One Last Hilly Curvy Push For the Finish Line

We started the day early, even though we were both tired from the last 2 long days of driving. Today was to be the end of our almost 5000 kilometer journey and we had just under 450 kilometers to go. It would be just 5 hours of driving and we both hoped there would be no further drama to deal with.

We knew from last year that we would be dealing with several big hills and valleys and there was, of course, the BIG hill not far outside of Grande Prairie.

Today's drive was going to be through rocky and rough geography. There are not many nice flat stretches except when driving through some of the towns along the way.

Last year when we drove this stretch we went through a long band of smoke from the BC wildfires. We knew that this year Grande Prairie had many days shrouded in smoke and at least one day when it had rained ash so we were not really sure if we would encounter more smoke or not. I have tried to follow the fire situation and this year it seemed like they had the fires better controlled by this time. As it happened, there was no smoke this time.  There was one time, though,  that we could see open flame and black smoke coming from the forest ahead of us.

Once we rounded the big curve ahead of us we saw the source of the flames - a gas well that was burning off the impurities. Either that well was not there last year, or they were not doing a burn at that time. In fact, we saw more evidence of the oil and gas industry this year than we did last. There were several pump jacks working that were not there during our last trip.

I called a mobile repair company to come to look at our rig after we got to Grande Prairie to address our heat problem. He should be there tomorrow night so just one more night of the temporary heater and we should be fine. At least we hope so.

We decided to stop at Valleyview for a rest before tackling the last bit of the drive. This is where the highway splits with one side going to Peace River and the other continuing on to Grande Prairie.

The Valleyview rest stop was around a curve and completely off the highway. At first we thought we had taken a wrong turn but we were pleasantly surprised. a stand of trees hid the highway from view and there was a big turning area for trucks and rigs like ours.  The rest areas off the Canadian highways were few and far between so this was a very pleasant surprise. It was very scenic here and a nice place to have a little break.

So far, Meander has managed the hills pretty well. We still have to use the slow poke lane but the hills seem much more manageable this year. Of course Rick has had a lot of practice will hills on this trip plus we had experience on our side, having done this stretch of road once before. Still, I hated to see this all too familiar sign.

Speaking of signs, this stretch of road also had my favourite Moose warning sign.

Now I don't want you to think we are the only ones who find the hills challenging. They do add a slow-poke lane on the big hills for a reason. we even managed to pass someone on a hill. He was towing this huge piece of farm equipment.

Finally we were within the last 100 kms of our trip and we got to THE big hill. We remembered this from last year and had been sort of dreading it all day. The approach was scenic, then you could see the rough landscape and we were there.

So I know I keep going on about this hill. Last year when we did the drive we were towing my much smaller Toyota Yaris and the first warning of this hill was a sign on the side of the road that told us there was an area for trucks to attach their chains. No other notice of a steep hill or a grade warning, just a notice that there was an area provided to put chains on. It was a big hill. The trip down was curvy and did not seem to be too bad grade wise and then you had to climb......and climb....and climb. Last year we were down to 30 km/h before we got to the top. We were towing the Jeep this time and that was probably twice the weight of the Yarris. But, like all things you dread, the anticipation was far worse than the reality. Maybe it was the fact that we had done it before or maybe we had just made the hill larger in our imagination but more probably Rick was much more skilled handling these hills since he had so much practice this year. In any case we got up that big hill and didn't bottom out our overheat this time. Now we could relax and enjoy the rest of the drive. Well all 45 minutes of it.

We got to Grande Prairie and headed for the park that was to be our home for the next 3 weeks. I was once again using my phone and Google maps to navigate. This time it wasn't that our usual GPS wasn't working or we did not know where to go (it was beside the place we stayed at last year) but there was a lot of construction in the area and Google maps has he advantage of knowing where the road closures are and routes us around them. we had to go over a lot of dirt roads again but we arrived intact. Rick just hooked up our electricity so our fridge would be fine and then were were off to see our grandson.

This is why we traveled 5000 kilometers!

