Homeward Bound

On Monday afternoon 16 April it was snowing pretty hard and the last thing in the world that I wanted was to do was drive a RV through the Canadian Rockies during a snowstorm at night, so we stayed another night.

By Tuesday morning 17 April a lot of thee snow had melted off of the ground although there were still a few flurries coming down so we decided to make a run for it. 

The trip was really pretty uneventful.We drove across a few Indian reservations and got to Crow's Nest Pass while it was still light outside. Being we came over the pass on our way in while it was dark we really got to enjoy the scenery, which was spectacular. We cleared customs into Idaho just about dusk and made it to Spokane about midnight. We spent a little R&R time in Spokane and got on the road again on the 22nd. 

On the way up, I had elected to stick to the Interstate Highway system being I was a novice RVer. By now after logging over 2000 miles, I was an old hand and ready to cut a few hundred miles off of my trip by taking US97 back through Bend and Klamith Falls,OR. As it turned out, US97 was an easier drive than than I-5 to Portland. Late Sunday night, we holed up in Weed, CA. Sadie was so cute, she was sitting up in the passenger seat when I went to sleep. Early in the morning when I got up, she was still sitting up. Keeping watch. She really is the ideal traveling companion. If you talk to yourself while driving, you're considered to be a nut. If you talk to your dog, you're a sweet guy. She hangs onto my every word and she doesn't yack too much. Expensive restaurants while on the road aren't even an issue and she always a potty break when we stop for gas or to stretch our legs. 

We spent Monday with my older son Ed and his wife Cassy which is always fun. Ed and I watched a film called Who Is Harry Nielson and Why Is Everybody Talking About Him which is excellent. A few days later, I found out that Cassy has been accepted into the Chemical Engineering Program at UC Berkley which makes us all happy and proud.. 

I didn't want to deal with East Bay traffic in the morning so Sadie and I left town about ten and made it to Santa Nella, my go to stop when transiting I-5. We gassed up and slept amongst the big-rigs. 

Tuesday morning, we moored Bullwinkle in the marina parking lot and I settled down for a long winter's nap.

Life Amongst the Hutterites

For the last four days, we have been living on a Hutterite colony near Granta Alberta Canada. In case you haven’t had any close encounters with Hutterites lately, allow me to splain myself.  There are apparently three kinds of Anabaptists. The first one who we all and love especially if you are from Pennsylvania, Ohio or Indiana are the Amish. Almost everybody knows of the Amish. Secondly are the Mennonites. Most everyone has at least heard  of the Mennonites but few know much about them. Lastly are the Hutterites. Until a few weeks ago, I hadn’t even heard of them. Now I are practically one of them. Not quite. 

I came here to replace the Programmable Controller on the above Rotary Vacuumformer that they had purchased in Rochester NY. I tore down the machine in June and shipped it to Alberta. After trying to get it back in running condition, I got the call from the Colony to come up and make it work. Which I did.

FYI the Hutterites are much like the Amish but live in “Colonies”, mainly on the northern plains of the US and southern Canada. They own absolutely no real property and very little personal property. The married men all have beards with no mustaches like the Amish and wear black trousers and jackets with black hats but do wear colorful shirts. The “boys” are not married and do not have facial hair. Most of the older boys wear a Panama type straw Cowboy hat and the younger ones sort of a Trotsky style tall black cap. The women all wear colorful long modest dresses and a mesh type bonnet indoors and then don a head scarf or babushka over the bonnet when they are going outside the house. If they are going in and out much, they leave the scarf on while indoors.

The colony that we are at here in Alberta grows a lot of grain and raises livestock. All of the colonies are as self-sufficient as possible. About the only things that they buy outside for everyday living are cloth, coffee, margarine for some strange  reason and some cleaning products. They are very clean and friendly and love to joke and kid around a lot. It took me a bit of time to realize that this guy who looks like he just stepped off of American Gothic is actually pulling my lanyard.

They dine in a communal dining hall that is segregated by men and women  first and then the kids eat at a separate sitting. We didn’t actually eat in the dining hall but in Mike’s home. I’m not real sure why but that’s the way it was. We’re still here watching the snow fall so maybe I’ll ask Mike why. With dinner, we also had homemade Rhubarb wine. The food is very bland and every now and then my system screams out for a taco or something Italian.

On the last night, to reciprocate, I made spaghetti with Italian sausage and fed Mike and his brother Joe who has been a big help with me on this project. I popped open a few bottles of TBC, Two Buck Chuck AKA Charles Shaw wine from Trader Joe’s.  They usually drink their own home-made rhubarb wine so this was an obvious treat for them.

I’ve been practicing speaking my rusty German which they mostly speak here. It’s been a challenge because they speak an archaic sort of Pennsylvania Dutch Amish dialect and I speak a very rusty Swabish which is a dialect from the Schwartz Wald or Black Forest.

Apart from the snow and the cold which was a shock to this Ohio to So. Cal.  transplant the whole stay in this Alberta colony has been a good experience and I do hope to return again.