2009 Road Trips

[eubank]

Originally Posted by CrawfordGene

...
I have been secretly practicing Canadian ... I do have trouble with "aboot" as in "I'm aboot to go oot to university because I got injured playing the hockey"....
Gene

Ah, that's Canadian Raising. Wikipedia has a decent article about it:

Canadian raising - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Lynn

[Gene]

1. Safari and truck at campground in Mackinack City. Lake Huron in background.

2. Duluth Aerial Bridge going up. You'll have to take my word for it because it looks the same going down. The operators go up and down with it and can be seen in the middle of the roadway span.

3. Tug and barge approaching bridge when all the way up.

4. The new trim on the Safari which looks just like the one they now put on the Flying Clouds.

[Gene]

1. Beautiful young trophy wife on rocks in Grand Marais harbor.

2. Grand Marias from Artist Point in harbor. Note new square unimaginative motels along shore which don't at all look like the rest of the town actually does. Also, trees and more trees on the hill to the west. Outside of the few small towns, lots of trees, bogs, lakes.

3. Snow at Gunflint Lake in mid May.

4. Old man contemplating his wheel bearings. He's cold and tired.

Gene

[Gene]

1. A loon (we think it's a loon) on Gunflint Lake. The Canadian dollar, only comes as a coin, has a loon on it, so everyone calls it a "looney". The two dollar coin, actually used here unless the US $2 bill, is a "twoonie". The land in the background is Ontario. A large fire a couple of years ago started to the west in Minnesota, went east into Ontario and then south to Minnesota, sparing the Gunflint Pines Campground. I think the lake is about 1 1/2 miles across here, but it's quite a few miles along. The lakes tend to follow the direction the glaciers moved here.

2. One of the camp dogs, 'Sota, who accompanied us on a hike.



Gene

[janetb]

Great posts, Gene. And now enhanced with photos! You've come a long way from "It's following me home..." (I can't believe Terry remembered the title of your first post.)
We hope a trip to Canada is in our future, and your travelogue keeps us motivated.
Love the yoga pose "addressing the wheel well..."
Happy and safe travels to you and Barb.

[Gene]

Thanks, Janet, for the compliments. I now notice all my misspellings (they only show up after the edit feature goes away) which means I'm ready to go to bed after I disconnect the water hose. CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corp., sort of Canada's BBC) has their national news on at 10 pm for an hour. It's called "The National". I've tried to watch it and read Forum posts simultaneously, not doing either well. Since US media ignores Canada (not the same here where there is coverage of the US), it's interesting to catch up on what's happening here. There seems to be a lot more depth to the news here than in the US. But in the morning, instead of the jolly "news" of programs like Today, most stations have cartoons instead, including CBC.

Gene

[Aage]

Gene,

CBC has a cable channel that has 24 hour/day news. Cable also offers BBC news.

Best Morning news here is CTV. Every city of any size has a CTV affiliate, typically on channel 9.

[Gene]

Aage, we haven't had a cable connection for weeks, a difficult time for a news junkie like me. Since we've been in Kenora, Brandon and now Moose Jaw, we've gotten local TV, and I did find the news on CTV in the morning. CBC has Stanley Cup games on almost every evening, but I've lost touch with hockey since we moved out of the Denver area and stopped going to games—we stopped before we moved because tickets had gotten so expensive, it just wasn't worth it anymore. What little I saw of a Red Wings/Vancouver game showed me the referees haven't gotten any better. It looked like a Red Wing slammed into the goalie—a very illegal move—and the goalie got the penalty! The announcers on Hockey Night in Canada seemed nonplussed too.

Since RV campgrounds rarely have newspapers, I haven't read one in weeks. Motels in the US usually have USA Today which I would read, but never see it at a US campground. Kind a refreshing, but I do miss the NY Times.

