The last couple of days have been all the proof I need that internet is a vital to the running of my business and that I cannot get by without having it at home!
I have a number of different jobs to do today, one of which is proofreading a French document. All my tools for that are online. So I’m doing that job in the truck. As a reminder, my truck has neither a bathroom, a kitchen, nor a cuddly cat.
My booster order left Richmond (B.C.) this morning. Come on Canada Post, get it here FAST!
I’m glad I hung out this morning because I got a call from Sheree at GCR Tire Centers about my service call yesterday and that I wanted to dispute the $100 service call fee I hadn’t been told about. I said that if I had known the bill was going to be that high, I would have likely left the motorhome, gone to Minot in the toad to pick up a used tire, and then followed a service truck back.
She was very understanding and said she would speak to her manager then get back to me. She did so very quickly and told me she could take $50 off the bill since they had sold me the tire at cost (!). Good enough! I recommend GCR Tires for mobile tire repair in the Minot area. They got to me FAST and got me back on the road in no time at all.
I left Minot at about 9:00. I had about a quarter tank of fuel left so I decided to wait till Kenmare to tank up (60KM) so as to arrive in Canada with as much U.S. fuel as possible.
That first part of the day SUCKED. It was just soooooooooooooooooo windy. And, spoiler alert, the rest of the day’s driving was like that, too. 🙁
I was surprised that the folks at the Kenmare gas station (the one right on the highway) let me gas up without prepaying.
From there, it was about a half hour to the border.
The Portal crossing really confused me. There was a sign saying commercial vehicles thataway to an area with no overhang. The non-commercial lanes were under an overhang marked with a 12′ clearance, but in front of that was another sign saying that the clearance was just 10′ 5″ (I need 11′ 3″). The obvious thing was to get in the commercial lane, but I know better than to presume in such situations! I waited at the junction until a lady came out of a booth and waved me over to the commercial lane.
She was really nice! She asked me how long I’d been gone, how much I had to declare, where I’d gone (nodding when I mentioned the Mexico trip, so I obviously pre-empted her on that), and the usual questions about booze, firearms, and tobacco. She then asked me to park so that someone could look inside and confirm there was no one with me. This was, of course, a reasonable request, but her tone really made me okay with the search as it felt like routine, not suspicion.
Would you believe that my secondary inspection guy looked like the secondary inspection guy who interrogated me at Coutts? Just a mini version of him, shorter and less muscly.
He started by asking me a few questions about my trip, why I went to the U.S., why I stayed as long as I did, how I supported myself, and how I met the friends I visited along the way. His tone was neutral and I didn’t know yet how the inspection was going to go. He then asked me to go to the rig with him because of Neelix.
I knew I was clear the minute we stepped outside because he handed me my passport.
The two times I had a difficult crossing, my passport was held until the very end. Last night, I Googled what my rights are reentering Canada and basically you have NO charter rights until you are detained, at which point you have the right to remain silent and get counsel. What being ‘detained’ means is fuzzy. For me, the line is crossed when I lose control of my passport.
As we walked, I brought up the subject of food, and his, “We really don’t care about that” made me realise that I have never been asked about food coming back into Canada! Yes, there are rules, but it’s at the bottom of their priority list. Dang, I should have smuggled in more cheese!
He asked me if I wanted to go grab Neelix and I suggested instead that I just guard the door. He thought that was a good idea. He continued to ask his questions as he poked through the rig and I made a mistake, not telling him that all the renovations were done in Canada (they are worried about mods being made to hide drugs). This wasn’t a huge deal, but I wish I had thought to tell him.
We talked about work and money and whatnot and his tone was 100% American: curious and open-minded, not suspicious. SO REFRESHING. He asked to look in the cab of the motorhome and then asked me one more time about any mods or repairs made to the vehicles. I told him what I had told the lady, about the throttle cable and the three blowouts (all tires declared), and then he told me I was clear, to be safe on the road, and to have a nice day.
Not anywhere near the easiest border crossing of my life, but that’s two good ones coming back into Canada in a row and I think I will be A LOT less stressed next year.
I’m just surprised that I wasn’t sent to the cashier. Between new batteries, a watering system, several tires, glasses, a computer hard drive, and all the goodies I bought this winter with Amazon gift certificates, I was WELL over my limit. And, yes, I declare everything. I can do basic math and know roughly how much I’ll be asked to pony up. Last month, some morons imported an RV at the same crossing, underdeclared the purchase value by about $13,000 to save about $300 in taxes… and had to pay $9,000 in penalties to get their rig back. Stupid!
From the border, it was a quick drive to Estevan. It was only 11:00 (I had gained an hour) and super windy out. It seemed stupid to hang out at Walmart when another 3.5 hours or so of driving would get me to my property. I grabbed lunch and then figured out where The Source store is located. It was just 1KM away, but I’d been to the mall before and knew it was barely walkable from the Walmart. So I just drove out there and, thankfully, found a place to park.
