Month ending Oct 27, 2017 Vulcan and Arrowwood

One morning in Vulcan, we saw 4 sheep walk from town into the campground, being herded by a police truck. Shortly after, 2  peace officer vehicles joined the police to get the sheep into pens.

Another day, on our way into Calgary for a doctor appointment, we had a check engine light come on.  We stopped at High Country GMC in High River to get it checked out.   Enterprise came over with a car for us in a few minutes, so we got on our way to arrive on time for the appointment.  Turned out that the oil pressure sensor needing replacing, as well as a glow plug, and they got it all fixed by the time we got back from Calgary. 

The next day, we went golfing at Claresholm, where we paid a special rate of $1 per hole (website said $1.25, but we didn't complain).  It was a warm day, so Joan got overheated after 6 holes.  She headed over to the clubhouse to get cooled off.  John caught up to a couple who we had let play through earlier on the course, and played the last two holes with them.   They had been camping in Waterton, where they had been given notice that they might be evacuated due to the fire threatening the town.

One afternoon, we were surprised to see a group come into the campground with two vans, one pulling a utility trailer.  They shook the crabapples off the trees and collected most of the ones that fell from the trees.



We moved to Arrowwood in late September.  We were the only people in campground, as the two units that were here all summer had left.  We paid to the end of October.
A few days later, we drove to Edmonton to visit with Mom and Dad.  We stayed in the Holiday Inn Express a couple of blocks away, so it was very convenient for walking to everywhere we needed to go.

While we were in Arrowwood, we extended our hiking to the grid roads around town, with portions on Secondary Highway 547.   One short loop on the grid roads closest to town is only 3.3 miles.
Our next route, was west of town, then north up a hill to the secondary highway, then continuing around back to town. It was 4.6 miles.  

Another route, about 5.3 mi, went east of town across East Arrowwood Creek, then north to the Arrowwood Cemetary, where we saw  large rabbit.  We continued north, then east on the 'Dead End' road, across the valley again, and south back to town.   A few days later we did this route, with the camera, in the opposite direction.  
 

Curious horses

Deer enjoying a rest in a wheat field

Pun intentional?

East Arrowwood Creek Valley

On the morning of October 2, we had an early snowstorm blow through.  It was heavy enough that the power went off.   When we don't have power, we can't run the furnace for long, so John had to dig out the generator, put it where it was sheltered from the north wind, fill it with gas and get it started.
Fortunately, the power came back on later in the day.

Early October snowstorm

 The weather got better, so we found another loop, east of town to the cemetery road, then south toward the river.   Near the top edge of the river valley is Bow Irrigation Canal.  We followed the service road west until we got the East Arrowwood Creek valley.  We got the following view into the Bow River valley.   We startled a deer as we walked into the valley.   At the top of the valley on the west side, we came to the point where the canal flows into the 'Syphon'.   The 'Syphon' splits into several pipes that run underground through the valley, under the creek, then back up to the canal on the east side of the valley.   The water flows through without any pumping required because the east side of valley is lower than the west side. 

Bridge over the Bow River between Arrowwood and Gleichen

Deer in flight

Water entering the Syphon

Canal flume with interesting water marks

Close-up

The two lines going straight down are the syphon route

On October 17,  a windstorm with 100 kph gusts hit town.  At one point the trailer starting rocking a bit.   We have been in several windstorms, with winds as strong, but we must have been at worse angle this time.  Our living room slide-out actually moved in about 3 inches at end by the back of the trailer, and we could see the top of it rocking in and out.   We wandered around the area a bit to see if there was a more sheltered location to move to, but we decided there was nowhere convenient that would have made it worth packing up the trailer, and moving it in the wind.   John did move all the stabilizers to support the kitchen slide on the downwind side, and that got us through the storm.  Fortunately, we were able to run the slide-out back out once the storm was over.

During the storm, we could see plumes of smoke to the south.   John was able to get a good view from the north edge of town of the smoke and flames on the north side of the Bow River.   A grass fire had been ignited, apparently by a train, and was moving east toward Gleichen across the Siksika Reserve.   We heard on the news that Gleichen was evacuated, and that several houses had burnt on the reserve.

When John was returning to the trailer, a couple of fellows in a pick-up pulled up, and asked if he was from the trailer, and were we okay.  He generously said that we could go to his house if we wanted to.

Gleichen area grass fire

Flames visible

The smoke viewed from Centre Steet in Arrowwood

A few weeks ago, we mentioned to someone we met in town that we were looking for somewhere to get our trailer brakes checked, since they have been squealing.   They told us there is a mobile heavy duty mechanic named TJ Thurber, who comes out from Vulcan to service the trucks that are based in town.  We gave him a call, and arranged for him to check them the next time he was in town.  He came over to the trailer a few days later.   He found that there were no problems with the brakes, so they might just have some dust in them.  He didn't charge us anything as it only took him a few minutes to check them.   He asked what year our truck was (2010), and said that was the last year that the diesels did not have exhaust brakes.

Shortly after that, we got an oil change done in Okotoks.   After they had taken the truck into the shop, the service rep informed us there was an 'oops'.  They had broken the handle on the driver door.  The aluminum shaft that connects the plastic handle to the internal mechanism broke.  Apparently they do this after a while, if someone uses too much force on the handle. Unfortunately, the shaft is part of a mechanism in the door, so this had to be ordered in from Montreal.  The next day, they installed the replacement.  If they hadn't been the ones to break the handle, this would have cost us about $1000 to fix. Since they were the ones using the door when it broke, it didn't cost us anything.

A couple of days later, our check-engine light came on.  Arggh.  We phoned TJ, and found he could run the diagnostics.   We also asked him whether he could do the exhaust brakes on the truck.  He could do that too!  It turns out that all of the equipment to do this is on the truck, but the 'computer' that controls everything needs to be instructed how, and when to do this.  TJ sent the information on the truck to Duramax Tuners near Chicago, and they sent him back a file that he could install in the truck, so the exhaust brakes come on when we are activate 'tow mode'.  When you take your foot off the accelerator, the exhaust braking process turns on, slowing the engine down by having the turbine provide resistance to the engine (the really short version of how this works).   Replacing the glow plug (which caused the check engine light to come on), installing the tuning, and taking the truck for a drive to test the tuning didn't take long.   We are very impressed with TJ. 

We have everything pretty much done getting ready to head south.  We got our teeth cleaned and checked this week.  Joan had to go back a couple of days later.  She is one of those rare people whose wisdom teeth came in normally.  Finally one of them had  bad enough issue that it was worth pulling it.  The dentist was surprised that another dentist had decided many years ago that it was worth putting a crown on a wisdom tooth rather than extracting it.  

Next Monday or Tuesday, depending on the weather, we head to Milk River, to cross into Montana on Wednesday.   Our first main stop, weather permitting will be Moab, in the southeast corner of Utah.  After a while there, we will be going to Cottonwood, Arizona which is close to Sedona, but has cheaper campgrounds.