Re-entry

Last evening was delightfully warm.  Today it's just hot--82 degrees by early afternoon as Edmonton popped into view, a cluster of tall buildings rising out of the prairie into a hazy cloud of its own pollution.  If I had a lick of sense, I would have turned around right then and there.  I didn't, of course, and a few miles later, my mobile motel room was caught up in a river of vehicles whose drivers all seemed a bit more eager than me to reach their destinations.

We decided our best bet was to drive straight to the West Edmonton Mall, find a place to park, and take a little time to get our bearings.  What could go wrong?  There would surely be lots of signs to lead us there, and the mall has 22,000 parking spaces.  It seemed like a no-brainer.

Well, let me tell you.

The closer we got to the mall, the heavier the traffic became, until it was literally bumper to bumper, and though there were plenty of signs, they were, as they always are, intended primarily for the locals who already know where they are going.  Then there was the parking spaces.  Most were in parking structures where I dared not take the RV, and all the others I could see seemed to be already full.

I started circling the mall.  I took a right turn.  I took another right turn.  I knew where I was. Then it happened.  As we entered Edmonton, Nancy had asked how we were doing for gas.  It was low, but not critically so, and I had said something I though meant that.  What she heard, however, was "We're running on fumes."  So right in the midst of my attempted circumnavigation of the mall, she panicked and insisted we find a gas station.  I stopped my circumnavigating and was instantly lost.

After 20 minutes or so of aimless wandering, we finally found gas, then a quiet spot in a much smaller mall, and Nicole used the WiFi from a nearby restaurant to pull up Googe Maps and figure out where were and how to get from there to the RV park.  It was only then that we realized we had tried to go to the mall on a Saturday afternoon!

Another 20 minutes and we were camped for the night, at last.

Day 7
Valleyview, Alberta to Edmonton, Alberta

Daily mileage:  226.3
Total Mileage:  1,971.1