5C's Que Pasa

Monday was spent cleaning up the crap mess.  The park did send two young guys in to do the dirty work but Colin not only supervised but made them power wash our area once the initial pick up was completed.  He also did many chores outside with the main one being to unpack the shed of our patio furniture so we could put other stuff in the shed.

Meanwhile I was inside working on the 12 loads of laundry that needed doing.

I also had to open all the mail delivered since Nov. 15th and start to get organized for our company year end as well as personal taxes. The due date is the end of April.

Caeli enjoyed being out in the sun but she did keep escaping and Carmeh even joined her once. We found where they got out and that should be fixed for a while. It seems they prefer to be at Robert and Michelle's than our place. Remember how on the Isla they were always escaping to either Helene's or to Deb's. They know that the grass is greener on the other side.

I have been without a desk for close to a year. I sent it to our wood craftsman, Vi, to be stripped and refinished last spring. Colin had surprised me with this custom made roll top desk early in our marriage and we decided to get it changed from an oak to a cherry like finish. Vi delivered the desk after 6PM Monday and it is just fabulous. It is so very perfect and much nicer than we had envisioned. I was so happy I had tears in my eyes. Poor Vi was promptly given more work to do for us. Everything he has done in this home has been beyond perfect.

I now get to unpack many more boxes that will go into the desk drawers.  I am also looking forward to sitting at my desk to do the year end.  The computer desk is too low and the dining room table is too high but my desk is just perfect.

Once the sun went down yesterday it got cool very quickly. Without any heat source to keep it warm inside we enjoyed at toasty 75F while it was 45F outside. Even with all the windows we seem to be well insulated.

Tags: 319, CJPS, The girls

This entire return home has been full of firsts for us.

We had no idea how the RV was going to fit in front of our new home.

It fits just fine, much better than we could have hoped. We were even able to put the bedroom slide out and unload all the drawers and cupboards easily. The living room can be unloaded without putting out the slide.

Another first was the decision to unload the entire RV on the inside other than pots and pans, etc.  All the food was coming out.  We have used the beach site for the RV storage and we would often weekend in the RV even though our old house was just across the road.  However this year for the first time the RV is going into storage and at this point we don’t see us using it again until we head south in October.

Does anyone need any groceries? I had a good deal of things doubled including spices. Also I think because we have lived in the RV for almost 18 months I just had piled things in it every and anywhere.

This was also the first time we were fulling unloading into a new kitchen and I had to figure out where things would go.  Not an easy task.  Of course I ran out of cupboard space.  I really can pack a lot into the RV.

The entire time we were unloading the girls stayed in the RV.  They were not wanting to come inside the house.  We finally carried them in.  They did check out the yard and all the goose poop on the patio. What a mess but now that we live here perhaps we can train the geese to not come up on our lawn and patio.

The girls decided that the bed was the place to hang out. Carmeh looks so sad. She is using her sister's rump as a pillow. Caeli as usual is good as long as she is sleeping.

First thing Sunday morning the sh*t hit the ground.  Colin had gone out and around to the side of the house to regenerate our water softener in anticipation of my 10 loads of laundry. First thing he saw was crap all over the place, another first.

We have much more graphic photos but this should give you the general idea. We called the gate house and they sent someone from maintenance. Under our water softener, our propane tank and under the house.

No one knew if it was us who had caused the problem or even what the problem was.  A few neighbors came out and once people started looking it seemed that eveyones’ sewer was filling up to the top of the pipe.  Finally a plumber was called in and he worked for several hours in the main road through the manholes and then a more specialized unit came to the park after 6PM.  After several attempts it seemed that something was pushed/blown thru the line and things should be better.

Meanwhile water use was affected, no laundry, toilet or baths.  There was no water restriction put into effect but we knew that if we used water we would of course have more crap come out of our sewer.  At the end of the day yesterday we moved the RV onto a friends site for inside cleaning before its final summer destination in the storage yard.

Meanwhile I was tired, very sore from all the physical work and really wanted a bath. So we filled the tub and shared a bath. The plan was to leave the water in the tub until the sewer was repaired. And no there are no photos of the shared bath.

Dinner, many glasses of vino and the end of another day.

We love our new home.  It really is good to be home.

What will Monday bring?

Tags: 319, emergency, The girls, vino

There was no problem in crossing back into Canada on Friday morning.  The new question at the border was giving her our license plate information and where it was registered.  The usual how much did you spend and how long were you away and how much alcohol.  I admitted to having one extra bottle and there was was no charge at all.  It seems that most produce and dairy as now allowed back into Canada as long as they have no stones or pips.

Next stop was Walker Heavy Duty in Delta for our annual RV maintenance.  Our big concern was our air bag problem, turns out we needed a new valve for $119.00.  That was an easy fix, thank goodness.  While the RV was being serviced we headed into Ladner for groceries and wine.  Sticker shock!  No choice but to pay.  Fortunately we live in a cheaper world half the year.  The good news was that the entire RV service was only $670.00 and we are good to go for another year.  However if we add in the cost of the 2 new tires and the exhaust clamp we had repaired last November in Vegas it adds up to $2485.00.  Still not bad to keep a 40′ bus in top shape.

