Thursday, April 29, 2010

Two days in a row of fairly hard driving to avoid the lousy weather finds me at home a day ahead of schedule. First, there was the early morning departure from the Salt Lake City are to avoid the high winds and snow that were predicted. That day's end found me in Great Falls, Montana.
Did a quick calculation of purchases over the last two months and found myself a bit low on maximum allowed personal exemption for the border crossing. So I filled it up and bought a new laptop, taking advantage of the Canadian dollar at par. They nailed me for the GST on the new satellite internet system, but that should have been paid anyway.
The plan was to spend the night with some friends near Waterton National Park, however they called to say that the blizzard had begun and a winter storm warning was in effect, calling for a large accumulation of fresh snow. With that outlook, I put the pedal to the metal (in this case carpet), and fought the very strong headwinds and crosswinds around the edge of the storm and made for home. The truck and trailer handled it well, but I think the fuel consumption skyrocketed as a result. In a bit of a reversal, the weather at home in the mountains was calm and dry, unlike the winds and snow and rain out on the flats. Of course, there was time along the way to stop for a hot double-double at Tim's!
Glad to find no snow on the driveway or sidewalk, and only a few remnant drifts around the hot tub, and that the robins and other birds are back - singing up their own storm.
Got the new satellite dish all set up on the front lawn in short order - and online!
For some reason I had not been able to connect with my previous ISP since just before I left in early March, so I sent them a note to cancel that service as well.

Once again, nothing much to take photos of across the wide open plains - in a snowstorm,
Here's a link to the storm story in the National Post

3 comments:

  1. Always a great feeling to be heading out on more RV adventures but always great to be home again as well. Sometimes I'm convinced full timing is the way to go & then other times it always feels mighty nice to have a home to come home to when you want to come home. I think if we could travel more in the summer months & still keep our home I might be a more contented fella. Good thing you made the right decision to boot it home ahead of those bad storms. That was one of life's little bonus's:))

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  2. So, I have followed your adventures, loving every blog post. I want to know what you liked better?, the camper or the 5th wheel? Im sure they both have advantages, and you didnt seem to have any trouble at all with that big 5th wheel. But if you had to pick one or the other could you? I know its a double edge sword question, just curios if you like one over the other?

    Jeff

    ReplyDelete
  3. So, I have followed your adventures, loving every blog post. I want to know what you liked better?, the camper or the 5th wheel? Im sure they both have advantages, and you didnt seem to have any trouble at all with that big 5th wheel. But if you had to pick one or the other could you? I know its a double edge sword question, just curios if you like one over the other?

    Jeff

    ReplyDelete