I confirmed the last reservation at an RV park in Alberta yesterday, so we are all set to go.  Like our trip last year, we have a schedule that can be broken into 6 sections. 

1) Finish Newfoundland and Labrador

2) Cross Quebec and Ontario and visit friends

3) Cross back into the US and visit more friends

4) Cross the prairies in Manitoba and Saskatchewan

5) Go to the mountains in Alberta, and finally

6) To Montana and Idaho for our rendezvous with the Camp Carpe Diem group again.   (Yes, the same group that we started the trip with last year in Little Rick, AR but 15 months later.)

Starting out in Newfoundland – We were late in the year on the last trip, so we missed some of the major points of interest.  Our plans this time are to see what we missed: the whales, the icebergs and the puffins!  Hopefully we will see them all but probably not in that order or all at once.   With Gail back to work this spring doing her normal contract, I had plenty of time to research new places to visit with these goals in mind and make reservations.  I have 3 boat tours already booked!  And I added a few places from last year that we wanted to revisit.  We are very excited about the first month of the trip.

Our first job was to get the RV and Jeep back in shape for the trip.  They have been in a warehouse building for the winter which was enclosed but not heated.  We had the RV professionally “winterized” to prevent any damage from freezing temperatures.  So last week, they reconnected the batteries and put her back in the same slip we had last fall.  And the tech came back to “summerize” her for the trip. 

When we arrive, she should be ready for us to remake the bed and start provisioning.  Hopefully the things we left aboard did not have any issues with the freezing temperatures.  We’ll just cross our fingers.  

Then we have an appointment with the local Mercedes dealer to get her serviced and check a few possible warranty and/or upgrade issues. 

By the end of the week, we will be off.  And so to plagiarize a little of the Blues Brothers, “It’s 8400 miles to Boise, we have a full tank of diesel, a half a pack of cigarettes (figuratively, of course), it’s dark and we’re wearing sunglasses.  Hit it!”