We expected a sunny day today but that was not to happen. Ground squirrels and chipmunks scampered about as we readied to leave the campsite and go into the downtown of Banff. The clouds were hiding the mountains and a steady rain was falling.
When we parked in the public RV parking lot we parked beside a converted camper van. The couple with the van expressed interest in our rig and asked some questions about the Armadillo. They introduced themselves as Sharron and Jerry. They had rented the van and were on the way to meet friends in Radium. They were looking at other RV options. We showed them the virtues of the Armadillo and Debbie gave them an Armadillo business card.
Debbie was looking for a special type of toque but it seemed she was one week late as most of the stores had removed their winter stock. She did buy some goodies for the grandkids.We enjoyed a lunch and coffee at Evelyn’s Coffee Shop on Banff Avenue. As I was looking around I noticed a young couple behind me and the lady was busy typing on a portable keyboard and using her cell phone. My curiosity got the best of me and I tapped her on her shoulder and asked her if she was typing a blog? She said she was and I then proceeded to tell her that I too was building a blog for our trip. Our conversation continued and we learned that Chelsea and her husband Richard, are from New Zealand and they have been in Canada since October and they are doing a North America tour, going across Canada and then on down to Florida!! We had a great conversation, exchanging blog information. They were a pleasure to meet as they have been travelling the world since they got married. Starting in South East Asia, Indonesia and beyond. Oh to be young again!! We will check out their blog. Globetrotting Dandelions!! As we were leaving Canmore, Debbie noticed that we had already received an email from them and they had checked out our blog! As we’re leaving Canmore we saw their Truck/camper rig and waved at them. We just might cross paths again on our journey.
At about 3:30 pm, we pulled into the Gooseberry campsite in the Elbow Valley Provincial Park and set up our campsite for the night.
After setting up camp and getting ready for supper, we met Laura, who was walking past our site. She commented on the trailer and she mentioned that she and her husband John were camping a few sites over in an A-liner trailer and she was interested in the Armadillo. We had an interesting conversation with her and she invited us to her trailer to meet John after our supper. Shortly after we met Serge and his wife Lindsay, and parents Curt and Pat. Serge and Lindsay own a 15 ft. Boler, and Curt and Pat have a large 30ft motorhome. We talked at length on various topics. Serge knew the virtues of the Armadillo and discussed the changes from the Boler. Pat was born in Newfoundland and Curt is from Churchill, both destinations that we are headed for. Pat gave us some tips on visiting Newfoundland and we learned that they are going back to Newfoundland for a trip in June. We agreed to see them also after supper. After supper we made our way to Laura and John’s trailer, and we enjoyed some glasses of wine and exchanged stories. John is a retired archeologist and Laura a physician. They are frequent visitors to the Kananaskis. They have travelled the world particularly on various dig sites. They live in Calgary and Laura works in Public Health, spearheading various health initiatives.
While we were enjoying their company, the rain started up with a vengeance and was soaking the roads and forest around us. When it was time to go, we said goodnight and went outside to retrieve our shoes, which had been left outside the trailer and were now totally filled with water! It was a soggy walk home and we decided that the rain was too strong to do any further visiting. We returned to the trailer and climbed into bed, listening to the sound of rain pelting on the roof.
It was time to get up early and get ready for our trip to Banff, which was our next destination. While we were breaking camp, we met our next-door campsite neighbor, Michael, from Germany. Michael and his wife Annette, had rented a motorhome in Vancouver and were travelling the interior of the province. Michael works in the hospitality industry in Germany and they take trailer vacations in Europe. We had a great conversation comparing trailer experiences and the differences of campsites between Europe and Canada. We asked them to follow our blog as they said goodbye. It was time to head east and put the first province behind us. The light drizzle stopped shortly after we began driving and we were able to admire the majestic mountains as we wound our way through the Rogers and Kicking Horse passes.
There were several areas of construction on the highway, however, traffic was fairly light and the driving was easy.