Last night we stopped at Brandon after a bouncy day on Manitoba's roads. As we neared Winnipeg, the roads got faster and better and were almost entirely 4 lane. Well into the prairie and straight tedious driving. There aren't a lot of 4 lane highways in Canada and they usually aren't like US interstates. Mostly they have traffic lights in larger towns and cross traffic all the way. It's a lot cheaper to build a road this way, but there seems to be little necessity for limited access roads since there are a lot less people here. Canada has one tenth the population of the US and even on the one major east-west highway, by comparison, there's much less traffic. It's refreshing and reminds us of the US we grew up in. In my lifetime the US population has doubled, though Canada's is around 50% more in the last 40 years. We miss a less crowded country, but Canada fulfills our need for space and relatively quiet roads. Of course, when we were in Quebec 5 years ago, or if we had gone to Toronto, we got plenty of traffic.

We decided to spend 2 nights in Moose Jaw. We skirted Regina, the province's capital (now I've been in every provincial capital and the capitals of two territories; Barb hasn't been in Fredrickton yet) and drove directly to Moose Jaw. The prairie looks similar to the grasslands of the American midwest, but there are still more trees and less people. Moose Jaw has about 34,000 people. There's a transportation museum here which we will see tomorrow and the tunnels under part of the city. There was a program about the tunnels on the History Channel a while back. They have two tours—one about how Al Capone's gang used them during prohibition and the other about tunnels used by Chinese immigrants. The second sounds more interesting to us. I think the tunnels tour will be kind of silly and every once in a while, we need that. Moose Jaw has some old buildings, some interesting, many not. Their tourism people do a good job promoting the city. There are other interesting things here, but we don't want to use it up.

We went to an Asian restaurant, more Thai, some Chinese, Overseas, and the food was excellent, though different than we are used to. The room is large and lacks atmosphere, but the food is what counts. MJ has a fair number of Asian restaurants, a lot of them Thai. We have noticed there are a lot of Chinese restaurants in some parts of Canada, even in very small towns and today we saw Sask. has many. On the average, they are far better than Chinese restaurants in the rural American west.

We decided to stop at the Prairie Oasis Tourist Complex since it seemed to have everything so we could have full hookups and wireless. It has cabins, permanent sites, motel units and RV spaces. It is right off the Trans Canada Highway and looked easy to find (it was). When we got here, we found the sewers were frozen and most of the water system was too. I saw few spaces even though it was 3 pm and it seemed they only had very few left. There's another full service campground just south of downtown, but we hadn't been smart enough to call ahead and check things out. Getting complacent once in a more populated part of the world than northern Minnesota and western Ontario. We figured we had to make an immediate decision. I don't like to use the community shower—after all I've got one here, but it fills up the grey water fast. We've got plenty of water and can use it for everything else. With one shower room and around 100 spaces, I imagine the showers will be packed tomorrow morning and so will the one dump station. How can they build a water and sewer system in Canada and not get it right? Becauses they can't charge as much, they must be losing at least $500 and maybe more a day and having to hire a large steamer truck (we saw it).

After we go to the tunnels in the morning, we'll come back at midday hoping the showers are unused then, and then go to Boston Pizza. So far as we know there are no BP's in Boston, Mass., it an entirely Canadian chain. Unlike most chains, the food is good. We discovered it in Thunder Bay in 2004 and every time we are in Canada, we know there may be one near when we want to eat out. Museum afterward.

Every one wants to know how Moose Jaw got it's name. There seem to be 3 stories, 2 involving the Cree Indians. One is the name comes from a bend in the river likened to a moose jaw and another about a Cree word having nothing to do with moose but sounding similar to Moose Jaw. The other is about someone using a moose jaw to fix a wagon or a wagon wheel. It's been pointed out there could be no moose around here since it's in the middle of the prairie and how could you fix a wagon with a moose jaw? The Cree word sounding like Moose Jaw is more logical, but I can't remember what it meant, probably something about the river, but nothing about moose.

