We've been battling the winds the last few days, and it is usually the most calm just after dawn. So we got up when the sun did, and began driving immediately.
We got on the I-94 at Miles City, Montana and stopped for breakfast at Terry, Montana. This is the town where we would have been getting off the I-94 anyhow, and headed mostly north towards Brockway.
We had already done 50 miles (80 kms) by this point, so it was good to get that done before breakfast.
View from the I-94.
Leaving Terry, Montana and heading north, we had a nice strong tailwind for a change. It was nice to drive in, and of course it helps Sherman get better gas mileage!
In fact, I did some figuring, and the three days that we were driving with a head/cross wind we averaged 8.3 mpg. Sherman normally gets around 10 mpg if the winds are negligible. Yesterday, with that strong steady tailwind, he got 11.5 mpg!
Very little traffic.
No traffic at all!
Still patches of snow in places.
Did I mention there was no traffic?
I like this shot.
Scenery along the way.
Taken from the dam on the Missouri River and Lake Fort Peck.
On the other side of the dam is still lots of snow and ice.
When we stopped for lunch, it was still before 1:00pm. We had made good time, and this was actually where we had planned on stopping.
Sherman, at the spot we had planned on free camping for the night.
And it was a nice spot, but our route was still heading north, and there was still a strong south wind. We figured we should take advantage of that strong wind and keep driving. So we set off again.
The town of Glasgow is experiencing some spring flooding.
Yikes. Thats the baseball field!
The almost ghost town of St. Marie, Montana.
It's an old air force base.
Just after St. Marie, there's a fishing spot where there is free camping and we stopped in there. Again, it would have been a good overnight stop, but by this point we were only 50 miles (80 kms) from the border.
We sat and made a list of the stuff we bought and had to declare, including all of Sherman's repairs. We were totally honest about everything, including the two RV internet antennas that were "gifts" that we would also have to declare. And of course we were over in the booze department as well, and we had that on the list too.
I also downloaded the Canada Border Services Guidelines for declaring emergency repairs...
So, we were totally honest with them, but we were prepared.
Heading to the border.
By the time we got to the border, it was 5:15pm and it closes at 6:00pm. My thinking was that the guy would look at our list and just not want to deal with it that close to his end of shift.
Not sure if that had any relevance, but he looked at the list, asked a few more questions, got his calculator and did some figuring, then handed it back with our passports and said "Welcome to Canada".
Nice!
Back in Canada!
Hm. The roads in Montana were better.
Again, no traffic.
Scenery along the way.
We had originally thought about trying to drive all the way to Swift Current, but at the town of Lafleche I decided I had had enough. They have a nice little campground there that is self service. Supposed to be $25 for RV's and $10 for tents, but we did not plug in and did not use any services, so we will put $10 in the envelope for them.
Sunset.
Sherman, parked at Lafleche, SK.
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EZ UP 10'x10' Canopy on deal of the day today...
And in Canada...
Welcome back to the great white north. Looking forward to your Canadian adventure...
ReplyDeleteThank you Peter! we are really looking forward to our adventure further north. It will definitely be something new for us.
DeleteWow what a trip!!! From Canada to Mexico and back! It sure does feel great to be home right? Rest for more trips.
ReplyDeleteYep, that was one busy and adventurous winter and it is just going to carry on from there for the summer. :-)
DeleteWe are considering Canada in July and August this year. We’re wondering what you do for Internet? As I’m still working that is nonnegotiable. Do you buy a temporary hotspot? Is one carrier better than the other?
ReplyDeleteIf your phone is unlocked, you can buy a SIM card from a Canadian carrier with a prepay package on it. I would check a resource like this... http://prepaid-data-sim-card.wikia.com/wiki/Canada
DeleteLove reading your posts, so informative as we are complete newbies and on the learning curve...
ReplyDeleteThank you Jerald for the nice comment. We really try to make our posts helpful because we know what it is like to be a newbie and we like to let others know what to expect while on the road. Even with being on the road since 2007 we ourselves still learn things and still make mistakes, it is always a learning curve. :-)
DeleteWelcome back to expensive Canada. Nice to have an easy border crossing. Like you we are totally honest and just wave us on through. Enjoy your time there for a couple of weeks before you carry on again.
ReplyDeleteThank you George it is nice to be "home" again. :-)
DeleteWe were very happy to have such an easy crossing, especially when we knew that we may have to pay some extra money for being over our limit. It doesn't pay to be dishonest in our opinion especially when you need to travel back and forth through the border, we don't want anything to impede that crossing.
Amazing NO traffic in your pics!
ReplyDeleteNope just about the whole day we saw very little in the way of traffic. :-)
DeleteGood thinking on the time of day entry into Canada.
