Category: From the Road

Bear Count: 10

Moose Count: 3

Seal Count: 30

Hi everyone! It has been quite a long time since we last checked in for which there are some reasons that we won’t go into here. Let’s just say that after a brief hiatus from the itinerary by Keoma, we are back online, so buckle your safety belts by inserting the flat part into the metal fitting, tighten them snugly around your hips by pulling on the strap, and let’s go.

We last left you as we were steaming away from the beautiful islands of Haida Gwaii in the comfort of our BC Ferries cabin and heading back to Prince Rupert to return to the mainland and our northward trek. As we were sitting in the ferry line up in Skidegate on Haida Gwaii we noted a significant number of passengers that were boarding with coolers laden with freshly caught fish. Like, a lot of coolers. One couple had about four of them. Being that the chinook/king/spring salmon fishery is pretty much closed, we were most curious as to the species of the cooler dwellers that were making their way to people’s freezers on the mainland. As luck would have it, our curiosity was partly satisfied as we struck up a conversation with the couple next to us over some surprisingly good eggs benedict from the ferry’s commissary. Mmmm….drooling thinking about eggs benedict now. Ahem. Back to the thread of the story. Our table neighbours from the Prince George area (which were the ones that we noted had the numerous coolers) were returning with halibut, coho/silver salmon and ling cod and Bill was jealous.

All of this talk of fishing sparked a hankering for some good seafood chowder so after washing a couple of loads of laundry back on dry land and some asking of questions we set out to find Dolly’s Fish Market  in Prince Rupert which was rumoured to be the place of choice for chowder. The really good news is that it has rightfully earned its reputation. More than once we have found that places (wineries and restaurants for the most part) that are highly recommended don’t always live up to expectations and we leave feeling a bit “meh”. Dolly’s was not that place. Bill had a smoked halibut seafood chowder and Keoma had a halibut sandwich and both were off the charts. As we were waiting for our food to come, Bill wandered into the fish shop side of things to check out their offerings and he ran into 4 fellows that he knows from his previous work in Calgary, Weird, right? Of all the fish shops in all the world…Afterwards, we wandered around the shops in the pier area and picked up a fantastic turned birch wooden bowl by a local artist for a hugely bargain price. We spotted similar bowls for four times that price later in the trip. Why would one buy a wooden bowl when one is traveling around with their life in a trailer? Because one needs some place to store their fruit in an artful way, that’s why.

We probably could have used one less day in Prince Rupert, but when Keoma was booking our RV spot she anticipated that we would need a break between Haida Gwaii and the road in order to get re-organized. That break wasn’t really needed, but we took advantage of it by going out into the rain and heading to the North Pacific Cannery National Historic Site  to learn about that vital cog in the British Columbia and coastal economic wheel – the catching and canning of salmon. From 1889 to 1981 the North Pacific Cannery, operated by different companies at different times, accounted for more than 25 percent of BC’s salmon pack and was the largest packer of sockeye salmon in the world. The site has both preserved buildings such as the net loft where First Nations women and children created and mended fishing nets to recreated residences where families would spend the season together working at different jobs in the plant. Bill was intrigued by the mechanical operations including the canning line and fishing methods and Keoma was fascinated by the social structure of the temporary community that was segregated into housing and work for their different cultures. Great way to spend a wet afternoon so long as one is dressed for the weather.

Touristing around Prince Rupert complete, we hit the road to head to the north country. After a brief stop at Canadian Tire in Terrace to pick up a compact air compressor to keep the trailer tires inflated to a legal level and for Bill to pick up some fishing paraphernalia not found back in Calgary we headed north on the Cassiar Highway. This particular stretch of road is a cut off highway to make getting to the Alaska Highway more accessible from the west coast. Our friends from the ferry had suggested that we detour off of the main drag to go 65 Km west to Stewart / Hyder due to the scenery of the drive and the view of the Salmon Glacier. We decided that we would give it a go. The initial plan was to stay in a campground on the Cassiar Highway, but with plenty of daylight and still some driving energy left, Bill suggested that we head right to Stewart and see what we see and if we didn’t like it we could head back out to the initially planned campground. We stayed for two nights in Stewart. Stewart and Hyder are what you might call sister communities that straddle the British Columbia and Alaska border at the end of that previously mentioned 65 Km road and at the head of a 33 Km fjord called the Portland Canal. It seems like it may be inland, however it is most definitely tidal. The slopes on the drive in are so steep that there are 72 avalanche runs. 72 AVALANCHE RUNS IN 65 KM! There is a reason that many of the folks that we talked to love it there, but beetle out for the winter. We cannot extol enough about the absolutely breathtaking scenery of both the drive in and the location of the town(s).

