Tuesday 9 April 2013

Crossing the frontier

When we were in Europe, they referred to the border as the frontier, so today we crossed into Alberta.  From start to finish we made 920 km's today, with 11 hours on the road; long day for us.
  We got up to a cool windy day.  How cool, well the water filter froze, so I had to get up and clear it before everything was solid.  That was a 3AM, BTW, I had been getting up to run a little water every couple hours.  We were the first rig in the rv park to commit and were on the highway at 7:30AM.  The wind blew so hard that at one point I think our rig was going backwards, well almost anyway.  We had a pretty good pull up to the Monida pass [summit 6,900 ft] and lots of icy spots on the road.  Up top the ditches were full of snow, but the driving surface was manageable.  This unit holds the road pretty good, it weighs in at 22,000 lbs, but don't let it get in a skid or that weight works against you.  After that first bit, the sun came out and we had perfect travel weather, sunny and clear dry roads, although the temp was a bit on the cool side.
  We took the bypass through Townsend around the second pass that goes from Butte to Helena.  Same distance, only it is 2 lane instead of 4, but without the grades.
   This is a cut bank at the Marias river around Shelby.
  Saw lots of farmers out seeding already in Idaho, so they are lots ahead of us.  No snow in this picture.
  This is an alkalai flat, much of the ground here is heavily alkalai and at the edge of the water it is white as snow,  in fact I saw some fence posts that were turned white.  Marg drove for a couple hours and she's getting to be a real hand, passing semi's like their standing still.  You may ask if that effects the fuel economy, I don't think so, but we really don't check it that close.

Most of the standing water we saw was not frozen; the streams & lakes were all open.  Got to Sweetgrass and the border around 4PM.  Went to the duty free, but were very disappointed.  It seems the pricing is all changed and there weren't such good deals.  The only thing we bought was one carton of smokes for Marg.  At the border we were 2nd in line and after a few questions, the agent told us to have a nice day.  We were over in the amount of alcohol & told him, but I guess they had bigger fish to fry today.
  Could not get reservations in Lethbridge, so we went on to Ft McLeod, you know, it was formerly called Fort Whoop-up.  Not kidding, google it and you will see.  It was so named because of the effect caused from selling whiskey to the natives in the area.  The camp ground is the one we stayed in on our first night in this motorhome when it was brand new, Daisy May.  There is a joke there someplace, but Marg keeps reminding me that our grandchildren read this blog.  We were parking and as we often do, Marg drives the motorhome and I direct her, especially if we are running it up on blocks to level it.  The park manager was there while we were doing it and commented that she handles that rig pretty well; stopping on the top level that is the same size as the tire footprint.  No room for error there.  Started to get chilly tonight so we winterized the motorhome, that way we can get through Edmonton & home without anything freezing and breaking.
  Not sure how far we will get tomorrow, but we should at least get to Edmonton.

Monday 8 April 2013

Mmmmonday

Chilly well that's one word, freezing is another.  We had a bit of clear weather south of the first pass, so left the nice weather and drove 200 miles north to Idaho Falls.  Looking at the highway cameras on line, the Monida pass is white, arghhh.  The second pass we can bypass with a 50 mile detour, so it's not as big a concern.  Tomorrow is supposed to be cool, but sunny, fingers crossed.  It's a better distance to the border from here & the passes are supposed to be better tomorrow or Wednesday.
  Just out of Brigham city we got a stone in the new windshield, you know the $4,500 one we had put in last fall.  I got a guy out to put the epoxy in it, so fingers crossed that it will hold and prevent it from spreading.  The irony was he had Jesus Loves You painted on the highboy he was pulling, gives room for speculation of windshields though!
  We are at Snake River rv park, a common stopping place for us.  The park is full of Alberta, Saskatchewan & a few BC snowbirds.  I expect everyone is like us and it will be like a jail break tomorrow morning with most heading out.  I'm giving up on good weather and will winterize the water system tomorrow when we stop, probably should have done it tonight, but I always try to delay as long as possible.  I expect we should get to Lethbridge, 875 km's, so a longer day than I would like with the border crossing thrown in for a possible extra delay.
  We went out for a nice dinner to Jakers tonight, it's a fairly fancy place we have previously eaten at.  We still owed ourselves a nice dinner out for our birthdays, so this was it.  Crème brule for desert, a nice way to finish the meal off.
  Road reports in Alberta aren't very encouraging, but we are at the damn the torpedoes stage of the trip now, it seems.  The 90F in AJ seems to long ago!

