Month: April 2012

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Time Change Bewilderment

I’d forgotten that Saskatchewan exists in its own space-time continuum, so I was a little confused by the time yesterday, much as I was my first day in Regina back in 2008. It turns out that I lost an hour yesterday, properly moving into the Central time zone. I couldn’t figure out why I was having such a hard time getting to sleep last night until I realised that my body thought it was 9PM, not 10PM! And what was I, the night owl, doing in bed at 10PM regardless of the time zone? Trying to keep warm. 🙂

After so many years in the Pacific time zone, I’m glad that I’m inching slowly towards Eastern time, having spent a year on Mountain time and what should amount to two weeks or so on Central time. Changing time zones quickly on a western journey is easy. It’s much harder the other way around!

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A Crabby Kind of Mood

Since I’m paying for my RV spot, I don’t feel obliged to spend money at the casino, but I decided to check it out anyway and discovered that they offer a buffet every night. I checked the list and went Mexican, meh. Chef’s, huh? Surf and Turf, pass. BBQ ribs and chicken, hmm. Snow crab and seafood, what day?! Today! So I headed over around 5:30 and paid the $20 for the buffet. This amount included soft drinks, too.

Except for the garlic shrimp and crab cakes, the deep fried seafood offerings (clam, oysters, calamari, shrimp) were pretty meh and tasted the same. The side dishes were pretty basic, but there was a really nice chicken Alfredo and the salad bar was splendid. The star of the show was the endless mountain of steamed crab legs. YUM. They were so good! I pretty much gave up on the other stuff and sucked and picked my way through as many crab legs as my belly could hold. It was a lot of work to get a meal out of those succulent morsels, but worth the effort.

I had a pretty decent slice of apple pie for dessert with a really good decaf coffee. It wasn’t the best buffet I’ve been to, but I feel it was worth the entrance price.

Next, I decided to try my hand at the penny slots, putting in $10 and cashing out at $20. So dinner cost me only $10!

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Heaven, I’m In Heaven

Today’s travels took me from Minot to Hankinson by way of Bismarck and Fargo. Google Maps had a more direct route, but my GPS kept arguing with me and I decided that an extra few kilometres weren’t a big deal. The roads were good and clear, but I had rain and grey sky all the way to Oriska.

I have to share a story about the last time I was in Fargo. It was like being in a Mr. Bean movie. I came into a mess of construction and got stuck in a roundabout with no idea which way to go. This was in the days before GPS and I didn’t have a detailed map of the city. I must have driven around that roundabout 50 times before a construction worker took pity on me, flagged me down, and told me which way to go! Today’s travels through the city were uneventful.

I am now parked at the Dakota Magic Casino and Resort, which has a full hookup RV park on the edge of its parking lot. I had expected power only to be on at this time of the year, but nope. I’m so excited that I’ll be able to take a long shower tonight. 🙂 I have tons of stuff to catch up on, so I’ve decided to stay for three, possibly four, nights. The rate is $31.50… for three nights. That’s right, FHU for just $10 a night!!! And my internet connection works here. What a nice respite this will be! Since I’ve gone through half a tank of propane in the last week, I hooked up Gary’s present since I’ll be here for a few days and save the on board propane for when I’m moving down the road.

I had planned to spend a couple of nights here and am only a couple of nights behind schedule since I left Lethbridge early, but I am going to have to start boogeying if I want to get to Virginia for May 1st. I have a couple of itineraries in mind and not being in too much of a hurry to cross the Mississippi, I am tempted to keep going due south to Kansas City and then straight east to Virginia. The slightly more direct option is to get back on I-94, skirt around Minneapolis, detour to Cedar Rapids to avoid Chicagoland, and then shoot eastwards. The first option is barely longer and more appealing since I have done most of the second option already. I am concerned about the the severity of the current tornado season in the mid-west, however. I welcome any thoughts on both options and, yes, I know that I need to get a weather radio. 🙂

Ooh, I almost forgot. I actually took pictures today!

grey sodden prairie; sick of the first two, but never of the third

grey sodden prairie; sick of the first two, but never of the third

Apple Creek Rest Area

Apple Creek Rest Area

Apple Creek Rest Area

Apple Creek Rest Area

the Oriska rest area is in the middle of the divided highway; you have to exit left

the Oriska rest area is in the middle of the divided highway; you have to exit left

the Oriska rest area is in the middle of the divided highway; you have to exit left

the Oriska rest area is in the middle of the divided highway; you have to exit left

this section south of Fargo reminds me of autoroute 10 in Quebec!

this section south of Fargo reminds me of autoroute 10 in Quebec!

parked at Dakota Magic facing the casino

parked at Dakota Magic facing the casino

parked at Dakota Magic facing the prairies

parked at Dakota Magic facing the prairies

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Way Overdue for a Charge!

I am at the Applecreek rest area on I-94, just east of Bismarck. I left Minot fairly early as I had no battery power left to do anything but run the fridge. Thankfully, I am headed for hookups!

The forecast lied in that today was supposed to be sunny, but it’s still rainy. Gah.

Thank you to the DOT for this excellent wifi signal that my iPad had no trouble picking up!

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Oh, America, the Land of Cheap Cheese!

I loaded up on cheese tonight, amazed once again that a bag of the shredded stuff that sells for $8 in Canada is only $2.50 in the US.

I also stocked up on McCormick’s lemon pepper seasoning, kicking myself for having bought only one last year. The only lemon pepper seasoning I’ve found in Canada is just that, seasoning. The McCormick’s brand has real lemon zest in it.

I’m done posting for today. 🙂 My laptop battery is just about flat again. As for my house batteries, if they aren’t dead yet, they will be by the end of this trip. They have hung in there, but I am sure that they are as happy as I am that tomorrow I should be plugged into power. I never expected to be stuck this long in this kind of weather!