Minnesota

It's so nice to get up this morning and not to have to close up the trailer for yet another day of driving.  We get to spend another night here in Minnesota and today we're checking out the Mall of America.  I didn't know this thing existed but many people I've spoken to have been here and think it's amazing.  It's the largest mall/amusement park in the USA - wonder how it compares to West Edmonton Mall.  Course, this one is 4 floors high but doesn't have a skating rink or mini golf - go Canada!  :)

I was up at 8 this morning and checked the temp before heading out for a run.  27 degrees - at 8AM!  Yowza, heading for 37 today. 

Katie found a tick in her hair yesterday; still very much on the move but clinging to a strand of hair.  I have to admit though it's been so long since I've seen one (ummm, maybe never?) that I thought it was a spider.  I remember thinking they were hard bodied dark grey or brown things that you can't squish.  This guy was brown with some markings up his middle.  I googled it and sure enough - a deer tick is what the officials call it - we just call it ICK. 

In the previous blog I mentioned we'd had a tire blow out.  I'd love to get a picture here for you to see just how bad it was but my iphone is having technical difficulties in sending the picture to my email so I can post it.  I'll try again later.

Enjoy the day!

Travels

What a ride so far!  We left home 2 days ago spending the first night in Medicine Hat.  We stayed at Gas City Campground which was fairly nice and didn't have a SINGLE mosquito - they were all married with families!  Yesterday morning I got up in search of a place to power walk or jog and I wasn't let down.  Scott's guess was that I did about 6-7km... it the HOT out and there was no reprieve from the sun but man it felt good to get out and move like that. 

We headed for Caronport Sask yesterday and about 30km before arriving, a passerby on the highway gestured madly at our trailer.  Scott got us stopped and headed out for a look noticing that we'd had a tire blow-out.  We had no idea when that might of happened but we definitely have some damage.  Not only did we need a new tire but we needed someone to repair the wire that got snapped by the flapping rubber.  We have many reasons to express our gratitude to God for even this incident; it could have been so much worse.

We spent the night at Latrace's farm last night and it was GREAT to connect with them again.  They live 2 miles outside of Caronport- she was my Counselor when I attended Caronport High School in grade 12 (one or two years ago) and we hit it off.  I haven't seen her or her husband in about 25 years, though we've stayed in touch and it was so nice to reconnect with them.  Emily said she wants to spend the whole summer there next year - something about great company, kittens and the Latrace grandsons who live in another house on the same yard. 

We're in Brandon Manitoba for the night and tomorrow we head south for Larimore North Dakota.  Good thing Scott remembered our passports!

Birthday plans

Emily's birthday will soon be upon us and her hope is that we have a Mantracker party. We decided that it would be quite cool to take her and her friends to K-Country to pull this off... and why not throw in a night of camping while we're at it?  Here's my game idea.

Since my thought of Mantracker is that it's a treasure hunt (trying to get to the X) while playing Hide N' Seek (not getting "tracked"), I came up with this. 

It's like a treasure hunt where they'll be given a clue which will lead them to the next and so on.  The hitch is that at each spot they will also pick up a puzzle piece.  When there are no more clues they need to put their puzzle together and flip it over where they'll find an "X marks the spot" sort of map.  When they figure out where the X is they'll find the prize.

Em would like the girls divided into teams and that may be the best plan... we've got some tweaking to do first.  Any suggestions?

Canmore

Canmore here we come! Thank you airmiles for giving us free accomodations at the Best Western Pocaterra Inn! My bag is the carry-on one on the left while Scott's is the full sized suitcase on the right. Need I say more? :)

I couldn't help but think of Scripture when I looked at the mountains. I thought of Matthew 17 when a man brings his demon filled son to Jesus. He was upset that he'd not been able to free his son from the demons and neither had the disciples. In frustration Jesus tells the father that because his faith is small, he'd not been able to do it. He said, "if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move." That's a mighty tall order hey? And how do you measure an amount of faith to know it's even the size of a mustard seed? I read that while it's not the smallest seed known now, it was in Palestinian times and in the right conditions could cause a plant to grown 10' tall.

