Alberta here we come

Wednesday, March 19

What a treat, I get to sleep in, while Ramiro meets Scott for breakfast.
Scott was one of the team members who went to Chile in 2004, on a Rotary Group Study Exchange, under Ramiro’s leadership. Since then, Scott has moved to Regina with his family and both him and his wife Janice are now part of a provisional Rotary club they hope to charter this year.

When we check out of the hotel, Lesley is already waiting for us to take us to the Rotary meeting at Regina Eastview. It’s a club of about 70 members of which most......well, let’s put it this way: I bet their family has already had a meeting with the funeral director to make arrangements.
They are trying very hard to recruit new members, which is not easy if the vibrancy is missing. It nevertheless is a nice meeting. We do the usual banner exchange and participate in the Rotary Quiz.
A panel of so called Rotary experts answer questions about Rotary. For every correct answers, the questioner pays a dollar, for every wrong answers the panel members pays a dollar. It’s a good way to educate the members and it is fun.

This club organizes Adventures in Agriculture, in which our club has participated for many years. Young students with an interest in agriculture are sponsored by a club in their community and get to spend a few days in Regina to participate in a type of conference.
The exchange student hosted by this club happens to come from the Lake Chapala area. We spend a considerable amount of time talking with him, as well as with the Marketing Manager of the Best Western Hotel, where we happen to be staying.
“If I had known you were staying with us, I would have upgraded you or give you a better rate”, he tells us. A little late Teodoro. We’ll remember next time.
After we say goodbye to Doug and Lesley, he drives us back to the Hotel and invites us for coffee or tea.
Him and his wife have only been in Canada since September. They are originally from Belize. She studies at the University of Regina and he has had no difficulty finding a job here, with his many years in the hotel business back in Belize.

We made a few new friends today, as a matter of fact, we have made more new friends during the past three months, than we could possibly make in one year, staying in town. Traveling opens up the world and I certainly recommend it to anyone. You don’t need to be rich to travel. All you need is well, some money, but more imagination, an open mind, flexibility, the desire to try new things and the guts to take a risk.

We’re about 800 km from home and will need to break this last leg up into two days. It’s already 3:00 pm when we finally pull out of the parking lot of the Best Western.
Goodbye Regina. We’ll be back one day, but warm it up for us first please.

For the first time in months, I dare to pick up one of the Dutch magazines Mom has left behind and read, while Ramiro drives. From here on it should be easy.
Only when we reach Saskatoon do I pay attention to make sure he is going the right way and I watch the signs for him, leading us west along the Yellowhead.

Is it a coincident, or what? It happens to be that every day around 7:00 pm we are in the neighbourhood of a Wallmart. Even a small comme boondog tonight.
For lack of a better place to walk, after sitting most of the day, we walk the entire store and now know every single item on the inventory.
That prairie wind is cold. We can’t get back inside fast enough.
On our last evening on the road, we play Rummikub and eat Chicken Gumbo Soup, before we crawl into bed to watch Saskatchewan news on TV.




Friday, March 20
Home Sweet Home

Today is the first day of spring. Temperature at 8:00 am: zero degrees. Not all that bad.
We’re a little confused about the correct time. Because each clock is different. I figure we don’t cross another time zone until we’re at the Alberta border, but Ramiro thinks differently. It really doesn’t matter. As long as it is light and we can start driving.
“Oh, no, not so fast Ramiro. Look outside. What do you see”?
“I can see Wallmart”. Ramiro says.
“But what’s behind Wallmart”.
“I don’t know. It’s too foggy to see”.
“Exactly, it’s too foggy and not safe to drive”. Ramiro drives anyway and is looking for a gas station. Of course he can’t see one. So we pull into a large parking lot and wait untilt he fog clears. Smart idea.

When we finally reach the Alberta border, we know we’re getting closer, but those last three hours feel like they’re the longest we’ve driven all this time.
And there is Spruce Grove. We pull into the Superstore parking lot. No, not at Wallmart this time.
We haven’t even had lunch yet, and since Kelsey's was burned down a few months ago we decide to walk all the way to Boston Pizza. That arctic wind is soo cold, but the reward is worth it. We treat ourselves to a nice glass of Shiraz, Ramiro orders his favorite Lasagna, I a spinach salad and our last sin....... chocolate cheesecake with icecream. Oh, boy, the next month it’s going to be grapefruit juice and salad and 3 miles a day on the treadmill. All that sitting fat needs to come off and so does that cheesecake.

