Week 5,

Thursday, June 1, 2023

1.    Heading West

The highway beside the campground was loud all night long. And the train whistles added to all the noise. We saw those long, long trains, yesterday, carrying potash from Saskatchewan.

Last night we had the fan on for a while, but even the white noise didn’t reduce the loud traffic. Needless to say, we didn’t get much sleep. The temperature rose quickly and by the time we’d finished our coffee it was already hot.

The washing machines looked like they were from the 1950’s, mustard coloured Maytag machines and I decided not to wash clothes, just towels. We watched in horror how they sprayed pesticides around the seasonal sites, to keep the mosquito population down.

We took it easy, today as all three of us didn’t like the heat and only went for a few short walks. We still had enough books to read and sat in the shade.

The campground was noisy, too. All day long we listened to lawnmowers, whipper snippers, chainsaws and vehicles driving back and forth on the road beside the snail house. We checked real estate, with help from Helga. She had also found the small house for sale in Lake Cowichan and thought it was perfect for us. Who knows it might be gone by the time we get there. And other than that, there wasn’t much excitement.

During our evening walk, we took some pictures of the Flintstone dwelling, behind our site.

The space heater fan was louder than the trailer fan, so we decided to keep that one on during our second night to cool down the trailer and to block the noise.

Happy 50th Birthday, Romkje! Our phones were already busy with texts from all three kids. We reminisced that Romkje was delivered by world renown, Doctor Wijthoff, who had successfully delivered conjunctive twins in a home birth, in 1953. Dr. Wijthoff passed away in 1974.

At 8:00 a.m, we FaceTimed with the birthday girl. She was ordering everybody around to get organized for the big birthday bash. The tent was all set up, there were tables and chairs set up in the garage and Klazina and her band were going to practice one more time, this afternoon. The weather forecast was perfect for tonight’s celebration. We quickly FaceTimed with Rikst and Loesje, before Loesje had to get ready for school.

The trailer was packed in no-time and the dumping went well. We had found a Sobeys grocery store in Portage la Prairie, which was only a few kilometres from the campground. Constructions, road closures and detours made it tricky for us to find the store. We stocked up on everything, so we wouldn’t have to go shopping for a while.

From Portage la Prairie, we drove to Brandon, the next charging station. It was already 33 degrees, but when we ate lunch in the snail house, the thermometer showed 37 degrees.

Another hour-and-a-half drive got us to the Whitewood Municipal campground. On the way we noticed the oil wells on one side of the highway and windmills on the other. As soon as we entered Saskatchewan, we gained another hour. We had assumed that the next time change wouldn’t happen until we were in Alberta.

Our campsite #7, was uneven and in full sun. Only one other site was taken, so Albert phoned the municipality and asked for site #9. It was in the shade with a nice breeze and much more comfortable. The website had advertised, ‘Free Hot Showers’ and that was the first thing we did after we had set up. The showers were clean, and indeed, ‘hot’.

The campground we had picked for tomorrow night, was closed and without wifi, it was hard to locate another campground in the same area.

Every half hour a train ran beside the campground and the highway was also very close., we would have another loud night. Thunderstorms started around supper time, but the storm didn’t pause or stop the baseball game, that was playing next to the campground. Despite thunder and lightning and at times heavy rain, they continued playing and even had some fans in the bleachers.

We dug up our scrabble board from underneath the bed and played till eleven.

The train whistle woke us twice during the night, so it wasn’t too bad. We charged at the supercharger in Whitewood, before we headed west to Regina.

About 40 kilometres later, a road sign announced loose gravel. “Slow Down to protect your windshield,” the road sign read. Not a good sign for us, as we were slow and the big transports would barrel past us and spray us with gravel. As feared, it didn’t take long before a stone hit our windshield and created a big star. SHOOT!!

We also noticed how wet the farmlands were. It must have rained in this area quite a bit and not just last night.

In Regina at the supercharger, we met another tesla owner, who came from Vancouver Island. He’d made a bed in the trunk of his car and was on his way to Chicago, to visit his daughter. From Chicago he would travel to Toronto, to stay with a friend and his final destination was Cape Cod. We wished him a safe trip.

We continued on to Moose Jaw, to top up the car. Five years ago, we had camped at Buffalo Pound Campground, but it was too far out of town for us to camp there, this time.

On our way to Swift Current, we watched for campground signs. Five years ago, we’d had lunch at Chaplin municipal campgrounds, which was a disgusting place. And it still was. The salt mines had left waste in tailing ponds, everywhere.

Albert was getting tired and we realized, that we shouldn’t travel two days in a row. We decided to charge in Swift Current and then ask about area campgrounds. Upon arrival, we noticed two Tesla’s already charging and there was no way, we could fit our contraption in there. The two other tesla owners were already discussing our predicament. A third tesla owner, who wasn’t charging joined the group. They decided Albert should drive on the road and charge, but Albert didn’t think the charging cord was long enough. “I’ll try it out for you,” said the gentleman who wasn’t charging. He went ahead and sure enough, the chord just fit. Next, the two men directed Albert in the right spot and it worked. We talked to the men for a bit and then Albert asked if they knew a good campground in the area. The gentleman, who wasn’t charging said, “I live here, so I don’t know what the campgrounds are like, but two of them are on the highway. One is way up there where you see the towers. I like those people they are very nice.”

