Plans meet Reality! We bought an RV: a 2004 Ford E-350 Airstream BT Cruiser in November 2025. I began planning trips! I planned several trips around Thunder Bay in preparation for a big trip to Yellowknife in the summer of 2026. However, Wendy was very busy with her choir work, and none of those little trips happened! Using ioverlander.com, I mapped out a course to Yellowknife with potential stops along the journey. I adopted the mantra of, We have an agenda, but no schedule! which proved mostly prophetic. I also chose to follow the Three Rule for RV travel: 300 clicks, Arrive by 3pm, Stay up to three days. I intended to leave on Monday, June 29th, so we left on Thursday, July 2nd!
We're off! We drove out through Atikokan to a truck stop near highway 11. We enjoyed the sights, and a tour of the museum in Atikokan. On Friday, we toured along through Fort Frances and Rainy River and up highway 71 to Kenora where we visited our grandson, Greg, and his wife Kiersten—thanks guys! Then, we drove into Winnipeg where we found out that Costco only allows you to put $200 worth of fuel into your vehicle! (After restarting the credit card, we topped up to $239—I never knew a vehicle could hold that much fuel) Thanks to driving an RV and to the Orange war with Iran, we managed that ignoble feat! We enjoyed a visit and lunch with Tom & Mariette—thanks! Then, we drove out to Carman to spend the night with Glen & Kim—more thanks! I was experimenting with different driving speeds and seeing how that effects fuel usage and comfort in the journey. While we tried 80, 90, 95 and 100 speeds, we did not find an appreciable variability in fuel consumption, that seemed to be more dependent on wind direction! We finally chose to drive at 90.
 |
| 56 years! |
After celebrating our anniversary on July 4th, we enjoyed a fine breakfast with the Knutsons and an uplifting assembly with the local congregation. Then, we resumed our journey west. We stopped in Brandon for coffee with Charlie and Bonnie, a nice time for sure. Then, we continued to Elkhorn to visit with Bill and Angie, that was also an encouraging time. We accepted their invitation to spend the night, and enjoyed a wonderful breakfast of oatmeal porridge prepared by Bill. We continued West on July 6th, driving through my childhood haunts of Fairlight and Wawota and stopping in to see the new camp buildings at Clearview. We found where Bernard and Alicia were camping and enjoyed some wonderful coffee that Alicia had prepared and which matched her description! Then, we drove up to Kennedy where we visited with Ray and Ellen along with Heather and Sydney. And finally, we caught up with Dave and Heather out at their camp and enjoyed a good time of conversation, games, and supper. We retired to the RV for the night and woke in time to have a sumptuous breakfast. Fatefully, that was our last good decision of the day. Wendy was determined that the road to Regina passed through Weyburn. I explained that the path to Weyburn passed through Kisbey. We were both wrong! The road to Kisbey was blocked and led to many kilometres of orienteering, through the back roads, through the MUDDY back roads! Several U-turns later and a many a mud holes later, we found another grid road heading down to Forget that allowed us to get to the highway and then onto Weyburn. We lunched with Kresten and Star and their kids and enjoyed a tour of their new house. Then, we were finally able to complete the trip to Regina. we have spent the rest of this week parked in Erin‘s parking lot and enjoying the comfort of her air-conditioned home. They always host us so well, and I continued to suffer with my cough/cold, so, we delayed our departure another day, and finally took off on Tuesday, July 7th. We drove through our old hometown of Earl Grey after lunching with Garnet & Debbie in Southey—thanks! We planned to spend the night at the Lions' Campground in Lanigan. But, it was full, full of water, full of mosquitos, and full of campers—surprising! We drove on to a previous point I had seen near Plunkett to boon-dock; it was lovely! On the 8th, we continued up #2 to Prince Albert where we plugged in for the night at Eric & Erica’s place. They were both up at Stony Rapids, so we did not visit much! On the 9th, we continued to Lloydminster where we boon-docked at the Gold Horse casino. They were very welcoming, and even let Wendy win some money from the VLTs. We toured the Lloyd Museum, and Wendy delighted to find an important artifact of civilization—she believes it's an early Kirby!
 |
| Granny and the Vac! |
On July 10th, we moved on to Athabasca, and on the 11th, on to Peace River—just flyin’ I'm telling ya! There was a time when Wendy drove Dauphin-YK in one run—crazier times for sure! July 12th found us in Manning after we enjoyed the sights around Peace River and, after a short drive, the museum in Manning. It was a voluminous display including the almost mythical 15 30 tractor.
