Restaurants

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Making the Best of a Forced Internet Sabbatical

After I hung up with Bell on Tuesday, I used Caroline’s computer to email some clients to let them know that I’d be out of touch for a few days. Then, I went home, tidied up the whole rig, rearranged my pantry, and made a nice dinner.

Then, I spent the evening searching for the lagoon where I can go dump my holding tanks (I took my Blue Boy once to the dump station in Assiniboia, but that was a hassle). Well, I finally found said lagoon, but accessing it requires four-wheel drive. So I will go there every few days with a partially filled (ie. not too heavy) Blue Boy that I can slip into and out of the truck and drag up the hill to the lagoon by foot. Not ideal, but cheaper than going to the dump station.

I called my mother on Wednesday morning and learned that she had work for me to do. Even though driving to Assiniboia to use the library wifi would cut into my profit, I needed the work experience, so loaded up my PC and headed into town. The very nice librarian gave me the wifi password and I spent about three hours getting the work done.

Even though I knew there was no hope in hell that my package from Bell had arrived, I checked in with the post office and they got my info and promised to be on the lookout for it.

I came home and just wilted. Caroline was doing the lawns, so I got my yard cleaned up. My yard didn’t get done, so I had dinner then went out to whack some weeds. Before long, Charles was back with the mower to do my lawn (and by that I mean jungle of weeds). I got the water hose and antenna wire out of the way for him. I had been sleepy all afternoon. So that done, I went to bed at 8:30, and slept to 8:30 Thursday morning!!!

Thursday morning, I headed up the hill with the booster and cell phone to call the post office. They don’t pick up, so you have to leave a message and wait for a call back. Hence why I decided to use my own phone rather than wait at C&C’s. I brought my iPad to pass the time… but the call back came in minutes! No Mifi. 🙁

So I called Bell to make sure the order had gone out. I’m glad I speak French as the rep I got had only very basic English skills and I have no idea why she was put on an English line. Anyway, no skin off my nose. She had a hard time finding confirmation that my order had gone out, but she eventually figured it out and got me a tracking number. I thanked her and headed to C&C’s to check my email and the status of my shipment.

C&C had started work on their addition so I arrived in a construction zone, but Caroline dropped everything to get me online (bless her) then left me to do what I had to do. I knew my modem wasn’t going to arrive that day so I went outside and asked if they needed help. YES. So I went home to change into grubbies and work boots, grabbing a pair of gloves and my hammer on the way out.

I spent the day pounding nails out of 2X6″es that had covered the old deck. Like me, C&C are big on recycling, so there was no way that good lumber was going to waste. It was hard work, but I was fed a nice lunch AND a snack, and there was lots of cold water. I even got a gin and tonic with lime with my snack. 🙂

Reading took up the better part of my evening, I went to bed at a more normal hour, had another good night, and woke up ready to face yet another day without internet. So imagine my surprise when I learned at C&C’s that my Mifi had landed!!!

I didn’t head straight to town, but rather helped Caroline pack away some fragile items ahead of the day’s grand event: jacking up their house to make it more level. That done, I got a tiny shopping list from Caroline and then headed to town.

After I got the Purolator thing sorted out, I continued a few blocks to Subways, Fridays being my treat (not cheat) day. I made healthier choices than I normally do there and enjoyed my sandwich (bread, oh bread I have missed thee) immensely. I headed back up Centre Street to the Co-Op, got Caroline’s groceries, and then went back to the post office to get my truck.

When I got in, I immediately headed over to C&C’s, put the groceries away, and went to help with the jacking up the house. They had thought they wouldn’t need help, but I’m pretty sure I was helpful, if only in using the sledge hammer (that thing was HEAVY) to wedge 2×4’s between the foundation and the house.

It was really impressive to see the house corner lift a full three inches! I didn’t go inside after, but apparently the ski hill in the kitchen and living room is gone. Water on the counter would always run to the northwest corner of the house and now it just sits where it’s spilled. What an improvement! Now that the house is reasonably level, they can build the addition.

Now, I’m trying to catch up on an unplanned week offline and trying to figure out how I’m going to make up for the income shortfall.

In happier news, my friend L is incoming and should be here next week! Other blog readers are in Montana and might be landing the first week of Augustish! I am SO pleased to be able to return some hospitality.

Finally, wow is the Yagi antenna sensitive. My connection just slowed to a crawl (not dropped) and I looked out to see that the pole had turned a couple of inches, dropping my connection to -105 and one bar. A small turn and a couple of wedges later, I have -96 and three bars. Let’s hope that my internet woes are over!

