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.

On the Road

We spent Thursday and part of Friday hauling stuff out to the rig and packing it away, loading things for our southern migration. About noon we figured we had enough stuff to keep us from blowing away in the wind so we fired up the truck and headed out. The plan is to do something we haven't ever tried before and just wander our way south, taking it easy. Our first stop was going to be somewhere around the border, Milk River or Shelby, but we didn't actually find a decent spot to pull off until pretty Dutton, Mt. There is a good little Rest Area just north of there that is quite a way off the road and makes a good place for a "rest". And a great spot for the dogs to get out and do a little exploring.

We got a good nights sleep and Saturday morning around 9 we got on the road, I told you it was going to be different, in the past we would have already been 4 or 5 hours down the road by that time. Just a while down the road we pulled into Great Falls and filled the Ford, and then headed into Denny's to fill our own tanks. Brenda had her favourite Chicken Fried Steak with white gravy and I tried something new called Sticky Bun Pancakes. They were Pecan Pancakes dressed with some sauce off of Sticky Buns and holy smokes they were good, fattening, and not healthy, but oh so good. After a leisurely breakfast we headed back out onto the highway. Our plan was to head for southern Montana and called it a day south of Dillon, at the Clark Canyon Reservoir. There are a few spots to camp there, we chose Horse Prairie and it was sure a hidden gem. Rumour has it that it can be windy in that valley but it was dead calm the whole time we were there.

A pano the lake from our spot, probably 6 or 8 images stitched together

Sticking with our theme of taking it easy we hooked up about 9 and got on the road soon after. Today we had a big day planned, about 5 1/2 hours on the road, Seems strange wandering along, hooking up in the daylight and setting up in the same, not my usual way of heading south, but usually I am racing to get to DPS to meet Brenda coming on the airplane, but this time she is traveling with me and long days and her CRPS don't fit well together. We stopped for the night at Cabela's in Lehi. We have pulled in here before both with and without the horses, they had corrals here for them but those have been removed so it is not a horse stopping spot anymore. We did slip into the store and pay the rent though with a few purchases.

This morning we got on the road about 9ish and headed south again, it was a nice driving day and we slipped down the Virgin River Gorge and pulled into our regular stopping place at the Clark County Fairgrounds in Logandale, Nevada. This is a great spot for those hauling horses, nice pens, some covered stalls and even an internet connection that works pretty well. We always throw some money in the honour box as even though we don't haul horses anymore we do use the internet and the power that is available. This a well kept place and I was a little disappointed to see that some folks don't appreciate it, looked like at least two trailers had been here recently and cleaned themselves out in the parking lot. There are great spots here for doing just that but these goofs just pushed it out the back onto the parking lot. I worked off my dinner shovelling a couple of idiots manure and shavings and piling it in the proper place if we don't look after these places they will not welcome transient horse folk anymore. And you just know that people that do that probably didn't put anything in the box either.

Logandale Sunset

Tomorrow we are heading for Vegas, Brenda has a mission in mind so we will have a short, 60 minute, drive day and get that job done.

Hey look at that two entries, one month.