The three of us set out from Regina on Thursday, Sep 1- Roger, me and our trusty eco-sidekick, S.K.*

On day 1, we drove to Grand Forks, North Dakota . We had decided to take the U.S. route to Ottawa, as it's a few hours shorter. For the last couple of weeks, I've been having a bout of positional vertigo. The last time I had it, we were driving home from Minneapolis in 2010, and I landed in the emergency room in Grand Forks. My goal this time was to make it out of there without visiting the hospital. Success! :) Not one to normally sleep in the car, I've found that I'm not great company on this trip so far as I've been loading up on Gravol to manage the nausea, which seems to be making me very drowsy. No driving for me!

Day 2 was a four-state day. We drove from Grand Forks, North Dakota to Escanaba, Michigan, thru Minnesota and Wisconsin. The scenary was unspectacular until around Duluth, Minnesota, where we crossed the tip of Lake Superior into Wisconsin. The highway runs thru resort country along the lakes. We passed quaint little lakeside towns with lots of signs for wild rice, live bait and pasties (see photo) . The route took us thru two National Forests, and the smell of pine trees was so strong I could smell it coming in the vents. Mmmm. Roger's nose doesn't work so he had to be content with my oooo'ing and ahh'ing.

Day 3 was not a stellar day. Our adorable little motel room at the Sunset Lodge in Escanaba (we've seen many immaculately preserved 1960's vintage motels on this trip) had a very noisy bar fridge sitting on a table. Also on the table was a power bar. We unplugged the fridge to stop the noise, I set my phone alarm for an early start and plugged it in to charge beside the fridge, and we went to bed. With the time change, we're now two hours later than at home. Our mistake was me sleeping on the wrong side of the bed beside the wall, so that Roger could get out during the night to pee. That turned the world topsey turvey and changed our karma. We slept late as my phone alarm didn't go off. When I leapt from bed to check my phone (not great for the vertigo, by the way), it was dripping wet and, you guessed it ... dead. Apparently the fridge had defrosted and drowned my phone overnite. Well shit. Dollar General, bag of rice, large ziplock bag, and 24 hours. Patience Anna!!

S.K., on the other hand, has been performing admirably. Like me, she's hardly ever thirsty. Just under 1,100 miles, $50 gas. Less than a tank from North Dakota to Michigan. That's what I'm talkin' about!

I've been reading The Martian. If you've read it, you know that many of his log entries were about him running into a problem, panicking, then spending some time thinking and realizing he can fix it. Well I'm not about to suggest my phone problem is close to being stranded on Mars, but it did help put my catastrophe in perspective, and after pondering it all day, I do have some options. We have Roger's flip phone for texting. It's not the most efficient device, but I'm in no position to be fussy. I have my tablet for the internet when we're in WiFi zones, and for taking pictures (no, I didn't bring another camera). So we're just missing my dataplan for internet whenever/wherever, and my unlimited long distance. I think we can survive. Somehow we used to travel with way less. If I'm desperate, my phone is up for replacement, and aparently I can get my upgraded phone at one of SaskTel's affiliate stores in Ontario. Or who knows, maybe the bag of rice will work. Bonus!

Tomorrow ... Ottawa! I've been very brave and haven't opened my bag of rice. Maybe tomorrow morning. ;-)


* For those of you who are new to my blog or don't remember S.K., she is my 2010 Prius. S.K. stands for Silent Killer. She was so named by an SGI co-worker, Jarvis, who narrowly escaped injury when he stepped out from behind a post in the SGI parkade, into my path while I silently glided down the ramp and around the corner (S.K. makes no noise when running off electric power). In his surprise, he jumped back and said "That thing's's a silent killer!". The name stuck. Over the years, we've learned to be extra careful in parking lots and at street corners, as pedestrians are conditioned to listen for cars coming and S.K. sneaks up on them.