Ahhhh Those Automotive Roundy Rounds

Today was to be our last full day of driving before we get to Grande Prairie. We planned to drive from Moose Jaw Saskatchewan to just north of Edmonton Alberta. We were covering 775 kilometers and expected the trip to blast 8-9 hours. It was a pretty straight line on good roads and we got an early start so that we would arrive at the trailer part before dark. At least that was the plan. You would think we would have learned something from yesterdays adventures.

The trailer Park that we stayed in was on the edge of Moose Jaw so as we were leaving I was able to get a picture of the welcoming Moose and his airplane. Apparently the name of the moose is Mac. He and the plane are right at the city's visitor center so I think the plane is just an advertisement for the Western Development Museum.

We had never made the trip either to or from Grande Prairie by way of Moose Jaw before so the scenery was a little different than what we usually see coming through Regina. Rick had a set route in mind to Saskatoon and I was afraid the GPS would try to sent us another way but, surprisingly she agreed. As mentioned in yesterday's blog we determined that my GPS was a US only unit - I didn;t know there was such a thing - so I was using Google and my phone when necessary.

Last year, travelling through Regina, the route took us right across the prairies and we saw miles and miles of wheat fields. There really was not a whole lot of interesting things to see. The route this year showed us landscapes that were quite different. In many ways it was like a scaled down version of Montana with flat fields and then sudden hills. We saw much more iol and gas activity as well.

There were a number of roadside displays that were interesting. I noticed that many of the small Saskatchewan towns had road signs with little displays to welcome you, but there were also some that seemed a little random in the middle of a field.

As we were driving along Highway 16 (The Trans Canada Highway) Rick mentioned that we wanted to take the rig in for an alignment when we got to grande Prairie. He let go of the wheel for a brief moment to demonstrate a strong pull to the right. We both thought that it was from fighting those high winds for 3 solid days across the US mid west where the rig was constantly being pushed to the right by very strong gusts.
I might add here that Rick is meticulous about checking things like fluids and tire pressure every day.

As we went north from Saskatoon we went over the North Saskatchewan River near a town called Bordon. The roads and bridges were upgraded here in 1985 when a four lane highway was built and that left the old Bordon Bridge closed to vehicles, but still open to pedestrians. It was sold by the government to a gentleman who wanted to make an outdoor dance hall out of it. I read in some news reports that he got frustrated with all of the paperwork necessary for such  a facility that he gave up and decided to sell it. For a cool million dollars you can own this classic bridge.

When we were passing through the valley of the North Saskatchewan River we noticed that there was a railway bridge crossing it as well. We noticed it for a few reasons. For starters, there was a freight train going over it and as we were cresting a hill it looked like the train was on the road, right in front of us. and we went down the other side of the hill and started to climb it then looked like the rail bridge was very low and we would not clear it. Of course that was just the angel we were approaching it at. 

We went through North Battleford, on the lookout for gas. For a large town in the middle of the Trans Canada Highway, it was surprisingly difficult to find a gas station that we could get into. The highway went through a good chunk of the town and there was plenty of truck traffic but they obviously had to go off the main road to get their gas. We didn't want to do that, convinced that a bigger station was ahead. We were wrong. There was a Petrocan station on a corner where the highway curved so we tried to get into that but, after driving through thick mud to get around it, we saw that there was not enough room for our 50 foot rig to maneuver so we continued along the highway.

Just north of there, we drove through an area that had clearly just had snow. Not a great sign as we did not know what we were driving into or what to expect. Snow+RV towing Jeep = BAD NEWS.

We drove out of the snowy area in just a few kilometers and continued our search for gas.

Five towns later we found Maidstone which said it had a Husky station. In our travels, Husky Stations have always been large and very easy for us to get in and out of.  Of course there is an exception to every rule. The station was very small, but situated in such a way that we could just get in. It certainly helped that it was on a corner. It also was not right off the highway. We had to drive through the town to find it. I was dumbstruck by the fact that the roads in town were not paved. It was a small town but not as small as a village. Of course Rick was thrilled to be driving on dirt and gravel roads for the second day in a row,. Oh and they had recently had rain. A lot of rain. So there was lots of mud.

