On the Road Again

Well here we are on the road again in our trusty Georgie Boy. This is going to be a long trip, mostly business but some fun stuff too. Our first stop was Saskatoon, nothing much to report, as the Walmart was the same as any other. The drive from Edmonton was trying, with fog and rain most of the way. We had a good night, and left early for the long drive to Portage La Prairie Manitoba. If the federal government wants to spend stimulus money, they really should pave the entire Yellowhead highway from the Alberta border to Winnipeg. The road is ATTROCIOUS. Large chunks of pavement are missing, the heaves and cracks shook the motorhome until we thought it would fall apart. The weeds in the ditches are waist high, there are dead animals squashed all over the road, and no one seems to clean anything. It is an embarassment to have a major highway in Canada look like a third world road.

We did see some interesting things though: Huge flocks of birds sitting in fields, or flying around in circles; strange collections of rusted cars and equipment lying around; and wierd signs for businesses. Gas was expensive, averaging 99.9 a litre, which hurts when we only get 8 miles to the gallon!

In Saskatchewan we uncovered what may be a huge hoax! We passed a sign directing us to Kandahar. It's now obvious to us that we really have no troops in Afganistan, they are all really in Saskatchewan playing war for the cameras. :)

Portage la Prairie was just another town, and the Walmart was just another Walmart, except it had a particularily large parking lot which was great for us.

Today we crossed the border at Emerson, MB. The US immigration official was courteous, and really didn't ask many questions at all, but he did send us to the Agricultural Inspector who insisted on going through our food and making sure we weren't importing any Canadian lamb (we only have New Zealand lamb on board) or fruits. Surprisingly, she didn't care about our tomatoes, but she had to read all the ingredients in Ben's dog food to make sure we didn't have any lamb bi-products! Go figure.

So now we are in Fargo, North Dakota. A lot like Winnipeg but with more stores. The Walmart we are at is HUGE and is attached to a Sams Club. The driving in the parking lot reminds me of the driving on the Las Vegas Speedway. We filled up with gas (2.59 a gallon/ .63 a litre), and bought some stuff for dinner. Since it's Thursday, it's pasta night. We also hit the liquor store, and bought 1.75 litres of bourbon for just $26 and a 1.5 litre bottle of Lindemans merlot for $11. That's half the price in Alberta, and no bottle deposits either!

Tomorrow we head for Council Bluffs, Iowa, then to Rolla, Missouri, and then our final destination of this leg of the journey: Brownsburg, Indiana, where we will pick up our new trailer, and then the jet car. We already have the firesuit, and will pick up accesories in Brownsburg. Then we'll drop off the Echo for shipping on to Tucson. We hope to spend a couple of days at Paul Stender's place figuring out the jet, and testing it at the local airport, before we head out for the long drive to Tucson, Arizona.

There'll be more stuff to report once we get into the whole jet car thing, and we'll keep you all updated, so stay tuned!