#fibreadventure

[pinelakechic]

Day 42: Happy Campers!

I can hardly believe that today was the end of week 6 of our adventure! It has gone by so quickly while the early days seem so long ago! We started the day with getting our water hose connection fixed! Yay! The people at I-90 RV & Auto were great and not only did they replaced the broken plastic water hose connection with a copper one, they also replaced the low-point valve (which was apparently not working, but we didn't know because we have not used it), rotated the hose so that it has more clearance, zip-tied it to stabilize it, and bent and tied the heat shield to prevent it from rubbing the hose. All these were done under warranty - couldn't be happier to have a problem fixed and the solution being an improvement from before!

While we were waiting for the work to be done, I managed to make some progress on the socks I am knitting and plan the itinerary for the day. We will start heading south towards Rocky Mountain National Park today but we will stop in Wyoming for the night. But first thing on the list was to take Gimli to a dog park as it has been a few days since he has had a chance to run around. There is only one official off-leash area in Rapid City and it is the Braeburn Addition Off-Leash Dog Park. It is not far from town and turned out to be a huge section of a park that was fenced along the road, but connected to the trail system. There was also water access to Rapid Creek, but we kept Gimli from it so he stayed dry for the drive.

As we were leaving, a lady just arriving with her dog noticed our van and asked if we were from WA. She used to live in Lynwood and we chatted a little bit about camper vans and road trips. Perhaps because she found out we are Canadians and live in WA, she proceeded to make an anti-Trump comment and then got a bit flustered about talking about politics with total strangers. This was the first time someone (other than our friends) we have come across during this trip has been so upfront about the topic. She proceeded to talk about the "blue bubble" in Rapid City. 

I was just commenting to Dan as we went to our van that although Rapid City, SD, has never been on my radar and was not a "scheduled stop", it now has a special place in my heart: friendly and helpful people at the RV dealership, a cute,  walkable downtown, nice neighbourhoods with easy access to interstate highways and large malls, an awesome dog park, and a "blue bubble" to boot! I have barely finished talking when this other guy with a little dog, wearing an NRA t-shirt and carrying a sidearm on his leg, came up to us and asked us about the van (he told us that he was from NY). He was pleasant enough but I guess we saw the two extremes of Rapid City within the span of 5 minutes! 

About an hour from Rapid City was Hot Springs, SD, where the springs discharges into the Fall River. We stopped there hoping that we would find a touristy main street where we could have lunch, but there was not a whole lot going on. They do have a nice yarn shop, Fall River Fibers, so that worked out well for me and I got a couple skeins of yarn that were a blend of sheep and llama wool. 

The rest of the way to Glendo State Park, Wyoming, was through some of the most remote areas we have experienced this trip. We went for hours with just grasslands/pastures and occasional herd of cattle on either side of the highway and we exclaimed every time we saw any building at all! At one point, we drove past a series of large angular rocky outcrops or towers but we didn't see any signage informing us what they were. Some of these areas are part of the national grassland systems, but most of the land belong to private ranches, as indicated by the signs we saw. Although this area was almost as flat as the Canadian Prairies, with nothing to hold his attention, e.g. grain elevators, water towers, and interesting farm buildings, Dan found the drive a lot harder. It was particularly difficult as we have finished listening to all the Harry Potter books and I have yet to put the next audio books onto my iPhone.

After hours of just grasslands and not even a shrub in sight, we began to see riparian forest lining the North Platte River as we approached the town of Glendo. The signage to Glendo State Park was minimal and our GPS was not working as well as it should be, so we just followed the sign to the town and figured things out from here. According to the park ranger when we checked into the park, the state law said that there was a limit in the number/size of signs state parks could display on the highway… how strange. There was no obvious signage within the park indicating where the campgrounds were and she has run out of maps, so we followed her instructions which was kind of confusing but we managed.

The park runs along the shore of Glendo Reservoir, which was formed by damming the North Platte River at Glendo dam. There were private residences intermingle with park land, so it was a bit confusing as we were looking for our campground. The landscape was significantly different from what we have experienced for the past couple hours. Instead of relatively flat, expansive grassland that was mostly greyish green in colour with the occasional tan rocky outcrops, we were now winding up and down hill through sparsely wooded area (ponderosa pine and junipers) and exposed red rock walls. We were hoping that our campsite at Reno Cove Campground would be somewhat shaded as it was getting quite hot, but it turned out to be an exposed grassy area where the gravel patch was covered mostly by pineapple weed. I noticed the smell when we got out of the van and unlike the sweet grass smell at Badlands NP/Buffalo Gap National Grassland, it did nothing for me and I got quite tired of it relatively quickly.