I went into the mall, found The Source, and was greeted by Joel. I told him I wanted a Turbo stick. The only Bell product they had in stock was a Mifi 2. I really didn’t care what the device is as long as a) it has the flex plan that starts at $10 and gives you up to 15GB for $100 and b) it doesn’t need 120V power to run. Joel made several calls to make sure that the Mifi 2 was eligible for the plan and then he got it up and running for me and we tested it on my Macbook Pro. What I like about it is that it’s like a wifi router, so I can connect my computers, iPad, and iPod Touch to it all at once. The stick would have been $0 down for a two-year commitment and the Mifi 2 was $50, with no activation fee. Good enough. The device has an 11-hour lithium battery that can be recharged through the computer (like I charge my phone) and it also comes with a wall wart.
From Estevan, it was another windy hour to Weyburn, where I planned to refuel. Halfway there, I glanced in a side mirror to see the plastic wheel well cover over the driver’s side rear dually snap loose and fly away! CRAP! Thankfully, I saw this happen, it didn’t hit anyone, and it happened at the first place I could pull over in about 40KM! I parked and then walked the side of the road until I found the part. It is really banged up, but I can likely effect a decent repair. Anything will look better than no cover at all! I’ll have pictures of that later.
There was a gas station right at the junction of 13 and 39 that looked like easy access, but I had to make a sharp turn into the pumps and I really didn’t think the toad was going to get clear without damage when I pulled out. I inched my way out of there and discovered that I really do know how to handle my rig because I was able to effect the necessary corrections to not only get the toad clear but also still make a very tight turn away from the pumps. A guy coming out of the c-store actually complimented me on my driving skills!
I think the GPS has the wrong speed limit programed for highway 13 because it always way overestimates how long it will take to get to my property. My ETA was 6:00 and I got there at just past 5:00. The drive in was scenic beyond description. In terms of wintering options, it would have made so much more sense to buy land in B.C. (never mind that I will never be able to afford to live there, much less buy property), but I so much prefer the landscapes and climate here (sunny hot dry summers, sunny cold dry winters). This is the land of my dreams and I am so lucky to own a piece of it.
I unhooked and made many failed attempts at backing Miranda into the lot. There is the beginning of a driveway entrance where the curb drops and it took several passes to finally get lined up with the entrance and backed in. The ground was SOFT and I completely failed at getting onto levelers, with my rear tires now in pretty deep. Dang. 🙁 But the front ones are on cement, so I am optimistic that I will be able to get out of there once the ground firms up a bit. For one thing, I’d like to be much further back.
As I suspected, the village is too low in the valley to get a cell signal! 🙁 So no internet at home. 🙁 🙁 🙁 I only have to go 1KM to get a signal and 3.5KM total to get to a spot where I can pull over safely. So I will head here once or twice a day to do online stuff. I’m going to make the back of the truck comfortable for hanging out so that I can do what I need to do without feeling too put upon. I just don’t like not being more reachable. I’ll figure out how to make this work. At least, the Mifi 2 is FAST. I came up here tonight to download some files for work to do over the weekend and thought I’d be here for hours trying to download stuff. Nope. So that almost makes up for no signal at home.
I’m wiped. I’m in work mode for the next bit, so the blog will be quieter than it has been. I’ll check in with pictures at some point tomorrow.
I just renewed for a third night here at Dakota Magic. If I really just wasn’t in the mood to drive, I would have gone anyway because I know that that’s just an excuse for not wanting to face the border crossing.
But I’m being really productive and making good use of my FHU, so I can justify another night. This morning, I defrosted the freezer and washed it and the fridge, then made an inventory of the food on board. I found bacon! It will be demolished shortly when I go make lunch. 🙂
It looks like it might rain, but if it doesn’t, the next project is the cab.
Besides that, I need to put away yesterday’s laundry (almost dry, YAY), wash out Neelix’s litter box, and then I’ll be good to go. There’s really nothing to do now to prepare for the border besides making sure I don’t have any illegal food on board, have a full alcohol inventory (one Texas beer that I am saving for the first crazy hot summer day), and that I know how much I need to declare.
I hope internet in Saskatchewan will be decent (although I will settle for existent). I get a very low signal in North Dakota, so I keep getting disconnected. I might not have found the connection in San Antonio to be so bad had I remembered my online experience in North Dakota last spring.
I woke up around 7:00 this morning. It was cold and foggy, so I put the furnace on then went back to bed for an hour, delaying departure from 9ish to 10ish.
