May 6, 2005

May 6, 2005

Taber to Dunmore, Alberta

DAY 323

 

Today was sunny and very warm.

I started the morning with regular preventive maintenance, then climbed up on the roof of the trailer to do a thorough examination of the edges. I found 2 more spots with some cracking that need to be repaired. I'll get to that within the next few days. We prepared the trailer for departure, then drove over to the trailer dumping station in the campground. We refilled the fresh water tank, and dumped the waste water holding tanks. That set us up for at least a couple of days of not requiring serviced campsites.

We headed east on Hwy. 3 towards Medicine Hat. We stopped at a small sausage maker in the town of Seven Persons, and bought some fresh sausages. Just as we approached Medicine Hat, we stopped at Bruce's RV Parts & Service. My list of repair parts required has grown in the last few days. I wanted to try to buy as many of the repair parts as I can get while we're still in Alberta, where there's no Provincial Sales Tax. I bought 2 of the 7 items I require. We continued into Medicine Hat, turning onto Hwy. 1. We stopped at the Tourist Information Centre. Joanne went in and got directions to 3 more RV dealers nearby while I walked Bo, then Teddy. We ate lunch in the parking lot of the Tourist Information Centre. Then we drove in the wrong direction, 10 km. west on Hwy. 1 to Redcliff, to Holiday RV. They had none of the 5 parts I still required. We drove back east on Hwy. 1, back through Medicine Hat, stopping at Cactus RV. They were very helpful and had 2 of the parts I required. Four down, three to go. We stopped at Wal-Mart, and while Joanne went in to do some shopping, I worked on RV repairs in the parking lot. When she was finished shopping, we filled up with diesel, and headed out, east again on Hwy. 1. About 10 km. out of town, we stopped at Sterling Trailer Sales. They had none of the remaining 3 items I still require. We continued east on Hwy. 1 another 10 km. to Dunmore where we stopped for the night at Cavan Lake Campground, a small unserviced campground operated by the municipality. We shoe horned into one of the little sites, then took Bo for an obedience training walk. I barbecued some of those nice fresh sausages I bought earlier today. We might stay here tomorrow, and I'll spend the day repairing things while Joanne continues cleaning the dust created by travelling on that gravel road yesterday.

DSK

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

May 4, 2005

May 4, 2005

Waterton Lakes National Park

DAY 321

 

Today was partially sunny and warm, down on the prairie where we're camped. It was partially cloudy and cool, up in the mountains in Waterton Lakes National Park, and it rained heavily for a short time in the evening back at the campground.

Today was all about good fortune, combined with good timing. Joanne commented on the drive back from the National Park that "we've seen horses pissing, Whitetail Deer shitting, and Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep humping" !

I started the morning by doing my regular preventive maintenance, then completed the repairs to the trailer roof. It was pleasant to be outside in the morning, being serenaded by the singing of meadowlarks. I haven't heard meadowlarks in quite awhile. I unhitched the trailer as Joanne prepared a picnic lunch and we set off for Waterton Lakes National Park, the Canadian side of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. Fifteen miles west on Hwy. 505, then 15 miles south on Hwy. 6. Just before the entrance to the park, we turned off the highway to drive through the bison paddock in the rolling foothills at the base of the Rockies. It was a slow, circuitous drive down a narrow, winding one lane trail, and we saw six bison. We entered the National Park, and drove towards Waterton Village. Just before the village, we saw The Prince Of Wales Hotel, a lovely looking, grand, old hotel high on a hill overlooking the town. We drove up to see it. It was still closed for the season. But ... as we drove into the parking lot ... HOLY SHIT ... a large herd of Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep walking slowly across the parking lot towards the hotel front entrance. I parked, and jumped out with the camera, following slowly behind them, shooting pictures. They walked across the front deck of the hotel, and over to the windows of the ground floor hotel rooms. They began munching on the remnants of last season's flowers in the flower boxes underneath each hotel window. WOW ! I walked slowly to within about 50 feet of them, taking pictures. When the biggest males starting giving me dirty looks, I retreated. I got back into the truck, and tried to count them. There were at least 15 !

