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Thursday, September 7, 2017

On the road again!

First off a quick reader’s digest condensed update of what’s happened since we got home in May.

  First off the rig was put in order.  Eric washed and waxed and rebuilt the undercarriage as usual.   It is a big job to keep an RV on the road if you put 6000 miles on it every year.  You can ignore the maintenance but since 5th wheels and travel trailers are only built to go to the lake in the summer something will fail and those of us who travel long distances know this.  I washed down the inside and put everything in order and then it was on to outside matters at home.

We have a large property (40 acres) with gardens, fields and buildings so….lots to do.  Large gardens, fields and lawns to mow, machinery maintenance etc. etc. 

The summer was wet and cool in the north which made outside work difficult.  While the southern part of the province was enduring huge forest fires, evacuations and hot, dry weather we were cold and wet.  We would have shared the rain but that’s not the way it works.  We had about ten days of good weather at the beginning of August but we too got the smoke from the fires.  A major disaster year for fires in B.C. and it is still going on.

So….here is this years plan.  Eric has a cousin (Leslie) and his significant other ( Bid) out visiting from Scotland. The last time we saw Leslie was in 1999 when he and all the Tycho family came to Terrace and stayed at the farm for a family reunion.  Great fun!  I might also add it was a really crummy, cold, wet summer and everyone camped under the roof of our first large pole building so they could stay dry. 

Leslie and Bid are visiting  in Kelowna for a few days and wanted to see us so we decided to start our winter journey early and take the rig to Eric’s brother Ian and wife Linda’s house and then head south from there.  We’ll stay for a few days and visit and then haul south with Yuma as our short term destination.  The RV will be left in storage there from Oct. 2nd while we will fly home to Terrace for 4 weeks.  We’ll fly back on Oct. 30th, do our Mexican paperwork,  stock up and continue on to Mazatlan.  Last year we did something similar when we went to Utah to see the Grand Canyon etc. and then left the RV in Phoenix for a month.  We found the travel south without winter driving a lot less stressfull.

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We managed to get three days of sun before we left and that meant a lot of lawn mowing after all the rain.

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I mowed with the walk behind mower Eric used the riding mower.

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The new lawn up behind the house has been a chore to mow.  Eric is sweeping the clippings from this mow and….the last one.

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The garden shed and some of the gardens.

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Looking toward Kitselas mountain and our driveway to the highway.

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The truck is hooked up and ready to roll tomorrow morning.

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On the road at 8am and it’s foggy all the way to Hazelton. 

The rest of the drive to Prince George was uneventful, clear and warm.  We pulled into to the Bon Voyage in Prince George around 4pm and were quickly parked and hooked up.  The motel was full of firefighters from Quebec and New Brunswick who were heading out in the morning. 

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Heading east on highway 16.  We usually head south from Prince George but we decided to go an alternate route hoping to avoid hot weather and smoke.  Wide open country but by the time we hit McBride the smoke was thick and we couldn’t even see the Rocky Mountains.  It is really beautiful from McBride to Valemont but…not this time.

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Mainmap

An oddball map but Map Point really didn’t want to follow our suggested route.  Terrace to Prince George with an overnight stop. In the morning east through McBride and south to Clearwater for the night. South through Kamloops and east through Sorrento and Salmon Arm, Vernon and on to Kelowna where we park in Ian and Linda’s driveway…..total trip 873 miles.

Wednesday night we stopped in Clearwater at a little park on Dutch Lake.  It bit of a screw up by the GPS but…that’s not uncommon.

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Pretty green fields but you can’t see the mountains.

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Smokey.

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Parked by Dutch Lake and smokey here too.

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This little car was left in an RV spot while the owners wandered away.  We managed to squeak in.

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Would be really pretty if it was clear.

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The ducks didn’t care!

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From Vernon to Kelowna along the lakes you could hardly see a thing.  Eric said it was hard driving….like dusk.

So, set up and parked and now it’s time for happy hour with family.

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From the left Eric and Ian’s cousin Leslie from Scotland, Deb and Jason (Ian’s son and his wife) Bid who is Leslie’s partner, Eric, Linda hidden and then Ian.

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Deb and Jason’s kids…Ella and Cooper having fun in the pool.

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Bid and Eric chat.  Eric hasn’t had a haircut since last October.

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Leslie is looking at old picture story boards that the family put together for their parents birthdays.

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Jason, Ian and Eric have a look. 

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Visiting in the kitchen.

So….we’re in Kelowna for a few days and plan to leave early next week for points south.

I know I said this was a condensed version but….there was a lot to say!

1 comment:

  1. All the pictures you shared are beautiful and amazing. Keep sharing these type of beautiful and amazing pictures with us.

    Gardener Rye

    ReplyDelete