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Moose Jaw Grocery Run

I decided to do a Moose Jaw grocery run today so that I can avoid leaving home for the next couple of weeks, except for perhaps a Willow Bunch run to get some produce. I have tons of work to do. Also, C&C are starting the addition for their house and have a list of chores for me, so I am going to be VERY busy through the rest of the summer. Might as well start with a full larder even if a four hour drive felt like a bit much today.

My GPS doesn’t like the road east to Willow Bunch and tried to route me through Assiniboia, idiot that it is (no matter what setting I picked), making the drive to Moose Jaw much longer than it needs to be. But I knew I could head to Willow Bunch, swing north on highway 36, and then cut east to Moose Jaw on highway 2, cutting the trip almost in half.

There is literally nothing but a few farms between Willow Bunch and Moose Jaw. There is even a sign at the 13/36 junction saying that the next services are in Moose Jaw, 100KM away, and a matching sign at the 2/36 junction saying no services till Willow Bunch.

The drive was very scenic (but of course) although I had to really watch the pavement since it was in very bad shape, nearly as bad as major highways in Quebec. I must have looked like a drunk, driving around all those potholes!

I got to Moose Jaw around 11:30 and the first order of business was lunch. I had heard good things about DK Sushi and so decided to take a chance on it, hoping it would be good enough to be my habitual Moose Jaw treat. I had no trouble finding the restaurant and quickly opted for the $16 all you can eat menu as it was varied enough for me.

Everything was fresh and delicious and obviously made to order. Their miso soup was very yummy. I indulged in a couple of gyoza and even though they were fried, they were very flavourful. I had a total of 24 pieces; eight of BBQ eel, eight of yam and avocado, and eight of spicy tuna. All great! The tuna was VERY spicy, but that was offset by the sweet eel sauce. But no more spicy tuna for me as it’s made with mayo and I have firmly ascertained that eggs are what has not been agreeing with me. 🙁 The eel was so good that I decided to also try it on their ‘pizza’, of which you get a quarter per order (a couple of bites), which was perfect. Again, there was mayo (the Japanese use mayo the way Americans use ketchup), so I’ll have to watch that for next time. I finished with chocolate ice cream, which was also really good, very rich and chocolately, not the cheap ice milk that’s usually offered. I definitely got my money’s worth!

I made a number of stops after, learning the hard way how to set up an itinerary for the next trip as I had to double back a couple of times.

I first went to Canadian Tire to get some more garden hose, quick connects, and a sprayer. The store was overrun by bratty screaming children, so I gave up on shopping for anything else and was grateful that the garden centre was quiet for five minutes so I could figure out what quick connects I needed.

After, I went to Walmart for a small run, mostly for cat litter and an oil change. I helped out a customer looking at the solar panels for his RV (mostly to tell him that a 5W panel will be useless to him and that he needs about 60W, then giving him a little bit of info on how deep cycle batteries work and the best way to charge them). I continued the battery discussion with a couple of the mechanics and one just grinned as I kept confirming information that he had told another tech.

I’ve figured out that I need to go no more than 4,000KM between oil changes. More than that and I just end up pouring in oil that will end up getting drained too soon. I did buy some bulk oil for just in case, but I’ll make it a point to get to an oil change place more regularly than I needed to with my little car.

Next stop was M&M Meatshop! Wow, I haven’t been to one since I left Lethbridge! I spent quite a bit on pork, chicken breasts, and fish, but it’s all good stuff and will be tasty. I was just about to pay when I noticed boxes of cod fillets and made sure to add one to my order. They will be a welcome addition to my diet.

I then headed back behind DK Sushi to do my main grocery run at the Safeway. A lot of the stuff was crazy expensive ($7 for two bunches of kale?! $1 for a single lemon?!) but I got such good deals on other stuff that it all evened out. My card savings were $40.24 and I also got a 5 cents per litre fuel discount. So when I went to gas up after, it was at $1.19, the cheapest by far that I’ve paid since I got back to Canada.

The one thing I didn’t find at Safeway was almonds in bulk and I suddenly remembered that Moose Jaw now has a Bulk Barn. It wasn’t in my GPS. I asked a lady also getting gas if she knew where it is. Yup, right by Walmart. Dang! I headed back up there and got a few things. Oh, Bulk Barn, how I have missed thee! I have not been to one since I left the Ottawa area. When I lived in Ottawa in the late ’90s, my world was within a 45 minute walking distance radius of my Sandy Hill apartment. A big treat was to hop on the bus and go a few stops away to get to the Bulk Barn at the Gloucester Centre.

Moose Jaw has really grown in the last five years! Last time I was there, it was very sleepy and there weren’t that many stores and restaurants. It has really built up and feels like a proper city. One lady I spoke to said that Regina has a Costco, but otherwise there’s no longer any reason to go shop in Regina except for really specialized stuff.

