Sunday ; This morning we left the parking lot of the Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino and drove just a mile or two to SKP Park of the Sierras. We were very disappointed to discover, upon our arrival, that there were no vacancies in the park for the next two days. WOW ... didn't see that coming ! We decided to stay two nights in their boondocking area ... without services. That wouldn't normally be a big deal, but we've already spent five cold nights boondocking without a furnace. All of us, especially Sully, are tired of being cold at night. And despite five days of driving south, there's been no change in the weather. The day time and night time temperatures are the same here as they were back home, 2000 km. north !
We got parked in the boondock area and I went to work looking for the cause of no lights / no 12 volt power in the dinette / living room slide. It took me all of about 30 seconds to discover the problem once we got the slides extended. Underneath the living room / dinette slide are two coiled electrical cables. One brings 120 volt AC power to the slide and one brings 12 volt DC power to the slide. They're both coiled because they have to move in and out with the slide. The 12 volt cable was ... rotten ! Thirteen years of being exposed to the elements including road grime just rotted the cable and wires within. I wonder if the 120 volt cable is also rotten ? Or soon will be ? Obviously I don't have any 12 volt coiled cable, so I did a good but temporary repair. I cut the coiled cable at both ends, and spliced in two lengths ( + and - ) of regular automotive wiring. I attached the spliced in wiring to the cut coiled cable with wire ties so that the new wiring will not just droop and drag on the ground when the slide is retracted and we are travelling. Being able to solve at least one of the trailer's current ( pun intended ) problems gave me some satisfaction.
We had a late lunch and I napped briefly with Sully before Joanne and I went to the clubhouse for this park's regular Sunday afternoon ice cream social. We ate some ice cream and socialized for awhile, then I stayed in the clubhouse to get some ( much ! ) online work done. I reactivated our U.S. cell phone ( easier said than done ! ) and I posted my weekly journal to my blog. And dealt with a lot of incoming e-mail, most of it spam !
While Joanne prepared supper I drove to a nearby service station to buy some fuel for the generator. We can persuade the furnace to function occasionally and briefly, but the failing fan blower motor seems to suck an extreme amount of power and runs down the trailer's "house battery" fairly quickly. So we're going to have to run the generator for an hour or so at least a couple of times each day until we're in a serviced site.
After supper we went to the clubhouse and watched Amazing Race on the TV there.
Monday ; We damn near froze overnight ! We're boondocked, without services ... no electricity. Up in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Our furnace only works intermittently, and even then only when we manually switch it on and off. In this park's boondocking area we can't run our generator between 10 PM and 8 AM, so ... BRRRRR ! ! ! When we arrived yesterday morning we were told that we could expect to have a serviced site on Tuesday. Today things changed, and now the earliest we can expect a serviced site is Wednesday. **** that ! We're outta here tomorrow morning ! After we damn near freeze for another night ! ! !
This morning we drove into Coarsegold to run some errands. I dropped Joanne off at Vons to buy some groceries. I went to O'Reilly Auto Parts to buy some automotive wiring, then True Value Home Center to buy some hardware. On the way back to Vons I saw a tire shop so went in and bought another screw in metal valve stem, this one for the trailer's spare tire, the last of seven truck and five trailer tires that I am converting to screw in metal valve stems.
Back at SKP Park of the Sierras, after lunch, I took the truck to the park's large maintenance barn and did an oil and filter change. Changing the truck's oil and filter ( and lubricating the tie rod ends ) myself has become an annual chore that I do here, saving myself some money. An oil and filter change, and lube, on a one ton diesel dually is a pricey service. The maintenance barn here has all the necessary tools and equipment for do it yourself oil changes, including used oil disposal.
After buying some hardware this morning I was able to finish the trailer wiring repair job I did yesterday, making it "weatherproof" and consequently roadworthy. Afterwards I joined Joanne and Bo who were at the dog park for the daily dog party, the highlight of this park from Bo's perspective. While we were there a small dog injured one of her front dew claws. I noticed her foot bleeding as she was playing. She didn't seem concerned. However, most of the old ladies who were in the dog park ( the daily dog parties seem to be a social activity for dogs and their women ) seemed to think that Bianca's bleeding dew claw was a "sky is falling" crisis. Initially I was unable to convince Bianca's owner
( because she had half a dozen old biddies telling her otherwise ) that the injury was not a crisis and did not warrant an emergency trip to the veterinarian. After she phoned the vet and was told there was no need to rush right down, but he would be happy to see her tomorrow morning ( KA-CHING ) she reconsidered my offer to first aid Bianca's torn dew claw. She came over to our trailer with Bianca, and I disinfected, applied salve, and bandaged with gauze. Exactly the same thing the vet would do, but I didn't charge a hundred bucks ! And ... the vet wouldn't have used all natural piñon sap salve made by an Apache medicine man ! I told Sylvia to remove the bandage and repeat the process in three days. Just like the vet would do in another three days, another hundred bucks please !
Tuesday ; SHEESH ... plan A to plan B to plan A !
This morning we prepared for departure, paid our small bill for two nights of boondocking, were about to leave ... when the park manager rushed over to tell us that a site was going to become available after lunch. We decided to stay.
While we waited for our site to become available I installed the new thermostat we got at Camping World in Burlington, Washington. First of all, it proved that the furnace problem is not / was not a thermostat problem. Secondly, this new thermostat was slightly defective, on the air conditioning function side < sigh >. I will return it to Camping World in Bakersfield. I reinstalled the old thermostat. There's nothing wrong with it.
After lunch we moved to our assigned serviced site. I spent much of the afternoon fiddling with the furnace and thermostats. At 4 PM Joanne took Bo to the daily dog party.
I finished up my work, cleaned up, and went over to join them. We met a woman ( and her dog ) who are going to be our neighbours at Kofa Ko-op in Yuma.
This evening we went to Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino for their Tuesday evening barbecue buffet dinner. MMMMM ! Before supper we swiped our player's club cards at the CHUK-CHING promotion. I won a $5 food voucher. How fortuitous !
Wednesday ; The weather has improved. The nights are still cold, but the days are sunny and mild.
I spent much of today working on preparing for the installation of the two new catalytic radiant heaters. Lots of measuring and figuring out routing of propane lines. I'm hoping that Pro Flame in Oakhurst can custom fabricate three propane hoses for me, and that I might even be able to get the heaters installed before we leave here Sunday. That's a pretty ambitious objective, but ... if things go well ... ! I had initially expected that I would require the services of a professional propane installer to have the heaters installed, but now I think I might be able to accomplish it myself, with a bit of luck.
I watched the late news on TV tonight, a local ( Fresno ) station. There was a story about a dispute between a travel center masseuse and a customer. Did they mean ... a truck stop hooker and a John ? ! ?
Thursday ; Today was mostly overcast but very mild, temperature in the mid to high 60's. We spent half the day in Oakhurst running errands, being sent hither and yon in my elusive quest to have propane hoses custom fabricated, and to find some other hardware. None of the three propane companies in Oakhurst were able to make the hoses I need, because each of them was missing one fitting or another. < sigh > I guess it will have to wait until Quartzsite, or maybe even Yuma. In the meantime, I can get all the holes drilled. The Pole Barn's tool cage has the large drill and hole saw bits I need, so I will do that before we leave here Sunday. And I will try to get the larger of the two heaters mounted on the living room wall before we leave here.
Friday ; Remembrance Day ( Canada ) / Veteran's Day ( U.S. )
Lest We Forget
Since we began travelling in June 2004, this is the eighth Remembrance Day / Veteran's Day we have been in the United States. Veteran's Day in the United States seems much less "important" than does Remembrance Day in Canada. Five times Joanne and I have observed a minute of silence at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month by ourselves. Once we attended a Veteran's day service at an RV park in Texas. The first year on the road I prepared and led a service in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri. Today we attended a Veteran's Day service at Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino. It seemed a bit odd to be observing this solemn moment in a casino. And the service itself was ... weak. Since this was the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the eleventh year a special 11-11-11 Veteran's Day pin was created. And the Chukchansi Casino gave one free to each patron who requested one. For that I express my appreciation to Chukchansi Casino. Thank you. During the service, while a bugler played Taps, an old bottle blonde bimbo nearby would not stop playing her slot machine, which made a lot of inappropriate musical noises. I stomped over and told her ( very nicely, of course ) to STOP ! What part of "a minute of silence" did you not understand, you stupid bimbo ? ! ? It's difficult for me to understand the stupidity of some people !
I spent the afternoon drilling large holes in the trailer to prepare for the installation of propane hoses to the two new catalytic radiant heaters. I borrowed a hole saw from the Pole Barn. I had to drill nine holes, all in very difficult to access locations in compartments and behind drawers and inside cupboards, etc. But it's done, and that was likely the most difficult component of this installation job. Mounting the larger of the two heaters on the entry wall is also going to be difficult. Hopefully I will accomplish that tomorrow.
We spent the evening at the SKP Park of the Sierra's Veteran's Day potluck dinner and dance. Great food, good company, nice music.
Saturday ; I spent the morning installing the larger of the two catalytic infrared radiant heaters on the wall just inside the entry door of the trailer. The job went well. While working on this job, I crawled up into the bed of the truck to get some tools from the tool chest in the truck when I saw ... HUH ? ... WHAT ? ... why the hell is Sully wandering down the road ? ! ? SULLY ... why are you running away from home ? I guess I can't work on the trailer with the door open, and walk away for a few minutes !
This afternoon I installed a 12 foot section of stair nosing as cosmetic moulding on the edge of the living room / dinette slide. And then, off we all went to the final daily dog party of our visit. Bo has such a great time playing in the dog park every day with all his California buddies. Just before supper I phoned my sister and we had a long chat. Joanne and I send our best wishes to my brother-in-law who is battling prostate cancer.
DSK
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Sunday, November 6, 2011
October 30 to November 5, 2011
Keremeos, B.C. to Coarsegold, California
Sunday ; Today was chilly, with intermittent drizzle that slowed down our work preparing for departure Tuesday.
I did some further testing on the furnace / thermostat problem. I'm fairly convinced that the problem is the thermostat ... probably ... maybe. I searched through my bag of spare parts and found a 12 volt switch. I installed it on the "shoemaker repair" thermostat bypass wiring so now we can make the furnace turn on and off with a switch instead of twisting wires together and pulling them apart. I wonder if I'm going to have to explain to a Customs & Border Patrol agent on Tuesday why there is wiring coming out of a wall vent leading up to a switch attached to the side of the fridge with duct tape ?