Literally steal your breath breathtaking. We pulled over and oohed and aahed at the Bear Glacier that was just along the side of the road because it was beautiful and accessible.

This accessible point is important for later on in the Stewart/Hyder story. We set up camp in a beautiful and mostly deserted RV park and sat and gazed at the wonder around us. Also, it wasn’t raining so yay! The following morning, we called a small tour operator and fishing charter company called Wild Northern Adventures  to see if they were running any tours that day and low and behold, they told us to meet them at their dock at 11:00 AM.

And do you know what? It was just Bill and I on the boat named Micah, with our captain and the boat’s owner Shawn. We really REALLY love having things to ourselves so we were practically giddy. Shawn toured us around the Portland Canal for about three hours telling us stories about the area and about the time he had a group of company executives out fishing and they came across a sow grizzly with two cubs about to have a run in with a male and after watching the situation develop for 50 minutes the fishermen decided they wanted to fish and not watch Wild Kingdom play out. This had happened a couple of years ago and Shawn was still incredulous at their decision to leave the grizzly action. We didn’t spot any bears, but we saw a ridiculous number of eagles and about 30 seals which made us pretty happy.

After our boat tour, we took to the road and decided that we would try the highly touted halibut and chips at ‘The Bus’ on the Hyder, Alaska side of things. See the Featured Image of this post. No passport needed to get there, but one was needed to get back to the Canadian side, so if you ever go – bring your passport. The fish and chips were made in an old school bus that was gutted and had a commercial kitchen installed inside. The owner was having trouble getting in and out as the door was still smashed from when the bears got in last summer and made a giant mess. She categorized the losses of food including all of the fish, the deep fryer grease and rounded the list out with “and six cake mixes” which seemed to miff her the most of all. Whatever the damage done, the food was really yummy and really fresh. It was fun to just sit outside and enjoy its historical significance as a food truck for Hollywood actors during filming of such shows as The Thing, Insomnia and Eight Below (plus others not appearing here). As we ate we decided that we would drive up to the Salmon Glacier to partake in the scenery that we had been hearing about from a few different people. The road is described as a service road and the glacier is at the top of it at mile 37.

Well, Here’s the thing. It is indeed a service road, however what we failed to discern from descriptions of the drive is that it is a very winding single lane gravel road without guard rails that services precariously positioned mine sites at the tops of mountains.

Vertigo began to set in at about mile 31 and we found ourselves physically leaning our bodies into the mountain and not able to actually look out over the valley floor and glacier that we were approaching. Our peripheral vision told us that it was likely a stunning vista. After twice rounding turns and having to skirt rock slides by driving with two wheels over the edge of the mountain and running into snow deep enough to warrant four-wheel drive on Casper, we agreed that we’d had enough splendour and it was time to head back down using a 77 point turn.

The upside is that we saw two grizzly bears on the road back down. Crazy buggers.

We capped off our stay in Stewart with a visit to the small but wonderful Stewart Museum. There Bill peppered the lovely curator with questions about mining in the area and she was very, very up to the challenge. She was a smart cookie but looked upon us with disdain because we didn’t go all the way up to the top of Salmon Glacier. We were pretty ok with underachieving.

Back to the Cassiar Highway and the continuation of our re-enactment of Johnny Horton’s North to Alaska we hit the road and headed for our next stop for the night at Dease Lake, BC.

On our way through, we made a stop at Jade City  where they mine, craft and sell relatively rare jade and act as central point for the TV Discovery Channel series Jade Fever . Some of the works were very impressive so we left with a tiny jade bear with a tiny jade salmon in it’s mouth. We made it to our next campground which is called Waters Edge because it sits right on the shore of twenty-mile-long Dease Lake and though it didn’t have water hookups or potable water on-site, it had a boat launch. Due to that boat launch we spent two nights enjoying it and were able to get the kayaks wet with a four hour paddle up and down the shore. Bill set up his fishing rig to troll for lake trout, Keoma tried to tag along as the photo documenter and spotter and…ta dah! Bill’s first fish of the season was caught in the form of a decent sized lake trout.

He had a couple of hits after that, including one that stole both his lure and the weight that went with it which prompted words best not set down in writing.  All in all, another very satisfactory surprise.

