20070727

215 miles to Icelandic State Park, near Cavalier ND.

Cool, sunny. Perfect upper-midwest weather, again. Forecast is for higher temps, dry. Should be ok for a bit.

We got an early start out of Wasagaming, turned down 10 to the Yellowhead (16). Then east on 16 to its junction with 1, the other western part of the TransCanada Hwy (1 goes to Vancouver BC, 16 to Prince Rupert BC).

We turned down route 13, which became 32 and ran to the customs & immigration stand. The lady chatted with us while checking out our story. She wanted to glance inside the truck's parts box and inside the trailer. She was nice. Then into the USA.

We stopped in Walhalla for lunch. Found a bunch of USAF types in the cafe. After lunch, we went on to the park. On the way, we saw some big concrete thing to the south of the road and a sign saying "Cavalier Air Force Station".

They charged us $19 for the night here, a good deal cheaper than the resort areas of Canada we've been in. We set up the trailer and had a glass. Then we went west, back to the Air Force site. 

As we drove up to it, I recognized a great bloody huge phased-array radar in a huge concrete structure. It had a normal half-dome protected radar on top of it that looked tiny in comparison. The guard checked our ID and told us where the tiny BX is. There, the clerk told us there are 24 or 25 AF types on the station. She also mentioned that she lives very near or on the station and that the radar, when it is turned on and searching, blots out her TV and radio and switches her stereo on.

We got a few packaged things there, then went in to Cavalier. We cased the town (1,500 people) and I filled up the diesel fuel tank. Then we slowly cruised toward the park. I saw a barber shop and swung in there.

The barber was a talky gal, retired from Walmart who had stationed her all over Wisconsin and Minnesota. Now she's back home doing hair. She told us of the festivities the town is having (CrazyDaze today, including music in the park that we did not try) and that the town is holding its own in these tough times for little places. We drove a block to a market & got bananas and a few other goodies.

Then we walked back to a sidewalk sale of books (several other stores were having sidewalk sales as well) from the library. Used books were ridiculously low-priced, so we stocked up. The bill came to only $2.25, so I contributed some more.

We went back to the park. Dolores took flower pictures in several locations, plus a dozen of the tiniest little rabbit I've seen in a while.

I sat outside for a few minutes until three mosquitos chomped me at the same time. I put the chairs back into their storage place and we settled inside.

We'll do an informal dinner and settle down. This is a great little park; we could stand to come back here for a few days sometime (no sewer hookup, tho).