Pincher Creek, Alberta

Pincher Creek Countryside

We're in Canada, in a little town called Pincher Creek in Alberta. Pincher Creek is in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies, just north of the International Peace Park which is comprised of Waterton Lakes National Park on the Canadian side and Glacier National Park on the US side. Pincher is known as one of the windiest places on earth, and has a huge windfarm to prove it.

We're parked at the home of our friends Art and Sharon Bonertz. They have been wonderful hosts, feeding us wonderful food and they have a full hookup RV site right in their front yard.

This is our second trip to Pincher, and we've lost count of how many times we've visited with Art and Sharon somewhere. They spent a month with us at Jekyll Island last winter.

Art promised to build a bike rack for Consuelo for her three-wheeler incumbent bike. We've been carrying her trike on the back of out VW bug on a standard bike rack. It will travel OK there, but it's heavy and rides off balance. The new rack will mount on the tow bar hitch on the back of the motorhome. He fabricated most of it after he got home from Jekyll, and has been waiting for us to arrive to do the final fitting. It will work well, but still needs a bit of modification to balance properly.

Cooperative back scratching

Yesterday we ventured out to find the local Wal-Mart (they're everywhere) to pick up some odds and ends and replenish our larder.

Our trip into Canada turned out to be a bit challenging. We left the city in shorts, as they were expecting highs in the 80's and were well on their way by the time we got on the road. We cruised up to Shelby, MT, stopping there to fill our gas tank. We then took US 2 over to Cut Bank, MT, and took the rural road up to the border crossing at Del Bonita, Alberta.

Soon after we got out of Cut Bank, the west wind started blasting across the open prairies in what I perceived to be 30-40 mph with higher gusts. It was strong enough to open the awning over our slide which started bouncing in and out. I went to the roof and was able to secure the latches with a couple bungee cords, which stabilized that one. The smaller bedroom window awning tried to unfurl, but only came out a few inches again and again. Fortunately, our large awning was on the lee side of the coach. The wind continued until we arrived in Pincher Creek, alternately a cross wind and head wind as we zig-zagged in a west then north direction across the high prairie.
Pincher Creek Windmills

The border crossing was easy this time. Whereas we had been told to leave our coach whit the border agents searched it the last time we entered Canada, we only had a visit from a nice customs agent this time. We did have to produce vaccination papers for our pup, not unexpected. And of course we had our passports ready.

We're about 1/2 way through our planned week long Pincher visit.