By the time I got up, I could tell that this morning fog was not the beachy kind that cloys for days but rather the prairie kind that promises a beautiful hot day. By the time I had the truck hooked up, the sun was already coming out and I shed my fleece hoodie.
The first half of the day was along US-81, a good highway with high speeds except through a small handful of towns. It was steady going. At noon, I hit not only the South Dakota welcome centre, but also summer temps that made me shed even more layers. I was hungry but decided to delay lunch, silly person that I am.
I was about a half hour out from taking I-29 that I had to take a 10KM detour because there was a barn on two trucks blocking the highway. I’m glad my GPS behaved because the police officers directing traffic were absolutely no help, telling me to just follow the 18 wheelers. Judging by the number of them who missed the turns and had to back up, I’d say even the truckers were a little discombobulated by the detour. Anyway, it was on nice roads and didn’t really add that much more to my day.
By the time I reached I-29, I only had a quarter tank of gas left, so I stopped to fuel up and decided that there really wasn’t any good place to park, so I delayed lunch again. What is wrong with me?
It was 3:00 p.m. by the time I got to a rest area and was finally able to have lunch! It was dang time for it, I was getting a little shaky. I had a good break and then set off, with just over 300KM still left to go.
It was to that point a really good driving day; just enough cloud cover not to blind me and, best of all, almost no wind!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And, of course, I was heading into those prairie landscapes I love so much. I had really earned an easy day, especially since I was covering so much ground.
And then, an hour and a half out, BOOM.
I glanced in my mirrors and saw no evidence of the blowout. I wasn’t even sure I’d had a blowout, but the noise and rig shaking spoke to the contrary. I happened to pass a ‘rest area 2 miles’ sign, so I slowed down, put on the four-way flashers, and headed there to check out the damage rather than pull over onto the shoulder. There was a slightly smaller BOOM as I rolled in.
A walk around the rig puzzled me. Everything looked copacetic. All 10 tires were good, there was no scorched scent. I went in the house and, again, everything looked and smelled good. But I obviously couldn’t go anywhere until I knew what had happened. That noise had been LOUD and really shook the rig.
I did an interior walk through. Soon as I got into the cat area I knew what had happened and I had to burst out laughing even as I scolded myself for being such an idiot.
Here’s an RV travel tip for you fine folks: don’t forget to put your stove top cover back on the stove, especially if it is a large heavy wooden one. If you do forget, it is very likely that it will slide off the counter, bounce off the cat box and gain enough velocity to hit the ground on its edge sufficiently hard to sound like the coming of the apocalypse and then fall flat with a noise that portents that the end of the world has indeed arrived.
My nerves were shot after this. Thank goodness it happened at the end of the day! 🙂
It was really strange to see snow in the shadows along the interstate as I approached the North Dakota border. The forecasts ahead are definitely of the snow melting variety, but I think I need to give it a few days. I paid for two nights at the casino, but will likely stay a third.
I was really excited when I saw the Dakota Magic ball on a post about a mile out as I was really tired. I had no trouble getting settled into the RV park even though it is much more full than the last time I was here. I went to the hotel to check in and got the same unwelcoming clerk as I did last year. You’re in the wrong business, dear.
It’s a beautiful evening here in Hankinson. I have the front door open for the first time since Wichita!
Off to make dinner before I pass out. It’s been one of those grumbly tummy days. 🙂
Reader P.J. and her hubby just left after spending the afternoon together. They treated me to one last meal at Applebee’s (thank you!!!) and then came down to the campground to get a tour of Miranda. I have given so many tours of Miranda this winter. I haven’t felt that comfortable showing my home before.
It’s been a full year since we last saw each other, so it was good to catch up. A lot has changed!
P.J. showed me her beautiful scrapbooking project. This is a craft that really appeals to me as it is very textured and visually appealing, but I obviously don’t have the space for such a hobby. Looking through the pages filled with little mementos of the day, I realised that my blog is rather like a digital scrapbook.
They brought good weather with them: it is warmish and almost sunny out now!!!
Neelix was also super happy to have company; he appears to be petted out. 🙂
I’m really hoping to make it to Hankinson tomorrow, but it will depend on the wind more than anything else. If it’s smooth sailing with no muscling needed, it should be a fairly easy drive easily split into morning and afternoon sessions. Otherwise, I will only get about halfway, to Sioux Fallsish. But the drive from Hankinson to Minot is almost as long, so I’d really rather push hard and stay two nights at the casino and then just drive hard for a few days.
I’ve been monitoring the weather at my property and they hit not just the teens today, but the high teens, and it looks like sun and warm to hot weather for the rest of the week!!!! If this keeps up, I am going to feel comfortable heading straight there instead of dropping Miranda somewhere and scouting ahead with the toad.
It was so good to have company today. I probably won’t have any more real social engagements until I get to Donna and Ken’s in June.