How much can you stand?

Tennis twice (or more) a day, swimming and ping-pong every day, lots of good walks, and more Vitamin D sunshine than a person deserves. We’re in paradise. Really! We were chilling out for a few minutes this evening, watching the end of a great sunset, and thinking aloud, “we’ll get used to this level of physical activity in another week”.

We are in Mesa, one of a dozen or so “towns” in Phoenix, AZ. Friends Bob and Faith dragged us down here, carefully warning us it might be noisy, polluted, crowded, and hot or cold. And, they have been coming here six or seven years because they like it so much. They clearly were trying to undersell so we would not have our expectations set too high. Okay, we’ve got to try this for ourselves.

The southwest has been enigmatic for us, something we hear about and read about but never experience. Taliesen West (the Frank Lloyd Wright place), Tempe, Scottsdale, Glendale, Mesa, and many more names and places have twinkled out there for us. Until now. We’re here and don’t notice the noisy, polluted, crowded, or cold. Well, the grocery store this morning was pretty dangerous with little old ladies on electric shopping carts pushing “go” instead of “stop”. And it is definitely on the hot side. But we’re not counting these things, we so many blessings.

No problems with our level of expectations, this place is pretty great. Today, for example, Jim hit tennis balls against a ball machine an hour, we had breakfast, he played one and one-half hours mixed doubles tennis, we picked up some groceries, had a snack lunch, and walked the short distance to the pools complex.

Sunset over Mesa

We played in the pool’s cool water a little while, read awhile, played ping-pong, swam laps, sunbathed under cloudy skies, showered and walked home. Have a drink, listen to a little music, watch the sunset and WHOA! Look at that sunrise, aren’t the clouds beautiful and the tall palms swaying very gently as the wind kisses through them? This is our first outstanding Mesa sunset, and we’ll appreciate additional ones if they are anywhere near this.

We don’t need to go anywhere, we’ve done plenty today, but Debbie wants to practice hitting the tennis ball. We walk the short distance to the tennis complex, turn on the court lights, find a bucket of practice balls. Jim tells Debbie where to start dropping balls and hitting them against the fence. Then she practices her forehand and backhand swings toward the net and hits Jim several times as he tosses her balls to hit. This is great stuff!

Back to our home and we watch the temperature drop, two hours after sunset, to 80F degrees from 92F earlier. Debbie fixed us a wonderful dinner of barbecue from Glenn’s in Kannapolis, NC (with Glenn’s bbq sauce, not Texas-style). Darn, this is the end of our North Carolina BBQ and we won’t be home for five or six weeks yet to reload. Oh well, worse things have happened.

But not in Paradise! Yeah, it’s a little warm and pretty dry. We aren’t spending much on electricity because the heat doesn’t really feel bad if we are in the 5-10mph breezes outside our home. We see 75 degrees twice a day, briefly, and see a whole lot more hotter than cooler.

The resort has a wonderful tennis complex with two or three illuminated courts, a huge practice board, ball machines, shaded grandstand, and teaching programs for all levels players. Jim has readily gained acceptance in the tennis crowd. They have recruited him to play number 1 doubles. The first match, against a neighboring resort, is Monday (hopefully they still like him after the match). Debbie has her first lesson Friday and will be playing as frequently very soon.

We’re going on a 5 mile hike Saturday with another couple, both tennis players too. We want to visit the Ham Radio Outlet (HRO) store in Phoenix, Taliesen West, and Arizona State University, and check out the dancing lessons in the resort and locally, just for starters. We’re going to do all this in just two months, somehow. And, we sense, we’ll be back to Mesa again. We think we can stand this and more.

Mesa is hot!

We arrived Mesa yesterday after a week two hours north, in Congress, AZ. Boy is it hot here, too. Today has been 90F degrees since mid-morning when it was 65F. Jim scurried over to the tennis courts at 0730 hrs, he was the first one today. He hit the backboard a little while before a charitable tennis club member suggested Jim might use the ball machine instead. Dale didn’t say it, but probably the backboard is a little too loud at 0730?

They’re going to rank Jim for league tennis play this week by playing him a couple of times and seeing how he does. He hasn’t played in leagues nor had a ranking since 1992, back in Greensboro, NC, so this will be interesting and fun for him. And Dale did a real sales job on Debbie this morning when he visited us.

Dale had talked Debbie, in just a few minutes, into starting playing tennis this Friday. This afternoon we hit the local sports supply store and found her a pair of court shoes, so she’s ready. We laughed afterward, Dale was a very successful salesman in his previous lifetime and doesn’t seem to have lost any of it.

a little oasis for full-timers

Congress, AZ, was an interesting layover. We were there to await Bob S on his way down from chilly, rainy and snowy Boise, Idaho. We had a few days on our own to explore, and didn’t need a single day more. We spent one half-day cruising the hills around Wickenburg and shopping the Safeway grocery store. The only two things to check out are Wickenburg and Congress and, from what we heard, we missed nothing in Congress.

Wickenburg is surrounded by ranch estates, so to speak. We didn’t see much resembling ranches although there were a few. Mostly we saw very high end houses tucked against the hills on about ten or more acres each. Very nice looking, and they must have very very deep wells. Even the cacti look thirsty.

The green area is all brown

Back to Congress — this is our first Escapees Park to visit and we would be happy to visit again. The rates are low, people are very interesting, and did we mention the rates are low? Campers must be members of Escapees, and willing to camp miles away from anything at all. This park is thirteen miles north of Wickenburg and Wickenburg isn’t much. We met no homeowners who stay year-round in North Ranch Escapees Campground, they mostly stay through the winter months.

Still, there doesn’t seem so much to do here — no tennis, no ping pong, no golf, no swimming pool. Jim asked several homeowners in the development, “What do you do while you stay here?” Several times we heard about panning for gold, four wheeling, beading, quilting, and ham radio. Okay, we like ham radio and traveling. And we really like the folks we met at North Ranch. Maybe we will visit and not stay very long.

So we’re in Mesa — Jim today bought a soft rubber-faced ping pong paddle and played tennis twice, we enjoyed a grilled stuffed chicken breast and salad supper, and we spent an hour at the pools. Yep, pools — four of them. A 25 meter lap pool is maintained at 75F, a conversation pool is 85F, one hot tub is maintained at 98F, and one hot tub is at 104F. We checked out all four pools tonight before hitting the showers then home and getting ready for tomorrow.

Tomorrow is forecast for 94F — we’ll try to hit the pools much earlier and perhaps for longer. Take a good book and a big ice water, and stay awhile. And work a little on our tennis basics, eh?

See ya later,

Jim and Debbie
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Sitting in 75, At Last

We finally found the right latitude

We found this excellent temperature when we parked in Cottonwood, AZ, this afternoon. We have ARRIVED, finally.

Hated to skip through so much beautiful country between Salt Lake City, UT and Cottonwood, AZ. But we had finally reached our limit. We left Vancouver, B.C. and really nice weather approx Sep 12. We enjoyed a week of excellent weather in Washington state. Then we hit Idaho. The temperatures just kept getting colder and colder, day and night.

We had committed to working at the Sun Valley Jazz Festival. We would have fled south earlier, upon encountering unrelenting chilly weather. Instead we stayed in Ketchum for ten days. The place is gorgeous and nice and interesting. We’re glad we stayed despite snow showers, rain, and chilly weather. The music alone was worthwhile, and we enjoyed the music and much more.

A couple of days later we pulled into North Salt Lake City. We found a really excellent RV park, Pony Express, just off I-215. Very well run and nicely designed, this park is a great one and was reasonably priced (for the proximity to SLC) at $28.50. Nice showers, clubhouse, laundry, management, appearance, and location.

SLC was interesting to visit. We spent all our day in the Temple Square, listening to an organ recital on the world’s fifth (?) largest organ in the Tabernacle, touring one of Brigham Young’s houses, the Beehive House, peering up at the Temple, and visiting the Joseph Smith Memorial Center (apparently a very grand hotel from 1910 until 1970). We spent almost three hours on the LDS Church’s computers peering into our past. Very interesting, the information they have collected on us all.

But still it was darned cold. So south we headed. Don’t get me wrong, we understand many of you love your home location whether it becomes cold or not. We both grew up in western North Carolina and experienced a wide range of temperatures. But our present home has wheels. We choose warm weather.

So we thought, anyway. We haven’t done a superb job of attaining 75 degrees. Then again, we would limit our venue terribly if we first sought 75 degrees. Our goal of helping at the Jazz Festival interfered with getting south in time to avoid freezing weather. And the Jazz Festival is totally worth it.

This morning, with the windows frosty on the inside, we decided 24 degrees is just a little cooler than we have to tolerate. So southward we headed, and not by any small measure. The first hour of our drive the outside thermometer varied between 24 and 25 F degrees. We quickly decided to drive until we were in a warmer clime. We found it — Cottonwood, AZ.

We could have felt disappointed to have skipped so much great territory as Zion Canyon, Glen Canyon, Bryce Canyon, and Grand Canyon. Instead, we are expecting to haunt these same areas thoroughly next April and May with the WBCCI Southwest Caravan, led by Jay and Elna Thompson and Winston and Carol Montague. The excitement of seeing all these wonders is still in store for us. And tonight we can sleep at 3,500 feet above sea level instead of 7,000 feet. It will be warmer, thank you.

We’re wearing shorts again for the first time in almost a month. 75 degrees feels good!

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Ya don’ hafta chill the beer

This morning, at 35 F degrees, is our seventh chilly morning yet the warmest. Our nine day stay in Ketchum has been remarkable for several things and outstanding among these is the weather. Sun Valley and Ketchum are beautiful, yes, but pretty darned chilly too. Our standard operating temperature has decreased to the same winter standard we maintained in our sticks and bricks home. A couple of nights ago we were playing cards in our aluminum home and thinking, “68 F feels pretty warm”.