Monday ; OW ... bad day in the stock market ! Hope it turns out to be just a dead cat bounce.
This morning I phoned Camping World in Burlington, Washington to find out if they have in stock the Dometic thermostat I want. They do. I've decided to change the thermostat ... even though today's testing indicated that the thermostat may not be the problem after all. I don't really like the thermostat that I installed 13 months ago and I want to change back to the factory original model. I did some further work and testing on the furnace / thermostat problem today. I was unable to establish electrical continuity in the wiring between the thermostat and the furnace. Maybe a wire melted ? Or was chewed by rodents ? All the wiring is in the walls and ceiling, and is impossible to trace ... or replace within the walls and ceiling. If a new thermostat does not solve the problem, then I'm faced with having to replace wiring ... and having to route it "outside" the walls and ceiling, probably along the top of the walls where they meet the ceiling.Perhaps I'm just getting ahead of myself and need to focus on one step at a time.
We went into Keremeos today and did our final shopping before departure. Back at home we completed all the departure preparations that could be done today. We're all ready to go. We're all eager to go !
After supper today, as I was getting myself some dessert, Bo was at my feet begging for his nightly Greenie. Since I was putting whipped cream on my dessert, and he loooooves whipped cream, I topped his Greenie with whipped cream. HA HA HA ! I handed it to him, he took it in his mouth, tilted his head back ... and swallowed ! OMG ... BO ! ! ! Too late ! Down his throat it went ! How the hell could he have swallowed an entire Greenie without chewing it ? ! ? I certainly feel guilty about that ! I hope it doesn't cause an intestinal blockage or some other problem. Bad Daniel !
Tuesday ; Keremeos. B.C. to Burlington, Washington
Homeland Security / Customs & Border Patrol ; keeping America safe one bag of rice at a time !
You ***ing pissant morons !
We departed Riverside RV Park Resort this morning and headed west on Hwy. 3. Not our usual winter departure route, we usually head east to cross into the U.S. at Osoyoos. Bo seemed to be feeling ill this morning, no doubt from swallowing the whole Greenie yesterday. As we travelled west on Hwy. 3 the elevation rose until Manning Park, then began a slow descent towards the Fraser Valley. By the time we reached the summit at Allison Pass in Manning Park there was a dusting of snow on the road sides and the temperature was below freezing, despite it being a sunny day. We stopped at a roadside rest area at Hope for lunch. The furnace would not light, even though the thermostat is bypassed. < sigh > It's really dead now < sigh > !
Not surprising, Bo was constipated this morning and when we stopped for lunch. After lunch, before leaving the roadside rest area, he was able to empty himself, and that seemed to ease / eliminate his discomfort / feeling ill. We breathed a sigh of relief.
As we continued driving after lunch I hatched an "outside the box" idea to solving our furnace problem. Maybe ... we should scrap the "gas fired forced air" furnace and convert to catalytic heaters ? ! We gave that a lot of thought throughout the day, and the idea is gaining favour !
At Abbotsford we turned south towards the border crossing at Sumas. Where we spent < fume > two hours ! ! ! The initial agent at the booth decided that we should be pulled over for a "7A check". Apparently this moron was of the opinion that we might be abandoning our home in Canada to sneak into the United States to remain forever. He and the other morons we had to deal with all acted as if we were the first Canadians they had ever encountered who were crossing into the United States with an RV for the entire winter. Once inside the building we had to wait for about half an hour while ***hole no. 2 made life miserable for another old Canadian Snowbird couple travelling in an RV, she in a wheelchair. When he was finished with them, and it was our turn, he asked stupid questions for ten minutes, then abruptly announced that his shift was over, he was going home, and somebody else would deal with us < FUME > ! Ten minutes later ***hole no. 3 started over. Same stupid questions ! Then he wanted to inspect the truck and trailer.
I was required to put Bo outside in a wire crate, and I brought Sully into the building with me. Joanne was not allowed to go outside the building to assist me with getting Bo and Sully. ***hole no. 4, who was assisting ***hole no. 3 with the inspection of the truck and trailer ( I think ***hole no. 4 was from Agriculture ) confiscated the contents of a small plastic container in the kitchen cupboard labelled "rice". The container contained ... rice ! But the "country of origin" wasn't listed, so in the garbage it went. Now don't all you Americans feel a whole lot safer knowing that our rice of mystery origin never made it into your country thanks to the tireless efforts of these outstanding public servants ? ? ?
God Bless America ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! And I say that will all the sincerity that an atheist can muster !
I should stop ranting now, and stop taking it personally ! It was incredibly painfully obvious that these morons were playing political / bureaucratic games to justify their existence and budgets to their superiors, who attempt to justify it to their superiors, who attempt to justify it to their superiors, and on and upwards it goes. "Look at the great work we do stopping these damn, old, rich Canadians from coming into our country and never leaving ... AND ... bringing mystery origin rice in with them. BUT ... of course, we need more staff and more money. It takes over an hour to process each one of those threats".
First and last time we cross at Sumas. The crossing at Osoyoos, where we normally cross, at this time of the year is almost non-stop RV's heading south, so the agents there do not seem to be inclined to play those kinds of stupid games, delaying every RV'er for one to two hours !
After finally leaving the border crossing, we drove for about an hour or so south to Camping World at Burlington, Washington. The furnace would not work ... at all !
Wednesday ; Burlington to Maytown rest area at Interstate 5 mile marker 93, Washington
With the furnace not working overnight we were pretty cold ! Especially Sully.
Today was another day that went pretty poorly, the second in a row.
We were up early this morning in order to be ready for our 8 AM service appointment at Camping World. The service writer noticed as he walked around the trailer with me that one wheel was missing the plastic hub cap and the bearing dust cap underneath. Well, gee whiz ... they were there yesterday when we left home ! The work I wanted done on the trailer should have taken about two hours so we were expecting to be out of there between 10 and 11 AM. It was not to be !
I had difficulty getting the work done that I wanted done, the way I wanted it done. A succession of heated discussions took place between me and the shop foreman, and eventually the service manager. The process was much more painful and difficult than it needed to be, for all of us. What part of "this is what I want done, this is how I want it done" do you not understand ? ! ? We finally left Camping World about 2:30 PM, way behind schedule.
We continued south on I-5, stopping about 20 miles south of Burlington at Angel Of The Winds Casino to refill with diesel and refill the generator gas can. It was there that I discovered that the empty generator gas can had blown out of the back of the truck
< gritting teeth > ! The delay at Camping World brought us to the northern edge of Seattle at about 4 PM, just in time for rush hour. The freeway rush hour traffic was bumper to bumper, stop and go, all the way through Seattle and Tacoma. We finally got through Tacoma about 6 PM after 2 hours of fighting freeway rush hour traffic. By then it was dark, it had begun to rain heavily, and fog was rolling in. It was obvious that we were not going to reach our planned destination for today ; Portland, Oregon. We drove for another half hour and stopped for the night at a roadside rest area.
This morning the furnace decided, quite on its own, to resume working. Nevertheless, this morning at Camping World we took a look at catalytic radiant heating systems. And ... lo and behold ... they are on sale this week at Camping World at a very good price. We made the decision that the dying / dead furnace is a good opportunity to convert from gas fired forced air heating to catalytic radiant heating. We had Camping World in Burlington, Washington phone Camping World in Portland, Oregon to ensure that the Portland store has what we want in stock. No sales tax in Oregon ! The Portland store has stock and put it aside for us to pick up tomorrow. I'm going to install a small catalytic radiant heater in the bedroom and a medium sized one in the living area. Unlike our current furnace which uses a great deal of 12 volt power to run the fan, and a great deal of propane to inefficiently create heat, the catalytic heaters use no power and much less propane. Conversion to catalytic radiant heating systems is the choice for serious boondockers. Which we're not, but I'm getting tired of using over $30 a week worth of propane during months like October and November. And I'm tired of how quickly our furnace can drain the trailer's house battery when we're boondocked overnight on cold nights when travelling in the fall and spring ... like last night and tonight ! So we're going to have to suffer for the next couple of weeks with no furnace or an intermittent furnace, but we're going to be happier in the long run after we install catalytic radiant heaters once we get to Yuma.
Thursday ; Maytown rest area at Interstate 5 mile marker 93, Washington to Seven Feathers Casino RV rest area, Canyonville, Oregon
Today was cold with intermittent rain. We have been travelling south for three days and the weather has not improved yet !
We left the I-5 mm 93 rest area this morning and continued southbound. We stopped at another rest area to use their trailer sani-dump station to dump our shower waste holding tank and refill our freshwater holding tank. We crossed from Washington to Oregon over the Columbia River. We stopped at Camping World on the south side of Portland and bought the two catalytic radiant heaters that we had requested be held for us. And we bought quite a bit of other stuff at Camping World. Today and tomorrow we will be shopping a lot, to take advantage of no sales tax in Oregon. We stopped for lunch at yet another rest area.
At Salem we stopped to refill with diesel and buy groceries, both at Fred Meyer. At Roseburg I saw from the Interstate that Home Depot and Lowe's were side by side, so I took the next exit and went back to shop for a couple of hardware items. Home Depot had one item that I needed and Lowe's had the other. We stopped for the night at Seven Feathers Casino near Canyonville. Whew ... lots of miles today !
In addition to the casino Seven Feathers has a large travel center with fuel and vehicle repair services, a very large full service RV park, and an extremely nice "RV rest area", a free overnight parking boondock area with a large restroom building, picnic shelter, fenced dog park, and security guard. Very nice ! Thank you, Seven Feathers / Umpqua Tribe !
Friday ; Canyonville, Oregon to rest area near Red Bluff, California
Today was a very long day, with a lot of miles driven, and a lot of shopping and errands completed.
This morning before departing Seven Feathers Casino RV rest area we drove over to the Travel Center where there was a commercial truck tire service shop. I asked if they could install two metal screw in valve stems on the trailer. I bought them recently in Penticton and was going to have them installed at Camping World in Burlington, Washington while the wheels and tires were off the trailer while the wheel bearings were being repacked. BUT ... < sputter > ... Camping World wanted to charge their minimum service charge of $59 to change two valve stems. I don't think so ! ! ! The tire service shop at Seven Feathers charged me twelve dollars ! And that included removing and reinstalling the tires on the trailer.