We drove down from the hotel, and into town, exploring the pretty little tourist village. The town was mostly deserted. Tourist season hasn't begun yet. WHOA ! On the lawn in front of a cottage, there were 2 Mountain Goats, resting and grazing on the lawn. I jumped out of the truck, shooting pictures as I walked a large circle around them. They seemed rather unconcerned. We drove around the village, and into the campground to check it out. We drove out of the village, looking for the 16 km. / 10 mi. road up into the mountains to Cameron Lake. We wanted to have a picnic lunch at one of the picnic sites along the road up into the mountains. We drove high up into the mountains, and stopped at a picnic area beside a cool, clear, mountain stream. We had lunch, then drove the rest of the way up the mountain road to Cameron Lake. The road was closed 2 km. from Cameron Lake because of snow. We turned around, and slowly drove back down the mountain, stopping frequently to take pictures. As we got near the bottom of the mountain, we came across a large herd of Mountain Goats on the road, and on both sides. I turned off the engine, and coasted slowly downhill towards, and through them. Joanne took some pictures out her window, as I kept Bo silent. After passing right through the herd silently, I restarted the truck, and backed up slowly. They didn't seem too concerned as I backed through the herd, taking pictures out my window as Joanne kept Bo silent. Actually, it's not that hard to keep him silent when he sees large animals. He's afraid, and only growls very softly, until we're well away from them, then he does his brave, loud barking routine. We drove the rest of the way down the mountain, and into the village again. I was going to turn back onto the highway, when Joanne said facetiously "let's go back into town and see more wildlife". We drove back into the village, and stopped at Cameron Falls on the edge of town. We went for a hike up the steep hill to the top of the falls to take some pictures. We hiked back down, and continued to drive around the village. As we got to the campground, which we had seen earlier, we were surprised to see a huge herd of Whitetail Deer grazing on the nice lawn in the campground. I took more pictures, until the memory in my camera was full. Gee ... I shot 65 pictures today ! And the auxiliary memory card for the camera was back in the trailer. I guess that's the end of my picture taking for now. I was thinking that it would be just my luck to run into Sasquatch now that my camera memory was full.

We drove back to the campground. I took a short nap. We took Bo for a long obedience walk around the small lake, to the big barn and main buildings. As we approached the main buildings, a very friendly black cat came running out to visit us. I put Bo into a "sit / stay", then repeated "leave it" commands. He sat there nicely, silently quivering as Rose the cat came over and sniffed him. Good, good dog, Bo ! Excellent work ! ! ! What great progress from the unruly terror he was when we got him in Alabama less than 5 months ago. We explored around the farm yard a bit more, taking Bo over to the corral to see the horses. So far today Bo has been up close to bison, Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep, Mountain Goats, Whitetail Deer, Prairie Dogs, Canada Geese, ducks, horses, and Rose the cat. Quite a day for a little dog !

DSK

May 3, 2005

May 3, 2005

Fernie, B.C. to Hill Spring, Alberta

DAY 320

 

Another sunny, warm day, although the wind is extremely strong where we are tonight, just east of the base of the Rocky Mountains. I guess the wind blows down the mountains, then rushes across the rolling prairie.

We slept very late this morning. I guess it's because we changed time zones yesterday. The first thing I did was phone our Escapee friends in Pincher Creek, Alberta, Gord and Lil Casey. We knew we would make it as far as Pincher Creek today. At the Escapees Chapter 44 Spring Rally in Mesa, Arizona, Gord and Lil had invited us to visit them when we were passing through the Pincher Creek area on our way back to Manitoba. We phoned them repeatedly throughout the day, but there was no answer. We'll try again tomorrow because we're going to stay in this area for tomorrow.

Yesterday I noticed what looked like a small rip in the edge of the rubber roof of the trailer. I climbed up onto the roof this morning to examine it. I found two small tears right on the edge where the rubber roof wraps over the side of the trailer. This is the second time I've found some areas of the roof that need patching right where it wraps over the edge. I guess after a few years of exposure, the rubber roofs of RVs start to get dry, and crack at the edges.

