After a delicious cooked breakfast (instead of the usual cereal,
yoghurt and a banana, we set off to the airport, trying to think if there was
anything of Janet’s tucked away in a corner of the van that we had forgotten
about ! I dropped her at the airport
rather than going in because parking can be a tremendous hassle when your car
is over 2 metres tall – In Seattle, when I collected Janet back in early May,
it had taken me almost an hour to find an “overheight” car park into which
Troopie would fit ! Anyway, based on
texts as she checked in, all went fairly smoothly, despite the need to go
through US customs to get to LA from Calgary / Vancouver, and hopefully as I
write this blog in my evening campsite (on the day it occurred, surprise,
surprise !) she is safely in LA and about to get in the air on the Qantas
flight to Brisbane. We have had a great trip,
and seen so many amazing things and places, and met so many great people, and
it is certainly more enjoyable when you have someone beside you to share all
the sights, sounds, highs and lows of such a journey.
Now, with Alaska over, time to get on with the next part
of the journey. I haven’t really thought or planned much for Churchill yet, let
alone central America, so time to get my brain in to gear. As I left the airport I called our friend Dorothy in Calgary, but she had only got back from an Alaskan cruise late the night before, and was still recovering, and not quite ready for visitors. A shame, but I am sure I might be back again before too long ! I had a lot of miles to cover to get to Thompson, and as it turned out, if I had delayed by even half a day in getting to Thompson, I would have been stuck there fore another 3-4 days before I wold be able to get to Churchill.
After filling up with (cheaper) fuel in the
big smoke of Calgary before heading bush again, and making sure the fridge was
stocked with food and beer, I headed out North towards Edmonton. I decided to
go on the freeway for the 3 hour trip as the side roads didn’t look much better
or more interesting – But about half an hour up the
road, grid lock !! A tow truck and an ambulance went up the
inside lane, so obviously an accident – On a nice sunny day !! We had probably been
inching along for about an hour when they decided to put both lanes onto a
single lane dirt access road that ran beside the freeway. No problem – except that about 10 minutes
later we see cars whizzing down the (previously closed) freeway beside us !! They had opened it again – And the idiot
police forgot that now all the traffic on the dirt access road couldn’t get out
and back on the freeway at the next access point because of everything now
whizzing along the freeway at high speed !!
So it was probably another hour before we eventually got back onto the
freeway. Stupid. And ironic that about 10 minutes further
along there was another go slow and there was the truck that had obviously been
in the original accident – But this time the tow truck had its bonnet up,
broken down !! Cue wry smile from
Giles.
Basically a pretty boring flat drive all the way to
Edmonton. Very industrial, lots of
oilfield presence, both in offices beside the road and loads of drill pipe and
casing on trucks on the freeway. I stopped and topped up my fuel in Edmonton
and came across a couple of really rude and unhelpful people in the gas
station. One guy had his car parked
across the only diesel line, and proceeded to spend 20 minutes in the toilet,
and then spend another 10 minutes getting
cup of coffee. When I mentioned
to him that he was blocking the diesel pump and about 4 trucks were waiting to
refuel, he said he was at the gas pump, not the diesel pump, so it wasn’t his
problem. Hmmmmmmm.
The sky then got very black and we had a massive storm
while driving around Edmonton – All adds to the fun of driving on strange
roads. One woman stopped in the middle
of the freeway, and her passenger ran round in the rain to get in the driver’s
side, presumably because the first driver was too nervous to continue ! How everyone avoided their car I do not know.
While I am having a rant, I have to say I am shocked by
the very poor standard of the driving here in this part of Canada. Cars sit behind you when there is a dotted
line for them to overtake, and then as soon as there is a solid line for a
corner or brow of a hill, they decide to go !!
It is as if they think a solid line means they can overtake, it is so
common. We have seen SO many close
shaves with oncoming vehicles having to go off into the dirt. 2 days ago, coming in to Jasper, a big semi trailer passed us over
the brow of a hill, and when he swerved back in front of us too early after a
car suddenly came over the hill, he missed the front of Troopie by about 2 cms,
I swear. Crazy driver.
Then the speed limit on the freeway is 110 kmh. I sat on
110 kmh just for fuel economy reasons, but I can tell you I did not overtake a
thing all day ! They mostly do about 130
kmh or often a lot more, trucks included, even when passing cop cars parked in
median strips. And the really fast ones
weave in and out of the lanes – Not just occasionally, but ALL the time. This evening a girl in a new Fiat 500
undertook me on a narrow 2 lane road by just driving inside me on the dirt
section off to the side of the road – And I was doing 100, so she had to be doing
130 or so while she did it ! I was
gobsmacked !! The road death statistics
over here must be frightening.
Rant over !! It is
their problem, not mine – As my son Damien would say to me "Dad - Your space, their space". Unless they involve me in their accident !!!
I had noted a Provincial Park camp site on the map about
an hour east of Edmonton, so headed for that.
After a fairly sunny afternoon, it got all cloudy again just as I was
getting there, but the rain held off.
Then we get the next stupid rule – No on site check-in like normal, but
you have to do it either on-line or to a phone number – But the camp site is in
a dead, no phone signal area !!!
Fortunately there is a land line at the entrance, but when you call the
number, and answering machine just says “Book on line”. Duh !!
Anyway, eventually found the camp site host, played the “poor lost
Aussie without a local phone” trick (not difficult !!), and got a site for the
night paying them cash !! So all sorted
eventually. A quick supper, type up some
more blog on Word (hopefully in readiness for a wifi connection somewhere
tomorrow !), and to bed.
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