We will be spending this winter on Vancouver Island. We’re driving there. Mostly because we now (again) have a dog. But we also cannot endure another winter of travel like the last two winters, in Portugal and Mexico, with excruciating long distance air travel, and airports, and frequent illnesses in foreign lands with impossible access to good health care in our own language. And as we decided a few years ago already, we most certainly cannot endure any more winters in “Merka” ! Now more than ever ! ! ! ! !
Thursday ; Dugald, Manitoba to Moosomin, Saskatchewan
This morning we finished our “depart for winter” preparations, walked Apollo and neighbour’s dog Gracie, and pulled out of Dugald Estates parkade at 11:45 AM, fifteen minutes earlier than planned. WOW … we’re never early for anything ! I refilled the car with fuel at the Esso station in Dugald, and we were on the road at noon, precisely on schedule. HA HA HA !
West on Hwy. 15 / Dugald Road a short distance to Winnipeg’s Perimeter Hwy. 101, north on the Perimeter Hwy. all the way around Winnipeg, turning right / west at Headingly on Trans-Canada Hwy. 1, heading for Victoria, Vancouver Island, British Columbia for the winter. WOO-HOO … road trip !
The temperature when we left home was -2° C. It became colder and colder the further west we travelled. By the time we reached Moosomin, Saskatchewan at 5:15 PM, just as it became dark, the temperature was -12 ° C. The winter storm that travelled across Saskatchewan and Manitoba yesterday did not quite reach Winnipeg / Dugald. As we approached Portage La Prairie there began to be some snow in the ditches. We went around Portage La Prairie on their bypass route, and once around Portage La Prairie and on the west side of the small city we turned back a short distance into the city to take a rest break at the Portage Mall. YIKES ! The mall is nearly abandoned, and will be closing permanently on December 31. Oh, well … at least the bathrooms are still functional. HA HA HA !
The mall’s parking lot was filled with snow and slush frozen to ice from yesterday’s storm. After a bathroom break we returned to the Trans-Canada Hwy. 1 heading west. The highway from Portage La Prairie to Brandon was in poor condition, slippery, still covered in snow and frozen slush / ice. From Brandon to Saskatchewan the highway conditions improved. We stopped to refill again with fuel in Virden, the last opportunity to refill fuel in Manitoba. Saskatchewan’s fuel prices are higher than in Manitoba.
While I checked into Motel 6 in Moosomin Joanne took Apollo for a walk around the parking lot. BRRRRR … winter ! Apollo was too cold and/or too excited to focus on the purpose of the walk. We got settled into our room, brought some stuff to the room, I had a cup of tea to rest and warm up, then we took Apollo for another walk shortly after 7 PM, just before having supper. He was again too excited by the adventure of a day of travel, and then moving into a motel room, to focus on the purpose of the walk <rolling eyes>. While we ate supper he fell into a deep sleep on the motel bed. HA HA HA … good boy, Apollo.
Before going to sleep I went outside and plugged in the car’s engine block heater. First time I’ve done that since 1987 ! ! ! I had to search for quite awhile for the plug end tucked inside the engine compartment.
Joanne’s health is still … well … not great. Our first day of travel has exhausted her. <shrug>
Friday ; Moosomin to Swift Current, Saskatchewan
This morning in Moosomin was -2° C with light snow falling. As we drove east to west across Saskatchewan it stopped snowing and the temperature continued to fall. It was -12° C in Swift Current this evening.
We checked out of Moosomin’s Motel 6 this morning at 10:30 AM and drove a short distance into town to buy a jug of winter windshield washer fluid at the Co-op Home hardware store. I used a lot of washer fluid yesterday and expected to use a lot today.
We continued westbound on Trans-Canada Hwy. 1. The snow stopped falling as we left Moosomin. The highway was slushy and slippery (YIKES !) from Moosomin to the east side of Regina. As we travelled around Regina on the bypass highway the snow on the farm fields and slush on the highway diminished, and the road conditions became less treacherous.
