Monday, May 14, 2012

May 14 – To North Battleford, Saskatchewan


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As to yesterday’s post, I have got to learn to pause, take a few deep breaths and get some perspective before I complain. Life is great!

Last night I managed to reset our plans. Today we are at another Walmart in North Battleford. Tomorrow we drive to Elk Island National Park near Edmonton for three nights of no driving. Then for Friday and Saturday night of the long weekend I found a campground minutes from the West Edmonton Mall so Jennie will be in shopping nirvana. Sunday we will continue west and north.

First, last night at about 8pm the lady did finally come around on her golf cart collecting the campsite fee. Oh well.

Today we drove north through the immense wheat fields of central Saskatchewan.

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Just north of Swift Current we descended down to cross Lake Diefenbaker.

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The lake is very muddy and seemed to match the colour of the sand and the dead vegetation on the far shore. It wasn’t until we got close that we realized it was water.

Fields of wheat stubble off to the horizon.

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There were no rest stops on this small highway and not even any real places to pull over so for lunch I just pulled to the side of the road blocking the driveway into this farm that I was pretty sure was no longer in use.

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Anybody want an slightly used snow machine and some sort of harvester?

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The one thing about today’s drive is that it was REALLY windy. It was one of the few times I have been a bit nervous when driving the beast. I don’t mind a head wind but since we are driving north it was a cross wind from the west. The amount of lean on the motorhome was sometimes quite unnerving. Most of the time I had the steering wheel turned about 45 degrees into the wind. Every time we passed an obstruction the wind would die and I would have to quickly straighten out and then get ready for the blast once it started again. Even out in the open it seemed quite gusty. It made for a very tiring drive.

We loved the patterns on some of the fields as the farmer’s machines bend the stubble in different directions as they go back and forth.

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Our parking spot. It is farther from the highway so it should be a bit quieter. As a bonus we can get free WIFI form the MacDonald's in the Walmart.

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The “view” from the window such as it is.

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It is still very windy here so I am a bit hesitant to put the dish up and the slides out. Maybe it will die down later.

As I left the RV once we got here I noticed one of the bolts on the automatic step had sheared off. I think today at the lunch stop the RV had a severe lean and the steps hit the ground trying to open. There was quite a side wind and with the rocking of the RV, I guess it was just finally too much for the one bolt. Thankfully there was a Canadian Tire just across the street with the necessary replacement.

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