 |
| The 15 30 |
On to the NWT! We drove up to High Level and checked out the museum there. We stayed on the parking lot of the visitor centre. On July 14th, we finally reached the Northwest Territories. They offered showers at the information centre and I found the seven minutes for a loonie was plenty. We parked for the night in a gravel pit just short of the two waterfalls on the Hay River, that is Alexandra and Louise Falls. The gorge has been eroding around those falls, so most of the walkways were closed. The next day featured the short drive into Hay River, I think it was the first trip there for Wendy, although she remembers going in briefly when we were on our way to Fort Smith one summer. Anyway, we got the full dose of it this time. She did laundry, then we toured around looking for a nice spot for the evening/night and we found a beauty right on the big lake, on a nice sandy beach. Some of the sand away from the water gets soft—that’s where I got stuck! Fortunately, I have a small hydraulic jack and I was able to get some relief so we could close the steps, then a generous neighbour came by with his truck and a tow rope and pulled us free—yay! On the 16th, we continued the tour including Lady Evelyn Falls, the crossing of the Mackenzie, and settled for the night on the shore of the river in Providence.
 |
| Bison |
The 17th saw us driving through herds of bison to the newly developed Territorial campgrounds on the North Arm of Great Slave. This was our first time paying for a campsite, but we did enjoy having electricity without running the generator.
 |
| Camping on Great Slave! |
Finally on the 18th, after the usual pancake breakfast, we drove into Yellowknife and enjoyed the reunion with cousin Cindy, who is hosting us to conclude the trip north—thanks Cindy! And so we find ourselves on the shore of the deepest lake in North America, Great Slave Lake. While we have spent many years here before, this visit was not mundane. On the 19th, we enjoyed a gathering with our longtime congregation here, but there were few people who we recognized—still, a precious time. Then, we began a visit with our long time friends, Simon & Lenore. Simon began some repairs on the RV. The biggest challenge was the bed and after a spate of problem-solving and a lot of adjustments, we came up with a successful solution. The next morning, after another lovely breakfast, courtesy of Cindy—thanks, we began our River Lake excursion with Simon & Lenore. It began with a tour of Robertson‘s wonderful taxidermy—must be seen to be believed.
Then, we headed out to the cabin on River Lake. Our week there involved daily excursions, organized by the cruise director (Lenore), a wide variety of games, and excellent dining experiences! it was an amazing week all around: amazing setting, amazing experiences, amazing people! On Friday afternoon, the 24th, we returned to the city and began preparations for our next experience—the Big Lake! But not before Simon helped me with two more repairs to the RV: the backup camera, and the stairs. On the 18th, we took it easy with a tour of the museum at Giant Mine and of the Diamond Centre. That evening, we visited with Randy & Leslie, and Dave & Lee.
We spent the next week on Great Slave Lake, yeah, actually on the lake, on a boat. Eating, sleeping, fishing, sight-seeing all accomplished from the boat—nice! The Big Lake was calling our names and thanks to Dave & Tram, we were able to head out toward the East Arm on Monday morning, July 27th. It was all new experiences for us and we enjoyed it immensely. They had packed enough food to feed an army, and we ate too much of it! We feasted morning, noon and night, and feasted our eyes and experiences each day! The Big Lake is immense and this was just another part of it with beauty all its own.
The cliffs were expected, but also beyond expectation. The fishing was expected, but also surprising as we had never caught nor tasted grayling—delicious! The species of fish that we caught was also a surprise, people who come north fishing, expect to catch trout, and usually catch jackfish (Great Northern Pike, slough shark)! Our guys started off catching grayling and what a great supper they made. Then, they moved on to trout—delicious! And it wasn’t until the final day that Tram managed to catch a 15.1 pound jackfish, so that was also a surprise—albeit a delicious surprise!
 |
| Musk Ox |
The most surprising thing was the arrival and presence of musk oxen! Two of them showed up at our anchor north of Utsingi Point and they stuck with us until it was time for us to leave the next day! I had never seen a musk ox in the wild and I did not expect to ever see a musk ox in the wild. It was a wonderful surprise for my birthday! Thus ended our trip to Yellowknife and our delicious reunions!
Thanks! As we began the trip home, our main thoughts are of thankfulness to the friends in Yellowknife who have made the central aspect of our trip so memorable. In the final analysis, there are other important aspects of this first RV trip, but the central theme remains a trip to YK to celebrate friendships and experience the nature of the area that was our home for eighteen years! It has been 31 years since we left, and ten since our last visit. You cannot know when a trip will be the last, but you have to recognize as you celebrate a 76th birthday, that such opportunities are becoming rare.
 |
| Cindy & Sage |
The central person in the comfortable operation and success of the trip is our cousin, Cindy. She took us in, housed, showered and fed us as needed throughout our time in the north. Thank you, Cindy, we owe you, we love you! Then, there are Simon & Lenore, a lifelong friendship formed during our time living there, and especially over our collaboration in developing, building and enjoying the cabin at River Lake. This summer, we refreshed all of those in an active week out at the cabin with them. We are so thankful for the relationship, and for sharing the cabin and River Lake experiences with us once again. And finally, last week there were Dave & Tram who opened new venues for us on the East Arm of Great Slave Lake. We enjoyed a great week on your boat, exploring new vistas, fishing and eating, sightseeing the beauty of another part of the North. Tram is another daughter for us, and we delighted to see her thriving in her home life. We are thankful to Dave and for Dave as he contributes to her happiness.
