Day 43 - Back in the USA!!!

Storm Clouds in Lloydminister BC-------------------Canola Fields driving across BC

Tuesday August 17,2010. We had a very exciting night for awhile last night with the storm. It rained and blew very hard. For awhile I thought we were going to have to take cover in Walmart but it calmed down finally. We were getting ready to leave Lloydminister this morning and Larry came into the RV after checking everything outside and said the new tire we bought looked bad again!??! WHAT, we only drove a little over a hundred miles on it. He said the way it looked, we would not make it out of Canada with it. I was SHOCKED to say the least. I went outside and looked at it and didn't think it looked bad. He came out and said he was going to wait for Canadian Tire to open so we could have them check it. We went over to Canadian Tire and he took the car off the trailer and was trying to check the trailer to see if a weld or something was broken underneath. After he messed around out there for 15 or 20 minutes he came back inside and said he was stupid because he was looking at the wrong tire!!! Oh the joys of old age!!! But then I'm wondering if the other one looked so bad ARE WE GOING TO MAKE IT OUT OF CANADA with it??? He said not to worry about it after he realized it was the older tire he didn't think it was so bad! WOW --sometime I think I am going crazy! I wake up every day wondering what next???? So he loaded the car back onto the trailer and away we went!

We stopped at a rest stop just prior to Regina, Saskatchewan to take a break. As Larry was walking around outside he noticed that one of our running lights on the bottom part of the front end is broken out. Neither of them work now for whatever reason. I hope we can find a big basket to collect all the RV parts in when we get home as it is falling apart!

We traveled to Regina on the Yellowhead Trail RT 11 and changed over to RT 6 which took us over the border into Raymond, Montana. After crossing the U.S. Border, RT 6 turned into RT 16 which runs into RT 2. We drove RT 2 into North Dakota. AHHHH--back once more in the USA!! I really am not a big fan of Canada! The phones work once in a while and the kilometers drive me crazy figuring out in ENGLISH how far it is. There truly is no place like the USA, even with all it's problems, I still believe it is the best place in the world to live.

If I said today's travel was more boring than yesterday, I really wouldn't know how to measure which was worse! Miles and Miles and Miles of flat open NOTHING!!! Hay bale upon Hay Bale--as I was looking at all of them it reminded me of the song of '99 Bottles of Beer on the wall'--replace beer with hay and wall with ground and you have a new twist to a great ol' song--SEE I AM GOING CRAZY! We joke all the time about how bored the cats act. They sleep and sleep and sleep--and I think I am right there with them in my boredom. Hopefully when we get farther into the U.S. things will improve, however driving across South Dakota and Iowa doesn't give me a lot of hope! We did see more Canola fields just before hitting Montana and at least they are cheery to look at with their bright yellow color. Also shortly after we got into Montana, we started seeing Sunflower Fields which also helps brighten the scenery.

We drove through Saskatoon, Saskatchewan today and it was a very nice looking town. I would have enjoyed having a little time to look around there more. It kinda reminded me of Ottawa, Ontario, which is Capitol of Canada--Like the Washington DC of Canada. We have been to Ottawa several times on our motorcycle trips over the years. Ottawa is a really unique place and we really enjoyed each time we were there. Saskatoon just had that type of 'flavor' when we drove through today.

Larry had some kind of weird dream last night. He said right when he woke up he thought I asked him if his IPOD had been compromised!@#!@ WHAT IS THAT ABOUT--he doesn't even OWN an IPOD--why would he be dreaming of one? Then he asked me out loud if the windows were still open because he was freezing. The human mind is so complex isn't it?? I am the world's best dreamer--it's like going to the movies each night but what is making perfect sense during my dreams, are craziness when I wake!!!

We drove over 500 miles today. Larry did most of the driving but I did take a couple of short turns to give him a break. We ended up at Walmart in Williston, ND. for the night.