VE1BC Spud Roscoe


The 2011 Trip
Part 164 – Willey West, Drayton Valley to George Lane, High River
Thursday, May 12th, 2011 We were up at 6:45AM but I could not get through to Metro Storage on their stupid telephone service. I grabbed the camera and went and took a few photographs to cool down. It was a beautiful sunny warm morning. The folks across from us are living in two tents. They have small children and there were two women with them yesterday. One came out for a chat and is from St. Peters, Prince Edward Island. She was visiting the other. Probably the sister of the husband who is likely working in the oil industry here. He was driving a black one ton Ford dually. The husband came over as we were leaving for a chat. He had been out of work living in Kamloops, B.C., and just received a call back to work in Fort McMurray. He is a welder. We departed site 1C at 9:18AM and more or less had to hold the dually back going up the hill. It is one fantastic truck. We tried everything we could think of to contact Metro Storage and nothing worked. We finally phoned Lynn via On Star and had a good chat. It was nice to talk to her and catch up on the latest. Lynn phoned Metro Storage for us and within a few minutes they phoned us and we had things sorted out in no time. We trust that will be the end of it but what a pain in the butt. We were so worked up over it that we missed the turn for route 22. We pulled in to the Esso Station at Calmar, Alberta and topped up the diesel tank. 64.491 litres at a $1.149 per litre for a total of $74.10. The diesel probably came out of the very ground I was standing on while filling it or at least I could have walked to the well. We continued on route 39 to LeDuc and then picked up route 2 south. This becomes the Deerfoot Trail through Calgary. It remains route 2 and we followed it to High River. Willey West Campground to the George Lane Memorial Park Campground was 431 kilometres. We stopped at the Rainbow Esso Car Wash and Self Serve, High River, Alberta, at 3:12PM and topped up the diesel tank. We tried to get diesel at Lacombe and must have gone around the wrong block. They had Tim Horten's and MacDonald's but no filling station. We pulled over at Bowden in the rest area for a 15 minute snooze. But finally said to heck with the diesel we have enough for High River. At High River we took on board 101.728 lites at $1.159 per litre for a total of $117.90. In other words we bought a total of $192.00 of diesel today and we still have a full tank. The full tank is the main thing. But note the price difference within a few miles and in the province that has enough oil they claim to supply the world for one hundred years. Oil has to be the biggest dang rip off man has ever created. When we arrived at the campground office I went in to see what the girls were up to. They were all excited and wanted to know if we would rather site 51 than 33. Joan and I looked at it and felt we would. So I went down to the community water tap and topped up the fresh water tank in the trailer. Just as I got in the truck something bit me on the left cheek. I killed it whatever it was but dang that hurt and Joan said it left a large red spot. We backed in on 51 with no problem at all. Joan did not growl at me once. I must be slipping or something. Someone will think I know what I am doing if I am not careful. We had the trailer well blocked up and the HF antenna up by supper time. We had supper over and done with by 5:30PM and I was listening to a few stations in British Columbia on 7055 kilohertz. I did not check in and turned the rig off for a lack of interest. I then typed up this report for the days activities. The truck said the temperature was 84F when we backed in on site 51. It was a nice sunny day. Sun glasses all the way but Oh Lord the wind. One had pressure on the wheel all day and the trailer had a bit of a list. The traffic on route 2 was typical route 2. Not quite bumper to bumper but darn near. At least every fourth vehicle was a large diesel truck and quite a few had two trailers. A few had three trailers. Of course they travelled faster than I wanted to go so all went past me.
	This was a photograph Joan took of the highway just south of Red Deer.
A lot of those trucks were oil field floats. One would have to have a photograph to describe in order to give a decent description. I will try and do that before we go back east. The talk around Edson is that the oil is going to take off again and create 4,000 jobs in Edson alone. We hope they are correct. It was a beautiful sunny evening and quite windy but we did not feel it in among the trees here at site 51 in the campground.
	This is our outfit at rest in site 51 just behind the office.
Bill phoned Dick while I was talking to Dick and left a message stating he had not heard me on 7055 kilohertz. We phoned and tried a contact on 7055 and 3745 kilohertz. I had no trouble reading Bill on both phone and radiotelegraph but he claimed I was weak. We finally decided to call it quits and visit when we get to Medicine Hat. Joan and Betty picked out a campground for us at “The Hat”. The sunset was a beautiful northern sunset. The cloud cover was a mixed bag of low cumulus, alto cumulus and cirrus. The alto cumulus was an orange pink colour as the sun called it a day. This was around 9:20PM but I do not know the exact time of sunset. It was still a nice sunset at 9:30PM but a lot of the colour had disappeared. We watched another of Jeff's movies. This means we have one left and we should be able to see that before Tuesday. Another real good day ended again with the movie.

