That's all folks

Here we are home in GP. Stopped in Edmonton on the way to visit with mother, she is just fine. Long day from Lethbridge, 12 hours on the road, but the roads got better as we travelled further north, although that meant water in places. A real surprise: Bill & Patti and the kids drove out and met us about the Smoky river hill and a couple got in with us and road the last 15 miles in to the city. Nice to be home. Although there is snow, it is warming up nicely. Thats' all until next year. Thanks for following our great adventure.......

Heading North

Nice rv park in the valley just north of Helena Montana. Got on the road by 8AM and was able to get fuel before the highway, so good to the border. There was a dusting of snow last night in the valley, but the hill to the north and the area around the Missouri river we ran into rain and wet snow. Some pretty nasty stuff, but it cleared up by Great Falls and was sunny after.

The Border - O'Canada

Got fuel right in Helena, so didn't need to stop until the border wehre I filled up, $188 worth of the bargain priced stuff, so probably saved over $100 at that. Also got a couple of nice bottles of scotch in the duty free & saved more there. At this rate will probably save myself into the poorhouse - LOL. The ramp to get into the line to the border was insane, fortunately some kind hearted soul let us in. In the one pic you can see the line to the border, it was about 500 meters & took us an hour. In the second you can see the line on the highway south of where we were let in. It was easily over a mile long. Someone said the lines today could reach 4 hours long. Just a bunch of anxious sowbirds trying to sing the national anthem in their homeland once more. The customs agent was good, but it still took time, no smuggling ring here. LOL, he asked if we had more than $10,000 with us, I just said: no; we're retired. Trouts called & they had a mishap, so we pulled up in Lethbridge to spend the night. I guess they had a storm yesterday, but it was quite pleasant here, melting and all. Washed the poor car, it was all covered in grit from the trip up, the m'home will have to wait until home.

Is it still there??

Yup, the car is still with us. LOL

North to home

No internet connection yesterday, although the park advertised having one - arghhh! Anyway in our last posting we were in Mesquite Nevada & when we went to MacDonalds in the AM to use their free wifi we saw the weather was going nasty, so we decided to head north instead of spending a couple of nights there. Quite a decision as the temp was supposed to reach 90F today. How do you get out of the heat - GO HOME! That was at 11AM, after that we went to the hotel to pay & check out, then back to the rv park to pack up and get the motorhome on the road, stopped & fueled it at Smith's & were on the road by 11:30 AM. Let me tell you when it's time to get out of Dodge, we can do it in short order. That gave us a late start on the day, so we only made it to Provo Utah, about 300 miles. There was a terrible accident on the highway and we were bumper to bumper for about an hour getting there. It was a pickup pulling a 5th wheel, both wheels up. When we got to the rollover I looked back & could see about 3 or 4 miles & it was solid vehicles. We checked in to an rv park, it was an older one & ok, nothing to write home about. The good news is that gas is cheaper in Utah than Arizona. ;-) Got an early start, we were on the road by 8AM after a couple hundred bucks of cheap fuel - LOL. Had terrible winds all day & as usual when we got into the Monida pass, some rain & snow falling. When we got to Butte, it didn't look that good with a 50% chance of snow tonight so kept going. Made it to Helena Montana [about 560 miles/900 kms today] where we checked in to an rv park, where it was sunny but the wind was still blowing.

On the road again - 2011

Left AJ in good time, we were on the road by 7:30 AM. Marg was up and organizing at 6:00 so I couldn't sleep. Is she anxious, one would almost think so. Anyway it took us an hour and a half to get through Phoenix, traffic wasn't too bad, just heavy in spots. It got warm quickly and we had a crosswind from Wickenburg to Kingman. We went through the Joshua tree forest area. It's really an interesting tree/plant. Stopped on the road just west of Kingman for lunch & by then had a head wind until Las Vegas and hot. It was 90F or better all the way. We crossed over the new bridge above the Hoover dam and although there are high sides on it, we could see over because of our height. Traffic on Las Vegas freeway was pretty heavy, in fact we came to a stop for a while & then had to make it over 3 lanes to get to our exit ramp to the I-15. Thankfully the drivers are a lot more courteous than in GP, LOL. Pulled in to Mesquite on fumes, made 380 miles on our tank of fuel & I reckon our limit is about 400. Much cooler here, only about 88F, but supposed to be their first 90 plus day today. That's pretty warm for us northerners. We checked in at the Casablanca & are in their Oasis rv park. Went out to the Virgin River casino buffet last night, it was great. The food was good, but the desserts were too good. The bread pudding was to die for. On the way out we thought we would try and increase the cost of dinner in the casino. To our mutual surprise we got our dinner and camping paid for. Marg won $22.84 in the slots, me $30 at blackjack table. Probably works out to about 10 or 15 dollars an hour - LOL. Will stay here one more night and then make our way north on Saturday, depending on the weather. Still got money left so will probably go see if the casino wants it before we leave. Hah!