Quarantine Day 5

Smokey Sunrise

Smoke is very heavy this morning.

Did the usual, watered the plants, started to heat up the hot tub and had breakfast.

Jack joined me for breakfast.

Received a text from Lisa last night she made it home at 9:30 pm her time, 11:30 pm my time. Exhausted by she has arrived and it seems the dogs love their new yard.

Smoked filled the skies all day today. Went in the hot tub before lunch and again after dinner. Hoping it is warm in the morning.

Going back to watch the final innings of the Giants game. Love those cutouts. 

Quarantine Day 4

This mornings sunrise

Very lazy day, had to drag myself out of bed. Sore back, need to reheat the hot tub and climb in.

Fed the birds and did the watering.

Made some breakfast and discovered that my food delivery person forgot the eggs.

Just heard that Lisa made to Alaska at about 9:30am.

Update: Lisa made it to Alaska. She had to get up at 4am to make to the border by 9am. They only give you 24 hours to cross the Yukon. They had made a mistake on her paperwork when she entered, it showed her having to leave the same day she entered. It did not turn out to be an issue.

She went to US customs and sailed right through, the dogs even got a treat for the agents. They reviewed her paperwork and gave her a bunch of paperwork, which she threw on the seat on drove off.

I believe she said that she pulled over around 10 am to feed the dogs, which she hadn't had time to do before. Each dog wears a harness, a leash is attached. the leashes are then secured to a carabiner that is attached to the car. She went to get their food and bowls from the back. As she came around the car she saw and animal int the road, then she thought that it looks like a beagle. She thinks someone else has a beagle out here. Then she looks down and sees that "Houdini" aka "Lola" has once again slipped her harness. 

Lisa calls out to Lola and she turns and starts running back. You can not make a move towards Lola after she is headed to you or she will bolt. Lisa made a slight move when Lola was about 6 feet away. Lola turned, Lisa shouted "LOLA DROP", she did and she peed. Lisa put them in the car and they were not to come out until she got home.

Which she had intended to spend another night in a hotel, as it was a long drive to Homer. Remember those papers she threw on the seat, she read them. Basically it said that you will go straight to the place where you will quarantine , do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars. No gas station stops, No bathroom stops, No food stops, DO NOT LEAVE YOU VEHICLE "PERIOD". GMAFB

Waiting to hear if she gotten home, she figured around 8:30pm.

So, now you get hear about what I ate today.....

Quarantine Day 3

Sunrise Smokey Skies

Went out to feed the birds Waiting for a bit more sun before watering, give the batteries time to charge back up.

Good time to defrost the refrigerator, as it is empty and I will be getting my food delivery today.

10:30am Sammy just delivered my groceries. Yeah, I have food in the house.

Dry rubbed some chicken wings and made some hamburger patties and put them on the grill. had the wigs with some corn on the cob for lunch. Had a hamburger patty with a baked potato for dinner.

Ate the dinner before I got a picture.(aren't you lucky)

Afternoon cloud formation.

Nothing like a soak in the tub after dinner.

Thus ends day 3 of quarantine. 

Quarantine Day 2

Sunrise through the smoke.

Cerrillos, New Mexico

Today, I got up and went out to water and check all the mouse and rat traps. The traps had not been checked in awhile, found two petrified squirrels and one snake.

I have refilled the hot tub and will fire it up later for a good soaking.

Came in and made myself some french toast for breakfast.

Contacted my friend, Sammy, sent her a grocery list, since I am in quarantine and can't go out. She will deliver to me tomorrow. 

My hand hurts like hell, so I will probably sit inside with the air conditioner on. The skies are filled with smoke from fires in Arizona, Colorado and one that started here yesterday. 

Lazy day walked around the yard. Searched through my current food situation and mad lunch from potatoes, from the garden, onion, sliced hot dog, brussel sprouts, with garlic sliced, fresh ground pepper.

Sat and watched a movie. When I needed a snack, I made some chocolate chip cookies.

The sun sets on Day 2 of my quarantine.

Lisa made it from Fort St. John to Muncho Lake.

Quarantine Day 1

 As you may know my trip was cut short at the Canadian border.

This morning I awoke and loaded the first of three loads of laundry. Because I am solar I have to wait for the sun to hit the panels before starting the machine.

Went out to my garden, checked that the holding tank, I have well water, was full and then started to turn on the drip system. Found a leak where the bunnies had chewed one of the lines, so I had to fix that.

