Tuesday 29th September
Moving more stuff in the pouring rain.
Wednesday 30th September
To camper for more stuff.
Thursday 1st October
RV underside repairs.
Friday 2nd October
Random shopping.
Brock Zeman (always entertaining) and potluck at Richard Hayward’s.
Photo by Jamie-Kronick
Sunday 4th OctoberTalked to a guy leaving the campground for BC. Interesting!
Monday 5th October
Talked to friends in Victoria
Tuesday 6th October
E-Test for the truck.
Wednesday 7th October
Registering vehicles.
Thursday 8th October
Pretty much decided we’re heading to Vancouver Island for the winter - %35 US dollar premium and Buddy who’s well .... Just not boat-worthy anymore.
Friday 9th October
Put camper in indoor storage in Burrit’s Rapids.
Saturday 10th October
To Montreal for Thanksgiving
Sunday 11th October
The family over for the big meal.
Monday 12th October
Hangin’in Cote St Luc
Tuesday 13th October
Back to the Nation’s Capital
Wednesday 14th October
Truck in for a ‘funny noise’.
Lunch with Bob and Elaine Gauthier who we haven’t seen for a couple of years.
Thursday 15th October
Pickup the truck - you wouldn’t think a loose belt would cost so much!
To Janet Sim's for lunch and meet up with other people we know.
Friday 16th October
Over to Robert and Shirley’s for Chinese takeout and say farewell for a while.
Saturday 17th October
Take the fifth wheel spare for a new tire, to Echo farm to pay for Subaru winter storage. Then Richard Hayward’s to visit daughter and baby and have salt code pie - yummy!
Then to Ruth and Keith’s for a meal prepared by daughter Yasmin.
Movie of the day: The Way Way Back - good movie.
Sunday 18th October
Water frozen outside - ominous!
Last minute shopping.
Visit from Richard and Cheryl.
Fresh water pump not working - not good, we’re going to need that.
Monday 19th October
Voted.
Tuesday 20th October
Up early and off to Richmond to have the trailer wheel bearings packed and since I don’t have any time left - fix the water pump.
The plan had to change the oil and fuel filter with Sandy but no time for that either so the truck goes in for that.
Nothing is ready so we head to Richard’s to stay the night.
Wednesday 21st October
Pickup the truck and take the Subaru to storage. Back to Richmond for the RV and then over to our old standby - Sandy Mountain campground for the night.
Thursday 22nd October
Fill with Kemptville cheap(er) diesel and then down to the 401, through the horror of Toronto, with 401 traffic at a standstill in the middle of the day, and then onto the 402 north of London towards Sarnia.
Not too many campsites still open in Canada but the Lakeside Christian Campground was. Even takes Passport America (and they didn't try to convert us!)
Friday 23rd October
Through Sarnia (or should I say over it as the road to the US is up in the air) and through Michigan, avoiding Detroit and on to the Eden Park campground at Benton Harbor on Lake Michigan.
Saturday 24th October
Drive through Chicago - (really) bad idea - very heavy traffic and expensive tolls.
Last time we stayed at Steve's sister's place near Milwaukee we were in the Big Easy, parked in the back yard. Steve and I tried to negotiate the 5th wheel in there, with no luck. Fortunately not far away from Union Grove is the Richard Bong State Park, also still open.
Steve and Kathy have created a neat summer home for themselves in Steve's sister's basement, so most of our visit was spent there during the day, returning to the park at night to sleep.
Sunday 25th October
In the morning it was breakfast at S & K's and then Steve came back with me to the RV to do a temporary fix on the non-functioning water heater.
Steve's been looking to replace his Lil' Red Truck with a car, so he and I drove a fair way to checkout a poor specimen of a Volvo.
That night we had them over to the RV for grilled mahi and chips.
Movie of the day: Howl - well now I know all about Allen Ginsberg.
Monday 26th October
Breakfast (lunch and dinner) with the Krugs and two movies:
Wreck It Ralph - don't know how I forgot we already saw that.
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen - Not bad at all.
Tuesday 27th October
Onward we go into Minnesota and the White Fix Myre Big Island park and campground where we didn’t see a soul, no-one manning the booth at the entrance either in the afternoon or the following morning.
Wednesday 28th October
A day with a serious headwind as well as mountains that drives our diesel consumption down to 5.4 mpg (US), we must have filled up 4 times!!!
To make up for that expense we stayed at "Asta SD 24 Mobil Express" which as unattended gas station with about a dozen RV parking spots with 50A electric and costs $5/night! It was perfect.
