The Drive to Canada

Sunday, April 26, 2015
When we went to leave the Hotel, Ken said to take a picture.

I reached for my iPhone in my purse and it was not there.  I went into crazy lady mode. Ken turned, got gas, then headed back to the Hotel. I, in a panic went into the Hotel to ask for the key to return to our room. The desk clerk gave me a key without question. The iPhone, of course was not in the room, ugh! I was still beside myself with panic. I looked through some things in the van. There it was in my green bag. I had absent mindlessly stuffed it into the pocket of another bag, not my purse. I have never put the phone in there before. Anyway that was not a good way to start a day or the rest of our trip. At least I found it.

Basically we left Denver area and drove on to Cheyanne, Wyoming. In Cheyanne I had booked an appointment for a hair cut. I was lucky enough to get a great hair dresser, Gina. What is really appreciated was the fact that she told me why she was cutting a certain way in a particular part of my hair. It made me feel more at ease. She also put up with my picky, obsessiveness when it comes to how I want my hair done. Gina was great.

We drove on from there and ended the day sleeping in the van. I was very tired and a bit suspect of camping in the cold and misty rain. In the end it was a good idea.

Monday, April 27, 2015
We woke up in our camp spot to it still raining.

I walked into the heated, clean bathroom with an umbrella. The umbrella having turned inside out almost immediately from the wind. I did not want to ruin my freshly straightened hair by allowing the rain to frizz it up. It did rain off and on most of the day. We were not far from our over night resting spot when it started snowing. This was a bit scary to me. We only have one snow tire now, likely not much good for it's intended purpose. About a week and a half ago I had seen a horrible snow storm and resulting accident on FaceBook. This pile up had happened just a little south of the area we were driving through. Scary to see when you have to drive through that area in a few days time. Anyway, the snow did not stick today and we drove on.

We had breakfast at Subway. We did not want to eat cold cereal after having slept in the van last night. We ate near where we slept the first night of journey south in October. We drove around this camping spot and reminisced about the frost and snow in the area back last fall. We went for coffee where we ate breakfast last October. I ended up getting shaky from the coffee. It was somewhat worth it cause it was the best coffee I'd had since Mexico. I will not, however, be drinking coffee for awhile. I am sick of getting the  shaky thing. Is it because I lost a little weight in Mexico from all the walking, is it from coffee, why am I getting this? It is very annoying.

When we had coffee we saw a poster for Donkey Basket Ball. What? Yes, Donkey Basketball. Each player rides a donkey while playing the game. This is the funniest thing we had seen in awhile. We even drove to the sponsor, the high school, to see if they had donkeys out in the field, relaxing before the big game.

 We stopped at a few little towns to stretch our legs or eat. We stopped at Gillette, Broadus and Mile City. The towns are really reminding us of prairie towns or cities we know of in Saskatchewan. In one little town we saw a fluffy looking dog tied up to a tree. You never know if a tied up dog is going to bark or be crabby. This sweet thing was a darling and only wanted as many pets as we could give it. Someone must love it dearly.

We plan to camp tonight. It will be the last chance we get for many months as we should be at Charlene and Mike's wonderful home tomorrow night for supper.

Tuesday, April 28, 2015
We woke up in a rest area just south of Glendive, Montana. Ken was just too tired to drive to Williston, ND where we had planned to sleep. He had driven lots yesterday and was just beat. It is much better to stop when tired rather than drive on and get into an accident. It was cold for camping, but not bad. We had extra blankets and were fine. Ken ends up wearing a toque to keep his head warm. I had the blankets partly covering my head when I woke up in the night.

We drove on to Glendive, Montana for a hearty breakfast. Ken ordered a short stack of pancakes. These pancakes were huge, bigger than a dinner plate. He could not eat them all.

We drove on to Williston. Ken wanted to get his hair cut as he had given up his appointment for me a couple of days ago. He did not have any luck with the haircut idea. No hairdresser that we tried had no time available to cut his hair. Maybe in Estevan or Moose Jaw in the near future.

We hung out in Williston, ND for a few hours just getting fed and finding last minute food to take up to Canada (salmon on sale).
 
We had to cross the border just south of Charlene and Mike's, not sure of the border crossing name. The lady who checked us through the border was a bit edgy and wanted to know all the repairs we had done on our van when we were in Mexico or away. Then she wanted to know exactly what alcoholic beverages we wanted to take across the border. We actually got the booze our of the van so there was no confusion. That way Ken could be very exact in his calculations of the booze. She was satisfied with that and charged us the duty, etc. for the bottles over our allowed limit.

It was exciting being almost to Charlene and Mike's. They live only a scant, few kilometres from the border. We quickly went into Estevan to hook up our wifi.

It was great to see them. The next day our new niece was to be born and everything was going great so far. Charlene and Mike made us a wonderful supper which was much appreciated. Almost any food that was not from a restaurant would have been great but these two made gourmet as usual.