Got up at 4:30 and watched the sunrise... fantastic across the lake and through the trees.. tried but could not capture it with a picture as bright as it was... did get an angle shot I will include today. I took a hot shower in their facilities, closed everything up and was on the road by 6:30 driving through the upper leg of Lake of the Woods. There was a mist across much of the lake, and it extended across the low areas of the road, making going slow at first. The birch trees that lined the shore glistened in the bright morning sun.... What a great day to be alive and here. Lots of resorts and neat houses along the shore and on the islands. Kenora seems to be heart of the "action" in the area. A place to return to for a vacation.
As I got up, I heard Ottawa radio discussing today being Victoria day... or as they called it "Open the Camp" day.. or "Open the Cottage" as that is where they were headed on "Little White Fish" lake. A time to clean the dead mice out of the traps, and get rid of moldy food from the cabinets.. evidently a Canadian tradition. So that made the trip easier today with little traffic on the roads. Since I got started early, I decided to push on and so am now about 1 day ahead of schedule. A good choice since the scenery beyond Winnipeg resembles I-90 across southern Minnesota... and it continues all across Manitoba.. In Saskatchewan the roads got worse and bumpy, and the traffic of beat up 4x4's and pickup's with dogs in the back made me feel I was in the "redneck" haven of Canada. Plus a couple of truckers got after me for only going 5 kilometers above the speed limit. My CB scanner picked them up as they jumped around the frequencies and they were surprised when I jumped in and acknowledged them. They got irritated and could not figure out how I could keep finding them as they switched frequencies... guess scanner technology has not been fully integrated into the trucking industry yet.
It rained and was cloudy for much of the morning trip. A dark cloud came on the horizon, but I was able to pick up a the weather report on the CB which also scans 5 weather frequencies... and found the storm was not dense and soon passed through it. The sun came out as I entered Saskatchewan and I also gained an hour. It is a beautiful sunny day here now with the temperature about 70 degrees.
Not much exciting on this leg of the trip.. I am camped and setup... had to use a 50 to 30 amp converter cord to hookup, so something new learned. I am on soft sand so hard to get it stabilized as the space is uneven. I will probably sleep at the opposite end of the bed tonight so the blood does not all run to my head. Should have bought a leveler I guess. Other problem I am having is getting all of my power cord crammed back into that small space when I store it in the mornings... it was all wound up nice and tight when I got the camper, but cannot get it into the same position now... might just let it drag along behind the trailer.. :-)
Some general trip data... I spent $64 Canadian for gas today, and it ran 56 cents a liter in Ontario, 58 cents in Manitoba, and higher as I head west. I have a conversion chart someplace, but have not dug it out. Likely it will be running 75 cents a liter by the time I get to Alaska. My overall trip gas mileage has been 14.9 mpg and improving. The first day was fighting a head wind. Overall, I have driven 980 miles in these two days, with 17 hours 41 minutes sitting behind the steering wheel (all this according to my Jeep's computer). I stopped at 4:30 today and nice to have time to relax. I am right at the edge of the city but will probably not go into town. They have a modem connection in the office, so I will give it a try in a few minutes.
I am getting a lot of attention. People go by and stop and stare at the Aliner, and last night when I was uploading e-mail using the Pay Phone connected with my telecoupler, I had a small crowd standing around me watching.. sure glad it worked! The pay phone was outside the office on a small deck, and I hooked up and then just sat on the floor with the computer on my lap. Tonight I get to use a desk in the office. Tomorrow I plan to get an early start again, and this time I begin my drive north by northwest.
It is a pleasant evening... next to me is a woman in an old modified Ford Econovan that a is running a dog grooming business out of her van. She has been working on one of the dogs since I arrived... across from me is a man that has been doing woodwork on a long table outside of his van... I met a couple that is also headed for Alaska... but they are going through Calgary and taking more time going up.. It is a pleasant time of the year to be on the road camping in Canada.