This province has another strange name: Saskatoon. Medicine Hat is interesting too, but it's in Alberta, though close to Sask. There is a Mexican Hat in southern Utah for all that collect these things. Mexican Hat is named for a rock formation that does look something like a Mexican hat.

For rock 'n' roll fans, Randy Bachman (Guess Who, Bachman Turner Overdrive) received an award from the Canadian government today. I am tempted to say "for what?", but I did like a few of his songs.

And, finally, nothing broke today (except the campground). Tomorrow I hope to post a photo of the giant moose at the tourism office, maybe the tunnels and I don't know what else. I must find a baseball cap that says "Moose Jaw", though what we saw today was pretty lame.

Gene

[Gene]

Today we went to see the underground tunnels in Moose Jaw. There are two tours. One was the Al Capone tour which has to do with the Chicago gangsters using tunnels to conceal their liquor and other fun businesses here. The other is about how Chinese immigrants a century ago were treated so badly they lived underground. We chose the Chinese tour. Many had worked on the railroad when Canada was building it to the Pacific in the 1880's, but when it was finished they had to find other jobs. Canada's history of mistreating Chinese is as bad as that of the US. We saw a laundry and the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant. Actually is more like interconnected basements with passageways between. Pretty awful conditions and it's amazing how people survived this. It's also amazing how many people show up for this and this company sure does a good job of promoting it. It was interesting and if we come back to Moose Jaw someday, we'll do the other tour.

Then off to the provincial museum. There are 4 of them around the province and this one has classic cars, some railroad displays (locomotives, railcars, etc.) and airplanes. Some cars were restored well, some not well, some not at all. The rail museum in Duluth is much better, the bush pilot museum in Sioux Ste. Marie, Ontario is much better, and many classic cars museums we have been to around the US are better. The museum seems starved for funds. Nonetheless, we enjoyed it and once again managed to wear ourselves out.

Got my Moose Jaw baseball cap to add to my collection of caps from far away or strange places. Weather was the best we have seen in what seems like forever. Sunny and 60's.

Left turn signals are different, sometimes, here. Sometimes the green light flashes, sometimes there's a left turn light, sometimes the left turn light flashes too. All mean the same thing. Another observation is that although the US is known for obesity, it seems Canadians have caught up and fast. We did not see so much girth the last time we were in Canada in 2006.

Tomorrow we turn south for Montana and hope for no hassles at the border. When I lived in Buffalo in the 1970's we expected to be hassled every time we came back to the US and sometimes were. It was the immigration guys that did it; the customs ones never did. Now the agencies have been combined, so we can't know who is who. All along both sides of the border people will tell you horror stories—sometimes personal, often about someone else. Certainly the stories help create a gulf between the countries, two nations so much more alike than different. We haven't had any problems coming back to the US in this decade, but the gov't claims detailed inspections are random, though no one seems to believe it. You can spend hours trying to get back into the US if your number is up.

Gene

[Lily&Me]

Great posts, great stories of the road, beautiful pics and of sweet wifey! Your bird on the lake looks like a loon, we saw and heard them for the first time last year in the UP and up the Gunflint Trail, fell in love with them and had to have a loon print to bring home. We have found even the smallest towns all seem to have Chinese and Mexican restaurants, says something about the demographics and melting pot nature of our country these days, the few times we have had Chinese on the road it has been very good. We always like to try local specialties wherever we are, bison burgers/moose chili/pasties/lobster rolls/shrimp & grits, etc., etc.---all part of the incredibly wonderful, joyful RV'ing life. Travel safe.

[Gene]

Thanks doug&maggie.

The drive from Moose Jaw to Glasgow, Montana, is one of those forever drives—only about 200 miles, but it goes on and on across the prairie. Crossing the border at the lonely stop on Sask. 2/Mont. 24 was pretty simple. They wanted to look under the truck's tonneau cover and in the Safari. The guy was interested in the Airstream and looked in the shower, wardrobe and refrigerator. I had the feeling he was curious about an Airstream plus there's little to do there. We probably didn't see more than 10 or 15 vehicles in that 200 miles.