We stopped for lunch at Emerald Lake. Debbie and I have fond memories of Emerald Lake and have visited it many times in our life. This time we were both disappointed as it was extremely busy with bus tours and motorhomes and we both found the bathrooms and grounds to be unkempt and dirty. Nevertheless, we enjoyed our lunch and a short walk by the lake, which will never lose it beauty. Then we pushed on to Banff.
Banff has lost its quaint alpine town atmosphere, as it is now a bustling tourist city with tour busses and transit buses everywhere. Banff Avenue still has some alpine appeal however, not the same as it used to be. The price of progress and population increases I guess…..
Our intent was to camp at Two Jack Lake, a favorite campsite for us. When we pulled into the entrance kiosk, we were gently told that if we did not have a reservation the campsite was full!!! Again, foiled by reservations!! Even in mid May campsites were filling fast. We were able to secure a campsite at the Tunnel Mountain Campgrounds, not anything like what we wanted at Two Jack Lake, but good enough for an overnight stay.
In terms of wildlife, Debbie saw several Bighorn sheep and there were several elk grazing on the edges of the roads. We have not seen any bears yet, however, the park operator at this campground warned us of coyotes roaming nearby. We toasted Alberta with a glass of Prosecco. We are going to toast each province that we enter this way. Although we were looking forward to enjoying two small steaks, I carelessly burnt them, so it certainly did not turn out to be the supper we had anticipated. Oh, well there’s always tomorrow. Good night.
Woke up the to sound of a crow waiting to steal something at our campsite. Guess what, the Ackermans never showed up!! While I was preparing breakfast at the picnic table and talking to the crow, the Park operator drove by. I hailed her and she told us that we could return to the “Ackerman” site, so after breakfast we broke camp and quickly returned to our last night’s site.
We met Norm and Lynn from Whitehorse. They are camping in a converted ex-undercover police van, and are returning to Whitehorse after attending a wedding in the Kootenays.
The lake was still and I thought it would be a great idea to go for a quick dip and wash in the lake. It was a good idea for about 30 seconds!! I stripped down and took the plunge and I expected the water to be cold but not THAT COLD! Talk about shrinkage and a brain freeze. Nevertheless after drying off, I did feel refreshed and clean.
SHRINKAGE AND BRAIN FREEZE!!!
While Debbie was cleaning up the trailer, I took a ride on my bike around the campsite. I would recommend this Provincial Park to anyone. It is built up along the banks of the Revelstoke Lake, above the Revelstoke dam. The Revelstoke dam was built in the early 1970’s to provide hydro-electricity to the province. The entire valley above the dam was flooded and the lake was created. The campsites are spread along the banks or near the water and the lake is surrounded with scenic mountains and waterfalls.
We drove back the 20 kms., to Revelstoke to buy some supplies and top up our now, two, propane tanks. We enjoyed a few beers at the Craft Bierhaus and then slowly made our way back to camp. It was my first opportunity to enjoy a glass of beer or wine and opened a bottle of Rose’ from the Makepeace’s Hugging Tree Winery. After two glasses, I realized that I had better slow down as I hadn’t drank alcohol for some time and that perhaps I should stumble into bed as that Rose’ had a kick to it! It was too cloudy to do any star gazing tonight.
It is time to get moving again. We both commented yesterday that we felt we wanted to get moving east. We made a quick breakfast, hooked up the trailer and started for Enderby.
By 10:30 we arrived at the Armadillo Trailer factory and met with Mike, Jason and Andy. They gave us a short update to their busy shop. Mike explained that they had manufactured 20 more Armadillo trailers since ours!!! It was fun to see the different ideas and plans for some of the ordered trailers. They sat inside our trailer and looked at how we had set up the interior as well as gave us some other ideas of what we could do. Andy went to work immediately to install the second propane tank and we left to quell the quilting beast, by Debbie visiting the Pleasant Valley Quilting shop in Armstrong. We enjoyed a tasty sandwich at the Wild Oak Café.
Then Debbie wanted to tour the Barn Quilt trail, barns with quilt paintings on the exterior walls. She was given a map of the area and we proceeded to check out the various barns in the area. Even with a map, we still got lost, which made for some interesting discussion, given that my navigator is going to take us across Canada. We certainly enjoyed the “quilting pokemon” and the wonderful farms and agricultural landscapes of the Armstrong area.
