Day: May 21, 2024

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.