As we pulled out of Dease Lake, it was Keoma’s turn to learn to drive the unit. It was shortly after that when the road deteriorated to a single lane with no lines, patched with sections of mud and gravel, vehicle eating pot holes and with a twisting and winding grade so steep that one semi-truck was lying in a recent heap crashed onto its side at the bottom of one particularly nasty hill. More words followed and then Bill noticed in the rear-view mirror that the wheels on the rear RV trailer axle had an unusual camber to them that clearly should not be there. We pulled over, the unit was inspected and the results were not good.

This time, there were no words. There was a whole 90 minutes of angry no words as Bill re assumed the helm and we sweated and worried, and limped into Whitehorse. Once we were arrived at our reserved RV Park, we were able to determine that indeed the axle was bent and indeed both back tires had worn badly on the inside rim as a result.

We used a lifeline and garnered the help of a friend via text (you know who you are) for helpful suggestions and a course of action was determined for the morning. We limped the unit back out of the RV Park which was really a shame as Bill had performed a nearly impossible park job to get into our site and we hit Fireweed RV Repair . Diagnosis? Badly bent rear axle. Prescription? Park the unit in the spot beside the shop with full electrical, water and sewer hook ups and they would put it up on blocks to remove the wheels and axles to be replaced with new heartier manufactured axles (sched 80 rather than sched 40 in-kind steel axle replacements – yep both).

Okey Dokey then. Will do. Not the most picturesque camp site that we have run across, but we were relieved to have the fix underway.

Ditching the problem child, we unhitched the truck and went to the McBride Museum in Whitehorse and spent the afternoon feeling a little chagrined about our “problems” as we learned about a surveyor who came west a hundred and fifty years ago and, on foot and horseback, surveyed the Yukon Territory and much of Alaska and the state of Washington sporting a painful spinal deformity and physical condition that made it difficult for him to even get around. Right. Puts things in perspective.

We also saw the cabin of Sam McGee (from the poem by Robert Service – The Cremation of Sam McGee) who was not in fact from Tennessee and who was in fact very much alive for years following the writing of the poem.

They had a taxidermy diorama of all northern animals and large birds plus a whole floor on the building of the engineering marvel that is the Alaska Highway by the US Army Corps of Engineers. We knew bits and pieces about it, but wow. Just wow.

It was an absolutely stunning museum. We spent hours there. On to dinner at a restaurant that was featured on You Gotta Eat Here! for some namesake Klondike Salmon and Ribs. Bill said that the salmon was exceptional and the portions were huge. We didn’t have room for dessert which was unfortunate as thinking about how that bread pudding looked is causing regret.

After our first night at camp “RV on Blocks” Bill had to take Keoma to the airport to catch a flight due to a family emergency and that is where we leave you for now. Bill will pick up the thread and tell you all about his solo week on the road including the continuation of his quest to golf in every province, territory and state that we pass through.

Until then, we bid you adieu and we thank you for taking the time to share in our adventures.

Twelve degrees Celsius and raining.

Greetings friends!

Our last post started with us thanking Tony for saving our home from a fire and left off with us heading to the beautifully rugged islands of Haida Gwaii. How lucky are we?

Haida Gwaii is a storm battered, moss covered archipelago of 150 islands located 93 nautical miles due west of Prince Rupert, British Columbia.  At this time of year, Haida Gwaii is accessible either by plane or by a twice weekly ferry from the Port of Prince Rupert, which is the option that we chose to take. Upon leaving the port we got a good feel for the amount of business passing through this terminal as we watched a large cargo container ship unload and also viewed the under-construction Altagas Propane Export Terminal which made Bill’s heart go pitter patter.

 Evidence suggests that First Nations people have inhabited the Haida Gwaii islands for 14,000 years so you can bet that at times you can feel the history and believe in the myths that permeate the islands, peoples and way of life. We wanted to experience everything that Haida Gwaii offered including the journey to get there. At this time, we should include full disclosure by telling you that Clark did NOT accompany us to Haida Gwaii due to the fact that we don’t have a first born to sell to include Clark in this particular venture. We arrived at the ferry dock in Prince Rupert, pre-booked three months ago reservation in hand, about fifteen minutes prior to when we were supposed to (which was two hours prior to our 2:30 PM departure) along with many other keeners. When a ferry happens only twice a week, you can bet that there are keeners. We visited with other folks that were waiting until loading, people watched and speculated about their stories and tried to quantify the difficulty of driving and handling certain vehicles that were parked in the line ups. As far as people watching, this is pretty first-rate stuff for killing a couple of hours.  Loading of the vehicles and walk-ons (bike-ons in our friend from Ontario’s case) eventually commenced, but things had the appearance of being a bit, well, haphazard. In the end, under the direction of BC ferry dockhands, Bill had to back the truck down the loading ramp, and into our spot on the ferry car deck. The BC Ferries fellow directing him clearly knew EXACTLY how many of what vehicles would fit by the hair of their chinny chin chins because Keoma had to climb into the back seat and up through the front seats to get back in when we disembarked. After a two and a half hour delay we were delighted to finally be on our way and we spent the seven hour journey watching for whales (none) and then retreating to our pre-booked ocean view cabin to read, blog, and almost have a little snooze for the ocean passage. Having the cabin was saweeeet!

