Crossing our RV wake

When circumnavigators complete their trip around the world there is a moment when they figuratively cross the wake they made leaving home.  We’re doing an RV variant of crossing our wake tonight in an RV park outside Oyen, Alberta.

It didn’t have a name the last time we were here, let alone a big fancy sign.

Several years after leaving home, and after seeing the sights of the world, no doubt the starting point looks different to circumnavigators and similarly this park looks a lot different than the last time we were here.  I guess that’s understandable - we’ve changed a lot too in the roughly 20 intervening years.

Last time we were here it was gawdawfulcold.  It would have been sometime between Christmas and New Years – I can’t remember the exact date now but I sure as hell remember the cold.  The park was still under construction and it wasn’t plowed so we had to cut our own track through the snow drifts.  The reason I so clearly remember the cold is that for some reason I had the front storage compartment door on the old Rustler 5th wheel open and forgot it when we left.  It hinged at the bottom and hung down to the ground so when I pulled ahead it dug in and folded itself under the trailer.  As I recall I had to rip it clean off because it was unrepairable.  Welcome to RVing.  That was the year we dragged that old Rustler all the way to Vegas, L.A. and back through San Francisco.  When we got home I replaced all the bearings from the transfer case back in my little F150 and traded it off to Glen Verklan on my first F250 Powerstroke.

Our little R2D2 has made travel much more civilized.  There’s just something about starting off with multiple espressos and CTV’s morning show that feels like home.

Since then this park has changed considerably.  The gas station where we registered has changed hands several times, been completely rebuilt and is now a Co-op gas bar.  There’s a brand new hotel built next to the gas bar and that’s where we registered tonight.  Unlike a lot of RV parks we’ve stayed in, whoever designed this park actually had seen an RV park prior to starting to draw this one.  This is definitely one of the best, if not the best laid out RV park we have ever stayed in.  Its a pretty desolate location but the trees are starting to get big enough to make a dent in the nonstop prairie winds.  They’re not stupidly proud of it either at $35 per night.  Its hard to find anything under $30 per night and this one has nice wide level sites with up to 50 amp service and full water/sewer at every spot.  Its so level that we didn’t bother unhooking. 

We’re on our way to Airdrie so that Marilyn and her two best girlfriends can spend the long weekend together.  Its kind of an annual thing and its happened enough times that the guys have a pretty good time together too.  I think Camiel is going to fly us up to Wetaskiwin this year just so we can say we did something. 

I pretty well wrapped up my summer road trip this morning – just a few phone calls left before I write a reports and cut an invoice.  I’ll need to get that finished up this weekend because I got a call for a hurry up project yesterday.  Once we get done in Airdrie we’ll have to hustle back across Saskatchewan to Estevan so that I can monitor a harvest.  Its hard to say how long that will take but it involves 18,000 acres so it won’t be done in under a couple of weeks. 

My garage roof is fading further into the distance every day.  I expect I’ll be freezing my fingers off in October before I get it done but it absolutely has to get done this fall.  Unfortunately I forgot to measure the exact lengths I need while we were still in Buchanan so I can’t order the metal until we get back home.

This one didn’t have much colour in it but we’ve been getting some spectacular sunsets, thanks to all the forest fires on the left coast.