Thursday 29th October
We woke up to 26degF temperatures and the badlands.
Friday 30th October
Now we really start driving into the mountains.
Headwind gone, thank goodness, as we head on through Wyoming and into Montana to stay at Billings Montana Village RV park.
And we see lots of snow. As we go over (not through) the passes we see wide shoulders, for trucks to pullover and put on their snow chains which they must carry by law after November 1st.
We stopped for the night at River Edge Camping which is still in Montana - Big Sky Country is really big.
Saturday 31st October
Lots of rain and way more mountain passes in Idaho than I remember when I drove the other way 44 years ago.
Next stop Whispering Pines in Cole Elum, Washington State.
Sunday 1st November
Rain, rain, rain as we deal with the last passes and head down past Seattle and over onto the Olympic Peninsula and Port Angeles to take the ferry to Victoria.
But that's tomorrow and tonight is the Conestoga RV Park in Port Angeles.
Monday 2nd November
We're the first on the ferry for the 1-1/2 hr trip to Victoria. Best ferry food this year - clam chowder and wedgie fries.
Heading into Victoria Harbour.
The ferry terminal is right slap bang in the middle of Victoria which is frankly hell to drive through - driving in the middle of three lanes with a bus on one side, a truck on the other and a lane width of about the same as the RV.
Finally we make it and park the rig with some help from the site manager in Pedder Bay which is just as beautiful as we thought it would be.
View out of the back window of the RV:
Tuesday 3rd November
The closest place with stores is Langford - not that far away distance-wise but due to the narrow switchback roads it takes almost half an hour to get there.
It does have just about everything from Wal-Mart to Costco but what a mess, urban development with no planning!
We took a trip in to avail ourselves McD’s wifi (couldn’t get the campground one working well enough) only to find it’s a brand new place with no wifi yet - sigh!
Did get a much needed sewer pipe extension though.
Wednesday 4th November
Messing with wifi.
Thursday 5th November
Robin and Jill are friends we made in Indiantown before they quit the sailing life. They live in View Royal - close to Victoria and before we left Ottawa they had been checking out RV sites in the area for us. We visited them for lunch in their lovely waterfront home.
Friday 6th November
Finally diagnosed a faulty thermostat with the water heater, bi passed it with a piece of wire (don’t try this at home) and ordered a replacement which turns out to be three times the price in Canada !!!
Saturday 7th November
The first of many trips to Costco for propane.
The local fire department was providing parking lot entertainment
The blob descending from the top of the ladder is a pumpkin.
Not much left once it hits the ground.
Sunday 8th November
Got down to the office to participate in the twice-a-week bird walk only to find that’s just a summer thing.
So we went to walk around Matheson Lake which is close by.
We soon realized that a walk around the whole lake is more than an hour or two which is all we had available before it went dark.
Monday 9th November
We found out that we could only stay until the middle of March in Pedder Bay (for reasons not entirely clear),so alternatives needed to be found. So ... We took a look at Weir's Bay close by at a site right on the ocean. However, there was only one possibly available spot and it was doubtful if we could manoeuvre our way into it. So we decided against that one.
Tuesday 10th November
Langford’s Cineplex Odeon has cheap Tuesdays so off we went.
The Martian: Split decision, I thought it was great, C not so much.
Wednesday 11th November
Torrential rain and we need propane - again! So into Langford and Costco.
Thursday 12th November
Laundry day.
Friday 13th November
Rain - Lancashire with big trees! And I mean BIG trees. Shoulda put C in the frame for this ....
Saturday 14th November
I cycled to the Matheson Lake Park and bought eggs from one of the many places that sell free-range eggs at the side of the road.
Sunday 15th November
Way back in Ottawa, my bike gear change stopped working and my attempts at fixing it were somewhat unsuccessful. We’d noticed a small bike shop on the road into town - hate those big operations that just want to sell you a new bike.
Food shopping and drop off the bike.
Monday 16th November
It’s stopped raining which means it’s colder - a lot colder, down to freezing. However, later the rain came back and the temperature rose a little.
Tuesday 17th November
Very high winds rocking the RV and the sound of crashing trees in the night. Oh yes and torrential rain.
Out goes the power with no promise of it’s return.
No TV tonight, Quiddler (Scrabble using playing cards) instead.
Wednesday 18th November
No return of power in the night. Now, since we have a generator this shouldn’t be a problem - however, the generator quit working in Newfoundland this year and it never got fixed.