It has rained on us only once, and later the same night we listened to the soft luffing sound of snow landing on our roof. The days have all warmed nicely, the sun has shone brightly, and we’ve enjoyed the nice weather. We’ve stopped our mutinous rumblings about pulling stakes early, hitching the wagon, and heading for Phoenix. Definitely we are looking forward to warm weather but we’ve adapted to this cool autumn setting.

You might be asking, “What about the Jazz Festival? Aren’t they in Ketchum and Sun Valley to attend a jazz festival? Wow! The music is soooooo good, the bands are great, the performances have all been outstanding. We’ve attended one other music fest, the Galax Fiddlers Convention. The Fiddlers Convention sucked us in quickly, giving us a feel of connection with the musicians and their music. Same thing in Sun Valley, maybe more so.

What’s so good about the music at the Sun Valley Jazz Festival? First, the great majority of the music is pre-1950s. The bands are playing compositions from Fats Waller, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, and many many others. Second, many of the best jazz musicians performed here this week.

We’ve listened to, and watched, jazz bands from The Netherlands, New Jersey, Connecticut, Louisiana, California, and Idaho. Today, the last day of the event, we must rank the bands on our eval forms. This is tough but fortunately they allow us to have more than one favorite band.

It might be even tougher if they required us to force-rank the musicians. There are so many outstanding ones on each instrument. We think we heard the best couple of drummers (John Gillick, Danny Coots), several incredible clarinetists (Bob Draga, Louis Ford, Joe Midiri), amazing trumpeters (Brian Casserly, Flip Oakes, Bria Skonberg, and too many others to name), and many other fine musicians and singers.

The only thing to do is to go again. We’ll be in Arizona next month and so will the Jazz Festival in Chandler — is that near us? We’ll be finding out soon. We are also making tentative plans for Mammoth Lakes and Sun Valley for 2010. Who knows, maybe they will be as great as this was?

Our dry-camping experience has increased nicely with the past ten days. We stayed in Camping World’s lot the night before we arrived here. That night and tonight total eleven nights and our batteries and tanks are in great shape for more days yet.

We started with 40 gallons fresh water, and we still have over ten gallons remaining. Our rinse water tank registers empty, because we only have washed and rinsed some pans and utensils, and have used paper plates. We have showered daily at the ski lodges’ excellent facilities instead of using our hot water and rinse water tank. Our black water tank registers half-full after ten days.

Finally, our batteries have restored daily from solar power. We have run the generator once, for two hours, in the past five days and only for a couple of hours the nights before that. Our solar panels have been working great in maintaining our batteries. We haven’t had much extra power for things like charging the laptops or iPod. Instead we have plugged in the rechargeables while the generator is running and gotten everything charged at once.

We’re encouraged by this dry-camping experience because we enjoyed these good results in very cool temperatures. Remember, our byline is Chasing 75 Degrees. We could have, and considered it, left when we found out how cool it was to be. Instead we decided this would be a great adventure. It has been. And we have learned we can do much better much longer than we thought. We’ll stretch further another time, to find our limits on dry camping.

Tomorrow we head for Mesa, Az. We have only fourteen days to get there — we’ll just have to stop along the way and see what we can see. And we’ll need to put the beer in the cooler when we’re there. But until then the beer is cool enough sitting in the carton on the floor. Ya don’ hafta chill it in Sun Valley in October.

See ya down the road!

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Idyllic (and Icy) Idaho

We spent our first night in Ketchum, Id. The high yesterday was in the forties and our low temperature was 22.5 F last night. This morning all our windows are frosty, we heated the interior to a balmy 60 degrees for our Sunday brunch. Deb baked some tender and scrumptious muffins to accompany our eggs and hot tea. We’re basking in the warmth from our Wave6 catalytic heater.

Several times we’ve wondered if we should have installed a Wave4 heater instead. This Wave6, even on low, can drive us outta here with its heat. Not today — sure am glad we have the 6 instead. It’s been on high all morning and feels just fine, thank you.

Funny, our Club’s literature for this Jazz Festival Rally advertised warm Indian Summer week in Ketchum and Sun Valley. Apparently the copy (especially the warm part) is recycled, and they update the particulars as needed each year. A couple of people we’ve met here say they remember it was sometimes warm for the week, they think . . . No harm done — we’re glad we’re here and trying out cool weather camping.

Last night we turned off the catalytic heater and set our furnace thermostat to 45 F, it’s lowest setting, to try and prevent frozen (=burst) water lines. We played cards then Rummikub after 10pm and went to bed. The furnace came on at 2am, then approx once an hour. The plumbing all works this morning! The sun is shining brightly and we’ll turn the furnace off for the day.

We’re off to some of the Trailing of the Sheep activities — we’ll talk to you later. Oh, how about some pictures?

Yesterday we posted text only to catch up a little on where we are. Today let’s see some Idaho pictures from our last week or so. . .

It was only a dusting of snow but we still get pretty excited when we see it

The peaks near Garden Valley had a little more snow than we did

We are going into the Wood River Valley yonder

Sunrise on the ski slopes in Ketchum at River Run, where we are parked

Hemingway Memorial sits at the end of Trail Creek Golf Course

One of the hundred or so striking Sun Valley homes. One (at least) of these had 3 bdrms, 4.5 baths, 4,200 sf, and asking $2.5 million

Just before sunrise in Ketchum, Id

Kold in Ketchum, Id

We camped at Camping World in Meridian (a few miles east of Boise) last night. They have 30amp electric at the sites, the police patrol it a few times per night, and this time (I guess it was just too cold) the irrigation sprinklers didn’t irrigate the side of our trailer.

Yesterday we left Garden Valley and Bob and Faith in the mid-afternoon. It was a wonderful stay, their park is so peaceful and nice, right against a fork of the Payette River. Bob gave us a nice tour of the surrounding areas before we left. Then we drove to Boise and Meridian for the night, hoping Camping World might have our refrigerator part (a lower control board) by now.

Alas, the part is not in and they don’t really know when it will arrive. They will allow Bob to pick it up if it arrives before he heads for Phoenix. Or they can forward it to one of the six dozen Camping Worlds in the Phoenix area if it is too late.

Since we already are there, we back into a spot and hook up our electrical cord to use their electricity and turn on our small ceramic heater. Then we head for our errands. These were alot of fun, to get as many errands done Friday evening as we can. Then we can awake Saturday morning and head for Ketchum.

It seemed like more but we, in less than two hours, bought an air filter for the truck from Schucks, a slate tile for the oven from Lowes, foodsaver (seal-a-meal) bags from Wal-Mart, gas from Fred Meyers for the truck, and groceries from Fred Meyers. Way to go!

We’ve been in Idaho for almost two weeks and haven’t been warm yet. So much for chasin’ 75 degrees, eh? Our exit plan is to hitch up and head south, toward Phoenix, Az. It’s warm there, right?

But we’re looking fwd to attending the Trailing of the Sheep tomorrow downtown Ketchum and the Sun Valley Jazz Festival next week. So let’s give this slightly cooler environment a chance.

We are parked in a big ski resort parking lot — sort of gravel/asphalt and slightly inclined for drainage. Today there are a dozen RVs, seven of them Airstreams. We’ve met some new people both in Airstreams and in other brands. You know, you just cannot tell the difference once they step away from their RV. . .

Drove about Sun Valley and Ketchum today, just to orient and find important stuff. Found the showers and, although we didn’t have our clean clothes with us, took advantage of free availability. Wow, resort showers are just a shade nicer than national park showers. Free warm towels, body wash and shampoo, hot water without putting quarters into a slot, and really nice lotion for post-shower.

Pictures after tomorrow — just wanted to get a leg up on our posts since it has been awhile. See ya down the road!

Jim and Deb
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Backpacking REI in Spokane Wa

That’s right, we took our backpacks to Spokane. The backpacking trip in Cascades North National Park was our first in several years. It went wonderfully but for one thing. Deb’s new backpack just didn’t work.

Her backpack wasn’t entirely new — Jim bought it for her for Christmas 2006. We were already in our full-timing preparations mode, so the backpack went into the camping box with other gear. Tags still on it, the pack never filled with weight, we didn’t imagine it wouldn’t work perfectly. Hey, it was on sale and weighed almost nothing.

One mile into the backpacking trip Deb’s pack straps weren’t comfortable and the adjustments just weren’t going to help enough. Whoops, we should have checked this thing out once or twice. We could have stopped in any of several REIs along the way and traded it in before we ever used it. Lucky we still have the tags, eh?

Full-timing we have get lucky to time our store visits to our routes. We were on our way to Lewiston ID/Clarkston Wa from Grand Coulee. REI in Spokane looked accessible for our combined length of 45 feet (truck plus trailer). And, worst case, we could drive to a nearby Wal-Mart and drop the trailer for an hour while we visit REI.

Luckily, REI’s parking lot was easy to navigate and had seven sequential parking spaces vacant. Into REI’s customer service desk we go with the errant pack. They asked what problem we had with it, accepted it very graciously, and called a staff member to help us with backpacks.

Kit showed up almost instantly and ushered us into her domain. She is very knowledgeable about packs, understood well the problem with Deb’s pack, and helped Deb evaluate several new ones. Kit readily recognized Deb’s pack was wrong from the get-go — it was an oversized daypack. Yeah, a 45 liter daypack? Yep, that’s a big day, too.

The problem was, the pack had pretty good capacity for overnighting but lacked decent suspension, padding, and adjustments. Kit quickly steered Debbie to three excellent choices. Debbie walked the store with twenty or twenty-five pounds of sandbags in first one, then another pack. We ended up with a 65 liter REI pack costing twice what the 45 liter one did. The new pack feels ten times better, Deb says.