Sunday 7 April 2013

Sunday

Sunday in the heart of LDS territory is a pretty quiet day.  I heard on the news they have a big conference on that will draw 100,000 people to the area, so must have lots of activities this weekend.  Noticeably fewer shops are open on Sunday.
  We lazed about and then went to the Hill air museum.  It's a really big air base and has a long history of manufacture of aircraft.  There was one model of bomber built here in WWII and the Snark ICBM was manufactured here.  It was funny, I drove up to the wrong gate, one that leads into the airbase, a bit of a security issue I think.  The nice young man at the gate, with lots of guns, took my drivers license while I did a U-turn and another nice young fellow gave it back to me.  I asked him if they get a lot of old people who don't know where they are going and he just laughed and wished me a good day.
 
 The inside displays were pretty cool as well, this old WWII Mitchel bomber was great, just check out the machine guns forward, something like 12.  Looking at lots of the displays, many of the crew must have been smaller guys.




I really like the replica of the Wright Brothers Kitty Hawk, I've seen one other, but it was well done.  They also had a WWI Jenny in the background on the floor.
 They also had a Starfighter, I think the Canadian airforce flew them, long and thin with a top end will over mach 1.  I think it was called the widow maker, mainly because of the number lost in training.
 I always take a picture of the Sabre jets when they have a nice one and this one was mint.  Also the name was pretty cool, right Roger?  They had the machine gun port open on the other side & there were 3 - 50 cals on each side.  I remember Jock telling me he broke the sound barrier when he was flying these, but only in a steep dive.  They also had a Herc & 2 Convair's planes that he flew as well.

Another picture of the Globemaster, impressive, especially when you see it in proportion to the other aircraft.  I think the only other behemoths like this were the B1-B & B52.  The B1 is impressive, a bomber that flies at mach 1.2 & delivers a nuclear warhead.
  It was a nice day & we wandered about in shirt sleeves.  I think the temp was in the 60's and the forecast rain never materialized.  Marg is a pretty good sport, I know she isn't all that keen on this kind of thing, but goes along with it anyway.
  Weather is a bit better, so will head out tomorrow with plans to make it to at least Idaho Falls.  Probably will not have wifi tomorrow.
  Just noted that we had 30 views on Friday, must be quite a few lurkers out there.  Why not sign in and let us know what you think?

Saturday 6 April 2013

Saturday

Well every time I look at the weather for the route home it changes, never for the better.  It seems old man winter is having fun up in northern Alberta.  It was supposed to rain here, but never did, instead the sun shone and it was shirt sleeve weather.
 


   We went out to a museum here in Ogden.  Something I did not know was that John Browning raised his family here.  The family donated a car collection to the local museum & they had some nice ones.  This old Lincoln was owned by a movie star.
   Browning of course made his name as a gunsmith a tradition his sons carried on.  Probably the most well known firearm was the lever action rifle, often referred to as the rifle that won the west.  Although he sold the patent to Winchester who made most of the famous rifles, the museum had some of his original pieces on display.
  The third part of the museum is a celebration of the railway heritage that was such an important part of the area history.  The golden spike uniting east & west was driven around here.  There was a huge trestle built to span the great salt lake at one time.  Some pretty neat stuff.
  Still does not look like departure date tomorrow, in fact it's starting to look like: run up to Helena on Tuesday, then up to Red Deer on Wednesday, then on Thursday stop to see mom in Edmonton and then on home to GP.  We'll see whether there are any more surprises in store for us weather-wise though.