Despite departing two and a half hours late, by some miracle of the power of ramped up diesel engines of the BC ferry and favorable ocean currents, we arrived only an hour late with our captain shaving our original journey time of seven hours to five hours and fifty minutes. We were duly impressed, and even more so when we were able to drive straight off of the ferry, fifth in line while everyone else that had driven on forward was going to have to back off of the thing. We were positively giddy about that and grinned smugly and chuckled right out loud the entire four-kilometre trip from the ferry terminal to our hotel in Queen Charlotte City. We checked in and after unpacking some of our kit we hit the hay.

The following morning, we rose bright and early with the sun and gazed out upon our ocean view in wonder. The forecast for the three days that we were to be here had been for rain and cold, but suddenly the view made all of that not matter a damn. The tops of the islands were wreathed in mist, the waters of the Bay were calm and the village of Queen Charlotte City quietly stirred to life. We could not have been more delighted. Our original plan was to try to find a place to kayak right away however the cool weather and predicted rains had us, on the advice of the nice lady at the Information Centre, (starting to love these places a lot) heading out to the Haida Gwaii Museum  and Heritage Centre . The museum sits on the original site of an old village at Kay LLangaay and is built to resemble the long houses that would have greeted visitors, traders and other first nations arriving from the coast. While we were there, a pod of Gray Whales were snacking on tasty sea creature treats and scratching their bellies on the eel grass in front.

We were extremely fortunate to have a chance encounter with the Manager of Collections of the museum, Sean, after he spotted Bill trying to figure out the mechanics of the lid and hinges of a bentwood mortuary box. He spent about 35 minutes with us sharing both his connections with the land as an archaeologist, a former logger, the son of a chief, a watchman in the Gwaii Haanas Reserve and a tour guide for the tour that we were going on the following day across the island to the West for a visit to an ancient village (the tour got cancelled due to high winds and inclement weather – something in there about risks to passenger safety and comfort). He also took the time to tell us about a button blanket featuring a double headed eagle in their collection that had originally been gifted to Pierre E. Trudeau by clan elders when he attended the original museum’s opening in 1976. Upon meeting Mr. Trudeau, the gifters of the blanket re-assessed the situation and advised him that he was not, in fact, an eagle but rather a raven because as a politician his natural state was to be a trickster and shifty. They gave him a raven button blanket instead, and Mr. Trudeau in turn donated the original double eagle blanket to the museum. There is no photo of it here as photos were verboten on the premises but we greatly enjoyed the story and the time spent with Sean. By the time we finished all of the exhibits, our brains were full and we were a bit overwhelmed. So. What to do? Hang around for another hour to get the totem tour of the seven totems and three warrior canoes on the site. That’s what. We crammed more knowledge in about the meanings of animals appearing on totems along with the stories behind them and left completely exhausted but oh so much smarter. After a brief rest, we headed to the local pub for a surprisingly good seafood dinner for such an establishment and back to the motel for bed because we are old and lame.

No tour today. Needed a new agenda item. We decided to do the hike up the Tlell River to the ship wreck site of the Pesuta that we had been planning to do the following day followed by a drive up the island to visit the communities of Masset and Old Masset with the added bonus of Agate Beach along the northern coast.

The Pesuta was a 264 foot log carrier that ran aground on East Beach in 1928. No souls were lost. In the spirit of being early recyclers, the residents along the coast used the wreck contents for building supplies. There are a lot of wooden structures on this island. Just sayin’. The hike took us through a beautiful old growth coastal forest and dropped down to follow along a tidal river that becomes impassable at high tide.

