Accommodation

by

Inching Towards the Border

I am at the Walmart in Estevan (The Energy City), still in Saskatchewan. I didn’t get much sleep last night and drove about 500km total today in the toad, so I was tempted to stay in Weyburn. But I felt that three nights there were already pushing it, that another 80km wouldn’t kill me, and that it’d be nice to start the day so close to the border (40km). If the border crossing goes smoothly, I will have a chance to do my business in Minot and still make it to the RV park I have in mind. But I have managed to get a full charge today (THANK YOU GALARNEAU), so tomorrow’s cold and overcast forecast isn’t too scary, not with sun being promised from Friday onward, and I will keep open the option of detouring to Bismarck if I do not manage to find the required services in Minot.

Estevan is rather a large city for this part of Canada. The Walmart isn’t as convenient to access as I had to drive through town, but the lot, like that in Weyburn, is nice and big with plenty of space to tuck away a 50′ rig on level spot.

by

Late Sun Is Better Than No Sun!

The sun finally came out a couple of hours ago. It’s too late to reach a full charge again today, but it was enough to get some juice into the computer and iPad with enough left over to run the furnace tonight. I also enjoyed a couple of hours in the front room with a cat in my lap, enjoying the warmth of the sun. It’s freezing again, but it was nice while it lasted. 🙂

I would have gladly moved to an RV park today, but there isn’t a single one that opens before mid-May in this area. It’s supposed to be nasty again tomorrow, but the promise of full sun on Wednesday is keeping me from being too depressed about this less than stellar start to what was supposed to be an attempt at a solid month of boondocking. Well, I haven’t given up yet and as long as my fridge is running, everything’s fine. At this point, my batteries are reaching the end of their natural lifespan and I will shortly be plugged into 120V for an extended period of time. So I don’t care about running the batteries too low. But they seem to be performing well for the time being.

This afternoon, I ran into Walmart to grab a cheap pair of gloves. I cut off the tips when I came in. Ah; warm hands! Not having sore joints is definitely improving my mood. I should have done this ages ago.

by

Wagons East!

I had just switched the last load of laundry to the dryer when Jody and Gary appeared, bearing muffins! Jody usually gives me four or five in a muffin container, but this time she had two dozen fresh baked ones in a huge plastic container. I was a bit at a loss as to where to put it until the muffins were cool enough to transfer to smaller containers. Then it hit me: the oven! 😀

We said our good-byes again and then I moved Miranda onto the street so I could hook up the car. All that went fine except for one not so minor detail: my car turn signals weren’t turning on when I put on the motorhome’s. A visual inspection of the wiring revealed nothing amiss, but I got a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I looked closer and discovered that someone had, after several attempts, taken a serrated knife and cut the wire clean through, then carefully tucked in the pieces so that the sabotage wouldn’t be readily visible. I know who did this and he was a pain in my side all winter as he kept unplugging the motorhome when it was frigid out. I have no proof that it’s him, but he’s the only one with a grudge against me.

Anyway, I was relieved to find this type of vandalism, my first in three and a half years on the road, and not a broken window, slashed tires, graffiti, etc. I was out of electrical tape, so I ambled over to the home store a couple of blocks away and picked up a roll.

Back at the rig, I took my wire strippers and neatly snipped away the damaged portion of wire. Thankfully, I had a lot extra because he ruined over a foot of the stuff. Then, working one colour at a time, I stripped the two ends of the wire, twisted the copper together, then covered and wrapped the ends with lots of electrical tape. Once all four colours were done, I tested my repair. It worked! I then bundled all the wires together and wrapped the whole thing in a bunch more electrical tape.

The laundry finished just moments after this was done, so I did one last check and pulled away from the apartment complex. There were a number of turns to make to get out to a main road, with both sides of the street packed with cars, so it was a little bit like doing the moho slalom all over again. I needed to make a left hand turn at a T-intersection and had to wait for a car to make its on left turn onto my street. He wound up getting wedged between Miranda and a parked car and honked. I could only pull ahead so much and still be able to make my turn, but thankfully that was enough because I could tell that this person wasn’t backing up without a fight. I had just one more nasty left turn to make, and then I was on the eastbound Transcanada by 11:20 for an easy enough 400KM drive to Swift Current.

I’m glad I didn’t have to go any further today as the drive was windy and therefore exhausting. It doesn’t help that I was already sore from the last two day. I really don’t think I could have driven one more kilometre!

As I am on the road a few days earlier than planned, am finally self-sufficient for power, and am bone deep weary, I will find a place to hunker down tomorrow for a few nights before I make my border crossing attempt. This will give me a chance to see a little bit of rural southern Saskatchewan and to look a little more refreshed when I get to the border. 🙂

The rig hasn’t been plugged in since I took it out Thursday morning and I am sitting at a full charge. I love my solar panel!

by

Feline Adaptability

Yesterday’s chaos in The Apartment really stressed out my cats. When it was finally time to bring them down to the rig, they decided they weren’t going anywhere and it was a job and a half to get them downstairs. But soon as they were in the rig, they were transformed. Everything is where I left it and they immediately went to their favourite perching spots, no roaming around, no looking lost. They knew exactly where they were. It was rather amazing to see proven my theory that cats have as good a memory as dogs.

Today, I must have made three dozen trips down to the rig. Neither cat seemed particularly perturbed by my comings and goings. Tabitha snoozed the day away in the loft and Neelix did the same in the study. They only showed me any attention if I came to them for a quick cuddle.

It has been a very long day and I still have some things to square away, but I’m pretty good to go for tomorrow. I hoped to be done in The Apartment by around 8 tonight, which I was. Next on the list was a shower, and then I buzzed my maintenance guy so we could say our good-byes, knowing that I’d get beer this way. My plan worked like a charm! Aren’t I clever?

Well, my winter with unlimited 120V power apparently killed my computer battery, so I have to sign off for tonight. I have transcription to do when I get to Swift Current (!) so I’ll quickly know just how much juice I need to run my office for a full day on inverter power. Today, which was slightly overcast, my batteries were fully charged by noon and I could have still had 5A go into a secondary battery bank. Let’s see if this trend keeps up while I’m living full-time in here again!

by

Thoroughly Spoiled!

This past winter was the first in my life where life wasn’t a struggle and that I was snug and warm in even the coldest temperatures. I knew that getting back into the RV would take some readjusting, but I seriously underestimated how cold it would get in there last night! I woke up around 6 and turned on the heat, but what I really needed was an extra blanket, which was in The Apartment. I don’t like to sleep with my electric blanket on, so that was out of the question. I still had a better (quieter, darker, restful) night than I’ve had in months and the cold meant snuggly cats! Oh, it’s good to be home!

I made coffee at home this morning (yay for propane, which boils water about 10 billion times faster than electric coils) and poured it into my to-go mug to take to the Apartment. I’ll focus on doing my bookkeeping this morning, then run last minute errands this afternoon. For one thing, I don’t want to forget to pick up my last pay cheque! I’m sore from all the work yesterday, but I really can’t take it easy today. I know I have way more to do than it looks like.

As an update to yesterday’s woes, a good soak with water got the toilet flapper working, and then I lubed it with veggie oil. So except for a leaky tap, it looks like I’m good to go.