Sunday, July 29, 2007

Day 3, June 29, 2007

Day 3, Friday June 29, 2007
The plan was to be off early in the morning, We were up about 5:00 am, I had a shower and then Tegan had a shower. For some reason, Tegan had just finished her shower and the pump gave up the ghost. We left the campsite at Kicking Horse and drove to the dump station to dump the grey water tank and to have a look at the pump. The pump is located under the bed and so the bedding and matress has to be moved. Did all the checking I could and concluded the water pump has quit. Turns out it is the pressure switch which shuts the pump off when you are not calling on the water. We stopped at Canmore Alberta to pick up a water pump and $175.00 later we are on our way. Willa suggested that I check to see if it will fit ok but I, in my infinite wisdom, chose not to. We wanted a shopping center, so that Tegan and Willa could shop while I worked on the pump. Should have listened to Willa. The pump fit ok but the fittings were a little different. So decided to go to an RV shop West of Calgary (that’s right West of Calgary) to see if they had the right parts that I needed. This time we stayed right there until I go it fixed. All went together ok and we were off again. I topped off the water and the gas and we traveled east. Tegan drove a little bit of the way and I took over just before Calgary although the traffic was heavy she could have managed it. Although it does get intimidating when you have a big bus and a highway truck on either side of you. The lane may seem large in a car but can get very claustrophobic with the motorhome.
I drove most of the way out but Tegan started to drive around Strathmore Alberta and drove to Bassano where we camped for the night. We hit some very heavy wind just out of Calgary right to Bassano and when you were traveling East it tossed you around quite a bit. For me I have driven in the wind before but for Tegan she was like a drunken sailor for the first few miles until she got used to it and not overcompensating. The road out of Calgary is dead East until just past Strathmore and it turns dead South and of course the affect of the wind on the motorhome also changed. After Bassano the road runs SE to Medicine Hat. We got into Bassano about 4:30 pm (BC time) and set up Camp. After supper Willa and I went for a bike ride around Bassano looking for a pay phone to call home (just like ET). Sure some neat old buildings in the town, but not much value I presume because they seemed to be run down. Bassano Community Campground cost only $10:00 per night dry camping and $15.00 with electricity and includes hot showers. I didn’t notice the railway tracks when we pulled in, however even though there were a lot of trains I can’t say they were a bother. We settled in for the night, Tegan watched a movie and Willa and I read. About 9:00 pm we could hear thunder in the distance and about 30 minutes later we were into a good old prairie thunder storm. This went on for about an hour and the rain hitting the m/h roof was unreal. In the campsite some oriental people were tenting. Not sure how they made out but if not very noisy it must have been very wet. Around 10:00 pm it seemed to settle down and we slept well. Can hardly wait to see what tomorrow brings.

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