Our plan had been to park at the station and have some lunch. We were making pretty good time and a break was in order. There was a big lot of sorts across the road where some trucks were parked so we decided to go there. When we pulled in the station, we discovered there was a Subway right there so our lunch plans changed a little. Rick handed me a $20 and asked me to get lunch while he was filling us up with gas. When we got back in the RV Rick informs me that we had a flat tire on the front right side. No wonder it was pulling to the right! We pulled into the lot as planned and had our lunch and then Rick got out his compressor and tried to fill the tire up. It didn't work and he discovered there was a tear in the compressor hose. Much sailor speak ensued. I had noticed an air station at the Husky and there were now no cars getting gas so we could maneuver close enough to it. We had a couple of loonies to feed the air machine and figured that would be it. Nope. Didn't work. Two loonies later the tire was still flat.. So Rick told me to search Google to see if there was a tire store in town.. Much to my surprise there were two of them. One was just a kilometer away. Some good news!! I will say right now that was one of the longest drives we have ever had. The roads to the tire shop were pure thick mud. I really wish that I had taken a picture.

We got to the garage and they took us right away and were able to help. We took the Jeep off and parked it on the road where it was sort of level so that it would be easier to reattach. Then we were able to get the RV into the shop.

I have to say the people in Saskatchewan are probably the friendliest people in Canada.Well at least western Canada. There were other customers in the shop and they, plus the technicians and the owner chatted with us the entire time we were there, and had no problem letting Rick stay in the garage while they were working. I seemed to be in the way so I went into the office and sat there where it was a little bit warmer and waited. Rick was good enough to come into the office and give me updates. At one point he told me we had 4 flat tires and 2 soft ones. In the back of my mind I wondered how big a dent this was going to put in our vacation money, and was thankful I brought enough food from home to do us for at least 3/4 of the trip. In the end though, it turned out to just be the valves on the tires that was the problem. They replaced 4 of the 6 valves I think and filled all of the tires up with air to their required pressure. Three hours after arriving in Maidstone for what was to be a 30 minute stop we were back on the road again. No more pull to the right and hopefully better gas mileage. We were not going to make it to the campsite before dark though.


It did not take us long to get to the Alberta border and a town called Lloydminster. I am fascinated by this town that sits on the border between Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Why does it fascinate me? Well, it is where Saskatchewan ends and Alberta begins. But this does not happen at the edge of town. It happens right in the middle. There are red posts at the intersection where you cross the border with the Alberta flag on the west side and Saskatchewan on the east.

 The other thing that happens in the middle of this town is you change time zones from Central to Mountain time. So if you lived on the east side of town, but worked on the west side, you could get up for work at 8:00 and be to work before 8:00. For some reason I think that is cool.

We still had another 3 - 4 hours of driving ahead of us so we pushed on. Rick ate left-over pizza from the night before while driving so we did not even stop for a dinner break. We drove through a mixture of prairie land and hills and valleys. In one spot there was a lone tree starting standing in the middle of a wheat field, starting to show it's fall colours.

We saw a huge grain elevator that we could see for miles before finally reaching it. You always know you are approaching a town when you see one of these off in the distance.

As usual, we were reminded that we were in moose country, although I have never actually seen one, even from a distance. I don't really think I want to see one close up, especially on the roads.

We were seeing an increased amount of oil and gas activities along this stretch of road. We also noticed that the small towns we passed in Saskatchewan and Alberta, like Maidstone, did not have paved roads. We couldn't help but wonder why an area that was so rich in gas and oil did not pave the streets of their towns where, undoubtedly, some of their workers lived. Again, things just make us curious. Anyhow, we did notice this very nice, colourful pump jack in someone's yard.

My final picture of the day was of a roadside swamp. it got dark shortly afterwards so I put the camera away for the day.

We got to our camp just after 8:00 pm. We probably would have been a little earlier but our GPS decided we needed to take the long way around and see part of the town. I was exhausted by two very long days on the road and I can not imagine how tired Rick was. We went to turn the electric heat on and the untit started to make a very high-pitched screaming sound with some alarming rattling. So we decided to go with our gas furnace for the night. It was going down to zero so we needed a little heat. We went outside and hooked up our portable gas cylinder because our main tank was empty and we had not found a place to refill it yet. Mind you it was not a huge priority since we had a back up. Turns out the gas furnace would not run off of the tank. So no gas furnace either. This was the kind of frustration we did not need after a 13 hour day of driving. Thankfully Rick had purchased a heater buddy last year so we hooked that up. It quickly heated he cabin space enough for us to sit for a little bit and unwind before bed. We were really not that concerned about sleeping in the cold because we have an electric bed warmer, comforter and duvet on our bed plus 2 other blankets available if needed. They weren't. Tired and frustrated, we went to bed and slept like rocks.