We bravely walk the 15 minutes back. It doesn't seem nearly as cold. Must be all those calories in our body.
When we buy our groceries, we are shocked with the total bill. Double of what we paid in Mexico and a lot less stuff.
After another twenty minutes on the road, we are finally at our house, which is surrounded by snow.

The welcome at home is a lot warmer than at the Canadian border. Our dear friend Dee, who together with two other friends have been checking in on the house during our absence, left a welcome home card, a casserole, a salad and as a treat Flan de Leche; Ramiro's favorite dessert. The item on the counter that worries me the most, is a giant box of chocolates. Dee, you are the greatest, you're just too good for this world. You will have to help us with the chocolates however.

It will be quite an adjustment to get used to home, and get back into the routine. But what a good time we had.
The blog is a nice way for us to look back at our own adventure and to keep family and friends informed of our travels.
So many friends and family members faithfully followed us wherever we went. We appreciate their feedback, support and prayers, when we needed these. There has been response from all parts of the world: Alberta, British Columbia, Oregon, Texas, California, Spain, Holland, Chile, Brazil and Mexico.
Thank you all so much. We look forward to our next adventure and will let you know well in advance.

A not so warm welcome to Canada

Wednesday, March 18

Now the weather is no longer appealing and we don’t have the same luxury in our RV we’ve had over the past three months, we’re anxious to get home.
Today we leave much later than planned, because I have to cook up some of the items from the fridge that may not be allowed across the border.
My hot bowl of water goes a long way. I am able to use it for the dishes, the floor and the bathroom. It’s still warm and I offer it to Ramiro to freshen up, since he did not have a shower this morning, but he declines. I would like to wash my hair yet, but prefer water that does not already have grease from the frying pan in it. So what ever is left over goes down the toilet, which now has a fair amount of antifreeze in it, so we should be OK.

Today we’re heading for Regina, Saskatchewan, where we plan to meet up with some Rotary friends. It will take us all day to drive the rest of North Dakota and across the border into Saskatchewan.
The state of North Dakota looks much like Alberta. They even have an open pit coal mine and energy plant like the one at Genesee, half an hour away from home. Later we see another one of these mines across the Canadian border, near Estevan.
For my friends in Europe who may have never seen one of these mines. I have included a picture of one of the draglines, which are two storeys tall. They're enormous.
They work around the clock, first they remove several layers of soil, until they come to the coal. Which gets removed and taken to the processing plant, where it is being used to supply electricity for the entire state. The Genesee mine in Alberta, supplies power to Washington, USA as well. I have included the web site for Gennessee for those who like to learn more about these mines.
http://www.epcor.ca/en-ca/about-epcor/operations/operations-alberta/power-generation/Genesee/Pages/CoalMine.aspx

We’re not all that surprised to see Lake Audobon still covered with a thick layer of ice. After all, it’s not unusual for us to have ice close to home, on Spring Lake well into May.
We’re very fortunate that the roads are dry and that there is plenty of sun. It could have been snowing. Can you imagine what that would have been like?

At Minot, North Dakota we finally leave US83 on which we have been traveling for the last 6 days. We turn north west towards the Canadian border, which we reach around 2 pm. We're so surprised, that there is no “Welcome back Ramiro and Elly” banner at the Canadian customs gate. Just a bunch of grumpy inspection officers, who take 45 minutes to search the entire RV and the car. What do they think; That we are stupid enough to bring in weapons and drugs? 5 bottles of Mexican liquor, maybe, but weapons and drugs?
We hand over the keys and patiently wait inside the office, while they do their search. They open every single compartment, inside and out. I am surprised they don’t empty the fridge and take out all the “illegal” stuff.
It doesn’t exactly make you feel welcome in your own country, but we try very hard to believe that they do this for our, and our fellow citizen’s protection.
I sure hope that every single RVer has to go through this same intimidating experience and not just us, because Ramiro happens to fit the profile of an Iraqi terrorist.
Gee, they even check the herb jars hanging on the spice rack on the wall in the kitchen and don’t even bother to close the basil jar properly. Basil must look an awful lot like the herb you smoke. Let me tell you, If I want to bring in dope, I will bring it by the kilo and not in a lousy spice jar.

