Leaving Alberta’s winter weather behind

The Boothmans make their first trip to Arizona in their 35-foot motorhome

It was time for our first trip in our motorhome, and we were headed south. Now, I expected the heater might have trouble keeping up when it was minus 20, but I didn't think we would need to be driving down the road in full winter clothing complete with gloves. Finally we found ourselves on a windswept Wal-Mart parking lot in Lethbridge, Alberta. After our chilly drive we were expecting a long, cold night. But the furnace was able to keep it comfortable and we woke to a bright, cool day.

It wasn't long before we were at the U.S. border dealing with the less-than-pleasant border guard. Don’t they always seem like they’re having a really bad day? Soon we were rolling down a Montana highway. You know, I never noticed the hills when I was driving a car, but try driving a big RV. It seemed like the unit was always shifting into second gear.

Then there was Salt Lake City: six lanes of traffic that did not like to be behind a motorhome. I was driving the speed limit and trying to keep it between the lines and the cars were passing me like I was stopped. That was about an hour of driving that was not much fun.

About two hours before we reached Mesquite, Nevada, the sun started shining and we were able to shed the winter clothing. We arrived at Mesquite just before dark and found free parking at one of the casinos. At last we were into the summer weather--it was still around 20 C after the sun went down. After an Alberta winter, it was like we were in paradise. The next morning we had breakfast with some friends who have purchased a winter home there.

By dark on the fourth day we hit Phoenix. It was about 7 p.m., but the traffic was brutal. Flying down the freeway in the dark with cars zooming by, the GPS talking to me and my wife yelling at me made for some pretty tense driving. I was starting to learn at this point that the GPS cannot always be trusted, as I think it took us on a tour of every freeway in the greater Phoenix area. It did eventually get us to the Mesa RV park we had booked.

The next morning we were off to pick up the rental Ford Focus we had ordered online. I drove our 35-foot house on to the main street and stopped at a red light when suddenly the levelling jacks alarm went off. It was a very loud, screaming sound announcing my jacks were going down at a red light on main street in Mesa. I went into panic mode. Pretty quickly I was down on my hands and knees under the motorhome to see if the jacks really were coming down. As it turned out, they were not. So we drove with the alarm still sounding until we could park and stop the alarm.

It turned out the only vehicle the car rental place had left was a Chev HHR, which we reluctantly accepted. As we were dealing with the paperwork, they asked us if we would like liability insurance. This turned out to cost us almost as much as renting the car.
However, fhe next five weeks proved to be everything we hoped for and more. We quickly made many new friends and there was always something happening. We even had a grapefruit tree in our front yard, loaded with big grapefruit. Oh yes, there was one problem.

We had high speed Internet and cable, and Gail would often spend her evenings on the computer sending pictures and stories back to our friends in Alberta. One night it rained very hard and we woke up to find her laptop sitting in water. That was it for the laptop. Fortunately, it was insured and we still had my computer.

Soon it was time to go back. I have never seen five weeks go by so fast.
The trip back was uneventful and I cannot say I was happy to be home. I told Gail I was going to tape newspapers over all of the windows so I did not have to look outside at the winter weather. That year spring was really late, and it seemed like the summer would never come.

Later that year our house finally sold and we moved into our cabin at the lake, with the plan of spending our winters in Arizona. We thought it might be a good idea to take our motorhome on a shakedown cruise to see some friends in a neighbouring province. Just a little six-hour drive to Saskatchewan.

But that is my next story.