Once we settled in, we went for a quick walk and confirmed that not only does the campground not have shower facilities, the vault toilets are about 10 minutes' walk away, down a hill. It is a beautiful park and the location works for us, so while it was not ideal, I am still glad for the experience. After it cooled down I the evening, the temperature was very pleasant. The breeze kept the bugs away for a while and we were able to have a nice dinner sitting outside while we watched the sunset.

With minimal light pollution and a clear night, we could appreciate the stars once it got dark. Although I don't know much at all about constellations, but at least I could spot the Milky Way and the Big Dipper! We have now installed star chart apps on our phones for the next time we have a chance to observe the stars. Until tomorrow, good night from Glendo, WY.

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[pinelakechic]

Days 46 and 47: National Parks on Tape

The last couple of days have been pack filled with spectacular sceneries that neither my words nor photos would do them justice, but here is my attempt at documenting them nonetheless. Sunrise at our campground has been amazing and although I am always grumpy having to get up early when Gimli started whining to be let out, I was glad to have witnessed some amazing views at the crack or dawn!

Due to time limitation and the fact that dogs are not allowed on any of the trails in American national parks, we have been only doing auto touring through the parks, occasionally leaving the AC running in the van so that Gimli could stay cool while we walk to viewpoints/lookouts. While I know the reasons behind the National Parks Service's pet policy on their trails, I have a very strong feeling that a well-behaved dog on leash does a lot less damage on a trail than some idiot trying shoo a bison off the road… and I have heard more noise from screaming children/yelling adults on this trip than from barking dogs. I digressed… 

We discovered that we could rent CDs or thumb drives with narrated auto tour from the Visitors' Center for only $5. Using that and the park map, we were able to have guided tours through both Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, knowing what we were looking at at each view point and learning about the natural and cultural history of the parks along the way.

We visited Arches NP yesterday and as we travelled along the winding road in Arches NP, we were awestruck by the vibrant red rock formations and we learned how these hoodoos, arches, mesas, etc, were formed and the reasons for their various striations and patina. The Courthouse Wash is a stream that runs through the park and the lush green riparian corridor along the stream contrast starkly against the desert habitats, includng the pinyon pine-juniper forests, in the rest of the park. I have learned about the PJ forest in school but it was something else to see these pigmy forests in person and it never ceases to amaze me how plants and animals evolve and adapt to some of the harshest environments on this planet.

It was a scorching, hot day with the high of 38C (but Bilbo registered 47C!). Although we have the house AC available, it was not circulating through the cabin, making it freezing cold over the bed but still stuff hot in the front where we usually sit. So after touring Arches NP, we headed back into town to the hardware store so that Dan could get some supplies and make an airflow duct that diverts cold air from the back to the front. Meanwhile, Gimli and I went to the Moab Barkery next door to check out their wares. Since tend not to chew his raw hide treats thoroughly before swallowing, causing frequent gagging, I thought I would try something else and bought him a piece of elk horn. While Dan's airflow duct was a success, the elkhorn was a bit of a fail - Gimli did not want to chew it at all even though he appeared to be interested when we were at the store. The wind picked up in the evening and there was even a thunderstorm in the distance. It rained on and off throughout the evening which cooled everything down enough and we were able to sleep without the AC on.

We noticed a trail access from our campground yesterday late in the day when it was too hot to walk with Gimli, so we decided to get up early this morning to take him for a walk there before we start our auto touring at Canyonlands NP. The temperature was perfect with a light breeze and the lighting further enhanced the natural beauty of the red rock walls around us. The Sovereign Trail appeared to be under the jurisdiction of the Utah Department of Natural Resources but could be access through this private campground. One thing we have learned on this trip with regards to access to  public lands is the distinction between "do not enter" and "keep gate closed" - if you find the latter at a gate to public lands, chances are, you are allowed to go in, just close the gate after you are done!