It rained hard for most of the afternoon and there was a major storm watch for the Assiniboia area, but the drive home was under clear skies and felt like it didn’t take any time at all. It is cooling down now and the internet is misbehaving, telling me that the promised bad weather is indeed incoming.

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I’m Loving Netflix!

(And my iPad and my Mifi when it works and my super fast Internet connection!)

I left the library at 6PM and headed to Orchard Park Mall to pass an hour or so and to see if their food court is any good. Not at all, but there is a Umi Sushi like at Park Place in Lethbridge. I was feeling just peckish, so I grabbed a California roll only rather than a bento. Lunch counted as a business meeting (Amber is my graphic designer for the new site so we talked shop) so dinner out too didn’t feel excessively extravagant, especially since it was just $5. I can’t very well live off trail mix and apples until I get home!

After, I headed out to my first choice of overnighting spot and it didn’t feel right, so I mulled the situation over and headed to the perfect place. I’ll give more details in the morning.

Then, like last night, I watched a movie on my iPad through the Netflix app. I have no doubt that I would have otherwise ended up at a movie theatre tonight. So my Netflix membership has more than paid for itself this month already. To watch movies, I sit in the driver’s seat and drape my iPad case over the steering wheel. It is a surprisingly comfy setup!

It should be another comfortable night. Zzzzzzz

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Stettler to Kelowna

Tar Sands and Fort Mac
Redwood Strands and Kitimatt
(This is our home) and down in the Shuswaps too
I’ve seen many nights feel like high noon from the Dome to Saskatoon
There’s confederation bridge and butterfly ridge and Sudbury and the Sault
I’ve been snowed in for days on the Trans Canada Highway
And that was in the month of June and this is our home

(Mike Plume Band, This is Our Home)

Bitch as I do about the Canadian government and the cost of living here, the variety of landscapes and climates of this vast country will never cease to amaze me. There hasn’t been a moment since I left my property that I didn’t look up and marvel at the beauty of the scenery, from the Prairies through the Badlands, into the foothills, and across the Rockie Mountains. That I have done this trip for the second and a half time, doesn’t make it stale at all.

I left Stettler at about 9:30 on Wednesday morning and drove straight through to Olds, where I conceded I wasn’t going to reach cheaper gas on the outskirts of Calgary. From Olds, I continued southwestward, passing Spring Hill RV Park north of Cochrane, where I stayed in late September of 2008.

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(Spring Hill RV Park)

I didn’t go through the pretty town of Cochrane, instead veering west on highway 1A just before town, until I reached the junction for the Transcanada Highway.

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(very low sky entering the Rockies)

From there, it was a short drive to Canmore where I got some groceries, using my Safeway card for the first time in a year. I bought $30 worth of food, all on sale, and paid only $20 with my Safeway discount!

The entrance to Banff National Park is right after Canmore. I elected to pay the $9.80 for a day pass so that I could stop if I wanted to without risking a fine. Having been to Banff and Lake Louise, I had no intention of detouring, but I still wanted to be able to pull over for a leg stretch, a view, or to use the bathroom.

That said, this was my third time driving across the Rockies and I didn’t have much better luck than the previous two trips since the weather was crappy; very cold and rainy. 🙁

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(Not quite cold enough for snow, but it almost felt like it!)

Still, the drive was effortless. I don’t know what it is about this stretch, but it always makes for really good gas mileage. I’ve never done better than 500KM on a tank with my truck, but I ended up getting about 600KM on the tank I got in Olds. A good part of it is that you just drive straight through, so you don’t waste gas stopping at street lights and such, plus the stretch is mostly downhill. Several times, I put Moya in second gear and took my feet off the pedals, saving both fuel and wear and tear on the brakes.

I stopped at the Spiral tunnels and the entrance to Glacier Provincial Park, where the air smelled like evergreens and snow. I wish I could convey that smell through pixels; it will be a highlight of this summer.

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 (Lots of snow on the mountains, even though it’s late June.)

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(This cut in the rock shows how much work it was to carve a road into these mountains.)

This trip, I was finally about to stop at the Rogers Pass discovery centre! It’s a small museum that makes a good leg stretch break.

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(This is the first time I’ve noticed that the GPS screen more or less matches the terrain.)

I forgot that I was going into the Pacific time zone, so I hit Revelstoke much earlier than I would have planned. It felt too early to stop for the night, but I decided to find the 2008 turnout and see if I had internet there. If so, I would check if the Vernon Walmart was RV friendly, otherwise  I would spend the night.

From Revelstoke I quickly found my first landmark, but drove further past it than I remembered doing in 2008, so I began to think that the turnout was gone. But nope! When I came to it, I recognized it instantly and pulled around to the far side. I had internet and the Vernon Walmart is NOT RV friendly, so I decided to stay put.

