5C's Que Pasa

…sorry but it is a teary evening.

The day was extremely busy.  Too much happening business wise and estate wise plus a medical procedure, all of which made me tired.  Just  a few moments ago I got a call that a very good friend’s mother only has days to live.  That started the tears….I think I am just beginning to realize the impact of my father dying a few months ago and it all came together, tears.

In addition to not posting I just want to let those of you who have sent emails, that I will get back to you.  Right now I am just coping.  Thanks for understanding.

Hot water that is 😆

First thing I saw when I got up yesterday morning was this goose sitting on top of the hedge. We came home to a patio and lawn covered in goose poop. They are now trying to figure now to get back to it all, but we are on duty. As soon as this guy saw me at the window he flew off.

Next to him was a duck. First time I have ever seen these larger birds sitting on top of the cedar hedge.

One of our views.

Still lots of snow up there.

We waited until about 10 AM and still no plumber.  Colin left messages but none of his calls were returned.  Called the builder who finally gave Colin the guy’s home phone number.  He actually answered and said he was home doing paper work.  Colin kind of begged him.   Finally on condition that Colin go to the builders to pick up an entire new hot water system ( not exactly light weight you know ) and bring it here and have it ready in exactly 30 minutes he would come.  He was not the most friendly person but we were desperate.  He did not want to do anything extra or that would take any of his time which I can’t blame as it was a Saturday.

That is the unit in the foreground.  He simply took out the new part which was only about 2 inches in diameter.

….and exchanged it for the cracked part in our unit.  Then he left.

Colin packed up the new unit missing a part and returned it to the builder.  Somehow next week a new part will be ordered and the plumber will go to the builders office and put it into the new unit.  At that time we will be given a bill for everything including the install of the replacement part.  We have no idea how much this will cost but we have hot water. Finally.

Dishes were done, 6 loads of laundry were done and I had my first bath since November.  Pure bliss.  So glad to have that little bit of luxury.

It didn’t take Carmeh long to find the hot clothes right out of dryer.  She really likes to burrow in the heat.

Adios for now, I have things to do, lots of them.

We did not get out of the service bay until 6:00PM on Wednesday.  Our friend Judy arrived about 4:30PM and in true RVer style just hopped in and we started the party while still being serviced.  Once out of the bay Colin hooked us up to be ready to leave.  Meanwhile I made dinner.

Just as Judy was leaving I realized we had not taken any photos, so here is a quickie.

We must have been driving by 8:55 PM or so and arrived at the Hope rest area about 10:40PM.  The day after we got home I received a most special email from a long time blog reader.   With his permission I am sharing it with you.  So sorry we never got to meet A but I know we will one day.

Hello Colin and Contessa,
I would like to say how much my wife and I have enjoyed your posts from the Isla. Over the last couple of years it has become part of our routine each day to read your blog. We love Mexico and have driven the Baja a couple of times and ended up buying a place in Cabo that we have now sold after 18 years of ownership. We are now retired and have an R.V and look forward to heading south this coming winter perhaps even to Tres Amigos. Having never driven the Mex. west coast.

Great job on the air bag repair Colin. I also have had that sinking feeling when something suddenly goes wrong on the road but what a relief when you can resolve it yourself. Good on you.
I have a small confession to make. I drove out to the Hope rest area last night( Hunter Creek, exit #160 just south of Hope and got there about 7:15 pm. I did not want to take up any of your time as this being your last night on the road. I had a small gift for you both as a thank you for the wonderful reading we had this past winter and just wanted to say a brief hello. Too bad we missed you but our paths will cross of that I am sure.
As a footnote, we have friends that refuse to to go to Mexico , not even to an all inclusive resort due to the perceived “danger” . Since Mar. 9 in Surrey/Delta there have been 21 drive by shootings due to a current drug war
Thank you again,
A and L

I so hope that you follow your dream and do RV through Mexico.  There is so much for you to discover and enjoy.  Thank you for making the attempt to meet us and for this message, it came at the perfect time when I needed a lift.  Looking forward to our first meeting.

Woke up to fresh snow on the local mountains in Hope.

Of course we ended up doing the longer route via the Fraser Canyon and we had no issues what so ever.

This route follows the Fraser River, we cross over it and back again, over and over. A very scenic route for certain and well used by tourists over the summer.

Inserted for my non Canadian readers.  This is the quickest way to get to Vancouver from Kelowna.  However this road does go over very high elevations  between Merritt and Kelowna aka the Connector.