Canyonlands NP is much larger than Arches and the two auto tour routes are located 76 miles apart, so we chose to only do the one closer to us. We took the Scenic Byway (which was really the only way) from our campground to the park. It coursed through Bureau of Land Management lands, with impressive rocks walls on either side which opened up to amazing vistas of multiple mesas in the distance. The open landscape was a matrix of pinyon pine-juniper pigmy forest, savannas, and grasslands on rolling terrain.

Canyonlands can be roughly divided into three regions, separated by the Green River, a tributary of the Colorado, and the Colorado River: Island in the Sky to the north, The Needles to the southeast and the Maze to the southwest. Entrance to the Island in the Sky was the closest to us, so that was the auto tour we chose to do. Island in the Sky is a "peninsula" attached to a ginormous mesa by a 40-feet strip of land called the Neck. It is bordered along its east by the Colorado River and along its west by the  Green River; at its southern tip is the confluence where the Green drains into the Colorado. The viewpoints we visited gave us expansive and stunning views of the canyons, mesas, pinnacles, and other landforms carved by rivers over millenia - these views sure gave me the chills when I first laid eyes on them!

We have heard good things about Dead Horse Point State Park which was in the vicinity but when we arrived, we were told that unless we planned to go for hikes, there was not much of a driving tour to be had. So we turned around and headed back into Moab for late lunch and for a bit of shopping. We found out yesterday from the pet supply store that Utah state law does not allow pets to sit in restaurant patios, so the few "pet friendly" places I found online were really only looking the other way. So we returned to the Quesadilla Mobilla food truck, where the waitress greeted Gimli like an old friend!

The temperature has dropped quite a bit to a comfortable level by the time we arrived back in town, that was because another storm about to hit. By the time we finished lunch, the wind has picked up significantly, whipping up sand and grit to the point small children were screaming as they were trying to cross the street. I bought a couple of t-shirts while Dan continued to enhance our sticker collection. I then indulged in another fibre adventure and visited Desert Thread, a cute yarn store just off the main street. It was a small store but they carry many high quality brands. There was only work from one "local" dyer, Woolly Lizzard (who has actually moved to Colorado recently), but they do carry natural undyed yarn from a local farm. I ended up getting a skein of Woolly Lizard superwash merino-silk blend sock yarn in rust, orange, and speckles of purple, because the colours were near perfect representation of the rocks around here.

Within minutes of us getting back in the car, the sky opened up and rain was coming down in sheets. We were going to stop by the grocery store but I didn't want to get out into the deluge, so we just sat in the van at the grocery store parking lot for a little while until the rain eased off a bit. We noticed on our way back to the campground that there was significant runoffs on the streets in town and the previous dry stream beds along the highway now has relatively high flow.

It continued to rain quite hard for a few more hours after we returned to the campground, but we just hunkered down in the van and waited it out. The cool air felt so good and I didn't even mind the cold shower too much! I look forward to a more comfortable night of sleep before a long day of driving tomorrow, when we will start heading north towards Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. We have not booked a campsite, but there are plenty of National Forest and BLM campgrounds en route, so we should be able to find somewhere to stay for the night. Until then, good night from Moab, UT.

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[pinelakechic]

Day 19: A Mini European Getaway and “Urban Boondocking”

We said goodbye to Ontario after spending 10 days there. We also got back on the TransCanada to continue with our journey east. It was a relatively short drive and the landscape appeared quite similar to that between Toronto and Ottawa: tracts of mixed deciduous forest broken up by farmlands. But it was obvious when we crossed into Quebec. All the signs are in French, and even Waze (GPS system) call out sortie numbers instead of exit numbers.

My first impression of Montreal was the extensive amount of roadwork along the highway! While I could see the skyline of the city in a distance, all I could focus on were the detour signs, dug up roads, piles of rubbles, and mounds of gravel/dirt on either side of the highway as well as the partially dismantled overpasses. I did manage to get a picture of the skyline after the “dystopia-themed entrance”.

Because of the height and length of our van, parking in the city will always be a challenge. Dan's friend, Aaron, who we were visiting suggested that we head towards the Old Port on St. Lawrence River, where there is a large open parking lot. We found parking there with little trouble and walked to Old Montreal/Vieux-Montreal, the oldest part of the city.

