Reptiles at Risk

Challenges on the Road

Posted by Jeff Hathaway on July 28, 2008 at 6:43 PM

Monday, July 28th.
I jinxed myself yesterday when I wrote that our visit to the Prairies Rattlesnakes would be more eventful than what was to come. Yesterday turned out to be full of numerous problems, or in the words of one of my former employers, full of "challenges". Our first show at Cabri Library in Saskatchewan went well, despite the tight space we were in. On our way to the show, we discovered that our trailer brakes, which work independently of the van brakes, and which Jeff had been rewiring had a short in them. So that was challenge number one, which was somewhat easily fixed by our handy and fearless leader, Jeff while we did our first show of the day.
Following our show in Cabri, we headed to Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park where we were do for another show later that afternoon. We drove to the Western block of the park, only to discover that our audience was waiting at the Center block of Cypress Hills Provincial Park, for the show. We spun the van and trailer around and headed back down a very steep and windy road which we had just struggled up to get to the Centre block. Once we reached the bottom and started along the flat plain between the two block of the park our van brakes stopped working (Whew! so glad we fixed those trailer brakes!). The dirt road of a short cut that we took to get to the other end of the park was in less than an ideal condition, especially for an aged van and trailer, but we made it! The best part was pulling into the parking lot of the auditorium and running out of gas just as we turned the corner, about 20 feet in front of our parking spot. Running out of gas was the icing on the top of our very large cake.
Again, Jeff was fixing the van James, Heather and I talked about reptiles to a room full of people. It was great to have a large enthusiastic crowd after such a challenging day to get there.
The rest of the day went pretty smoothly after we filled the van with our spare fuel and found a gas station. We then headed to a small trail riding operation, which took me on my second horse back riding experience of my life. The ride was pretty slow, but a good pace for a second-timer.
After the show we headed back to Maple Creek to spend the night with a friend of Jeff's, who's hospitality was wonderful. Thank you Gary, Lisa and Bailey for everything!
Lenny