Sunday ; BRRRRR ! ! ! Cold and raining all day !
Spent the day indoors. Shopped online for a truck camper. Have about a half dozen to see on our way south.
Monday ; Sunny but cold. Did a bit more fall pre-departure work today.
Tried to reactivate our U.S. cell phone service online tonight. Couldn't ! Phoned for assistance. U.S. cell phone "sim card" expired. I didn't even know what that meant ! They could send new one. Three to five business days to deliver. Can be shipped only to U.S. address. HMPH ! Guess that means we're buying yet another new cell phone as soon as we reach the first Wal-Mart in the U.S., at Omak, Washington. Third U.S. cell phone in three years !
Tuesday ; Sunny but cold. Spent much of the day in Penticton running errands. Final trip to Penticton this year.
In the evening I researched the Canada Pension Plan. WOO-HOO ! Joanne is eligible for early pension in three months. I'd better get her ducks in a row soon !
Wednesday ; Sunny ... cold !
Made many phone calls today to sellers of truck campers. Planned travel route to see truck campers for sale. Went to Keremeos for haircut. OOOOO ... a bit too short ! Oh, well ... hair grows quickly ! Had to do simple repair on trailer fridge drain hose. Cold weather, brittle hose ... broke it ! Simple repair now becomes difficult repair < fume > ! Did "shoemaker" repair for now, will fix more elegantly once in Yuma.
Joanne spent most of day on pre-departure preparations, mostly "moving" from house to trailer.
I prefer the "old days" when all we had to do was hitch and go !
Thursday ; Hallowe'en
Sunny ... mild. A great day to be working outdoors "winterizing" the park model. We moved into the trailer by lunch time and I spent the afternoon disconnecting and draining all the water lines, draining the water heater, draining the sink traps, pouring anti-freeze into all the drains, the toilet tank and bowl, etc. in the park model. Joanne did a lot of laundry and finished moving everything that had to be moved from the park model to the trailer. We hitched the truck to the trailer.
Ready to go in the morning !
Friday ; Keremeos, B.C. to Okanogan, Washington
Today was gloomy, but mild and dry, a good day for departure and travel.
This morning we finished our departure preparations, weeded our lot underneath the trailer after
I pulled the trailer out, chatted with neighbours, and finally left Riverside RV Park Resort about 11:30 AM. We stopped in Keremeos to adjust the air in the trailer tires and to refill the trailer's freshwater tank, then headed east on Hwy. 3 to Osoyoos. Our border crossing was uneventful, typical for crossing at Osoyoos, B.C. to Oroville, Washington. No line-up, a few minutes answering reasonable and pertinent questions for a Customs & Border Patrol agent, then a few more minutes being inspected by an Agriculture inspector checking fridge contents and pet foods.
We stopped on the south side of Oroville to have lunch, then continued south on Hwy. 97 to Omak. We went "downtown" to the Bank of America where I took a large cash advance on our BMO U.S.$ MasterCard and deposited it to our Bank of America account. A few days ago I had "overpaid" our BMO U.S.$ MasterCard account to "cover" the cash advance, and avoid paying interest on the cash advance. It's how I get money from our Canadian bank account to our U.S. bank account without incurring fees. HA !
After the banking I refilled with diesel then we went to Wal-Mart to buy some groceries and ...
< sigh > ... a new cell phone. When I tried to reactivate our U.S. cell phone a few days ago I was unable because the "sim card" had expired, so I needed to buy a new phone. Cell phone bull**** is one of the things I hate about November 1 each year !
While Joanne put away groceries I walked across the highway to McDonald's and used their free Wi-Fi to activate the new cell phone. Because the new phone was plugged into the truck, charging, I had to cross the highway to return to the truck from McDonald's a couple of times to get necessary information for the activation process. Did I mention ... cell phone bull**** is one of the things I hate about November 1 each year ! I was able to activate the phone but was unable to buy airtime. I needed to have the phone with me in order to buy time online, and of course, the phone was charging in the truck, and the Wi-Fi signal wouldn't reach from McDonald's across the highway to the truck. Did I mention ... ! ! !
By that time ... it was dark. Joanne and the animals were sitting in the trailer in the Wal-Mart parking lot, getting very cold. We usually spend our first night in the Omak Wal-Mart parking lot, but ... we drove in the dark, south on Hwy. 97 to the next town, Okanogan ( different spelling than in Canada ) to boondock overnight in the RV parking lot of the Okanogan Bingo Casino. Free pull through RV sites with electrical service. Thank you !
Saturday ; Okanogan to Carnation, Washington
No, no ... not a good day at all !
We awoke this morning to the sound of heavy rain, and we went to sleep tonight to the sound of heavy rain. In between, there were heavy winds, lots more rain, and a snow blizzard !
It was raining when we left the Okanogan Bingo Casino RV parking lot this morning. We drove south on Hwy. 97 to Wenatchee, then turned west on Hwy. 20 ... up and over the Cascades. At an elevation of about 2800 feet the rain turned to snow. By the time we reached the summit of Stevens Pass above 4000 feet, it was a blizzard, with heavy blowing snow, and freezing slush on the highway. Very treacherous seven miles of 6% grade downhill, until the snow turned to rain again.
At the tiny village of Index the traffic abruptly came to a halt. We were stuck there for about an hour until we found out that the heavy winds had broken a tree, and the falling tree had brought down a power line down across the highway. There was no estimate of when a crew would be there to rectify the problem and get the traffic moving again, so ... I manoeuvered a near impossible u-turn on the two lane highway and followed other traffic on a 20 mile detour down a very, very narrow and winding mountain road to the next village < sigh >.
We were now about an hour and a half later than planned for our first viewing of a truck camper for sale. We met the seller in the parking lot of the Safeway in the town of Duvall, and he led us on a lengthy journey “off the beaten path” to his rural property. We parked our truck and trailer a mile or so from his remote property and rode in his truck the rest of the way in. We had little time to view his camper before darkness set in.
He drove us back to our truck and trailer. We became lost in the dark trying to get back to Monroe. We eventually ended up in the town of Carnation where we parked in a municipal park parking lot to boondock overnight. We were lost, we were hungry, we were tired, we were stressed ... so we blew off the rest of the evening bickering and sniping fiercely < sigh >.
And ... Joanne didn’t like the camper !
DSK
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