The cobble stoned pedestrian area was lined with old buildings filled with galleries, shops, and restaurants. It was quite touristy but also very charming. If the French signs were not enough to make me think that I am no longer in Canada, the architecture, streetscape, and all the French and Spanish conversations around me definitely managed to trick me into thinking that I was in Europe somewhere!

After having takeout lunch from a creperie (who can say no to crepe filled with Nutella, strawberries, and banana?!) on a park bench in the middle of the hustle and bustle and seeig the Notre Dame Basilica, we went back to the car to plan a driving tour through the rest of the city. Although it has been muggy all day, it was not so bad walking between buildings in the shade. Once we got onto the promenade by the river and the exposed area at the port, it was pretty brutally hot and humid, so we were happy to get back in the car and turn the AC on for the rest of the day.

From the Old Port, we drove to see the following: McGill University, Parc du Mont Royal, the Olympic Stadium and the site of the Olympic athletes' village. On our way to Aaron's place in the Le-plateau-Mont-Royal neighbourhood, I found out that was a yarn store within blocks of their house. It was tricky to find our way and negotiate through all the narrow one-way streets in that area, but we finally made it and I spent some time in La Maison Trecotee and bought a skein of 8-ply sock yarn dyed by an indie dyer in Quebec.

Aaron lives in a typical apartment in that neighbourhood. These buildings were built in the early 1900's and are mostly three-storied brick or stone buildings with an apartment on each level. The ground level units have gardens in the back while the upper level units are accessed via these super steep exterior staircases. They all look a bit narrow from the front but the buildings are surprisingly deep and quite spacious. All the buildings look slightly different from each other which gives the neighbourhood real character.

We met Aaron's little girl, Naomi, and had dinner on the deck in the back - by then the temperature has gone down and the wind has picked up, so it was very pleasant. We were also introduced to the biggest craft brewery in Quebec, Boreal, and although I am not usually a big fan of Pilsners, it was really refreshing and hit the spot on a hot, muggy day! Dan knew Aaron through karate and Aaron is also in the tech world, so there was quite a bit of reminiscing and shop talk.

Although we have parked Bilbo on friends' driveways a few times, this was the first time we did some "real boondocking" in the city  I just hope that no one (cops) is going to knock on our window in the middle of the night saying we can't camp on the streets! Until tomorrow, good night from Montreal, ON.

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[pinelakechic]

Day 15: The Anticipation is Killing Me

Today is the day that we took Bilbo to "meet his maker" - we had an appointment at the Hymer factory to get his battery system checked out and to see how many of the other 30-plus items on the warranty list could be addressed.  

Dan didn't get a very good first impression when he was waiting to check in as he was ignored for while when the people at the front desk were just chit-chatting. But once he got their attention and the technician came to look at the van, things started to pick up. The tech assigned to our case clicked a few of the controls for the battery system and immediately pointed out that the behaviour of our batteries and the display were not normal and something was wrong.  We also gave the service manager the laundry list of issues we would like to address, knowing that not everything could be fixed today - we just wanted everything on paper or on the work order so that they could be worked on at a later date. 

We have left the entire day open as we did not know how long it was going to take to do whatever they needed to do, We dropped off Bilbo for a couple of hours so that they could run the diagnostics; meanwhile, we took a walk to a park/campground, Bingeman's,  nearby to kill some time. This park is a combination of campground, splash-park, and event venue. There were groups of kids there for day camps but we were able to find a quiet spot at a picnic area to just chill out and wait for the call. It was nerve-wrecking waiting for the diagnosis and when the call finally came, I found myself holding my breath waiting for the call to end so that Dan could tell me what they said! It turned out that the wiring for the entire battery system was done incorrectly (from factory) and they would have to re-do the whole thing! 

We took the Grand River Trail (trailhead was by Bingeman's) back to the factory, thinking that we could avoid walking on the busy street. It turned out that the street access from the trail to the street across from the factory, as indicated by Google Maps, did not exist and we ended up taking quite a bit longer getting back to the factory. The stress of not knowing how far the trail was going to take us totally negated the calming effect of taking a walk through the woods!

Just as we got back to the factory and were about to make arrangements for a factory tour and to get a loaner car for the day, Sunny texted to check on our progress and offered to pick us up, take us to have lunch and a tour of her work place, and then bring us back when it was time to pick up Bilbo. Given that we had made no plans for the day to begin with, this is turning into an interesting day!

