Our August Adventure

August: Richard made arrangements for us to take our Motor home and meet up with Ken and Trish at Melville, Saskatchewan. Then we would travel together to Cyprus Hills, Saskatchewan. This is quite a trip from Nipigon, Ontario. We had not seen Ken for at least three years and Trish more like six years in that time they had increased their family by two. On our way to Melville Richard drove until we were in Saskatchewan (14 hrs), in order for us to be able to visit some of the parishioners from our last Parish. What a surprise we gave several of the members of Immanuel Lutheran Church, Landestrue, and Christ Lutheran Church, MacNutt. It was great to touch base with members of these two Churches where Richard had been the Pastor.
After the visits we headed down to Melville to meet Ken and Trish, from there we turned our noses towards the South-West corner of Saskatchewan. As usual this trip turned into another one of or adventures. As we were turning off Highway 1, only about an hour from our destination, our motor home died. Ken and Trish continued to Cyprus Hills and we sat waiting for a tow truck, several hours later we were towed into Medicine Hat, Alberta. In the morning the vehicle did start and the diagnosis; we needed a new fuel pump. The option was to stay another day there or take our chances or continue with our trip. As this was only a trip of 10 days we chose to continue knowing the risk of breakdown was always imminent.
Finally arriving at the camp site we found Ken and Trish and proceeded to set up camp. The whole trip was for Richard to take part in an Astronomy Star gazing convention. Richard had always enjoyed working out the constilations and wanted a chance to learn more, hence this trip. When we camp I try to do as much walking as I can, since becoming an amputee this has been quite a challenge. This year Richard purchased hiking poles for me and what a bonus they are. During this trip I got to try them out and found it how much easier to walk on rough ground while using hiking poles.We had a great time visiting with Trish and Ken although Richard found it very tiring due to all the very late nights he spent star gazing. Sunday arrived and we turned our noses towards home. We decided to travel through America this would be faster and the fuel is far cheaper. Our motor home is quite a gas guzzler. I had to be back at work on Tuesday so we had no time to waste. Just before the boarder I saw three deer and we were able to take several pictures.
Our adventure was not over, remember we had a failing fuel pump. The weather was really hot traveling across Montana and North Dekota, just before we crossed into Minnesota the engine began to die. Richard realising we were about to come to a standstill saw an abandoned building and coasted into the parking lot as he pulled the motor home around to the side of the building we did not realise the building had an overhang. Now this overhang was just high enough for us to go under but not high enough for us to pull the vehicle all the way through. We damaged the roof, a vent, and part of the railings from the back ladder. There wasn't much we could do so we waited several hours for the fuel pump to cool and then continued the trip.

This was not the end of our adventures, we had decided to keep north in Minnesota and not go through Duluth, so we stayed on Highway 1 (MN), we saw a road that would take us down and join up with Highway 16 (MN) this would then take us to Thunder Bay and home. What we didn't know was; there was a section of this road where there was a need for a detour.And what a detour this was. We are talking logging road, with lots of hills and bends, this is a gravel road, we are driving a 35 ft motor home, our speed was cut sometimes to barely over a crawl because of the washboard affect. I spent my time out of my seat closing cupboard doors and the fridge door to stop items from spilling everywhere. These two pictures really don't show the road to being as bad as it was. This detour was about 25 miles the section of road that we were driving around was 8 miles. Just another adventure for our annuals. We arrived home to a garden full of poppies. We were never more happy to see this array of colour as we pulled into our driveway and parked. So now we have two lots of repairs to be done on the motor home, the roof was going to be replaced anyway, so now we have to get it done, no more procrastinating.