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.