We left Seven Feathers and continued southbound on Interstate 5. In Grants Pass we found a Bank of America. I transferred the money to pay for lot 52 at Kofa Ko-op in Yuma into our Bank of America account. That was the final step of a somewhat convoluted process I have devised to get money into our Bank of America account without incurring any service fees. First I had our broker sell some U.S.$ investments and deposit the proceeds into our Bank of Montreal U.S.$ account. Then online I transferred the funds to our U.S.$ MasterCard account, essentially "overpaying" MasterCard and creating a "credit". Now that we're in the U.S. I went to the Bank of America, took out as a "cash advance" all the funds "overpaid" to MasterCard, and deposited that to the Bank of America account. MasterCard doesn't charge daily interest on the cash advance because my account was already overpaid by that amount. Voilà ... money in our bank account in the U.S. to pay for lot 52, no fees incurred ! Well done, Daniel ! Still in Grants Pass we refilled with diesel and did a lot of shopping at Wal-Mart. We had compiled a lengthy "buy in Oregon" shopping list.
We had a late lunch in the trailer in the Wal-Mart parking lot then headed back to I-5 and continued south. We stopped at a state recreation area to dump all our waste holding tanks and refill with fresh water. Three dollars please ! HMPH ! That costs nothing in Washington !
We stopped in Medford, the last city in Oregon southbound on I-5 to complete our shopping and errands. In Medford I went into Walgreens and completed our Oregon shopping while Joanne walked to a nearby grocery store with an empty five gallon water jug and refilled it.
Continuing southbound on I-5 we crossed from Oregon into California. I was hoping we could drive as far as Redding tonight, even though that would mean a couple of hours of driving in the dark. We found our way to the Wal-Mart south of Redding at Anderson. We have stayed there before, at least twice. Tonight we found the Wal-Mart parking lot posted "no overnight parking". Darn !
I was exhausted, we were hungry, but we had to continue driving. We drove another 10 miles or so to a roadside rest area. It was also posted "no overnight parking". Too bad ! I'm tired ! We're staying overnight ! I was influenced by the half dozen or so other RV's and half dozen or so commercial trucks already settled in for the night.
Saturday ; Red Bluff to Coarsegold, California
It's 9:00 PM. Joanne has just left to make the long, cold walk across the very large parking lot ( we're at the far end with the other boondocking RV's ) to Chukchansi Casino to check out their schedule of activities / events / entertainment for the upcoming week. I'm working on the computer, trying to overcome the sensation of feeling overwhelmed and a teensy bit defeated by a trailer that requires maintenance faster then I can provide it. I'm trying to convince myself that I'm feeling this way mostly because of fatigue, but ... tonight when we arrived here after a very long, hard day of driving, there was yet another problem with the trailer.
We left the rest area near Red Bluff this morning and continued southbound on Interstate 5. We stopped at another rest area to once again empty our shower waste holding tank and refill the freshwater tank. And a third rest area to have lunch. Soon after lunch we were in Sacramento. Well ... the freeway traffic through Sacramento on a Saturday afternoon was a bit more "civilized" than we've encountered in the past when driving through Sacramento. And there was less smog than before. I guess we've always driven across Sacramento on weekdays.
I was too tired last night to do our credit card accounting in the computer. I asked Joanne to drive for awhile today so that I could have a rest break from driving and work on the computer. She drove from the south side of Sacramento to Modesto, including crossing from Interstate 5 to Hwy. 99 through Stockton. Afterwards she said "it was the worst 45 minutes of my life". HA HA HA HA HA ... thank you very much, my dear. You did an excellent job of driving a 50 foot long truck and trailer combination on congested California freeways today.
We stopped in Modesto to shop at PetsMart. WOO-HOO ... Bo loooooves shopping at PetsMart. With the $3 birthday gift certificate Sully recently received by e-mail from PetsMart we bought Bo a package of new treats.
Realizing that Daylight Savings Time ends overnight tonight, and that SKP Park of the Sierras office is open only until noon on Sundays, we decided to drive further today than initially planned. So ... we drove all the way to SKP Park of the Sierras and a mile or two beyond to Chukchansi Casino. It was too late / too dark to attempt the rather difficult turn off the highway to SKP Park of the Sierras, and the office was already closed, so we would have just ended up boondocking there anyway. Might as well go to the casino ! Easier to get to off the highway in the dark, and an easier to enter and better lit place to boondock / park overnight.
After arriving at the casino and getting comfortably parked at the far end of the parking lot, we went inside the trailer to prepare a late supper, when I discovered ... < sigh > ... the lights in the living room / dinette slide ceiling would not work. There was no burnt fuse problem, so ... < bigger sigh > ... likely another wiring problem of some sort.
DSK
Sunday ; Today was chilly, with intermittent drizzle that slowed down our work preparing for departure Tuesday.
I did some further testing on the furnace / thermostat problem. I'm fairly convinced that the problem is the thermostat ... probably ... maybe. I searched through my bag of spare parts and found a 12 volt switch. I installed it on the "shoemaker repair" thermostat bypass wiring so now we can make the furnace turn on and off with a switch instead of twisting wires together and pulling them apart. I wonder if I'm going to have to explain to a Customs & Border Patrol agent on Tuesday why there is wiring coming out of a wall vent leading up to a switch attached to the side of the fridge with duct tape ?
Monday ; OW ... bad day in the stock market ! Hope it turns out to be just a dead cat bounce.
This morning I phoned Camping World in Burlington, Washington to find out if they have in stock the Dometic thermostat I want. They do. I've decided to change the thermostat ... even though today's testing indicated that the thermostat may not be the problem after all. I don't really like the thermostat that I installed 13 months ago and I want to change back to the factory original model. I did some further work and testing on the furnace / thermostat problem today. I was unable to establish electrical continuity in the wiring between the thermostat and the furnace. Maybe a wire melted ? Or was chewed by rodents ? All the wiring is in the walls and ceiling, and is impossible to trace ... or replace within the walls and ceiling. If a new thermostat does not solve the problem, then I'm faced with having to replace wiring ... and having to route it "outside" the walls and ceiling, probably along the top of the walls where they meet the ceiling.
We went into Keremeos today and did our final shopping before departure. Back at home we completed all the departure preparations that could be done today. We're all ready to go. We're all eager to go !
After supper today, as I was getting myself some dessert, Bo was at my feet begging for his nightly Greenie. Since I was putting whipped cream on my dessert, and he loooooves whipped cream, I topped his Greenie with whipped cream. HA HA HA ! I handed it to him, he took it in his mouth, tilted his head back ... and swallowed ! OMG ... BO ! ! ! Too late ! Down his throat it went ! How the hell could he have swallowed an entire Greenie without chewing it ? ! ? I certainly feel guilty about that ! I hope it doesn't cause an intestinal blockage or some other problem. Bad Daniel !
Tuesday ; Keremeos. B.C. to Burlington, Washington
Homeland Security / Customs & Border Patrol ; keeping America safe one bag of rice at a time !
You ***ing pissant morons !
We departed Riverside RV Park Resort this morning and headed west on Hwy. 3. Not our usual winter departure route, we usually head east to cross into the U.S. at Osoyoos. Bo seemed to be feeling ill this morning, no doubt from swallowing the whole Greenie yesterday. As we travelled west on Hwy. 3 the elevation rose until Manning Park, then began a slow descent towards the Fraser Valley. By the time we reached the summit at Allison Pass in Manning Park there was a dusting of snow on the road sides and the temperature was below freezing, despite it being a sunny day. We stopped at a roadside rest area at Hope for lunch. The furnace would not light, even though the thermostat is bypassed. < sigh > It's really dead now < sigh > !
Not surprising, Bo was constipated this morning and when we stopped for lunch. After lunch, before leaving the roadside rest area, he was able to empty himself, and that seemed to ease / eliminate his discomfort / feeling ill. We breathed a sigh of relief.
As we continued driving after lunch I hatched an "outside the box" idea to solving our furnace problem. Maybe ... we should scrap the "gas fired forced air" furnace and convert to catalytic heaters ? ! We gave that a lot of thought throughout the day, and the idea is gaining favour !
At Abbotsford we turned south towards the border crossing at Sumas. Where we spent < fume > two hours ! ! ! The initial agent at the booth decided that we should be pulled over for a "7A check". Apparently this moron was of the opinion that we might be abandoning our home in Canada to sneak into the United States to remain forever. He and the other morons we had to deal with all acted as if we were the first Canadians they had ever encountered who were crossing into the United States with an RV for the entire winter. Once inside the building we had to wait for about half an hour while ***hole no. 2 made life miserable for another old Canadian Snowbird couple travelling in an RV, she in a wheelchair. When he was finished with them, and it was our turn, he asked stupid questions for ten minutes, then abruptly announced that his shift was over, he was going home, and somebody else would deal with us < FUME > ! Ten minutes later ***hole no. 3 started over. Same stupid questions ! Then he wanted to inspect the truck and trailer.
I was required to put Bo outside in a wire crate, and I brought Sully into the building with me. Joanne was not allowed to go outside the building to assist me with getting Bo and Sully. ***hole no. 4, who was assisting ***hole no. 3 with the inspection of the truck and trailer ( I think ***hole no. 4 was from Agriculture ) confiscated the contents of a small plastic container in the kitchen cupboard labelled "rice". The container contained ... rice ! But the "country of origin" wasn't listed, so in the garbage it went. Now don't all you Americans feel a whole lot safer knowing that our rice of mystery origin never made it into your country thanks to the tireless efforts of these outstanding public servants ? ? ?
God Bless America ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! And I say that will all the sincerity that an atheist can muster !
I should stop ranting now, and stop taking it personally ! It was incredibly painfully obvious that these morons were playing political / bureaucratic games to justify their existence and budgets to their superiors, who attempt to justify it to their superiors, who attempt to justify it to their superiors, and on and upwards it goes. "Look at the great work we do stopping these damn, old, rich Canadians from coming into our country and never leaving ... AND ... bringing mystery origin rice in with them. BUT ... of course, we need more staff and more money. It takes over an hour to process each one of those threats".
First and last time we cross at Sumas. The crossing at Osoyoos, where we normally cross, at this time of the year is almost non-stop RV's heading south, so the agents there do not seem to be inclined to play those kinds of stupid games, delaying every RV'er for one to two hours !
After finally leaving the border crossing, we drove for about an hour or so south to Camping World at Burlington, Washington. The furnace would not work ... at all !
Wednesday ; Burlington to Maytown rest area at Interstate 5 mile marker 93, Washington
With the furnace not working overnight we were pretty cold ! Especially Sully.
