Week 2

Finally getting around to adding another post.

We spent a week, and a bit, in High River getting things ready. 
One of the main things we needed was to get my final cheque.  I thought I had arranged to pick it up at the office on Wednesday.  When I showed up, I found that they had mailed it registered to our old address, just before I checked to see how I could get it.  With the expiry of my company e-mail, I didn't get the e-mail saying that it had been mailed.  Our old address had been forwarded to our son's place in High River, so we checked every day to see if the card to pick it up had arrived.   When nothing showed up by Friday afternoon, I left a voice-mail to have it traced.   On Monday, I finally had an e-mail conversation with the office, and we arranged for it to come to the office on Tuesday.   That worked, so the final piece was in place to free us to move on.

In the meantime, we had talked to a few people in the campground, and found that 3 out of 4 preferred Shaw Direct for satellite TV, because the service was better.   We bought a dish and receiver, and a tripod, and hooked it all up.   Then we went over to our son's to call Shaw Direct to get an account.  In the process, we were informed that they could not send out a technician to get it all working because they had to give a 90 day warranty that everything would work, and since we would be moving shortly, that wasn't possible.   Back to the trailer to see if everything worked.  No signal.   Went back to the reseller, and explained what was happening, and he told us not to use the satellite cable connection on the trailer, as it was probably split, so we wouldn't get a strong enough signal.  Back to the trailer.   Still no signal.   Then I took the equipment back to the reseller to test that everything was okay.  He was able to get it working, not without some effort.  Back to the trailer.  Still no signal.   I figured it must be getting blocked by the trees, so moved it 30 feet away.  Finally, a signal of about 35.  Moved back about 10 feet, and got a signal of 75.  Sucess!! 
Hopefully this experience makes it easier to set up each time we move to a new campground.

On Wednesday morning, we packed up everything in its place in trailer, and Joan drove us on our way north to Bowden, to visit with John's parents for a couple of days.  We arrived in Bowden just before lunch, and stopped at the campground at the rest stop on the highway, only to find out that it was closed.  Over to the town office to find out why May to October didn't mean it was open.   It doesn't open until the long week-end in May.   We recommeneded they update the listing in the campground guide to be more specific so people wouldn't figure May meant all of May.  We found a campground a few miles up the road in Innisfail, and got the trailer set up there before heading back to Bowden for supper.

The next morning we were hoping to go golfing with John's dad, but the wind was too strong for a round of golf.  We settled for 3 games of bowling at the senior's time in the Innisfail bowling lanes. 

We will spend the day in Bowden, then leave tomorrow, aiming for Kindersley, Sk.  Now slowly working our way east.