The entire experience was superb. Spokane was easy to navigate and, while some on-street parking made for narrow lanes downtown in places, easy to negotiate. REI’s twenty year-old store is not huge but is well laid out and nice inside. The parking lot is very easy to use, even with our 25′ trailer.

Best of all, REI was wonderful about the return. Sure they have this 100% satisfaction guarantee. Seeing is believing — they didn’t fuss, harangue, or in any way make us feel more stupid for having waited three years to return a pack that wouldn’t fit. They were very welcoming and hospitable and helpful. We want to go back.

What in the world is that noise?

Supper just ended, we were enjoying the warm glow from great home dining. Sit and talk a while, and relax before we start the things we need to do next. We can do dishes, update the blog, play a few hands of cards, maybe enjoy ice cream and fresh-baked oatmeal-raisin cookies. But first let’s just sit awhile and talk.

We are parked in a Camping World, Boise, service/sales courtesy area. Pretty nice, this “camping” area. We have 30/50 amp service (much more than we can use), a level site, cannot see the Interstate I-84 and are a block away from the city street accessing this lot. Our RV is tucked between a slightly taller and longer trailer for horses and a much taller motor home.

This feels alright. Chalk up another courtesy camping experience — Wal-Mart, Cracker Barrel, and now Camping World. We’ll take Camping World as the best of the three judging on three hours experience (hmm, maybe you should check back with us for an update after a full night experience here?). We have this full power and a protected parking slip, this is pretty nice.

But then a couple of pickup trucks pull into this parking lot — we see them zip across our front window toward the Camping World gated sales lot. We were finishing supper and ignored them. But as we were relishing the remains of the moment, admiring our empty plates, one of the trucks zooms past again toward the street.

Then we hear a sort of roaring noise. Only from the back of our trailer comes this enveloping sort of whooshing noise. Jim runs back (yeah, two whole steps) and tries to catch what just flew by. Maybe the truck was spinning tires on the wet pavement and we, oddly, heard it? Oddly because we aren’t hearing cars driving by otherwise. Oh well, it’s over.

In a minute or so here comes the noise again. Okay, we both rush to the back of the trailer to investigate. Good thing we aren’t a Bambi 16 footer or a 13′ Casita or Boler — we would surely have tipped it. Just about the time we arrive at the bedroom, the noise subsides. We return to the kitchen and then we hear it go by again. Is it interference in our XM radio station? We aren’t hearing it from the front speakers, so unlikely.

We are in Boise, Idaho, for at least tonight and hopefully no more than two nights in hopes Camping World can remedy our refrigerator malfunction. You might remember our experience at Bucars RV near Calgary to have our refrigerator checked out. The RV refrigerator will operate flawlessly on propane but doesn’t know when to quit when on shore power.

This turned out to be no big deal for our summer’s camping — we stayed in Canadian Provincial and National Parks throughout almost our entire Canadian experience except when a horrific storm drove us from Canada’s Glacier National Park into a nearby private park and when we visited Vancouver, BC, for a week. Our fridge stayed on gas our entire Tim Horton’s TransCanada Tour and would have anyway except for the two brief stays in private RV parks.

We stayed in beautiful Bay View State Park near Mt Vernon, Wa, and in a pair of Washington state national recreation area’s campgrounds, one in the Cascades North and one near Coulee Dam. In the latter two we had no hookups and so no choice but to run the fridge on propane. What we’re saying is, this hasn’t been much of an imposition to have a fridge operating only on propane and not on 110v electric.

Our friends, Bob and Faith Simms, invited us to visit them in Garden Valley, Idaho. We arrived at their house Friday after a very nice and beneficial drive through Spokane (I’ll get back to that) and an interesting couple of days in Clarkston, Idaho (and I want to tell you later about this too).

We have enjoyed a couple of very relaxing, if much cooler than anticipated, days in their small riverside RV park. Both nights have been close to 31 degrees, and today’s high was 45 degrees (Bea, I have now stopped dual (F and C) temperatures :-) And we awoke to snowfall gently and wetly falling on our RV. If it was dryer it would have been a dusting — it wasn’t dry at all.

Jim and Bob spent a good part of the day sitting by, and feeding, Bob’s outdoor fireplace and talking. Debbie made oatmeal-raisin cookies in our little oven, and caught up on our bookkeeping. And we hitched up and left for Boise a little after 1600 hours so we could locate our spot and set up in Camping World’s courtesy spots before dark.

Our service appointment is tomorrow morning and we are full of hopes they will detect the problem promptly and accurately and have the parts on hand and repair our fridge. If not, we’re still on propane — no problem.

What about the mystery noise emanating from our bedroom? A noise like this could drive us batty. We hear little noises from time to time. We recognize most of them soon if not at first. Some noises we don’t perceive until the radio is off, the lights are down, and we are putting our heads on the pillows. The quietest time of the day — and then a clicking noise, or a drip, or a rattle or squeak starts. And Jim will listen a minute or two and hop out of bed to track it down.

Luckily this noise continued long enough for us to resolve before bedtime. Jim was staring out the upper porthole window in our washroom and spots Camping World’s lawn sprinklers irrigating the lush grass behind the adjacent motor home. He quickly realizes the water spray from the revolving irrigation sprinkler is periodically and regularly cycling the rear exterior of our Airstream’s aluminum skin and resonating with a smooth whoosh sound. Mystery solved!

Come home to a hot shower and a cold beer . . .

28 Sep Monday
Six and seven years ago we were backpacking every opportunity we had, doing 30-35 mile sections of the Appalachian Trail in Virginia or North Carolina, and hiking into state parks throughout North Carolina. We were going out two weeks plus odd weekends each year. We would drive three or four hours to a motel, meet a trail shuttle the next morning and leave our car at the trail terminus. The shuttle driver would drop us off thirty or so miles distant and we hike back to our car.

We aren’t fast hikers, despite being very fast walkers. A thirty pound backpack and up/down trails tend to slow us down a lot. So we have a lot of time to dream and talk when backpacking. March 2004 we were bopping down the trail, having a great day, when one of us starts theorizing aloud about another way to stage our backpacking trips. Just idle talk, sort of, about how far we’ll drive to get home after a three or four day hike back to the car.

Our reason for buying our first (of three) Airstreams was, we rationalized, “If we had a camper we could extend our range. A mobile base would allow us, once we retire, to avoid motel fees and we could work any number of new trails from an entirely new section of the country.” And, Jim said, we would return from hiking to a hot shower and a cold beer.

For Jim, the cold beer and hot shower might have been the top selling points. We would hike 30 miles over four or five days and return, elated, to our car at a trail head. We would change into dry (and much fresher) clothes, dig our snack bag from the car’s trunk, and head for home. An hour or three later of driving we would arrive home, grab a cold beer, unpack the car, spread out the gear, start the washing machine, and finally get a hot shower.

The difference with having an RV is in our supposed ability to park the RV in a campground or RV Park close to the trail head. Then, getting “home” to the cold beer and hot shower would be much, much sooner. Oh man, backpacking will be so great if we buy an RV. Let’s do it!

Fast Forward five and one-half years:
We drove from Bay View State Park, near Mt Vernon, to Colonial Creek Cmpgrd in North Cascades National Park. After visiting the dams at Diablo Lake and Gorge Creek, we drove to Newhalem to the Cascades NP Visitors Center. Almost as one, we looked at each other and said, “Let’s get a backcountry permit and do an overnighter.” It made perfect sense, the trail head is 100 yards from our camp site, the truck and trailer seem pretty safe here, and we have all our gear.

The same afternoon Boy Scouts arrived in our campground, two troops full. Campground is now noisy and busy. Welcome to the weekend. Let’s get outta here. We spent the first part of the afternoon digging our gear out of the various storage places in the truck and the trailer’s cargo compartments. The remainder of the afternoon we packed, picked our hiking clothes, and had a nice home-cooked meal.

We hiked from the campground Saturday morning, hiking four hours to McAllister cmpgrd. The trail followed Thunder Creek East-Southeast but changed elevation a lot more than the creek did. We were along the creek for the first fifteen minutes and well above it for all but the last five minutes of the hike.

Old growth cedar and fir trees are magnificent

The size and number of huge ponderosa pines, western red cedars, hemlocks, and Douglas Firs is just astounding. One after another, maybe 150 feet tall, arrow straight most of them, and the bases over six feet diameter. This is so neat, to stand at the bases of these trees and stare upward at the crowns so high above us.

We saw a wild variety of mushrooms — purple, brown on brown, pink, black, red, yellow, white. Some of the purple, with curly lobes, looked like tiny cabbages, others yellow and looked like little coral with their many tiny fingers. Huge flat-topped round ones pushed out of the packed trail dirt, lifting a three inch diameter crown of earth still on top of them, like Atlas holding the earth on his shoulders.

And everywhere, moss covering the ground, the rocks, the fallen trees, extending in all directions up the hill from the trail. This place is wet! The trail is carpeted with fine little evergreen needles and very well maintained. You’d never guess this trail was opened by the prospectors in the 1800s, or improved in the early 1900s by mining developers. It is a simple, clean, narrow trail, very nicely built and while not challenging it is great exercise going up and down the short grades.

McAllister Camp is along Thunder Creek, with a couple of sites fifty or sixty feet above the creek. We chose an upper site. From our campfire ring area we had a gorgeous view of Thunder Creek thundering down toward camp, then around and past.

We had a nice campfire ring, and a mossy bed for tent floor, and Jim hung our food between a couple of trees in his best bear bag job ever. It took a few throws with rope tied around a baseball-size rock, but he had the food bag twenty feet above ground suspended between, and twenty feet from either, tree. But they say New York bears are untying the food bag suspension ropes. So we used a different color rope :-)

Nice campfire at McAllister Camp

Sunday morning we started our campfire from the last night’s fire’s banked coals to warm us a little — it was 41 degrees F when we climbed out of our sleeping bags. After a nice breakfast we broke camp, hiked to Colonial Crk Cmpgrd; made much better time. Apparently we just hiked faster because the trail was net downhill back to Colonial Crk and we didn’t gawk at mushrooms and trees as much. And we were packs off only once, compared to three times on the way in.

