Category: Traveling the hiways and byways

We had stopped in Milk River on our last trip to Alaska and figured we would do it this time also.  It was a convenient place to get Canadian cash from an ATM there so we could pay for campgrounds that do not take cards, usually due to lack of internet service along the Alcan which prevents card processing.

This year was a bit of a fiasco.  I took my credit union’s ATM card to the same place that it worked the last time and this time it did not work, as that payment kiosk required a chip, and my card did not have one.   No issue, I had another ATM card from another bank and it had a chip.  But it too did not work!!  Only later I noticed that card had expired a few months before.

Now things were getting interesting.   I went back to the coach to see if I could find out the PINs for my usual credit cards, figuring I would get a cash advance; but when I checked, I had never set them up with a PIN.   I went online to set them up, and guess what?  That bank will only send a “new” PIN out by regular mail… to our house in San Diego, not to where we were, in Canada.  Now things were starting to seem serious to me.

Luckily for us, our friends Tami & Scott had decided to stay with us for one night in Milk River and Tami was able to get cash and really helped us out.  We wrote her a check and she did a mobile deposit.   Phew!  This really showed us how things can go wrong when traveling.  Seemingly innocuous things can really throw a wrench into your plans.

I guess we could have paid with our US cash to that particular campground, but I calculated I needed about $1,000 Canadian for the rest of the trip in Canada (up and down), and getting a new card may be impossible during this trip.  Not sure if they allow them to forward to our mail forwarding service.  I guess we will find that out in the next few months.

That night I woke up from a dead sleep around 2 am  remembering I had put a PIN on a card that I almost never use.   I checked in the morning and I had that PIN in my password manager,  Keepass.   That morning I drove over to a bank really early to take another $400 and it was declined.  Turns out the only bank in Milk River only takes MasterCard in their ATM and my card was a Visa..  Holy Smokes, this was getting tough.

The following morning I overhear Kathy and Tami on the phone saying something about Scott has to go back to the US to activate his Hotspot SIM card for data to work in Canada.   I had to go over and ask Scott what was going on as we had gotten it working late yesterday afternoon.  Turns out his Google Fi account had switched to unlimited data overnight and his Data SIM was disabled.   His call to Fi support was not helpful getting it to work, and they said he must go back into the States to activate it again.   I assumed he needed a U.S. cell tower, but that turned out to be incorrect, he just needed WiFi that was listed as being in the U.S.   My new Starlink system to the rescue!  We connected his laptop to my Starlink and was able to activate his data SIM.   So apparently the stop in Milk River was good for both of us.  🙂

Tami said we should follow them to their next stop instead of us staying in Milk River for a second night.  Kathy wanted to leave this place because the trees dropped sap and leaves and debris that stuck to Dusty’s feet, so we went with them.   We drove to a casino in Lethbridge, AB.   And happily for me, that Visa card worked in one of their ATM’s!!  What an ordeal.  But finally I had a way to get a bit of cash if needed later.    Turns out that bank card has a maximum of $375 of cash advance, which is $500 Canadian.

While camped/parked at the Pure Casino, we enjoyed lunch, and the next morning we went in for the $5 breakfast.   The funny part about breakfast was the night before we decided to go at 9 am.  When we walked back to the doors we had use the afternoon before, we noticed the large print about them opening at 9:30 every day.  I guess we were truly “too poor to pay attention” for that one.

Also of note, when we got to Lethbridge, my Starlink knew we were in Canada, so Scott’s SIM activation may not have worked if we waited to do it then.

This was not a great way to start the adventure!  But it all worked out in the end.

The morning in Dillon was extremely cold (to us) 27 degrees at around 6 am.   When I woke up and saw that, I turned off my charger on the inverter.  I then went outside and turned off the solar panel output breakers and turned on the newly installed battery heater switch.  (I am so glad I installed the switch before we left)    I did this as my LiFePo’s should not be charged when they are colder than 32 degrees.   They probably have a low temp protect circuit, but do I trust it?  Nope.

Around 10 am we got on the road heading toward Great Falls, MT, to meet with friends that were also going to Alaska.   We aren’t traveling with their group after checking how many miles they were traveling each day on the Alcan.  It’s  just too far each day to drive, taking into consideration our knowledge of the roads once you get past Dawson Creek.   We chose to go with another couple we met in Alaska the last time we were there and had caravan’ed with for a couple months on and off,  Larry and Sue.  They tend to drive shorter distances on the really rough roads that we will likely encounter on the Alcan, but  most importantly,  they are really fun people to travel with!

The drive from Dawson Creek (beginning of the Alcan) to Tok, Alaska,  is over 1,200 miles (not km) and they only get a couple months of the year to fix it, so all the construction for the year is happening when you are driving it.   They pave it with dirt and rocks, so it can be a real mess.

