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!!!!