Monday 21 August 2006

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Awake: 6:45am Temp 53 sleep 7+38 sunny overnight @ Minot,
North Dakota.


I awoke @ 3:15am & had trouble getting back to sleep…..rare for me.
Anyway, a lot of thoughts went thru my mind that I couldn’t brush off.
Basically I am excited about today’s adventure. Driving into Canada;
seeing our Swiss friends whom we haven’t seen for 2 yrs; plus cooperating
with Myrta to make this a surprise rendezvous for Bernie & Monica who have
been touring with them. Also, we haven’t had any cell phone communications
for a week so we are hoping our families are OK & not trying to contact
us. Plus, our Suzuki is loaded with wine & liquor; will that be safe
during our absence? Eventually I did get back to sleep & then Kathy woke
me up by cuddling & gently reminding me that maybe we should get ready to
travel.

Because of a later leave time than planned, we skip our coffee & breakfast
for now & will have it later en route. So we leave our Suzuki & the KOA
campground in Minot & head north on hwy 83 to the Canadian border (66
miles). The bumpy hwy 83 continues. With little or no traffic, on this 4
lane divided hwy, I ride in the left lane until another vehicle approaches
from the rear or front or until neither lane is acceptable. Approaching
the border, we see that the U.S. border is merely 300 ft from the Canadian
border, so we stop @ the U.S. border to ask them some questions about
returning in a few days like: we have frozen meat that has been removed
from the original package, rewrapped into smaller portions & frozen. Will
that be a problem when we come back thru the U.S. border? The border guy
we are asking comes into our coach, signs all the packages that Kathy digs
out of the freezer that might apply to this scenario, fills out a form
which he has her sign & informs us that it will be no problem now.

Next, we drive some 300 ft & stop @ the Canadian border, shut down the
engine & wait in our coach. In a few minutes, a fellow appears, asks us to
open our door & then proceeds to ask a series of questions & to see some
identification, more questions & then, we are free to go. Before we leave,
I ask him a question: could we have an updated map of Manitoba….which he
gave to us.

I thought hwy 83 in North Dakota was rough, ha! Canada hwy 83 was an
accumulation of rough, rougher, then smooth & smoother, then back to
rough, rougher, etc, for the remainder of our journey. About ½ of the way
to our destination, we came upon a very serious accident between a
semi-tractor trailer & an automobile. The road was closed so we had to
back up, turn around & then follow the detour on our map that the
policeman highlighted for us. It added nearly an hr to our travel time.
Then we dealt with a few road construction delays, but aside from that, no
other stops en route.

Our friend Myrta e-mailed directions on how to get to Oskar’s (her father)
Canadian farm with the final word being: turn right on country road 584,
continue for 8 miles & look for a blue & white house on the left. This
country road was dirt; the dustiest environment I’ve ever subjected our
motorhome to. We couldn’t confirm the Oskar farm house on the first pass
so we turned around @ the next intersection, came back & agreed that this
one house has to be the place. After backing into the approx 500 ft long
driveway, we park, shut off the engine & begin to snoop around for clues
as to who lives there. The house was locked but the side door on the
separate garage building was unlocked. Inside was a car, doors not locked,
glove compartment not locked & the registration indicated that it belonged
to Oskar Stoll. We did well! We re-park our motorhome so as not to block
any farm equipment that might have to move in from the fields. Then we
sit, read & hope that we have the correct day of the week for this
rendezvous.

Today’s travel: 5+53 time 285 miles 37 gal used 7.8 mpg
49.4 avg speed.

This group of 5 Swiss people have been touring Vancouver, B.C., Alberta,
B.C., & some of Manitoba for about 3 weeks now & their schedule has them
arriving back here @ Oskar’s house sometime this evening.

Kathy made a bowl of chicken salad in the event the gang doesn’t arrive
until after 8:00pm. We hear a car door close @ 6:50pm & yes, they have
arrived. They traveled some 600 miles today to make the farm rendezvous on
time. It’s so good to see them: Oskar, Myrta & her husband Rene, and, wait
a minute! The other two people exiting from the car are a surprise for us,
Barnhard & his wife Monica, from the Saleneg Vineyard. For no special
reason, when Myrta wrote about surprising Bernie and Monica, we thought of
their friends by the same name from Germany. We really like both couples
so though we were surprised we were also delighted. We are invited for
wine before dinner & then dinner @ 8:30pm.

Monica & Myrta are excellent cooks: cucumber & tomato salad, spaghetti
with bolognaise sauce, pork chops & bread. After dinner, we hang around &
catch-up on “what’s new” with each other. Getting together with these guys
again is GREAT!

High temp=78 Elevation 1882 ft Lights out: 11:30pm

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This page contains a single entry by George Monte Kirsch published on August 30, 2006 12:47 PM.

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