They now have radiation detectors at the border. It's this big rectangle painted yellow you drive through and if you fail the first one, there's another one. The caps now say "CBP" which he pointed out does not stand for Canadian Border Police, but Customs and Border Protection. The US building looked new and was about 5 times larger than the Canadian one.

Now I have to get used to not multiplying kilometers by .62 and the temp. by 1.8 and adding 32. What a relief.

There were hills about 25 miles south of MJ with lots of what might be called megapotholes. Pot holes are small bowls gouged out by glaciers that collect water. These were ponds and swamps without a drainage through an area maybe 10 or 20 miles from north to south. I don't know whether they are fed by springs or snowmelt. It's a jumbled topography. Never seen anything like that. After the landscape became low hills, grass and farms. The trees we saw up further north were gone. A few small towns in Canada and a lot of rail lines; in Montana, not much of anything except large farms and a few ranches.

The only campground with hookups in Malta, 70 miles west of Glasgow, is closed until June 1, so we stopped in Glascow at Shady Rest, full hookups and wireless, no cable. Otherwise we would have had to drive to Billings, another 270 miles, making it a 470 mile day and I didn't want to destroy myself. Barb wants to get home, so we had to talk about this for a while. The clincher was dinner out in Cody, 381 miles from here, so we are in Glasgow. Day after looks like 400+ to Craig, Colorado, and Wednesday is about 200 more. The next day is Barb's birthday and dinner out again is absolutely required. The schedule has pretty much come out the way I planned it. Since I wasn't nearly as anal retentive as usual, I guess it wasn't necessary to get wired about it.

I'm anxious to get home too, but in good condition. This is our longest trip—four weeks. The feeling of claustrophobia I was a getting last year is gone. It probably helps we made more two day and three day stops, even though one was because of the wheel bearing. I'm thinking about Newfoundland next year, but we've got to work that one out. I'll make Barb watch The Shipping News every week until she agrees. The movie and especially the bgook do capture the essence of Newfoundland. The problem of something breaking every day has stopped for days now, so a 8,000-10,000 mile round trip begins to look better.

We are in the land of few gas stations. We got to Glasgow with the gas pump light on for 30 miles, the readout saying we had no gas for 15 miles, the needle starting to dip below E and still had almost 3 gallons when we filled up here. I guess Toyota wants to make me crazy. Kind of breezy as always on the prairie and we can go 65 (105 kph), so gas mileage is dropping and tomorrow has one 200 mile stretch with 2 towns between Malta and Billings. We are back in a heat wave—82˚ now. Tire pressure was last dealt with when it was cold and rainy, so about 100 miles south of Moose Jaw the TPMS monitor went off and one tire was up to 80 lbs and the outside temp. was 72˚. I let some air out of 3 tires and drove on. I'll have to check them all tomorrow morning as it's supposed to be even hotter.

Time for a nap!

Gene

[Chief]

Gene,

Thanks for all the great posts....been following your trip, as ours progresses. I've had a bit better luck with problems, but probably should have waited to make that comment. The worst thing we are dealing with is a high-pitched whine from the converter when we have overhead halogen main cabin lights on, and then turn on the bathroom lights. Sometimes it does it, other times not.....never did it before we started on this trip.

Try to stop at Buffalo Bill's place in Cody....forgot the name of the hotel. The restaurant is very quaint.....looks very original......food was just OK. They do have a wild west shootout in the streets.

Chief

[Gene]

Just been looking at the RV campground reviews site (Google rvparkreviews) and the KOA in Cody sounds not so good and high priced, and the Pondorosa Campground somewhat better. The KOA in Craig, Colo., doesn't sound so great either, but there's not much around there.