We returned to the Armadillo factory and by about 5:30, Mike, Jason and Andy had completed the work on the trailer. We had a great visit with those guys and the service that we got was beyond our expectations. Mike gave us some Armadillo merchandise to wear on our trip to advertise the trailer. We said goodbyes and headed for Revelstoke by 6:00 pm.
We arrived at the Martha Creek Provincial Campsite around 8:00 pm. We drove around the site to pick out our campsite. We finally agreed on a site right on the edge of the lake and set up camp. We had eaten an early supper in Enderby so we decided to just enjoy the evening beside the lake with a glass of wine.
Surprise! At 9:30 the Campsite operator arrived in her truck and said, “You made it, you must be the Ackermans!” “Actually,” we replied, “We are the Van Otterloo’s.” “Well,” she said, “the Ackermans have reserved this site so you will have to move!” So at 10:00 pm, we had to move our rig to another site that was not reserved. That kind of took the romance out of the evening and we went to bed cursing those Ackermans! For some reason we hadn’t even checked the site post to see if the site was available.
The day started out grey and light drizzle. We decided to stay near the campsite for most of the day as Debbie wasn’t feeling well and needed to be near a washroom. It was also a good day to post some of the bogs that had been sitting in draft mode and for that we needed to be a near WIFI source. The only reliable router was near the entrance to the campsite near the general store so I sat under a picnic awning near the store and proceeded to work. That task took longer that I anticipated as I was having difficulty downloading some of the photos.
The sun broke through the clouds in the early afternoon and we basked in the warmth. We were able to make some phone calls to family. We enjoyed talking to Allie and Sophie and Jeff and Rina. Myra was also able to call us and tell us that she was working her way back to Canada and she was presently in Dubai.
The evening was spent around the campfire where we met Ann and Leo, folks from One Hundred Mile House. They had taken a trip across Canada last year and were able to give us some tips and ideas for our trip. They had to abort their trip when they were in Newfoundland as Leo became quite ill and Ann had to drive their camper back home. They will be returning to Newfoundland this September and go to the places they missed. They are going to fly there this time. Their daughter in law is a Mountie who is stationed in the far north and her father, Bob, was also Mountie whom I worked with in Kamloops!!!
The topper for the evening was enjoying a cherry pie done in the campfire cast iron press. It was delicious and just the right size for two people. It was Debbie’s first attempt and she was quite proud of herself. She promised she would make more of them!
Hunter, gatherer!
in the dark
It was lights out at 10:30 and hopefully Debbie will be feeling better tomorrow.
May 20, 2019
Debbie is feeling a little better today but still has a lingering flu like symptoms. We decided that we would explore Vernon and area. We also needed a few groceries.
We visited the local Rona store to buy a new axe, (I was using a small hatchet) and a doormat for the trailer. Then a nice trip to Silver Star Mountain Provincial Park and Ski resort rounded out the afternoon. We are impressed with the many colour choices of the chalets in the village. We have not been to Silver Star Ski resort in the winter but we will return. The variety of colour against a snow backdrop would make the village truly magical.
We hiked into the BX Falls near our campsite and watched a swallow feeding her chicks in a nest stuck on a cliff, just feet from the rushing falls. That bird expended a lot of energy feeding those chicks during the time we watched her. I tried to take a photo of her.
BX Falls- Vernon
Check out the nest at the base of the tree!!!!
Bill bird watching
We returned to camp and enjoyed a delicious stir fry supper that Debbie whipped up in the trailer. We joined Leo and Ann, their son Steve and his wife Michelle at their fire and Debbie handed out Nanaimo memorabilia and exchanged some more stories. We then packed the trailer to leave early tomorrow for our trip to Enderby.
Sun shining through the tall pines woke us up. Chipmunks scurrying around the trailer watched me as I started breakfast on the picnic table. It would be a great day to travel. We took a short hike along the shoreline of Chilliwack Lake and enjoyed looking at the beauty of the area.
