Monday, October 29th, 2018

Day one of the incredible journey.
  We were off to an early start as both of us were awake and out of the old fart sack about 6 AM.  Quite an amazing feat for one of us. LOL  As a result we were on the road by 7AM, although we did not totally winterize our home, knowing we will be back in December for Christmas and our family wedding.  Well no Marg & I are not getting married, rather Bill & Patti. 
  It was cool [minus 6] and frosty when we left GP, had to scrape the windows on the truck this morning.  Traffic was light and roads bare, so we made good time.  The roads started to get a bit of snow & ice after Little Smoky and by Fox Creek we had winter-like conditions, although the roads were salted, so traction was very good.  It was pretty much like that until around Sangudo, then bare and dry roads.  We were able to use the cruise control most of the day at 120 kmph.
  When we got to E town we were able to take the Henday southbound and it worked out pretty good, so in E town by 11 & on the QEW and in Leduc by 11:40.  Pretty uneventful all the way to C town where the traffic on the bypass [Stony Trail] was light.  Roads were pretty much as good as it gets with a stop in Red Deer for fuel.  Again good time through Lethbridge where we got a coffee at Tims and down to the border crossing at Coutts by 5 PM.  Picked up a couple of nice 1 litre bottles at the duty free and on to the border security.
 We had a border security guard who was new on the job and very thorough.  Asked every question in the manual, asked me to take my cap off so he could see my face better and waved us on.  He asked if we had any plants to which I responded NO.  Not sure if the dead branches I am taking to Smitty are plants or firewood, so may have erred on the side of caution. 
  Montana roads were great, some new paving on the I-15, so set the cruise on 130 kmph, that is the speed limit here and motored.  Got to Great Falls where we drove through the city center in the dark and found a Best Western.  Marg checked in and her BW rewards number worked, so here we sit.  They had a nice restaurant/bar/casino in the place, so we had supper there.  The food was very good, the beer very cold.
  We made 1,215 km's [755 miles] today, so a good start on the trip.  Pictures - none here, but Marg put some on her FB site.