We liked the idea of way up there where the towers were. Away from the highway and the railroad. Relieved, we thanked him and left, but somehow, we got the directions mixed up and ended up on a very wet dirt road. The muddy tracks were in places quite deep and we could see mud spraying up onto the snail house. When we finally spotted the campground among several large farms, we couldn’t get to it. Turning the car and trailer was tricky, but Albert succeeded and at the next intersection we saw the entrance to the campground. It was on the property of a large farm. At first it didn’t look like much, but as we came to a small building, the sign on the door read, “Find a site and I will come by, tonight.”

We observed the damage done by all the mud and regretted not to have taken a picture as the dirt was half-way up the trailer. The doorstep wouldn’t budge as it was caked with mud. Albert washed the mud off the trailer using the hose. With a scraper he was able to scrape enough dirt off the step, so it would slide out again.

All sites had water/sewer and electricity. We picked one that was somewhat dry.

The view over the valley was spectacular and there were hardly any campers. But as soon as we had set up, a huge motorhome with an additional car pulled up beside us and blocked our view. The couple barely acknowledged us, but that didn’t bother us.

Two more large units arrived after supper. The farmer’s wife came around  on a golf card to collect our money and gave us the password for the wifi. The campground had a unit with a bathroom and a shower. It was very small, but clean.

We went for a nice long walk until we and Bijke heard thunder and that was the end of our walk. Lightning streaks and flashes filled the sky, but the rain stayed away. After another game of scrabble we went to bed. It was so quiet…

Nothing woke us until six, when Bijke decided it was time. But once again, we told him it was too early , explained to him that we were in a different time zone, and he went back to bed.

The campground was shrouded in fog when we eventually did get up. During breakfast the sun slowly burned off the mist. Our neighbours, the view blockers, left, early.

We had coffee, took showers and went for a long walk. The breeze now coming from the south west, (not good for us, tomorrow) felt good. 

We had more coffee and Face Timed with Romkje and Alexander. 

After lunch Albert booked the next campground in Medicine Hat. We’d camped at the same place five years ago and we had liked it.

This was a great day  for us to recharge as well as the car’s batteries.

We received a picture from Rikst: Loesje was using the power washer, cleaning the driveway to get ready for pake and beppe.

Romkje sent pictures of her birthday and Alexander’s graduation party. The sunset was amazing. We waited for the strawberry moon to rise but couldn’t stay up that late.

We were planning to take it easy as today’s drive to Medicine Hat was only 250 km., but by nine o’clock we were ready to roll. We took a few more pictures of the rolling hills.

Maple Creek, at the Co-op, was the first stop, but it was 10 km off the highway. By 10:30, the temperature had risen to 30 degrees and as we walked Bijke while charging, we found it uncomfortable. The area seemed much dryer and farmers had their irrigation units ready.

We noticed signs along the highway of the Tyrannosaurus Rex, Centre. We also saw the windmills of the large wind farm in southern Saskatchewan. I remembered that at the Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller I had learned that when they prepared the grounds for this windmill farm they had excavated many interesting dinosaur skeletons, one of them the remains of a T-Rex. The landscape was changing again, we were entering the badlands. I’ve always been fascinated with these pre-historic creatures and used to teach a unit on dinosaurs to my kindergarten students.

Around noon, we entered the province of Alberta. It wasn’t far to Medicine Hat and we decided to do the groceries first before heading to the campground. The parking lot at the Super Store was quite busy, so it took a bit of manoeuvring to find a double parking space. The snail house was boiling hot, but we ate lunch inside anyway. As we were down to our last clean t-shirts, we both got a new t-shirt at the super store. 

At two we arrived at Gas City Campground, which is situated on the outskirts of the city and quite high on the hill. Our site was across from the site we’d camped the last time. The forecast called for thunderstorms, but it was hot and dry. The grounds were covered in fluff from the dogwood trees. Many sites were already occupied and this was the busiest campground, so far.

I decided to do laundry and wash clothes and according to Albert we shouldn’t have bought the t-shirts.

At the laundromat I met a woman, who told me they had sold their house in Victoria, bought a big trailer and she and her husband were planning to travel for a few years, before they would buy a house again. As she was taking the clothes out of the dryer and folding them, she told me a whole story about her Polish Mother-in-law, who had fled Poland with her family as a child, during WWII. They had walked across Germany and the family had ended up in a Displaced Person’s Camp. After the war they were sent to Brazil to Saint Paulo. Eventualy, they had boarded a freighter and sailed to Montreal and from Montreal the family had finally settled in Northern Saskatchewan. Wow, what an amazing story. I wanted to ask so many questions, but stopped myself. I wasn’t doing research for another war story, but on my way to find a new home.

She had one last piece of advice for me, “Once you’ve settled on Vancouver Island, you should go camping at the Brown’s Bay R.V. campground. You’ll have an Ocean site and the Orcas will swim across the bay.” It sounded great and something we would love to do once we’re settled.

