Thursday ; Grand Forks, BC
Sunny, mild, 12° C. A day of rest after two days of driving.
At noon we went for a long walk around the residential neighbourhood behind our motel. At 1 PM we drove “downtown” to have lunch at The Borscht Bowl, a local restaurant renowned for their stupendous borscht and other Russian Doukhobor specialties. We have eaten here many times before, every time we have driven through Grand Forks.
As we parked near the restaurant before lunch Joanne noticed a health food store. We went in to look for violet leaf essential oil, a product used as a dog calming aromatherapy agent, but they did not have it. After lunch we went to Save-On-Foods to buy chocolate milk for Joanne, then Total Pet to look for a calming agent to help keep Apollo quiet when left alone in the car (or at home). We were assisted at Total Pet by a very knowledgeable young woman. In our experience, the staff at BC’s Total Pet stores (now owned by the PET VALU chain) are always well trained and knowledgeable. We also know, from personal experience, that is not that easy to achieve ! Kudos to Total Pet ! We bought a (very expensive) pheremone spray. Hope it works !
Last stop before returning to our motel was another trip to No Frills, across the highway from our motel, to buy a few more items for future meals on the road trip home. The rest of the day was busy, but at a relaxed pace, as I got caught up on laptop chores.
Friday ; Grand Forks to Cranbrook, BC
Sunny, +13° C.
We checked out of our Grand Forks motel at 10:40 AM and continued eastbound on Crowsnest Hwy. 3. We stopped at the Visitor Centre in Creston around 1:15 PM to eat lunch. We reached Cranbrook around 4:30 PM but did not check in to our motel until shortly after 6 PM.
Upon arrival in Cranbrook we went to Superstore’s Mobil Fuel Bar to refill the minivan with fuel. Then we found our way to Safeway to buy some salad mixes for tonight’s and tomorrow’s suppers. While searching for Safeway we passed a dog park, so after shopping at Safeway we went back to the dog park to give Apollo a chance to empty himself out and socialize with dogs and people. He’s more interested in people than dogs. We chatted for awhile with a couple a few years younger then us about retirement and RV travel.
Saturday ; Cranbrook, BC to Medicine Hat, Alberta
Sunny all day, +5° C in Cranbrook, +15° C in Medicine Hat.
We checked out of our motel in Cranbrook at 10:30 AM and went to the dog park to give Apollo fifteen minutes of emptying and socializing before we hit the road. We were out of Cranbrook at 11 AM, continuing east on Crowsnest Hwy. 3, reaching Medicine Hat at 5:30 PM.
We crossed through the Crowsnest Pass, from the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia into the prairie flatlands of Alberta. We stopped to eat lunch in the parking lot of Wal-Mart in Pincher Creek, Alberta. The wind there was blowing so strongly it was difficult to open the car doors. I was feeling ill and tired after lunch, so Joanne drove for an hour, from Pincher Creek to Lethbridge, to allow me to rest and snooze.
After checking into our motel I phoned Telus to resolve phone drama ... AGAIN ! Yesterday I had received a text message from Telus regarding a problem with the promotional bonus attached to the phone plan I changed to a month ago. The plan was an annual prepaid plan, but the promotional bonus “expired” after only a month. A technical problem / “glitch” at their end. I HATE dealing with cell phone drama ! ! ! But the agent I dealt with resolved the problem quickly and efficiently, including explaining it, and providing instructions on how to check whether or not their technical geeks have the problem permanently resolved a month from now, and how to address it if they don’t.
At 7:30 PM we drove to downtown Medicine Hat and bought take-out Korean food at J j Kitchen. MMMMM ... very good ! We watched Saturday Night Live from 9:30 PM to 11 PM, then went to bed early.
Sunday ; Medicine Hat, Alberta Sunny ... <blink blink> ... +19° C ! ! !
WOW ! WARM !
Joanne slept late this morning, then had a very lazy start to the day. Apollo and I, not so much. Around noon we all went out for a long walk around the residential neighbourhood behind our motel. It was nice to have a long walk in summer like weather. After our walk we drove to Superstore, refilled the minivan with fuel at their Mobil Fuel Bar ... <wow ... cheap fuel !> ... then went inside the store to buy something for tomorrow’s supper. On the way back to our motel we went to a Co-op Fuel Bar to get the car washed.
I went into the Co-op store, paid for a car wash, then drove around the corner of the store to the car wash entrance. AW, SHIT ! There was a line-up of eight cars in front of me. And no way to back out of the line. It took us an hour to get into the “one car at a time” automatic “touchless” car wash ... <fume> ! Oh, well ... at least the car is cleaned of winter road grime.