This bundle of mountains is named Three Sisters and since I have 3 sisters too I think it's especially cool.

Upon arrival into Canmore we headed for a favorite hiking spot named Goat Creek. It's located just south of the Nordic Centre and will lead you all the way to Banff. At this time of year you share the trail with snowshoers and X Country skiiers alike - we opted for the road less traveled so Roxy could run amok.

I was surprised to see/hear so much running water given the amount of snow that was on the ground. Course, we didn't realize how much snow there was until we stepped into an area that hadn't been patted down. It was up to my knees in spots. I love the ice formations over the creek.

Hey Mel, I took this picture with you in mind - you need a new puzzle?!

You fellas ready for the ride of your lives? I suspect with the look on their faces they're asking the same of me. I made our reservations with Snowy Owl Dog Tours in Canmore - we met at their office, got checked in, hopped onto their coach and we headed up to Spray Lakes campground area. I think at this point we're all looking forward to this but when I saw all of the dogs I became overjoyed. The dogs greeted us enthusiastically as if they'd been waiting for us all day. Way cool!

I believe the owner said there were 16 teams which we'd be using, each with between 6 and 7 dogs. We had the option to mush our own team either with a guide or on our own. We were sized up and given the option to have a team to ourselves - no guide... as in one family potentially whisked away with no chance of return. Was I up to this? Katie said, mom, if this is how God wants to take us, I'm okay with that. Smart kid! (Gets that from her mom's side.)

Our instruction lasted about 15-20 minutes and then we were directed to, and met, our team. There was Hendrix, Harrah, Moon Raiser, Harley, Indian and one other (I'm sorry I can't remember!!). I had heard that they only use husky dogs but I didn't realize that there are 6 varieties. I expected the great big dogs with blue eyes but these didn't fit into that definition. They didn't look like the ones in the dogsledding movies but it didn't matter - when the command HIKE was given, they were off. Did I mention WAY COOL?!?

Us girls got onto the sled and were zipped up nice and toasty. Scott was going to be the musher. (I welcome all goofy terms that this can become for my husband.)

Indian and Harley (named after motorcycles) are ready to go!

Click on this picture - check out the dog over the right side of our sled and the howling dog toward the back. The dogs bark and bug each other, similar to children. What we were unsure of it when the dogs are running and carrying on like this. Ahhh, puppies, you're attached to each other, get along!

This pictures was taken at the 1/2 way point, 4km into our adventure. We had a chance to take a couple pictures and were encouraged to pet the dogs (like anyone had to tell us). This is also the spot where Emily stayed out and joined Scott as co-musher! Sadly it wasn't a longer trek or we'd all have had a chance. Maybe next time...

I'm hoping you'll be able to view a video which I took while Emily & Scott were mushing. The link is at the bottom of this post.

Isn't he beautiful!?

Destination Mount Norquay - skiing / tubing

The snow at Norquay was most excellent; by far the best I've skied on in a long time. It was not as packed as I've been used to and this added to the challenge for the girls. They did stellar though, working on their skills and gaining more confidence. Can't wait to go again!!

Tubing at Mount Norquay is always a good time. The sun was shining and we were together. The only negative was that other people decided that this would be a good day to go as well... and the line up to get the tow up was lengthy. The option is there to walk up and we did, but it's a tough steep trek.

It's too bad the chair lift was in the way but this picture shows the steepness of the run. That's Katie and her dad.

And the two of them again (same run) - this one lets you see the speed (check out Katies hair - the wind must have blown Scott's hair clear off his head!). You can also see a little of the ice that made the runs so quick. People were coming down too quickly so staff laid burlap at the end of the runs to stop so many people from going through the snow fence!

Yes, this is at Norquay. And yes, it's facing the sun... but still!!! It was a beautiful day.