I forgot how flat Saskatchewan was. But then when I think of the story about the dog that runs away, I should have known better. It is no different from what we have seen over the last week. At least is saves on Diesel and it goes faster than going through the mountains.
We do see more traffic on this road and even RVers. So there are more idiots like ourselves??
We finally reach Regina, right at the late afternoon rush hour and have already been in contact with our friends Doug and Lesley. We have decided to stay in a hotel tonight, so we can have a decent shower and catch up on our e-mails. We’ve had no internet connection since we left Shamrock on Sunday.
The temperature in Regina is expected to drop down to 18 degrees BELOW zero. Perhaps it would be a lot more comfortable to sleep in a warm hotel bed.
We pack a few things and of course our computers. While we wait for Doug to meet us at the restaurant downstairs, we shower and check our mails, all 365 of them. Well 300 are junk mail.
I finally have a chance to update my blog. Oh, this goes so much faster. Is this normal???
I can’t remember how fast internet is suppose to be after two months in Mexico.

We have a wonderful dinner with Doug, (Lesley had a meeting tonight) and catch up on the latest news of each other and make plans to attend his Rotary meeting tomorrow. Ramiro contacts another friend and makes plans to meet him for breakfast.
Yippee, I get to sleep in and have the entire morning for myself!!!!

Another Day, another Wallmart

Tuesday, March 17

It wasn’t until after I read the tourist information guide from South Dakota - covering the Black Hills and Badlands area - that I realized that west of our current route are a lot of very well knows attractions, including Mount Rushmore.
We’re in the wrong area and should have been 50 miles west.
It’s very tempting to say: “What the heck, let’s go there”. But seeing the snow in the hills and the frozen creeks, that may not be such a good idea at this time of year. What we need to focus on, is getting our water lines winterized.
We can come back here some other time and spend several weeks there. After all, we’re retired and should be able to do what ever we want and whenever we want. (ha,ha).

I spent quite some time searching for RV parks, but the farther north we are, the later in the season they open. The earliest is April 1st. We need to find a way to drain our tanks and pump the antifreeze in the system.
With another four days from home, I am not to keen on the idea of having to wash in a bowl of water heated on the stove, but we’ve done it on the way down, so we can down it on the way up.
We find a truck stop at Murdo. “No sewer dump in this town”, we’re told.
We park on the side of tbe building, and with the use of air hose, (the one you use to put air in your tires), Ramiro blows the water out of the system, while I open the taps, one at a time, to make sure there is no water left in the lines.
Next we pump in the antifreeze we bought a few days ago. I open each tap slightly until the air is gone and pink liquid comes out. Then the antifreeze gets poured down the drains. So, that part is done. The drinking water tank is already empty, we opened the valve when we started driving this morning and those who drive behind us could follow our trail. We can’t do that with the sewer unfortunately, that could get us into trouble. We need a real dumping station.
In one of my books I locate Farm Island State Park, just east of Pierre, the capital of South Dakota. It’s another 50 miles, but we’re going for it.
We’re in for a treat. Although the park does not officially open until May 1st, there luckily is no gate that keeps us from entering.
It’s a beautiful park, along a long narrow lake. It reminds me of Elk Island Park in Alberta.
There is no one in sight and we drive right in. We dumps our black water and find a quiet spot for lunch. We open the windows and let the sun shine in.
It’s so nice, that we decide to go for a walk around the day use area and through the campground. The lake is still frozen and the Canada geese also seem to enjoy their visit. I bet these geese are on the same route as we are and are also heading north. That walk feels so good, I am ready for another three hours in the vehicle.
We stop at Wallmart to buy the latest version of the Rand McNally Map, which also lists all Wallmart Stores, which could come in handy.
While Ramiro continues to follow route 83, I read through the map for anything that may help us find a place for the night.
We pass an intersection and I hear Ramiro say: “Were we suppose to turn here and go to 83 North”? Oh, Ramiro what were you looking at? There no cute girls along this road. You’re suppose to look at the signs.
It takes a few extra miles east before we are able to turn around, but after 10 minutes we’re back on track.
The more north we drive, the more snow we see, or at least melted snow, much of the farmland is flooded.
Ramiro has already located my winter boots, the ear warmers and our winter jackets, whihc were packed away in the storage under the RV. We’re prepared for winter. Bring it on!!!
We’re going as far as Bismarck, North Dakota today. We driving through native country. You may not be able to tell just by driving, other than some of the signs along the road. But somehow we tuned into a native station and hear the drums and the high pitch and lower voices of the singers. Some of the songs have a mix of English and are actually very nice. With the music, the thousands of ducks and geese at every single water body, the many pheasants running across the road everywhere and the rolling hills, we feel the spirit. Even from within the RV we feel so close to nature. It’s not so bad after all to be back in the snow and the cold.

