May to August – What have we been doing? Part 1

On the first of May we arrived back into the US.  After an uneventful border crossing at Nogales, we headed east towards Tombstone, Arizona.  We spent three days at the Wells Fargo RV Park, located right in downtown Tombstone.  In fact you were so close to the action, you could hear the gunfights.

We were waiting out the bad weather that was happening in North and South Dakotas and Kansas which was the way we had planned to travel.  But once again plans change.  As we needed to get to Altona, Manitoba as quickly as possible we decided to forego the sightseeing and just plot a course that would get us there as easily as possible.

We continued east into New Mexico before heading north.  We stopped for the night in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. 

It sure is flat in New Mexico! Dry and windy too!

The next stop was   in Colorado Springs, Colorado and then a truck stop in Selby, South Dakota.  We crossed the border into Canada at Neche, North Dakota, again a very uneventful crossing. We stayed in Altona at the park for a few nights but the weather was cool and windy so we moved to park at Al’s mom’s apartment building instead.

On May 11^th we left Altona heading north to visit Al’s brother in Bissett Manitoba. While  driving east along Highway 14 some large wind gusts (55-60km) hit us right as a semi going west drove by us, this caused the roof on our motorhome to loosen along the driver’s side and lift up, causing damage to the roof, the vent and the side of our motorhome.  We turned around and limped back to Altona, to assess the damage and regroup.

Two days later after the winds had lessened, we again tried to make the trip.  Being inventive Canadians, we had duct taped the roof together as well as we could and drove with our fingers crossed.  After two stops to re-tape the roof we decided to stop at Bird’s Hill Provincial Park for the night and continue the 2+ hours to Bissett the following day. After tucking ourselves in beside Byron’s garage for protection, we started the slow process of dealing with insurance.  ICBC decided to write off our unit so it was towed away to auction in Winnipeg and we were left homeless!

We stayed in Bissett until the 16^th of June at which time Al, Byron, Jazzy the cat, the dogs Wieser and Gibson and I (and a lot of supplies) flew by float plane to open up Byron’s fly-in fishing lodge on Fishing Lake for the season.

 more to come in part 2...