Sunday, July 8. We drove from Medicine Hat, AB to Moose Jaw, SK today. Don't you just love the names of these towns? Moose Jaw comes from an old indian name for the town because of the Saskatchewan river that runs through it curves at one point looking like a moose jaw. As for Medicine Hat, we'll all have to google that one. When you arrive in Moose Jaw you are greeted by a tall statue of a Moose which just happens to be across the street from the entrance to the RV Park where we stayed for three nights. Cute?
We stayed at the Prairie Oasis Tourist Complex. The use of the word prairie is quite prevalent in these parts, mainly because there is a LOT of prairie! The park was nice, paved sites and plenty of shade trees. The first site didn't work because the trees blocked the satellite dish and I gotta have my dish!! We found a site that would work and moved. While I was making the arrangements at the office for our new site I asked about our friends who were coming in to stay a couple of nights. It just so happens they were booked into a site just down from us. I asked the reservation clerk if she could move them next to us and she happily did. Canadians are so friendly! Here is a picture of our site, Brian & Elaine were on the right side of us.
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Mike and I have been trying to take turns as to who gets in the picture at our campsite. It was his turn this time. That trailer to the right left the next morning and then Brian & Elaine arrived right after lunch. They were coming to Moose Jaw to see the Tunnels of Moose Jaw. We changed our itinerary a bit so we could join them.
Monday, July 9. Today was a laundry day. When we arrived yesterday the laundry was temporarily closed so I did two loads in the motor home Sunday evening and then two more Monday morning. I like using the washer in the RV but not the dryer, takes too long. The dryers here in the park were great! Each load in our washer is equal to a half a regular load so I only had two loads to dry which only cost $2.00, $1.00 per load! We also found a grocery store and a liquor store, it was a good day made even better when Brian & Elaine arrived!
Tuesday, July 10. Our Tunnel reservation was at 10:45 and 11:45 today. There are two tours to see two different parts of the tunnels. The tour guides are "actors" portraying characters from the 1920's. The tunnels were used to connect local businesses so whoever was in charge of the steam heating system could easily go from building to building. Without the tunnels he would have to climb and descend a lot of stairs. Eventually, the tunnels were used by Al Capone to smuggle boot leg whiskey in and out of Moose Jaw. It was referred to as "North Chicago." They would not let us take a picture inside the tunnels so all we have is the outside of the building.
The tours were fun and entertaining. On the first tour we were treated as newly arrived immigrant workers from China. The tour guide called us "coolies" and instructed us to not use that word outside of these tunnels since it is a derogatory term. The second tour guide referred to us as "bootleggers" and was going to set us up with a shipment of booze to take back with us. The employees at the Tunnels were referred to as "cast and crew," much like Disney does with its' employees.
Wednesday, July 11. Moving on day. Brian & Elaine left a little bit before we did. They were heading to Medicine Hat to visit friends. (What?? They have friends other than us??) We were heading for the states to get the dreaded border crossing over with! Mike & I both have been a little apprehensive about crossing back into the states. The RV is our home now and when you take your home into another country it can be a little freaky. There is stuff in our home that may or may not be ok to take across international borders. We decided to just take a direct route back to the states and forego driving through Manitoba, we would see it another trip.
Hwy. 39 took us right down to the border at North Portal, ND, on the east side of the state. There were three lanes when we arrived and one was open so I pulled up to that one. A border guard motioned for me to pull forward. Another border guard approached us and asked to see our passports. He asked if we owned the RV and car together and was the paper work in the car. He asked about firearms, weapons, how much cash we were carrying and did we have any fruits and vegetables. I answered his questions and then he asked us to step out and to stand in front of the coach while he another guard inspected inside. Shadow, one of the cats, immediately went under the couch! Jenny stayed on the dash and Midnight, the other cat, remained in her chair. The guards confiscated three oranges and that was all! Hooray!! We had about 4 bottles of wine on board and there were vegetables in the fridge but they didn't care about them. He put our passports on the dash, exited the coach and told us to have a nice day! We were back in the states with our home intact! Let's see what North Dakota is like and if we can find a Walmart to "camp" in for the night.
Mike looked online (we could use the iPhone again since we were back in the states!) and found a Walmart in Bottineau, ND that allowed overnight parking. It was on the main road we were traveling on to get to Minnesota and only a couple of hours away. Northern ND is very rural and very flat, lots of farmland and a few small town. Bottineau is a small town and the Walmart was the least busy Walmart we have ever seen. I parked on the west side of the building and we set up camp. It was very hot that day and here we were in a spot without shade and without electricity for the AC's. Yuck! We did run the generator for a little while that evening so we could turn on the AC's to cool the coach down before bed. It was still a hot night! Note to self, no more boon-docking in hot weather!
See you in Minnesota!!
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