We Are in Missouri

Independence, Missouri          High 91 Low 70

We had a really warm day to drive to here. It was Interstate Highway all the way, but this time it was welcome. From what I hear, there is not much to see in Kansas other than wheat and alfalfa and corn fields.

We have been in a hurry to get here, but I'm going to keep you in suspense for one more day.

We are at the Autumn Falls RV Park. It is mostly a trailer court, but the man that took our money and assigned our site couldn't have been nicer. He told me to call him as we got off the interstate and he would help us find them. It was a good thing, because I would have missed it because their sign is so small. While I was talking to him, He said he saw us turn the corner and he had his truck by the road and flashed his lights so I could see him. He then led us to the office. This Park was a little more money than the one I was going to go to, but the other one had very bad reviews and was 30 minutes further away from our business here. After the way we were treated getting here, we both are very glad we picked this Park.

My truck was over due for an oil change, so I got that taken care of this afternoon.

I'll explain our reason for wanting to get here tomorrow and promise to have pictures to go with it.

Thanks for visiting.

We Added One More State

Russell, Kansas              High 95 Low 66

Sorry no pictures again. We drove from Valentine, Nebraska, which is the top of Nebraska, to Russell Kansas. This is the first time we have been in Kansas with the fiver. It was a long day driving, but we do have a reason, which I will explain later this week.

We went on a lot of secondary roads and saw some sights that we never could from the Interstate. We both feel that if you’ve seen one freeway, you’ve seen them all. At least going on secondary roads, we got to see lots of old buildings in the towns on the way.

Through northern Kansas about the only thing growing was oil wells. There were a lot of them along Highway 183.

The roads were mostly smooth with only a few stretches that were a little rough. We did get stopped for some construction, but only had a 10 minute delay.

We are staying at the Fossil Creek RV Park with Passport America. It doesn’t have much in the way of amenities, but at least we have 50 amp power and are able to run our air conditioners. The grass here looks to be almost burned up. We are in almost the middle of the state about a mile from I 70.

Tomorrow will be another extended day, but we are staying 2 nights there and then will get to relax some.

We only went through one town that had a Quilt store, but couldn’t find it, so sorry Sandi, we had to pass that one.

Hopefully we get some pictures tomorrow.

Thanks for visiting.

We’re In Nebraska

 

Valentine, Nebraska                   High 84 Low 57

Just a short note today. We left Herreid, South Dakota, which is at the top of South Dakota (7 miles from …..North Dakota), early this morning. We were supposed to have a 4 hour drive but took 6 because we stopped at the Walmart in Pierre for some groceries and some of Cindy’s meds.

The drive is a whole lot of empty ground with some wheat fields and alfalfa fields. We saw a few deer, two antelope, and lots of pheasants. It was a boring drive mostly.

We drove the entire North to South of South Dakota. Most of it was on secondary roads with about 20 miles on I 90. Part of the way the road was very rough, which reminded Cindy of the roads in Alaska.

We are currently in the Wacky West RV Park. It is an older Park, but most of the sites are quite wide. There are a few really old campers here, but most are newer. We get good Wi-Fi and cable TV. We are here with Passport America.

Tomorrow we plan on a long day with about a 5 and 1/2 drive showing on the GPS, so I plan on at least 6 and a half hours. We go through one town that has a quilt store, but we might not be able to stop. We shall see.

Thanks for visiting.

The Enchanted Highway

Herreid, South Dakota          High 90 Low 57

Yesterday we drove from Weyburn, Saskatchewan to Regent, North Dakota. We got to see lots of Prairie scenery  Southern Saskatchewan seemed to have a lot of oil wells with lots of pumps going. I don’t remember ever seeing so many wells in one area before. When we got to the US border, we went through with no problems. We had one car in front of us and only took about 3 minutes.

We stopped at Williston, North Dakota for fuel and a few things at Walmart. Williston is a very large city with what looked like a lot of oil well workers driving around, at least their trucks looked like it (very muddy).

After we left Williston we got to one area that had some unique hills and Cindy got some pictures of the area.

We have read about the Enchanted Highway and wanted to see it for ourselves. Right by I 94 was the first one. It is called Geese in Flight. The sun ray is 156 feet long and 110 feet tall. The largest goose has a 30 foot wing span and is 19 feet long. The dirt road leading to the sculpture has lot of smaller geese along it.

