Background and Introduction

Because this is the first entry in the blog, I'll set some background to get you up to speed. This leg of our trip started in mid May when we headed into British Columbia, Canada, to visit some photographer friends in southern BC then to visit more photographer friends on Vancouver Island. When we were heading across southern BC towards Banff National Park, the RV's check engine light came on as we were going through Glacier National Park (Canada). That's a remote area of BC, and instead of taking a detour to Calgary to have it looked at, we decided to continue with our plans to go to Banff and Jasper National Parks on our way to the Alaska Highway and then have it looked at in Grande Prairie, the first substantial town north of Jasper.

Well, I couldn't find anyone in Grande Prairie who could look at the RV when we were planning to go through, so I started looking for someone in Dawson Creek, then next sizable town up the road. I found someone who could do the work (Gear-O-Rama), but they wouldn't be able to read our computer. So, I set up an additional appointment with someone who could read our computer but not do the work (Capital Ford). Getting a 29-ft-long RV worked on is a challenge because most auto-repair places don't have a bay that can handle such equipment. Since we were going to have someone work on the RV, we decided to have the 90k service done on it too. That's a major service interval for the E-450 chassis, and the RV drive train had recently started to make a odd, yet subtle, whine, so it would be nice to get that taken care of before we got onto the Alaska Highway.

Today's Activity

We spent the night in the WalMart parking lot in Grande Prairie. It was a convenient stop after leaving the Jasper area of Jasper National Park, and it's always nice to spend the night where it's free. J and I like to boondock (camp for free w/o any hookups), and WalMart isn't a bad place to stay while on the road from one place to another.

After doing some shopping at WalMart, we went to Save-On-Food to do some serious grocery shopping for the first time since June 23rd, the early part of our stay in Banff National Park when we went to Canmore to do some shopping.

We left town and drove by fields of canola in bloom.

First stop in Dawson Creek, around 5:00 pm, was Capital Ford to find out why the RV check engine light was on. They have a reader to access our computer, but they don't have a bay big enough to actually work on it. So, we got the code read there and we'll take it to Gear-O-Rama in town tomorrow to have the work done. After a short wait, a guy carried the reader out to the RV, plugged it in, read the code and wrote it down. The fuel pressure is/was low. That's odd because we replaced the fuel pump last year. He reset the code just in case. I went into the service area to see what I owed them, and the friendly service technician said there was no charge!

Then we went over to Gear-O-Rama to confirm the details for tomorrow. They can start at 8:30 am.

We went to Dawson Creek Coin Laundry, and after putting the laundry in, we had dinner in the RV of Oliver's Creations Pesto Ravioletti, a pre-made skillet meal. It was our first time having an Oliver's Creations meal, and it was very tasty.

After the laundry was finished, we went to the Co-Op to get our propane tank filled.

To WalMart around 8:45 pm. Did some computer work before bed.