Today was another day that went pretty poorly, the second in a row.
We were up early this morning in order to be ready for our 8 AM service appointment at Camping World. The service writer noticed as he walked around the trailer with me that one wheel was missing the plastic hub cap and the bearing dust cap underneath. Well, gee whiz ... they were there yesterday when we left home ! The work I wanted done on the trailer should have taken about two hours so we were expecting to be out of there between 10 and 11 AM. It was not to be !
I had difficulty getting the work done that I wanted done, the way I wanted it done. A succession of heated discussions took place between me and the shop foreman, and eventually the service manager. The process was much more painful and difficult than it needed to be, for all of us. What part of "this is what I want done, this is how I want it done" do you not understand ? ! ? We finally left Camping World about 2:30 PM, way behind schedule.
We continued south on I-5, stopping about 20 miles south of Burlington at Angel Of The Winds Casino to refill with diesel and refill the generator gas can. It was there that I discovered that the empty generator gas can had blown out of the back of the truck
< gritting teeth > ! The delay at Camping World brought us to the northern edge of Seattle at about 4 PM, just in time for rush hour. The freeway rush hour traffic was bumper to bumper, stop and go, all the way through Seattle and Tacoma. We finally got through Tacoma about 6 PM after 2 hours of fighting freeway rush hour traffic. By then it was dark, it had begun to rain heavily, and fog was rolling in. It was obvious that we were not going to reach our planned destination for today ; Portland, Oregon. We drove for another half hour and stopped for the night at a roadside rest area.
This morning the furnace decided, quite on its own, to resume working. Nevertheless, this morning at Camping World we took a look at catalytic radiant heating systems. And ... lo and behold ... they are on sale this week at Camping World at a very good price. We made the decision that the dying / dead furnace is a good opportunity to convert from gas fired forced air heating to catalytic radiant heating. We had Camping World in Burlington, Washington phone Camping World in Portland, Oregon to ensure that the Portland store has what we want in stock. No sales tax in Oregon ! The Portland store has stock and put it aside for us to pick up tomorrow. I'm going to install a small catalytic radiant heater in the bedroom and a medium sized one in the living area. Unlike our current furnace which uses a great deal of 12 volt power to run the fan, and a great deal of propane to inefficiently create heat, the catalytic heaters use no power and much less propane. Conversion to catalytic radiant heating systems is the choice for serious boondockers. Which we're not, but I'm getting tired of using over $30 a week worth of propane during months like October and November. And I'm tired of how quickly our furnace can drain the trailer's house battery when we're boondocked overnight on cold nights when travelling in the fall and spring ... like last night and tonight ! So we're going to have to suffer for the next couple of weeks with no furnace or an intermittent furnace, but we're going to be happier in the long run after we install catalytic radiant heaters once we get to Yuma.
Thursday ; Maytown rest area at Interstate 5 mile marker 93, Washington to Seven Feathers Casino RV rest area, Canyonville, Oregon
Today was cold with intermittent rain. We have been travelling south for three days and the weather has not improved yet !
We left the I-5 mm 93 rest area this morning and continued southbound. We stopped at another rest area to use their trailer sani-dump station to dump our shower waste holding tank and refill our freshwater holding tank. We crossed from Washington to Oregon over the Columbia River. We stopped at Camping World on the south side of Portland and bought the two catalytic radiant heaters that we had requested be held for us. And we bought quite a bit of other stuff at Camping World. Today and tomorrow we will be shopping a lot, to take advantage of no sales tax in Oregon. We stopped for lunch at yet another rest area.
At Salem we stopped to refill with diesel and buy groceries, both at Fred Meyer. At Roseburg I saw from the Interstate that Home Depot and Lowe's were side by side, so I took the next exit and went back to shop for a couple of hardware items. Home Depot had one item that I needed and Lowe's had the other. We stopped for the night at Seven Feathers Casino near Canyonville. Whew ... lots of miles today !
In addition to the casino Seven Feathers has a large travel center with fuel and vehicle repair services, a very large full service RV park, and an extremely nice "RV rest area", a free overnight parking boondock area with a large restroom building, picnic shelter, fenced dog park, and security guard. Very nice ! Thank you, Seven Feathers / Umpqua Tribe !
Friday ; Canyonville, Oregon to rest area near Red Bluff, California
Today was a very long day, with a lot of miles driven, and a lot of shopping and errands completed.
This morning before departing Seven Feathers Casino RV rest area we drove over to the Travel Center where there was a commercial truck tire service shop. I asked if they could install two metal screw in valve stems on the trailer. I bought them recently in Penticton and was going to have them installed at Camping World in Burlington, Washington while the wheels and tires were off the trailer while the wheel bearings were being repacked. BUT ... < sputter > ... Camping World wanted to charge their minimum service charge of $59 to change two valve stems. I don't think so ! ! ! The tire service shop at Seven Feathers charged me twelve dollars ! And that included removing and reinstalling the tires on the trailer.
We left Seven Feathers and continued southbound on Interstate 5. In Grants Pass we found a Bank of America. I transferred the money to pay for lot 52 at Kofa Ko-op in Yuma into our Bank of America account. That was the final step of a somewhat convoluted process I have devised to get money into our Bank of America account without incurring any service fees. First I had our broker sell some U.S.$ investments and deposit the proceeds into our Bank of Montreal U.S.$ account. Then online I transferred the funds to our U.S.$ MasterCard account, essentially "overpaying" MasterCard and creating a "credit". Now that we're in the U.S. I went to the Bank of America, took out as a "cash advance" all the funds "overpaid" to MasterCard, and deposited that to the Bank of America account. MasterCard doesn't charge daily interest on the cash advance because my account was already overpaid by that amount. Voilà ... money in our bank account in the U.S. to pay for lot 52, no fees incurred ! Well done, Daniel ! Still in Grants Pass we refilled with diesel and did a lot of shopping at Wal-Mart. We had compiled a lengthy "buy in Oregon" shopping list.
We had a late lunch in the trailer in the Wal-Mart parking lot then headed back to I-5 and continued south. We stopped at a state recreation area to dump all our waste holding tanks and refill with fresh water. Three dollars please ! HMPH ! That costs nothing in Washington !
We stopped in Medford, the last city in Oregon southbound on I-5 to complete our shopping and errands. In Medford I went into Walgreens and completed our Oregon shopping while Joanne walked to a nearby grocery store with an empty five gallon water jug and refilled it.
Continuing southbound on I-5 we crossed from Oregon into California. I was hoping we could drive as far as Redding tonight, even though that would mean a couple of hours of driving in the dark. We found our way to the Wal-Mart south of Redding at Anderson. We have stayed there before, at least twice. Tonight we found the Wal-Mart parking lot posted "no overnight parking". Darn !
I was exhausted, we were hungry, but we had to continue driving. We drove another 10 miles or so to a roadside rest area. It was also posted "no overnight parking". Too bad ! I'm tired ! We're staying overnight ! I was influenced by the half dozen or so other RV's and half dozen or so commercial trucks already settled in for the night.
Saturday ; Red Bluff to Coarsegold, California
It's 9:00 PM. Joanne has just left to make the long, cold walk across the very large parking lot ( we're at the far end with the other boondocking RV's ) to Chukchansi Casino to check out their schedule of activities / events / entertainment for the upcoming week. I'm working on the computer, trying to overcome the sensation of feeling overwhelmed and a teensy bit defeated by a trailer that requires maintenance faster then I can provide it. I'm trying to convince myself that I'm feeling this way mostly because of fatigue, but ... tonight when we arrived here after a very long, hard day of driving, there was yet another problem with the trailer.
We left the rest area near Red Bluff this morning and continued southbound on Interstate 5. We stopped at another rest area to once again empty our shower waste holding tank and refill the freshwater tank. And a third rest area to have lunch. Soon after lunch we were in Sacramento. Well ... the freeway traffic through Sacramento on a Saturday afternoon was a bit more "civilized" than we've encountered in the past when driving through Sacramento. And there was less smog than before. I guess we've always driven across Sacramento on weekdays.
I was too tired last night to do our credit card accounting in the computer. I asked Joanne to drive for awhile today so that I could have a rest break from driving and work on the computer. She drove from the south side of Sacramento to Modesto, including crossing from Interstate 5 to Hwy. 99 through Stockton. Afterwards she said "it was the worst 45 minutes of my life". HA HA HA HA HA ... thank you very much, my dear. You did an excellent job of driving a 50 foot long truck and trailer combination on congested California freeways today.
We stopped in Modesto to shop at PetsMart. WOO-HOO ... Bo loooooves shopping at PetsMart. With the $3 birthday gift certificate Sully recently received by e-mail from PetsMart we bought Bo a package of new treats.
Realizing that Daylight Savings Time ends overnight tonight, and that SKP Park of the Sierras office is open only until noon on Sundays, we decided to drive further today than initially planned. So ... we drove all the way to SKP Park of the Sierras and a mile or two beyond to Chukchansi Casino. It was too late / too dark to attempt the rather difficult turn off the highway to SKP Park of the Sierras, and the office was already closed, so we would have just ended up boondocking there anyway. Might as well go to the casino ! Easier to get to off the highway in the dark, and an easier to enter and better lit place to boondock / park overnight.
After arriving at the casino and getting comfortably parked at the far end of the parking lot, we went inside the trailer to prepare a late supper, when I discovered ... < sigh > ... the lights in the living room / dinette slide ceiling would not work. There was no burnt fuse problem, so ... < bigger sigh > ... likely another wiring problem of some sort.
DSK
Saturday, October 29, 2011
October 23 to 29, 2011
Sunday ; Nice weather continues ! I spent most of the day working on the installation of the new water heater. Well ... that's not completely true. I probably spent as much time chatting with neighbours walking by as I did working on the water heater. And tonight ... WOO-HOO ... we have hot water. The installation is not "complete", but the water heater is in place, hooked up to water, propane, 12 volt DC, and 120 volt AC electricity. The only real problem I encountered was ... the sacrificial anode rod drain plug in the new water heater had a welding gas pinhole in it allowing it to leak. Didn't see that one coming !
I replaced it with the one from the old water heater, which will be temporarily adequate.
Neighbours of ours who headed south three days ago have returned. After their first long hard day of driving south ... he broke his arm ! After they had a long and difficult emergency room experience, she .. who had not driven in about 15 years ... took two days to drive back home. < sigh > Shit happens ! Welcome home !
Monday ; HEY ... < scowling > ... why is there pack rat shit on my picnic table ? ! ?
