The Road to Calgary/Waiting out Thanskgiving

With the help of two classy folks, we were able to get out of our rut and move forward to our final destination--Calgary, to sell the Kodiak.

We were riding with a winter tire on in the back, along with the all seasons, so we really didn't want to take any more pleasure tours at that point. Loathe as I was to admit it, the trip was effectively over as a result of the blown tire.

But, since it was Thanksgiving weekend still, we had to wait for the world to reopen before we could move things forward.

After escaping isolation, we managed to drive a little under two hours before dusk. There seemed no cause to tempt fate and risk running into an animal after what we experienced, so we found a highway rest area with good reviews on iOverlander and parked for the night. 

It was actually a pretty decent spot with a little lake/large pond behind and some cows fenced in a tree-heavy field beside.

Kenting was naturally intrigued by the cows, but also cautious of them. He had no inclination to chase, which was the same way he reacted to the horses at home--a reaction far different from deer, rabbits, pheasants and the other wild ones.

We spent a quiet night with a few fellow overnighters. Superficially, it wasn't much different from when we were stranded the night before other than that we were no longer helpless. In other words, it was substantially different.

It was a cool, but pretty morning.

After our usual wake-up routine--I walked Kenting and made the coffee while my wife made the beds and cleaned the inside (where it was warm)--we drove on quietly the next morning. We decided on a municipal campsite in a non-descript town an hour outside of Calgary called Claresholm as our spot to wait out the rest of the long weekend. 

There was no point in going into Calgary until businesses opened to get our tires sorted out. Plus, the prospective buyer asked for an inspection after hearing the news. The deal was not broken (they would still pay for whatever came out as long as it wasn't serious and also register the vehicle themselves after buying), but there was definitely tension. After all, we had agreed to come out there on the condition of no inspection, and I wasn't sure how easy it would be to get one within the week, which was necessary with our planes all booked.

We tried to put our concerns aside and enjoy the time. It wasn't a bad campground, and we were practically the only ones there for both nights (the campsite was closing for the season the day after Thanksgiving, when we were set to leave).

The first came without event other than a rather funny sighting of four deer in someone's backyeard during our morning walk. 

This was a good time to collect ourselves and recharge after the tire incident, and come to terms with the fact our time with Kodiak was ending.

Or, maybe it was more accurate to say that we had transitioned into the stage of *hoping* that our time with the wheeled bear was ending. We had gone "all in" on this buyer in Calgary, canceling everything we had booked in BC and setting up the exit plan with the assumption the deal would go through. If it didn't, it would be fairly close to a disaster.

So there likely wouldn't be any lingering attachment in the end, only relief. On Tuesday morning we drove on to Calgary to get down to business.