We left Smith Center and drove 122 miles to the Johnson Lake State Recreation Area near Lexington, Nebraska. We stayed here in 1999 on our way to a New Horizons rally and thought it was a really nice park. It has only electrical hookups, but there are several places around the park where you can stop and fill up with water and there is a dump as you leave the park.
Johnson Lake:
Our rig at Johnson Lake
Wednesday, May 2
We drove 102 miles to Ole's Lodge & RV Park in Paxton, Nebraska. We were originally planning on spending the night in Ogallala (another 20 miles down the road) until I found out that Ole's had "instant" telephone hookups. Even though AOL doesn't have a local number in Paxton, we decided to spend a couple of days here so I could at least update our web site for April. After setting up, we drove into Ogallala to pick up our mail and stopped to do some grocery shopping.
Friday, May 4
We left Paxton and drove 154 miles to Riverside Park Zoo Campground in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. This is a nice campground (although a little on the muddy side because of recent rains) that is right next to a small zoo. Had the weather not been cold and rainy, we would have taken a tour through the zoo -- we'll have to save that for a future visit. We passed right by Chimney Rock and would have stopped to take a picture, but it was shrouded in fog. Again, guess we'll just have to come back in the future.
Saturday, May 5 through Friday May 11
It rained most of the night and was still raining Saturday morning when we got up. While we were having our morning coffee, it stopped raining so we decided to pack up and leave before it started to rain again. We stopped in Torrington, Wyoming for breakfast.
We drove 183 miles to the Fort Caspar Campground in Casper, Wyoming. After having dinner at Pecos Lil's, we made a trip out to the Teton factory to see exactly where it was. It's quite a ways out of town -- in fact, when we arrived, there were cows all around the factory eating the grass. It was quite a site and we wondered if the cows made occasional visits into the factory!
On Monday, we drove out to the Teton factory and took a tour. We were suitably impressed with their manufacturing process. Earl said he liked Excel's frame work better than Teton's. Teton has some things we like -- floorplan, higher payload, bigger holding and fresh water tanks, and larger basement area; however, they're 102" wide compared with Excel's 96", and the Teton's are 12'8" tall compared with Excel at 11'11" (not to mention the difference in price). Also, we found out that the line that we like in the Teton (Tradition) will not be produced next year -- it's going to be incorporated into the next higher line, so at the present time, we don't know how that will change the pricing. Guess we'll just have to wait and see how things shape up this fall. After our tour, we had lunch at Adam's Rib.
We took our truck to Casper Truck Center on Tuesday to have the oil changed and a lube job. The service manager took us back home and picked us up again when the truck was finished. The truck should be all set for our trip to Alaska now. Hopefully, we won't have any trouble with our rig on this trip. When we went to Alaska in 1998 with our truck and camper, we didn't have any trouble -- not even a flat tire or broken headlight -- and don't really expect any trouble this time (especially considering the fact that we now have 4 brand new tires on the fifth wheel!).
On Wednesday, we had breakfast at Hardee's then filled up with diesel and went shopping at Sam's Club.
Thursday we did some grocery shopping. I was so excited when I found Kashi at Safeway! Kashi is a "breakfast pilaf" that contains different types of grains which I use to making Maxx's food, but it's difficult to find. Safeway had four boxes and I bought all four. We also went by a pet store and bought a new collar for Maxx to replace the one he destroyed when we were in Smith Center. It was an old collar and the plastic clasp must have gotten brittle because when he saw a cat and hit the end of his lead, the clasp snapped and off Maxx ran after the cat! Fortunately, he treed the cat so he was easy to retrieve as he stood at the bottom of the tree looking up at the cat.
An original "RV":
Buildings at Fort Caspar:
On Friday, we took a tour of the Fort Caspar Museum. The name of the fort was originally Platte Bridge Station, but was changed to Fort Caspar after Lt. Caspar Collins, who was killed by the Sioux and Cheyenne when he was sent out with a small detachment to help escort a wagon train to Platte Bridge Station. The town of Casper, Wyoming was named after Caspar Collins, but was misspelled; thus the difference in spelling. We saw an "original RV" like that pictured above (actually, a sheepherder's wagon) in a field on our way to Billings, Montana. It looked in good shape, so I think it was still in use.
Saturday, May 12
Monument at Connor Battlefield:
Tongue River:
View of Big Horn Mountains from our campsite:
We drove 184 miles to Connor Battlefield State Historic Site in Ranchester, Wyoming. This is a nice little park (no hookups) along the Tongue River. We thought that the "battle" was probably between soldiers and Indian warriors; however, a plaque on the monument shown above says: "Here Aug. 29, 1865, troops and Indian scouts commanded by Gen. P.E. Connor destroyed an Arapaho Indian village." An Indian village? I assume that means women and children, too. Some "battle."