It rained overnight, and this morning when I walked Bo there was a dusting of snow on the top of the mountain. UH-OH ... that means it's just about time to get out of here !
Went into town this morning to get a haircut and beard trim. Then a doctor's appointment to get prescription refills and review my colonoscopy and biopsy results. WOW ... my new gastroenterologist's reports are certainly very thorough and detailed. I'm very impressed with her. I took my prescriptions to the pharmacy, bought some groceries and adjusted the air in the truck's tires before heading home.
This afternoon we began storing things in preparation for departure in a week.
Tuesday ; Today was a beautiful, sunny, mild fall day. I thought that the amount of "finishing" work I had to do to complete the water heater installation wouldn't take me very long today. I was wrong !
Buying new fire extinguishers a week and a half ago during Fire Prevention Week made me think that we should have a fire drill and figure out how to escape through the bedroom's escape window. Today we did that. I went out first, getting scraped and bruised in the process. Joanne dropped Sully out to me, then Bo, then she came out with me helping from below. It took awhile to get it figured out ... feet first or head first ... face up towards ceiling or down towards bed ... but better to figure it out now than in the middle of the night with the trailer on fire ! Sully was not very impressed with the fire drill !
Wednesday ; BRRRRR ... today was pretty cold !
I had such a sore and "wonky" left knee this morning that I had to use my walking stick / cane ( 50th birthday present from Hillbilly Junction, Kentucky ) for half the day. Guess the drop from the bedroom window to the ground ( yesterday's fire drill ) was further than I thought. In the afternoon my knee began to loosen up a little and I was able to walk without the cane, although it was still sore and wonky. I need new knees ! Picked up my prescription refills at the pharmacy in Keremeos this afternoon. Have enough meds now to last me until spring. Had to disconnect the external water hose tonight due to risk of freezing temperatures overnight. And Joanne was complaining that she had to wear socks today. YUP ... just about time to head south !
Thursday ; We woke up this morning to a cold trailer and a furnace blowing nothing but cold air. Normally that means we've run out of propane, but not today ! I spent much of today working on the dead furnace < sigh >. First I removed it from the wall. I learned how to do that about 5 years ago, the last time the furnace died ! I couldn't find anything obviously wrong with it. I phoned Leisureland RV and got some helpful advice but still couldn't find the problem. I will take it in to Leisureland in Penticton tomorrow morning, and hopefully they can diagnose the problem and maybe even have it repaired before we depart next Tuesday. BRRRRR ... it's kind of cold to be without a furnace at this time of the year !
There is "evidence" of a pack rat living behind our storage shed. For the last couple of days I have been trying to eradicate the problem with a large rat trap. Two nights ago I whacked a mouse. Last night I whacked a squirrel. I hope I don't have to kill much more of the wildlife around here before I finally get the pack rat !
Friday ; Today was another sunny, albeit fairly cold day. DARN ... the garbage truck did not take our old water heater carcass. We'll have to leave it on our lot and deal with it in the spring.
We left for Penticton around 10 AM, taking our furnace, and neighbour Jeannine. She caught a ride with us to go visit her husband who is in the Penticton Hospital with a broken hand, broken arm, broken shoulder, and two broken ribs after falling in Pendleton, Oregon about a week ago. He will be having surgery on Monday to repair his shoulder, and maybe his arm. We dropped her off at the hospital, I dropped Joanne off at Value Village to browse and kill some time, and I headed to Leisureland RV with the dead furnace. Well ... it was only a dead furnace at home ! At Leisureland it worked perfectly fine ! < sigh > Hopefully that means it was just a short circuit caused by a lot of accumulated dust ( and cat hair ) built up on and around and in the furnace. I will reinstall it tomorrow. Wish me luck !
We spent the afternoon finishing up our "must buy before leaving Canada" shopping list, including running around to four different grocery stores in a quest for fruit cake / Christmas cake. "Why ?" you might ask ? Have you ever tried to buy Christmas cake in Arizona ... or Mexico ? ! ? That's like trying to buy nopales ( prickly pear cactus "paddles" ... yes, they're eaten like a vegetable ) here !
Saturday ; I spent the entire day working on the furnace, and I'm very frustrated ! And now I'm very behind schedule on our "fall pre-departure" preparations. Having to replace the water heater put me behind schedule, and now the furnace problem has put me WAYYYY behind schedule. And the furnace is not yet fixed ! ! !
I reinstalled the furnace. And reconnected the propane. And reconnected all the wiring. AND ... it didn't work ! So I removed it again. And fiddled with it. And reinstalled it again. And it didn't work again. And on and on and on like that all day ! My current "diagnosis" is that there is a problem with the wall thermostat, which is only a year and a half old. Temporarily, I have "bypassed" the thermostat, and have two lengths of wiring coming out of the wall through the furnace vent. I can turn the furnace on and off by connecting or disconnecting the ends of the two wires. What a "shoemaker" repair ! ! ! But at least I can make the furnace function. It will allow us to depart Tuesday, and hopefully get a new thermostat Wednesday morning at Camping World in Burlington, Washington where I already have an appointment for some trailer service.
While at home we can survive with the little electric space heater for a few more nights. And for at least one night, more if necessary, as we travel and "boondock" without 120 volt AC power, I can turn the furnace on just before bedtime, heat the trailer up quite warm, turn the furnace off, sleep with Sully's 12 volt heater blankie on the bed, and turn the furnace on again first thing in the morning.
I ran out of electrical connectors today as well. So ... the last "reconnection" of the wiring is another "shoemaker" repair. On Monday I will buy some electrical connectors in Keremeos, and hopefully have enough time to redo all the electrical connections.
Some days I hate life !
DSK
I replaced it with the one from the old water heater, which will be temporarily adequate.
Neighbours of ours who headed south three days ago have returned. After their first long hard day of driving south ... he broke his arm ! After they had a long and difficult emergency room experience, she .. who had not driven in about 15 years ... took two days to drive back home. < sigh > Shit happens ! Welcome home !
Monday ; HEY ... < scowling > ... why is there pack rat shit on my picnic table ? ! ?
It rained overnight, and this morning when I walked Bo there was a dusting of snow on the top of the mountain. UH-OH ... that means it's just about time to get out of here !
Went into town this morning to get a haircut and beard trim. Then a doctor's appointment to get prescription refills and review my colonoscopy and biopsy results. WOW ... my new gastroenterologist's reports are certainly very thorough and detailed. I'm very impressed with her. I took my prescriptions to the pharmacy, bought some groceries and adjusted the air in the truck's tires before heading home.
This afternoon we began storing things in preparation for departure in a week.
Buying new fire extinguishers a week and a half ago during Fire Prevention Week made me think that we should have a fire drill and figure out how to escape through the bedroom's escape window. Today we did that. I went out first, getting scraped and bruised in the process. Joanne dropped Sully out to me, then Bo, then she came out with me helping from below. It took awhile to get it figured out ... feet first or head first ... face up towards ceiling or down towards bed ... but better to figure it out now than in the middle of the night with the trailer on fire ! Sully was not very impressed with the fire drill !
Wednesday ; BRRRRR ... today was pretty cold !
I had such a sore and "wonky" left knee this morning that I had to use my walking stick / cane ( 50th birthday present from Hillbilly Junction, Kentucky ) for half the day. Guess the drop from the bedroom window to the ground ( yesterday's fire drill ) was further than I thought. In the afternoon my knee began to loosen up a little and I was able to walk without the cane, although it was still sore and wonky. I need new knees ! Picked up my prescription refills at the pharmacy in Keremeos this afternoon. Have enough meds now to last me until spring. Had to disconnect the external water hose tonight due to risk of freezing temperatures overnight. And Joanne was complaining that she had to wear socks today. YUP ... just about time to head south !
Thursday ; We woke up this morning to a cold trailer and a furnace blowing nothing but cold air. Normally that means we've run out of propane, but not today ! I spent much of today working on the dead furnace < sigh >. First I removed it from the wall. I learned how to do that about 5 years ago, the last time the furnace died ! I couldn't find anything obviously wrong with it. I phoned Leisureland RV and got some helpful advice but still couldn't find the problem. I will take it in to Leisureland in Penticton tomorrow morning, and hopefully they can diagnose the problem and maybe even have it repaired before we depart next Tuesday. BRRRRR ... it's kind of cold to be without a furnace at this time of the year !
There is "evidence" of a pack rat living behind our storage shed. For the last couple of days I have been trying to eradicate the problem with a large rat trap. Two nights ago I whacked a mouse. Last night I whacked a squirrel. I hope I don't have to kill much more of the wildlife around here before I finally get the pack rat !
Friday ; Today was another sunny, albeit fairly cold day. DARN ... the garbage truck did not take our old water heater carcass. We'll have to leave it on our lot and deal with it in the spring.
We left for Penticton around 10 AM, taking our furnace, and neighbour Jeannine. She caught a ride with us to go visit her husband who is in the Penticton Hospital with a broken hand, broken arm, broken shoulder, and two broken ribs after falling in Pendleton, Oregon about a week ago. He will be having surgery on Monday to repair his shoulder, and maybe his arm. We dropped her off at the hospital, I dropped Joanne off at Value Village to browse and kill some time, and I headed to Leisureland RV with the dead furnace. Well ... it was only a dead furnace at home ! At Leisureland it worked perfectly fine ! < sigh > Hopefully that means it was just a short circuit caused by a lot of accumulated dust ( and cat hair ) built up on and around and in the furnace. I will reinstall it tomorrow. Wish me luck !
We spent the afternoon finishing up our "must buy before leaving Canada" shopping list, including running around to four different grocery stores in a quest for fruit cake / Christmas cake. "Why ?" you might ask ? Have you ever tried to buy Christmas cake in Arizona ... or Mexico ? ! ? That's like trying to buy nopales ( prickly pear cactus "paddles" ... yes, they're eaten like a vegetable ) here !
Saturday ; I spent the entire day working on the furnace, and I'm very frustrated ! And now I'm very behind schedule on our "fall pre-departure" preparations. Having to replace the water heater put me behind schedule, and now the furnace problem has put me WAYYYY behind schedule. And the furnace is not yet fixed ! ! !