Let’s see if we can rent one. First problem is that one of the falling trees broke the hydro line and blocked the ‘short’ way into Langford. So a lengthy detour was necessary. After driving all over the place we found a generator the same size as ours but when we get back to the RV we find the little Honda can’t even drive just the battery charger, so back I drive (the looong way) and get a 3KV Honda. That had NO problem driving everything and was really quiet.
However, two hours later the power came back - sigh!
Thursday 19th November
Return the generator and leave ours for repair.
Friday 20th November
Installed new hot water heater thermostat and bought a used propane tank via Kijiji - we need a spare.
Saturday 21st November
Into Victoria to pick up the propane tank and also get some more propane from Costco. This propane use is getting excessive so we decide to try one of those oil filled propane heaters that our next door neighbour has been finding quite effective in his RV.
Sunday 22nd November
Movie on a Sunday:
Spectre - again a split decision. Carol thought it was a bit flat, I thought it was OK.
Monday 23rd November
Tried our returned generator and find our little Yamaha has no problem driving the battery charger and fridge.
Tuesday 24th November
We are very close to the Galloping Goose trail which runs 55km from Sooke to Victoria How did it get a name like that?
Here’s a Galloping Goose
These things used to travel back and forth on narrow gauge rails which were ripped up long ago.
I took a spin on my newly renovated bike - it’s a great cycling trail used by horses and hikers too
Movie of the Day: Alan Partridge -a must for Steve Coogan fans.
Wednesday 25th November
Coldest night so far and we’re rewarded with a frozen water supply. Had to wait for the sun’s rays to thaw the pipe out.
Took another go at walking round Matheson Lake but failed again.
Thursday 26th November
We tried to walk to the closest access to the Galloping Goose Trail but due to lack of directions didn’t make it.
Friday 27th November
One of our neighbours has an infrared heater and swears by it so we decide to give one of those a try.
Saturday 28th November
After consulting Google Maps I took another try at getting to the Galloping Goose trail on foot and this time made it fine.
Sunday 29th November
I don’t understand quite why but infrared heaters work way, way better than any other kind. The furnace is running less and it’s more like sitting in front of a warm fire. We’ve used a ceramic for years and we tried the radiator type but this thing wins. I always thought that watts of heat were watts of heat no matter how generated but apparently it’s something to do with the fact infrared radiation heats up surfaces which then radiate themselves. So the oil radiator got returned.
Monday 30th November
Our turn to host Robin and Jill for lunch - no one wants to drive these roads at night. After lunch we took a walk down to the docks and met the resident seals.
Apparently the fishermen feed them. So they’re always looking for a handout.
Tuesday 1st December
I took a bike ride along Galloping Goose and then it rained.
Movie of the day: The Story of Anvil - As good as documentaries get.
Wednesday 2nd December
We were due to move sites on the 15th of the month to a not particularly desirable spot, however, I was talking to someone who had to go back home and was vacating his spot. He suggested we take it instead and we did.
The view out back is slightly changed. A rain-less sunrise:
Thursday 3rd December
Hangin’ out in our new spot.
Friday 4th December
Carol went for a hair-do and I shopped around.
Saturday 5th December
Rain.
Sunday 6th December
Weekly groceries.
Monday 7th December
Carol finally decided enough was enough with the pain in her wrists so we visited a walk-in clinic which sent her for x-rays, blood test and physiotherapy.
Updated my tablet operating system and all installed programs are gone - that should keep me out of trouble for a while
Tuesday 8th December
Movie night.
The Good Dinosaur: The first Pixar that might not make a profit. Not hard to see why, Disney seems to be having way too much influence.
Wednesday 9th December
Heavy rain.
Installed plastic film on the windows on either side of the bed, would never open them anyway.
Thursday 10th December
High winds and rain
Buddy has a sore paw so it’s off to the vet for him and our December budget shot to hell.
Friday 11th December
Physio for Carol.
It’s not raining, so a walk to Galloping Goose and a little ways down and back.
Sunday 13th December
Rainy
Monday 14th December
Sunny and cold morning with a -1 degC overnight low but thanks to insulating the water pipe, no freeze.
A revisit to the clinic for Carol and a much less frequent propane run to Costco.
Tuesday 15th December
To Langford to pickup Carol’s new glasses and go to the movies.
Spotlight: Two thumbs way up.
Wednesday 16th December
We took a drive to Witty Lagoon on recommendations and walked to the beach there.
Roaring waterfall.
And pretty little stream.
Trees hugging trees.
The beach is a little inhospitable at this time of year. You get a view of Washington’s Olympic Mountains across the straits.