It’s 7:30 by the time we reach Bismarck, we follow our instinct and just before we leave town there is another Wallmart. That’s our only choice. In North Dakota, RVs are not allowed to overnight in rest areas or anywhere along the road, there are no truck stops and RV parks are still closed.
For entertainment tonight we watch a movie in bed and stay warm.

Breakfast in Kansas, Lunch on Nebraska, dinner in South Dakota

Monday, March 16

It’s not until you actually drive from the southern tip of the US to the far north, that you realize how big this country is. So far, we’re 1100 miles in to the US and have at leat another 1000 mile to go before we hit the Canadian border.
I don’t envy Ramiro, but he loves to drive, so it’s no problem for him.

We’re driving through tornado country. The wide open spaces in states such as Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas are a target for tornados during the summer months. However, it is not unusual for tornados to strike during the months of December or April.
It seems that these flat places are also rich in oil, just like in Alberta and Saskatchewan. The scenery here varies from oilfields to giant cattle ranches.

Because I would like to break up the long driving days a little bit, I entered a few geocaches in the GPS. We have to skip most of them because there just is no place to park our rig along these roads. But today we are in luck. After two hours on the road it is time for a break. There is a giant truck stop at the northern edge of Garden City, where we pull into. Now we need to make a decision. What’s first, the snack or the cache? Well, according to my sister in law, Annemieke, you need to earn the snack first. So the cache gets done first.

It’s not hard to figure out where the cache may be hidden, because the land around the truck stop is all bare and flat. On the corner however, there is a large “Welcome to Garden City” sign and a pine tree. Under the pine tree is a tiny artificial evergreen in a small wooden box, of which the bottom is hollow, so we discover when we lift it up. In the hollow is a pair of garden gloves you;re suppose to use, so when you reach for the cache container, which is hidden inside a PVC pipe under the wooden box, you won’t get your hands dirty. How considerate.
This one definitely makes my list of “most considerate” or “most creative” caches.

We have earned our snack and walk back to the RV through the cool breeze.
The sky is solid blue, but the wind is cold. We’re used to that in Alberta during this time of the year. Actually all the way into June it can be like this.
So we found our cache and had our snack, now it’s back on the lonely road again.
I can’t believe how deserted it is here. In some places there actually used to be the odd home along the road, but I figure that the lady of the house ran out of sugar too many times, and decided to move to the city. because whatever is left of these homes is now an empty shell.

Wherever there is a town, they have done their best to come up with something to attract visitors, by depicting a piece of history. “Cowboys and Indians” come to mind, when I look at this land. Once upon a time the buffalo roamed here and Buffalo Bill was the hero.

Of course every one of these towns also has a museum. But when you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. There is old farm equipment, granny's dress and shoes, the old dentist’s equipment, and if you’re really lucky, you may see a pickled, two headed baby calf in a jar.

Out of boredom, we start pretending that we are driving a bus full with tourists. We talk to our passengers in the Texan brawl, and explain to them all the attractions along the road. We discuss where we will have our next meal, and when we will stop for a bathroom break. Today, even the sign about the Ladies Tea, or who is sponsoring the highway cleanup is worth talking about. The weather station is material for a long discussion about tornados and why there are no houses left along this road.
We’re just having a lot of fun together and it breaks up the day.