On our way to Chilliwack city from the Chilliwack Provincial Park we stopped at the Tamihi Rapids. This area is a recreational site developed for white water kayaking. The gates and the competition apparatus for moving the gates are strung across the river.
We were exploring this area when much to our surprise a Whitewater Rafting group came careening down the river! We encouraged and applauded them as they roared past us.
White water raftersHamel’s Quilt Shop
Debbie, of course, needed to visit Chilliwack and drop into the Hamel Quilt shop. We had agreed that we would make those visits in order to calm the quilt beast in her! Unbelievably, it was a short visit! We then topped up the propane and fueled the truck, and headed for EC Manning Park, our next planned stop. We have always enjoyed EC Manning Park and on our previous visit we paid 5 dollars at the Manning Park Resort and enjoyed the showers, pool, and hot tub. We are looking forward to doing that again. Our trailer is equipped with an outdoor shower, but it is still a little chilly to be standing outside under a shower at this time.
EC Manning Park Resort
We secured a beautiful campsite at the Mule Deer Crossing Campground. The campsite backed right onto the banks of the river and the rapids. We enjoyed a quiet time around a campfire after a great chicken dinner that Debbie had crafted in the trailer!
An idyllic site beside a roaring river.
Enjoying Smores
As we were lounging by the fire we watched a black pickup and large trailer drive by our campsite and I noted that the trailer had a familiar RV Sales outlet decal from Nanaimo. They secured a campsite nearby and as Debbie and I walked by we noted that the truck had a license plate holder from a dealership from Nanaimo and the couple were enjoying the evening by the fire. Debbie, of course, engaged them in conversation and we met Susan and Ross from Nanaimo! Susan was an air force child, as was Debbie, so they compared their lives and the many various places they lived in Europe. They also knew my former mentor of the 70’s, Dale! Ross and Susan are on their way to an archery tournament in Grand Forks. We enjoyed our conversation with them and wished them well on their travels. They said they will follow this blog. We went to bed relaxed and fell asleep to the sound of the river rushing by. Life is good.
May 16, 2019
Awoke to a drizzle falling on the trailer. After a breakfast we broke camp and headed to the Manning Park Resort, looking forward to a shower and swim. We paid our 5 dollars, and turned on the showers, they were not working. I went out to the pool and found Debbie standing waist deep, with a frown on her face. Not what we expected! A maintenance man walked by and apologized that the pool was cool because he had just topped up the pool, and that the showers were shut off as they were replacing a valve!! -but- he said- “the hot tub is working”. You don’t have to tell me twice and I hopped in immediately. I guess the moons are still not quite aligned.
After Debbie washing her hair in the sink and claiming that she smelled of chlorine. I simply acknowledged (sheepishly) that she smelled better and ended that conversation!
Off we went easterly toward Princeton. A dear friend Pat lives in Princeton. Our relationship goes back to the 80’s when we all lived in Fruitvale, B.C. We knocked on her door in the early afternoon and she welcomed us with open arms. We had forewarned her that we would be visiting her and she, of course, had a great lunch waiting for us.
The evening went by so quickly as we talked about old times, past acquaintances – alive and dead – and catching up with each other’s lives.
Our bed in the trailer is quite comfortable and cozy, however, Pat convinced us to sleep in her house this evening and we enjoyed the comfort of a queen size bed.
May 17, 2019
Still raining, but it is welcome, as British Columbia has already experienced three forest fires this year. The spring has been quite warm and the forests are dry. We need the rain. We enjoyed another shower this morning and we were in great spirits as we had breakfast with Pat and continued on regaling each other with stories. It was as if we continued where we had left off. Pat then drove us around Princeton, as Debbie and I had never got to see the town before. Princeton is experiencing a uptick in its economy with three major industries thriving. By 2:00pm., it was time to push east so we said our farewell to Pat and started down highway 3 towards Keremos and Cawston, to drop in on old friends, the Makepeace’s.