Needless to say, we were checking our watches fairly carefully inbound in order not to get caught stranded by high tides. The inlet was still emptying when we were on our way out so we could say that perhaps Keoma’s panic was for naught. The sun was shining when we hiked out to the exposed beach and the wreck site and though we had the place to ourselves when we arrived, clam diggers on quads began to arrive to reap the benefits of low tide. They were still looking when we left so we thinks no clams for dinner for those guys. We rested our legs on the 90 km coastal drive up to Massett and Old Massett where there are about 16 totems to decipher and ogle. We spied a couple, however there appeared to be a public gathering happening in response to a community tragedy so with respect, we withdrew from town and continued up the coast to see what else we could see towards the northern tip. We could almost see Alaska, that’s what we could see. We also saw some of the most beautiful rugged beaches that we have ever run across and decided that if we ever return we would camp at the campground along Agate Beach where we strolled along looking for, well, agates. It was bracing and beautiful and we loved it. Highly recommend heading up there, even just to have a sandwich and gaze upon the wondrous ocean. After being dazzled, we headed back to our motel and strolled across the street to one of the three Chinese/Canadian Cuisine restaurants that service this town of 850 people. We chose the one that we could see had a steady stream of traffic and customers even after they closed. It was tasty and we had leftovers too. Good times. And….then guess what? We retired. Because we’re old.

We were up bright and early the next morning for breakfast next door and (insert squeal of delight here) we got to go sea kayaking! We headed to the boat launch and after some fiddling and futzing we launched and were oh so very very happy. The seas were calm and we paddled out to a couple of islands that we could see from our motel balcony for some whale watching (none) and star fish gazing. We rounded a spit and came upon a fellow that was out in his canoe clamming. Twice when he turned his back we saw clams spit which is something that neither of us had ever witnessed. They spit about 18 inches into the air! That is a lot of propulsion for such a small buried in the sand critter. It was very cool and we smiled smugly as we paddled away and didn’t tell the guy because…well…we didn’t want to.

Several star fishes and a crab later, we headed back to the boat launch before we would have to fight the change in currents when the bay would fill from the next tide. The timing was perfect as it began to rain as we loaded up and then it cleared again when we returned to the motel for leftover Chinese food on our balcony with an afternoon glass of wine.

Haida Gwaii has been a fantastic experience and we have both decided that we would definitely return. Folks are friendly, and the scenery is incredible. Haawa for the memories.

Next post – Back to the Mainland.

Thanks and cheers everyone!

19 degrees celsius and overcast.

Greetings and salutations from Kelowna, British Columbia on day 4 of Keoma and Bill’s year long odyssey with our very good friends, Casper and Clark.

When partaking in a year long adventure, it is very important to travel in the company of very good friends so let us introduce you to two of the most integral and critical friends that we will have contact with on our Journey.

First of all, Casper, who is our trusty white Toyota Tundra. She was purchased in late 2017 with the intention that she would be crossing the continent with us and would also be responsible for hauling those items that have been deemed essential to our comfort and which will keep us in the lifestyle to which we are becoming accustomed. As you can see from the photo, she has had a canopy added complete with roof racks so that our Delta 16 and Seaward 18 could come along for the ride. Given the process that it takes to load and unload them, there is a decent chance that coming along for the ride may be the extent of their experience.

Casper’s (and Bill’s) first experience towing anything happened 3 sleeps ago when we finished up the final loading of the camper and truck with everything but the kitchen sink (wrong – there are 3 kitchen sinks), checked in with our RV dealer to make sure that we had hitched everything appropriately, almost forgot to do a signal light check and then departed Calgary at about 3:00 in the afternoon. As you can see from the photo, we are traveling very light so we had absolutely zero concerns about Casper hauling her load through the Rocky Mountains via the Kicking Horse and Rogers Pass. That was sarcasm. We worried and fretted and Bill became intimately familiar with the Tow/Haul component  as well as the trailer brake, but Casper and Bill were  absolute champs. They had us safely to our first stop of the trip by about 8:00 in the evening. Keoma was moral support. Or dead weight. The jury is still out.

Evening one was spent at lovely Canyon Hot Springs which had just opened the afternoon of the day that we arrived.  In fact, the facility was so newly opened for the season that the owners had to come down to the area that we were in and unlock the bathrooms. We literally had the entire campground to ourselves so there was nobody there to witness us driving around twice to line ourselves up correctly in our pull through site. We did discover that the kayaks on the top add an element of extra required caution around trees and power lines. Tricky little devils.

