T-1

We are certainly down to the short strokes now, Meg and I got out and did our walk early this morning so we got to see this sunrise as we wandered through the countryside.

Once we got back home and cleaned up it was time to head north to Sundre to get some blood work done before we head south of the border. They can do it in Cochrane my next stop but there is always a line-up there and the folks at the Sundre hospital are friendly and there is never a line there. In and out in five minutes then off the the pharmacy in Cochrane to pick up a winters supply of medications. They had them all ready or mostly ready as they were short on one of the more critical ones. They will have it tomorrow morning so we will be wheeling the rig into their parking lot to pick up the last bunch. After picking up a few things at the local hardware store and filling our propane bottle for the BBQ I was back to farm to continue getting things ready there.

This afternoon I got a few things fixed around the motorhome and packed a little patio furniture in the belly. Along with those chores I put some air in the tires and set up our Pressure Pro system with the pickup, and did a walk about with Matt so he has an idea of what to check around the place throughout the winter.

Brenda continued cleaning the house up and getting the laundry done as well as cleaning out my pickup so we will start with a clean machine. We got the cover on and the pickup hooked up so tomorrow morning will be just a matter of hauling the garbage out and a few other odds and ends and then we are ready to begin our migration. And from the picture below it is not a moment to soon!

That ain’t sugar on those hills so it is a good time to head south.

T -2

We are rapidly nearing our launch date. We plan on leaving this place down the road from Dogpound sometime late Wednesday morning and traveling down to the border crossing. We will overnight there and cross first thing in the morning. Thursday is when our extra health coverage for the United States kicks in so don’t want to jump the gun, so to speak. We will cross first thing in the morning and then it is off to Texas, well with a few stops along the way. We are planning on circling by Big Timber to see if we can’t lure Mike and Janna out for a visit and then overnighting Thursday night in Billings, Montana at either the Cabela’s or the Wal-Mart. We need to restock our larder and Cabela’s sells the best cinnamon apple jelly and of course Wal-Mart has just about everything else Brenda could need.

Today has been a hubbub of activity here, I jumped in the truck and headed to town for a last visit with my Mom before we return in the spring, and then went and had lunch with Dad and said my goodbyes to him till spring rolls around. After that it was back to Airdrie and the Superstore to pick up a few of those things that you just can’t get once you cross the Medicine Line. Most of our American friends are used to us begging them to bring things north that we can’t get here, but some things, like for instance the flour, just aren’t the same. Brenda also likes to make a lot of soup and she prefers the Superstore brand of stock so we picked up a case of that to bring along also. And then there was the tart shells for those oh so good and very very fattening butter tarts that she likes to feed me.

I also had to run by the Post Office and change my Dad’s mail from the rural route out here to his apartment in Calgary. Then it was back to the farm and pack a few things in the Motorhome before settling down to do the blog and catch up with all our friends goings on. Oh one other thing was letting our cell phone provider here in Canada know that once Friday rolls around we aren’t going to be supporting them for a few months. They used to have a plan whereby you could actually just put your phone on vacation and for a nominal sum they would hold your number and you could pick up where you let off in the spring. Well in there new business plan they have decided that since the phones work in the United States most of us dumb customers would rather just carry our Canadian cells south of the border and not have to change our numbers at all. Not a bad premise, just one little flaw, when you roam into the USA you don’t carry any of your minutes from Canada and they charge you a paltry $1.45/minute for the privilege of keeping the same number year round. Well I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer but I didn’t fall off the turnip truck yesterday, thank you very much, but I think I will just go with my little $12 Track phone and let those folks who need to call me try to remember that other number all at the huge cost of 8 cents a minute. Sometimes I wonder how the folks who think up these schemes actually remember to breath in and out all by themselves. And they are probably being paid millions to make these wise decisions.

And while I was running around town and doing some shopping Brenda was getting things back on the ranch ready for our departure. Putting away the patio furniture and getting the things shipshape so it will all be in the right spot when we get back in the spring. It actually looks like by the time Wednesday rolls around we will have everything on the list checked off and be ready to ramble on down the highway. 2 sleeps to go and we’re off.

