Week ending Apr 27, 2017 Cochrane to Gibbons

On Saturday, we dropped into the UPS store to check for mail, and found out the mall had locked UPS out of the store.   We had been thinking about getting a box in Okotoks anyway, just in case, so we headed to Okotoks to get mail there.  It will probably work out better for us anyway, as we spend a lot of time in Vulcan in the fall.   We did as many address changes as we could on-line. 

On Monday, we drove through a mild snow storm, to take the trailer in to get its brakes fixed.  Hobo was co-operative, and had them done by mid afternoon.   In the meantime, we went to a Canada Post office, to find out they will not forward mail from one UPS store to another.  It makes sense, since normally you could get UPS to do that, but we are not sure the mail will get to UPS if mailed to Cochrane.   Fortunately, we have our address changed with everyone that matters.
We stopped in Red Deer for the evening.

Tuesday, we headed to Longriders RV Park in Gibbons, about 30 km north of Mom's care centre Edmonton.  Most of the people in the park are workers who stay here full-time.  They have heaters on their water lines to keep them running all winter, and plug-ins for hose tape heaters for the RV's.
We can't imagine staying in a trailer in winter weather here.   It would take a lot of insulation and propane. 

Wednesday, we went in to visit with Mom and Dad at the care centre.

Thursday, we went to help Dad and George organize the boxes that Dad brought with him. 

Week ending Apr 21, 2017 Cochrane

We can tell that we are not travelling at the moment.  There were no pictures on the camera this week.

On Friday, we talked to Mom, Dad, George, Ann and Daniel.  They were together at noon to celebrate Mom and Dad's anniversary and Easter and called us on Ann's cell.    We celebrated with  Trev and family who came out for a nice dinner later in the afternoon.

On Monday, we had a big load of laundry, so Joan put it in the truck and drove to the laundry other end of the RV park.  When she was done, the truck wouldn't start.  One of the nice men in the park brought his car around to give us a boost.  We borrowed a long extension cord from him to put the battery charger on the truck.  It was good to see that the amps were dropping as the afternoon progressed.

On Tuesday morning, we were able to start the truck, so we drove out to Elizabeth's in Canmore as planned.  We had a nice chat, then loaded our golf equipment that we had left in her crawl space.  Then we took her for lunch at Drakes, one of our favourite spots in Canmore.   They still make a great burger.   On our way out of town we picked up some of Valbella's breakfast sausages.

Thursday, we had early teeth cleaning and truck maintenance appointments in Calgary, so we put the charger on for the night, just in case.  After John's teeth appointment, about 2:00, we headed to the Old Bratwurst truck, to get a couple of bratwurst with sauerkraut in French bread.  They close around 2:00 but we got there before they closed up.  We used have these meals once in a while when we worked downtown.   While we ordering, John noticed Rob (who John worked with for many years at RIS) coming by on his bike.   We had heard he was back in Calgary last fall before we left.  Small world!  We exchanged contact info and plan to get together when we come back from Edmonton. 

Since we were getting a lot of work done on the truck, and they only said they 'would make every effort' to get it done today, we went to Budget downtown to see what it would cost to rent a car to go back to Cochrane for the night.  About $35 is much less than a hotel for the night, so that would work.  We checked back with the dealer to see if they could promise that the truck would be done today.  Half an hour was the estimate, so we decided that we didn't need a rental, and thanked the folks at Budget for their help.  

In addition to having the dealer check out the battery issue (fortunately not the alternator, but both batteries), we got most of the liquids in the truck replaced, including the transmission.  At $2150, it's not cheap maintaining a diesel.  We didn't have to get any maintenance done on the truck while we were in the States, so we weren't too unhappy

Week ending Apr 13, 2017 Helena to Cochrane

Friday morning, we headed for the border.  We had talked to some people who told us it was worth paying the duty on wine brought in from the US.  They took our receipt and calculated the value in $C at their current US Exchange rate.  Then applied duty of .63/l, provincial markup of about 50%, then GST on top of that.   20L of wine cost us a total of $123.   The same amount bought here would cost at least $200, so worth the extra half hour it took (on a reasonably quiet day at the border).    Just as we got on highway 4 heading north, heading to Vulcan, we got a tremendous cross-wind, one of the strongest we have been in.  We decided to pull into Milk River, rather than driving further.   We were glad the wind didn't pick up further north where there are few campgrounds open at this time of year.  We managed to get into a site with our tail into the wind, somewhat protected by the washroom building, but the wind still shook the trailer a lot.