I reinstalled the furnace. And reconnected the propane. And reconnected all the wiring. AND ... it didn't work ! So I removed it again. And fiddled with it. And reinstalled it again. And it didn't work again. And on and on and on like that all day ! My current "diagnosis" is that there is a problem with the wall thermostat, which is only a year and a half old. Temporarily, I have "bypassed" the thermostat, and have two lengths of wiring coming out of the wall through the furnace vent. I can turn the furnace on and off by connecting or disconnecting the ends of the two wires. What a "shoemaker" repair ! ! ! But at least I can make the furnace function. It will allow us to depart Tuesday, and hopefully get a new thermostat Wednesday morning at Camping World in Burlington, Washington where I already have an appointment for some trailer service.
While at home we can survive with the little electric space heater for a few more nights. And for at least one night, more if necessary, as we travel and "boondock" without 120 volt AC power, I can turn the furnace on just before bedtime, heat the trailer up quite warm, turn the furnace off, sleep with Sully's 12 volt heater blankie on the bed, and turn the furnace on again first thing in the morning.
I ran out of electrical connectors today as well. So ... the last "reconnection" of the wiring is another "shoemaker" repair. On Monday I will buy some electrical connectors in Keremeos, and hopefully have enough time to redo all the electrical connections.
Some days I hate life !
DSK
Monday, October 24, 2011
October 16 to 22, 2011
Tuesday ; < huge sigh > This evening Joanne discovered a wet floor inside the cupboard under the sink. Looks like it's probably a water heater leak < huge sigh >.
Wednesday ; Beautiful fall weather continues. Spent another long day in Penticton running errands. Had screw in metal valve stems installed on all the truck's wheels. Ordered a new water heater for the trailer < sigh >. Bought a magician's cape !
This morning as Joanne returned from walking the dog, and I was just getting out of the shower, she asked me to go over to help a neighbour who was trying to pull his fifth wheel trailer out of his lot. He had gotten the truck and trailer hopelessly entangled around the large deck they had built against the trailer. He and his wife were frustrated, and the more they tried, the worse it got. It only took me a few minutes to get the trailer out. Seven years, and over 200,000 km. / 125,000 miles of towing our trailer, and all that cramming of 27 foot rental trailers into 25 foot deep campsites in Osoyoos over the last two summers has taught me a thing or two. HA HA HA !
Thursday ; Still nice weather. Many of the neighbours that are "Snowbirds" have left in the last couple of days.
< sigh > Removed the water heater today. A difficult job, but no major surprises. Over the next few days I will do some refurbishment work to prepare for the installation of a new water heater, and allow the water heater space to dry out. In the meantime, we will have to survive without hot water in the trailer. It's always been my objective, when doing repairs on the trailer, to achieve a result that is better than "original". This repair will be no exception.
Friday ; Still pretty nice fall weather. This morning as I was returning from showering in the pool complex, our neighbours Rick and Debbie from the Vancouver area were on their site hitching up their fifth wheel trailer. They had started out from the Vancouver area early this morning and were here to pick up their trailer and begin their inaugural journey south as first time Snowbirds. They are headed for La Peñita, Mexico, a lovely beachfront RV park that we have been to. They were experiencing some last minute problems with their trailer. Isn't that always the way ? ! Not a great start to a day that began in Vancouver and wasn't going to end until late tonight in Pendleton, Oregon, where Rick has an appointment to get new trailer tires tomorrow morning. I helped them solve their last minute departure problems and bade them farewell.
I spent most of today doing preparation work for installing a new water heater. I'm satisfied with what I accomplished. The installation of the water heater will be considerably better than the original factory installation. I've changed the water heater's incoming and outgoing plumbing lines and connections, the 120 volt AC wiring, and most importantly, I've fabricated and installed a new wood platform base for the water heater.
Saturday ; Went to Penticton first thing this morning to pick up the new water heater at Leisureland RV and some installation hardware at Rona. This afternoon I cannibalized the old water heater, and completed the electrical and plumbing modifications. Intermittent rain slowed me down.
DSK
Wednesday ; Beautiful fall weather continues. Spent another long day in Penticton running errands. Had screw in metal valve stems installed on all the truck's wheels. Ordered a new water heater for the trailer < sigh >. Bought a magician's cape !
This morning as Joanne returned from walking the dog, and I was just getting out of the shower, she asked me to go over to help a neighbour who was trying to pull his fifth wheel trailer out of his lot. He had gotten the truck and trailer hopelessly entangled around the large deck they had built against the trailer. He and his wife were frustrated, and the more they tried, the worse it got. It only took me a few minutes to get the trailer out. Seven years, and over 200,000 km. / 125,000 miles of towing our trailer, and all that cramming of 27 foot rental trailers into 25 foot deep campsites in Osoyoos over the last two summers has taught me a thing or two. HA HA HA !
Thursday ; Still nice weather. Many of the neighbours that are "Snowbirds" have left in the last couple of days.
< sigh > Removed the water heater today. A difficult job, but no major surprises. Over the next few days I will do some refurbishment work to prepare for the installation of a new water heater, and allow the water heater space to dry out. In the meantime, we will have to survive without hot water in the trailer. It's always been my objective, when doing repairs on the trailer, to achieve a result that is better than "original". This repair will be no exception.
Friday ; Still pretty nice fall weather. This morning as I was returning from showering in the pool complex, our neighbours Rick and Debbie from the Vancouver area were on their site hitching up their fifth wheel trailer. They had started out from the Vancouver area early this morning and were here to pick up their trailer and begin their inaugural journey south as first time Snowbirds. They are headed for La Peñita, Mexico, a lovely beachfront RV park that we have been to. They were experiencing some last minute problems with their trailer. Isn't that always the way ? ! Not a great start to a day that began in Vancouver and wasn't going to end until late tonight in Pendleton, Oregon, where Rick has an appointment to get new trailer tires tomorrow morning. I helped them solve their last minute departure problems and bade them farewell.
I spent most of today doing preparation work for installing a new water heater. I'm satisfied with what I accomplished. The installation of the water heater will be considerably better than the original factory installation. I've changed the water heater's incoming and outgoing plumbing lines and connections, the 120 volt AC wiring, and most importantly, I've fabricated and installed a new wood platform base for the water heater.
Saturday ; Went to Penticton first thing this morning to pick up the new water heater at Leisureland RV and some installation hardware at Rona. This afternoon I cannibalized the old water heater, and completed the electrical and plumbing modifications. Intermittent rain slowed me down.
DSK
Sunday, October 16, 2011
October 9 to 15, 2011
Sunday ; Today was sunny and mild. The weather remains quite nice.
Today was communal Thanksgiving Dinner at Riverside RV Park Resort. But ... we didn't attend. We went to LambFest, a Fall Okanagan Wine Festival event at Bogner's, a very upscale restaurant in Penticton. It was my "birthday dinner".
WOW ! WOW ! ! ! MMMMMM ... oak spit roasted whole lamb, served family style, very generous portions, melt in your mouth meat, each of the first three courses excellently paired with a wine from Hester Creek Winery in Oliver. Now ... we're not exactly oenophiles, and ordinarily don’t drink red wines, but the food and wine pairings were done by the restaurant’s owner / chef and the winery’s owner, and ... they were superb !
A tiny sip of wine with each mouthful of food just ... pulled the flavours out of the foods. Character White with the appetizer, Pinot Gris with the salad, and Cabernet Franc with the lamb entree. OH ... MY ... GOODNESS ! I want to make a reservation for next year ! We spent some time chatting with the very hospitable winery owner who came by each table to chat and serve his wine. This outing was not cheap, but sometimes even something expensive is well worth the money spent.
The only sour note of the day was ... the large, injured Gopher Snake that we encountered on the road at the entrance gate of our RV park as we were leaving for Penticton. It was severely injured but still very much alive. I never have been, nor ever will be, willing to leave an injured creature suffering. Save it if possible, or mercifully put it out of its misery. I killed the snake ! Inflicting sudden death upon an injured, suffering creature never has been easy, nor is it pretty. YUCK !
Monday ; Canadian Thanksgiving & Daniel's 57th Birthday
The Dow Jones index gained 329.76 points today ? ! ? Well ... Happy Birthday to me !
I had a long chat with my sister this afternoon. My brother-in-law has a rather aggressive form of prostate cancer !
Joanne made a wonderful Thanksgiving turkey dinner. And an excellent Black Forest Cherry Torte birthday cake ! Thank you, my dear.
Wednesday ; Daniel's & Joanne's 37th Anniversary
What a crappy way to spend our 37th anniversary. HA HA HA < SNORT > HA HA ! ! !
I spent the day "cleansing" in preparation for a colonoscopy tomorrow. What a civilized euphemism ; cleansing !
Thursday ; Today was sunny and cool. This morning on the way to Penticton for my early afternoon colonoscopy at Penticton Hospital, my eyeglass case fell off the dash of the truck ( on the passenger side, Joanne was driving, I was feeling pretty ill from 40 hours of colonoscopy preparation ), the glasses slid out of the case, and sustained a very deep, wide scratch on the left lens. DAMN ! Guess that means I'll be getting new glasses in Los Algodones, Mexico in about a month and a half.
My colonoscopy went as well as a colonoscopy can. My new gastroenterologist is a young woman. She has much better bedside manner than my previous male gastroenterologists. And she has a much gentler hand with the endoscope. She doesn't make it feel like somebody is trying to ram a sewer hose and TV camera up my ass ! She used a bit less sedative than my last two colonoscopies ( which were here in BC where they seem to use more sedative than in Ontario ), so I was a bit more alert ... read that as "a bit less asleep" ! HA HA HA ! I was awake just enough to watch part of the proceedings on the big screen TV on the wall, and ask stupid questions, which she graciously answered. She scoped the entire colon, taking 40 biopsies in the process, so I certainly can't accuse her of not being thorough enough ! While there was ulceration in the colon, which I saw on the TV, ( DUH ... why did you think it was called ulcerative colitis ? ), there were no polyps and no evidence of cancer, so there should be no bad news from the biopsies. Well done, Dr. Papay, thank you.
Friday ; Today was sunny and cool. We went to Osoyoos to retrieve our Similkameen Day Tours business cards and rack cards from the BC Visitor Information Centre, Watermark Beach Resort, NK'MIP Campground, and Spirit Ridge Resort. We stopped to have lunch at Ella Greek & Mediterranean Grill, a small Mom & Pop no frills restaurant in Osoyoos. We recently read some great reviews of Ella's. And the reviews were right on ! No ambience, great food ! First time we've had really good Lebanese food since we lived in Ottawa.