Okay, we’re back home without a long drive ahead. Cool. What’s the first thing we need to do? A cold beer for Jim, you betcha! We unpacked, dried and stowed gear, and Jim built a nice campfire with “store-bought” firewood from Newhalem. This was a really hot fire, relaxing to sit outside in the now-quiet cmpgrd (the weekend is over, all the Scouts departed, all the working folks have returned to their jobs), poke at the fire and enjoy talking about the trip. “Hey, this was great, let’s do it again.”

And now for the hot shower — ahhhhhh. A great plan comes together, more than five years after its conception.

We found our permanent home!

22 Tuesday –
Yes, dear friends, Jim and Deb have found the perfect house, and it isn’t our Airstream. We have studied on this since we stumbled onto it on the web in May of this year. Clayton Homes has a very nice website on which we have spent a lot of time poring over this. We extensively played on-line with the options, comparing the different layouts and pondering, to Flex or not to Flex. And now we have a chance to see a built model.

The Tim Horton’s Restaurants TransCanada Tour completed, we were plotting our course south from Vancouver, B.C. It’s high time we returned to the States. We’ve been in Canada for what seems like all summer, although less than two months. And what if, while we were away, President Obama succeeded in enacting universal health care for us but we didn’t return in time to meet the registration requirements? Should we cross the border then head sharply east through the Cascades, or head down through Seattle then east toward our next destination near Boise?

Then Debbie said, “Isn’t one of the Clayton Company facilities in Seattle? Let’s find out if we can tour and look at this thing.” We arranged an appointment to tour the home the next week. The home is in Everett, Wa, and we found an attractive Washington State Park near Mt. Vernon, Wa. Jim’s goal was to keep us well north of Seattle. This is made simpler because there aren’t any state or national park campgrounds near Seattle. The commercial RV park we tried two years ago, Issiquah RV Park, might as well be situated in the median of I-5 for the highway proximity and traffic noise. Let’s stay in Bay View State Park and drive in one day to Everett for this tour.

We drove an hour to Everett to see the Clayton I-house at Heritage Homes. The model we found is, according to sales rep Vic, the second ever built. They cannily have this looker sited on the lot front — Vic told us, “Yes, we’re getting an amazing number of visits because of it. Two busloads of DOE people dropped in the other day and toured through it.” This is not a mobile home, although it is mobilized to deliver from a factory to your site. The difference? A mobile home is lighter weight, and simply more portable. This modular home is wider, at sixteen feet, and much heavier at 67,000 pounds. And it seems, although factory built, just as sturdy and solid as a stick-built — maybe even more so.

Jim built modular homes in the 70’s in Asheville, NC with a local homebuilder, David Tenpenny. Tenpenny’s company prepared a masonry foundation and traditional subfloor system, typical of any modern sticks and bricks house. The crane and truck would deliver and place factory-fabricated wall sections in the proper place on the floor. The Tenpenny work crew plumbed and squared the sections and nailed them quickly, watching for another section lifted by the crane. One day’s work would see a 1,800 sf house framed completely with all exterior and interior walls and roof trusses placed.

The factory-built wall sections were as well-built, or better, than field-built wall sections. Some of the modular manufacturers included extras like notching or boring the wall studs for electrical wiring to speed (and reduce cost of) the field work. The delivered wall sections arrived with sheathing and siding installed, minus the lacing-in pieces to be applied in the field. Tenpenny Company arranged electrical and plumbing rough-in, insulation, then sheetrock and all finish work. The finished result was just as solid as any stick-built house but raised and dried-in in weeks instead of months.

Okay, back to the I-house. This modular house is completely assembled and finished in the factory. It differs from the modular houses we built in the 70’s because it is built to be transported (once) on the road. The I-house isn’t just a “Wide Load”. This is apparently called a “Super Load” in the DOT permitting jargon, because it is sixteen feet wide and sixty-seven feet long. The model we viewed was built in eastern Oregon and had a rough journey to Everett. The trailer under the modular home suffered a broken axle and three flat tires in Yakima, Wa. They stopped and fixed the axle and tires although they had ten more axles and nineteen more tires still good on the ground.

What about the model we saw? We didn’t take pictures because it is staged identically to brochures. All the rooms, wherever you view an I-house model, are supposedly staged almost exactly as the on-line pictures and the print brochures. Clayton Co decided it knew how to market these homes and wanted the “just right” appearance matched in the models everywhere. No problem for us, the uniformity kept the touring surprise-free. The house and the Flex were everything we expected, which is a nice surprise.

We entered the living room through a french door flanked by two fixed french doors, all Andersen with Low-E double pane glass. The bamboo flooring is very attractive. We found simple and nicely arranged IKEA furniture consisting of a comfortable dark brown leather sofa, a coffee table, a not-so-comfortable orange reading chair, and a twelve feet long entertainment center. The living room, dining room and kitchen are open plan and so create one attractive room of almost fifteen feet by thirty feet. Clerestory windows are in the wall above the entertainment center. The opposite wall has two large double Andersen Low-E windows facing the living room.

Upscale IKEA casework and Energy-Star stainless steel GE appliances create an attractive and very functional kitchen. The kitchen has a lot of natural light from a large Andersen Low-E casement window facing into the kitchen and two small windows along the kitchen counter. The wall cabinets have translucent glass panels and might be really cool with a little LED lighting behind. An island sports a large counter, the double bowl sink and a lot of storage below. A huge pantry flanks the refrigerator, opposite the sink island.

A hall connects from the great room, past the bathroom, guest bedroom, and two hall closets to the master bedroom. The hall has natural lighting from three clerestory windows and another two clerestory windows are in the alcove entering the master bedroom. WOW! Great natural light. All the windows plus the french doors on the ends admit a lot of light. A good idea would be to visit this house on a really dark day to see how it feels in articial lighting.

The bathroom much larger than we thought it would be and has water-saving fixtures including a dual flush toilet. One of the hall closets conceals a Rheem tankless water heater, capable of two gallons per minute at a temperature rise of 90 degrees (F). This is plenty of hot water since supply water temperature is around 58 degrees. You would use the 148 degree water (58 + 90=148) mixed with some cold water so 2gpm of hot water is plenty. The roof is heavy duty steel, insulated from the house with R-30 to R-40 insulation (depending upon your locale). The entire roof area is designed to collect rainwater to the two outboard roof leaders for storage and later use on the garden or washing.

The walls are framed with 2X6 studs and the floors with 2X10 floor joists. The owner provides a continuous foundation for this pre-assembled modular home. We want either a crawl space or a garage under the I-house, depending upon the lot. If we extend the garage foundation by the lengths of the two decks (12′X16′ at each end of the house) we can put a long garage underneath. The garage could be a very cool feature — consider an eighty feet long by sixteen feet wide enclosed space under the house. This is long enough to provide pull-through parking for the Airstream and attached truck, with room left for parking our Honda Civic at an end. If we don’t have a sloped lot to provide daylight basement for the garage entrances then we build an interesting garage above-ground somewhere.

I-house also can have a “Flex” addition. The Flex is a 16′ X 16′ room with a partition hiding the lavatory and door to the toilet and tub. The Flex was the most cozy portion — is it because we are used to our little “flex” home? Perhaps, and Jim changed his mind about whether he wanted I-house only or both I-house and Flex. He liked the Flex so much. It adds a guest efficiency/bedroom, a second story deck, a “ham shack” for our radios, maybe an office. You access the second story deck via outdoor steps, and 15′ X 15′ deck is a great space. Overall, the I-house and Flex seem very chic, well-built, solid, comfortable, affordable, and ecologically sound.

An internet search turns up a lot of articles for the I-house. Many (most?) seem to be from the manufacturer’s press releases early 2009. Some of these articles have blog comments following. The comments vary widely between favorable impressions and sharply negative criticisms. The more we re-read the literature, the more our positive impressions are solidified. The wildy critical posts we read about the I-house seem so far off-base it is clear the writers did not see the house first-hand and also apparently did not read the available literature.

We stayed at Heritage Homes almost four hours, including a very quick look at several Marlette homes on the lot. Vic, the sales representative, is very knowledgeable about the I-House and hopeful to start generating sales on these neat homes. We hope so too. We want them, or a good successor, to be available when we’re ready. Big question remains, where? And, when? The Clayton I-house really looks like a sweet answer for future permanent residence for us, whenever that is.

Farewell, O Canada

Our longest time out of the States draws to a close. We finished this visit with Eleanor (well, and with her mommy and daddy) this evening and tomorrow morning head for Mt Vernon, Wa. We entered Canada from northwest Minnesota (bound for Winnipeg) six weeks ago. Our Canada exploration and discoveries have been interesting and fun.

Did you know Canada is larger than the States? Not in population (only 33 million), certainly not in GDP (hey, gdp isn’t as important anymore, just ask Sarkozy) but in land area Canada is second only to Russia, and a little larger than the States. So we have barely scratched the surface, visiting only four of the thirteen provinces and territories (we need to stop sometime and count the states we’ve visited). We hope we can have many more exploration opportunities in Canada.

The most interesting part for Jim has been tracing the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) from its crossing of the Red River to its Pacific terminus in what the CPR General Manager in 1886 decided should be called Vancouver, named after the early European discoverer. Along the way Jim greatly enjoyed reading a book about CPR by Pierre Berton called The Last Spike. The CPR created a backbone for Canada’s western expansion and was instrumental in a variety of interesting social, political, and business developments.