Wednesday’s snow storm across Saskatchewan and Manitoba fizzled out shortly before reaching Winnipeg. The heaviest accumulation of snow, and the worst driving conditions, were between Portage La Prairie and Regina. By the time we were west of Moose Jaw there was minimal snow on the farm fields and the highway was clean and dry.
We stopped to have lunch and refill fuel in Moose Jaw. We arrived at the Motel 6 in Swift Current at 4:30 PM, an hour before darkness. We checked in, got settled into our room, then took Apollo for a walk while it was still daylight. As we walked him behind the motel he chose to take a shortcut across a snowdrift, badly underestimating its depth. Did he reverse ? ! ? NOOOOO ! ! ! He just “porpoised” across / through it, totally covered in snow and looking pissed off at us when he emerged on the other side of the snowdrift. HEY … we didn’t force you to do that ! Silly dog !
Swift Current, Saskatchewan
Blizzard / rest day. -12° C.
Well … the blizzard was a little late getting started. It was supposed to start late last night. It didn’t start until about an hour ago, at 11 AM. And while the wind is blowing mightily, creating near zero visibility on the roads (we can tell by looking out our motel room window) the snowfall seems relatively light, so hopefully there won’t be much accumulation. We have just returned from taking Apollo for his noontime walk. He wasn’t very impressed with the weather. Well … and neither was Joanne. She commented that this is why she doesn’t want to have a dog in the winter, when we are no longer able to travel and must remain in Manitoba for winters. Apollo will likely be gone to the big dog park in the sky by then (as might I), and we / she can get a cat. Or two. HA HA HA !
As planned, we had a lazy day. Apollo and I had a long nap in the afternoon. We ordered take out dinner from an Indian restaurant. When we went out at 7:15 PM to drive to the restaurant to pick up our dinner … SHEEESH … I had severely underestimated the amount of snow that fell today. Swift Current’s downtown streets were clogged with deep snow. The relatively short drive to the restaurant … a few kilometres … and back was challenging. I have not driven in deep snow since … <thinking> … well … 1987 ! Just before arriving back at Motel 6 we stopped at Canadian Tire Fuel Bar and I refilled the minivan with fuel to save a bit of time tomorrow morning.
MMMMM … supper was great !
Sunday ; Swift Current, Saskatchewan to Lethbridge, Alberta
-12° C in Swift Current this morning, -19° C at suppertime in Lethbridge. Windy all day, very cold ! Things did not go smoothly today.
We checked out of Swift Current’s Motel 6 at 10:45 AM. The snow in the Motel 6 parking lot was so deep and drifted that I had difficulty backing out of our parking spot and getting out of the parking lot. Shortly after getting onto Trans-Canada Hwy. 1 westbound I noticed that the cold temperatures had reduced the tire air pressures enough that the TPMS (tire pressure monitoring system) was displaying a “low tire pressure” icon.
Light snow was falling and the strong winds were blowing it across the highway, making the road slippery. The speed limit was 110 km./hr. but I did not feel safe driving faster than 90. About halfway to Lethbridge we reached Medicine Hat, Alberta where we stopped at Wal-Mart and I bought new winter wiper blades for the car. And more winter windshield washer fluid. The gallon I bought in Moosomin Friday morning was finished. I refilled the washer fluid tank and installed the wiper blades in the Wal-Mart parking lot. My hands were painfully cold ! While I was doing that work Joanne had a late lunch in the car. I wasn’t hungry, having drank too much coffee while driving.
I drove across the street to Canadian Tire to adjust the tire air pressures. The Canadian Tire service dept. was unwilling to make an air hose available to me. HMPH !
At Medicine Hat we left Trans-Canada Hwy. 1 and entered Crowsnest Hwy. 3 at its starting point, continuing west. Hwy. 3, which starts at Medicine Hat, is the more southerly route across western Alberta and almost all the way across British Columbia, ending at Hope, BC. Our previous home near Keremeos, BC was on Hwy. 3, so we’re familiar with Hwy. 3, and most importantly, at this time of the year, Hwy. 3 is likely to have better weather than the more northerly route following Trans-Canada Hwy. 1.
At the small town of Bow Island I found a Shell service station with an air hose service. I adjusted all the tires’ air pressures, freezing my hands yet again. The TPMS “low pressure” icon turned off.