Friday 5 April 2013

Friday the 5th

It rained last night and through part of the morning, but just before noon the sky cleared and it was a beautiful day. I think the temp got up to about 61F, very pleasant.  We are back in long pants now though, so the shorts are packed away for now.
  Lots of Albertans coming through here, a handful every day and then they are gone.  Not sure what weather they are seeing in Montana, but they obviously don't have to go as far as we do.  Will look at the weather again tomorrow morning, but the weather forecast on the TV tonight didn't give us much hope for leaving here earlier.
  We went out to Camping World, there is a new store just south of here.  The propane detector is acting up again.  When I called the 800 number on the brochure, they told me to just take it in to camping world and get it replaced under warranty.  I kind of think he just told me that to get rid of me as Camping World don't stock this brand.  Apparently we can go to any RV dealer and the manufacturer will ship the replacement to them, within a week or two.  Not good for people just passing through like us, so I will try later at home.  Marg got some good stuff here and I bought some sewer hose and connections.  They are starting to wear and the last thing I want is a failure in this hose.  It's amazing how many sewer hoses you see along side the highway, probably off trailers.  Mind you , no one really stops to look them over -- lol!
  On the way back we stopped in at a mall.  Marg went to Macy's and prowled around in the mall, coming out with a couple of tops, pretty happy.  I went in to Dick's sporting goods and looked at lots, but in the end just bought a golf glove.  They had a good assortment of golf shoes, the new spike less ones are interesting looking.  I'm sure someone I know will buy them and I will get a report on them before making a decision.  Any comments Phil??
  Stopped at an antique/old stuff store on the edge of town.  They had some interesting stuff.  The most interesting to me was an old outboard motor.  It is a 2hp Elgin, exactly the same motor as dad's old one that Roger had & donated to the museum in GP.  They had it for sale for $175.  They had a pie safe [cabinet] that Marg was really interested in.  It had me worried, I had visions of strapping it to the roof to get home, LOL.
  Drove back through the town center, where we stopped at Walmart.  Bought a new coleman stove for the lake and of course bottled water.  We go through so much water, it's hard to believe.  We have pretty much given up on pop and other drinks and replaced them with water.  The stove is a new model with a large rectangular center burner and the two round outer burners.  Now she can hardly wait to try it out.
 

Thursday 4 April 2013

April 4th

Pretty good travel day, I think we made 340 miles, so an easy day for us.  It was a nice day in St George, I think it was to get to 80F today, but we were not happy in the overflow for the rv park.  It's a nice park & the same one that we leave the motorhome at in the fall, however they were full with spring break.  We were really on the fringe of the park and the wifi was really poor at our location, in fact with the number of people in the park, it wasn't great anywhere, so not much posted yesterday.
  We got up early and went to Smith's for fuel.  Got to patronize the relations, LOL; not really, just that the gasoline there was $3.53, the best we saw in town by about a dime.  Hey, we're on a fixed income now.  A few cents a gallon when you use as much as we do is significant.  Can hardly wait to fill up here, the gas prices are much better around SLC.
  Good travelling weather and the traffic wasn't too bad.  I got one of my migraines about a half hour on the road, so Marg drove for a couple of hours.  It was a nice break and gave me a chance close my eyes for a while & after it passed to look around at the scenery. 
  Got our first look at snow since we left in December.  There is none on the roads, just in the very high country.  We went over a couple of 6,000ft summits and it was well above the level, so not really a problem for us.


We got to Salt Lake City in the early afternoon, about 2:30.  I say about, because the city area is 80 miles long.  The city is really only 190,00 but there are so many other cities that the urban population is 2.9 million. Take a look at this, you will probably never see this little traffic on this piece of road again.  It was amazing.



Lots of snowbird traffic heading north.  Not just Canadians, many more state license plates on the road.  Lots of Americans in the northern states don't like winter any more than we do.  There were lots of Alberta, BC, Saskatchewan plates as well.  At one time 4 vehicles in a row with Alberta plates passed us.
  Got to Ogden where we checked in to the Century rv park.  We have stayed here in years past and it's a decent place.  It was a gorgeous day, I think 74F/24C so we were happy to get here.  It looks like the weather will keep us here for a few days.  They are forecasting rain tonight as well as Friday, Saturday.  A bit farther north that will turn into mixed precipitation, so rain/snow in the dreaded Monida pass between Idaho & Montana, something we don't want to experience again, if we can avoid it.  Will probably leave here Sunday or Monday.
 

Wednesday 3 April 2013

April 3rd

Short drive today, to St George, Utah, something like 12 miles.  Weather here in the high 70's, I think it got to 80F for a while.  We ended up in the overflow camping area & are not impressed, so will only stay one night.  Moving on to Ogden tomorrow.
Internet service is very poor, so not much time to post.

Tuesday 2 April 2013

Still April 2nd

  After the pawn shop, we took a drive down the strip and did some people gazing.



