If you missed the 10 second news report on CBC’s the National, then you might have missed that Dawson Creek had a once in a hundred years flood in June. This extreme weather event saw 110mm of rain fill the city with water. After that, the Henrys just tried to keep their heads above the surface in the days leading to our trans Canada adventure. Pushed events, changed meeting schedules etc. etc. kept us hopping. We managed to dodge most of the potentially major hiccups and hit the road only a day late.
From dodging schedule disasters we are now dodging thunderstorms and as with our schedules we are being mostly successful. Starting night one on the road, at Carson Pegasus provincial park, we just got a fire going after wrapping up a walk and jumping in our PJs when thunder roared around us and the heavy sky finally burst. (This only minutes after I told Julian a ghost story revolving around thunder. I even made a point of surprising him at the end of the story. This required a solid Freddy the Frog anecdote to calm nerves before bed.) It was a quick scramble to clean up and overall everything stayed dry, except me. Early to bed on night one.
After a night of rain we awoke to dreary skies but no drizzle. We packed up and hit the road. No sooner were we rolling then the rains came down. We were heading for Saskatoon and it was on and off rain the whole way. Lunch in Edmonton was great. We found an awesome school playground with ample parking and an adjacent leash free dog park. Nice work Edmonton. This was all by accident though and city driving/navigating is not where Catherine and I excel at making collaborative decisions. In any case, we all played and walked and as soon as we started for the trailer to get set for the road again…boom, the skies opened up. Another leg of the journey with wet feet and damp shirt. We arrived just to Camperland RV park just outside of Saskatoon late, quickly set up shop, and hit the hay.
We casually got going on the morning of day three. We were going to see where the road led us. We were going to try and swim at the park pool. Alas we were not allowed as rain was predicted. With this prediction we started to organize. Laundry started, trailer organized, impromptu bike riding lesson. As Catherine showered, I was loading up the boys and gathering our scattered belongings.
Trailer was packed up dry, which was great because as I was sorting the remnants of a tornado that incredibly struck only my lot, the skies unleashed a prairie monsoon that soaked me to the bone in a minute. Catherine made it back, showered twice, and so we drove to the laundry house and waited for the dryer to finish.
On the road again, heading for Manitoba. Wet feet? Check. Damp shirt? Check. Our drive on day three meandered through Saskatchewan but did not stall out. We drove through some epic weather on our way to Russell.
Stopping in Colonsay for gas, the tap turned off. We headed to Manitou springs and passed through blinding sheets of rain, only to arrive with parting clouds. Highway 15 took us the rest of the way to Russell MB and as we neared, the skies darkened to the colour of Saskatoon berries. This was an unbelievable contrast to the fields of lemon yellow canola. About 30kms outside of Russell the boys were antsy and we were trying to point out anything of interest, praying another prairie train would roll by soon to keep their attention. Then the two storms on either side of us came together. It was as if the lights were turned down and any noise from the boys vanished.
Lightning exploded next to us and a sideways rain drove into the side of the trailer, pushing it sideways. As I strained at the road ahead we emerged from the storm as quickly as it surrounded us. The temperature changed 5-10 degrees three times as we passed through the storm. Entering the town of Russell as the last light of the day faded I fully expected to set up camp in the rain. This was, amazingly, not to be. The clouds drifted away and we stayed dry. I stared at the Big Dipper drifting off to sleep.
The only rain in Russell came as we departed. In fact, only as we did the tourist picture at the Welcome to Russell sign did we get drenched. Day 4… Wet feet? Check. Damp shirt? Check.
Camping was free in Russell at Peace Park and the drive through Manitoba was awesome! We definitely passed through some more prairie rains, but all rather quickly. For lunch the skies even provided some sunshine in Portage LaPrairie, where we barbecued and picked strawberries. At our arrival in Falcon Lake we grabbed our site and ate well. We even went for an evening walk to the beach. Forced back to camp only as the clouds collapsed around the lake and the rain began. We made it back though and Catherine was the only one to suffer wet feet and damp shirt working to get stuff out of the rain as it began in earnest.
Maybe hitting a stride… I think Manitoba, with its good camping, good roads and beautiful communities helped us out.
Looked at the forecast for tomorrow and it seems there is s good chance of wet feet and damp shirts!
A Bit About the Henrys 