The journey south begins for 2012

Tuesday Nov. 6, 2012

So what’s been going on you might ask!  Well I’ll try to condense it a bit. 

After a busy summer at home with lots of projects completed it was time to pack up and get ready to hit the road.  The big news of the summer was that Eric sold his 100 acre parcel of land to the same fellow who had tried to buy it last fall.  Eric wasn’t too thrilled that he’d hired an excavator for a week to burn the slash piles from last years logging (big bucks!)  and in the end the buyer didn’t care one way or the other.  Strange because it was quite  mess.  Oh well it is still all good.

So… we left Terrace on Oct. 19th which is a few days early for us but since I had a medical appt. in Kelowna on the 23rd it was time to go.

The weather on day one from Terrace to Quesnel was above freezing with rain squalls.  Could have been worse.  The only big issue we had was just out of Prince George when we were hit by a fist sized rock from an off road truck pulling onto the highway without checking his tires.  Bad boy!    There was a huge bang as it hit the truck and when we stopped there  was a dent and hole in the front cap of the 5th wheel.  Eric had to cover it with a little black magic for now!  I checked the roof of the truck and there was a big dent where it hit first before it bounced up and hit the RV.  If it had hit the windshield….well…I’ll leave that to your imagination.  Not Good!

Overnight at the Walmart in Quesnel and on the road early.  About 5 miles out of town it started to snow.  Great.  Snowed all the way to Clinton but luckily hadn’t been too cold yet so the roads weren’t bad.  Still very stressful hauling an RV.  We made good time and rolled into Kelowna and Ian and Linda’s driveway around 3:30pm and were set up in no time flat. 

The weather in Kelowna for the last two weeks was the pits!  Rained almost every day!  During this time I attended my medical appointment with the rheumatologist (Dr. Shojania) and completed other diagnostic tests.  At the end of it all I am on prednisone at a high rate for temporal arteritis and will have to deal with that condition over the next couple of years.  It was what I expected to hear but still a bit of shock.  The good news is that I am feeling hugely better.  You don’t know how sick you are till you feel better. 

We decided to leave Kelowna and head south and travel as far as Arizona for now and I will fly back to Kelowna in December to see Dr. Shojania for blood tests and a check-up.  I will discuss the ongoing treatment and hopefully get enough medication to last me for the winter.  After that Eric and I will decide on the next leg of our journey.  I am expecting that we will head into Mexico in mid December and I will continue my care there.  Time will tell.

So where are we now you ask.  Well we left Kelowna yesterday morning on route to the Walmart in Othello, Washington.  It was a good day.  No trouble at the border, warm temps (17C) and no wind.  Sweet.  A nice evening.  On the road this morning at 7:30 am and the weather was good to start with.  A bit of fog south of Kenniwick but not much traffic.  Easy over the Cabbage hill and then of course we hit wind.  An open bald prairie so what can you expect. 

We arrived in the Meridian, Boise RV park around 3:30 pm and are now set up in warm temps for the night.  We’ll shop early at WinCo (you remember….my favorite store) and then head for Twin Falls for the night.  We want to get through Ely, Nevada (7000ft.) on Thursday morning as rain, cold and snow are coming at the end of the week.  We will stay in Ash Springs on Thursday night and then go to Laughlin, Nevada for a week and from there probably Yuma. 

It looks like it will be warm enough now so Eric has filled our lines with water.  He had blown them out with the compressor at home and added anti-freeze so it is nice to be able to turn on the taps now.