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Oh man! Can we have a redo for this week? It was late, we were tired and out of desperation we booked into the Super 8 Motel (a step up from MotHell 99 in Grand Forks, where we felt safer if we’d had slept in the car, never know when the Sasquatch may show up) outside of Pincher Creek, Alberta, in the middle of nowhere. We woke up early to get a head start on our drive to next destination: Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. It was about 8:30 when we hit the outskirts of Moose Jaw with a big sign welcoming us to the friendliest city. I thought to myself, we will see. We turned on to Cariboo street, just a couple kilometers away from our campsite, the car gave a clunk and a nudge and then there was nothing...the clutch went. So here we are at the traffic lights, people passed us and then two young men came up to help us push the car out of traffic and park on the side of the road. Chris called BCAA (and CAA) arranged for the tow truck to take us to the campsite. The time was now 10:30; it was pitch black and still yet to set up our camp. By this time we were both frustrated, tired and frazzled. We were lucky to have nice people from the site next to us help set up our campsite while one young man stood there holding a light so Chris and another fellow could see what they were doing. The next morning Chris arranged the towing company to take our car to the garage, we asked for the same company so we could return the lights to the driver. Chris went back into town with the tow truck driver to make arrangements to get our car fixed. As I was tidying the campsite, I felt some raindrops pitter and patter on my head, I look up over the trees and saw a big black cloud. I thought to myself, being out here in the prairies, I have little time to get all our stuff in shelter - all our belongings: clothes, electronics, documents and camping gear were about to be drenched if I don’t act fast. I scrambled to get the small tarp out, using rope and bungee cords I made a makeshift shelter to protect all our belongings. Chris came back and by this time the wind picked up and was pouring, so after a couple of hours of tackling different geometrical shapes or tarp origami, we settled for the pup tent style shelter - seriously, the tarp was bigger than our actual campsite! We were both damp and exhausted, we called it a day and hoped for a better tomorrow. Our bodies craved for some exercise, so Chris went for his walk and Dudley and I went for our run. Using the rungo app and the apple watch fully charged, I decided to do an out and back run on the Trans Canada trail - Moose Jaw Connector. It was already 30 degrees out, I managed to run just over 6K. I promised myself to start the next days run earlier in the morning. Already two days in Moose Jaw, we walked through the historic downtown and did a little bit of groceries. After calling the garage, more bad news fell onto our laps, the part for our car has to be ordered and should be in by Friday (we arrived Monday, with only the intention of staying for 2 nights). By the third day, we had to make arrangements to move our tent and equipment to the next site because our site was reserved for another camper. Just as we were about to make breakfast, we ran out of propane. So we called different stores and garages (within walking distance) to see if they have any disposable propane bottles. All we heard was, “sorry, no, we don’t have it”. Chris found a place and set out to walk into town while I stayed behind to wait for the office to open and arrange for our new campsite location. After about an hour later, the office opened (hours of operation was 12pm - 8pm), I walked into the office and guess what I saw on the floor...yep, you guessed it, disposable propane bottles for sale. So back to the campsite, I dragged the picnic table, about 50 feet to another site, set up camp and everything looks all organized and tidy. My gut had a sinking feeling so I decided to check the site number and I set up our stuff on the WRONG $% SITE!!! AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! So back at it again, I double checked where our site was supposed to be and marked it with our lawn chairs so I have a focal point. By this time, Chris had been gone for at least 3 hours, I started to feel panicky and worried, I tried calling him and no answer. Anxiety was building, took a lot of effort Back from our exercises, we decided to eat brunch, Chris started to prepare our food and as he was about to cook, the propane tank was empty! Have I told you yet, that I love camping?! After many phone calls we found a business that sold propane canisters. Chris, like a true trooper set out for his walk into town to get our fuel. I stayed behind so I could register for another night of stay. Finally, noon rolled around and the office was open. As soon as I walked in to the store I noticed they sell propane canisters, OH NO! We had to move to the site next to us as the one we were in were already reserved. After about an hour of resetting up our camp I sit down, looking quite proud of the neat and organized area, my gut feeling invaded my peaceful moment. I had this sinking feeling that I should check our site number, so I got up to look, oh F**K!! I just dragged a heavy wooden picnic table about 80’ across the campsite, along with all our worldly possessions and gear only to have to do it again! By this time, nearly 3 hrs passed and Chris was still out there, it was a very hot day and I began to worry, so