Halloween Visiting

Now that our home is back it is time to start getting ready to roll later in the week, so Meg and I started early this morning with our daily walk. We managed to spook a couple of bull moose along the way and even saw a giant cat driving a car by the gate.

The moose (if a little fuzzy) and the sunrise were real but the cat was a neighbour lady heading into work and I guess it is a day to dress up for work.

Once we got back we brought the horses in and wormed them so they should be ready for winter. Also brought them into a centre pasture as hunting season starts Monday and lasts about a month. After the hunters are done patrolling the roads in early December I will get my son Matt to open the gates so they have the run of the place. Till then it is nice to keep them up close to the buildings.

Also had time to repack the storage bins we carry underneath so we are not carrying any of the stuff we have never used since we hit the road a couple of years ago.

About noon we took off to Calgary to catch a soccer game with our grandson Luc. His team seemed to have it together and won although the score is a bit of a mystery as they don’t post it. They all seemed to have fun and did they ever get a bunch of exercise running after that ball.

Soccer Game VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Once the game was over we followed Paul and Luc home and did a little pumpkin carving. The kids were better at it than Brenda and I but it appears that the jack-o-lantern will light the way to their step just fine tonight.

And here are the pictures of the kids in their costumes.

I am not sure that Luc won’t have a green face tomorrow but he will certainly have fun tonight lurching around the neighbourhood scaring the other kids.

Luc and I got to watch a little of the movie Avatar on their home movie set-up, now I think rather than heading out to the theatre Brenda and I are going to just slip in the back door at Paul and Terri’s, mooch a little popcorn, and settle into that big comfy couch to watch the latest releases.

And before the kids headed out to collect all the candy they can eat, we were served a great meal, rib-eye’s done to perfection with all the fixings and then apple pie and ice cream. Doesn’t get any better than that.

Thanks for the great day kids and we will see you in the spring.

Whoa Nellie, Katy bar the door!

Today started out with Meg and my morning stroll and then a little catching up with the world before we headed off to Rocky Mountain House to get in one last visit with Lacey and Miss Ella before we head south next week. Miss Ella was modeling her Halloween costume for us this morning.

Luckily for me I just happened to have one of those little (Alberta sized) Halloween chocolate bars in my pocket in case I happened to run into any random trick or treaters.

And after getting that chocolate bar she ran around the room chanting “Grandpa is number one” over and over again.

At least that is what I heard so that is the story I am sticking with, it is my blog after all!

After her celebratory chant she settled down and did a little reading with Grandma.

But the fun had to end and Ella went for a nap and Grandma and I said our goodbyes to Lacey and then headed off for Red Deer where the folks at Freightliner had our home ready to head south. There are a couple of good hills on the way home and I let it drag itself up in high gear to see if the heating issue would come back. I have my fingers crossed but at least for today it seems that the problem is in hiding. Hope it stays that way. Things were going great as I headed south and it felt pretty natural so it was with a lot of difficulty I pulled off the highway and headed for the farm. Good thing Meg and Brenda weren’t with me or I might have made a run for the border. Oh well soon enough! We still have a few things to prepare for our departure.

Do We Miss our Home?

Well I do, I even had to run up to Red Deer, an hours drive, today to check on it. It is parked behind the Freightliner shop in a locked yard and it is plugged in so there should be no problem with heat on these cold nights. They figured the parts would be in early this evening and they would pull it in the shop for the night and get after changing the fan hub tomorrow morning. If all goes according to Hoyle the hub should be changed tomorrow and our home will be back down the road from Dogpound tomorrow evening.

We are heading to Rocky Mountain House tomorrow morning to get a last visit with Clayton, Lacey and of course Miss Ella in before we head south sometime next week. After that visit we will hopefully swing by Red Deer and bring the rig home. We are getting down to the wire here so there are a lot of last minute things that need to be done to prepare for our departure.