I should have found this website before. Some of the reviews are really goofy and others are funny, but just average it all out. It's amusing to read two reviews next to each other and they have completely different experiences. It's like Trip Advisor which is good for lodging and restaurants.

So, I'll check out the Buffalo Bill place on Trip Advisor next. I'm wondering what that whine is you speak of, Chief. That doesn't sound good. Is the fan doing something strange? Those halogens take a fair amount of power combined with the even less efficient incandescent bulbs in the bath plus being too bright, but they shouldn't strain the converter. Have you had the same problem with the AC on? If you're still in Denver, there's an Airstream dealer, but I'd avoid them and try to find another RV shop.

Gene

[Lily&Me]

There is also a Buffalo Bill Cody museum there, more guns than you can imagine, looks like a large armory, includes guns Bill and other famous people used. There is a nice bench inside, where Maggie sat and crocheted while Doug perused assorted weaponry.

[Gene]

We went to the Buffalo Bill museum in 2006 after our week in Yellowstone. It does look like an armory in that part of a very large collection of western items. We'll only have time for dinner and sleep as we do about 400 miles a day for the next two days. Hot weather today and tomorrow. Snow melt is accelerating in the Rockies and flood advisories in NW Colorado, but it doesn't look too bad unless a gully washer hits an area. Restaurant check on Trip Advisor shows a lot of mediocrity and a few a little better. I hope we're not disappointed.

Gene

[purman]

Heading out June 18th for Washington state for a week, The wife is taking a board medical review coarse up there. Our family is there so we can see them also. Then She flies back to Colorado to work and I take the kids down the Oregon and California cost. Then we stop by Inland RV for some new axles. Thanks ANDY. and then head home. Not sure if we are coming back after or before 4th of july yet.

Got to get working on the Trailer again. Have to rip out the rear bath and redo it. and finish the Kitchen and front bed/couch.

[Gene]

Jason, sounds like a good trip for you, perhaps a junket for your wife. And a lot of work to do on the Airstream. On the way down the Cal. coast, stop at Upper Crust Pizza in Gualala. It's on the east side of the highway towards the south end of town. Best pizza in the world. Al, the owner is kind of crusty himself.

We stayed at a campground on the Gualala River amongst big trees. Pretty nice spot. May be in Oregon and N. Cal. in August, but haven't decided yet.

Gene

[Chief]

Gene,

I've decided that the high-pitched noise from the converter can just wait until we get home.....doesn't seem to be affecting anything.

If you're in Craig, you're only 150 miles from us in Grand Junction. I know your wife is anxious to get home, but if you stop by the KOA here.....I'll buy you a cold one.....maybe even burn some steaks. We'll be here until Thursday morning.

Regards,
Chief

[Gene]

Thanks for the offer, Chief, but must be home for her birthday on Thursday. She's got road fever, too much time on the road only cured by extreme pampering and home.

Today we traveled across the ranchlands of central Montana. Very few towns—one section of more than 100 miles had no towns, villages or settlements. From Glasgow to Malta and then south it was rolling hills and few trees, some cows and hay fields. We crossed the Missouri River through a deep valley and it looked like the national recreation area might have some RV sites there, but I'm not sure. As we went south, we started to see some mountain ranges to the west—not the Rockies, but some isolated ones—Judith Mtns., Big and Little Snowy Ranges. The latter two were snow capped and the kind of sights you see in movies about Montana. The land kept rising and we started to see conifers.

We drove through Billings and looked for a restaurant that is in Next Exit and RV friendly, Cracker Barrel. It's just south of an I-90 exit just west of Billings that wasn't there. We couldn't figure any way to get to it and didn't see the usual yellow sign way up in the air. Did they demolish it? No second breakfast today. We're showing signs of raggedness and going out to eat instead of eating in the Safari—we stopped at a Subway and it seemed wonderful. We usually play the Subway card once on every long trip; actually it's not bad and cheap.