We have known them since the 70’s and I have worked with both of them over the years at various locations in British Columbia. They have both retired now and they and their children own a winery in the Similkemeen valley called the Hugging Tree Winery. We stopped in at the winery and spoke to Mel, the “adopted” daughter. Mel informed us that Walt and Cristine were both out of town on a pre -planned errand. She texted them and told them we would perhaps look them up on our return trip. (We will call ahead next time) Debbie bought some wine and five liters of organic Makepeace Apple juice. The wine is for Debbie….. .
Hugging Tree Winery
Due to the up coming long weekend, the first real camping outing for families, we were unable to reserve a provincial park campsite. All the Provincial Park campgrounds in the Okanogan have been reserved since early this year. We opted for booking a commercial campground near Vernon.
We had planned to take alternate routes to some of our destinations as we had travelled most of the main highways of British Columbia over the years. Navigator Debbie was studying the map and mentioned that there is an alternate road to Vernon from Penticton past Naramata. It would take us off the busy highway and into new territory. Hmmmm.
After we passed through Penticton, we climbed the secondary road to the Naramata bench. Our onboard GPS kept repeating “Follow the route”, Follow the route”. We commented to our American voice in the dashboard, “We are, We are!” We passed wineries and orchards into Naramata and suddenly realized we had come to the end of this secondary road. We stopped in at the Naramata Pub and a local chap told us that the road to Chute Lake and beyond would not be advisable with our rig and that it was quite rough and rocky. Our dashboard friend was obviously trying to tell us to turn around!! Sometimes being a stubborn Dutchman causes me to get into this kind of predicament. We turned around and retraced our steps for an hour and a half…. .On the positive side, Naramata looks like a beautiful community. Nice pub!
We continued onto to Vernon. Judging from the RVs and trailers on the highway, it was obvious that people were on the move to try and enjoy this long weekend. We arrived at the Cedar Falls Campground at 7:30pm, tired and hungry. We had both agreed that we would not travel on this trip feeling tired and hungry so we had learned a valuable lesson.
A welcoming Bear
Cedar Falls Campground is a pleasant family oriented camping ground. The owners Dwayne and Brenda, with the help of Gail and Peter, are engaging and welcoming. They take pride in giving continued service to the campers making sure that we are enjoying ourselves. The sites are well maintained, the bathrooms, showers and laundry facilities are exceptionally clean. It is a treat to be able to go for a shower that is consistently the same temperature. We would certainly recommend this place to others travelling through Vernon.
Cedar Falls Campground
Our purpose for coming to Vernon was to be in short driving distance to Enderby. We had made arrangements to bring in the Armadillo to have a second propane tank installed and to pick up a cutting board. This was to be done after the long weekend.
May 18, 2019
Still raining, but feeling refreshed after both having a great sleep. Today was to be spent relaxing, doing the laundry that had accumulated and catching up on the blog. Debbie had bought premixed flour containing baking powder and salt. It was my turn to make breakfast and try my hand at making pancakes with the new mix. The pancakes turned out perfect! As I’m typing this blog, Debbie, is doing the laundry, reading and relaxing.
With the hand slowly feeling better, and looking better, we decided that if the Doctor liked the healing process of the hand, we would carry on with the plans to head out as soon as we get the “go ahead”. With that in mind, and knowing that the splint would hamper any thing that Bill could do, we had rallied some of the neighbours to come over and help lift the kayaks on to the truck and put the bike onto the bike rack and hook up the trailer. Bill felt that he could probably do it himself but did not want to risk further injury to the wound.
At noon today, our neighbours, Merv, Marty, Gary and Rick came over and the work began. Gary, always the joker that he is, pulled up in his pick up and asked us to come over to it. A few days previous, he had mentioned that his sister Darlene, lives in Kentville, Nova Scotia, and suggested that we drop in and see her. So, he opened the tailgate of his pick up and showed us two cardboard parcels with Darlene’s address on them and asked us if we could take them with us to give to her! Debbie and I looked at each other, (Debbie thinking about “where they possibly could fit”!, and me, thinking “Well I guess we could because Gary is such a good guy”…….). After a few awkward quiet moments of contemplation, Gary started laughing and told Debbie to lift the parcels. They were empty. That was a great gag Gary, now it’s my turn… .
