Chuck
This day starts great; no rain and the sun is trying to peek through. A quick breakfast, grab my water bottles and I’m out the door. Hmmm seems pretty nippy, better slide some long gloves (with fingers) over my bike gloves and maybe slip a windbreaker over my short and long sleeved Tee’s. Still cool but I’ll warm as I get moving and the sun gets higher. Betty has reviewed the map and says she will drive the RV to Wetaskawin and hook-up at the Prairie Breeze Campground. We say goodbye and I’m on my way. Immediately glad that I have the long gloves and windbreaker. After a day off it feels good to be streaming along the highway, very little traffic, mostly flat, hint of a tail wind, nice. Little towns slip into my tiny rearview mirror; Strom, Daysland, Bawlf. The sun has disappeared, those black clouds that were in the distance are now upon me and the light misting is now a light rain and cooler. I stop on the roadside to grab a chocolate bar to warm me. A small car stops along side me and a lady asks if I need help. She is Dutch and tells me of biking the Danube and the Rhine, Betty, Suz & I also biked the Rhine. As we chat she says “You are shaking, and you’re all wet, you must be cold”, her husband invites me to come to their home to warm and wait until the bad weather passes. I thank them and move on. Now I am in exactly the situation that I avoided yesterday by taking the day off. The road is wet, I am wet and visibility is terrible. I decide to bike to the next town, Camrose, is 17 miles, I will wait there for Betty & Bren to come along. My windbreaker is keeping my core dry, but my feet are soaked, gloves too and I feel cold water dropping on my head through the slots in my bike helmet. What I am really concerned about is visibility; my glasses have water on both the outside and the inside. When a vehicle passes, I sometimes get a wall of water, even when they try to give me a wide berth. Finally, a large beautiful sign “Welcome to Camrose” a mile later I see a Co-op gas station with a parking area big enough for an RV to maneuver. I pull up by a pump which has overhead cover and call Betty. Bren answers so Betty must be driving at this moment, they will find me. Inside, I get some hot chocolate and go back out to direct them into a suitable area. Some guy makes a crack about me fueling my bike. After talking with a young couple, they invite me to wait in their van until I see the RV approaching, foolishly, I decline. After few minutes, I am totally chilled and walk around to keep from shaking. A Co-op worker, who provides full-service at the pump, suggests that I wait in their employee break room. As we were talking, I see our “Home on the Road” and direct it to a space on the side of the parking area. Betty is at the wheel, big warm smile, confidently wheeling that big rig with the Honda CRV in tow and both loaded with full bike racks. Once inside the RV, I get out of the wet clothes, into as many dry layers as I can find and wrap up in blankets. Betty moves us back into traffic and Bren has the map as they plan their route; I do not worry about it. Warmth is wonderful! By the time we reach Prairie Breeze Campground, the “chill” has passed, I feel human again.
Betty goes to the campground office to make arrangements, she finds that they really do not have wi-fi as advertised. We are assigned a campsite in a mudhole and as soon as I hook up the electricity, we blow a circuit breaker. That’s it, we are moving. The campground hostess says they have higher and dryer sites. We select the highest & driest. It only has 20 Amp service, most campgrounds offer 50 or at least 30 Amps. We take it anyway, even though it means only one appliance and a couple lights at a time. We are now hooked up, inside out of the rain and warm. We decide to visit the Reynolds Alberta Museum which is only a half-mile away. We had been told it was great and were looking forward to it. Machines were the focus: cars, trucks, tractors, farm machinery, airplanes and more. They had lots of vintage autos, mostly U.S. but some Canadian only and some European. They even had a 1951 Studebaker, my first car, however, this one was not a convertible, mine was, it once held 14??? : ) . We departed at closing time, it would take hours more to see it all. Then, dinner at Barny’s Pub & Grill while Bren watched Boston whip up on the NY Rangers in Ice Hockey. All is good!