At 2:00 pm we still haven’t found the perfect picnic area to stop, but we know it’s out there somewhere.
We keep on trucking, leaving Kansas and entering Nebraska. Then, there it is: The perfect place for lunch and a place to rest and walk: A Nice park with picnic tables and a lake with a fountain. Ramiro puts some fish on the BBQ and after lunch we walk around the lake. Everything is brown and very dry, There is not a leaf on the trees. But who cares with a temperature of TWENTY-FIVE degrees.
We’re in heaven again!!!
We have a bit of a discussion as to how much farther we want to drive. I am ready to stop, but Ramiro wants to keep on driving. I will have to research my books again for a different place to park for the night. In this state we are not allowed to park overnight or stay at one spot longer than five hours. There are no RV parks anywhere along this road, so we will have to take a chance.
While I am busy searching my “Park Your Rig for Free” book, the Good Sam’sCamping Guide and GPS, Ramiro spots a bunch of wild turkeys along the road. Too late for me to take my camera out. But that was neat. There must have been at least a donze of them. Wow, what a good meal that could have been.

We start getting a bit more variation in the landscape: More trees and lots of hills and time is going much faster. Today is the longest we have driven so far: Between yesterday afternoon, when we left Shamrock and today, we have put on a good 650 miles (over 1000 km). We’re lucky to have the extra daylight, as we are running right along the Mountain Time zone. So we actually gain one hour.
But enough is enough. It is starting to get darker and we need to stop. We pass a huge wildlife refuge with several campgrounds, but they are all closed for the season. As we enter the city of Valentine, we keep our eyes open for places to park. Then we see the sign of the Casino. “9 miles north” it reads. At casinos there is always lots of parking available and we have often seen RVs there. They won’t mind if we park there. The sun is just starting to set behind the mountains when we pull into the parking lot of the “Rosebud Sioux Indian Band Casino”. We warm up some soup and figure we might as well go inside and spend some money on the slot machines. As soon as we walk in, we are attacked by cigarette smoke and walk back out within minutes. A walk in the fresh air is a better idea and then straight to bed.

Oh, what a beautiful morning, oh, what a beautiful day

Sunday, March 15

The robins wake me up at 5:00am. I listen to their song, and know it is going to be a beautiful day. Ramiro washes the car while I do some housecleaning, which hasn’t been done for some time. It’s always easier to do when the sun shines for some reason. It makes me feel good to have everything tidies up again.
We’re in a different mind set and it feels just like spring.
The walking shoes get put one and I start walking done the original Route 66.
As I walk on this narrow road, I think of all the traffic that has passed here over the past 75 years.
I know there is a Geocache here as well, I entered it in my GPS last night. I walk straight to it, with my GPS in hand. After 40minutes Ramiro catches up with me and together we do one more cache in the outskirts of town, before we return to the RV and get ready for Oklahoma and Kansas.
I already prepared lunch, so no need to stop is we can’t.


The walk has done me a lot of good and I am ready for the next 3-400 km on the road in the passengers seat.
Ramiro has not problem sitting so long in the drivers seat. Mind you he is used to it, while watching TV on the couch. I am too restless for that.
It’s a beautiful sunny day and slowly the temperature starts climbing. We see all sorts of small animals on the side of the road, such as racoon,s badgers, rabbits, deer, skunk, porcupine and even an armadillo. Some are alive, others are dead. SO in case we run short of meat we can always stop along the side of the road and get the BBQ out and grab whatever we can find.

Before we reach Oklahoma we drive through the riches land in the US. There is lots of oil her in the ground. Storage tanks are scattered over the land, surrounded by farmland and grazing fields.
It is very dry here and rocky. It reminds us of the badlands in Alberta, in the area of Drumheller. This is dinosaur country.
There is so much more to see here, including a town named Canadian. With a Population of 2233. It is very obvious that the economic situation here is a lot better than in the southern part. Newly renovated building, nice hotels and nicer homes.