Tomorrow it will all be worthwhile when we see Connor!

Today was completely FUBAR

Our first day back on the road was not exactly what you would call a good day. I am not sure it would even rise to the standards of a bad day. It was one of those days where you should automatically get a do over so everything would go as planned or at lease a little better if the plan was strayed from even a little.

When planning our trip I use google maps. it has always worked well and usually agreed with our GPS. While I am not a fan of relying 100% on a GPS paper maps are very hard to find these days so it becomes a necessary evil. During our travels we usually have 2 GPS's on the go. Rick has a big Magellan and I have  slightly smaller Garmin. This allows me to navigate when he is busy watching the road plus I can search for rest areas or gas stations while we are underway. It has worked great so far. Today, though, not so much.

The first issue arose because Google maps gave us 3 different routes north. We wanted to go the second route which was slightly shorter and offered us a path that did not include climbing mountains constantly.  Convincing our GPS units to go the way we wanted was the first big problem. Rick's GPS wanted to take us along the CanAm highway and all it's mountains and hills. My GPS just did not want to go. It hated the border crossing thing and would not complete the route past the border. I got the address of the actual border crossing and it was happy with that. We figured out later it was a US only GPS. Still, the 2 GPS's did not agree and neither one was willing to plot the route we wanted. Finally I bit the bullet and used my data to pull up Google Maps and get us on the right course. Problem solved. Maybe.

The route that we were taking would take us north west out of South Dakota and cut across a corner of Wyoming and then head straight north through Montana. It was relatively flat with only one little mountain to climb. So the relief map showed. We were pretty close to the Wyoming border so it was not long before we left South Dakota behind.

The roads here were pretty straight and relatively flat, which made for a nice drive for Rick. The winds were moderate and, although we would have preferred no wind, compared to what we drove through getting to our camp in South Dakota, the winds did not present a real challenge.

All along the side of this road there were herds of both elk and deer. I was amazed at how many there were grazing in the field and missed every photo opportunity except  one and I barely got that. \

The roads and wildlife remained the same through Wyoming and into Montana. I think we were on the road less than 2 hours and we already were in our third state for that day.

 Montana is an amazingly scenic place. It can only be described as having big, wide open spaces. The roads were mostly unoccupied. I can not ever travelling on state highways and going for hours without seeing another vehicle. The landscape can only be described as dramatic. Flat lands and then big mounds of rock and earth will appear, some of them looking like little volcanoes or maybe pyramids.

So things seem to be going ok. We are into our fourth hour of driving and making pretty good time. The morning's stress with the GPS almost forgotten. Then we stop at a little town called Wilbaux. We got gas and continued on our way. But wait....we now are using 3 GPS systems if you include Google maps on my phone and they all show different ways to go. So I decided to go by what was on my phone since that was what I planned the trip on. Perfectly logical. So on we went. We had just 80 kms to go on this stretch of road and really, it wasn't that bad of a highway. Again, no traffic and it was pretty straight and flat. Then, about 10 kms in the pavement just ended. Just like that we were on gravel. The only warning we had was at the point where the road turned to gravel there was a sign that said "Pavement Ends"  Not even a picture.

Now, driving on somewhat heavy gravel can be interesting when you are driving a car. Just imagine how excited Rick was to be driving our 50 foot, 10 wheeled caravan on these roads. Much sailor-speak was uttered. To make it even worse, our once straight roads turned into rolling hills. Big rolling hills and curves. A real roller coaster on gravel. What fun it was!

Then, about 20 kms into the gravel the roads suddenly became paved again! Woohoo! Things were suddenly going to go our way again! Just as we were picking up speed another one of those little road signs popped up. This one said "Rough roads". They were not joking. By the time we had covered 5 kilometers of what they called road we both wanted the gravel back. Anyhow that 80 kms took us about 2 hours to cover. On a day where we were already goingto be driving 12 or 13 hours it was not a welcomed delay.