The deal that I'd signed us up for came with a hot drink and while the weather didn't really call for something hot we enjoyed it anways.

Back at the hotel the girls begged to go swimming regularly and enjoyed each opportunity they got.

TADA!

Chill-axing... I hear the water was very cold course the girls didn't seem to notice. Scott was glad for the hot tub. I hadn't been feeling well so I stayed out of the water and bundled up on the 'sidelines', catching pictures for a blog such as this.

All fixed and looking good.

I just realized I'd not posted an update after our water damage so I'll get that done once I've taken some pictures. Stay tuned.

Our water damage

It's been a week since we realized we had some 'water damage' and today the pipe was fixed and the construction began. For the past week I've washed dishes in a bucket - sometimes it was sitting in my bathtub and I was bent in half getting the dishes clean. After 90 minutes of that last Friday I found the paper plates, plastic cups and cutlery and washed dishes more often. Scott thought he'd be able to fix the pipe himself but everytime he grabbed the pipe it would break.
The plumber came today and said he'd never seen anything like it, the pipe essentially disintegrated in his hands. No worries though, it's fixed all the way from the sink/dishwasher into the kitchen floor/basement ceiling and into the basement floor. Here's hoping that's the only pipe in our house that's like that!

drip drip drip

On Tuesday evening Scott was relaxing while engaging in Flight Simulator and he heard dripping. He came upstairs and asked what was dripping - nothing noted. He went back downstairs and asked for me to come listen. I couldn't hear anything. The wall behind where he was listening was shared by a washroom and we'd had water on the concrete under the cabinet before but we had thought it was due to the grading outside. I'd personally taken buckets of dirt to change the grading this past summer so we thought the issue was fixed. Not so. I listened again and heard a steady drip drip drip drip drip. Oh oh.
A little more investigation was needed so Scott cut a hole in the wall. Click on the photo to enlarge it.
Scott called the insurance company who said they'd send someone out the next day. I gotta say, when I brought Katie home as she was unwell on Wednesday morning and saw the text on the van in front of my house... I started to wonder if things went sideways.


Katie commented that of course it's a disaster, they didn't spell clean up correctly. The crew had begun covering everything in the rec-room (now looks more like a wreck-room!) with poly and then had a look in the boxed part of the ceiling (the painted part, not the stippled area).
Meanwhile, back at the office I asked our GM what he knew about this sort of thing. He said the crew would have a look, then the adjustor would come out, he/she would arrange for sampling to be done, our furnace and ducts would be cleaned and while the testing/repairs were happening we'd likely need to go stay in a hotel. (How about in the Bahamas?!)
What actually happened was the disaster guys found mould... the insurance gal said that they don't cover mould stuff as that's not an 'on-the-spot' concern - she said "it's maintenance". Okay, let me get this straight, we're supposed to randomly punch holes in our finished walls checking to be sure the pipes are holding?!?


Scott opened up the stippled part of the ceiling to begin the pipe repair/replacement. He held a broken end in his hand and when he took hold of a section a little further away it snapped. Faulty pipe perhaps? The adjustor will be here later this morning.

If you enlarge this photo you can see the mould on the 2 studs closest to the wall.

Scotts already been thinking about his letter of complaint if the insurance company doesn't accept the claim. It will go something like this: I'm a Paramedic in the City of Calgary and for the Province of Alberta. If we respond to your home because you are suffering from a heart attack kindly note that if it's this type, this type or this type we'll help you but if it's this type you'll have to look after it yourself. You shouldn't have been eating the greasy food and leading a sedentary life - IT'S MAINTENANCE and we don't cover that sort of thing.

UPDATE ADDED: The adjustor came, looked and agreed that they would be responsible to cover the repairs. Praise the Lord! The only downside is that they won't be able to begin rebuilding (new studs, drywall, paint & stipple) for 4 weeks. In the meantime Scott is just about finished repairing the pipe and then we'll be able to wash dishes again!