Other than the odd truck there is not much traffic on the road this Sunday. Until all of a sudden hundreds of bikers come from the other direction. They wave and hunk, what a site. I don’t feel so bad anymore, having to drive in our rig through the rain for three days.
Driving through the small strip of Oklahoma is not much more interesting than driving through Texas. It is very flat and dry. For miles and miles, all we see is dead grass.
As we cross the state border into Kansas, we enter the border city of Liberal. It is a large city with all the stores you can imagine. We were told that there is also a Wallmart here.
We pull into the parking lot and stock up on groceries. Ramiro buys some antifreeze for the RV, because he is convinced that we will hit freezing temperatures before we get home and wants to make sure we are winterized.
The temperature here meanwhile has climbed to 22 degrees. I change into something lighter and rather than continuing to our planned destination for today, we decide to stay on the RV fiendly parking lot of Wallmart.
I cook up a gourmet meal, including appetizers and for dessert...... flan de leche. We enjoy a relaxing evening. See what is possible on a Wallmart parking lot. You don’t need to be in the Hilton Hotel to have a relaxing time and good meal. Of course the company you;re in makes all the difference.

Get your kicks on Route 66

Saturday, March 14


With the furnace running and one more blanket on the bed it was not all that bad. There was no rain last night, nor this morning, just really foggy and a heavy sky. It’s so depressing; I need Chocolate!
There is nothing to see, just flat, flat, flat crazing land. It’s like Saskatchewan. When your dog runs away from home, you can see it running for three days, until it reaches the beautiful rolling hills of Alberta where is disappears.
We stay on US 83 and stop to stretch our legs at a picnic area. I make some more hot tea and we’ll keep on going.
I have just about enough of it and am craving for a brisk walk in the fresh air. cold or not. I start to suffer from cabin fever.
Somewhere in a lonely city named Childress, another ghost town with a bunch of abandoned homes, we pull over on a commercial parking lot for lunch and discuss the remainder of the route. We can’t quite agree........Discussion continues.

I am shocked when I see a ray of sunshine enter the RV. I look up and see a tiny piece of blue in the sky. Not large enough to make a farmers shirt out of Mom. (Some Dutch expression, indicating if it will be a sunny day or not).

Further north, I see tiny little mounds of snow along the road, the size of cow pies. Ramiro does not believe me, which really ticks me off. (Yes, we’re still talking to each other). I knew something would prove me right and soon we see snow lined along the entire road. Now you believe me Ramiro??


I am starting to get pretty cranky and insist that we stick to our original plan of three days on the road and one day rest. Ramiro wants to keep going, he’s getting nervous about the weather and the road conditions. Well, one way or the other we will be facing freezing temperatures and snow.
My argument is, that too long behind the wheel makes him tired and that’s not good either.
I win!!! Why? Not because he thinks I am right, (as I usually am) but because as we enter the city of Shamrock, the Shamrock Festival is in full swing. There are antique cars and a fair and lots of antique stores.
My camping book tells me, that there is an RV park just west of the city, right along the old Route 66 mother route. I’ve never seen Ramiro hook up the RV and undo the car so fast. Within half an hour we are back in town with the car. We check out the old cars, the restored Conoco station and some of the other attractions.
The Rotary club is cooking sausages and selling drinks to raise funds for a scholarship. This is their main fundraiser for the year. Annual average $ 2,000!!!
We do pretty good in Alberta I would say.
These guys are all so friendly, they offer us one of the jalapeño, cheese sausages and talk about Rotary. Their Texas brawl makes me chuckle. Y’all this and Y’all that. This is Texas.
Shamrock is actually a pretty neat city. Would you believe it actually has a MacDonalds and a Dairy Queen? In the 50s it was very prosperous. I can imagine the scene. Drive in movies, guys with 57 Chevies. girls with pony tails. Today its totally different.
Shamrock came to existence when in 1902 the railroad build a stop here and named it Shamrock. In 1890 there was already a post office 6 miles north near the home of an Irish sheep rancher who selected the name Shamrock.
The Shamrock festival takes place every year in the week of St. Patrick’s day.







As we return to the RV, the sky has cleared, the birds are singing and it is a totally different world out there. Bring out the BBQ we are going to cook fish.
It’s still a bit cool, but the forecast for tomorrow is good. I look up some Geocaches on the web for tomorrow, talk to my friend Anita, do the laundry and enter the last few days on my blog. Ramiro entertains himself with a bag of chocolate covered almonds and a King Kong movie.