Debbie’s favorite parts have been the Rockies, the gorgeous scenery and the time with Eleanor & Kelsey & Stephen. We’ve had Eleanor full-time this weekend and she has been a joy. She gets us to spend more time at playgrounds and parks than we would otherwise, and we play camping too.

We’ve both enjoyed looking for wifi at Tim Horton’s Restaurants across Canada. There is one more we’ll try before we quit Canada, the one in Aldergrove just above the border crossing at Lynden, Wa. The search may be fruitless but it is a lot of fun. We’d collect photos of our Tim Horton’s Restaurant visits but they all look almost identical. And the pastries and coffee are equally good at all of them.

We’ll stay a couple of nights in Mt Vernon then eastward to cross the Cascades and south to Coeur d’Alene and Boise. We’ll stay near Boise a week then attend the Sun Valley Jazz Festival before we head for Mesa, AZ for November. We’re looking fwd to Thanksgiving with Jim’s brother in Scottsdale before we turn east for the cross-country cruise to Charlotte for Christmas.

Check out our website if you haven’t recently — and check back here, we’re soon going to feature a recent analysis we did of another RV, a self-contained and self-powered class-C with four beds and more storage.

Jim and Debbie
–
locate us here: http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?n5rtg-9
visit our blog: http://dreamstreamr.wordpress.com
visit our website: http://dreamstreamr.com

Jim and Debbie
locate us here: http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?n5rtg-9
visit our website: http://dreamstreamr.com

Making the grade

Cayoosh Creek is far below

On how steep a grade do you tow your trailer? We found our new high last week. Last week’s drive was one of the most beautiful and certainly the most harrowing we’ve experienced. Almost the entire distance from Kamloops to Pemberton the views were just absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. Half the distance had excellent roads. The other half were the worst paved roads we’ve ever traveled, bar none.

Our route from Kamloops was Highway #1 to Cache Creek, then a short stretch north on #97 north to pick up #99 south toward Whistler. The bulk of #99 was narrow and without shoulder, and in countless places suddenly the road surface would be like a twenty feet long pothole, causing the truck and trailer to pitch up and down wretchedly. We were sure all the hangers would be off the closet rods and one or more roof lockers might be lying on the floor. But no damage whatsoever!

Highway #99 (if we should call this stretch highway) has at least a half-dozen one lane bridges over Cayoosh Creek, Gott Creek, and others. A few of these we found with new bridges under construction. We stopped for fifteen or twenty minutes while the flagmen decide whether northbound or southbound will have the route next.

The most challenging aspect of the drive was the steep grades. Our trip mapping program (by Trailer Life) highlights every section which has more than a 6 percent grade. Steeper than this can be a little challenging for some tow vehicles or motorhomes, you probably know. And how about ten percent, eleven percent, and fifteen percent? Yeah, really 15% grades. We didn’t know highways have these — or how we would manage. It was fine towing downhill in second and first gear, the engine provided almost all the braking we needed.

Amazing how CPR carved a railroad through

A couple of places we stopped for the view, it was just too great. Tremendously steep deep gorges, and peaks rising straight up above us. We were glad for the stops too. You know, grab some more cookies out of the pantry or maybe visit the washroom in the RV. A young couple on big motorcycles stopped at this outlook while we were there. They asked if we would snap their picture. So they returned the favor for us. We played tag with them the remainder of the trip to Pemberton.

Our destination was to have been Alice Lake, near Squamish south of Whistler. We had a little less than two hours remaining when we decided we just didn’t need to go so far. We had passed ourselves several times in the switchbacks and half feared the trailer would bypass us on a couple of the grades. We pulled into Nairn Falls Provincial Park near Pemberton. It is another very nice provincial park, if a little close to the highway.

The sites are large, nicely graded, and covered with fine crushed gravel like the sites at Paul Lake. The natural growth is much thicker here because the annual precipitation is double or triple that of the Kamloops area. So the sites have a little more privacy but it hardly matters at all — the peak occupancy is past. School started for September, the long weekend is over, and even the Europeans are probably flying home by now.

We didn’t know we would have so much “fun” driving . The views and landscape were worth it, maybe. But in retrospect, maybe it would have been more enjoyable and easier on the transmission and brakes to have driven Highway #1 the entire route through Vancouver. We could have gone up to Whistler another time, and the highway from Vancouver to Whistler is perfect, thanks to hosting Winter Olympics 2010.

We made the grades up and down, thanks to great engine, transmission and brakes. Next time we see a 15% grade warning we know a little of what to expect. Oh yeah, we won’t try this in freezing weather. And we would drive this route again, but perhaps at a lower speed than the posted 60 km/hr maximum to dampen the bumps a little.

A word about Vancouver’s drivers

Another smooth merge

Vancouverites might be the most polite drivers in North America. We think they are and we have a lot of basis. We’ve driven this year in or through most big cities between Orlando, Florida and St Paul, Minnesota, and all four cities between Winnipeg, MB, and Vancouver, BC. The past two years, addiitonally, have found us touring cities and towns of all sizes in most of the midwest and western and southern states. We’ve met, or been passed by, a lot of drivers in hundreds of communities in two years.

And none have been as courteous as the drivers in Vancouver, B.C. The courtesy extends to pedestrians and buses. This mayn’t seem much a courtesy since it is required by law to yield the crosswalk to pedestrians and the lane to buses. But it is likewise a law in almost all states to yield to pedestrians entering a crosswalk — and it just doesn’t work out so well in the states, for pedestrians.

We each day drive from West Vancouver over the Lions Gate Bridge. Traffic in Vancouver being so full, we figured to wait it out each day and leave after ten or eleven o’clock in the morning for Kelsey’s house. You know, we can wait out rush hour and cruise right through town. It’s not so easy in this large a city. Remember, there are over two million people in greater Vancouver. The Lions Gate Bridge is only one or two lanes into town (all three lanes are convertible for either direction). Three double-lane roads lead to the north entrance to the bridge, heading toward town. How can all these lanes successfully merge without wrecks occurring all day long?

This is the amazing part. Kelsey and Stephen call it zippering because the cars come together at the merge like teeth of a zipper. Almost without exception, at each of the three merges at the north end, the cars smoothly and almost mechanically fall into place into the single lane. It’s fascinating to watch, largely because it seems so unlikely. You don’t see competition for pole position, you don’t hear horns blaring or tires squealing and exhausts roaring.

The cars approach the merge slowly and, in lockstep, fall in place one from first lane, one from second lane, one from first lane, one from second lane, over and over. You can look ahead, if you feel a need, and count the cars ahead in each lane. You know with some certainty which car you will fall in behind. No collisions, no cars stranded out on the right side wishing they could merge. Amazing!

This is almost as good. We are stunned at the immediate allowance other drivers provide us when we display our turn signal to change lanes. The cars unhesitatingly let us into the next lane, slowing for us. The reaction we half expect, by conditioning, is the cars behind us to speed up and take the space we are requesting (or even hinting at) but not in Vancouver. Drivers in Vancouver unfailingly let us into their lane.

An observation, from driving home last night, is the size of the other vehicles. We’re not suggesting this relates to their yielding to us, but all the cars about us as we cross downtown Vancouver are sub-compacts, less than 1/3 our truck’s gross weight. We were fairly surrounded last night, as we drove home, by Yaris, Echo, Fit, Mini, and other very small cars. Any of these would fit in our truck bed if the bed was empty. We see a few pickup trucks, but very few. The vast majority of cars around Vancouver are small or smaller.

We were startled and completely unknowing, two or three years ago, why some traffic lights flash green and others stay solid green. Kelsey explained it to us in short order. This is very important to driving in Vancouver. Flashing green traffic lights are pedestrian-controlled. A car approaching the main street will encounter a stop sign and will not have a traffic light. The cars on the main street will see the flashing green light, or a yellow or red solid light. The pedestrian, wanting to cross the main street, pushes the walk button and the light relatively soon turns red for the main street to allow pedestrians to cross.

Pedestrians get a nice break from cars even without the traffic lights or crosswalks. We were in Chinatown a few days ago and heard a horn blaring as a car careened through an intersection. The car had turned right from the main road and almost intercepted a couple of people stepping into the crosswalk. People looking on acted horrified, the walking couple was very startled, and the driver was almost certainly not “from around here”. We don’t think any Vancouverite would have plowed through a crosswalk ignoring pedestrians.

Finally, here’s a plug for the bike routes. Vancouver has invested a lot of planning and money in creating bike-friendly and bike-only streets throughout the city. I rode Kelsey’s bicycle twenty blocks from the Community Centre on 16th at Ontario St to East 24th at Windsor St. The bike route has roundabouts at many intersections and pedestrian/biker-controlled signals at the few major intersections. The result was a quieter and safer ride home in a bustling city full of automobile traffic.

There are exceptions to every rule, and no absolutes. Our experience with Vancouver traffic, though, has been wonderful. And we appreciate it greatly.

Vancouver walking

It may not always be perfect, but Vancouver has really nice weather this week. We arrived Wednesday after another rainy driving day through Whistler. And like last year we find this a super place to visit. It takes a couple of days to get used to driving in this huge city (metro Vancouver 2006 census was 2.2 million). We drive across the city’s center every day and return late evening from Kelsey’s and Stephen’s house.

Touring Van Dusen Gardens

We walk a lot here. Yesterday we walked the Van Dusen Garden for hours. The day was wonderful for this and the two brides having evening weddings in the Garden were fortunate for the weather. The garden was sited 35 years ago upon the former golf course grounds of Shaughnessy Heights Golf Club, and the Golf Club moved west. The Van Dusen Garden is a delight and we all enjoyed the afternoon.