Before we went out to buy take out supper at a nearby Lebanese restaurant I did a dumbbell weights exercise session in the motel’s fitness room. When we were ready for supper we walked with Apollo to the restaurant where we ordered shawarma spiced diced lamb on a bed of seasoned fries. We took it back to our motel room and had it with bagged salad from a grocery store. It was very good !
Monday ; Medicine Hat, Alberta to Regina, Saskatchewan
Sunny, 20° C at 10:40 AM this morning when we left Medicine Hat, Alberta, 17° C when we stopped for lunch in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, 15° C this afternoon in Moose Jaw, and ... <sputter> ... +4° C an hour later when we arrived in Regina at 4:30 PM ! With wind blowing at 60 km./hr. BRRRRR !
When we crossed through the Crowsnest Pass from British Columbia’s Rocky Mountains into Alberta’s flatlands on Sunday we seemed to enter a slow moving warm front, moving west to east. Today we drove out of it near Moose Jaw and the temperature plummeted. We know this warm front is moving slowly from west to east because the temperature at home in Dugald, Manitoba is forecast to increase significantly on Thursday.
Today was summer from Medicine Hat, Alberta to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, then suddenly it was winter again !
Tuesday ; Regina, Saskaktchewan to Dugald, Manitoba
Sunny, +4° C in Regina, Saskatchewan when we left at 10:15 AM. Sunny, +5° C when we arrived at home in Dugald, Manitoba at 7:30 PM. WHEW ... Regina to Dugald is a bit too far to drive in one day for an old man like me.
When we checked out of our motel this morning we drove a very short distance to Superstore and refilled the minivan with fuel at their Mobil Fuel Bar, then reset our watches and the clocks in the car to Winnipeg / Central Daylight Time before continuing eastbound on Trans-Canada Highway 1.
We pulled into Moosomin, Saskatchewan to have lunch, but there seemed to be no suitable place there to eat lunch in the car ... and have access to restrooms. We stopped at the Co-op Food Store to use their restrooms then continued driving, stopping again a short distance later at the Saskatchewan / Manitoba border Visitor Info Centre. HMPH ! Still closed for the winter. Should have known / remembered. Why invest in the considerable infrastructure costs to build a Visitor Info Centre at the provincial border, then have it open / operational for only six months (or less ?) per year ? ! ? We ate lunch in the car, then continued on our way.
We stopped again at Superstore in Brandon to refill with fuel again, and buy a few grocery items for supper tonight and breakfast tomorrow morning. I was feeling pretty tired already, so Joanne drove from Brandon to Portage La Prairie to allow me to rest and snooze.
Apollo wasn’t aware we were home until he woke up in the Dugald Estates parkade, and even then he seemed a bit confused. Were we at home ? Or in the Victoria Public Library underground parkade again. HA HA HA ! You’re a very good traveller dog, Apollo, welcome home !
Good news ; Bell MTS had turned on our TV service, as pre-arranged last fall.
Bad news ; Bell MTS had NOT turned on our Internet service as pre-arranged last fall. <fume> Great ! More call centre drama tomorrow ! ! !
More bad news ; one of our bedroom windows is shattered ! HUH ?
Wednesday ; Dugald, Manitoba
Cloudy, windy, light rain, +4 C. BRRRRR ! Still winter here !
This morning I unloaded most of our winter stuff that was in the car ; suitcases, tote boxes, backpacks, etc. before Joanne took the car and headed to Southdale (Winnipeg). She picked up a blood test requisition from our doctor’s office, then went to a nearby lab to have blood drawn for testing, in advance of next week’s CT scan at Selkirk Hospital. After finishing at the lab she went to the nearby Co-op Food Store and did quite a bit of grocery shopping.
I phoned Bell MTS to resolve the “no internet” drama. As expected, the biggest problem was the ineptitude of the call centre, as well as the source of the problem being another simple error / omission of ineptitude by a tech support geek. When the billing department sent a “restore after seasonal disconnect” order to the technical support (geek) department for our TV and internet service, some inept geek read the order incompletely, restored our TV service, and did not notice that the order also included “restore internet service”. And while I was on hold for nineteen minutes waiting for the first call centre agent to “investigate”, I was abruptly disconnected ... <fume> ... and had to start the entire process over again, including another lengthy wait for “the next available agent” !
I spent much of the day on “return home” chores. In the evening, over dinner, we watched Survivor and Amazing Race.
We’re glad to be home in our very comfortable suite, with our own comfortable mattress and pillows, etc.
And we found out from our next door neighbour that about half a dozen or so suites in our building had windows spontaneously shatter on the coldest night of the winter, including one in her suite.
DSK
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