Fifth wheel trip to British Columbia

[NorthernRedneck]

Who's up for a cross country trip to Fort st John British Columbia? We're in final preparations to head out Tuesday morning leaving from our place in northwestern Ontario Canada and traveling west. We plan on roughly 6hr driving days give or take with stops along the way where we'll be staying a couple nights to do some sight seeing.

Our 3 boys will be staying home with the dogs this time. Just the missus and I and our two 18 yr old daughters are going. Our first stop will be a shorter 4 hr drive to Dryden Ontario to stay one night in my inlaws driveway. Followed by a 6hr drive bypassing Winnipeg Manitoba and staying in Brandon Manitoba where we'll be staying in the Walmart parking lot. We're trying to save money on the trip where possible in order to enjoy ourselves more at the longer stops.

 

[Kevlar]

If you feel like driving an hour north of Brandon we have some valley land you can stay at if you want, beautiful place! We camp there quite a bit and dad has a cabin there. Definitely off the beaten path.

 

[Melensdad]

Sounds like a nice trip. Make some great memories with your daughters. Do yourself a favor and look up roadside oddities on the internet before you go. Last year we drove Dasha to California via the scenic route. Stopped off to see things like the world's largest wooden nickel and a large stone buddha-like statue and other fun diversions. Most were not too far off the route, so they made for great quick rest stops to get out and stretch our legs. Lots of memories made on the trip.

 

[Kevlar]

 

[Kevlar]

Here's a couple pictures of my place. Rates are pretty reasonable, free

 

[NorthernRedneck]

Very nice . Thanks for the offer.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

It's 4:30 the day before the trip. As far as I'm concerned we can head out anytime but we'll leave in the morning. In anticipation of the incoming thunderstorm overnight I have everything pinned up ready to go. Just a few odds and ends to load up and we can head off.

Today, I packed up my clothes and washed the outside of the camper. One side was dirty from when I washed the roof last week. I also filled the water, changed out a faulty propane regulator and fixed a sticking grey valve for the dump. Always something to fix.

 

[bczoom]

You said you fill the water.
How much water? Does the extra weight amount to enough to change your MPG's?
When I did RV's or trailers, I only took the minimum and would fill (and dump) at the next destination.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

We made it out the door by 7:45 eastern time this morning and made it 4hrs west to my in-laws. We set up beside their neighbors barn. We stopped at Raleigh falls to stretch and let one of the girls go for a .

I'm traveling with my wife and two 18yr old daughters. It was quiet for a while when one of the girls says "I kinda had to burp. Sorry about that" I replied "That's OK. I kinda had to fart back there too. Sorry".

 

[NorthernRedneck]

Not too bad for boondocking. Hydro and everything.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

Tomorrow's day is going to be a longer drive as we head west into the prairies. They kinda start here for a bit then it's rocky rugged terrain for a bit before hitting Manitoba where it's pretty much a case of hold the wheel straight for hours and hammer down. For tonight I will sit in the lawn chair watching the sun set as cl-415 water bombers land and take of from the airport down the road. The airport is a main station for the water bombers fighting forest fires.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

Guess where I am?

 

[Kevlar]

Mexico?

 

[EastTexFrank]

I would guess somewhere in Manitoba.
I used to know where that sign was but in my old and decrepit state, all I can remember is that it is somewhere in Manitoba.

 

[bczoom]

Guess where I am?

They spelled "center" wrong. I thought you were somewhat educated up there.

 

[Crumpy]

Looks like you are having a wonderful trip.
Hope the weather continues to shine on it.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

Looks like you are having a wonderful trip.
Hope the weather continues to shine on it.

So far it's been good. Very windy today o. The prairies but we pulled into Brandon Manitoba around 3:40pm. I drove into town to check out the Walmart parking lot and quickly decided against it as they had half the parking lot tore up so we drove back out to the hwy where there was a campground and scored a full hook-up pull through site with the only tree in southern Manitoba for shade.

I would guess somewhere in Manitoba.
I used to know where that sign was but in my old and decrepit state, all I can remember is that it is somewhere in Manitoba.

It's about 20 minutes east of Winnipeg. We bypassed Winnipeg as we're staying two nights on the way home. Tomorrow I plan on hitting the road early to avoid the afternoon southern winds in the prairies. At least Manitoba has about 12 trees within a km of the hwy to block the wind.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

 

[Kevlar]

Good thing you weren't passing through a month ago, Manitoba is always windy in the spring but this year was exceptionally windy for some reason. Are you at the campground by all the chalets? You missed your opportunity for free camping in a beautiful spot . Mind you it's been so dry here that the river is barely running anymore, getting green and a little gross.