A Gregory Peck movie on Netflix occupied most of the evening (my favourite actor of all time), at the end of which I discovered that I had apparently left my iPad charging cord in Stettler! Oh NO. I left myself just enough juice to check emails in the morning and went to bed around 9:00 (10:00 my time).

Even though it was pouring rain, the truck bed felt cozy and warm. I would have slept soundly if trains hadn’t passed by about once every hour.

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This morning, around 5:30, it was very damp out, but not raining, so that made it easier to repack for the day’s drive since I could leave the doors open. I had gained two neighbours, an RV and a semi.

I did the math and even with the gas prices averaging $1.35 per litre ($5.31 per gallon), taking my truck and sleeping in it is cheaper than it would have been to go with a subcompact and take a hotel. I’m going to spend about two weeks camping in the truck this summer (at least) and that will help me figure out what I need to make camping in it more comfortable and easier. A taller and non-leaky canopy is definitely in order! But it’s reassuring to know that I was dry even during last night’s downpour.

I pulled out and drove to Sicamous where I got gas and coffee. It began to pour again as I pulled onto highway 97 and it was a wet, miserable, couldn’t see anything drive into Kelowna. Sunny Okanagan my ass. This is my least favourite part of Canada. 🙁

My first stop was Walmart to see if I could find a cheap iPad charging cord, but nope. I tagged in with my friend Amber, changing our plans from dinner to lunch, and then I headed to a CIBC because I had left my ATM card in the reader at the Canmore Safeway. I HATE those friggin’ chip readers!!!

Getting the new card was painless and it’s one I can now use in the U.S. as it’s part of the Visa as well as Interac networks. I was warned that there are big fees, so I’m better off using my Visa or cash, but it’s nice to have a third option just in case.

Then, I went to Best Buy, which only opened at 10:00. Instead of waiting 15 minutes for them to open, I decided to go to a dollar store and see if I could find a super cheap iPad cord. It’s been my experience that using non-Apple cords is hit or miss and has absolutely nothing to do with price or brand, so it seemed like a worthwhile experiment.

My GPS directed me to a dollar store that had a cord for $12, cheaper than anything else I knew I’d find, but it wasn’t refundable if it didn’t work. Hmm. I knew that I had to get something marked iPad, not just iPhone or iPod Touch as the the iPad chargers offer more juice. I have a little Belkin cradle for my iPod Touch that I had hoped would tide me over until Donna can get my cord back to me, but I got the dreaded ‘charging is not supported with this accessory message.’ Anyway, I decided to take a gamble on the $12 cord, accepting that I’d be stuck using the iPod all weekend if the cord didn’t work. Yes, I am spoiled. 🙂

Well, the cord WORKS. YAY!!! It is charging veeeeeeeery slowly, but I don’t care. I’m just grateful I didn’t break the bank and have my iPad again.

I then headed out to Westbank to meet Amber at a Thai restaurant when I saw a sign that made me do a double take:

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OMG Dollar Tree has come to Canada!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😀

I found Thai Fusion Restaurant without any trouble and Amber was right on time. We both had the chicken pad thai. It was fine, but not that flavourful beyond a little heat. I wasn’t surprised or disappointed since I know food tends to be bland out west. It was a nice portion and the prices were very reasonable.

Amber and I gabbed for almost two hours. It was so good to catch up!

I’m now at a library, catching up on some things and finishing up my slideshow. This branch closes at 6:00pm, so I’ll go find a parking lot to hang out in for a few hours before moving to my overnight spot, which I am not going to divulge for matters of safety, obviously.

The first event doesn’t start till 5:30 tomorrow, so I’ll likely spend a good chunk of time tomorrow at a different library.

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Love Sushi Restaurant, Stettler

To my immense delight, Stettler has a brand new, well reviewed sushi restaurant AND Donna was interested in expanding her palate! So we headed out to Love Sushi for brunch this morning.

The food was exquisite, very fresh and flavourful. This was a sushi meal that satisfied the itch fully.

We shared:

-miso soup (too salty, but still tasty)

-unagi (eel) roll (so good that when we were done with everything else we ordered another!)

-tobiko (fish egg) nigiri

-spicy tuna roll (Donna loved it, wasn’t quite spicy enough for me, amusingly enough)

-California roll (crab and avocado; pretty sure this was real crab, quite yum)

-yam roll (very indulgent tastiness)

-rainbow (tuna, shrimp, salmon, avocado) roll (very good but a bit bland for Donna’s palate)

It was such a joy to see Donna savouring everything as much as I did. She’s very handy with the chopsticks!

Having to drive 300KM round trip for sushi is probably the biggest downside to my property. 🙂 Donna is so lucky to have such a yummy sushi place minutes from her new home!

Oh, and with the tip, our meal came to $18.77 each, a bargain!