The Joker!!
With so many helping hands and cumulative years of experience and knowledge, it was short work and in a matter of time, the rig was set up and ready to go!!
Debbie spent the remainder of the day, stocking the fridge and squirrelling food and necessities into the various spaces in the trailer. Bill left and took “Slade”, the grand dog, to the vet for a check up and then met the biking group at Starbucks for coffee. Jeff, Rina, and the kids came over, bringing some topsoil to top up a flower bed and then to say goodbye. It was a tearful farewell. In the evening we took “Slade” to Sharron our long term dog sitter and then to say goodbye to our great friends Wayne and Pat .
We knew we would be meeting a lot of new people on our trip and visiting friends along the way. We thought it was a good idea to give out memorabilia of Nanaimo. So off I went to the City of Nanaimo building and was fortunate to get two small satchels of City of Nanaimo pins. Next, a visit to the Nanaimo Museum and I met Charlotte, a wonderful ambassador for Nanaimo, and I explained why I was there. She showed me a great variety of items that I could buy representing Nanaimo. They ranged from note pads and fridge magnets to dishtowels, puzzles and coffee mugs. I brought home a large bag of things that we would be spreading across Canada!
May 14, 2019
My Doctor examined my hand and gave me the okay to get on with the trip!!!! He did say that I should rest the hand as much as possible and not kayak or ride my mountain bike for at least a week. He also cautioned me not to drink any alcohol for two days after my antibiotics are finished! If I even had a small amount I would get dreadfully sick. Our good doctor friend Wayne had also told me that. I guess I can only watch Debbie enjoy her wine at dinner. Damn Dog!
Debbie and I finished setting up the house for her friend, Chris who was house sitting for us while we are away. We also decided that because of the age of our current computer we needed to upgrade and so off to Best Buy and purchased a new Apple tablet. We then looked at each other and asked ourselves, “is there anything else that we could think of that we needed”? When we both said “no”, we started our truck and pulled out of the driveway and caught the 3:15 Duke Point Ferry. We were finally on our way!! Starting odometer reading 14,753Km.
Boarding BC Ferries at Duke Point
We sat in the cafeteria and took a deep breath, watching the shoreline of Vancouver Island disappear in the distance. We would not see that sight again for six months.
Good bye Vancouver Island
Of course we arrived onto the mainland at 5:15, rush hour, however, we were pleasantly surprised that the trip along Hwy 17 East was moving quickly and with no traffic jams. Our destination for the day was the Chilliwack Lake Provincial Park.
Chilliwack Lake Provincial Park is a beautiful park with the lake nestled in a valley surrounded by majestic mountains. We were both tired and so a bowl of soup and crackers was all we needed before we ended day one.
After our “shake down” camping trip to Rathtrevor Provincial Park, we returned home and began to put the final touches for our departure date in the first week of May. We had many little things that needed attention, the landscaping around the house needed to be groomed, flower beds needed weeding, and bark mulch had to be put down.
Debbie was still waiting for more Amazon deliveries and her collapsible tea pot finally arrived. She was thrilled. We also made a quick trip to Victoria to buy pots and pans and a new handheld coffee grinder. It will be great fun sitting around the campfire at night, grinding the coffee for morning. We visited with our dear friends, Graham and Michael, and enjoyed a wonderful lunch at their beautiful condo in Victoria. Thanks Guys!
Many people in our circle of friends and neighbours have been asking when we are leaving and how our departure plans are developing. We have been responding by bringing them up to date and saying goodbye to some of the ones that we won’t be seeing before we leave. Our coffee circles have given us farewell coffees and the same question has to be answered each time…”So when are you leaving”?
On Sunday, May the 5th, our departure date suddenly “got scuppered”! Bill was bitten by a dog in the neighbourhood and ended up in emergency for three hours and received 11 stitches to close the wounds. OUCH!!!!
We thought the wound was doing well, but suddenly on Tuesday his hand was very red and swollen. Back to emergency, (another 4.5 hours), two new antibiotics and a splint. Bill’s hand was damaged and had to be immobilized with a splint making him virtually useless. He was like a lion with a thorn in its foot! Debbie was tasked with driving, shopping, cleaning and cooking while Bill simply watched and tried to give whatever help, (advice) he could – which was very little.