Heading Home! We left Yellowknife on Tuesday morning, August 4th, with a plan to stop the first night at Dory Point just across the McKenzie, but the signs there said No Overnight Camping, so we carried on to Lady Evelyn Falls, and got a site for the night. Then, we completed our exit from the Northwest Territories, stopping for fuel at Meander River and planning to spend the night there. Once again, my plans proved unsatisfactory to the management—too muddy, poor cell signal... so we continued down the road to High Level where we spent the night. On 6th, we continued south stopping for the night just past Peace River. My plans, continuing to work perfectly on Friday, saw us stop just north of Fox Creek. A lack of cellular coverage, and a plethora of mosquitoes caused this site to be rejected. We checked out another site near Fox Creek, but this was also rejected due to bugs. So we drove down to White Court where Wendy picked a spot at Walmart. This time it was I who found the better site at the Flying J truck stop. Finally, on August 8th, after our traditional pancake breakfast, we packed up and drove down to Sherwood Park AB to stay with Scott & Margaret. But first, we dropped by Canadian Tire to pick up some supplies and to dump our tanks. Upon our arrival in Sherwood Park, Scott, very generously, changed the oil in the RV—thank you! We enjoyed a prolonged stay with Scott, Margaret and Tori, and then turned east on August10th. We broke the trip to Prince Albert into two segments, enjoying another stop at the Gold Horse Casino in Lloydminster. Once again, as we took the secondary route from Lloyd, we were troubled by the lack of cellular signal to drive our navigation and our music. The children and grandchildren have taken notice of this complaint, and generously provided for a Starlink Mini as my Birthday and Father's Day present—thanks! However, getting it has proven much more difficult than expected. A preliminary search revealed a variety of suppliers including Costco, Home Depot, Walmart... but, it turned out none of them had one is stock—they can order one for me, but it will take some weeks to arrive! Quelle surprise! It took very little additional investigation to reveal the cause—Musk is undercutting his own suppliers! (Not so much of a surprise!) So, I bought one from Starlink dot com for about $50 less, but it will take those same weeks to get delivery. Maybe someone out there has a better solution. After a full week of work (one day) on the renovations in PA, we took up an offer to fly north!
 |
| the town is named for these! |
Eric/A flew us up to Stony Rapids for a weekend visit. It was lovely, and they don't have any bugs up there (okay, I was lying about the bugs!!). But, hey, the internet connection was good, so life continued! In the week that followed, we have moved from the Athabasca River to the North Saskatchewan River and finally to Lake Wascana in the middle of the prairies, where we moved in with Erin and Kristian while reconciling with Kali. We flew out of Stony Rapids on August 17th, passing through Uranium City and onto Prince Albert. We put our hands to several projects in the house there. Wendy managed to get the main floor bathroom ready for painting at Eric/a’s. We have passed that assignment on to Liam. I managed to do some plumbing and electrical repairs. Both bathrooms are now fully functional and we are awaiting a flooring decision on the main floor bathroom. We drove down to Regina on the 21st. Today, we all went golfing, although Wendy did not golf, serving only as my caddie and golf cart driver! She missed no shots and lost no golf balls! We all had fun!
 |
| Erin's Birthday Golf! |
Then, we continued our wandering towards home. I managed to get in a couple of golf games, so I had a good time in Regina. The first game was with Erin and Kristian, so that was special already. It was our annual birthday golf extravaganza! It featured my first time ever of putting a tee shot on the 17th green at that course!
 |
210 yard green in regulation!
(Yes, I missed the birdie putt!) |
The other game was with my old friend Dale; it was good to reconnect with him. On the 24th, I took the RV to my mechanic to get a new fuel filter. Then, we loaded up with Dave and drove down Bengough to see aunt Grace. She just celebrated her 101st birthday! We also stopped in at Ogema to see Joanne & Mac. On the 27th, we drove down to Weyburn and visited with Kresten & Star, but the main purpose of that trip was to burn the soot out of Kristian’s car. That’s an issue with diesel cars, they need some regular highway driving to clean the exhaust system. On the 28th, we drove to Dauphin by way of Binscarth where we visited with our friends of 56 years as we had lived there during my first year of teaching. On the 29th, we visited with our friends, Beth and Amber in Dauphin, our friends Bonnie and Charlie in Brandon, and finally settled in with our friends Bill and Angie in Elkhorn. Finally, in the first week of September, we have returned with our home on wheels to our home on Kensington. We enjoyed a lovely time in Winnipeg at Tom & Mariette’s complemented by a meal and visit with Angie—thanks! On the 1st, Tom and I got in a round of golf out at Quarry Oaks—always a good time, regardless the quality of the golf! Kali, Wendy and Mariette got out for long walks and greetings to other dogs and their tenders! On the 2nd, we continued our trip east, stopping for the night at a boon-docking site near Ignace. Nearby, we enjoyed a lovely waterfall.
 |
| Raleigh Falls |
On September 3rd, we completed the trip. It has been a wonderful first trip of 9645 km! We left on June 26th. The RV has performed well, and we have made some improvements during the trip and listed a few more we wish to make.