High rise residences and offices

View of bay from Robson St

Today we walked from Dusnmuir Street, in front of BC Hydro headquarters over to Robson St then northwest along Robson Street almost to Stanley Park. This is such a big city, chock full of high rise residence buildings and office buildings. Here and there you can catch a glimpse of the bay, or you look up and see nothing but tall buildings reaching up to the sky.

Enjoying Capers Organic Food Fair

We might have walked longer but encountered the Organic Food Fair at the West End Capers Store at Robson St and Nicola. Great food odors had weakened us all along Robson, as we walked past Greek, Mexican, Italian, Viet, Chinese, Japanese, and other nationalities restaurants. When we stumbled upon the Organic Food Fair we found samples of yogurts, fruit and nut bars, organic corn chips, matcha tea, and vegetables. And for one loony each (a Canadian dollar) we purchased huge ears of cooked corn. This took care of lunch and used up some of our walking time.

We hustled fifteen blocks back up the hill to our truck to find our parking meter out of time. A nice drive through Strathcona neighborhood skirted downtown and back home to Kelsey’s and Stephen’s house. Everyone settled down for quiet time to read, nap, or write a little. Debbie was first to spring alive and cooked us supper, a wonderful shrimp and grits recipe she has enjoyed cooking many years.

Camp des loups or Tk’emlups; it’s Kamloops to us

Sep 7 2009
We departed yesterday from Canyon Springs between Revelstoke and Glacier National Parks, B.C. Overcast skies, temperatures started out 9 C (48 F). A short drive to city of Revelstoke, stopped for gas and Tim Horton’s coffee and muffins. And caught an ark full of rain the entire gas stop. Boy do they ever need rain around here. Media have announced continued forest fires this side of our day’s destination, Kamloops. We hope the firefighters have the blessing of rain there too.

CPRs Last Spike

Next we enjoyed an impromptu stop at Craigellachie. We won’t offer a pronounciation — we’ve been offered two already. Significantly though, this is the site of the pounding of the last spike joining CPRs 2,000 mile transcontinental railway November 7, 1885. There is a monument, a view of the current version of the last spike valiantly trying to stay in the tie (you know someone must have made off with the first dozen or more), a little shop, and flush toilets.

The latter we have begun to appreciate more as the BC Provincial Parks have been lacking only in this. Although we have a flush toilet in the RV, we are in the midst of a dry camping six day run. No dumping, no taking on water. We have done up to four or maybe five days, but not six. So we’re using theirs, not ours. Do you know what will go first, fresh, rinse, or black water tanks? We’ll bring this up again in a couple of days.

Our driving weather was clear the remainder of the morning and warmed nicely to almost 18 C (64 F). We found Kamloops alongside the CPR rail line, right smack on Highway #1, and turned north then back east 20 km (12 mi) to Paul Lake Provincial Park. British Columbia did a fine job building up sites on loops terraced up the steep hillside. The roads are terraced, the sites are perched above and below the road for each loop. Each site is nearly level, well-drained, and only a little tight to back into.

near-desert Kamloops area

Kamloops is an interesting place in Thompson Valley west of the Rockies. The area was long inhabited by the Secwepemc (Shuswap) Indians and invaded in the early 1800s by trappers and fur trading companies. Currently Kamloops is a transportation hub and home to several large industries including pulp, veneer, and plywood, cement, mining, and Thompson Rivers University. The University has ten thousand students and is the largest employer in Kamloops. But the area is semi-arid, and apparently receives less than .3 meters or 12 inches rainfall annually. So lots of sagebrush, cacti, and rattlesnakes, things we didn’t expect in supernatural British Columbia.

Lees-ure Lite Excel tent trailer

This morning, as we prepared for a day trip to Kamloops a tiny Lees-ure Lite Excel trailer pulled by a Mazda Matrix pulled in and parked just around the hill from us. Not just little, it is tiny. The total weight is 470 pounds, the tongue weight is 23 pounds. Our RV weighs almost 7,000 pounds and the tongue weight is 1,000 pounds. On the other hand, we have 180 sf, they have 38 sf.

They walked over and spoke, we learned he is an active ham in Kamloops. VE7ODS, Dave Sutherland, and Marg from Kamloops pull the little tent trailer. They drive up to Paul Lake PP to escape the heat — Paul Lake is 5 C (9 F) degrees cooler in the summer than Kamloops. We invited them to join us to chat after supper this evening, then we left for town.

The First Nations museum was closed — Labour Day holiday? — so we drove around Kamloops briefly then parked to walk about. The only things we found open were the coffee shops, drug stores, and groceries. Perfect! Our three priorities for today.

While Debbie shopped groceries, Jim caught up on email and updated our websitea little. Back to the RV, repackaging food for storage and fit into our compartments.

Dave and Marg visited a little while after dinner and entertained us with stories of how Dave came to Canada from Scotland, his call to the pulpit, their meeting each other, and traveling together with various modes of RV and tent. We enjoyed getting to know each other and will look forward to hearing from them again soon.

We played Rummikub until midnight, Debbie adding another victorious night to her scorecard against Jim. Poor Jim. But he does keep going back for another drubbing, so he deserves it.

Tomorrow morning we drive to Squamish, between Whistler and Vancouver, to Alice Lake Provinical Park. See you there!

Glacier NP (Canada) redux

Sep 5 2009 Saturday
Our first visit to Canada’s beautiful Glacier National Park was thwarted by Mother Nature’s tempestuous (90km/hr!) blasts two days ago. We evacuated to a private campground, Canyon Springs approximately 30km (19 mi) to the east when Parks Canada closed all three National Park campgrounds in Glacier. So we took another visit to the beleagured area, both to view the damage and to enjoy some of the fine attractions.

Old growth red cedars

Yesterday we walked Giant Cedars Boardwalk, a short tour through an old growth rain forest. Tried to walk Hemlocks Boardwalk and Skunk Cabbage Trail. Both closed by windblown trees yesterday, but we heard they opened again this morning. This is a beautiful area with a lot to do.

windblown trees block some trails in BCs Glacier NP

Today we returned to Illecillewaet Campground to find the windblown trees still strewn about the entire campground and all loops still closed. Most of the trails are open, attesting to a great amount of effective work by Parks Canada crews. The crews started during the storm Thursday, as soon as the worst gusts passed but while the rain was still pouring down. Their emphasis apparently was to reopen the trails, and they largely succeeded. We parked and hiked above the campground.

Little remaining of Glacier House hotel

The trails all start near the Glacier Hotel ruins. This hotel, according to the plaque descriptions, was one of the grandest in “the West” at the turn of the century. But CPR vastly underestimated the dangerous challenges of maintaining the 1885 rail line. The rail line was too exposed to avalanches, rockslides, and treefalls, and 62 company men lost their lives trying to reopen the blocked rail lines the first 25 winters.

A terrible tragedy occurred in 1910 as CPR’s workers were trying to clear the tracks from an avalanche. A second avalanche covered them, killing almost all the workers and crew members. CPR almost immediately started creating a new tunnel and rail line route to avoid the most dangerous sections of this passage through the Selkirk Mtns. And in 1916 CPR abandoned the 1885 rail lines, effectively isolating their own great Glacier House hotel.

The hotel struggled on for ten years without convenience of direct rail service before CPR finally closed it in 1925 and eventually, in 1929, demolished the hotel. It appears people have scavenged everything portable from the burnt ruins in the past 80 years, except the concrete piers, a couple of bathtubs and two boiler firetube sections. But it is easy to imagine this hotel in 1900 offering unequaled comfort amidst great natural beauty. And the guests had many activities to choose from.

Once part of CPRs thrust through Selkirks range

CPR retained Swiss hiking and climbing guides to accompany and assist guests on the many trails and mountain climbing opportunities. Glacier House became “the” North American mountaineering destination with its many unexplored peaks and new trails. CPR capitalized on the attraction with aggressive marketing campaigns to attract guests interested in tea and croquet on the lawn or arduous peak-bagging and glacier expeditions.

1911 Stone trestles only reminder of long ago rail path

We walked past the hotel ruins along the former rail bed of the 1885 line. This is a nicely maintained 4 km (2.5 mi) trail to the Loop Brook trestles, a set of tall and stark stone trestles with 26.5 meter (86 ft) spans between them to bridge the small gorge. Now the trestles are a reminder of the bold work CPR completed for the cross-Canada rail contract.

Recreation of old snow sheds protecting rail line

After our hike we drove a short distance east on #1 to the Rogers Pass Discovery Centre. Parks Canada provides a nice museum, two small theatres, a gift shop, and a backwoods trail registration desk. We gained the most information we’ve found yet on grizzlies and black bears avoidance and response manuevers for hikers and campers. And we found a very nice book on CPR’s railway development west from Winnipeg to Vancouver. We’ll talk about the book again later.

A good day of touring in Glacier NP (Canada), and now home for the night. Tomorrow we take off for Kamloops, to Paul Lake Prov Park. See you there!

Have you visited our website at http://dreamstreamr.com?

Blown out of Glacier NP

Sep 4 2009 Friday
Thoughts of staying extra days in beautiful Yoho NP rolled away yesterday as we headed west on TransCanada Highway #1. We’ll find another gorgeeous campground down the road. It has worked so far, right? We headed for Glacier National Park, with several campgrounds. We won’t find electricity, water, or sewer connections. And that’s okay. We will, if our luck holds out, find a campsite large enough for our not so large rv trailer. And if we can get good sunlight for more than one-half of the day, our solar panels will keep our batteries happy.

Warm sunny morning in Glacier NP

We pulled into Illecillewaet (“rushing water”) Campground at 11:30 hrs local time. A campground with good sun, close to the river, and just the right length for our truck and trailer suited us. The park ranger suggested we not pay for five days up front because the weather was not going to be good and he could not process refunds if we changed our minds. We committed for three days instead, and thought we could renew later.