The Deer Family was completed in 2001. The buck is 75 feet tall and 60 feet long. The doe is 50 feet tall and 50 feet long.

Kind of a lonely highway. 

The Grasshoppers in the Field has several grasshoppers with the largest being 50 feet long and 40 feet tall.

The remains of the Lefor State Bank. Lefor is a very small town close to the Grasshoppers.

The Fisherman’s Dream is 3 dimensional made of tin to form 7 fish with a 70 foot long Rainbow Trout.

Pheasants on the Prairie is made of wire mesh with the rooster standing 40 feet tall and 70 feet long. The hen is 35 feet tall and 60 feet long. The chicks are 15 feet tall and 20 feet long. I read that it took over $3000.00 worth of paint to paint the Pheasants.

Teddy Rides Again is 51 feet tall and weighs over 9000 pounds. It was made of used well pipe.

The Tin Family was the first sight erected along the Enchanted Highway in 1991. It is built of used farm equipment. The Pa is 45 feet tall and is held up by 16 telephone poles, the Ma is 44 feet tall, and the son is a mere 23 feet tall.

This tree is a metal sculpture. It and the next picture are by the Enchanted Store.

We were going to boondock in one of the lots by a sculpture, but it was so warm that we decided to stay in the Enchanted RV Park which was advertising $20.00 per night with full hook-ups and 50 amp electrical. There are no other amenities, but we were glad to have the Air Conditioning.      

While I really didn’t need fuel as I had filled up in Williston, one of the stations was advertising $2.699, so I filled up again. This is the least for diesel we saw all the way through North Dakota.

After we got set up in the RV Park, we went to the Enchanted Castle which really wasn’t much. It is the old high school converted into a hotel and convention center. We did get to see a small quilt show in the gym.

The draw bridge is strictly for looks.

The bar in the Enchanted Hotel.

On the far side are the Quilts on display.

Today we drove to Herreid, South Dakota, which is at the top of South Dakota in about the middle, east to west. It is a Passport America park. We seem to be just in time for a tornado and thunder shower warning.

Tomorrow we will probably drive to northern Nebraska.

Thanks for visiting.

We’re Nearly Back To North Dakota

Weyburn, Saskatchewan              High 81 Low 52

This is Thursday's post because of lack of Wi-Fi last night.

Yesterday we drove from Rocky Mountain House to Medicine Hat, Alberta. We had a pleasant drive with a 30 minute delay for road construction a few miles from the main highway that goes to Calgary. When we got to Medicine Hat we had intended to stay at Walmart, but where it was supposed to be was an empty building. When we left this morning, we found out there was a new Walmart a little further down the road.

Cindy spotted a large empty lot by a casino, so we asked them if we could stay and were told sure. It was right next to the main highway and was kind of noisy all night.

On the way here, I noticed a lot of police men with cars and trucks stopped and noticed one about a mile ahead of us in our direction. I had noticed signs in Canada that said you had to slow to 60 KM when passing stopped police or tow trucks with flashing lights. In Utah that means get over to the other lane of travel, or if you can’t get over then slow down. I moved over and followed a car past the stopped officer. All of a sudden I noticed flashing light wanting me to stop. The officer then informed me that anyone passing flashing lights irregardless of which lane, has to slow down to 60 (about 37 mph). He said he clocked me going 90 (about 58). I told him the law in Utah and that I was just following the other car. He said he understood and thought that was the reason when he saw the Utah plate, so he just had a nice chat and let me go without even asking for my license. He did tell me not to do it again.

We left this morning and drove through a new to us province: Saskatchewan. We stopped at Walmart in Weyburn. It should be a little quieter than last night because it is further from the main highway.

Tomorrow we have about an hour ride to the US boarder and another hour to the first large town in North Dakota. I don’t know yet where we will end up tomorrow night, hopefully with no brushes with the law. We get a new state tomorrow.

Thanks for visiting.

Changeable Weather

Wilderness Village RV Park Rocky Mountain House, Alberta        High 66 Low 43

The day started out very nice with no clouds. At about 10:00 it got as warm as the day would get. I cleaned a lot of the bugs off the trailer and the front of the truck,

At about noon it started to get cloudy and got a cold wind with it. Then it started to hail and rain, and did it ever rain. We heard on TV that they have had about 4 inches of rain in the last two day.

