Domestic affairs

Monday, June 18, 2007

COCHRANE, AB — Every now and then on a trip this long, it’s nice just to stop. We’re doing that here in Cochrane, and it’s a pretty nice place for it. This morning the weather was sunny and fresh, so we took a stroll by the edge of the Bow River (sort of figures that a campground called Bow RiversEdge would have a river next to it) along a nice walking path. The river is pretty wide, and right now it’s full and rushing with quite a current. I would not like to fall into that; you’d be swept away in no time.
With the excellent internet connection here we were able to set up our web cam and have a face-to-face conversation with Val’s brother John in Ottawa. It was great chatting with him, and true to form, he provided us with some important information about our trailer which we are following up on; apparently the propane refrigerator in our unit has been recalled by the manufacturer, Dometic, because of a problem that can cause it to explode and burst into flames! After our chat we went on the net and found out how to check if our unit was affected and what to do. Sure enough, it is on the list. The same website helped us locate an RV service in Cochrane that can install the kit which will correct the problem. We called and the fellow even does house calls; he’s coming by Wednesday afternoon! Of course, Dometic will pay for the work as well. So all we have to do is hope that in the next 48 hours we don’t experience a complete conflagration and we’ll be fine.
We did a complete housecleaning job, that took about ten minutes to do — another nice thing about living in small quarters — and then headed off to pick up a few groceries. Cochrane has a large square area that makes up the business section, and all the architecture follows a western cowboy theme. It looks to be a fairly prosperous place, and I imagine before too long it will become a suburb of Calgary, as it appears to be growing eastward and Calgary is growing westward.
This evening we drove in to Calgary and had dinner with David and Sandra Fox at their lovely townhome in Sunnyside. David was Val’s best friend from his high school days, and was best man at our wedding. We’d seen him in Ottawa two years ago, but before that there had been a gap of more than 15 years, so it was great to pick up the threads again.
Our Streets and Trips program brought us right to the Fox’s door, and when it was time to come back, I pressed "Reverse Route" and it took us back to the campground. Even though it was after 10 at night, there was a blush of red sunset on the horizon and the pale, ghostly outline of the Rockies in the distance against a sky that was still bright. No wonder we’ve been turning in past our bedtime these days.