Suddenly we had to change our plans!
We received so much support and sympathy from our neighbours. We think they are tired of saying goodbye to us and wishing we would just get on our way. Our talented friend Wayne took the time to write a poem for us……
Do tell us of the hungry dog in the night You know the one you were told would never bite It was just a mistake the light was too dim Bill`s hand was the mini snack to feed him
So here we are waiting for the healing of the hand, knowing that it is going to be another week. The weather in Nanaimo is absolutely glorious, however, in other parts of our destinations in Alberta, it might be just as well that we stay here in Nanaimo a little longer.
Now that we have the trailer at home it is time to gather our “stuff” and try to make it all fit. We still need new kayak racks for the truck and a bike rack for the trailer. I have been hoisting the kayaks onto the roof of our vehicle for years but we decided that we would buy a set of Thule Hullavator racks so that we could carry the kayaks to the rack and then get assistance in hoisting them onto the higher platform of the SUV. We shopped around on line and locally for what we needed and finally settled on the best price and installation at Valhalla Pure in Nanaimo. Mike and Andrea gave me lots of assistance and advice and provided the best price. About a week, later the package arrived and I took the Santa Fe to Valhalla and Mike installed the racks. We are impressed!! The kayaks swing onto the roof with ease and because Debbie is short and I am old, these racks will make a world of difference in our kayaking. Because we want to kayak in as many places as we can, we did not want the loading and offloading of the kayaks to be a deterrent in our kayaking plans. This is definitely going to be a major factor in our kayaking. We hope that we don’t meet any rutting moose on our trip because our Santa Fe certainly has a set of racks!!
Debbie has been stocking the trailer. About every other day another package arrives from Amazon. She travels the internet looking for anything “collapsible”. She is working hard to find cooking utensils and storage helpers so that she can fit it all into our small trailer. I notice her looking at me once in a while and I think she thinks that I should also be “collapsible”. I know I have gained some weight but this is going a little too far!!
On the March 22nd weekend we took our rig (minus the kayaks) to Rathrevor Provincial park as part of a shake down cruise to see what we needed or had forgotten. This little three day excursion allowed us to try out our awning on the trailer and set up our outdoor cooking and barbecue systems. Again it was a great success and our barbecue worked perfectly. We have a quick connect hose to the trailer so it was so portable and easy to set up. We opted to stay with our Coleman white gas camp stove because we think it will be easier than packing the small one pound propane tanks. Unfortunately we could not find a two burner camp stove that is set up to take the quick connect low pressure connections onto the trailer. We did make a run into Parksville to buy some knives and forks that were better (according to Debbie) than the camping/kayaking set that we had. Debbie shopped at the Parksville SOS Thrift store and found just what she was looking for.
Our friends, Dave and Karon, met us at Rathtrevor and Debbie had great plans to barbecue a steak for them but when she wanted to set up the supper, she found that our fridge had done such a good job of freezing the steak that it was still hard as a rock when they arrived! Thankfully, Karon had brought some large smokies and more firewood, so we roasted them for supper instead! We ate the steak the next day. Dave was kind enough to lend us his bike rack that fits perfectly onto the trailer. Dave and Karon are sailing off to Mexico soon so he wouldn’t be needing the bike rack.
Our friends, Kelly and Yvette, also visited us at the campsite. They also brought some more firewood and we enjoyed their company and had lots of laughs. Firewood at the park costs $8.00 a bundle for 5 pieces of dry wood. It burned quickly so the firewood that they brought was very much appreciated.
We are now one week away from starting our journey. Things have fallen neatly in place for us. We have found a wonderful dog sitter, Sharron, for Slade our grand dog, and Chris, a friend of Debbie is going to stay in our house while we are gone. Chris is “between houses” and is looking to purchase another, so hopefully she will find one that she wants, but not too early!
Check in on us again soon as we begin our journey!!
Quilting in a Kayak 