2010 June 23 (Day 8) We played tourist in Saskatoon

We went to the Western Development Museum, then downtown to the river walk area and had lunch from a street vendor. Afterward, it was on to the edge of town to the Berry Barn for dessert. Heading north tomorrow morning. We plan on camping somewhere near Edmonton, AB. See you there!

2010 - June 22 (Day 7) Made it to Saskatoon, SK today

We left the Visitor Center in Estevan, SK this morning around 9:00 with Saskatoon as our destination. We got here about 3:30 and checked in to the Gordon Howe (the hockey player) Campground for a two-night stay. There is quite a bit to see around here, so we're going to play tourist tomorrow.

You can only buy beer in a government-run store here, so I headed out to find one after we got set up since there were only three beers in the cooler. I almost had a heart attack when I saw the price on a 24-pack of Coors Light bottles $41.99!!! Oh, you say, but that's Canadian dollars. Well I stopped at a bank this morning and if I gave them $100.00US, they would give me $98.60CA! Anyway, I bought a 15-pack of Moosehead Light for $23.73, but after taxes and container deposit, it was $28.79. How can people afford to live here??

I bought gas for $.989 per liter. That's about $3.78 per gallon. I've been fighting a head wind for two days, getting about 15mpg instead of the 18 I got on Monday. We may be home early!

2010 - June 21 (Day 6) We entered Canada today.

We crossed into Saskatchewan from North Dakota at Portage, ND. We pulled the camper 445 miles today. We arrive at the Woodlawn Regional Campground in the city of Estevan, SK at 4:00pm, Central STANDARD Time They don't change their clocks here. We camped at the Woodlawn Regional I should have taken a picture at the border crossing, but I forgot. Marsha and I had crossed there before and it's not very exciting. Just a bunch of suppliers for the oil well drillers who, by the way, seem to be plenty busy around here.
We were told by the girl at the visitor center when we crossed, and the girl at the campground check-in, that the entire south central region of Saskatchewan is under a tornado watch this evening. I guess we didn't get enough of that it Iowa!

2010 - June 20 (Day 5) Drove exactly 500 miles today

We left the AOC Rally at 8:00 this morning. We were going to camp at a Corp of Engineers Campground at Astabula Lake about 75 miles west of Fargo, ND, but we ran into a bunch of highway construction that delayed us to the point where we would have arrived too late to cook out in the daylight. So we cut straight west and arrived in Wahpeton at the Chahinkapa Municipal Park at about 6:00pm. $20.00 per night including electric and showers. Just fill out the envelope, put your money in it and drop it in the box! Not too bad!

2010 - June 19 (Day 4) No rain today!!!!!

Today was bright and sunny with a high only in the mid 80s. We went to a couple of Aliner tech sessions in the morning, went into Amana for lunch, then returned to join the traveling tech session that addressed individual camper issues. Dinner was great - baked steak, mashed potatoes, cottage cheese (yuk!), corn, cake and lemonade. Marsha is starting to put things away in preparation for an early departure (hopefully before 8:00) in the morning. The trailer is already hitched up. All that is left is to unhook the water and electric and head north. We'll post more when we have a connection!

2010 - June 18 (Day 3) Got out and about Amana a bit today

Today was another stormy day. We went into Amana and explored a bit, then drove the loop thru all of the Amana Colonies. While we were in one of the shops a huge storm blew in, bringing high winds and a lot of rain with it. By the time we got back to the campground, about 1:30, the storm had passed and everyone was assessing the damage. Luckily, we had no damage, but a little bit of water blew in thru the stand pipe vent and made a little puddle under the sink right where the contacts for my water detector are. The alarm was sounding, so I mopped up the puddle with one swipe of a paper towel.

One of our friends' camper was blown open when they opened the door to the wind. They had several inches of water in the camper and were pouring water out of their flat screen TV and the toaster. They were heading for home when we passed them on our way into the campground after the storm. Wind gusts of 60 - 70mph were reported!

Another storm was forecast for early evening so I folded the camper down before going to dinner. I was glad I did, but I don't think the winds were as high as they were earlier in the day. I hope the rest of our trip is clear and sunny. I feel like we've seen enough bad weather to last us for about six weeks.

2010 - June 17 (Day 2) Stayed at the Aliner Rally today

Still HOT today. It's about 11:35PM now and, so far, it looks like we have dodged all of the bullets that the weather gods have shot at us. It got REAL black here mid-morning, then at the last minute the storm parted an the bulk of it went south of us. Aliners were rolling in all day long. Lots of displays and seminars tomorrow, so we should be busy. More later.

 

2010 - June 16 (Day 1) at the AOC North American Rally in Amana, IA

Here we are on the first day of our trip to Alaska. It was an uneventful drive from home to the rally. Joe and Loretta Aman, from Decatur, followed us on the 237 mile trip. The trip was uneventful except for the deer that ran across the road in front of me and Joe having to stop to plug the opening in the end of his bumper before he lost all his awning poles. I don't know what happened to his bumper cap. Left home about 10:00 and got here about 3:30. Nice park, but ZERO shade. The sites are a bit soggy from all the rain (just like home).

2010 - June 10 - 13 Aliner Owners Club Regional Rally, Double J Campground, Chatham, IL

We arrived on Thursday, along with ten or twelve other rigs. By Friday evening there were 29! Hot and humid weather prevailed until we got a heavy thunder storm on Saturday evening. Upon returning from dinner at the Golden Corral, we found that the entire campground was suffering from a low voltage situation, so everyone shut off the 110 volt power at their campsite, switched their fridge over to gas and continued to socialize. The power normalized in about an hour, so everything went back to normal. The campground owner was joking when she said there would be an extra charge for the resulting waterfront camp sites. I told her that we would pay the extra fee as soon as we received our refund for out-of-service WiFi for the first two days. That was the end of the "extra charge" talk.