We left the Snow Valley Motel & RV Park, stopping for diesel before we were out of Fernie. Continuing east on the Crowsnest Highway, I was worried about how tough it would be to cross over the last range of the Rocky Mountains, through the Crowsnest Pass. It was a non-event. The Crowsnest Pass is a fairly gentle climb up and over. Unlike the exceptionally tough mountain passes from before Osoyoos to about Cranbrook ! I thought the most southerly route through the Rockies was going to be the toughest, since it's the least travelled of the three routes through the Rockies. I seem to recall that Rogers Pass and Kicking Horse Pass on the Trans Canada Highway 1, north of here, through to Banff and Calgary, were more difficult than the Crowsnest Pass that we drove through today. Maybe my memory is faulty. It's been over 20 years since I last drove through Banff and Lake Louise into B.C.

We stopped for lunch at a roadside historical exhibit called Leitch's Collieries. It's the ruins of a coal mining and processing operation from the early 1900's. It was interesting, with a selfguided tour and historical explanations around the ruins. After lunch, we continued on towards Pincher Creek. As we came through Crowsnest Pass, the Rocky Mountains seemed to end abruptly. One minute we were in the mountains, the next minute we were on relatively flat ranch land. Again, my recollection of the more northerly route is that after the mountains, there are rolling foothills for quite awhile. We turned off Hwy. 3, heading south on Hwy. 6 to Pincher Creek. Since we were unable to contact our friends, we continued south through Pincher Creek towards Waterton Lakes National Park. We stopped about halfway from Pincher Creek to Waterton Lakes National Park, about 30 miles from each. We are going to stay here tomorrow, and take a day trip to the National Park. I am unwilling to pay the exorbitant fees to camp in a National Park. The camping fee and daily park user fee, together are over $40 !

We are at the Great Canadian Barn Dance & Family Campground. It's a campground on the prairie, around a man made lake. During the summer, they have weekend barn dances and dinners. They opened the campground for the season on May 1. We are their first guests of the year. Since we have the entire area to ourselves, we allowed Bo to run around like an idiot, off leash. Boy ... what a high energy little mutt. He ran at full speed down to the lake's edge, and seeing all the Canada Geese just off shore, ran into the water to chase them. He doesn't get very far from shore before his feet don't touch the bottom, and he's floating / swimming. That certainly slowed down his chase of the geese. And ... he sure smells bad when he gets all wet, and hasn't had a bath lately. Actually, he has been smelling particularly bad whenever he gets wet since all that romping around in tidal pools he did at Saltery Bay on the Sunshine Coast of B.C.. After setting up in the campsite, I got up on the roof of the trailer and began patching the two small ripped areas. It's particularly hard to patch the roof right on the edge, where it wraps over, which, of course, is where it keeps cracking / tearing. I did the first application of patching, and will do another application tomorrow. When I was finished, we took Bo for an off leash obedience training session. He won't heel off leash, so after a few minutes, we returned to the trailer and put his leash and choker on. Much better ! Like most dogs in formal obedience training, he recognizes that being on the choker means it's time to pay attention and "work".

It was much too windy here to barbecue tonight, so while Joanne prepared supper, I did today's accounting, and began working on today's journal. I got the TV set up for watching Amazing Race, which is on at 10:00 P.M. tonight.

DSK

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

May 1, 2005

May 1, 2005

Creston, B.C.

DAY 318

 

Today was sunny and very warm.

The day started with a minor crisis that caused us to decide to stay put for today. At 7:00 A.M. I received a phone call from Allen Bindle, the Park Ranger at West Hawk Lake. He was phoning with final details about our Campground Host job at West Hawk Lake this summer. He forgot that we are 2 time zones away from Manitoba. I decided to stay up after the phone call. I went to the kitchen to begin preparing myself a cup of coffee. Our kitchen sink had a one lever faucet. I hate those ! When I pushed the faucet lever back to turn on the water, it snapped right off, and a fountain began spraying up. If we had been on our own internal water tank, I could have just reached over and flipped the main water pump switch off. But, we were on the campground's outside water connection. By the time I dashed outside, around the trailer, and turned off the water, there was a bit of a mess in the trailer. Water had sprayed up onto the underside of the kitchen cupboard, and the under cupboard fluorescent light fixture, all over the wall and window, all over the counter, and was running over the edge of the counter into the stove, the lower cupboards, and onto the floor ! < sigh > I woke Joanne up to come and help me with the clean up. By the time we were finished cleaning up the mess, and I removed the broken faucet assembly, it was close to 9:00 A.M., so I figured the stores would be open soon. I got directions at the campground office to the one ( of three in town ) hardware stores that was open on Sunday, and set off to buy either replacement parts or a whole new faucet assembly. The hardware store didn't have the necessary repair parts I needed, so I bought a new faucet. Neither of us likes single lever faucets, so I bought an old fashioned, two handle, low tech., regular faucet. I was back home, and had it installed by 11:00 A.M.. Allen Bindle said it was snowing at West Hawk, and that was another reason why we decided we should stay here today and slow down our travel eastward. The news on TV yesterday showed pretty cold temperatures in Calgary. We're about 2 days from Alberta. Might as well stay here where it's warm in the Kootenay region.

