Gone with the Wind

Well I lied on my previous post.  I thought I would be without internet for a week but I totally forgot that I can use free WiFi at campgrounds.  How awesome is that.

July 12, 2012

After taking care of a few things at home, we are off again, this time our destination is Hill Spring, Alberta and the Great Canadian Barn Dance RV Park.  Wow that's a mouth full, I don't even know if I have the correct title.

Well we started off on an uneventful morning.  We waited for the Seattle traffic to calm down a little and then we left about 9:30 am.  North on I-5, east on SR 18 and then picked up I-90 east.  Just before I-90 we came across fellow Airstreamers that live in the same park as we do; Phil & Pat pulling their trailer and Judy driving her motor home.  They were going to Glacier Park and then up to Hill Spring and we are going north on 95 to BC and then east to Crows Nest Pass to meet up with our BC friends.

After the crest of the mountain pass on I-90 we were going to take exit 93 and go to our favorite little fruit stand on the other side of the Hwy.  A very nice family runs the fruit stand and the fruit is always good and fresh.  Once they even let us boondock for one night behind their stand.

About 3/4 mile before our exit a car passed us with their windows down and everyone having frantically at us and trying to tell us something.  Luckily there was a safe place to pull over to try and figure out what was wrong.  Oh, by the way it was HOT and Windy and the outside temp was 101'.

Just our luck we had a blown tire, a very blown left front trailer tire.  The rubber and steel belts were sliced and diced on the tire but luckily no damage to the trailer.  Wow, were we lucky, if we had gone much farther who knows what might have happened.  This is our 2nd tire problem in less than a year.  The first was in Yuma and we replaced all four tires at Discount Tire.  I don't know about other trailers but on Airstream trailers the trailer keeps rolling along on three tires and you never know the difference.  I know this story is getting long, just skip to the pictures if you want, I like to have this info to look back on.


We have a safety vest and a collapsible traffic cone, this is the first time we have had to use them.

I'm not sure what Joe is doing but doesn't he look cute in his safety vest that I made him wear.  The little dinky cone collapses down to about one inch and it fits nicely in the rear truck door along with his vest.

AAA to the rescue

Joe is telling me to stop taking pictures, get in the truck and lets get the hell out of here.

The trailer tires are from Discount Tire and the truck tires are from Lew Schwab.  The closest Discount Tire is in Spokane Valley 180 miles away.  I called them and spoke to a very nice man named Nick.  After explaining the situation to Nick he said to go purchase a used tire to carry for a spare and then come into his shop and he would buy the used tire from us and replace the torn up tire.  Well, wasn't that nice!

However, just try to find a trailer size tire in farm country.  All the used ones go to the farmers for their "farm implements" is what I was finally told, after sever phone calls.  MY OH MY, where would we be if not for the cell phone and the air card.  Verizon certainly does a good job.



"The East side", that's what the people of Seattle area call it, (or sometimes "the other side of the mountains" is looking good.  Lots of nice healthy looking grains, they will be harvested in late summer.  I have always liked keeping an eye on the farmers' fields, just to make sure they are doing it right. lol

Stacks and stacks of hay is already being covered up, waiting for the highest bidder to truck it off later in the season.  Later in the summer there are acres and acres of these stacks of hay

Finally we come to the wind generators. 

 If you are traveling at night on a full moon they are spectacular to see

Crossing the mighty  Columbia River that Lewis and Clark came down. 

After crossing the river, up on the east side are these metal  cut-outs of wild horses.  Every time we come over this way I try to take a picture of them and today I finally got a decent picture.

Look close between the first horse and the  second horse is a person standing there.  There is a view point to stop and see the horses, but so far I have not been able to convince Joe to stop there, something to do with the fact that we are pulling a trailer up a long grade.

That's it for yesterday, safe travels to all, and thanks for stopping by

Joe and Nancy