Goodbye sunshine, hello rain

Thursday, March 12

Everyone has been talking about it the last few day. Many people started to prepare for the worst, by retracting their canopies of their RVs, removing outdoor items, covering up boats and other recreation toys. Some even moved their RV right out of the bay area.
Today, according to the weatherman will be a big difference. The weather is changing, NO MORE SUNSHINE. No more bikinis. NO more walks on the beach.
The wind returned after midnight, but twice as strong as what it has been over the last few days. We close all windows and try to sleep through the noise from the wind banging against the RV.

I pack our shorts, sandals and summer tops away and bring out the socks (yes, really, socks), and some warmer clothes. We’re down 15 degrees Celsius from yesterday. It is actually a lot better driving in this kind of weather as long as the wind does not blow us off the road.


At 9:00 am we’re on the road, direction San Antonio. We’ll see how far we get before we find an RV park.
There is hardly any traffic, but interestingly, we have seen more accidents on the road over the last four days in the US than we have seen during our two months in Mexico. I think we saw one in Mexico, and it was US.

It rains off and on as we work our way north. There are quite a number of RVs from various states on the road, heading the same direction.

There is absolutely nothing interesting to write about this long drive, because it is totally flat and brown in most places. The trees are just starting to show some green from the new sprouts.
All the towns are away from the main road, with access to them laid out in such a way that it is a smooth exit or entrance from and to the Interstate.

We listen to country music. Very fitting, but after a while you get so tired of the same whining, that I’m glad that we reach San Antonio city limits. Here we have to pay attention and make sure we take the right artery. So the radio is turned off. It’s a maze of roads as in any major American city. We continue for another half hour to Boerne and fill up with diesel.
Something weird happens: Ramiro is outside to fill the tank. He wants to use his credit card, but because we do not have a US postal code (which the machine asks for) he has to go into the office to get the card to work. Meanwhile I stay inside, with the door locked. I see a small old pick up truck pull up in front of us, and a young couple looking inside. They can’t see me, but I can see them. They look and look and turn their truck around and come even closer. I go to the window and when they see me they take off.
My intelligent imagination tells me, that these people are checking to see if anyone is still inside the RV, when they see Ramiro leave, they may expect that the door is unlocked, this would be a good opportunity for them to go inside and grab whatever they can get their hands on or worse, hide inside and hijack the RV.
In all our time in Mexico we never felt unsafe, we often left the door unlocked when we went to the pool or laundry room, but here in the US we are constantly checking over our shoulder and making sure everything is locked at all times.

Alamo Fiesta RV Park is where we decide to spend the night. We were here for five days in 2000, during the Rotary International Convention. There are well over 200 sites and every service you can imagine. It is a popular place for Winter Texans. Those are the people who come to Texas for the winter months only to get away from the cold weather, just like we do.

The park is almost full and we are lucky that we have a spot. One after another RV pulls in after us. We hook up our power, water and sewer lines and for the first time in months we have steady internet.
While the rain comes down on the roof of the RV, I work on my e-mails and complete a few more small projects with deadlines.

Friday, March 13
Another Cold, rainy day.

When the bed is nice and warm, and all you hear is the rain coming down in buckets, you know it’s miserable outside. Then why on earth would you want to get up?
Yes, we know we need to get moving, but it just happens to be, that there is a Rotary meeting at noon, only 5 minutes away. So we have a good excuse to hang around a bit longer.
The Geocaches I had looked up on line will not be done, due to the cold and wet weather. Too bad, I am anxious to go for a walk but it is not all that appealing.

Instead we do some more paperwork, pay bills on line and answer a few more e-mails before we head out for the meeting. The venue is right along our route, so it works out perfect.



We receive a warm Texas welcome and are given an opportunity to exchange club banners. When I am invited to talk about the Stony Plain Club, of which, of course I am very proud, I always mention something about the town itself and about the Sherriff who chained the train to the railroad, because taxes were not paid. This always brings laughter and a reply such as: “We too have ways to chain down people who do not pay their taxes”.
The speakers today talk about a program called Emotional Intelligence. I program for young students who are being tought how to make the right decisions in life and to become leaders.

As we leave the meeting it is still pouring. Funny, every single person we talk to is very happy about the rain. “We need the moisture, all of February has been very dry and warm”. They all say. Yes, rub it in!!!

