It rained all last night but stopped before we got up. It was cold, the silver lining with the cold now is that it prepares me for what's coming in the Rockies.
Every morning i let Erde out of the tent first to sit outside and enjoy the morning alone, as i did before with Leben and Erde. This morning as she sat outside alone, in a site we had camped in twice before, i heard her moaning softly. She moans usually at sites we camped in before. Her memory is phenonmenal.
Last year i bought two new self-inflating, 2-inch air mattresses. I know that the self-inflating boast is a little bit exaggerated, but i often wondered how good the 2-inch boast was. Last night i found out. One hour into what should have been an east sleep, instead felt like i was sleeping on a cold, hard surface, i was. i discovered i forgot to close the valves and so the air had all escaped. I was too tired to start the process all over again, so i concluded that the mattresses were pretty good, and slept on.
The hour i gained by crossing the time zone today i lost in installing a new watch band. Since i install a new watch band every 20 years or so (i wear watches only on my trips), it took me 40 minutes to figure out how to put the first piece in, but one minute to do the second. I would rather having been doing something less urban with my precious time.
Everyone is so friendly on the road and in the camps. Everyone says hello to each other, and bids farewell to those hitting the road. What a contrast to life in the city. Heck, my only next door neighbor doesn't even say hello.
Drove the distance to Winnipeg in good time, forgetting that there is no gas station almost 150 miles from Dryden Ontario to 31 miles into Manitoba. I ran out of gas in 2001 one mile from the station. I gassed up at a station off the highway in West Hawk this time. The one gas station on the road near the border i stopped at last year, where a woman proposed marriage, but for my JEEP, was still open, but they don't sell gas anymore.
Got to Birds Hill Provincial Park at 5:30. This is the most difficult camp to drive around as it is one huge maze with minimum signs, or signs using some codes that do not make sense.
My Casio camera is starting to go on the blink. These cameras are programmed to go bad with "lens error" messages within two months after the warranty expires. Tomorrow i take the Defender into the Land Rover service center to install the AC blower, so on my way i'll buy a new camera at Walmart, which is a short way off the highway. Then we head north to Riding Mountain National Park to a nice B&B at Lake Audy. B&B, by the way, means bears and Bison. After that, onto Jasper by way of Edmonton.
Internet may be spotty next few days.
Photos: Erde all snuggled up in the tent set for a warm night's sleep; the fox by our damp at Sleeping Giant. The ranger told me he saw the fox playing with a skunk the day before.
Ed and Erde, On The Road
P.S. Sorry for any errors in this message or posting. The iPad spellcheck is not known for its attention to detail.
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