We got to the campground in Great Falls and ended up in a spot just a couple slots up the hill from our friends Tami and Scott.  We also got to meet the people they are traveling with and got to spend a few days enjoying being with the group before we all head on this great Alaskan adventure!!!  And to our delight most of them know how to cook and we got to share a few dinners with the group, which were impressive meals.

We headed out around 11 am on Wednesday morning, drove over to our local Chevron Station to add 25 gallons of fuel at a really good price using the Chevron Rewards app that my son told me about and then hooking up the car to get on the road.   We got back on the road going on noon and immediately realized I didn’t bring my new sunglasses!  I wasn’t going to travel 6 months without them, so we headed back home to find them.

On the way home, Kathy noticed we had also forgotten the weather station, which is crucial on our trips.  What a rough start!

After searching for a long time for my sunglasses, I got a flashlight and found they had fallen between the seat and the console to the rear in my truck!!   In the process of looking everywhere in the RV though, we had extended the small bedroom slide so Kathy could look to see if they had somehow been put back there.  (I had thought I put them in the RV on the dashboard.)

We got back on the road and I was just getting onto the I-15 north when I noticed that BR slide was still out.  OMG!!!   I pulled over and we pulled it in.  Wow, never did that before!  Geez.

The rest of the drive to Barstow was pretty uneventful till we got to Victorville.   Ahead of me was a large truck and I noticed kids on a bridge ahead looking suspicious.  Just then one of them dropped what looked like a rock about 5″ across to try to hit the truck in front of me.  I leaned on the air horn, which shocked them, and they started running.  Luckily it didn’t look like the rock hit the truck and more luckily, us.   That night we stayed at the Barstow KOA.  We had stopped there before and it was a fairly decent place for the night.

A little more on the fuel situation…  We try not to fill our 150 gallon tank in California due to the $1 extra tax they add per gallon, so we last filled our tank in Tucson in March on the way home from the Escapade rally.    The cheapest fuel here in San Diego was $4.49 a gallon.  Most places were way over $5.  The Chevron near our house was $5.39, so driving the 2 miles to the next one was a good plan.   Add in the $1 per gallon discount on the first 25 gallons was nice.   That allowed us to make it to North Las Vegas where Gas Buddy told me fuel was $3.99 a gallon.  When adding at least 120 gallons of fuel, even 50 cents a gallon difference saves enough for a great lunch or a cheap dinner out.   I just like to look at prices along the route we are taking to know where to fill up.

On our way down interstate 5, we stopped for a night at the Seven Feathers Resort.  We had been there before and I was looking forward to going back to the Mexican place we ate at the last time we were there, but we ended up making something in the bus and skipped going out.  Really nice RV park and especially dog friendly for Dusty!

The picnic tables were changed out since we were there the last time.  Kind of an odd replacement choice in my opinion.  Kathy took advantage of their nice laundry facility and washed a lot of our larger items.  (But killing stink bugs was the highlight.  They came out of the slides when the weather warmed up.  Yuck!)

 

 

We stopped by Renee and Mick’s homestead on our way back home this summer.   Luckily, Renee mentioned I shouldn’t be concerned when I saw a gravel road to go down.   When I saw it, I was concerned for a few seconds; then realized that if they could get their coach in there, I shouldn’t have an issue as they are probably 1 foot taller and 5 foot longer.   It was very tight going, narrow and completely tree-lined, very close on each side of this long one-lane gravel road.  I wondered what would happen if somebody came the other way.  Luckily no one did.   There wasn’t anywhere to pull off that I saw.  Within a few minutes, I saw their motorhome and was glad we made it there.   Mick came out to point out a few places where we could park.  We drove the bus over top where they will be building the house.

I could not believe how much work they had done in the short time since they bought that forested land:   Removing about an acre of trees, which would be no small feat; bringing in power; drilling a well; installing a septic system and leech field.  And they were traveling and working a lot of the time!

Renee had insisted she make dinner the night we were there.  I had assumed we would go out or at least get takeout.  But as we got there, I realized she was right, as we were driving away from the freeway, there wasn’t anywhere nearby their homestead for takeout or dine in.

We got to see the foot print for their house and shop building.   I learned that the building department does not allow them to build the shop first, but have to build the house then the shop.   I thought it would be nice to build the shop, pull their motorhome inside out of the weather, and then build the house; but the local building department won’t allow them to do that.

After a very nice dinner, we discussed interesting happenings and some of the travails of motorhome travel.  They had an incredible experience when pulling into a wedding venue and the dip at the entrance lifted their drive wheels off the ground so they were stuck and needed a large wrecker to pull them off.  The most interesting part was their motorhome manufacturer installs rollers at the rear of the coach for just such a scenario.  Without rollers, I would guess there would have been substantial damage to the undercarriage.   Yikes!

The next morning we said our goodbyes and headed back out that gravel road to find some pavement and get to our next stop at 7 Feathers Resort.  Hope to see their beautiful home after it is completed!!