On our way home we stopped to pick up our business cards at Forbidden Fruit Winery and at Rustic Roots Winery. We spent some time chatting about our lack of Similkameen Day Tours business success with the very personable and helpful owners at Forbidden Fruit. We realized that we forgot to stop at Bo's "picnic park" in Osoyoos, so to make it up to him we made a stop at Pine Park in Keremeos.
We spent the evening watching a performance of Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore on PBS. HA HA HA ... I love Gilbert & Sullivan's satirical operettas.
Saturday ; Well ... following the advice of some local business owners whose opinions we respect, Similkameen Day Tours now has both a Facebook page and a Twitter account. I'm still not completely clear on why ... HA HA HA ... but ... < shrug > ! I worked on creating a Facebook page and a Twitter account during bouts of insomnia over the last couple of weeks. Follow us on Twitter ; WildernessToWinery@SimilkameenTour.
This morning we headed into town with our three fire extinguishers. A Penticton based fire prevention business was having a Fire Prevention Week promotion in the parking lot of our local grocery store. It was sponsored by our local volunteer fire department. I was going to have our three fire extinguishers checked and recharged if necessary, but decided that it was much better value to just buy three larger and better fire extinguishers that were being offered at a Fire Prevention Week deeply discounted price.
From there we went to two wineries in Cawston to retrieve our business cards.
This evening was Taste Of Our Valley at Victory Hall in Keremeos, an annual celebration of the harvest bounty of the Similkameen Valley. Lots of foods and wines for tasting. MMMMM ! ! ! Adam's Apple, Plumiscuous, and Pearsuasion by Forbidden Fruit, Chardonnay by Robin Ridge, Riesling by Orofino, and Capella by Clos du Soleil were the wines I tasted, along with Parson's Fruit Stand's pumpkin soup, turkey from Van Dieman Turkey Farm, some maple syrup flavoured honey from Orchard Blossom Apiary, peach flavoured barbecue sauce and wild Saskatoon jam from a local gourmet personal chef, some baking from the local grocery store, Joanne sampled some home made pork and beans with sourdough bread from the Grist Mill, local apple cider ... I've probably forgotten some.
What a great place to live !
DSK
Today was communal Thanksgiving Dinner at Riverside RV Park Resort. But ... we didn't attend. We went to LambFest, a Fall Okanagan Wine Festival event at Bogner's, a very upscale restaurant in Penticton. It was my "birthday dinner".
WOW ! WOW ! ! ! MMMMMM ... oak spit roasted whole lamb, served family style, very generous portions, melt in your mouth meat, each of the first three courses excellently paired with a wine from Hester Creek Winery in Oliver. Now ... we're not exactly oenophiles, and ordinarily don’t drink red wines, but the food and wine pairings were done by the restaurant’s owner / chef and the winery’s owner, and ... they were superb !
A tiny sip of wine with each mouthful of food just ... pulled the flavours out of the foods. Character White with the appetizer, Pinot Gris with the salad, and Cabernet Franc with the lamb entree. OH ... MY ... GOODNESS ! I want to make a reservation for next year ! We spent some time chatting with the very hospitable winery owner who came by each table to chat and serve his wine. This outing was not cheap, but sometimes even something expensive is well worth the money spent.
The only sour note of the day was ... the large, injured Gopher Snake that we encountered on the road at the entrance gate of our RV park as we were leaving for Penticton. It was severely injured but still very much alive. I never have been, nor ever will be, willing to leave an injured creature suffering. Save it if possible, or mercifully put it out of its misery. I killed the snake ! Inflicting sudden death upon an injured, suffering creature never has been easy, nor is it pretty. YUCK !
Monday ; Canadian Thanksgiving & Daniel's 57th Birthday
The Dow Jones index gained 329.76 points today ? ! ? Well ... Happy Birthday to me !
I had a long chat with my sister this afternoon. My brother-in-law has a rather aggressive form of prostate cancer !
Joanne made a wonderful Thanksgiving turkey dinner. And an excellent Black Forest Cherry Torte birthday cake ! Thank you, my dear.
Wednesday ; Daniel's & Joanne's 37th Anniversary
What a crappy way to spend our 37th anniversary. HA HA HA < SNORT > HA HA ! ! !
I spent the day "cleansing" in preparation for a colonoscopy tomorrow. What a civilized euphemism ; cleansing !
Thursday ; Today was sunny and cool. This morning on the way to Penticton for my early afternoon colonoscopy at Penticton Hospital, my eyeglass case fell off the dash of the truck ( on the passenger side, Joanne was driving, I was feeling pretty ill from 40 hours of colonoscopy preparation ), the glasses slid out of the case, and sustained a very deep, wide scratch on the left lens. DAMN ! Guess that means I'll be getting new glasses in Los Algodones, Mexico in about a month and a half.
My colonoscopy went as well as a colonoscopy can. My new gastroenterologist is a young woman. She has much better bedside manner than my previous male gastroenterologists. And she has a much gentler hand with the endoscope. She doesn't make it feel like somebody is trying to ram a sewer hose and TV camera up my ass ! She used a bit less sedative than my last two colonoscopies ( which were here in BC where they seem to use more sedative than in Ontario ), so I was a bit more alert ... read that as "a bit less asleep" ! HA HA HA ! I was awake just enough to watch part of the proceedings on the big screen TV on the wall, and ask stupid questions, which she graciously answered. She scoped the entire colon, taking 40 biopsies in the process, so I certainly can't accuse her of not being thorough enough ! While there was ulceration in the colon, which I saw on the TV, ( DUH ... why did you think it was called ulcerative colitis ? ), there were no polyps and no evidence of cancer, so there should be no bad news from the biopsies. Well done, Dr. Papay, thank you.
Friday ; Today was sunny and cool. We went to Osoyoos to retrieve our Similkameen Day Tours business cards and rack cards from the BC Visitor Information Centre, Watermark Beach Resort, NK'MIP Campground, and Spirit Ridge Resort. We stopped to have lunch at Ella Greek & Mediterranean Grill, a small Mom & Pop no frills restaurant in Osoyoos. We recently read some great reviews of Ella's. And the reviews were right on ! No ambience, great food ! First time we've had really good Lebanese food since we lived in Ottawa.
On our way home we stopped to pick up our business cards at Forbidden Fruit Winery and at Rustic Roots Winery. We spent some time chatting about our lack of Similkameen Day Tours business success with the very personable and helpful owners at Forbidden Fruit. We realized that we forgot to stop at Bo's "picnic park" in Osoyoos, so to make it up to him we made a stop at Pine Park in Keremeos.
We spent the evening watching a performance of Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore on PBS. HA HA HA ... I love Gilbert & Sullivan's satirical operettas.
Saturday ; Well ... following the advice of some local business owners whose opinions we respect, Similkameen Day Tours now has both a Facebook page and a Twitter account. I'm still not completely clear on why ... HA HA HA ... but ... < shrug > ! I worked on creating a Facebook page and a Twitter account during bouts of insomnia over the last couple of weeks. Follow us on Twitter ; WildernessToWinery@SimilkameenTour.
This morning we headed into town with our three fire extinguishers. A Penticton based fire prevention business was having a Fire Prevention Week promotion in the parking lot of our local grocery store. It was sponsored by our local volunteer fire department. I was going to have our three fire extinguishers checked and recharged if necessary, but decided that it was much better value to just buy three larger and better fire extinguishers that were being offered at a Fire Prevention Week deeply discounted price.
From there we went to two wineries in Cawston to retrieve our business cards.
This evening was Taste Of Our Valley at Victory Hall in Keremeos, an annual celebration of the harvest bounty of the Similkameen Valley. Lots of foods and wines for tasting. MMMMM ! ! ! Adam's Apple, Plumiscuous, and Pearsuasion by Forbidden Fruit, Chardonnay by Robin Ridge, Riesling by Orofino, and Capella by Clos du Soleil were the wines I tasted, along with Parson's Fruit Stand's pumpkin soup, turkey from Van Dieman Turkey Farm, some maple syrup flavoured honey from Orchard Blossom Apiary, peach flavoured barbecue sauce and wild Saskatoon jam from a local gourmet personal chef, some baking from the local grocery store, Joanne sampled some home made pork and beans with sourdough bread from the Grist Mill, local apple cider ... I've probably forgotten some.
What a great place to live !
DSK
Sunday, October 9, 2011
October 2 to 8, 2011
Sunday ; Today was mild, sunny in Keremeos, cloudy in Oliver. We spent the afternoon at Festival Of The Grape in Oliver. On the way we went to Oliver Auto Recycling, an auto wrecker / junk yard that told me by phone a few days ago that they had a used 2005 Dodge one ton dually hub cap. < sigh > They were wrong ! It was from a 2002 model, and didn't fit Lanoire.
This is the third time we have attended Festival Of The Grape and we have always enjoyed it. Lots of wineries, lots of wine tasting, food vendors ( today was the first time in at least 5 years that I've had poutine ), arts & crafts vendors, and always ... great musical main stage entertainment. This year it was "RnB Icons", a Motown tribute group. And, of course, there was the annual grape stomp competition. We learned the hard way at the first Festival Of The Grape that we attended not to sit too close to the grape stomp stage ... to avoid stains !
Saw a flock of Canada Geese in a "V" formation headed south today. See ya, guys. We'll catch up to you in about 5 weeks in Central California. HA HA HA !
Monday ; Today was cloudy and cool with light rain in the morning. When I went to do my regular Monday preventive maintenance I discovered ... < sigh > ... a flat tire on the truck. One of the rear tires, of course. Have I mentioned how much I hate changing tires on the truck, especially a dually rear tire ? ! ? Oh, well, better to have to change a tire in the controlled circumstance of the driveway rather than on the side of the road ... in the rain ... at dusk !
Wednesday ; A cool, cloudy, fall day. A long, hard day of running errands and shopping in Penticton. Ninety-five bucks for a hub cap for the truck ? ! ? PHHHHTTTTT ...
I don't think so ! ! ! Joanne suffered with a headache for the entire day.
Thursday ; Joanne's headache persisted into its second day. She stayed in bed and snoozed until it finally eased in mid-afternoon. I changed the tire on the truck ... again.
I had the flat tire repaired yesterday in Penticton and reinstalled it today.
DSK
This is the third time we have attended Festival Of The Grape and we have always enjoyed it. Lots of wineries, lots of wine tasting, food vendors ( today was the first time in at least 5 years that I've had poutine ), arts & crafts vendors, and always ... great musical main stage entertainment. This year it was "RnB Icons", a Motown tribute group. And, of course, there was the annual grape stomp competition. We learned the hard way at the first Festival Of The Grape that we attended not to sit too close to the grape stomp stage ... to avoid stains !
