Corona Kia, Part 2

Before I continue the story from here, I want to clear the air about some very important details.

Although all the stores I/we entered on this little excursion were empty of patrons, "social distancing" was practiced with counter staff. Even time I fueled the vehicle up, I would get a paper towel (usually above the window washer squeegee at most service stations) and use that to pull the fuel nozzle, covering the trigger as well.

Short of wearing latex gloves, face masks and protective eye-wear (which seems to be the stage the Western World is at the time of this posting), my boy and I used every precaution to protect ourselves, outside the vehicle.

The next section of the trip is where we said a slow "good-bye" to Early Spring and a reluctant "hello" to the return of Winter.

Patches of snow started as we closed in on Barrière, but would vanish on some straight stretches of highway and almost magically reappear around the next corner. The highway was devoid of any signs of life for very long distances as we got closer to the Alberta Provincial Border.

Rain would start to fall....

....and clear away like it never happened. The above sign displayed the words which would change one important thing on the remainder of this voyage.

This would be the last public restroom we would use. Despite taking every precaution (like using take-out serviettes to open the doors), I was starting to feel uneasy about entering them at all. From now on, I made the decision that we would just use nature and some careful parking of the van....if you know what I mean.

The road ahead gave a little teaser of things to come....

....and pulling into Blue River confirmed that Spring hadn't come to this part of the country, yet. After buying drinks and more snacks, we were off again.

A short distance out of town, the sky got ugly and the weather turned....

....I was prepared for escalating Winter driving conditions....

....and quite literally around the next bend in the road, the weather tapered off and the skies cleared.

While the sky would eventually return to that dismal shade of grey, the snow piled along the side of the wet road was getting deeper. Good thing my boy was paying attention to what was going on outside the vehicle, I almost missed the "Welcome To Alberta" sign.

At this point, the adventure had clocked in 8 and 1/2 hours, including two fuel ups, drinks + snacks and rest stops. Travel fatigue had just started to set in on what I would later come to realize as the easy part of the trip....