And now, allow us to introduce our second very good and very integral friend – Clark (“that thar’s an RV”). Clark joined our family in November of 2017 and like Casper, the “adoption” was with the intention of making a trans North American tour . Clark is a thirty three foot Shadow Cruiser 279DBS by Cruiser RV. Bill has been spending months customizing, optimizing, building, sawing and reading and watching blogs and vlogs to learn about how to keep the electrical system from overloading and the water tanks from becoming full of silt. Keoma was able to join in and help in the last couple of weeks and loaded her up with food, blankets, clothing, and of course, color coordinated throw pillows and duvet cover. Due to the very late departure of winter this year, one of the critical elements that we were unable to partake in was getting her out and de-winterized. Thus, for a few days we knew that we would be traveling with a bit of a glorified tent on wheels but with a comfortable bed and an operational furnace.

Clark’s outdoor kitchen (kitchen sink one) provided the cook space for the first meal of the journey, and J Lohr provided the refreshments. Back to the campground being freshly opened for the season, the power was not yet turned on but the batteries provided more than enough light for the fifteen minutes that we were able to stay awake after we finally ate our camping pasta.

The following morning the showers in our area were not yet operational so we walked up the hill back to the office to have our showers at…wait for it…the hot springs pool which we had all to ourselves. It was glorious. The sun was shining, the sky was a beautiful blue and the only other person around was the nice fellow re-building the fence. Best. Hour. Ever.

After a soak and a scrub, we checked the hitch, the sway bars, the equalizer, the emergency quick release and the signal lights and hit the Trans Canada once again for our three hour drive to Kelowna. As we rounded a corner about fifteen minutes after our departure Bill caught a flutter of movement in the side mirror out of the corner of his eye. After a concentrated look, a series of bad words erupted from him and he advised Keoma that the single window that is a pop out window (emergency exit) rather than a slide was flapping madly in the wind and was skirting perilously close to oncoming traffic on the curves. Oh dear. What was interesting about the timing of such a happening was that it occurred at the only section of the Trans Canada that did not have a rest area for westbound traffic for miles and miles and this is also the only section of the Trans Canada that does not have a large shoulder. These two circumstances presented an interesting conundrum to which the solution appeared to be find a passing lane, pull off almost into the ditch and hope for the best. So we did. Bill pulled over at a passing lane and there was not a soul behind us. Keoma hopped out, unlocked Clark, fosbury flopped onto the floor of the unit, leaped upon the bed to grab the window handle to retract it back inside, only to discover that it too was smashing lovingly into the side of the RV. At this time, there appeared an entire city’s worth of traffic in the westbound lanes whizzing past Clark and Casper and they were close enough that with each pass, the whole unit rocked three feet to the left and recoiled back to the right. Keoma leaped back out of the unit and tore open the truck door to inform Bill that the window handle was dangling in traffic. Bill took his life into his own hands and jumped out into traffic as Keoma ran back to the RV. Another fosbury flop, another leap onto the bed and then….whizz…whizzz…roooaaarrr…whizzz… as vehicle after vehicle rocked the unit from side to side. A small break in traffic finally happened and Bill sprinted back to the window, shoved the handle back inside, Keoma grabbed it with both hands, secured it and they both ran for their lives back to the truck where we both remarked on the miracle of life and that we still had ours. That handle now has a hair elastic wrapped securely around it and the latch. So and so handle….

Happily after that, the rest of the trip to Kelowna was uneventful, but with the bonus of ice cream at the D Dutchmen Dairy.  I recommend the sour cherry. Oh happy day.

We pulled into our full hook up site to enjoy some cheese and crackers after which Keoma immediately started cleaning and reorganizing and Bill got down to the business of dewinterizing the unit. All went well until…dun dun dunnnn…a leak was spotted. The results of said leak will be discussed in a future blog as we want to keep things upbeat and happy here today.

Taking a break from the shenanigans surrounding the leak fix, on Bill’s suggestion we spontaneously hopped in the truck and drove an hour and twenty minutes through the pouring rain to our favourite winery bistro at Hillside Winery for lunch. We ate enough to be uncomfortable for about 6 hours and walked it off with stops at Home Depot and Save on Foods on the way home for breakfast and leak fix necessities.

This post will wrap up by us ending the suspense and letting you all know that the leak has been fixed, and the water is running through Clark’s taps to it’s fullest potential. Again, the details will be in a later post once the annoyance has subsided to a level of “haha, remember that time…”

All in all, it has been a wonderful and successful first couple of days on the road. We have already met wonderful people and are eager for the coming days and weeks. We will keep you updated about our adventures and death defying window fixing feats.

Thanks for your time today!

K and B