Waiting and more waiting!

Our motorhome is still in the shop!  I hope this isn't a bad sign for the future...

the only picture of our new home

In the meantime we are hanging around getting bored.

On Saturday August 17th, we went to my 40th High School Reunion!  Man am I getting old...it was nice to see all the people that were there but alot of the friends I would have like to see didn't show.  Oh well maybe at the 50th...

On Sunday we went for dinner at our ex-neighbours and friends Jackie and Brian.  Had a great dinner and enjoyed catching up with them and hearing about the old neighbourhood.

I have to get better at remembering to take pictures.

May to August – What have we been doing? Part 2

On June 28^th our 2 daughters, Christi and Alyssa and our 2 grandsons, Corry and Alex flew in to the lodge to visit for a week.

Christi and Alex on the plane

Corry excited to be going fishing!

I caught it but I'm not touching it!

Alex driving the boat..

Alyssa caught one too!

Corry and Grandpa enjoying the day

At the end of their stay I decided to return to BC with them while Corry remained with his grandpa to work at the lodge until the end of July.  Al and Corry travelled to BC via a u-haul truck with all of our belongings, which are currently in storage.

We had been scouring the internet for a new “home” and finally found one that we thought would work.  On Tuesday the 6^th of August we flew to Castlegar to meet with the owner of a 36’ ft Monaco Dynasty Motorhome.  We bought it and started the drive back to the lower mainland.  We stopped in Osoyoos for dinner and at about 8:20 we headed up the hill outside of Osoyoos when the motorhome stopped.  Our first thought was that we had run out of gas! After a call to Good Sam Road side Assistance, we were assisted by a local tow truck driver who brought us out 5 gals of diesel.  Nope!  We still wouldn’t run.  After a second call to Good Sam, a huge tow truck (sorry no pictures, it was dark by then) arrived and towed us back to Osoyoos and deposited us at a local garage.  In the morning we discovered that someone had done some creative wiring in the motor and that we were lucky that there hadn’t been a lot of damage.  So we left our new home with the nice mechanic and caught a bus down to Port Coquitlam.  Travelling by Greyhound really makes you appreciate travelling in your own rig!

On the 9^th of August we, Al, Christi, Alyssa, Corry, Alex and I headed up to Pemberton for my nieces wedding.  There was a stop in Whistler so that we could do the Zip Trek (zipline)  Alex and I chose to continue on to Pemberton and check into the hotel as he was too small and I too chicken to take part.

The 10^th of August was a beautiful hot BC day, and a lovely day for a wedding.  Laura and John had planned a great Wedding and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Now it is the 16^th of August and we are hoping to head back to Osoyoos and pick up the motorhome on Monday or Tuesday of next week! 

May to August – What have we been doing? Part 1

On the first of May we arrived back into the US.  After an uneventful border crossing at Nogales, we headed east towards Tombstone, Arizona.  We spent three days at the Wells Fargo RV Park, located right in downtown Tombstone.  In fact you were so close to the action, you could hear the gunfights.

We were waiting out the bad weather that was happening in North and South Dakotas and Kansas which was the way we had planned to travel.  But once again plans change.  As we needed to get to Altona, Manitoba as quickly as possible we decided to forego the sightseeing and just plot a course that would get us there as easily as possible.

We continued east into New Mexico before heading north.  We stopped for the night in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. 

It sure is flat in New Mexico! Dry and windy too!

The next stop was   in Colorado Springs, Colorado and then a truck stop in Selby, South Dakota.  We crossed the border into Canada at Neche, North Dakota, again a very uneventful crossing. We stayed in Altona at the park for a few nights but the weather was cool and windy so we moved to park at Al’s mom’s apartment building instead.

On May 11^th we left Altona heading north to visit Al’s brother in Bissett Manitoba. While  driving east along Highway 14 some large wind gusts (55-60km) hit us right as a semi going west drove by us, this caused the roof on our motorhome to loosen along the driver’s side and lift up, causing damage to the roof, the vent and the side of our motorhome.  We turned around and limped back to Altona, to assess the damage and regroup.

Two days later after the winds had lessened, we again tried to make the trip.  Being inventive Canadians, we had duct taped the roof together as well as we could and drove with our fingers crossed.  After two stops to re-tape the roof we decided to stop at Bird’s Hill Provincial Park for the night and continue the 2+ hours to Bissett the following day. After tucking ourselves in beside Byron’s garage for protection, we started the slow process of dealing with insurance.  ICBC decided to write off our unit so it was towed away to auction in Winnipeg and we were left homeless!

We stayed in Bissett until the 16^th of June at which time Al, Byron, Jazzy the cat, the dogs Wieser and Gibson and I (and a lot of supplies) flew by float plane to open up Byron’s fly-in fishing lodge on Fishing Lake for the season.

 more to come in part 2...