Heading East - Say What?? 8.19.24

Remember when I promised you a travel blog full of adventures, and I said you never know what is going to happen on a road trip?  How unexpected things happen all the time?  Well, that’s what the title of this post means.  Yes, we are heading East, back to the Chicago area temporarily.  The electrical issue with the trailer has not been resolved and we want the folks who have worked on it in the past to be the ones to fix it now. 

Am I disappointed?  Of course.  This is going to cause yet another delay in a journey that has been full of delays since, oh, the past year or so.  I am trying to take the attitude that this is not a delay nor a detour, but merely part of the road.  It’s easier said than done.  My spouse is better at this than I am.  We will stay in the Chicago area until the trailer is fixed, and then we hope to head West once again. 

                                           Tire swing, Minot, North Dakota

Meanwhile, a few parting words about Canada.  We have enjoyed driving through the provinces, even the flat prairies, and the people are wonderful.  There was a young woman who paid for our stay at a campground, because our bank cards were rejected by their system and they would otherwise only take Canadian currency, of which we had none. (But note, our cards worked everywhere else.) Then there was the talkative woman who was a truck driver, whom we met at a rest stop when her friendly hound tried to hitch a ride in our car.  She talked quite a bit about the fun of being a woman in a man’s field, and said she often had people taking her picture and asking her about life on the road.  And she recommended that we get a dog, saying her life is so much better because of her beloved Harley.  I don’t think our small trailer and the life we lead, in which we are gone a lot during the day when not actually driving, would suit a dog, but her enthusiasm was charming.

Canadian road signs are so polite.  The message is the same, but their road signs are worded in a more kind, courteous manner.  Like this:  Remember two-way traffic.  Or: Double lane.  Please let others pass.  The winner and still champion is a sign we saw in a Canadian convenience store many years ago on another trip:  Video surveillance in use.  Do no wrong.

Gas prices:  Chicago $3.89 when we left; $3.85 in Bridgman, Michigan; Low so far: $3.11 in Valley View, ND.  I haven’t talked about Canadian gas prices because in the areas we’ve seen, the stations are so spread out that we sometimes have no choice, making comparison shopping meaningless.  But a typical price would be something like $1.54/L, which translates to US $4.26/gal.  And it is frequently much higher.  The exchange rate is $.73 on the dollar.  The exchange rate fees show up in your bank account, and they are small for individual purchases, a few cents maybe, but they really add up.  Provinces and municipalities can set their own fuel taxes, and in general, taxes in Canada are higher than residents of the U.S. are used to.  

Signage:

Outside a church in Bridgman, MI:  “Don’t have a prayer?  Refills inside.”

At a campground in North Dakota:  “Drive carefully.  Our squirrels can’t tell one nut from another.”

Businesses:  Out On a Limb Tree Service, LLC – Sister Lakes, MI

 

And the winner:  Ads for a law firm in North Dakota, with cartoon drawings of the bearded, flannel-shirted attorney:  “Insurance companies fear the beard,” and “Insurance companies fear the flannel.”