The dogs and I left Balzac right on time, which is sort of a surprise. I had to head into downtown Calgary to test out my ID bady to ensure it was programmed properly. I must admit that I’m not used to Calgary traffic any more.

I found the office easily enough and my badge let me into the office, no one was at reception… I replied via email to let the security people know I was in and returned to the truck.

I paused at Wendy’s for a bite to eat and then took the dogs for a quick walk near the vets office. Got the all clear on their health and Kevin was very happy with their weight, both dogs are in great shape.

I picked up Blondie’s urn and a paw print that was made. Sad to get that, for sure, but brings up tons of memories of an awesome dog.

We headed South towards The Pass and got in right around 830. Had a great night sleep in the trailer and woke up to rain. I was planning on leaving before first light, but with temperatures near freezing and fairly heavy rain, I decided to wait until first light to head out.

My neighbour was nice enough to make breakfast, bacon and eggs plus toast. I headed to the US with a full stomach.

We had one of the friendliest border agents, and it was quite obvious that she was a dog lover. At about 20 minutes into Montana, there was snow on the ground, I was thinking this is a bit early, it’s only September still. We only had to drive though that for about a half hour.

We got to about 20km North of somewhere called Browning Montana and one of the trailer tires decided to blow up on me. What fun…

A driver stopped and told me there was a tire shop in the next town, I wasn’t too optimistic that a small town tire shop would have what I needed. Another Albertan headed South stopped and helped me get the blown tire and rim off, very nice of him.

I got into town and the tire shop was only open until noon, it was 1130. He had the tire size I needed and we were on our way within an hour, so not much of a delay at all. All in, it cost me $113 USD, not bad at all, I’m sure it would have been well over $200 in Canada.

At this point, I sort of doubted that I’d make it to Twin Falls on Saturday and sure enough, I didn’t. The dogs and I stopped about 45 minutes north of Idaho Falls at a rest stop and spent the night. We headed out early, around 5am with 3 hours ahead of us.

It was an uneventful drive the rest of the way. Sunday was rainy and cool. I met with a bunch of coworkers for brunch, had a great time. I stopped at Costco and got some food for the dogs and a bottle of wine for Sunday dinner. DH and I, along with the dogs, off course, toured the canyon in Twin Falls and watched some base jumpers jump off of the bridge. Insanity, if you ask me.

So, that was the whirlwind weekend. It’s back to work this morning. It should be a good week, I’m looking forward to it. We are going out for dinner tonight to a restaurant overlooking the canyon, I hear the food is great.