We got some pictures of all the hail. It looks a lot like snow.

Then about 5:00 the sun came out and it got fairly nice, although cool. Right now, about 7:00, the sky is clouding up again and looks like we could get more thundershowers.

Tomorrow we are headed toward Saskatchewan. We aren’t sure how far we will drive, but maybe to Medicine Hat. It kind of depends on when we get away and how soon I get tired of driving.

Thanks for visiting.

Near Rocky Mountain House, Alberta

Wilderness Village at Crimson Lake    72 Low 45

We left Hinton fairly early this morning. We had sun and nice weather all the way.

Cindy didn't get any pictures, she told me the landscape all looked the same--Trees everywhere. She keeps telling me that she likes it a lot better than the deserts of Utah. I give her a bad time about not being able to see the scenery for all the trees.

We were on Canadian Highway 16 a lot of the way and got to see a lot of muskeg, swampy places along the road where the trees look stunted.

We got checked in and they let us pick our site and then come back to the office and tell them which one we took. We picked one by the Lodge because of the internet. We stayed at this same park two years ago on the way to Alaska. The only big draw-back is no sewer at any of the sites, just a dump station on the way out.

After we got hooked up, I went into Rocky Mountain House to get fuel. With the exchange rate it figures to be about $2.90 per gallon. This is a lot less than it was two years ago and $.30 per liter less than British Columbia. My auxiliary tank was empty and also took a few gallons in the main tank. I had to pre-pay and figured about $350.00 worth of fuel. As it was, I could have got a little more, but not much.The bonus was the station I picked also gave 3 1/2 cents per liter store credit, which came to a little over $11.00. The station was Extra Foods which is part of the local grocery store. I had almost 900 miles on the truck since I last filled it. It figure a little over 10 miles to the gallon in case anyone is a little interested.

So I had to spend the bonus money and got two steaks for tonight.

We are here tonight and tomorrow and are just going to relax tomorrow and then head to Saskatchewan, and then on to North Dakota.

Sorry no pictures this time.

Thanks for visiting.

Must Have Been a Senior Moment

Hinton, Alberta           High 65 Low 45

It rained most of the night and more than half way here. We left Prince George at about 8:30 and Mable said we had about a 4 hour drive.

We saw a lot of Highway 16 that we hadn’t seen before. There were glaciers and some of the mountains and we followed a river for a ways.

Just before we got to Alberta the sun finally came out and Cindy was finally able to get some good pictures.

We saw several deer, but they were running across the highway too fast to get any pictures.

After we went through Jasper we saw cars stopped ahead of us and when we got there two buck elk we eating right by the road. One of them came up to almost where we were parked. Cindy was able to get some fantastic shots. I was hesitant to start the truck because I was afraid the elk would get scared and leave and disappoint all the other people, but when I finally got going the elk didn’t seem to mind.

We then drove about 10 miles and saw some more cars stopped, and there was a mountain goat eating on the side of the road. We watched her for a little while and went about 1/4 of a mile and more cars were stopped. We saw a baby goat on the hillside, so I stopped and got out to take its picture. I was busy taking pictures and Cindy indicated I needed to get in the truck. When I turned around the mother goat was right behind me. Her baby, on the hillside, had been calling to her and she had ran the 1/4 of a mile to see what was the problem.

We are now in Camp Walmart in Hinton. While it was such a nice a nice day, I decided to fix an electrical short we got while on this trip. We had no 110 volts to our bedroom and we had smelled burned wires. It took a little work to get the cover off the bottom and back of the trailer, and I found one of the original connections burned and shorted together. I was able to repair it. The connection was one of the type Mac The Fire Guy told us weren't safe. The wires just press into some prongs with not firm connection.

Now the senior moment: last night our batteries were getting low because of no sunlight  and when I went to start the generator, I found the propane bottle we have been using had run out. So I turned on the other bottle. The generator still wouldn’t stay running, so I change the empty bottle for a full one. The two way valve was set for the one I put in, but I forgot to turn on the bottle. Evidentially, the two way valve lets a little propane come through because the heater and stove worked, just couldn’t get the generator to stay running. I was thinking I had something wrong with the generator. Today when I turned off the propane, I noticed the bottle the valve was aimed at was turned off and the one on the other side was on. Talk about a duh moment. When we got here and tried everything, guess what? Everything worked as it was supposed to.

Thanks for visiting.