Day 25- To Whitecourt and beyond

Breakfast at Denny’s was too good. I wanted to stay. The wait staff was pleasant, the tea was hot and the Hawaiian Puppies, their take on white chocolate and pineapple pancakes which tasted more like doughnut holes, were wonderful. All things must end and so did our time there. We hit the road under the threat of rain at about 8:00AM which has been the target time, but not a hard and fast rule. The winds of yesterday hadn’t eased and we felt the camper, which is more like a huge sail pushing us all over the road but the condition of the road was pretty good. The gray skies kept my camera in it’s case for the most part except for these massive fields of brilliant yellow flowered crops. I thought this was soy beans but I’ve since found out it’s canola, Canada’s largest seed oil crop. They are particularly lovely when the sun is shining on them and I had this picture in my head of a gorgeous canola field, in full bloom, under breathtaking skies with an old red barn either amongst the canola or along the edge. I’ve been looking for this image for about a week. Today, I think we drove out of canola country and the skies, dark, low and ominous, today were less than ideal for such a shot. But there it was, an old red barn on the edge of and surrounded by a less than brilliant field of canola. I’ll post the photo and you can be the judge. Carl fought the rain and gusty wind for most of the day but when we got to Edmonton, we had another issue pop up. It’s called massive construction. We did manage to find a gas station just off the highway and then got back onto our intended road of travel. About 5 miles from the gas station another camper pulls up beside us and beeps to get our attention. They motion to the back of the camper and mouth the word “hoses”. We pull over at a red light and Carl jumps out to find the sewer hoses dangle out each side of the bumper where they are stored. Once cap had fallen completely off, lost for good, and the other had popped open. A minute or two later a lady in a car pulls up beside us to tell us that our gas cap is dangling and the door is wide open. With all this happening we still made good time and sailed right through Whitecourt. Actually, we missed the Dahl Street turn off for the Wal-Mart. It’s 4:00PM and we have stopped for the night at a road side rest area where there is a large parking area with no signage that says we can’t spend the night. We’ll see and I’ll let you know tomorrow.