Next stop was our annual halibut dinner at Katie and Louie's, what a great meal as always. Carmeh knew where we were from over a mile away and started barking as we neared their home.

Sadly we had to say adios as we still had to drive to the Walmart in Chilliwack for the night.

Finally got to bed just after 11PM, we didn’t bother to put out the slides, we were tired and of course it was raining hard!  We were on the road by 7:30AM Saturday and having checked that the Coquihalla was clear  proceeded with that route.

It wasn't long before the rain turned to snow.

After Merritt, once we got on the Connector ( 97C ) to Kelowna things started to change.

We have driven in snow before but this was becoming almost impossible. We could not see and there was no place to pull over.

It wasn't until we got to the bottom of the Brenda Mine hill that we heaved a sigh of relief. I bet you we will be doing the Fraser Canyon again next April. Too back as it is much longer but safer.

We got to Holiday Park at 1230 PM and it took an hour to unhook and position the RV so we could start unloading.  We worked for several hours and will continue the job today.

This morning I read that the Coquihalla had a weather warning yesterday late in the day….

Saturday 9 p.m.: Drive BC alert.

Highway 5 Both directions.

Heavy snowfall and poor visibility from Exit 202, Portia Interchange (Hope) to Exit 256, Kingsvale (Coldwater Road) (Merritt) (54.8 km).

Travel is not recommended unless absolutely necessary. Please use alternate route.

I would say that we are lucky to be back home.

Time to get back to unloading and putting away.

Tags: food, friends, Kelowna, travel, Wine

It was a 325.4 mile day and from Tacoma north it was wet! Rush hour starts at 2PM and we were in bumper to bumper through Tacoma to Marysville for over two hours. How do these people drive this everyday?

When I write miles here I do mean miles and not KMs.  We imported our RV from the US and it registers miles on the odometer. We had no problems on the road and are about to leave Marysville this morning for a run to the border.  We have a 10AM appointment for our annual RV maintenance in Vancouver, B.C.

Back to the Pacific NW.

Final shopping at Walmart. Some things are just so very much cheaper than in Canada.

New rules here at the Marysville Walmart. You can still overnight at Home Depot, Cabela's and the Casino. We were told that they might knock at our door at 2AM to make us move. No one came knocking and the other 13 RV's were still here at 7AM.

We did get lost for about 45 minutes at the end of the day yesterday and had a scenic tour of Marysville while trying to find Kohl’s.  Remember we had earned $50.00 worth of coupons while shopping in Yuma, to spend starting April 18th.  Found the store and with careful shopping, by picking sale items, I got  $93.01 of items all at no charge.  Now that was a bargain.

Colin took this by accident and I thought my parents might enjoy the close up of what they had created.

Tags: travel, USA

Wednesday started out at 30F  ( -1C ) outside and 44F (6C ) inside.  Really not a great way to start the day but it did get better, eventually.  Turns out that the 2 new heaters both stopped working this morning once we turned on the generator and plugged them in. Raley’s cheerfully refunded our money, only now we don’t have a heater.

The girls refused to go out for a walk and stayed under multiple layers of blankets.

We finally got going about 10:45AM, late as usual.  But we so enjoy our mornings.

Still lots of snow at the Siskiyou Summit of 4310 feet.

Not too much exciting on the drive today except I did see 2 deer along the side of the road.  A first for me on I5.  We had to fuel up and got diesel for 3.969 per gallon.  Diesel prices are much much cheaper than last year when we paid between 4.459 and 4.409 per gallon.

It was only a 224 mile day today which I really enjoyed. Doing both passes in the early daylight hours in great. I remember coming into Canyonville in the dark one year.

So where did we end up!  At the Valley River Centre in Eugene Oregon.  Many many thanks to Jean and Skip for their blog which led us here.  This has been an overnight stop for them for three years now.  Once again mille gracias.

We are parked along the banks of the Willamette River and although this doesn't show it we are in just a wee bit of heaven.

The view outside the side RV windows.

We had a special visitor. I think it is a Western Scrub Jay.

The view outside the dirty front window. Yes that is a biker passing by.

In fact there is a 5 mile trail on each side of the river making a 10 mile loop for walkers, dog walkers and bikers. I love it here.

So do the girls except they want to be off leash and all over the place. It was about 62F at 4:30PM.

View from the middle of this bridge.

I had been enjoying the various shades of green all day during the drive and now I was surrounded.

We missed spring in California, all the blossoms were done and the leaves were in place.

Notice the long pants and jacket but I still have bare toes. I hate wearing closed toe shoes and I dislike wearing pants but it is a necessity at times.

I did find spring today. Lucky me. Thanks Jean & Skip.

Tags: flowers, spring, travel, USA