We reached Motel 6 in Lethbridge at 4:30 PM, having earlier crossed from the Central time zone to the Mountain time zone, gaining an hour. We checked in, went to our assigned room no. 111, brought all our stuff in from the car, took Apollo for a long, very cold walk, and upon returning to our room discovered that the bathroom sink was clogged and wouldn’t drain. The manager was unable to unclog the drain, and assigned room no. 222 to us. <sigh> While Joanne began to reload all of our stuff back into the car I went upstairs to room 222 where I immediately discovered that the room was sauna hot, and the thermostat was non-functional. <sigh> The manager was able to repair the thermostat, but I balked at being assigned a room where we would have to repeatedly ascend and descend a slippery outdoor metal staircase. After some discussion and debate he assigned us a third room, this one on the main floor, like our first assigned room, with parking right outside our room door. By the time we moved to room 118 it was after 6 PM. The process of “musical rooms” took more than an hour and a half, and by then I was feeling really tired.
Supper was leftovers of yesterday’s Indian take-out food from Saffron House in downtown Swift Current, and astoundingly good Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup from Chef In The House in Beausejour, a new home delivery personal chef service which delivers directly to our seniors' condominium home in Dugald. We brought two types of their soups, frozen in one litre containers, from home with us.
Monday ; Lethbridge, Alberta to Cranbrook, British Columbia
-12° C, light snowflurries, no wind this morning in Lethbridge. -2° C, light snowflurries, no wind, thick accumulation of slushy snow in Cranbrook late this afternoon.
We checked out of Motel 6 in Lethbridge this morning at 10:30 AM, drove across the street to Husky and refilled the minivan with fuel, drove north across town back to Crowsnest Hwy. 3, and turned west. The highway was slippery with light snow blowing across the road. At Fort Macleod the snow began falling more heavily, and the highway became even more slippery. I had to slow down to about 80 kph to feel safe, and that was my speed for much of the rest of the day. At Pincher Creek the Rockies became visible, even through the low cloud cover, and the highway began to ascend upwards into the mountains. It wasn’t long before we were driving in the clouds, with thick snow falling as we climbed up and over Crowsnest Pass into British Columbia. The zero visibility in cloud and blowing snow made it almost impossible to see the Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep on the side of the road … and the cars that had slid off the road. HA HA HA !
The change from barren fields of grain stubble across Alberta to the thick evergreen forests of the Canadian Rockies covered in snow was beautiful. I thought when we were planning this trip that we would be at risk of having to drive in winter conditions all the way across Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, but that once we were in British Columbia the wintery conditions would end. I was wrong !
At Sparwood, BC we stopped to have lunch at a Tim Hortons. Not our usual choice for a place to eat, but we had a gift card we wanted to use. We arrived in Cranbrook at 4 PM. Before checking into yet another Motel 6 we refilled the car with fuel again, at Superstore’s Mobil Fuel Bar, then went into Superstore to buy something for supper tonight in our room.
Tuesday ; Cranbrook, British Columbia
Rest day ! About 4 AM I fell out of bed ! No, no … I don’t know how that happened ! Yes, yes … I did hurt myself ! I landed on my right side, hurting my right hand, arm and shoulder. I don’t recall ever having fallen out of bed before ! Maybe Joanne is right. Maybe these motel room queen beds actually are smaller than our queen bed at home.
Today was cloudy with temperatures ranging from -2° C to +2° C, snow melting and slushy. Apollo thinks Cranbrook is infinitely better than Moosomin or Swift Current ! HA HA HA !
We leisurely did some errands today. We left our motel room about 11 AM. First stop was a new bakery in town ; COBS Bread. The owner of this franchised business in Cranbrook is a fairly young man from Winnipeg, moving here only three months ago to open his new business. Next stop was Mike’s Car Wash to wash the Manitoba to British Columbia winter road grime off the car, especially the undercarriage. We will need to wash the car again upon arrival in Victoria. We went to Wal-Mart and while Joanne selected some food items for today’s and tomorrow’s meals I selected a winter wiper blade for the rear window of the car. I installed it in the Wal-Mart parking lot. Much easier than it was in Medicine Hat’s weather a couple of days ago !