Sunday, May 13 through Wednesday, May 16
We drove 121 miles to the Trailer Village RV Park in Billings, Montana. We decided on this park rather than the one at which we'd stayed last year because it was less expensive than the other one. Now we know why -- this park is made up mostly of decrepit RV's that are here on a permanent basis. Guess next time we come to Billings, we'll go back to the park we stayed at originally.
It was hot when we got here, so decided not to cook. We were going to eat at the Olive Garden, but had forgotten that it was Mother's Day and Olive Garden had people lined up outside, so we ended up at the Jade Garden, a Chinese restaurant, where we had pretty good food.
One of my partial crowns came off Sunday night while I was flossing, so I called a dentist and was lucky enough to get an appointment. The dentist was able to re-glue the partial -- hopefully, it'll last until after our trip to Alaska! After the trip to the dentist, we went by Costco to pick up things that we weren't able to get at Sam's Club when we were in Casper.
We did additional shopping while in Billings, picking up final supplies before heading into Canada (of course, it's not like Canada doesn't have stores), including filling up with diesel. No matter how expensive fuel is here in the lower 48, I imagine we'll be paying more in Canada and Alaska.
Thursday, May 17
We drove 145 miles to the James Kip Recreation Area on the Missouri River. This park is north of Grass Range, Montana on Highway 191. It's quite a nice park although it has no hookups. It's quiet here and dark at night, unlike a lot of RV parks that feel they need to keep the park lighted at night like it was noon -- we can even see the stars here!
Saturday, May 19 through Wednesday, May 23
We crossed over the Canadian border today at the Morgan Port of Entry -- where Montana Highway 191 crosses the border into Saskatchewan. The lone border guard was busy with someone else when we arrived, so we fixed a sandwich and had lunch while we were waiting for her to finish. We expected a search much like we'd had when we went to Alaska in 1998 (the border guards at the Alberta station -- where Interstate 15 crosses the border -- searched our camper and truck with a fine tooth comb then), but this guard just asked us some questions and we were on our way -- after paying duty on some liquor and wine (which is still cheaper than buying them in Canada).
Saskatchewan Highway 4 north from the border was terrible most of the way to Swift Current. We decided that we wouldn't come into Canada this way again because of the road. We drove a total of 223 miles today and checked into the Trail Campground in Swift Current.
On Monday, we went to the bank to exchange money, but found that the banks were closed because of Victoria Day. Fortunately, there was an ATM available so we were able to get some Canadian money. We then went by one of the local gas stations and filled up with diesel.
Tuesday, we did grocery shopping and stopped at the Post Office to pick up Canadian stamps to mail bills while we're here. To mail a letter to the U.S. from Canada costs $.60 Canadian, which is about $.39 U.S. The exchange rate now is around 1.55 which means for every U.S. dollar, you get $1.55 in Canadian money. It really makes it great for people from the U.S. to travel in Canada.
On Wednesday, I picked up sandals (the kind with a heel strap) and we found a health food store that carried Noni juice for Earl. That evening, we went to dinner at Poverino's Pasta Grill where we had excellent Italian food.
Thursday, May 24
We drove 201 miles to Tillebrook RV Park in Brooks, Alberta. This is a very nice park where all the sites are laid out in circles. Two of the circles, A and C, had electricity at each site; the other two had no hookups. It looks likes a park that may, at one time, have been a public park, but now is private.
A storm rolled in during the wee hours of the morning bringing thunder and lightening. As usual when the thunder starts -- or at least when it starts getting loud -- Maxx jumped up into bed with us (to protect us, of course). We covered him up with the down comforter and there he stayed for the rest of the night. I though maybe he'd get too warm and eventually crawl out from underneath the covers, but he didn't.
Friday, May 25
We drove 168 miles to Rosebud Valley Park, a city park in Didsbury, Alberta. Again, this park has only electrical hookups -- no water or sewer. But for $13.00 Canadian (about $8.40 U.S.), it's a great bargain.
Saturday, May 26 thru Sunday, May 27
We drove 145 miles to the Whitemud Creek Golf & RV Resort in Edmonton, Alberta. The roads getting to the park are pretty bad, but the park itself is nice -- quite a ways from the freeway out in the country, so it's quiet.
Sunday, we drove out to the West Edmonton Mall -- the largest mall in the world. And it is huge! It has water slides, an ice skating rink, a submarine ride and lots, lots more that we didn't get a chance to see. It would take several days of walking to see everything in this mall!
Monday, May 28
I'm going to wrap this up for the month of May. We're leaving the park earlier than planned because we got an appointment with a hitch repair place...we need to get our hitch repaired before we take the trip to Alaska. We're meeting two other couples in Dawson Creek (the start of the Alaska Highway) on June 3.
I'll try to update our web site as often as possible during our Alaska trip -- I'll do so whenever we have a chance, so it won't necessarily be done once a month like it normally is. Check back once in a while and follow us along on our trip. It should be exciting!