A shot from a previous visit. Great shop but not my favourite place to spend time .

Always One More Thing

It has been a little cooler around here the last couple of nights. Down into the mid-teens for our friends to the south. That means we are keeping the heat on at all times and even making sure the tankage is warmed at the coldest times. Not a big problem as our rig was built to handle the cold weather and everything is supposedly kept warm enough to stop it from freezing up. In my last blog I was getting the outfit ready to head to town to have the windshield replaced and that went as well as could be expected. Sure am glad I had that piece of glass insured though, or that $3200.00 bill would have surely given my heart a good test. But the trip in and out was not so trouble free. No I haven’t broke the glass yet, but long time readers will remember that while we were coming home from Texas in the spring of 2009 we had an overheating issue as we crossed the Dakota’s. It only shows up once in a while and that just makes it more frustrating. Early this summer I had the rig into Freightliner to have that issue looked into but all they could suggest was that it might be the thermostat. They changed that out and everything seemed to be OK. Well on the both the trip into town and the return from the glass shop the rig overheated. Probably nothing that I couldn’t deal with just by taking it easy on the hills but this thing has enough power to make short work of hills and it ain’t right.

So I gave the folks at the Freightliner in Red Deer a holler and they said bring it in Thursday morning and we’ll have another look at it and see if we can’t figure it out. Now if you have ever taken a vehicle into the mechanic you will for certain know what happened next. After a 5:00AM departure from Dogpound, I headed for Red Deer ready to nurse it all the way in. But as probably could have been predicted, nada, cool, no overheating, I cruised all the way over hill and dale to Red Deer at 70 MPH and never saw the gauge go over 195F.

Nevertheless I gave the service manager a good song and dance and he brought it into the shop and hooked it up to the computer. Now one saving grace to those computerized engines, at least the computer backed up my story that there is a history of heating issues with the rig. They scratched their heads for a while and suggested changing the thermostat again, but after some more coaching from me and a little more testing decided that maybe it might be the thermostatic fan hub. Now that little gem ain’t cheap either, $1000.00 and the closest one is sitting there in a warehouse just down the road from Graceland. Now old Elvis picked a pretty handy place to call home and I recalled from our trip through there on our way to Florida in 2007 that there was a horde of Fed-Ex planes landing and taking off from their airport the whole time we stayed at the Graceland Campground, just behind the Heartbreak Hotel, down at the end of Lonely Street. With a little coaxing I was able to convince the boys at Freightliner that if they could just get someone to run that fan hub down to the airport that Fed-Ex outfit could probably get it up here onto the northern ranges before supper time tomorrow. And that is what is going to happen. We hope anyway, the part should be in Red Deer sometime tomorrow afternoon and they will get right at putting it in.

I gave the mechanic a lesson on how to dig his way through the floor of the bedroom so that he can get at the top of the engine and hopefully tomorrow afternoon and evening he will be busy installing that hub. Till then our home is parked out behind their shop, plugged in with the heater running so it should be OK for the night.

Brenda and I, we will spend the night in the farmhouse, hoping that all these storms in the  mid-west haven’t messed up the Fed-Ex planes and that our home will be back down the road from Dogpound soon, so that we can get the final loading details done so we are ready to roll on schedule next week.

Now that is Winter.

Well as I figured that rain last night turned sneaky and left us with a fairly good clue that winter is coming. We are taking it serious but we are not ready to roll south just yet. There are still a few things left to do and today one of them will be out of the way once the blinds in the house are installed. They look pretty good, once again Brenda has hit the spot between my wide open look and her window treatments.

Here are a few shots of the winter wonderland we have around here today.

But we can at least pretend that we are ready to roll so everything is hooked up and ready.

Too bad I am just taking it into town to get a new windshield and dump the tanks and OH YAH, fill the propane, we just might need some over the next 8 or 10 days. But visions of warmer places will keep us on track.

Palo Duro Canyo in November 2007