Joanne is responsible for meal planning on this trip, whether it is meals in our car, or motel rooms or restaurants. Today for lunch she had researched and selected Dash Eatery, a restaurant located near downtown in a large, elegant, old home. The inside of the building reminded me of my early childhood home. She selected this restaurant partially based on its excellent reviews. The reviews were justified !
On our way back home we stumbled across an interesting looking thrift store. <shrug> Why not ? I purchased a pair of pants, Joanne purchased a package of Christmas themed table placemats to use in our Victoria suite. We stopped at a restaurant that Joanne wanted to check out, contemplating buying some take-out there tomorrow morning for tomorrow’s lunch while driving. We checked it out and decided it wasn’t what we want for lunch tomorrow. But in formulating tomorrow’s lunch “plan B” it necessitated another stop at COBS Bread again.
Upon our return to our motel room at 3 PM Apollo and I decided we had earned a long nap. HA HA HA !
Wednesday ; Cranbrook to Christina Lake, British Columbia
Temperature this morning in Cranbrook was -5° C. This afternoon in Christina Lake it was +2° C. As we travelled it fluctuated constantly from a low of -8° C to a high of +4° C, depending on the elevation, which varied widely as we drove today. For much of the day snow was falling, varying from light to heavy.
Driving conditions today were terrible, the worst day so far on this trip, varying from horrendous most of the time, to downright dangerous some of the time. Coming into Creston this afternoon, on a downhill curve, the car suddenly skidded on black ice into a 45° angle, across both lanes, for an adrenaline filled five seconds or so until I was able to wrestle it back under control. HMPH … seemed more like five minutes than seconds ! When I finally got it back under control I looked in the rear view mirror to see the car following me wildly skidding around also. I thought he was going to slide sideways into the rear of our car, but somehow he managed to avoid that. I wonder how his adrenaline level was ? HA HA HA ! To feel safe (most of the time !) my speed never exceeded 70 kph, and occasionally was as low as 30 kph. For a lengthy period this afternoon I slowly followed a snowplow truck downhill. Immediately after being plowed and sanded, the road had reasonable traction … but only very briefly !
Yup … we’ll be leaving two weeks earlier next year ! ! !
We checked out of Cranbrook’s Motel 6 this morning at 10:45 AM and continued westbound on Crowsnest Hwy. 3. Soon after leaving Cranbrook the highway began to slowly but steadily rise in elevation. For a very long time. The higher we got, the lower the temperature became. Soon we were driving in the clouds, with heavy snow falling. Kind of like driving on ball bearings, with a sheer curtain draped over the windshield. Most of the day was like that ! Seemed somewhat like flying an airplane in IFR conditions. But without all the supporting instrumentation ! HA HA HA !
Early in the day we passed what looked like a wolf standing on the side of the road, thinking “NAH … couldn’t be, must just be a big farm dog”. A few hundred feet later … a group (murder ?) of crows was feasting on … a mangled dead wolf in the middle of the road. Aw gee, the first one’s mate ? Later in the day a cougar scampered across the highway right in front of us.
We stopped in Creston to have lunch at Tim Hortons again, mostly to finish using a gift card we had received as a thank you gift from the school across the road from our seniors’ condominium, for caring for their school vegetable garden for July and August.
We stopped again in Castlegar for a bathroom break and to reset our watches and car clocks as we had recently passed from the Mountain time zone to the Pacific time zone. We arrived at our motel in Christina Lake at 3 PM, having gained an hour from the time zone change. In Christina Lake, in the mountains, on a cloudy day, it became dark an hour after we arrived ! I selected this motel in Christina Lake because it is pet friendly. However, it is the most expensive motel of our entire journey, from Winnipeg (Dugald) all the way to Victoria. To make our daily distance driven about what I wanted it to be, and to facilitate lunch (Doukhobor borscht !) and dog food purchase (monthly seniors’ discount day !) tomorrow in Grand Forks, I did not want to make it all the way to Grand Forks tonight.
DSK
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