Entry into Canada

We delayed our departure from Great Falls this morning so Dennis could try to reach Wizwire, his business Internet supplier where he and Carol run their RV Driving School business. The site had been unavailable since Friday, and there was no way to reach them over the weekend. It turned out there was no way to reach them on Monday morning, either. Finally, about 10:30 Dennis suggested that we and the Forbes go ahead and they would catch up with us later.

We did so, pulling out in a light rain that had been soaking us most of the night. We stopped in Shelby, MT to top off with fuel while still in the US. Just as we reached the exit, the air pressure on the motorhome dropped and the alarm sounded again! This is the same problem we had in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The alarms cleared, then repeated another 4 times in rapid succession.

We pulled into the Pilot station to the closest diesel island because we were anxious to come to a stop, only to learn that we didn’t get the Pilot/Flying J 3-cent-per-gallon discount on that pump. The station was a joint Town Pump/Pilot establishment, and the Town Pump side didn’t recognize the frequent customer card. We paid $4.189 and the discount would have dropped it to $4.159. On final figuring, it was only an 88-cent difference on 29 gallons, but still annoying. Now we know that we need to go to the truck area, where there’s one pump for cars/RVs to get diesel with the discount.

After fueling, we pulled around back to have a bite of lunch. Don ran through the brake test that Dennis had given us a copy of after the last incident. Everything seemed fine. We pulled out on the road again, followed by the Forbes. The air pressure was okay, but a new alarm began to sound about every 1-4 minutes. We both watched for indications on the dash instrument panel and the Silverleaf. It wasn’t the air pressure. We couldn’t see any sign of a problem.

Finally, at the US-Canada border, Don shut off the engine. After starting it again, there were no alarms! It’s a mystery…

So, now the good things about today. The sun wasn’t in our eyes. The scenery didn’t distract me from reading my Kindle. Don offered to do all the driving because I was so nervous about the alarms.

We made it through the border checkpoint with only a few questions, mostly about guns (we don’t have any). I could have brought two cases of Two Buck Chuck (wine) and they never would have known! Oh, well, if I had them on board, it would have been our luck to be inspected thoroughly.

We got in the one lane open for cars/RVs at the border at 12:47 pm.

Another lane was opened and we pulled into it behind 3 motorcycles.

At 12:57 we were cleared to enter Canada!

We drove on to Lethbridge, where we checked into Bridgeview RV Park. Staff told us our friends Jim and Pat left this morning and told them we were coming. They were very helpful and friendly, and we found the park to be well-laid out and maintained. Dennis and Carol pulled in shortly after we were checked in, as they almost managed to catch up with us on the road.

Our three sites are close to each other. Here we are:

The Forbes’ are across the lane and down one site:

And the Hills are about 3 sites down in our row, in the Dutch Star just beyond the Challenger 5th wheel.

Carol had cooked a pot roast in the crock pot while traveling today, and Don made a great salad, so dinner was easy today. It’s always great to share these times with friends.

We went for a walk to help dinner settle. We left the rain behind but not the clouds completely. Still there was enough sunshine and no wind, so it was a very nice evening.

Some of the sites are next to the Oldman River.

Shadow got to walk around the park with Don to check out his new neighborhood, then he stretched out for a snooze after such a rough day!

We’re spending two nights here, so we’ll have time to do a little exploring tomorrow.