The afternoon in the road is not much different from yesterday. Texas is the largest state in the US. There is so much developed as well as undeveloped land and I think we get to see it all. We stay on the Interstate for some time. Nice smooth four lane, divided highway with plenty of room to pass. The speed limit is 80 miles per hour. That’s close to 130 km. Ramiro is not allowed to go that fast of course and I have to keep an eye on him. Luckily, the GPS indicates how fast we are going and he does keep it under 100 km.
Before Ramiro falls asleep of boredom, we decide to take a different road, which we hope is a bit more interesting. US 83 North will take us across several states, all the way north into Canada. We pass all sorts of enormous ranches and also some little ghost towns, where it looks like time stood still for the past 50 years. Meanwhile we listen to Roger Miller’s, “King of the Road”. Well, we do feel like the King of the road, because there is hardly any traffic.
This road too is excellent and the intersections built in such way that they are safe.
Since we wasted our time in bed this morning, we need to catch up and continue until 6:00 pm. As we drive past Abilene, we sing the song. “Abilene, Abilene. The prettiest girl I’ve ever seen...............my Abilene, sweet Abilene”.
We have a difficult time keeping it warm inside. Can’t have the heater too high, that makes Ramiro sleepy. the only solution is to I put on something warm.
We did not do too bad today with another 377 km on the odometer.
We ask permission to park at a Gas station just north of Abilene and relax for the rest of the evening. No big trucks here luckily. Just lots of bright lights.

One extra day of fun

Wednesday, March 11

We are not prepared for departure today, and have decided to stay one more day and do at least two of the things we really wanted to do here: A Geocache and a boat ride.
Al and Yvonne have never done Geocaching before, so they’ll get the honour of “finding” the cache. It’s quite an easy one.
We enjoy an early lunch at Pier 19. Luckily there are table outside, so we’re not exposed to the horrible air conditioning that blows at every single public place here. That’s so American, and I can’t stand it. I have suffered from more “frozen” shoulders due to Airconditioning than from the weather back home.
Imagine how much money can be saved if they turn it down just a few degrees and have normal temperatures.

The boat dock is only a few minutes from the restaurant and we’re just in time to get our tickets and board the Aqua Dog amphibious, which will take us to Barracuda Cove.
There is so much activity on and around the water. We see parasailers, jet boats, a pirate ship, which goes on an adventure twice a day, dolphin and fishing tours and a shrimp boat. The rusty old boat, we are told, has been anchored here for the last five years. The owner lives on it and does not pay rent nor taxes. He uses a Kayak to go to and from the main land. I wonder how he manages during a hurricane.
The dolphins are playing in front of our boat, jumping up and down.
We we approach the beach - which can only be reached by vehicle from Brownsville - the captain must use his wheels to get onto the beach and continuous through the dunes.
There are fisherman everywhere. What a great way to spend the day.
We get out of the amphibious and have an hour to comb the beach for sand dollars or unusual shells. All we find though are jellyfish, old sandals, bottles and toothbrushes, but we enjoy the walk in the hot sun, along the beach. We see more fisherman, who tell us there is a lot of fish here. One, even pulls out his cell phone to show me his prize capture, from three weeks ago.

The Aqua Dog must now get back into the water, which takes a lot of skills. The captain needs to wait for the right moment to avoid any waves.
He slowly maneuvres his craft parallel to the the shoreline and then makes his move. A big wave comes in and those (including me) sitting on the side of the water get a good soak. A good thing I have my camera covered by my hand.
That was a fun ride.
Back in town we buy an icecream and stop at the fresh fish food store to buy some shrimp to take back home in the freezer.
It’s time to go home and get the RV ready for an early morning departure.
We park the RV parallel, right along the edge of the parking lot, attach the dolly and drive the car on it. Everything is tidied up and secured again. We’re ready to roll, but like to spend one last evening with Al and Yvonne, who have already cooked another wonderful meal.
Al has also checked the best route for us to take back north and I make some notes of the roads to take.
The wind has died down a bit and under the full moon it is wonderful to eat outside on their patio. We don’t leave too late because we need a good nights sleep.
We had such wonderful time with our friends of almost 25 years. We’ll miss them. They will stay for another couple of weeks before they head back to Alberta.