On Monday November 4th we left Bow Riversedge RV Park in Cochrane and
headed south toward the border. We decided to head down highway 1 then south on
23/24 through Vulcan since the road report was warning of black ice on #2 south of
Calgary. The roads we were on were fine, no ice, no slippery sections, but there were a few slushy sections. Our clean truck and trailer had been washed recently, but only lasted about 50 kms east of
Calgary. We arrived in Milk River at our
campground for the night covered in black ice chips and the back of the trailer
was so dirty the window was useless.
The campground in Milk River was 20 km from
the border, so positioned us perfectly to cross the border early on Tuesday
when our health insurance kicked in. The best laid plans always go awry. A
couple from Bowden, heading for Mesa AZ pulled in next to us late Monday evening in a similar Titanium 5th wheel. We visited with them for about an hour on
Tuesday morning, so we didn't get going as early as planned.
The border crossing was pretty uneventful, although the agriculture inspector who checked our fridge for citrus, etc, carried on about how he couldn't believe that Canada allowed imports of Chinese mandarins. The exit from customs was a bit confusing and we watched a pickup ahead of us drive up the wrong side of the freeway. He must have had an "Oh my God moment" when he realized he was heading up a hill on the wrong side of the freeway. As we headed into Montana, we found that there was no snow, and the temperature rose above freezing. We stopped in Great Falls for diesel and lunch and then headed for Billings Montana. There is
very little in the way of RV parks between Great Falls and Billings, so we didn't have much choice but to go as far as Billings. We arrived in Billings about 7:00 P.M., in the dark, hungry and cranky while having to back up the trailer in the dark. We did finally get set up, cooked
supper, had a glass of wine and watched TV on the cable provided by the
campground. Wednesday morning after getting a grocery list together we took the
truck for a wash, got groceries and picked up a headlight which we had noticed was burnt out, got the satellite set up and then planned our
campgrounds further along the way. After checking how to install the headlight, which requires removing the air cleaner assembly, we decided it could wait until we got somewhere to have a qualified technician replace it.
Thursday morning we packed up and headed for Casper, Wyoming, down
Interstate 25. This is definitely the land where the "deer and the Antelope play".
We saw hundreds more antelope than deer. We stopped at one spot (on the freeway, which was very quiet) to get a photo of antelope, but as soon as we stopped, they looked up, and ran off before we could get a picture. We were lucky to get another chance, where they were a little further from the road, and weren't spooked.
It was a great drive, sunny, warm, the Bighorn mountains on our right were snow capped. We arrived in Casper early afternoon and headed for the chosen RV park. We arrived at Rivers Edge in Casper (similar name to our "home" campground of Bow Rivers Edge in Cochrane) to discover the office was not open. There was a note on the door telling us to choose one of a list of sites and the office would open at 3:00 P.M. We set up and just after 3:00 we headed into the office. After having a conversation with the host, and a few laughs about our experiences (both hers and ours), she charged us for one night and gave us the second night free, because we are "funny". Who says a sense of humour doesn't go a long way.
And the saga continues....
No comments:
Post a Comment