Alaska 2010 - June 3 and 4: Great Falls, MT

We kept working on our chores. It’s good to stay put now and then, take care of business, get caught up. But we’re eager to move north!

Thursday, June 3, there was a knock at our door. A pleasant couple asked if we were friends of Mark and Dortha Hall. We answered, “Yes”; the couple introduced themselves as Rod and Debbie Kendall. The Hall’s had told them they might cross paths with us since we were all headed in the same direction—Alaska. The Hall’s then gave the Kendall’s a brief description of our rig, and the address of our blog, which Debbie read. The Kendall’s checked into Dick’s RV Park, drove to their parking site, started to set up camp, turned, saw our rig directly behind them, and couldn’t believe their eyes!! What were the chances of this happening: same park, same nights, parked directly across the driveway from each other! This happens so often in our RV lifestyle and never ceases to delight me!!

We visited during that afternoon and then the four of us went out to eat at the Mongolian BBQ restaurant in town. Good dinner followed by Baskin Robbins ice cream. A perfect evening with new friends!!

This shows how close we’re parked to each other. That’s our motorhome and Dakota in the background at the left:

Friday, June 4, we each did our own thing then gathered late afternoon. At dinnertime, we went to “Boston”, a pasta/pizza place in town. Very good! Glad we chose this one! After dinner, we went to their rig and watched a DVD by Joe and Vicki Kieva about driving up the Alaska Highway and travel in Alaska.

Initially our paths will differ but we may be able to meet up along the way. Chances are we’ll be bumping into each other all summer—there aren’t that many roads in Alaska! They leave tomorrow, Saturday June 5, to visit friends outside of Calgary, AB—a 2-day trip from here. We hope to leave on Monday, June 7, bound for Ft. Macleod, AB, for a couple of days.

Another pleasant evening and this was our final gift:

Alaska 2010 – May 23-June 7: Great Falls, MT

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.]