Yes, another super long day on the road — made even longer by the 45 minute hideout under a bridge waiting for a storm to pass.

My GPS kept popping up alerts for “Severe Thunderstorm Warning” starting about 2 hours outside Edmonton.

The skies sure as heck looked like something ominous was about to go down. They were completely clear where I was, but could see them gathered in the distance, camped above Edmonton, waiting to unleash fury. All I could see in the clouds were shapes of dragons.

When the rain finally hit us, we were only 20 minutes from the city limits. We were approaching from the SouthEast, and of course, our destination, St. Albert, was all the way across the other side of the city. 😢

Given the performance of the locals during the rain storm, I’ll have to hand Edmonton the trophy for Worst Drivers in Canada.

Imagine it’s raining bucket-a-drop, the already dark early evening sky has gone completely black. And NO ONE slows down.

You think NASCAR drivers like to follow close? They got nothing on Edmontonians in the rain!

So I begged out of the madness and moved over to the slow (Ha!) lane as I approached a bridge. I kid you not — just then the guy in the far left lane decides to show us an interesting technique for hydroplaning your car into the grassy centre median. I award you no points.

I stayed 2 days in St. Albert with my Aunt, Uncle and cousin. Storm got a new front tire, cousin and I visited the Afro-Bliss art gallery, and we got in a quick round of power window shopping.

So, now we have fresh rubber front and back. Storm is in great shape. I’m well rested. Time for Stage 2 — The Hard Part™️