Another 100 miles to Cody. I was so tired I backed into the wrong space (2 joined together) when we got to a campground and had to do it again. I couldn't get the numbers straight and since I was looking at them in a mirror and they looked like different numbers backwards, I was totally confused. Cable TV for the first time in 3 weeks! Pretty good wireless but it was failing for a while an hour ago. This is Ponderosa Campground on the west side of town. Older sites (where we are) have mature trees and feel nicer, but some are really narrow and/or short. Newer spaces are larger pull thrus, but in about 15 or 20 years the trees will help it from looking like a parking lot. If it were busier, it would feel very crowded in this older part.

We went to Zapata's for Mexican food. The chile relleno was different, hot, and good. Served with a good green chile and poblano pepper. The tostada was very ordinary. Barb said the fish taco was good. We are told La Comida, across the street, is bland Tex Mex. Finally back somewhere where there is Mexican food that is not just Mexican influenced. Cody is all about tourism and Buffalo Bill especially. The small hotel associated with him dates back more than 100 years and has an beautiful bar in the restaurant donated by Queen Victoria. The bar in the bar is nothing special. The building is stone outside and lots of dark wood and simple Victorianism inside. The restaurant is called the Irma and is a steakhouse I believe. Not in the AAA book and not particularly recommended for food, just atmosphere. Cody is the route to Yellowstone from the east and lots of people stop here before or after visiting the Park. It's also becoming a place for retirees and second homes outside town and housing prices are fairly high. As we've travelled south, it gets drier as we are moving toward the desert southwest. Since Cody is just over 5,000', conifers are common, but it looks less wet than 500 miles to the north.

This is our 3rd time in Cody. The Buffalo Bill museum is well worth the time and we were there on our last visit. Fortunately we are in the last stretch of this trip so there's no time for recreational shopping. We did 380 miles today with Barb driving 200 on one lonely stretch of road. Tomorrow is 400 to Craig, Colo. Among things we need is a sewer at the site so I can thoroughly flush the black tank. No free dump stations we know of on our way home, so I guess it's the KOA and not the state park which only has a dump station. I don't like to tie up a dump station at a campground for 20 minutes while I do the repeated flushes necessary to do it right. Colorado visitor centers have a dump station and I figured as a Colorado taxpayer, I paid for it plus it's less likely a lot of people will be using it. But no visitor centers this way home. If you're on I-70 in western Colorado, there are visitor centers at Edwards, west of Vail, and Fruita, west of Grand Junction. There is a secret one off US 50 in Delta (between GJ and Montrose), but it's hard to find and a trailer would block the parking lot.

We're taking the slower, more scenic route through Cody and the middle of Wyoming even though we want to get home. Faster would be from Billings via I-90 and I-25 to Casper and then southwest. Some balance between just getting there and enjoying the view. We go through Thermopolis tomorrow. There's a state operated free hot spring, but they kick you out after 20 minutes because some health dep't guy says it's dangerous. I've been in hot springs for hours and am still breathing. The deal the state struck with the Indians who had this land orginally was that there always would be free access. But the state has also leased part of it to commercial resorts who charge to use the springs. No doubt the state makes money on this and I doubt the Indians had this in mind, or they'd be getting the money. No doubt the commercial ones like that the state free one doesn't let people stay long. I doubt we'll stop since we'll be in a hurry, but maybe not.

The change the oil light briefly flashes at 4,500 miles and started here in Cody (comes on permanently at 5,000), so that's how far we've gone. It'll be about 5,100 when we get home, our personal Airstream record.

Gene

[eubank]

Originally Posted by CrawfordGene

... Among things we need is a sewer at the site so I can thoroughly flush the black tank. ... There is a secret one off US 50 in Delta (between GJ and Montrose), but it's hard to find and a trailer would block the parking lot. ... Gene

Hey, Gene, where is this one?

Lynn