My sister and brother in law has a 3 day head start on you, they are pulling their camper to BC somewhere for a wedding.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

Meadowlark campground. It was right on the hwy. We aren't hanging around long as tomorrow's destination is swift current Saskatchewan after a stop in virden mb where my wife was born to visit the museum as her grandfather's wwii memorabilia and flight jacket are there on display. He was a dive bomber in the war.

 

[Kevlar]

When you're in Virden stop by the little corner store, I can't remember the name exactly, Hi-way store or something like that, has unbelievable homemade baking! Stopped there a few times this winter with my daughter when we curled in town out that way.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

Stopped for lunch at a truck stop along the hwy in Saskatchewan. Prairies as far as the eye can see which actually isn't far due to forest fire smoke. (I'll be sharing a doozie story about the forest fire smoke later when I have time) it's a goodun. We also stopped by the virden mb museum where we got to hold my wife's grandfather's wwii flight jacket and log books.

As a side note. Check this out. The museum had on display a set of German utensils and memorabilia but were unclear as to the full story behind them. We informed them of what we were told. According to family members, he and a few other pilots bombed a German airfield then landed. There were still cigarettes smoldering in the ashtrays. They grabbed a few souvenirs to celebrate the victory.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

We had an hour delay today when I discovered the wiring for the trailer was disconnected and dragging on the ground. Luckily we were at a used rv salvage yard and they had one in stock. I rewired it. Everything was working except for the running lights. I'll dig into that in the morning and also want to adjust the tongue on the fifth wheel to drop it down an extra notch to allow a bit more clearance between the box and fifth wheel. It's just 6 bolts.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

If you are interested in seeing what Saskatchewan looks like, don't get too excited. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Here's tonight's campsite. I left the truck pinned up as it was raining when we arrived and set up.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

Let's stay at a koa resort and spoil ourselves for 2 nights, she said. It'll be a great place, she said. Fn gravel pit next to a mosquito swamp. Pay $100 a night for a nice place because they have a pool apparently. Every other campsite was nearly double the size with plenty of breeze. Here, we're crammed in like sardines. But enough complaining. Today's drive was about 5 hrs total.

We came up the no 1 divided hwy across Saskatchewan into alberta.

Most of Saskatchewan and alberta reminds me very much of north Dakota and south Dakota. As we got closer to Drumheller the terrain went from rolling prairies to the alberta badlands very similar to the badlands in South Dakota. There's a large dinosaur park where paleontologists have been discovering dinosaur bones for years.

 

[Melensdad]

When we had our trailer I never liked the commercial campsites. We had a few state owned campsites we would frequent, they were in "less popular" parks, but made for convenient weekend get aways from the house. The 2 of us and 1 Alaskan Malamute.

Never stayed at a KOA, but you certainly make it sound like fun

 

[Kevlar]

Did you stop at the disgusting Welcome to Alberta $hit house that is possibly most disgusting stinking outhouse in the world? We did when went to Drumheller and i almost puked, it seems to me we didn't even let the kids use the washroom and stopped at the next town.

My sister stayed at the KOA just west of winnipeg a few years ago, said they were literally 100 feet off the trans canada, couldn't even sit and talk around the campfire because of all the traffic noise.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

Yah. I'm not a fan of koa. Overpriced. You pay for the name and they cram as many sites as they can on their property. This is a new section of the campground though. No grass anywhere. We'll make the most of it. We did stop for my daughter at that place. Yah. It was a shithole literally.

I made an adjustment on the fifth wheel hitch tonight. I had about 5" between the fifth wheel and box of the truck so I dropped the tongue one hole on the height adjustment. It's only 6 bolts per side. I haven't had any issues in 3 years with the tongue hitting the box but just wanted to be sure I'm good.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

So the biggest thing my wife has towed until yesterday was the boat. It's still roughly 24ft long from tongue to the back of the engine and weighs roughly 4500lbs. After 2 long days of driving holding the wheel straight with nothing to see, I was getting tired and bug eyed. We were on a back country hwy with very little traffic where it's straight as an arrow for 100km. Good time for her to learn. Ok. She takes the wheel and is doing good for her first time towing a 31ft rv.....until we see a sign ahead......warning...8% downhill grade. She thought about pulling over and letting me take it down but didn't get woahed down in time from the 100km per hr we were doing. She got it slowed then I coached her through snubbing the brakes on the way down and letting the engine brake do its thing. She slowed to 60km and kept it there without smoking the brakes as we decended into a deep ravine that follows a river all the way in to drumheller.

I keep the trailer brakes set at about 4.5% and they did their thing holding everything steady on the way down.

Today is a rest day. We're going to check out a coal mine and dinosaur museum. It's gonna be a hot one. So we'll be in the pool later. Enjoy

 

[NorthernRedneck]

I will add that one thing the missus and I didn't factor in on a cross country rv trip was the time change. We've been getting up at 6am for years at home. It's 2 hours earlier here. And we still have another time change to go through. So guess who's wide awake at 4am? Yup. Both of us.