Our first night in Great Falls (Sunday 5/23) was spent dry-camped across the street from Whalen Tire, Inc., where we would purchase 6 new tires for our motorhome on Monday, 5/24. We were very impressed with the service we received and the price. The boys had the tires installed by late morning of Monday, 5/24, so off we went to Dick's RV Park, here in Great Falls, where we stayed until we left for Canada. Dick’s is THE staging location for everyone crossing at Sweetgrass, MT, into Alberta. We were all Alaska-bound, except for a few “seasonal” residents! RV caravans also use this park as the last stop before heading north. Whalen’s suggested we return the morning of our departure to have the torque on the lug nuts all checked: motorhome & truck.
Montana has no state sales tax. This is why we scheduled this major tire purchase here. We also bought 4 new tires for our truck at Sam’s Club. This was a good place to buy last minute things as well: new hiking boots for me, new handheld radios, etc. We’ve spent our days catching up on chores (including our blog!), making minor repairs, and creating a pad to protect our truck’s windshield against rocks while on Alaskan roads.
And we waited for the temperatures to warm in Ft. Macleod, AB, Banff, BC, and Jasper, BC, our next 3 stops. When we first arrived in Great Falls, the temp’s were in the 40’s by day and dipping into the 30’s at night. It warmed up quite a bit after a few days, but not so up north of here. Having lived in south Texas for a while, we’ve become wimps when it comes to getting cold!! The folks up here in Great Falls are hardy—even on those coldest days in the 40’s we saw many people (usually in their 20’s-30’s) walking around in t-shirts, shorts, and flip-flops!! Of course, after the normal winter temps here below zero, the 40’s must seem balmy!
June 6, the day before we left, we cleaned house and packed up. Then, we went on a 40-mile test drive south of Great Falls—20 miles out to Cascade, MT, on I-15 and 20 miles back. The tire company from which we’d bought our new motorhome tires recommended that we do this, then bring the motorhome in before leaving so the torque on the lug nuts could be checked. Even this was a beautiful drive! What a sense of space and distance! (Sadly, these particular photos didn’t transfer off the memory card before images on the card were automatically deleted. The remainder of my photos survived.)
The good news was we were totally packed up and ready to go, the day before our scheduled departure date! This was a FIRST! Too bad no one was around to document this! Usually, we don’t leave until about 11:30am, despite our best intentions!
The next day would be our anticipated border crossing into Canada! We had our passports, our Insurance Cards for Canada, and our Dixie Dog’s Health Certificate. We were totally ready!
[Note: we searched every pertinent Canadian website trying to find a single exact list of restricted foods which cannot be bought into Canada. None such exists! We gleaned from several sources the following: Prohibited are potatoes, meats not still in their original packaging as proof of origin, some fruits and vegetables (the lists never clarified which ones!), some plants (again, lists not clear), some dairy products, eggs, and chicken. So, we’d eaten all our eggs, chicken and potatoes, and prayed the border guard wouldn’t get fussy about anything remaining.]
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