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Thursday, May 12th, 2011

We were up at 6:45AM but I could not get through to Metro Storage on their stupid telephone service. I grabbed the camera and went and took a few photographs to cool down. It was a beautiful sunny warm morning. The folks across from us are living in two tents. They have small children and there were two women with them yesterday. One came out for a chat and is from St. Peters, Prince Edward Island. She was visiting the other. Probably the sister of the husband who is likely working in the oil industry here. He was driving a black one ton Ford dually. The husband came over as we were leaving for a chat. He had been out of work living in Kamloops, B.C., and just received a call back to work in Fort McMurray. He is a welder.

We departed site 1C at 9:18AM and more or less had to hold the dually back going up the hill. It is one fantastic truck.

We tried everything we could think of to contact Metro Storage and nothing worked. We finally phoned Lynn via On Star and had a good chat. It was nice to talk to her and catch up on the latest. Lynn phoned Metro Storage for us and within a few minutes they phoned us and we had things sorted out in no time. We trust that will be the end of it but what a pain in the butt. We were so worked up over it that we missed the turn for route 22.

We pulled in to the Esso Station at Calmar, Alberta and topped up the diesel tank. 64.491 litres at a $1.149 per litre for a total of $74.10. The diesel probably came out of the very ground I was standing on while filling it or at least I could have walked to the well.

We continued on route 39 to LeDuc and then picked up route 2 south. This becomes the Deerfoot Trail through Calgary. It remains route 2 and we followed it to High River.

Willey West Campground to the George Lane Memorial Park Campground was 431 kilometres.

We stopped at the Rainbow Esso Car Wash and Self Serve, High River, Alberta, at 3:12PM and topped up the diesel tank. We tried to get diesel at Lacombe and must have gone around the wrong block. They had Tim Horten's and MacDonald's but no filling station. We pulled over at Bowden in the rest area for a 15 minute snooze. But finally said to heck with the diesel we have enough for High River.

At High River we took on board 101.728 lites at $1.159 per litre for a total of $117.90. In other words we bought a total of $192.00 of diesel today and we still have a full tank. The full tank is the main thing. But note the price difference within a few miles and in the province that has enough oil they claim to supply the world for one hundred years. Oil has to be the biggest dang rip off man has ever created.

When we arrived at the campground office I went in to see what the girls were up to. They were all excited and wanted to know if we would rather site 51 than 33. Joan and I looked at it and felt we would. So I went down to the community water tap and topped up the fresh water tank in the trailer. Just as I got in the truck something bit me on the left cheek. I killed it whatever it was but dang that hurt and Joan said it left a large red spot.

We backed in on 51 with no problem at all. Joan did not growl at me once. I must be slipping or something. Someone will think I know what I am doing if I am not careful.

We had the trailer well blocked up and the HF antenna up by supper time. We had supper over and done with by 5:30PM and I was listening to a few stations in British Columbia on 7055 kilohertz. I did not check in and turned the rig off for a lack of interest. I then typed up this report for the days activities.

The truck said the temperature was 84F when we backed in on site 51. It was a nice sunny day. Sun glasses all the way but Oh Lord the wind. One had pressure on the wheel all day and the trailer had a bit of a list. The traffic on route 2 was typical route 2. Not quite bumper to bumper but darn near. At least every fourth vehicle was a large diesel truck and quite a few had two trailers. A few had three trailers. Of course they travelled faster than I wanted to go so all went past me.