The day started bright and early, with a 6 AM wake-up call to assist Miranda with packing her car for her journey back to Vancouver. After a heartfelt goodbye, I snuck in a couple of extra hours of sleep before waking up to the chatter of the kids.
In the midst of sorting out emails and mapping out our day, I stumbled into a hilarious text mix-up. I was deep into a conversation, thinking I’m chatting with my brother in-law Roy, only to find out I’ve been yapping away with a total stranger. Just one of those “oops” moments I guess :)
Then, it was time to get on the road. We hopped into the motorhome to deliver it back to Leduc, Alberta, with Grandma and the kids trailing behind in her car.
The return went smoothly, save for an extra cleaning fee, and we soon made our way back to Westlock to finish loading up the Jeep and got onto the road! I grabbed a coffee, my first of the day, and off we went south to Drumheller.
On our way out of Westlock, I seized the opportunity to weigh our trailer at a highway scale. We had to wait for some folks to finish weighing their horses before our turn came, which was quite a novel for the kids :) Koa really wanted to pet the horses.
After weighing Friday the Jeep trailer, both attached and detached from the jeep, I discovered that it weighs about 1010 kilograms on its own and 840kg when hitched. This indicates that the tongue weight is roughly 170 kilograms or 375 pounds which seem like it might be a bit high but what do I know :) More Research required :)
We were then off and running south to Drumheller. The long, and basically straight drive was punctuated only by stops to pee and thanks to the Long-ranger fuel tank, we were even able to refuel as we went and didn’t have to stop.
We arrived at Drumheller by 4:30 PM and after a quick photo opp at the welcome sign we headed to River Grove Campground and Cabins which is our home for the next few days. The check-in process at the cabin was swift, and we quickly unloaded our gear and set off again, this time in search of pizza.
Our journey took us past the world’s largest dinosaur and its most ‘derpy’ counterpart before we landed at Boston Pizza. Though we initially braced ourselves for a long wait, we were pleasantly surprised to be seated in less than 15 minutes. The kids relished their Pepperoni and Hawaiian pizzas, washed down with root beer and chocolate milk.
We made our way back to the cabin under the gusts of Drumheller’s wind, armed with another full pizza for later. The evening was spent in relaxation as we huddled together, watching a documentary about Yellowstone National Park and planning for the days to come.
It was a day of transit, of fleeting goodbyes and exciting hellos – to new places, new experiences, and a whole pizza that would taste just as good the next day