We spent the day doing some work that we've been procrastinating doing. Since we had Wi-Fi here, we did a whole lot of online research, mostly about West Hawk Lake, and Newfoundland. I think we might head to Newfoundland after our summer assignment is over in early September.

We also did a large job, draining the bathroom grey water and black water holding tanks, then filling them full with clean water, and a chemical that's supposed to clean the level gauge sensors. There is a system monitor panel in the kitchen that indicates the level in each holding tank, battery charge level, etc.. In most RV's, the level gauge sensors for the waste holding tanks get stuck permanently showing full tanks, because the level sensors in the tanks get dirty. Common thinking in the RV world is that one must just learn to live with that, because these sensors are pretty much impossible to clean. However, products are made to clean the level sensors, and I wanted to give it a try. It would be nice if the sensors actually worked accurately. Wish me luck.

I took a nap in the afternoon. We walked Bo on a training session. He did exceptionally well. Some days he's so "on". I guess that makes up for how unfocussed he was yesterday. Joanne did some laundry. We barbecued an elaborate supper, since we had lots of time, and felt well rested. I retrieved a bunch of investment data, and updated my investment files. We both prepared a bunch of e-mails and sent them. We channel surfed through 55 TV channels.

DSK

April 30, 2005

April 30, 2005

Rock Creek to Creston, B.C.

DAY 317

 

Today was sunny and cool. I think it was cool only because of how high up in the Kootenay Rockies we were for most of the day.

We left Rock Creek this morning heading east on Hwy. 3, which from this point east is called The Crowsnest Highway. That's because it eventually leads to the Crowsnest Pass through the Rockies. Most of today was spent either ascending, or descending very high mountains. There was hardly any time when we were driving on flat ground. The ascents and descents ranged from 20 to 40 km. / 12 to 24 miles long ! Hauling Harvey uphill for a solid hour at a time is extremely hard on Dee-Dee ! On the longest, steepest sections, Dee-Dee's maximum capability was 40 km. per hr. / 25 mph in first gear at 3000 RPM. On one of these long, steep ascents, struggling at 40 km./hr. we came across five Bighorn Sheep in the middle of the road. I didn't want to slow down and lose what little momentum we had, so I just kept chugging on towards them. They split on the road, letting me pass right through the group ! WOW !

We stopped at Grand Forks to fill up with diesel, buy some groceries, and drop some mail at the Post Office. Grand Forks is a pretty little town. One of my mother's brothers settled here over 50 years ago. He started a furniture and appliance store which I think is still owned and operated by ( distant ) cousins of mine. As we drove through town, we passed a furniture and appliance store. I wonder if it's my cousins' ? Grand Forks doesn’t seem like it’s large enough for more than one furniture and appliance store.

At least a couple of times today, we were at such a high elevation in the Kootenay Rockies that we were surrounded by snow, driving by lakes still frozen. The Kootenay Pass Summit elevation was about 6000 feet ! We stopped at a snowmobile trail access area, and I took some pictures of Bo in the snow. As were walking back to the truck, a couple of snowmobiles came driving out of the snow covered forest, drivers in full snowmobile suits. An amusing contrast to us standing out there in short sleeved shirts. No wonder I felt so cold !

We stopped for the night at Pair-A-Dice RV Park in Creston. There is an Escapee RV Park in Nevada by the same name. This is the area of B.C. with Dukhobors and polygamists. After getting backed into the really tight squeeze campsite we were assigned, we took Bo for a training walk, I did some work online ( this campground has Wi-Fi ), barbecued another great supper, did today’s accounting, journal, and photos, and we watched a bit of TV ( this campground has cable TV ).

DSK