All during supper time the thunder rumbled and we had a hard time getting Bijke outside. Eventually, we did convince Bijke to come with us for a walk. When we returned to the snail house, we stopped and talked to our neighbours. They were from Nanaimo and had visited their son in Saskatoon and were now on their way home.

During the news on the radio, we learned that at this point 400 fires were burning across Canada. Most of them in Quebec, where they had no resources to fight the fires and fire fighters were arriving from as far away as France. The air quality in Ontario, Quebec and the northern states of the United States was very poor. Helga had complained about smelling fires on the weekend.

There was a brush fire in Calgary, but later on the news reader announced that it was under control. So far we haven’t noticed any smoke from the fires in Alberta and British Columbia, except for hazy skies.

The sky cleared and by ten o’clock the colours were spectacular.

During the night we woke up to heavy winds flapping our windows and rattling the lid of the vent of the snail house. Having a light trailer also had a disadvantage, as the wind rocked us from side to side. Albert went outside to secure the windows and the neighbour took in his awning.

During breakfast, it rained a few drops, but not enough to get wet. So we headed for the showers and then back to the laundromat. Many campers had left this morning, and there was nobody entertaining me with stories while I did laundry.

We went for a nice long walk in the badlands. The temperature was perfect, 21 degrees with a stiff breeze. And the views were stunning. Five years ago we weren’t able to walk these trails as it was 45 degrees at the time. We did however visit the world’s largest Tipi and learned about the symbols, the stories  and legends.

In the afternoon, Albert went into town to get the star in his windshield fixed and I enjoyed sitting outside, writing.

The campground filled up quickly as more and more campers arrived. Our snail house didn’t feel so lonely any more when two small trailers set up camp, nearby.

After supper we went for another wonderful walk through the badlands, although Bijke didn’t really agree. We took some amazing pictures. We were able to see the top part of the large tipi. Along the path we found several cacti, some in bloom. The irrigation system at the bottom of the river was spraying as the rains that were predicted, never materialized.

“Mew! Mew!” Bijke’s mewing woke us at 6:45. He used to do this when he was a puppy and it meant he had to pee. Albert quickly took him outside and sure enough he really needed to go. Now that were up, we decided to get going as we had a long traveling day ahead of us.

At the Bassano super charger, we met another Tesla owner. He was from Calgary and complained about the six-stall super charger in a city of one and a half million people. He said, “The stalls are always occupied, most times you’ll have to wait. You will never be able to charge without unhitching your trailer.” 

“But I have no choice,” Albert said. “We’re never going to make it to Canmore.”

“What you should do,” he suggested, “Is top up the car in Strathmore and if you drive slowly, you should be able to make it.”

We thanked him for his advice, discussed it and decided to go for it. The thought of driving through Calgary had been daunting and we were relieved to avoid traffic in this big city.

The scenery changed again as we drove through oil country. Abandoned oilwells and active Pumpjacks littered pastures where Black Angus cows were grazing. Twice we passed a solar farm. At one time we noticed a Pumpjack powered by solar panels, how ironic.

We passed, Brook, where Bijke had escaped the last time, chasing a rabbit across a park. We passed the sign to Dinosaur Provincial Park and Drumheller, which brought back many memories.

Strathmore was a much bigger town than we had anticipated. The charging stalls were at the end of a large shopping plaza. We decided to have lunch and get a few more groceries.

Heading to Calgary, the roads became busy. Construction caused reduced lanes and confusion. The bypass took us around the north side of the city to the west. The city had expanded tremendously with new suburbs since we were here last.

We sure were glad that we had taken the advice of the Tesla owner instead of trying to charge in Calgary.

Following the road sign to Banff, it didn’t take long or we could see the Rocky Mountains in the distance. The sky was hazy, but as we came closer and climbed higher the view became spectacular.

We were relieved that we had been able to make it to the Bow River Campground on one charge. Across from the entrance of the campground we could see three majestic peaks, which were called, The Three Sisters.

There was nobody at the office. A note said, to go to your site. The attendant would be back at six. Many sites were occupied and it was quite hot, but to our surprise, Albert had picked a site with large trees and plenty of shade. We had a nice spot but it was next to the highway and very noisy. A magpie and a prairie dog came for a visit, expecting to be fed. The magpie later made an attempt to steal from Bijke’s dinner. The bird was quite bold.

We went for a walk along the Bow River, which was  not a big success as Bijke was determined to get into the water. The current was quite strong and we didn’t want to risk it.

We called Kelli, the real estate agent in Duncan and asked her to help us find a small house, preferably a two-bedroom rancher. We also wanted some more information on the little rancher in Lake Cowichan, which is probably too small as it has no garage or storage shed. We really don’t want to store snow tires, saws and other tools in the bedroom.

After supper we met the camp attendant and bought tokens for the showers. We took some amazing pictures and sat outside till nine-thirty, as to our surprise there were no mosquitoes or blackflies.

In the news we’d heard about the terrible fires in Quebec and the smoke and bad air quality in Ontario. We texted with Helga and she confirmed that it was really bad.