Perry, Oklahoma

Today, we finished off Nebraska, crossed Kansas, and are into Oklahoma.  It's interesting to drive south at this time of year and watch the calendar unwind.  Nebraska looked like the middle of September back home, whereas southern Kansas/Oklahoma look more like late August, with the long grasses cured, but the tree leaves are all still green.  Short grasses are green as the middle of summer.

Travelling south yesterday in Nebraska, we saw our first opossum road kill.  Today in southern Kansas, we saw our first oil pump and armadillo road kill, a sure sign of the south.   Southern headwinds again today, making three out of four days travel with a headwind; a small price to pay for the warm weather that has accompanied us.

Camped for the night in Perry Lake RV Park, Perry, OK

451 Km.

Hebron, Nebraska

We were exhausted after all of our wallet-thinning activities yesterday (I have a condition inherited from my frugal father; spending money takes a lot out of you...), so we were up and on the road this morning at the crack of nine.  Clear day, 23C, little wind, all in all, a perfect day for travelling.  

We crossed the Platte River west of Columbus, Nebraska

It was moving day for a set of three wind generator blades, quite huge, moving down the road at just over the legal limit.

We stopped at the nice little town park in Stromsburg, where we have stayed before, for a late lunch, but  decided to move another hour down the road before we spudded in for the night, in Hebron, Nebraska.  After all the excitement yesterday, we enjoyed a nice, uneventful day on the road.

The Asian beetle infestation is not limited to Manitoba.  At every stop along the way so far, including tonight in Hebron, Nancy has waged a continual battle against the swarming hordes of Asian beetles invading the Brave.  On the bright side, it's so warm that I had to change into shorts tonight.

474 Km

Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Well, that was interesting.  

Nancy had a great night in the casino, coming home with $322 more than she went in with!  That was the end of the good news.  

First thing in the morning, I went to the CRV to run it up to pressurize the transmission for the day's tow.  That's when we discovered that two of the three sets of keys remained back in Manitoba.  Somehow.  Since one set of keys has to remain in the ignition during towing, and it likes to spontaneously lock itself, this had potential for problems.  Then I started the Brave, only to hear a bad rattle (is there ever a good rattle?) from the front of the engine.  Despite opening the hood and peering at the rads intensely, the rattle persisted.  Hmmm.  Good Sam recommended Boyer Trucks, in Sioux Falls, so down the road we went.  After a couple of hours of tense watching-the-gauges-every-30-seconds driving we arrived at Boyer.  They soon put the rig in their bay and checked it out, only to find the A/C compressor bearing was calved to the point of falling right out. Well, at least that explained all the problems with the dash controls yesterday. They spent an hour searching for the right compressor (discontinued by Ford, of course), brought one in, in the early afternoon, nope, wrong one.  Order another one in, more money, but at least it's the right one.   While we were waiting, we headed over to the Honda dealer, and had a couple of CRV door keys cut, at $10 a piece.  Full-on ignition keys were quoted at $183 each, and it would take a hour and one half of the CRV in the shop time, so we made do with the door keys.  Back to Boyer, hoping they would be able to finish it tonight (they gave no guarantees), checking out pet-friendly hotels, just in case.  They installed the correct compressor, it worked, but the old compressor had taken out a relay or two when it died, so the mechanic set about tracing those.  Success!!  We thanked them, happily paid our bill, and headed  over to good old Jellystone Park in Brandon, SD, where we have camped previously.

 On the bright side, it's been an absolutely gorgeous day for sitting about waiting for repairs...

280 Km.

October 16th - On the road again

Got away at 8:30 am, feeling guilt-ridden at abandoning our old cat to winter (and a terrible look she had on her face; she knew we were leaving)  Good thing our house-sitting Niece takes such good care of her.  We tried taking Old Cat on the road once, to see if she was up to the trip south.  Nope.  Just north of Winnipeg, coincidentally, my Uncle pulled up along-side, snapping photos.  Should he forward one to our email, we will include a rare, external-while-underway shot.

The US border crossing took 8 minutes, including a boarding and cursory inspection for green onions, lamb in the dog food, and house plants, by a nice young officer.  It has been a lovely warm, sunny day for travelling, albeit with a 40 mile per hour south wind (bad for mileage) backing into a 90 degree cross west wind (bad for mileage and a handful to stampede the RV down the road).  The dash heating control (select defrost/dash/footwell/AC/Max AC) seems to be mis-functioning, hopefully just a vacuum leak, since the dash AC will be necessary once further south.  We will get it looked at once we are at a larger city down south.

El Valiente is also infested with Asian beetles, the evil twin of the nice little lady bug.  We spent the drive picking, swatting, getting bitten by the foul-smelling vermin, and otherwise doing combat the whole day south.  Dakota Magic Casino is under renovation, so we just parked up in the car parking lot.

517 Km.

October 13th - That was quick

Well, the geese are migrating, so it's nearly time to hit the road again.  The summer went by in a flash.  We did a couple of short trips with the Brave, including one to Hecla Grindstone Provincial Park.

The campground was great, private sites, good facilities, and well maintained.

Nancy and Kirk hiked around quite a bit, including the village of Hecla.  I spent some time trying to figure out where Great Auntie Malvina's house used to be, having memories of an early childhood visit.  Her husband captained a freighter on the lake, and her son captained many vessels, including the former island ferry (now there's a bridge) and one of the riverboats out of Winnipeg.  It's a beautiful place, reminding me of the south shore of Nova Scotia.

Kirk, thrilled with being posed up on the old wooden boat

Nancy did some fishing off the wharf one calm morning.

While I read and Kirk harassed a squirrel.

I was amazed to find a rare home-built Bolger AS-39 on the hard at the harbour.  While unconventional in appearance, it is capable of ocean crossings.  My father, brother, and I have built several of Bolger's smaller craft, so it was an interesting find.

Nancy talked to several American's who were smitten with the island, and couldn't believe that such a beautiful place was not packed with people.  

Next trip was to Bird's Hill Provincial Park, for a family camp.

Bird's Hill is only 20 minutes from Winnipeg, but manages to provide a great camping experience, with many trails, a beach, and private sites.  This site was a little tight for the Brave, which required much cryptic hand waving and backing directions from Nancy, which were all the more urgent due to the sudden downpour. 

 

Everyone had a good time hiking about and swimming

It was excellent having early risers in the group, meaning that when we got up, the fire was burning, the coffee was built, and the cinnamon buns were on the fire.  Thanks, you two!  Around the campfire, world problems were solved, future plans discussed, and many s'mores consumed.  A new variant was invented, Cinni-s'mores, which involved replacing the graham wafers with a strip of unrolled cinnamon bun.  Unlikely, but delicious!  It's not often we get the clan together these days, so it was wonderful to spend some time together.

May 2nd - Home Again

The final leg of the journey resulted in some of the worst cell reception of the entire trip; even texting was not possible for extended stretches.  We stopped for a shop in Arborg for groceries to set up the house as we invaded our niece's domain.  We're also very much looking looking forward to spending time with family and friends.

351 Km. 

There

And back again

My regrets about the somewhat tardy final entry of our journey; once home, the maelstrom of "normal" life details reaches out and envelopes one.  Ah, for the simplicity of the open road, where a full tank of gas and water, and an empty grey and black tank mean that all is right in the world!

11,001 Km.

May 1st - Dauphin, MB

485 Km.