So to be safe from snow and dirt grit we traveled North of Merritt to Kamloops and came home the round about way which used to be the only way  a while back.  This route is at lower elevations and has a rather windy road to deal with and takes an extra 90 – 120 minutes but it is nice to have the choice. I think we have used this route the last three years due to spring storms and snow.

Finally back on home turf. These lakes are why we live here.

We were about 20 miles away when the girls became alert.  As we turned down Commonwealth Road they knew we were home.

Then began the unloading.  I have no idea how Rod & Sylvia got their RV unloaded in 4 hours.  We have been home now for 1.5 days and are not yet done, might take another day yet.  Hmm, I think I should hire them next year to show us how it is done 😀

The first problem we discovered was a window break.  It is very puzzling as is appears to have been done from the outside in.  Perhaps a bird who hit the glass hard but here was no bird body beneath the window or perhaps the seal gave way.  Anyway  I had called a glass repair company who were supposed to have been here be end of day Friday.  He never got here.

However the most vexing problem is our on demand hot water heater.  As I filled baskets to be carted from the RV to the house Colin started to set up our water system.  We had no hot water 🙁    Many many phone calls later, the builder of our home arrived.  I want to add here that 98% of the plumbers we called did not even take messages on their phones 👿   So finally our builder showed up and discovered the problem.  Yes we were blown out last winter the day before we left  but it seems that something went awry.  Fortunately we do not have to replace our entire hot water on demand system but just the one cracked part.  Meanwhile we were able to bypass a few systems so we had cold water ( ie toilet ) but no hot water.  We were promised the replacement part to be installed by end of day yesterday.  So here we are at 8AM Saturday with no hot water.  That means no showers nor my 18 loads of laundry.

The RV is still parked out front which we are allowed to do for 3 nights before we are required to move it into the storage area which we will have to do Sunday.  We are unloading all the while.  However we are also able to use the shower in the RV, thank goodness. Seems like that we might not have hot water until Monday at this point. The laundry can wait, fortunately I laundered our undies in Yuma 😳

It has been an extremely busy time since we arrived.  I apologize for not posting till now but with all the unsettled conditions it was enough to stop unloading and just make dinner and fall into bed.  Plus I had a small issue that required me to go to the walk in clinic Friday afternoon and that took three hours of day just to get a prescription.

I have to say that I love my home.  Of course we have the view, it is not the ocean Isla view, but it certainly holds it’s own.  What I noticed the most the last two evenings was the abundance of stars.  All I can say is that we are so very fortunate to have our home here as well as the very special Isla de la Piedra in our lives.

It was a cool 40F at 6:30 AM.

Good thing that the girls had some sunshine to bask in last evening while we were parked at Walmart.

Today they were under a bundle of blankets. At this point they were both sitting on me.

Varying shades of the green of spring.

It was a quick 90 minute drive to the border and that included stopping to fill the RV with diesel @ 2.659/gallon.  A full $1.20 less per gallon and we saved $71.00USD over what we paid last year for the same 53 gallons.  We aren’t counting the CAD/USD exchange rate as we are still using US dollars from a past 1.09 exchange rate.  Sadly that is pretty much all gone now.

The border crossing took longer to navigate between the posts then it did to answer questions.

Funny how it is only the US that boards us and checks everywhere.  Yet another easy crossing into Canada with the standard how long were we away and where do we live and how much did we spend ( not even on what ) and how much booze and what size bottles.

Spring had sprung. I really like to see just the blossoms at their peak on the trees before the leaves appear. At least I got to see some blossoms.

Next stop today is in Delta at Walker Heavy Duty.  They have been servicing this RV for 15 years.  We always stop here for annual maintenance.  Colin tells them to check it like an airplane and they do and are the first to spot any potential problems.  Diesels are not as expensive as many think as long as one does proper maintenance.  For instance we have never ever had to do our brakes but a lot of that is in how Colin drives.

Driving into the shop.

Not sure how long we are going to be here today.  Our plan is to have a friend in for dinner and then drive to the Hope rest area for the night. Still not sure which route we will take in the morning.  Colin doesn’t like the look of all the snow on the Web Cam at the Coquihalla Summit.  He doesn’t want any loose gravel kicked up by a passing semi.

Not sure what he will decide. I would go for it but it is his decision as he is driving.  It takes 90 – 120 minutes longer doing the Fraser Canyon.  Last year he was coming back from Vancouver and there was no snow but the loose sand/gravel was kicked up into the car windshield by a semi and resulted in about 40 permanent pit marks on the windshield.

