the assault rifle toting crowd, like
at Cabela’s in Kansas City.
We have been to a rural
Oklahoma catfish restaurant once before, many years ago. It was
similar to Simon’s Catch. Only one item on the menu ; fried
catfish ! Served with it … EVERYTHING ! We ordered one
dinner “to go”. Three large fillets of cornmeal battered, fried
catfish, a huge quantity of fries, excellent hush puppies … and I
don’t usually like hush puppies … cole slaw, baked beans, pickled
okra, dill pickle slices, sliced red onion, tartar sauce, lemon
wedges, ketchup. We left the restaurant toting our two bags of food,
found our way in the dark back to the Interstate, and continued west
on I-40 for about another half hour, stopping at 6:30 PM at the
Oklahoma Welcome Center on the opposite/eastbound side of the freeway
(for travellers coming into Oklahoma from Texas).
GAWD … supper was good
! ! ! For supper tonight the two of us consumed about two thirds of
the “dinner for one”, with about a third of it leftover for lunch
tomorrow. I suppose that somewhat explains the girth of the locals.
For a bedtime snack tonight …
as if we really needed one … HA HA HA … we shared a Moon Pie. I
bought two Moon Pies on impulse at Cabela’s a couple of days ago,
because I had never had a Moon Pie and was curious. HMPH ! Just
like a Canadian “Wagon Wheel”.
DSK