It took only a little while for us to set up camp. Jim decided to locate the generator under the shelter of the trailer’s back bumper, connect it to the trailer, and charge our batteries since the day is so cloudy. We put out our green “rug” to help keep the trailer clean. “Alice the aloe” found a nice partial shade spot on the picnic table, far better to her than the bowels of the truck bed. Deb fixed us a sandwich and a cup of tea and we planned our after-lunch hike.

We noticed other people around us starting out for their hikes, a couple at a time. One couple, a German couple in a CanaDream rental across from us, left and returned within several minutes to don their hats with sunvisors and return to their hike. Okay, we’ve picked one from the excellent set of hikes, we’re ready to start getting our boots on. “Oh look at the fog rolling in over there, and it’s starting to rain! Let’s sit for a few more minutes and see if this will just go away.”

Wind whips the trees up ferociously

Five minutes more and the wind flips our campsite rug upside down and throws it toward the campground road. Alice Aloe is turned over by the wind. Our doormat similarly launches, but in the opposite direction. Jim runs out and rescues Alice Aloe first, putting her under the trailer, then balls up the rug and stuffs it under the picnic table. The wind is picking up fiercely, jetting into the many trees around us, it is raining, and scads of little hemlock needles are blowing into the trailer’s door each time Jim opens it.

Tree crashed down upon this picnic table

We start hearing thundering noises. But wait! Those are tall hemlock tree cracking in half and hitting the ground around us. Look there, beside the CanaDream! A 38 cm (15 inch) diameter hemlock tree broke four feet above the ground and landed squarely along the top of the picnic table. Trees just up the hill, 60 meters (200 feet) from us, are turning over and crashing to the ground with loud booms.

Trees broken above the campground

And what about these three tall hemlocks just 15 meters (50 feet) from us, waving wildly, bowing and dipping, and curving toward our trailer and truck? Jim said to Deb, “The strongest structure inside the trailer is between the refrigerator, the pantry, and the vanity, where all the casework will stand up even if a tree lands on top of our trailer. Don’t be in the way if I see a tree coming and dive headlong from the living room to the bedroom floor.” We thought it pretty likely we would get smacked by something airborne.

A small limb flew onto the roof of the truck, knocking down the magnetically-mounted CB antenna, and landed on the windshield with a lot of lichen and bark debris. The dancing trees nearby held, well if not firmly, safely for now. The rain let up after a long half-hour. And we saw hikers returning, snapping pictures as they walk by of the broken tree atop the picnic table. But where is the German couple from the CanaDream across from us?

They were the last to leave and would have been caught on the trail in the worst part of the storm. Would they pick a particularly large trunk tree to cower under, hoping it held fast? What if another tree fell against it and slid right down the trunk to their hiding place? Would they perhaps find a hikers shelter, sturdy enough to withstand falling behemoths? “If they aren’t back by 3:30, I’m going to notify the park rangers”, Jim said.

The rain halted almost entirely so we gratefully deplaned our little aircraft. I mean, we stepped out of the rv and stared at the huge tree just across the driveway, covering the picnic table and extending forever beyond it. Other people appeared in the driveway, a couple from the States, from Washington, and here are the two from Germany. They are shaking, not from the cold, they are shaking with relief.

When the storm blew up so quickly, they found their way immediately to the ruins of The Glacier House. The Glacier House was, at the turn of the century, one of the grandest Canadian Pacific Railway hotels on the line. The CPR tracks route changed, and the abandoned hotel became nothing but ruins. And this German couple was so grateful parts of the building withstood the century of entropy. They were able to huddle under the shelter until the storm passed, but afraid any falling tree could collapse their meager shelter.

Illecillewaet Campground is devastated

National Park trail crews from nearby had started clearing the campground’s driveways with chainsaws and a front-end loader before the rain stopped. But clearing the trails may take days. The German couple picked their way slowly down the hiking trail, climbing over or scooting under downed trees across the trail. And they safely returned to the campground, shaken and in disbelief at what just happened. The afternoon was sunny and warm, and suddenly raining, gusting, and the temperature had plummeted by 11C (20F).

How’s this for their travel story to the Canadian Rockies? The experience of a lifetime, eh? Shortly, NP rangers walk through the campground and tell everyone it is time to leave. Glacier Park is closing all three campgrounds and no one is allowed to stay. “Where will we go? We’re from the States, we can’t just go home.” “There are National Park campgrounds in Revelstoke, 110 km (70 mi) west of here. Or Canyon Springs is a private campground only thirty km (19 mi)from here. And we’ll have this place open again as early as tomorrow. You can call and find out, if you want.” We packed up as rapidly as we could and pulled back onto the highway after 1600 hrs local time.

We have, all summer, arrived at every destination campground as early as 1030 hours and by not later than 1400 hrs. And here we are starting out (for the second time today) after 1630 hours. How is this going to work out? The campgrounds are likely to be swamped with other National Park refugees, like we are. There’ll be no spaces left, we will set up in overflow somewhere.

We crossed into the Pacific Time Zone, affording us another hour of daylight. We pulled into Canyon Springs to find all the driveways barricaded because of downed power lines in this private campground. So we turned into the DO NOT ENTER driveway and made our way to the campground office. For eight dollars more per night we are staying a few nights in a private campground with mineral springs ($$), a pool ($), a sort of a restaurant, a store, hot showers ($1=3 minutes) , laundry (expensive), and free wifi. Not so bad. And we are still within striking distance of the Glacier National Park attractions we want to visit.

A peaceful site again

Hopefully we will enjoy a stay another time in Illecillewaet Campground. It is a jewel tucked into the valley in Glacier National Park. The river rushing by the campground is delightful and blanks out highway or railway noise, if there is any. We couldn’t tell. We’ll look forward to another stay sometime.

Blown away by Yoho National Park

Sep 1 Tuesday

picture of old upturned steam locomotive

We awoke to another warm morning, 14C (57F) and partly cloudy skies. We hiked through the campground to a guided trail workers used to get to work each morning 125 years ago. The trail was a 2+ km (1.2 mi) tote road up which the hundreds of railroad workers walked each morning and evening. The trail was informative and interesting, and ended at the upturned narrow gauge 1885 Baldwin steam engine and its tender car. We were disappointed Canadian Pacific Railway didn’t think to upright and restore these two. They were one of two sets used in blasting the two spiral tunnels. The other engine was sold and this one was abandoned in place.

Picture of 125 year old earthen bake oven

We returned to the campground and stumbled onto this cool (and slightly better preserved) relic, a bake oven from 1884-1885, when Kicking Horse Campground was the first railway work camp in the valley. Can you imagine bread baked in this? While there were certainly more elegant baking ovens in the east by 1884, we think the bread from this one would have tasted at least as good to the railway workers.

picture of aquamarine colored Emerald Lake

Debbie packed a picnic lunch and we drove to Emerald Lake for a picnic. Parking was no problem, despite many cars and CruiseAmerica class-C’s in the parking lot. We walked 100 meters (325 ft) from the truck to a lakeside picnic table in partial shade. We returned our picnic supplies to the truck and started a short walk up into the Emerald Lake Resort and Conference Ctr, a set of wood framed and sided buildings tucked into the trees above the lake. Before we knew it, we had walked 5.2 kilometers (3.2 mi) around the lake. Yoho National Park has placed informative signs at 1 km spacing to describe the formation of the lake by glaciers, and the changes to the forest and lake over time.

Beside our truck were two couples trying to perform a battery transplant on their rental class-c motorhome. The truck battery (supposed to start the engine) had apparently died, so they were going to switch the battery from the coach to start with. Jim offered to help them with our jumper cables. They recognized the cables but spoke almost zero English. They are from the Czech Republic. They started their rental motorhome without problem and we headed down the road. The number of people we’ve met on this trans-Canada tour with non-English or limited-English speaking has surprised us. We have met people from Czech Republic, Germany, Quebec. And then the couple from Scotland who spoke English (or is that Scottish?).

picture of tunnel carved by river's forces

We stopped to see Natural Bridge on the return trip to our campground. This is an interesting rock formation where the river has carved a tunnel through the rock. The carving is caused by abrasion from the large amount of limestone in the Kicking Horse River water, combined with sand and gravel carried by the rushing water. Previously most of the river water would cascade over the top of this large rock formation. A small lower hole through which some of the water would seep gradually became carved out, larger and larger, until most of the river flows through the hole. Only at peak flows does the water flow over the top also.

Aug 31 Monday
Happy Birthday, Deb! Last night was our warmest in over a week, with the outside low temperature around 9 or 10C (50F). Jim awoke first to get Debbie’s presents and card out and make a pot of green tea. He tried boiling water in the kettle on the Primus stove outside and, after fiddling with it, taking apart a valve and replacing an o-ring, got it working very well.

Jim is seriously out of practice doing much of anything more than boiling water or heating soup. Today is a time for change, if only for a day. Deb supervised Jim’s making breakfast, Debbie-style. Jim wouldn’t let Deb lift a finger but she was allowed to make suggestions if she wanted. And her direction was useful and appreciated. Result? A bacon, grits, and eggs breakfast with orange juice and hot tea. Deb opened her presents and card after breakfast and Jim washed and put away the dishes. Then we were off to Takakkaw Falls and other sites.

Switchbacks are common enough in the Appalachian Mtns, and we have driven more than a few in the North Carolina sections. Maybe we’re out of practice? Jim missed the first one today, and reversed the truck and turned more sharply to negotiate this one. Okay, the drive up to Takakkaw Falls is a nice climb — almost 1,000 feet above our campsite. A loud roaring noise greeted us as we approached the Falls.

picture of wonderful waterfall

The Takakkaw Falls are 254 meters (825 feet) tall and astounding. An ice field refeeds the Daly Glacier, above the Falls. The glacial melt seasonally feeds the Falls in a crashing stream of water. The water falls 50 or 60 meters and hits a large pocket in the rock, exploding outward toward us and down. The cascade from the obstruction looks like it has been through an atomizing, or water-saving, shower head. We stood over fifty meters from the base and were sprinkled continuously by its mists.