I called him, no answer. I frantically moved our campsite to the right one. I checked first before dragging the heavy old table. Once I moved all the stuff over, I looked around our chaotic grounds which looked like a tornado swept through. I quickly put our site together, just moments before completion I fell over some low boxes and cried out in pain, Chris walked into our site and I fell apart. Pain, worry and emotions just overwhelmed me. I was so happy to see Chris, I was crying from the pain, even felt sick. Chris went to the office to ask for an ice pack...he came back (they had insufficient first aid kit - which was nothing) with a pack of ice. After a few hours, I was able to walk again, which is good because I actually thought I cracked my tibia - turns out just to be a nasty bruise. So much for running the next day. So long Moose Jaw, back on the road again. We stopped in a sweet little town called Wolseley, SK for a bite to eat. It was what I call a one street, drive through town. Local folks would sit outside and reminisce of days gone by, watching the paint dry, and eyeing us with curiosity. Everyone had to say hello to our dog, Dudley as we sat outside to wait for our lunch. Onward to Manitoba, we drove by the fields of gold stretches as far as the eye can see. With a few text messages, we made. arrangements to visit our friends at Bird’s Hill Provincial campsite. It was nice to see Leslie and Burnie (they too, are doing the cross Canada road trip), we had lots of fun sharing meals, wine and touring Winnipeg. We visited The Forks Historic District and the Human Rights Museum. I must say a few words about this incredible museum. This is a must see museum (we were in there for 3 hours and still not enough time to see it all), it left us with inspiration to help, to speak up and to act on doing more for our communities, near or far. The museum was accessible for all, I was so impressed how they had tools for those that are deaf, blind, deaf-blind and partially deaf-blind. I took advantage of the smartphone like gadget that had options of voice-over, earphones, or hearing aid compatible audio which describes the exhibits and floor plans in the museum. After 2 days in Winnipeg, we went our separate ways, our friends going West and us going East. After several hours of driving we are finally in Ontario - we stopped at Aaron Provincial park and camped there for 2 days. Enjoying the rest from driving, we did some exploring around the park and yes, I did manage a little run through the trails and around the campsite using the RunGo app. Always enjoy running off road, no traffic, no people - just me and my dog. Every time I run in the trails, I think of Chris, imagine that he is beside me - telling me funny stories, or telling me to duck, left, right, no everybody else’s right, and stopping to look at the most beautiful waterfalls and wildflowers. He fights for every beat of his heart, while I fight for every sight I see. Funny how we are here now on a journey that takes us across Canada, knowing we may never do this again. So here we are, now in Thunder Bay, Ontario, we asked ourselves the question during dinner, ‘What is our destination? Where are we going?’. We both looked dumbfounded, still no answers - time will lead us to where we are meant to be. I will bid a good night to all, we have a long day ahead following where the wind may take us. August 7-17th Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario
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I actually feel comfortable with the idea of having no home...for now, it is early days after all. How is this for a start, the freaking engine light goes on in our car - Chris and I both agreed that we needed to have that dealt with before heading out on the road, luckily Canadian Tire had an opening at 8am that morning (July 31). Six hundred dollars later, it is fixed creeping into late afternoon. No such thing as a perfect plan, so without a plan, we head south, towards Victoria, as we had an appointment to go to the following day in a beautiful seaside town. Without thinking, we did not make any reservations at any campsite or hotel. It is a real challenge when you have to look for a place to stay and is pet freindly at the last minute. Hungry and irritable we were. Desperately looking for something healthy to eat is like....forget it! A & W it is. We always regret those choices, and yet we never learn. After a few phone calls at the restaurant we found a place to stay for the night. Let's just say it was an expensive day, but hey, its all good! Because of this day, I made sure we had a campsite for Saturna Island - 5 days was booked. Chris and I had to go to the southern tip of Vancouver Island (keeping you all in suspense, not revealing location as of yet) to talk to the architect/project planner of our possible new home. We want to spend the rest of our days looking at the ocean on the deck, reading good books, painting, writing, sipping wine and making new friends, this place may have all of this for us. We had our meeting and time was ticking on, I check the ferry schedule once more and in a panic, I said to Chris that our ferry was for 3:20, it was already 2:40 and we were not going to make the ferry, it was at least an hours drive.. So in a scramble, we gathered all our papers and left in a haste. We will just have to settle for the next sailing time. We drove into the paying booth and the BC Ferries cashier said the next ferry was for 8:10 pm. We have 4 hours wait before we get on the ferry, just