WANDERING WITH THE WRIGHTS

June 9, 2024

The good news is that we are in Calgary, Canada (not supposed to be but will explain why in a bit).  We are safe and although a tiny bit disappointed still very grateful as things could have been much worse.

Now remember we lived full-time in our motorhome for 8 years so things cropping up and us having to change plans is nothing new and we actually handle these situations pretty well (what that means is no yelling at each other - even though we are stressed).

We spent the night in the RV before leaving at IL Beach State Park Saturday morning, June 1st.  Normally on Saturday morning few people are at the dump and water fill area as they have all just come into the park.  Well, as luck would have it, we were there with another motorhome, got to talking and they had lived in Alaska for 28 years - so we peppered them with questions before we got under way - what are the odds?

Our first night out we stayed at a cattle & sheep ranch in WI.  The second night we were at a winery in ND.   Up to this point everything is going as planned.  Night number three found us in Dickinson, ND - we had planned on spending two nights there for a little rest but the winds were awful so to be on the safe side we decided to stay a third night.  We had built in a little extra time so this was still all good.  While we were waiting out the wind Jerry decided to go into town and get a haircut and I decided to do some laundry.  I didn't know that he had not expected me to do as much laundry as I did and suddenly water was backing up in the shower pan.  (Jerry often leaves the drain closed off so he has water to rinse the black hose with - if you don't RV that might not mean anything but it is a common practice - at least if your wife isn't doing tons of laundry.)  So he is gone, water looks like it is going to flow out of the shower pan onto the floor/carpeting.  So in a panic a grab a gallon container and start scooping up water and pouring it down the sink - okay I said I was panicked as I was just pouring it so it flowed right back in.  Realizing what I was doing I grabbed a smallish trash can and filled it with water and proceeded to scoop water, carry the rather heavy trash can down the stairs, throw the water onto the grass and go back for more.  Not sure how many trips I made but it was quite a work out for this old lady let me tell you.  Jerry gets home, opens the drain and all is good - no water ever left the shower tray!!

We leave the next morning, Thursday, for what was supposed to be a short driving day and while driving learn that the Canadian Border Patrol is threatening to strike Friday at 2:00 MT.  We hadn't planned to cross until Sunday but when they went on strike in 2021 the lines to cross the border where sometimes more than 24 hours long!  Not wanting to get into that mess we decided to drive further on Thursday so we could get up and make it across the border before the strike started.  So we drove to Havre, MT to a huge Walmart that we have stayed at before.  They love having rvers stop and stay and shop of course.  They even have picnic tables out for us.  So we spend the night (along with several others doing what we were doing).  The next morning we got up and Jerry did his walk around to check everything before we head out and he noticed one of the leveling jacks looked strange. 

The round disk is supposed to be at the bottom of the silver shaft.  There are 4 of them, one behind each tire so we can level the coach when we stop for the night.  Somehow the disk flew up, it is held by 2 really heavy duty springs, and wedged itself between the underneath and the tire!  Where the disk is silver is where the disk rubbed against the inside tire.  There was no way Jerry could get it back in place by himself.  Fortunately we have insurance for that.  So it took a few hours but they found someone to come out to help us and finally got the disk back under the shaft and Jerry and the people who came out to help thought it was safe to drive.  The company agreed with us that we needed to have the jack checked to see if the disk needed to be welded and the tire looked at.  There was no place in this small town that could do that for us.  They could have sent us 110 miles the wrong direction but fortunately found someone in Calgary.  So strike or no strike we weren't crossing on Friday after all of that so just decided to continue on,  Thank heavens we did as on Friday they changed the strike date til next Wednesday.  We have been driving on the tire, not using the leveling jacks, and everything has been fine yesterday and today.

On Saturday we were finally going to get to Canada

There was about a 10 minute wait in line - not bad at all

Almost there - we answered all the questions the border guards asked and as luck would have it we got randomly selected for a more thorough inspection (looking for firearms and drugs)

 

So we had to pull into a huge building, which was actually very nice, clean and air conditioned with a comfy lounge for us to wait in as one border patrol agent went through the coach.  He was very nice and did not leave any kind of a mess but we could hear him closing cabinet doors.  He had Jerry open all the bays under the coach and asked a few questions.  So after about a 20 minute inspection we were on our way.

Now we should have been heading for Banff where we have reservations for 4 nights starting tonight but instead drove to a small town for the night kinda of killing time as Monday morning we are having the jack and tire checked out.  So we randomly picked a small town to stop and wouldn't you know it they had an air museum (any of you who know Jerry very well know that he was thrilled).  So this morning before heading for Calgary we visited the air museum and an darling little candy shop in town.

The museum was really very well done and very interesting featuring planes that were flown by the Canadian Air Force during WW11

 

Jerry is in the cockpit

and checking things out

Every kind of candy you could think of

We did each get a cup of ice cream - trying to help the Canadian economy and all.

Speaking of the Canadian economy - as you are well aware they use kilometers, liters and there is an exchange rate, etc.  We use two GPS' and one we can switch to kilometers and the other we can't so Jerry made little tags on the odometer and cheat sheets so we know how fast we are going,

So instead of being in Banff, praying we will be tomorrow, we are in Calgary, parked in the parking lot of the business that will check everything out for us first thing in the morning.  Of course they gave us permission.

As I said not what we expected but could have been so much worse had that round dingy flown off and did major damage to the underneath of the coach.

Staying positive that a little welding, maybe a new tire or two (hopefully not) and we can continue on our way tomorrow.

Thanks for traveling through the US, Canada and Alaska with us.  Hope next time we have cool pictures of bears, moose, and beautiful mountains and lakes to share.  God Bless