Changes

May 18--Edmonton, AB

I got up VERY early--the sun rises at 4:45am MDT in Saskatoon,and I was up with it. I fed the cats, decided to do another rinse of the water tanks, since the water there was really tasty, and got on the road about 7:15. I decided, since the weather was going to be really hot, and there is a possibility of thunderstorms, and the Edmonton campgrounds are fairly awful, to stay in a hotel. So I found a Comfort Inn that allowed pets, a mile or so from the West Edmonton Mall, and made a reservation.

Most of the drive today was very flat, although the Saskatchewan River carves a nice wooded valley through the area, and the highway tends to follow it on one side or another. I wanted to get started early because it was going to get near 90, and it did indeed warm up fast. It was sunny too, and luckily the wind was behind me, because it was whipping something fierce (I had to drive into it for a bit, and thought I'd blown the turbo in the engine again!).

There were intervals of woods, most notably a national park just to the east of Edmonton called Elk Island National Park, which is aspen forest. Supposedly it has lots of animals, but I didn't see any. I did see a couple of pronghorn earlier; luckily they were headed away from the road!

Edmonton traffic was awful. The road I was on had exits off both sides of the road, and I was in middle lane when with no warning my exit came up, and I almost came to a halt on the expressway before someone let me in. The same thing happened at the next intersection; luckily, it was a less-traveled area, and I could get in the correct lane to get to the hotel without much problem. The room I'm in is very nice and cool. The cats aren't sure they're happy, since they're back in the kennel, but I fed them and now they're asleep.

I decided to walk to the West Edmonton Mall. It's about a mile, and I had a bottle of water so I was fine, even though it was quite sunny. The mall is massive and has a huge number of things all under one roof, like miniature golf, a submarine ride around a copy of the Santa Maria, a sea lion show, a huge waterpark with slides and wave pool, an ice skating rink, an amusement park, an Imax theatre, and more stores and restaurants than you can believe. I walked around the whole thing, ate some sushi (from the Chinese grocery), and walked back. Luckily it was cloudier--I think it's raining outside, but it's too dry to reach the ground right now.

Well, as I said above, things change. I was looking at the Milepost last night, and realized that I'm only a bit over halfway to Alaska. I also realized that I really can't face driving another 8 days to get to Alaska, and then driving around there, and then driving back, and then driving to Ohio . . . the RV is just not fun or easy to drive, and I don't really trust it anymore. I drive in a state of fearful anticipation, worrying that something will go wrong. And I don't feel right about dragging the cats into possible danger in the wilds of Alaska in a vehicle I don't trust. So I'm going to put that trip on hold, and change mid-vacation (which isn't the first time!). I'm hoping to go visit my parents for a bit, and then explore southern BC and Washington State. That should be lots of pretty things to see, mountains and oceans and such, without having to drive another 1800 miles to get to it. It won't be Alaska, but it will hopefully be wonderful!