What would make a tour of a work place that exciting, you might ask? Well, Sunny works for the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, the largest private scientific research institute in the world. It is a not-for-profit organization with independent funding and not associated with any universities… it was described by a physicist as a "physics spa"! When I first learned about the nature of the organization, I thought it sounded like something right out of a Dan Brown novel!

The PI has tenured faculty, visiting professors on sabbatical from their own universities, visiting post-docs, retired professors who are "permanent visitors", and students enrolled in their graduate programs. The building is of very modern design that puts a lot of emphasis on providing collaboration and interaction space - any surfaces that is chalkable has been used as a writing surface and the stairways are configured so that people have to brush shoulders when passing each other, etc. They also carried on a tradition that started during their first conference: when they put on their first conference at the old building, they didn't have pointers in the lecture room, but someone found some lacrosse sticks in the building to use as pointers. Those were too heavy, so the founders went to Canadian Tire and came back with an armload of hockey sticks. Since then, using hockey sticks as pointers became a thing for PI lectures. There are just so many cool things and stories about this place and we have not have even got into some of the research topics yet!! Check out their website - all the lectures are available for the public for free online.

[I saw the heart drawn next to the formula(e?) and added the “they discovered love” on the the board...]

After lunch at their cafeteria and the tour, Sunny drove us back to the Hymer factory. By then, we also figured out our itinerary for the next couple of days and decided to stay in Kitchener (or on Sunny's driveway) for another night. We had a factory tour at the Hymer site and got a feel for how all the Hymer and Roadtrek RVs were made. The whole time during the tour, all I could really think of was how Bilbo’s repair went... it was really not very different from having a pet undergoing a procedure and wondering the whole day what the end result would be and what the long-term prognosis is going to be!

By the time the tour was over, Bilbo was ready for pick up. And here is the lowdown: the entire battery system was wired incorrectly, e.g. the polarity was reversed, the batteries were set up in serial instead of parallel, the settings for the inverter was wrong etc. Because so many things were wrong, the techs weren't able to pinpoint which one or which combination of the errors resulted in the problem we saw. To be sure that things would run properly, they replaced both lithium batteries and replaced a number of controllers. They also got around to working on a few other things on our laundry list: leaks around the bathroom fan, water valve, squeaky microwave, and drawer latches; they even installed a grab handle that we asked for the last minute when we saw one in another van as we were doing the factory tour. All in all, we were quite pleased with what they have accomplished.

It turned out that one of Sunny’s co-worker, Ann, who we met during lunch, was also an avid knitter (we didn’t find out until after Sunny brought us back to the factory). When I mentioned that I am hoping to visit a local yarn store, Sunny asked Ann for a recommendation. She suggested Shall We Knit in Waterloo which is quite close to Sunny’s house. It is located in a beautiful old brick house, with Arts and Crafts style interior that I just love so much! Even the logo adheres to the style and that was the first thing I noticed when we arrived at the store. They carry a wide variety of yarn from Cascade, to Shbui  and they have an upstairs for spinning and weaving supplies, but I only had my eyes for something local. They have yarn from a dyer from Waterloo, but they colours were a bit more limited, so I ended up getting a superwash merio/cashmere/silk blend sock yarn from Indigo Dragonfly based in Ontario in sage green. It is so soft that I might use it for a shawl.... oh the possibilities! 

We returned to Sunny's after my little fibre adventure and met  her husband, Jeremy, who was now home from his tour in Victoria, BC (he's a concert violinist). We  had a nice family dinner and then we all took a walk to the corner store to get ice-cream for dessert. Afterwards, their neighbour came over with their little grandson - Gimli was super gentle with him and I was a proud mama! :) 

Benji started practicing his dance moves and circus tricks, and Dan got to resurrect his juggling skills after 20 years! It was so much fun hanging out with Sunny and her family; I am so glad Dan got to rekindle an old friendship and I had a chance to make these new friends. 

Starting tomorrow, no matter what happens with Bilbo, we will just have to deal with it as we go as there is no more "We will add it to the list for Kitchener". I am partly anxious and partly relieved about it because for the last 2 weeks, a lot of effort has been put into figuring out what was wrong with the van and how to get ourselves to Kitchener by a certain date. From here on, we will just take it as it comes and enjoy the journey. For now, good night from Kitchener, ON.

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