I am using the free internet provided by Walker HD which is nice but once they are done with us we will be moving out into the lot and hooking up and putting the living room slide out for our dinner with Judy.  So I am not certain how long I will have internet.  Next time you hear from us will be from Kelowna.

It rained off and on all night.  This morning it was damp and chilly and definitely time to pull out the fleece pants and tops.  Welcome to the Pacific North West.

Once back on I5 we saw that some new snow had fallen overnight up in the hills.

It is a long drive and it was nice to see this odd RV on the road, a good distraction.

Obviously homemade. A young couple & a small infant were in the cab.  Perhaps their real home for now.

It took a while to get through Portland, always so much traffic even at 9:30 AM.  It is a beautiful city and I would love to spend more time visiting, it had been years and years since I spent any time there.  Sadly the rest area just North of Portland was closed and we had to drive over 3 hours to the next open one. By then the girls were getting antsy.  It had just finished raining when we stopped and the sun had come out and there was steam rising over the parking lot.  The next rest area was only 36 miles away and then we would be traveling through Seattle.  Yet another long drive ahead.  Not my fault that first rest area was closed.  So off we went.  By now we just had the odd small drizzle.  Colin was happy with the earlier rain as it  now meant that the undercarriage of the RV was cleaned of any salt deposited by the ocean air.  Once we get home and start to unload we will see if the new fiberglass job by Eric kept the rain out of the front basement.  Fingers crossed.

We have never ever seen so much traffic on the road along I5 going into Seattle as we did today.  We came to a stop a few times and it was only 1:00PM.  Not sure what exit you take Croft to get to the ferry but be sure to allow some extra time.  It was very slow going from Olympia North.  As we got closer to Seattle traffic resumed normal speed.

About 1:30PM Colin quietly said to me, we have a problem.  Meanwhile I had been wondering why the road had gotten so rough.  Colin slowed and put the flashers on.  There was no where to pull over.  Traffic was heavy and the shoulder was narrow.  Finally he found a spot and we pulled over.

Not a large shoulder and we rocked with each passing car but it was an exit only lane and mostly only cars were using this exit.

Colin got out and looked under the RV.  The road had not gotten worse.  Our rear airbags had deflated.  No wonder the road seemed so rough.  The front ones were fine and holding their air.  I said “call someone” while he quietly thought about it.  First he dropped the back jacks to raise the RV, then he dropped the front to support the RV.

Time to put on the coverall and some gloves and he went underneath.

“I can fix it” he said, “just need a screw driver”.  He went back under yet again and after a few moments I heard and felt the RV go down on the back end.  OMG was the RV falling on Colin.  I was freaking out.  I quickly got shoes on and was heading out the door when Colin emerged from under the RV.  Thank goodness.  He told me it was the the air bag re inflating itself.  Well to me it seemed like the RV was going lower.  Whatever….but most important was that he was safe and the RV was going to be alright. What had happened was that the control valve lever had wriggled out of its connection to the air bags.  Likely due to the constant bouncing on Seattle’s famous rough roadways which are way worse than Mexico’s roads.  Colin reconnected it and tighten the connection.  We will have our Vancouver mechanic put a new clamp in it tomorrow.

Quick story here…last year when we had four new rear tires installed at Love’s, the mechanic put jacks under the RV rear axles and then crawled under the RV to lower the jacks and couldn’t get out.  He was stuck.  The new tires are slightly wider but slightly less in diameter ( so we can carry more vino/load ) which is why he got trapped.  Colin had to put the jacks down and raise the back end so the fellow could get out.  Another quick story, many years ago enroute to Acapulco and somewhere way south ( can’t remember where ), we hit a hidden tope ( due to trees and shade ) at a faster speed than we should have and the rear airbags deflated.  It took a trucker who stopped to help and a Mexican mechanic and a lady who stopped to translate and in the end our control valve was reassembled.  Colin is now very familiar with out airbags.  You really need to be a jack of all trades when you own an RV.

Fifteen miles down the road we pulled off I5 and into a residential street. The only place we can park so Colin can walk 10 minutes to his chiropractor.  He has been seeing this guy since the mid 70’s and this was his annual tune up.

Just over an hour later we drove another fifteen miles to the Marysville Walmart where we will spend our last night in the US and try to drink the rest of the wine 🙄  Tomorrow is our major annual RV checkup, this will be our 15th year with the same shop.  We should get home by mid afternoon Thursday.

I sure hope that these temperatures will hold till we get home.