Windy day

Saturday morning, it was still a bit windy, but much better.  We stopped at Tim Hortons in Lethbridge for breakfast, one of the things we miss in the south.  We arrived in Cochrane to pick up a box full of mail, plus a batch put in a spare box for us.   Lots of income tax stuff, Escapees literature, insurance documents from the trailer change last year, and the renewal for the truck this year.  We also got a note that our UPS Franchisee had to drop the business.  UPS is looking for a new franchisee since February, and is handling the mail sorting in the meantime.   After picking up some cash at the ATM, we headed to Bow Riversedge, and got settled in for a couple of weeks.   Once we got setup, we walked up to buy a basic tablet for John, and Turbotax 2016 to get started on this year's taxes.

Sunday morning was overcast, and just above freezing.  After breakfast we did a little walk along the river.  Part of the walkway has been blocked since early January due to ice backup on the river. 

 

One fellow says it has been 15 yrs since it happened last.   Murphy's Law was in effect.  We didn't bother with the camera.  We saw three eagles and a muskrat.  The eagles were co-operative, with the male just sitting in the same spot while John went back and got the camera.  The muskrat, of course, was nowhere in sight once we had the camera.

Male

Female

Monday thru Thursday, we did some shopping,  some small walks,  netfiled George's and our taxes for the year, and got ready for Trev's family to come out for dinner on Friday.   We also gave UPS a call to make sure they would contact us if they wind up having to close the store in Cochrane.  Yesterday, we noticed the county guys putting the snow fences in the yard, and checked to see if that meant that there would be no more snow this spring.  They laughed.   Sure enough, we got a big snowfall on Thursday morning, so it must be their fault.   There was even enough heavy snow on the satellite dish that we couldn't pick up the HD channels until we cleaned it off.

Week ending April 6, 2017 Sand Hollow State Park to Helena

Thursday evening, it started to rain lightly.  On Friday morning, it was still a very light rain, but we managed to get everything packed up.  We arrived at Sand Hollow a bit after 9, hoping we could get first in line for a walk-upsite.  The website said there should be 4 sites coming open.  Five trailers had arrived before us, but they all decided to dry camp instead of waiting for a site to come open.     Another couple came in behind us, looking for a site as well, but we were first.    Unfortunately, the people in the sites have until 2pm to extend their stays.  About an hour after we came in, we got called to the desk, as someone had phoned to cancel their reservation for today and tomorrow, so we got a site for two days. The rain turned out to be beneficial.  It even stopped before we got setup.  
We saw a few rabbits near our site.

In the afternoon, we walked down to the restaurant and rentals by the beach at the south end of the reservoir, then back along the edge of the reservoir, watching diving ducks and fishermen.

High water

Early evening, the power went out.  Wechecked and other people had the same issue so walked down to the office, to find out the whole park was out.   Fortunately, it only took about half an hour before it was back on.  

Saturday, we drove the loop around the south end of the reservoir to look at the primitive camping, and the sand-pit, slightly more formal camping.  We saw at least one trailer up to its axles in the sand.   Not a good sign, although there were lots of trailers  on the sand around the edges of the reservoir.  Once we got back to the trailer, we walked across the north end of the reservoir, over some red rocks, across the waterfall that is created where water is pumped into the reservoir from the Virgin River, for storage here, and also into Quail Creek Reservoir, higher up the valley against the hills.  The water is stored for St. George and area usage.

Sunday we got up at a reasonable hour, and headed north to Provo.  We got into Utah Lake State Park  got set up around 2:00.   Just as we finished getting set up, it started to rain lightly.   The weather in Provo was fairly windy, so we only stayed for three days. 

We walked along the Provo River again, but the wind made it pretty cool.  There was a flock of yellow-headed blackbirds between us and the lake.  The one below was kind enough to look for food on the grass near us.  

Yellow-headed Blackbird

Wednesday, we headed for Fort Hall Casino, where we stayed on the way south.  We didn't unhook, just watched some curling.

Thursday, we drove to Helena.   We stopped in Dillon at Safeway to redeem some fuel points.   There were some interesting clouds in the area.

On the route from Whitehall to Boulder, we saw a herd of antelopes and some cranes, but didn't get a chance to get a picture.