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May 4-6: Two one-night stands – Indian Head Saskatchewan, and Eagle Valley in Alberta. Good parks, almost empty. Mainly to get to Calgary.
May 6-11: One night at Staybridge Suites in Calgary, waiting to turn The Benz over to ZR Auto for PPF on front and Ceramic coating over all. Then 4 nights with Scott and Kat (Tom’s son and his wife), both eagerly awaiting their first. They have a great house in central (SW) Calgary, and we thankfully occupied their basement suite. “The Kids” were working most of the time, but we had a rented car from ZR, so we were able to to some chores, enjoy a little retail therapy, and watch their excellent very big TV. Had good visits with them in the evenings.
As a superb bonus, Kat’s parents, who live in Calgary as well, graciously let us use their driveway once we had The Benz back from ZR, so we could stay the weekend and tackle, once again, the cruise control that continued to stop working when faced with no traffic in front. (This is a known MB problem, in fact more of a feature than a problem in their eyes. The original engineers figured that if the traffic sensor can’t see vehicles in front for some time, they would cut off the cruise control so that you have to pay attention. Or something like that.) MB in Winnipeg had tried to fix it with software updates and sensor adjustments, but it didn’t work. So we waited over the weekend to see if MB in Calgary could do better. (UPDATE: It’s working better, though not perfectly.)
May 14 – 16: Granview Recreation Park, Granum AB, just south of Calgary – 2 nights. OK, good for a stop. Full services (almost not – they had JUST turned the water on). Had to make an emergency trip into Lethbridge to address a bank card scam that caught us (we think – but got cards replaced to be sure).
May 16 – 17: Kikomun Creek Provincial Park, AB, Site 69. Beautiful park, mostly empty. Spectacular sunny morning (see pic). No services, but SO lovely.
May 17 – 19: Crawford Bay RV Park, BC Site 12. Decent park, lots of permanents. All grass sites. Full services. 10 minutes to the Balfour Ferry – last free ferry in BC. Nearby RED’s bakery had been recommended. VERY good, but VERY pricy.
May 19-20: Sonora Desert Winery, Osoyoos, BC; Harvest Host. Drive there from Balfour was beautiful. Did a short tour of Nelson (Garry’s home town), then followed the many twists and turns of Rte 3A and 3. Had lots of sunshine, interspersed with heavy rain and even some hail. Site at the winery was on their back lot (grass) – quite a beautiful spot. Did the requisite wine tasting, bought 2 bottles. Winery owner explained that his entire crop of vines that looked dead – probably were! They had a frost of 30 below for 10 hours in December, and it killed everything. Many vineyards around the area, tho not all, were also affected. They are not sure if anything will come back. Very sad.
Sonora Desert Winery
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It’s been a cold couple of weeks!
Our trip north from Texas was on very windy highways, with mostly dry though cloudy weather. Not a lot of drama, in fact the drive gave new meaning to “the flatlands”. For the early part of the trip, the winds came across the highway, and that did make driving difficult. In the latter days, the wind was from behind, giving us a boost.
The bonus of our travel schedule is that we missed the terrible tornados that came across Nebraska and Iowa last week.
A very nice 2 nights at Pelican Lake Recreation Area in South Dakota. Again, no one there but us, but our site (#33) next to the water was delightful. Easy in, easy out, fairly level. A short drive into Watertown to a laundry (badly needed) and to an ALDI – for fun and a bit of shopping. A full moon gave us a great evening walk.
Our final nights in the US were at Icelandic State Park in North Dakota. We had booked site 72, but it was not very level, and we wanted to be as close to level as possible without the levelers. So as there was not one else there, we drove around and tested several of them! Turned out #59 was perfect, so that’s where we settled. The nights went down to freezing, but with the help of our little electric heater, and leaving the locker doors in the van open, we were able to keep the water lines running. We did, however, need our extra blankets! Unfortunately, the park water sources were not open, so we were on water rations for a couple of days. As it turns out, we actually weren’t the only ones in the park – there was one other camper – another LTV Unity!
We had a service/warranty appointment at LTV in Winkler (Manitoba) on the 29th, and so we came to Canada on the 28th, at the Neche-Gretna crossing, more or less due south of Winkler and Winnipeg. We were the only vehicle in sight. We went to what we thought was the truck/RV lane, but the agent came out waving his arms, directing us to the car lane – he thought we were trying to go across without being processed! Once he realized we were not, he was very professional, asked us about gifts, alcohol and guns, and we were through in a few moments.
Our LTV experience was excellent. Upon arrival at the lot provided for LTVs waiting for service the next day, we found there was no open water source there either, so we walked across to our favorite Canadian grocer, Real Canadian Super Store, to get water and something for dinner. But not long after we returned to The Benz, a pickup truck arrived to drop off two bags of food! Included was 2 big cartons of hot soup, 2 fried chicken dinners, with gravy and mashed potatoes, some cole slaw, a huge platter of cut fruit, a full-size chocolate cake, an apple pie, a big carton of cherry ice cream, AND 1 dozen roses in a vase! Our donor announced himself as Henry, a “long-term employee” of LTV. We found out later that he often does this sort of thing with LTVs that are sitting in the service waiting lot. We were truly overcome – with astonishment and gratitude. Fortunately, another LTV arrived not long after (same one as had been in the Icelandic Park), and we were able to share our bounty with them.
Service the next day was equally satisfactory. Kevin Friesen, LTV’s service manager, arrived at 7:30 (!), and got the process going. They dealt with a couple of squeaks that we had found, replaced a small piece of flooring that had some odd stains from the sub-floor, and had a look at our leveling jacks, one of which we were worried about. They addressed a couple of other things that we hadn’t even noticed, and generally took very good care. We will definitely come through again next year as we approach the end of the warranty period.
The last week has been spent with Ann’s brother Tom and his wife Kathy in Winnipeg. The Benz stayed at Tom’s son Paul and his wife Megan’s house (below) for most of the time, except for a visit to the local MB dealer to get a cruise control software update and sensor adjustment. Took advantage of that visit to get the oil and filter changed in prep for Alaska. The weather continues to be mostly rainy, though the Winnipeg folks are glad of it – the farmers too. Picture day was a delightful, if short, spot of sun. Visiting with family, though, is the best. We’ve enjoyed every minute of it.