Went to the vegetable garden and found it was overrun with goat heads. So I got my gloves on and my weeding tool and started to pull them up. The gloves didn't work so well, as I got a huge blister that took off a layer or two of skin.

The pile of weeds and my blister.

I switched the drip system and started to drain my hot tub, so I could clean it and refill it. It was full of algae so I had to scrub it and am leaving it empty to dry out overnight. Tomorrow I will refill it and leave it cool since it is so hot out.

Switched to the last drip line, turned on the well pump to refill the tank so I could do the laundry.

Went in and started the first load.

I started to go through my camera equipment and discovered I had left my camera on the floor of my friend's car. He had picked me up in a BMW, which would not make up my dirt road. We went to his house and switched over to his jeep. Being late and exhausted, I grabbed my three bags and left the camera. Sent him a text and asked for him to take it out of the car and I would drop by later to get it.

I know, I broke quarantine, but I had to go get my mail which is four mile down the hill. My house sitter had told me her key wasn't working. I used her key and it opened right up. I also picked up my camera.

By this time it was very hot, I was still doing laundry and cannot run the A/C at the same time. The limitations of my solar system.

I made a loaf of bread as I was out.

Finally, had time to sit and write yesterday's, trials and tribulations.

The sun has set and I am going to veg out in front of the TV.

FUBAR

I had a good nights sleep, Lisa not so much, the dogs wandered around and jumped on and off the bed.

We got moving, checked out and went to get some supplies at Walmart in case they would not let us stop in Canada. We were only a couple hours from the border.

We were driving down the road and came across an Antelope stopped in the road, stopped to take a few pictures. If any turn out I will post them later.

We were getting excited about crossing into Canada for the next half of our drive. 

We pulled up to the border station and gave them the paper work, we were asked to park the car and come inside. There they again went through all of the paperwork, asked a bunch of questions.

THEN THEY DENIED ME ENTRY.

I was denied entry because I was considered a tourist and they are not allowing tourists in. My sister has a home she is moving to, as well as, a business in Alaska, so she was allowed to transit Canada.

So, then we had to turn around and Lisa drove me to the Great Falls Airport, where I caught a flight to Denver and then back home to New Mexico.

Waiting, in Denver, for my connecting flight to Albuquerque.

Lisa then had to drive back to the border. They had a shift change and they went through the whole routine again.

I got hold of my friend and he came down and picked me up at the airport. As we are driving back to Cerrillos he tells me his partner had bought some cheap clay pipes for when people come over (covid). He then told me mine was in the glove box loaded if I desired. So nice to have good friends.

My trip has ended. I told Alex and Lisa that the maze I was drawing for the trip will turn black at the Canadian border and won't actually work because I never got to Alaska.

Prong Horn Antelope

Fargo North Dakota to Harve Montana

Travel Summary
Leave Fargo, ND at 7:17am
Arrive Havre, MT at 5:20pm
11 Hours travel time
689 miles
2370 total miles

Last night we had a good nights sleep. Dogs slept pretty well, too.

Went to get our breakfast in the morning, absolute crap, two bites threw it out. We ate some of our snacks.

We climbed in the car and headed out under overcast skies. The clouds cleared away about 20 miles out of Fargo. the rest of the day was clear and HOT.

We made a stop for gas and had some Bad juju, Lisa's necklace broke as she was exiting the car, fortunately, Puppum's tag was not lost. We stopped here for gas because of the Pie sign, this is for you, Denise, no, we did to get any.

We crossed the Continental Divide 8:25am. We were officially in the West.

We have seen very few birds along the way. There were hardly any bugs on the windshield. then we hit western North Dakota, bugs all over the windshield. Started seeing many Hawks, Pelicans and some water fowl. Still not as many as I recall from past trips.

We went by many fields of sunflowers.

At one quick restroom stop we came across a bunch of trucks carrying the blades for wind turbines.

At 12:20 we turned on 200S headed to western Montana and the border.

We made it all the way to Harve Montana, about an hour and a half from the border. Looking to get another good night sleep before the Canadian stretch of the trip.

Bea finally took a poo, of course she waited until she had climbed on my bed, which is now Lisa's bed. I was out getting dinner and guess who was not going to say anything.

I had a french dip sandwich from one of the only places open for food, it was good. Lisa had mystery "foul"  strips, most of which went in the trash.

Time to relax and then get some sleep.