A Ghost Story to Relate?

We had our supper in the campsite, and then called Laura's mom, Helen, to set up a visit.......she insisted we come over immediately - so we did. There we met with her daughter Connie, and Connie's husband Leon, and their dog Taffy, as well as Helen, of course. It was a good visit, with treats and chatting, playing with Taffy, and my favourite fruit - cherries. Several hours passed quickly, and although they offered to put us up, we were already camped in at the campground - so they insisted we go to breakfast with them next morning, Helen's treat.











Leon, Connie and Helen treated us to breakfast at Big Al's in Regina.



How could we refuse???? So this morning, they picked us up at 0900 at the camp, and we followed to Big Al's Diner for a huge breakfast. (Al Capone reference again....he was big here - even bigger than that moose!). I got in a short call to our financial adviser, Keith, in Victoria, who told us we are still in OK shape, so I guess we can continue to afford our $50.00/day habit.
We said our farewells at the diner, and drove east again, this time in search of a relative of Linda's who'd been buried in the village of Pense, SK. It's a whistlestop place on the main line of the CPR, but we managed to find several graves with the proper names, and those were at the Anglican Cemetery in town. We then discovered the other cemetery just north of town, with the two plots we were initially looking for. That's when the spirit of Linda's relative showed up. The camera stopped working, as the batteries died. Hmmmmmm........ So Linda went back to the car for the spare batteries, and heard a low hissing noise. Hmmmmmm.....
The source turned out to be the right rear tire slowly leaking. We managed to stop it with a can of "Stop Leak", a liquid for just such an occasion. With pictures of the plots taken, we had to find a service station to take care of our temporary solution, so returned to the highway and continued another 50 Km to Regina. We found an exit which led to a Kal Tire, who opened up an extra bay to take care of our problem, rather than make us wait - and when all was done, they gave us the bill. This was, of course, a worry due to our budgetary constraints. But no need for worry - they took care of it, with a safety check thrown in, and clean windshields and tires - for no charge. I'm starting to like the friendly ways of Saskatchewan. Speaking of windshields, there is another thing I've been noticing. Either there are a lot more bugs in Alberta, or they're a lot stickier and gooier. Our windscreen would almost instantly smear itself with suicidal bugs all through Alberta, but now we seem to be getting only a few. Not sure if they are happier here, and less suicidal, or what. But.....back to Kal Tire. The repair was all done in about 40 minutes, so we flashed up the GPS on the computer to find out how to get to the Riverview Cemetery from there, to find more of our spirit's ( and Linda's) kin. Maybe it was fate, or the spirit was still with us, because we had inadvertently chosen the road which led to the cemetery, and were there in another 10 minutes. We discovered most of who we were looking for there (one of them has an unmarked grave, but we confirmed his burial there). Then back to the road.

By 1500 we were well east of Regina, and decided to call it a day, pulling into a KOA campground in Indian Head. Here they have wireless internet, and laundry, and again, no other tents and only a few RV's .....suits us fine. While Linda started the laundry, I drove into town and got a couple of used books at a second-hand store, run by a woman from Powell River - small world! A few groceries, and beers, in hand (we'd managed to stay under budget enough to buy a few), it was back to the campsite and settle in for some email and blogging catch-up, dinner, and a bit of a read. I don't know if it really was a friendly ghost who had warned us about the tire in time to get the temporary repair, but it's a known fact that spirits can cause electrical fields, and battery failures.....and we wouldn't have caught it otherwise. More to follow.