Saw a flock of Canada Geese in a "V" formation headed south today. See ya, guys. We'll catch up to you in about 5 weeks in Central California. HA HA HA !
Monday ; Today was cloudy and cool with light rain in the morning. When I went to do my regular Monday preventive maintenance I discovered ... < sigh > ... a flat tire on the truck. One of the rear tires, of course. Have I mentioned how much I hate changing tires on the truck, especially a dually rear tire ? ! ? Oh, well, better to have to change a tire in the controlled circumstance of the driveway rather than on the side of the road ... in the rain ... at dusk !
Wednesday ; A cool, cloudy, fall day. A long, hard day of running errands and shopping in Penticton. Ninety-five bucks for a hub cap for the truck ? ! ? PHHHHTTTTT ...
I don't think so ! ! ! Joanne suffered with a headache for the entire day.
Thursday ; Joanne's headache persisted into its second day. She stayed in bed and snoozed until it finally eased in mid-afternoon. I changed the tire on the truck ... again.
I had the flat tire repaired yesterday in Penticton and reinstalled it today.
DSK
Monday, October 3, 2011
September 25 to October 1, 2011
Monday ; Today was cold and raining ! I hate cold rainy days !
This evening we had dinner at our neighbour's, Rick and Debbie. This was likely the last time we will see them before they head south in about a month, for their first winter of "Snowbirding". They are headed to an RV park in Mexico that we have been to, a lovely place at La Peñita de Jaltemba, just north of Puerto Vallarta. We spent until very late in the evening chatting with them about RV living and travelling, and gossiping about Riverside RV Park Resort.
Wednesday ; The weather was nice today, sunny and warm, and I felt like having a fall "explore day". We spent the afternoon doing back road and off road exploring. We explored up and down the Ashnola River, including a trip to the Ewart Creek trailhead and the Cathedral Lakes Lodge base camp / pick up point. Those were Joanne's desires.
I wanted to attempt to drive from the Ashnola Campground to beyond Hedley, driving on the south / "other" side of the Similkameen River. We had attempted to do that a few years ago, from beyond Hedley, travelling in the opposite direction, but we were stymied by an abandoned "Indianmobile" blocking the trail at a point that was so narrow we couldn't get around it.
WOO-HOO ... it wasn't easy, but today we were successful. We crossed the Ashnola River behind the Ashnola Campground and followed the "road" until we reached Hwy. 3 at Gold Mountain Road a few miles beyond Hedley. On the way we met a pickup truck travelling in the opposite direction. It was signed, belonging to the Lower Similkameen Indian Band. It was a couple of the LSIB "Watchmen", patrolling their "rez". They stopped us and sarcastically asked if we were lost. I told them we weren't lost, just taking the "scenic route" to Hedley, and asked if that was okay with them. From the looks on their faces it was obvious that they thought I was some kind of a crazy white man, but okay, they gave us permission to continue. A little further along we came across three Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep grazing. Twice we encountered closed gates. Fortunately, neither was locked, just closed and chained, so I could open them, drive through, then close them again.
When we got back home I discovered that today's adventures resulted in a lost hubcap on the truck. DAMN ! I lost one once before, in Baja California, Mexico, about 3½ years ago. I replaced it in Yuma, Arizona. They are so expensive ! DAMN !
Friday ; Happy 15th Birthday to Sully
This morning on the way into town to buy some groceries and fresh produce
( mmmmm ... it's fall harvest time ! ), we stopped on the side of the road and cut stalks of wild sage. Back at home, later in the afternoon, I arranged and tied them into a sacred sage bundle. I hung the bundle inside the trailer and ... WOW ... what a strong fragrance ! Let's hope the sacred sage bundle does its job and dispels negative energies. I always did love Native lore !
And ... I'm very glad that we got Sully two years ago today at the Penticton SPCA shelter. He's such a sweet fellow.
Saturday ; Today was cold and raining. Which caused us to change our plans for today, the first day of the Fall Okanagan Wine Festival. It had been our plan to attend a BC SPCA "dog party" fund raiser event at See Ya Later Ranch, a winery near Okanagan Falls. But we didn't want to attend something like that on a cold rainy day. So while we didn't attend that event, we did attend two other Fall Okanagan Wine Festival events, both at wineries near Keremeos.
We went to Robin Ridge Winery for their archery competition to determine who will be the Robin Ridge Robin Hood. We expected this small family winery to be near deserted because of the poor weather, but ... noooo ! It really was quite busy. Congratulations to Tim for the gold medal win at a recent international wine competition. My archery efforts did not result in me being named Robin Ridge Robin Hood.
And we went to Rustic Roots Winery / Harker's Organics ( produce stand ) Harvest Moon Festival, a very busy exhibition of Rustic Roots wines and Harker's Organics fruits and vegetables, with live music, and food prepared by the chef de cuisine of one of the Osoyoos upscale resorts.
On the way home we stopped at St. Laszlo Vineyards and bought a couple of bottles of wine. St. Laszlo is the first and obviously oldest winery in the Similkameen Valley. It is not as popular as the newer, larger, and more upscale wineries. But we like St. Laszlo, the owner Joe, his very nice grape wines and fruit wines, and the very reasonable prices. One bottle will be for Thanksgiving / my birthday next weekend, and one bottle will be to take south with us for American Thanksgiving or Christmas or New Year's.
Yesterday I phoned a restaurant in Penticton to make a reservation to attend their wine festival special food and wine event next weekend. It was to be my birthday dinner. The event was sold out. Today Joanne phoned them again, and ... lo and behold ... they gave her a reservation. Either there had been a cancellation, or the fellow who took my phone call yesterday was ... ? ! ? Anyways, I'm very glad that Joanne was able to make a reservation and I'm looking forward to a special birthday dinner. Maybe the moral of that story is ... don't take "no" for an answer. At least not the first "no".
DSK
This evening we had dinner at our neighbour's, Rick and Debbie. This was likely the last time we will see them before they head south in about a month, for their first winter of "Snowbirding". They are headed to an RV park in Mexico that we have been to, a lovely place at La Peñita de Jaltemba, just north of Puerto Vallarta. We spent until very late in the evening chatting with them about RV living and travelling, and gossiping about Riverside RV Park Resort.
Wednesday ; The weather was nice today, sunny and warm, and I felt like having a fall "explore day". We spent the afternoon doing back road and off road exploring. We explored up and down the Ashnola River, including a trip to the Ewart Creek trailhead and the Cathedral Lakes Lodge base camp / pick up point. Those were Joanne's desires.
I wanted to attempt to drive from the Ashnola Campground to beyond Hedley, driving on the south / "other" side of the Similkameen River. We had attempted to do that a few years ago, from beyond Hedley, travelling in the opposite direction, but we were stymied by an abandoned "Indianmobile" blocking the trail at a point that was so narrow we couldn't get around it.
WOO-HOO ... it wasn't easy, but today we were successful. We crossed the Ashnola River behind the Ashnola Campground and followed the "road" until we reached Hwy. 3 at Gold Mountain Road a few miles beyond Hedley. On the way we met a pickup truck travelling in the opposite direction. It was signed, belonging to the Lower Similkameen Indian Band. It was a couple of the LSIB "Watchmen", patrolling their "rez". They stopped us and sarcastically asked if we were lost. I told them we weren't lost, just taking the "scenic route" to Hedley, and asked if that was okay with them. From the looks on their faces it was obvious that they thought I was some kind of a crazy white man, but okay, they gave us permission to continue. A little further along we came across three Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep grazing. Twice we encountered closed gates. Fortunately, neither was locked, just closed and chained, so I could open them, drive through, then close them again.
When we got back home I discovered that today's adventures resulted in a lost hubcap on the truck. DAMN ! I lost one once before, in Baja California, Mexico, about 3½ years ago. I replaced it in Yuma, Arizona. They are so expensive ! DAMN !
Friday ; Happy 15th Birthday to Sully
This morning on the way into town to buy some groceries and fresh produce
( mmmmm ... it's fall harvest time ! ), we stopped on the side of the road and cut stalks of wild sage. Back at home, later in the afternoon, I arranged and tied them into a sacred sage bundle. I hung the bundle inside the trailer and ... WOW ... what a strong fragrance ! Let's hope the sacred sage bundle does its job and dispels negative energies. I always did love Native lore !
And ... I'm very glad that we got Sully two years ago today at the Penticton SPCA shelter. He's such a sweet fellow.
Saturday ; Today was cold and raining. Which caused us to change our plans for today, the first day of the Fall Okanagan Wine Festival. It had been our plan to attend a BC SPCA "dog party" fund raiser event at See Ya Later Ranch, a winery near Okanagan Falls. But we didn't want to attend something like that on a cold rainy day. So while we didn't attend that event, we did attend two other Fall Okanagan Wine Festival events, both at wineries near Keremeos.
We went to Robin Ridge Winery for their archery competition to determine who will be the Robin Ridge Robin Hood. We expected this small family winery to be near deserted because of the poor weather, but ... noooo ! It really was quite busy. Congratulations to Tim for the gold medal win at a recent international wine competition. My archery efforts did not result in me being named Robin Ridge Robin Hood.
And we went to Rustic Roots Winery / Harker's Organics ( produce stand ) Harvest Moon Festival, a very busy exhibition of Rustic Roots wines and Harker's Organics fruits and vegetables, with live music, and food prepared by the chef de cuisine of one of the Osoyoos upscale resorts.
On the way home we stopped at St. Laszlo Vineyards and bought a couple of bottles of wine. St. Laszlo is the first and obviously oldest winery in the Similkameen Valley. It is not as popular as the newer, larger, and more upscale wineries. But we like St. Laszlo, the owner Joe, his very nice grape wines and fruit wines, and the very reasonable prices. One bottle will be for Thanksgiving / my birthday next weekend, and one bottle will be to take south with us for American Thanksgiving or Christmas or New Year's.
Yesterday I phoned a restaurant in Penticton to make a reservation to attend their wine festival special food and wine event next weekend. It was to be my birthday dinner. The event was sold out. Today Joanne phoned them again, and ... lo and behold ... they gave her a reservation. Either there had been a cancellation, or the fellow who took my phone call yesterday was ... ? ! ? Anyways, I'm very glad that Joanne was able to make a reservation and I'm looking forward to a special birthday dinner. Maybe the moral of that story is ... don't take "no" for an answer. At least not the first "no".
DSK
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