What's Up

A long time ago in a land far, far away we left you hanging after telling you our rig had been in an accident. As I said all living beings were fine but there was a lot of bent iron. Although we did make it home the last 600 or so kilometers, (370 or so miles) once we got there the truck was grounded and loaded on a flatbed for the last 30 miles to the repair shop and Woody's came down and hooked on our trailer and took it up to their facility to begin the process of estimating and finally repairing it all. There was close to $20,000 damage to the trailer and about $12,000 to the truck, mostly running gear, springs, etc, along with a new rear fender and box side. I won't bore you with pictures of bent tin though.

Brenda and the folks at Woody's got everything under way and our trailer was back in our hands by the first week of December rather than the estimated Spring 2020 we started with.

The truck was less of an issue it was back in a month or so.

So our potential winter north of the Medicine Line was averted and after a final doctors appointment for Brenda last Wednesday we hooked up and rolled south.

Southern Alberta sunrise

It was a coin toss whether we should scoot for the coast and enjoy the rain heading south or just go for it and head straight south. We opted for I-15 and the more direct southerly route. That meant we had about 1200 miles of high desert and potential snow to maneuver through but the gods were smiling and other than a little drifting snow coming over the Milk River Ridge and even less on the Monida in southern Montana it was bare and dry, cruise control weather the whole way.

We stopped the first night at the Clark Canyon Reservoir in southern Montana, where it was bitterly cold with a gale force wind blowing and ice fishing shacks set up right next to our spot. We ran the gennie all night with all the heaters roaring just to stave of hypothermia.

I promised you ice fishing, Max and I are gob smacked that folks actually do that for fun. Brenda not so much, she says it is a blast. I prefer my ice in my drink.

The next morning we were off and across those Idaho flat lands and then into Utah.

Idaho sunrise

Salt Lake City was its usual mess, but we just tucked in behind a semi and motored on through with him clearing the way. The day was uneventful but we did make about 700 miles before it was over in Logandale, Nevada. That meant we had moved over 1300 miles in the last two days but only left us 410 miles to get to our final destination east of Gold Canyon, Arizona.

Sunrise this morning, Picket Post Mountain in the background

Long time readers, and folks on my Facebook page will know that over the last few months at home we weren't just cooling our heels waiting for our southerly migration to begin. We did a little haying, baled some straw, swam most days, and did a whole lot of what my granddaughter calls picturing. I won't subject you to all those photos, there were a lot, of snowy owls, blue jays, moose, and other critters as well as innumerable sunset and landscape shots. But this lady was looking at me like she was saying isn't it time you moved on south and left these northern ranges to us hardier folk. I agreed, hopefully she will be gone back home before we have to. LOL

Snowy Owls end their southern migration about where we begin ours.