We went through a little town shortly after leaving the road from Hell. It had a business that had an interesting advertisement.

We continued on our journey, still on lightly traveled roads. The landscape was varied, with flat lands then rocky outcrops and even a few pump jacks in the fields pulling out some oil.

We did notice that some of the hills had been decorated with statues or silhouettes which kept us entertained. You never really knew when you saw something if it was real or man-made until you got close to it.

We soon crossed the Yellowstone River and continued along the highway until we came to a large truck stop at the junction of Montana road 16. This was the final stretch of highway that was going to take us to the border. It was already 4:00 pm so we had been on the road 9 hours and we still had a quite a way to go.

We decided to stop and rest for a little while so Rick could get rested up for the final stretch. We also surveyed the damage from our little trip up gravel lane and then bump city. While pretty much everything on board had been rearranged, there really wasn't any damage per say. We did realize that we had left all of the windows open and so everything was covered on a layer of Montana dust. That was easily cleaned. |we ran the jeep for a little while to make sure the battery was charged up and then we set off again.

It took about an hour to get to the border and we made one last stop to fill our gas tank with much cheaper American gas. The price difference, with exchange factored in was 41 cents per liter from our last fill up in Montana to our first fill up in Saskatchewan. Furthermore that first stop in Saskatchewan was the cheapest price we would pay in western Canada. Since then we have been paying an additional 15 cents per liter.

We enjoyed our last bits of Montana scenery and even saw some nicely decorated silos.

We arrived at the border and had to check in with US Customs before proceeding to Canada Customs. This is not really unusual and we encounter it often when we travel to the states to shop. The Border Service agents ere friendly and chatty. I was a little concerned because I had locked the door to the RV and that should be unlocked when we get to the border so that they can come on board to search or just look around. We always expect to be boarded by Customs officers although it does not happen every time. In this case the agent did not want to come on board and he and Rick had a good chat about the government pay system. Finally we were back on Canadian soil and on our way.

Just after leaving customs there was a sign warning of Owls flying or the next 2 kms. I have seen a lot of animal warnings but this was a first. We did see one owl but I was not fast enough with my camera. By now it was starting to get dark and I figured I would not be getting any more shots today.

We pulled over to program the address of our campground for that night, my GPS would not find the address and  Rick's could not find it either. Not really a surprise since the GPS had been fighting us all day. I called the campground to get directions and got voice mail. The voice mail said the office closed at 7:00 pm and there was no way we were going to make it there by then. Well there was a slim chance we would make it if we didn't eat and didn't get lost. I left my phone number and asked her to call me back. i figured we would discuss the timing when I talked to her. I waited about 30 minutes and still no call back so I called again.This time I got an answer and she said she sent me a text message. OK So I asked her how do we find your campground. Our GPS doesn't like the address. She asked where we were and I gave he the information and she said she really did not know what directions to give me. Then she said they had some rain and their campground was very muddy and she was afraid that we would get stuck in the mud. I can tell you this is something that you do not want to hear after 12 hours on the road and at least another one or two ahead of you.  She then went on to say that she checked with another campground that had cement pads and they had availability. she gave us their address and that is where we headed.

By this time Rick was threatening to eat the steering wheel if we did not find some place to eat soon. Three towns later we finally found a restaurant. I don;t think it would have mattered if he had to leave our rig on the side of the road at that point. We were stopping. The place was a typical dinner and they had "Corner Gas" playing on the TV. That made me smile. The people were very nice and friendly and chatted with us the whole time we were there. We finally had to ask for our bill so we could get back on the road. The nice lady at the cash offered me a take out menu and said they would even deliver to us. I explained it would be a bit of a drive and told her where we were from.

Bellies full, we headed for our camp in Moose Jaw. We arrived in the city at about 8:30 pm and found out the address we were given was an empty field. I don;t think you can imagine how happy that made us. Rick looked something up and figured out where the campground was though so we back tracked and I got us checked in. We parked and Rick hooked up the electricity and nothing else. It took maybe 30 minutes for us to wind down enough to fall asleep Finally, this day was done.