The Yoho spiral tunnels are an unequalled railway accomplishment in all of Canada. Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) was, in the late 1870s, hurrying to complete the transcontinental railway to the Pacific. The Canadian Rockies presented a particular obstacle, and no low pass recommended itself. Lower passes were available but, no doubt for political reasons, CPR selected the Kicking Horse Pass for the crossing of the Rockies. Helpful too is the alignment of Kicking Horse Pass with Rogers Pass further to the West.

CPR commenced to run the track right down the grade along the sides of the big mountains. The Big Hill, as the grade became known for at least the first twenty-five years, immediately proved deadly. The first train to hurtle down the newly installed track left the tracks and plunged into the creek at the bottom. All three on-board crew members died in the crash. CPR for twenty-five years operated the 4.5% grade (four times the continental average) as a temporary measure, with emergency spurs located strategically along the downward path.

picture of entrances to spiral tunnel in mountain

The grade is so steep the company maintained thirty-nine employees in nearby Field, B.C., to operate the special pusher engines to augment the train’s normal steam locomotives to help the trains up the grade. Heavy dining cars were not taken up the grade, so CPR built dining inns at the other side of the top of the pass for its passesngers. These inns became destinations in their own right, surviving the eventual dining cars arriving on the scene. CPR finally, in 1903, started designing a pair of 3/4 turn spiral tunnels carved entirely inside two adjacent mountains along the grade. Each of the spirals, each one kilometer (.62 miles) long, raises the track by 16 meters (51 feet).

CPR and the Parks created a viewpoint along the Trans-Canada Highway #1 west of Kicking Horse Pass. Nice displays explain the problem, the solution, and the terrible costs endured. The blasting required 75 train carloads of explosive, 1,000 workers, and twenty months to complete. Sadly the dangerous work conditions and processes killed one worker each week. The tunnels opened 100 years ago and solved the grade problems by lengthening the climb by two kilometers (1.25 miles) and reducing the steepness of the grade. This allowed dining cars to be pulled up and trains to safely negotiate the downhill grade with greatly diminished runaway train dangers.

Field, B.C., exists only in support of CPR and the National Parks. And it is tiny. There might be one hundred houses in Field. There are, among the houses, eleven privately owned and operated bed and breakfasts. Almost every house sports a sizable stock of cut, split, dried, and stacked stovewood. And firewood piles are still being worked up today while we visited. The area does not look like it would be entirely hospitable in mid-winter. A bright spot, though, greets one as they enter the hamlet up the hill from the railroad crossing. The Park Superintendent’s house, built by the National Parks in 1920, looks pristine and imposing.

picture of Yoho Natl Pk Suptdt's house

The National Parks wanted to establish the Park Superintendent’s authority and visibility through the trappings of his quarters. The premise, according to the plaque in front of the house, was the Superintendent was dealing with mining and railway representatives. The finest house in the village would help establish the importance of the Park Superintendent. The Parks also designed the Superintendent’s house as a prototype for park architecture. The design appears to have worked, as the house looks like it has weathered ninety winters perfectly and may last another ninety if it is maintained as it has been so far.

Aug 30 Sunday
The first thing you notice is the roaring noise of Kicking Horse River, chock full of glacial melt from a warm couple of days. Then we noticed we hear nothing except the river. Well, almost nothing. There is a diesel Silverado in the next campsite and we can hear when he starts his engine. And we can hear the trains a kilometer away on the other side of this valley, as they labor up the grade to the spiral tunnels. None of the whisking by, whistles a’blowing, for these work trains. These are chugging, huge diesel engines growling their bass voices, as they pull their great loads up the grade.

picture of Kicking Horse River

The river is not peaking but even in our first few hours in the Kicking Horse Campground in Yoho National Park we notice the water level rose at least half a foot. Deb walked down soon after we arrived and stepped onto a rock in the river so she could get a picture. The water showed the expected glacial blue color. We walked to the river together an hour later and the rock was completely covered. And the water has become milky white, apparently carrying an increased amount of glacially-ground stone dust.

Our campsite is only twenty meters from the river’s edge and several meters above it. Our back window admits the river’s noise just as vividly as any of the windows admit daylight. Today is comfortably warm, almost 27C (80F). Kicking Horse Campground offers sites in shade or in sun. We have a mostly sunny site and can easily move our chairs in or out of the sunlight. Fortunately our solar panels catch adequate sunlight because no electrical service is available in the campground’s sites.

picture of woodstove in shelter

The campground has at least six dining shelters, and they each have a pair of electric light bulbs in keyless (unswitched) sockets. The dining shelters have wood stoves in them as well. The stoves are vented through the roof and firewood is free, so cooking for a group, small or large, would be easy to do. We thought the illuminated (and heated, after a fashion) shelters would be a great blessing for tent campers, particularly in wet weather.

The lights stay on at all times, as do the lights in the several washrooms. We’ve heard these, probably with some water pumps, jointly contribute just enough load to keep the diesel generator working well. This is the second place this summer we’ve noticed a service area not served by the electrical grid. Funny to reflect on, how often do you visit places not at all served with electricity in the states?

Hydroelectric generation would be a breeze here part of the year — the unfrozen part. But the electrical demand is probably small. What are a couple of dozen light bulbs, a few pumps, and a small office going to require, eight or ten kilowatts at peak? The park instead uses a mobile diesel-driven generator tucked in a corner of the campground. Do you think we hear the generator from our campsite, with the Kicking Horse River roaring nearby?

A walk around the campground reveals no other Airstreams, several 30-35 feet long motorhomes, a few tent trailers, a half-dozen B-vans (conversion vans), a dozen or more tents, and over a dozen CanaDream or CruiseAmerica rental class-C campers. We’ve noted before, I think, the rental units very frequently carry Europeans who have flown into Vancouver and are spending four to six weeks traveling western Canada. We bump into them constantly in the Canadian Rockies. Have you encountered them in the states? Almost certainly at Grand Canyon and Pikes Peak.

picture of our site in Yoho

This is one of the prettiest campgrounds we’ve visited. The sites are separated by wildflowers, low shrubs, and up to 30 meters distance. A nice stand of hardwoods and evergreens screens the camping loops from one another and provides partial shade. The campground driveways are paved. The washrooms and showers are very clean, if only a little rustic. The tent sites are wonderful, tucked in amongst large trees and near a nice creek, Monarch Creek.

Nearby is another Yoho campground named Monarch. It is a flat spot of grass and bushes with dirt driveways, visible from Highway 1, beside the road to Takakkaw Falls. Monarch is incredibly dusty, very exposed to the highway traffic noises, and just not appealing except for the $17/night price. Luckily we decided to look further up the Takkakaw Falls road and found this beautiful spot, Kicking Horse Campground. Let’s stay awhile, okay?

Happy Birthday to Debbie!

August 31 Monday

picture of Debbie beside Lake Moraine

Today is Debbie’s birthday. We are probably celebrating her birthday in Yoho National Park, British Columbia.

Jim posted this ahead of time for automatic release today because we expect we may be without internet connections for the week and possibly longer.

We’ll have presents for Debbie and celebrate with brownies and ice cream. She’ll receive her birthday cards through our mail forwarding address (Livingston, TX) when we arrive at Kelsey’s in Vancouver in two weeks.

Meeting Martin and Magalie

August 29 Saturday
Jim climbed up and washed off the solar panels and skylight yesterday, and checked connections on the rooftop hf antenna. He puttered around awhile with stuff in the back of the truck. While we were reading outside enjoying the beautiful day, a big yellow Bluebird school bus pulled into the site beside us. From within spill out five folks from Quebec, and only one of them speaks English well. The one who speaks the best English had been hitchhiking and the good folks in the Bluebird, Martin and Magalie, gave him a ride in.

The hitchhiker donned his pack and walked over to the tent campground. Martin showed us his turbo hose had blown off while they were pulling a hill yesterday. The noise was like an explosion so they thought they had popped a tire. Jim offered him two large radiator hose clamps from our parts box to try and make the repair. An hour later Martin and Magalie walk over with a bottle of vin blanc, from a fine wine region in south Quebec, to thank us for helping them with their diesel engine’s hose.

picture of Bluebird bus camper

They also want to show us their rolling home. They paid $2,000 for it and spent another several thousand converting it to their camper. It has four bunks, space in the rear for a queen-size bed (they currently use the space for clothes and gear storage), a nice kitchen and dinette, two sofas, a six cf fridge, and a bathtub under one of the dinette benches. Martin installed a floating wood floor throughout, and it looks really nice. The bus is approx 12 or 13 meters long and seems very spacious inside.

Jim asked them about water, heat and electricity. Magalie responded they do not have a water reserve tank, and Martin showed Jim the five gallon drinking water bucket they keep on-board. They have a porta-potti in the rear, have a small electric space-heater, and do not have any water heat. What they have is a spacious and very nicely layed-out home which, if they want, they can improve as time passes. Or they can use it, as is, for a very nice hard-sided camper anywhere they want to take it. Pretty nice!

Magalie says it is loud and a little hot and bumpy but they are young so it is okay. They are on their way to Vancouver Island to work through the winter. They are both teachers and apparently have jobs already in Courtenay. Then they might travel south and around the States.

We enjoyed meeting this very nice couple and wish we were able to speak a little French to talk better with them. They are on a neat journey and we like how they’re doing it. There’s much more story here, but they left this morning after their hike up to Lake Louise. They did the hike in an hour each way, less than half our time. I hiked so easily twenty years ago, I think. I don’t remember.