ReplyDeleteThe timing may have been good but that is not why we crossed then. Tt was only because the wind was in our favour and it wasn't going to be the next day and the border wasn't going to open until 9am so we would have missed the calm weather first thing in the morning.
DeleteYup, being totally honest is the key. We have found that they "relax" the rules when a person has been out of Canada for a long time. If you are away for a week and come back over the limits that is "stocking up". If you have been gone six months you are bound to accumulate stuff so that is just "living".
ReplyDeleteGood to know that "emergency" repairs are not taxable as long as everyone agrees what is "emergency". ie: a paint job resulting from accident repairs is OK while a paint job for cosmetic reasons is not. Makes sense.
DeleteWe don't know if that is true or not because we have never had to worry about being over our limit before, this was the first time that we ever have but yes, being honest it the only way to go in our minds.
DeleteYes, it is good to know the difference between emergency repairs and just wanting to get something done because it is cheaper, such as having bad brakes before crossing the border and getting them done there and then crossing back, that isn't considered an emergency repair by their books.
Kevin just went by the gas station and it was $162.9 Yup welcome back...
ReplyDeleteOnly $1.229 here in Swift Current, Saskatchewan.
DeleteWelcome back to Canada. That was the same the Canada customs said to us after our return from the ADK. Loving out duty free booze!
ReplyDeleteIsn't it nice to hear those words when you come back home! :-)
DeleteWe nearly crossed paths with you yesterday! We flew from Calgary to Regina to drive out new (to us) Airstream and TV home!
ReplyDeleteYep, we sure would have been awfully close to each other. Hopefully our paths will cross sometime down the road. :-)
DeleteWe made it all the way to Moose Jaw last night. I sensed that with that tail wind you might just make a run for the border Saturday. Sorry we missed you by that wee little bit. I'm sure our paths will cross again soon. Our park is almost all dry and ready to go and we only have a couple weeks until we open.
ReplyDeleteWe thought maybe you might have continued on when you knew that we weren't going to be in Swift Current Saturday night. Too bad because we arrived nice and early Sunday morning with the hopes that you may have still been there. At least we did manage to meet up in the winter for a couple of days.
DeleteTalk about declaring stuff...a woman coming in from France decided to save her apple to eat later. She was arrested for brining fruit into USA and said she might get a heavy fine. They could have made her eat it or toss it but to be arrested is a little out of line I thought.
ReplyDeleteRita, I read about that. They DID fine her $500US. What happened was Delta Airlines served her a meal on board the flight which included the apple in a sealed wrapper with Delta on the wrapper. She could not eat it at the time of the meal, so she saved it for a snack later on the flight and forgot about it. When she declared all fresh fruits and vegetables she brought into US, she declared that she didn't have any. When they did a random search of her purse, they found the "Delta" apple in the sealed container. She is fighting this, and I would, too. It was sealed and packaged fruit by Delta, and Delta was the one which brought the fruit on board the plane and entered US air space with it. If I remember correctly, this was at JFK Airport, and they are the worst and most ill-mannered people I have come across at an airport. In the early 1990s when we were on our way to Germany, they once tried to take my Father's wheelchair away from him in the terminal waiting area by asserting that his chair was the property of the airport. Thank goodness I had his name inscribed on the chair in case it got lost while traveling. Probably I wouldn't be telling you about this if she had apologized, but she didn't!
DeleteIf she had said that she had that apple then there wouldn't have been any issue at all but because she forgot about it and said she didn't have any fruits or vegetables then in their eyes she was lying and they have every right to fine her or even hold her for false declaration. That is just the rules, and you need to follow them carefully.
DeleteHey Kevin % Ruth:
ReplyDeleteMy wife & I are on a 2 month travel trip to Arizona, Texas and stopping in New Orleans. We pull our 31 foot trailer with a Ram powered by a hemi 5.7. When driving across Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle we had heavy cross-winds. My mileage dropped to near 7.0 mpg. Without the cross winds I average between 10.5 and 11.0 mpg. these figures are in Imperial gallons so the American mpg will be 20% less. Keep up the informative Blog.
I didn't think anybody used Imperial gallons anymore, so when I'm talking miles per gallon, it's always based on the American gallon. I wonder why yours dropped so much with a cross wind...
DeleteWelcome home guys hope you are glad you are back. Except for the outrageous gas prices right now it is always nice to be bCk on home turf. Glad your travels across the border was uneventful. Enjoy your stay at Capri that is where you both were working before right? Travel safe. Looking forward to your summer adventures now,
ReplyDeleteThank you Brigitte! We are glad to be back, it sort of feels like coming home now.
DeleteWe are looking forward to our two weeks here in Cabri and showing the new managers the ropes and how things work. However, we are also very excited to start making our way up north and into new territory.