as well, we had to get some food to feed us for the next few days. We drove into Sidney and got groceries and wine. We are all set. Just minutes after boarding the ferry, the sun was sinking into the horizon. You can see the affects from the fires, (Southern BC) turning the skies into a smokey haze leaving the sun shining like a bright garnet stone. Even in disaster, there was beauty. After 2 hours of sailing past 2 islands (Pender and Mayne) we finally docked at Lyall Point, Saturna Island. It was pitch black! Chris turned his head to me and in a voice nicest way possible, said, "Rose, it is going to be dark, and we will have to set up camp in this so we have to be patient, and not to get frustrated, and get angry, we just have to do the best we can." I nodded my head in agreement, "yes, we will do our best". We drove off to the ferry and miss the campsite right away...GPS gives us a little drive around some country roads for about 2 kms. - apparently, our GPS garmin does not do U turns. We found the campsite...unfortunately we can't drive out this time because it was the only campsite on the island and everything else is shut down for the night (10:30pm) OH WHY DID I BOOK FOR 5 DAYS!?! Well, whether we like it or not, we had to set up camp. Remembering what Chris said earlier, reminding myself to be patient and not get frustrated, this assembly under the midnight moon will put us to the test. Chris set up the tent while I set up the air mattress, with our car parked right in front of our site and left the headlights on so Chris could see while putting together our tent, me, with my super bright flashlight I searched for extension cord, adapter, pump and air mattress...so far so good, no cursing or falling over. As the air pump whirs into action, some zombie woman dragged herself to our site and mumbled something, "Pardon?' I said, she mumbled again, "Sorry, I didn't hear what you said." She then waved her arms like she was swatting flies and trudged on back into her tent. Oh, this place is like something out of the movie, Hills Have Eyes. Good news! We set up camp without any choice words, and by 12:30am we were lying in our lilo (the Brit lying next to me calls it that, we Canadians call it air mattress 🤣) We woke up to brilliant sunshine, slinked out of our bed into the warm pacific breeze and had a good look around the campsite. First thing Chris said was, "it looked a lot better in the dark." I totally agreed. The site was tiny! Our view coming out of tent was the fence showing the back of some dilapidated trailer, grounds were littered with tinder dried leaves as if the grounds were never kept, lined with boulders as markers for the tent sites. What a visual nightmare! To our right, there were two one man tents side by side and just steps from there, a shower shack and a pit toilet. Lovely, it looks like we are camping in some one's back yard. We decided to use this day to explore the island and get the heck out of here tomorrow. We hit some beautiful spots on the island, East Point, Thompson Park, Shell Beach and Winters Cove. We walked a lot; it was a hot, slow meandering kind of walk. The smoke was coming in from all directions and it got worst as the day wore on. As we walk through the old Salish trails of Winters Cove, the salal showed off their emerald green leaves bordering the 2nd growth firs, while the wind softly whispering stories of the past (okay, we read the signs in the self-guided tour). Running again is proving to be difficult with this heat wave and poor air quality from the BC fires - and it will get worst as we head East tomorrow. Our plans of eating heathily and exercising regiment basically went out the window. This is going to be a real challenge. Especially now that the poor air quality index is rising at a rapid rate. We decided that we seen the main attractions on the island and 2 days of camping here was fine and we will move onto the mainland. So 2 ferry sailings later, we landed in Tswassen and drove on to Hope (orginal plan was to go North, at this time there were road closures due to fires). What do you do when your tired? You book into a motel - really nothing to write about here. We had an unexpected visit with our friends whom just moved to Kamloops (and within 48 hours, they hosted 6 evacuees from Williams Lake fire), and we ended up staying the night. We had lots of laughs and enjoyed the quails gather in the nearby sagebushes and mountain sheep grazing lazily up the hills past their front yard. We bade our farewells to our friends, packed up our car and drove off onto the ribbons of asphalt, heading East. Next stop, Grand Forks. We really liked this town the first time we visited, 2nd time? No. We left Grand Forks and spent the most part of the day drving, by this time it was nearly 5pm and we stopped in Fernie, BC. What a beautiful town, we drove through it and stopped at the Information center and cooked our dinner in the park. Realizing that now is the time to look for a place to stay...called the holels, motels and campgrounds from Creston to Sparwood, NOTHING was available, all booked! What the heck?! What is happening in these small sleepy towns? Finally, we found a place to stay for the night in Pincher Creek, Alberta. This week is now officially done. Still, have not ran, it has been 35+ degrees outside, to dang hot to do anything but drive on in an air conditioned car. Perhaps our next destination will be a relaxing few days in a beautiful campsite not too far away. |
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