Went to the Planet Hollywood hotel for lunch, as it was right in the middle of the strip.  Marg found a diversion on the way out.  We ate at PF Chang Oriental Bistro.  The food was awesome, Marg said her salad was the best she had ever eaten & she has eaten a lot of salads, so that's pretty good.
We wanted to eat at this place of Gordon Ramsay's, but the line up was impossible, so we went to PF Chang

After we made our way to the outlet mall on the north end of the strip.  It's the one we went to when Bill & Patti were here a few years back.  I managed to read a few pages in my book & Marg found a pair of shorts, so it was a good outcome.
  Supper tonight will be in the hotel where the casino may well distract us, we'll see.
  Our wifi subscription runs out at 10PM tonight & we will not renew it because we are leaving in the morning.  If we are able to post when we get back, it will mean we lost, but if no post, then we probably won.
  Plans are to leave here tomorrow morning, but only go as far as Mesquite where they have cheaper camping and looser slots, oh yeh, cheaper gas too.  We should be able to wifi from the MacDonald's there as the rv park doesn't have wifi.  Looking at the weather, our tentative plans are to leave for Ogden Utah on Monday, then to Helena Montana on Tuesday, cross the border on Wednesday and make it to either Lethbridge or Edmonton if we are lucky and then home on Thursday.  We had plans to get home earlier, but it seems there are a bunch of spring storms in the forecast.  If the weather changes, so will our plans.

April 2nd

What a nice day, in the mid 70's, just like a nice summer day at home.  There was a steady breeze that just made for a very nice day, although when the car sat for any length of time, we found the a/c a nice touch.  That gets more of a workout down here than the entire summer back at home. 
  After breakfast we went out for a drive to the Gold & Silver Pawn shop, the one they feature on the tv show, Pawn Stars.  It was pretty neat, had some great stuff including a Superbowl ring for $100K.  We were hoping to catch a glimpse of one of the tv personalities, but no such luck. 



  One of the things on display that really caught my eye was this set of matched colts from the wild west & a bargain at only $15K.  They had lots of shootin' iron and swords in the display cases.  They had lots of staff working mostly selling, but a few buying as well.


They are really making the most of their TV personality status with souvenirs and Marg bought in to it along with everyone else.  Well I was not exactly immune to the lure of deals, but I bought 10 ounces of pure silver, it cost me a bit more than the souvenirs, but it will hold value a lot better than the t-shirt, LOL.  Proof positive here that Marg really wanted to see Chumley, LOL.
  It was a fun time and by the time we were out of there it was a couple of hours.

Monday 1 April 2013

Farewell to AJ

Happy birthday Phil, hope your day was special.  You deserve a great one.
  We were pretty organized and managed to leave Carefree rv park at 7:30 this morning.  Went to Fry's where we filled up with gas after a long wait for another motorhome.  Marg had the max in loyalty bonus, so we got gasoline for $3.49/gallon or 92 cents a litre.
 It was hot in AJ today, something like 90F, but as we got up around Kingman, the wind blew
steadily and it was much cooler.  A good travel day, except for the traffic on the loop system in Phoenix.  The 202 was busy, but the 101 was gridlock.  We were stopped at one point and much of the travel through Scottsdale at very low speeds.  We took a different route going north on hwy#17 to the carefree highway and west on to Wickenburg.  This way we missed all the lights and business traffic through Surprise & Sun City.  It was quite a bit quicker.
  The route we took from then on was one we are very familiar with.  We travel through the Joshua tree forest, a unique plant, but a pretty sparse forest.  The Joshua tree is one of the more interesting
plants we see, actually.  Travelling west of Kingman it takes us over the new bridge at the Hoover Dam site and into Las Vegas on the freeway.  Traffic was light in Vegas, we got in early in the afternoon.  We are in the rv park at Sams Town for 2 nights.  Well rv park is a generous description, but it meets our needs fine.  Lots of rv traffic today and lots of Alberta license plates on the road.  It's pretty funny, lots of them are waving and a few blew the horn.  The further away from home, the smaller Alberta seems to be, I guess.
  We went in to the casino for a while, Marg on slots and me on blackjack.  I think Marg made enough for supper & I did as well, so a good result.  The weather here is very nice, high 70's which is more to our liking than the high temps they get in Phoenix.  Supper was the buffet in the hotel.  It's pretty good, well it would have been great, except they put pineapple in the bread pudding.  Some kind of devious mind came up with that idea -- some things should be left as they are, they can't be improved upon.  LOL
  The April fools joke, they charged us $6 for wifi today.