Aylmer Express "MoHo" Extravaganza 2006

It appears that I am starting a new routine where I list the definition of the word that I forgot to insert into my text from the previous day. I’ll do my best to revert back to the original method where I actually insert the word into the text. In the meantime, today’s exercise for you is to let me know where you think this word should have been inserted.

parlous \PAR-luhs\, adjective:
Attended with peril; fraught with danger; hazardous.

Today marks 3 weeks into our 6-month JoRo MoHo Extravaganza. That is the longest contiguous vacation I have taken since my honeymoon. There are different ways to look at this other than just with a calendar. You could notice that you have been gone longer that normal by how many times you have had to do laundry. Or maybe you can tell because there are certain bills you have to pay. These different indicators are what give you the feeling that you have been away from home for a while. In my case, the thing that caught my attention and made me realize I have been gone for a while is the fact that I had to clip my nails for the second time since we left! So from this day forward it is uncharted territory for me.

We set out with the hope that the weather gods would be on our side. Thankfully we were treated to fairly empty highways and beautiful sunny weather, if a little on the hot side. So far, the engine-generated “dashboard” air conditioning seems to be able to keep the MoHo cooled down while we are on the road. We are very happy to find this out, especially considering that the temperatures have been hovering around the 32 C (90-ish F) mark lately.

On our way north toward the Canadian border we noticed some unusual road signs. First of all, the speed limit on I-29 reached 75 mph (120 km/h) through most of South Dakota and all of North Dakota. As you might imagine, this makes little difference to us in the MoHo. It basically just means that everyone passes us more quickly. Then when we were driving through Watertown we spotted a rather rare, and perhaps lonely, speed limit sign. It was the only sign we have seen on our entire trip that showed the speed in both mph and km/h. It struck me as kind of funny since I have never seen a speed limit sign directing you not to exceed 56 km/h. And besides, If I am some dumb Canadian, or European, who is having trouble translating the 35 mph sign and accidentally go 35 km/h, is that a big problem ? I just don’t get it. But it did give me a good chuckle as we passed by.

Today we are on our way to Winnipeg, Manitoba and we actually made it! It worked out to about 7 hours of driving. Today also marked the first time ever Chantal took the wheel of the MoHo. The plan from the beginning was to wait until we found some flat, open roads with a paucity of traffic. Another way of saying that might be … North Dakota. Everything went very well. Chantal seemed to have no problem guiding the rig down the road and dealing with the passing vehicles. The side winds were irritating but not dangerous and she was very happy she wasn’t taking her first time at the wheel the day before! And I made good use of this break from driving … by falling asleep in the passenger seat.

Today was the first time that I had any sort of input on what campground we should stay at and, as you might imagine, it turned out to be the crappiest place we have ever stayed. I thought it might be good for us because it is closer to the city than the other campgrounds. It turned out to be basically a gravel parking lot at the back of a “mobile home park”. I don’t mean a bunch of MoHos that are parked at a nice park for the summer, I mean permanent mobile homes that are crammed in on top of each other. Anyway, on the positive side, we are close to town, it offers all services (electrical, water, and sewer) and an added bonus, somebody nearby has an unsecured, wireless internet connection so we are able to upload our blog entries and check our email. I told Chantal that perhaps it is good that this location is so undesirable since it will stop us from wasting too much time at our site and force us to get out and see Winnipeg.
And what is up with Winnipeg? Today is was 34 C (95 F)! Don’t you find that a little warm for a place with the nickname “Winterpeg”? Apparently it has been this warm for about 6 weeks running … and the 5-day forecast calls for 5 more days of the same. But don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. I love warm weather. It was just a bit of a surprise for me.