Deserts & Windstorms (& Snow! Oh my!)

I suppose we should have expected this:


..but it was very strange to go from sunny California weather to HUGE PILES OF SNOW in a matter of a couple of hours. After we left Sacramento, we were still of course heading inland, and had to get through the mountains at some point. We breached the mountain passes near Lake Tahoe and came out on the other side near Reno, Nevada. It only took a few hours to get through the scary looking region, and thank goodness it was a beautiful, clear day with nice clean, dry roads. We heard it snowed later that evening.

On the other side of the mountains was Reno, Nevada! Reno is quite a picturesque town - or the part that we saw as we blew on through was. We figured we didn't need to stop since we're going to be spending time in Las Vegas, and we wanted to get as far from the cold climate as possible. (Reno is actually at a high elevation, and is surrounded by snowy mountains.)

Nevada roads are amazing, by they way. Take THAT, California - you're our least favourite state so far! Anyway the landscape in Nevada is always incredible, and very alien to us. They have tumbleweeds here! We saw our first tumbling tumbleweed bouncing along the side of the road as we were driving. It was huge. We got all excited and watched it go! It bounced, as though in slow motion, along the shoulder of the highway and looked VERY cool. Then it bounced, as though in slow motion, right onto the road towards us, and we got a little freaked out. We couldn't stop as we had a huge semi truck right behind us, and I'm sad to report that we KILLED the very first tumbling tumbleweed that we'd ever seen. They're pretty feeble, so nothing happened to the truck, but still...

As we were driving along we passed Walker Lake, a pretty, turquoise-blue body of water in the middle of the desert, with mountains in the background. We hiked around near the lake for the afternoon. It struck me as odd that this body of water, in the middle of desert country, didn't support any plant-life around it's perimeter.


So the weather wasn't really the greatest for our first day in Nevada. As I already mentioned, we were still at a high elevation and it was cold! Also, it was quite overcast for most of the day. We pulled in to a rest area for the night that happened to be in a high wind zone. And the night we pulled in, there happened to be a wind storm. We lay in our bed inside our tiny Boler that night, listening to the wind scream across the desert. The poor Boler shook and shuddered. We had put all our stabilizing feet down, but it still felt as though a strong blast might knock us right over. It took us a long time to fall asleep!


Fortunately, the next day dawned clear and calm. We started out for Death Valley, oohing and aahing at the spectacular vistas of northern Nevada. Here's a picture of us at some pokey trees that I'm not confident enough to call cacti. Although they poked Mark pretty good.


We reached Beatty, Nevada and as I write we're sitting at the "Space Station RV Park" near Death Valley. We're going to go to Death Valley tomorrow - should be fun!

San Francisco and stuff

We're sitting outside a little cafe in MILL VALLEY, California right now! Any die-hard M*A*S*H fans will get a kick out of that. By the way, Mill Valley is a suburb of San Francisco. It's nice here - the sky is blue and full of fluffy clouds, and everything is green and lush. We passed by about a million vineyards on the way into town and I'm sure we'll see more this afternoon. This is as far south as we are going on the coast - we don't want to get into the mess that is Los Angeles! We're heading inland later today and might make it as far as Sacramento.


California drivers are crazy. I'm not just saying that because we're here. They all have huge SUVs (mostly white, proof is in the pictures in this post) and speed a lot, and almost nobody signals. Oh, and everyone cuts everyone else off all the time. I think it's normal driving etiquette here. Here's an example of California driving etiuette - please note the white lines this driver is parked on, and the adjacent handicapped spaces. The picture doesn't show it, but there were a lot of empty, legal parking spaces close to him:


We saw some beautiful giant redwood trees yesterday, but we didn't enjoy them that much because we were too busy being stressed out about the ominous signs at the side of the road that said things like "FLOODED" and then didn't give any more information.

We got off the beautiful redwood tree road called "Avenue of the Giants" after that and went on the nice safe freeway. Well, I guess it wasn't that safe, but at least it wasn't flooded.

I've got to sign off for now, but I'll write more later on...

...LATER ON:

I'm back!

After we left Mill Valley, Mark put forward the strong argument that we were only about ten minutes away from the Golden Gate Bridge, and even though we’re not crazy about driving in cities, we decided we had to go take a look. It was cool! Except that the marked out viewing area was way up a very windy and extremely steep hill.

Our little truck did great because the speed limit was low, and as we drove up the hill we could see the bridge and all the pull-over areas that were accessible to downhill traffic. We got to almost the tippity-top of the hill and there was a big scary sign saying “ALL RVs AND TRAILERS, RIGHT LANE ONLY!” or something almost exactly like that. So we went in the right lane, and it took us…back down the back side of the hill we had just climbed. Mark was optimistic and assumed that a visitor info centre was at the bottom of the hill. I had a sinking feeling that that was not the case. When we reached the bottom of the hill, we seemed to be in farm country. We had a quick fightscussion, did a u-turn in some dirt, and went BACK UP the hill AGAIN. This time, we were able to drive down the correct, exciting side, and we got to pull out into all the pull-out areas and take pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge, and the pretty city of San Francisco behind it.


Then we left town.

We pulled off the highway for a break about halfway to Sacramento, and Mark’s hawk eyes spotted a sign that said “Jelly Belly Factory Tours”!!!! Eeek! Of course we went. The tour was amazingly cool in spite of the fact that we were the only people that were not accompanied by hyper little kids. They gave us each a free bag of Jelly Beans at the end of the tour, and there was another line we could get in to get free samples of any flavours we wanted. They’ve started making gross flavours, inspired by the Harry Potter candies no doubt. Did you know this? I didn’t know this. They had stuff like “Skunk Spray”, “Pencil Shavings”, and “Moldy Cheese”. The bad part is, all the gross ones really do taste very accurately like what they’re supposed to. I only got one gross one. Mark got about four. Mmmm Jelly Bellies!


We made it to Sacramento with lots of time to spare, so we wandered around the Ikea store that was near where we had boondocked for the night and – on our friend Jeff’s recommendation – bought the Ikea Café macaroni and cheese for supper. (Only 99 cents, and it comes with a drink!)

Tomorrow: Nevada.

California

We've made it to California. I have to say that I'm extremely impressed with Oregon, but California is so-so thus far. Although we are finally in warm weather! Camping will be much more fun without having to wear a toque to bed.

So we left you all at the end of day one, a Sunday. On Monday we made it to a suburb of Portland where we met up with Mark’s aunt Barb and her three kids, who had recently moved back to North America from Bangkok. Uncle Dan was missing in action because he was in Brazil. We wandered around Lake Oswego with Barb and she showed us her new house from the outside. They had not yet taken occupancy when we were in town, but since the house was vacant we wandered around the outside and she described the layout as we peered in the windows. Their back deck has a slide attached to it, going to the ground in the back yard! Cool.

We then hung around the Portland area for about another 24 hours, trying to get in contact with our friends Taras and Ellen, who were supposedly due to arrive back in Portland (where they currently live) on the Tuesday. We had no luck whatsoever reaching them, and their suburb, formerly known as “Hillsboro”, will henceforth be called “HillsBORING”. We were not looking forward to another cold February night of Oregon camping, so on Tuesday afternoon, not having contacted Taras, we finally left town and drove on the CRAZIEST roads ever in an attempt to reach the coast. It was very hilly and winding – at one point the highway made a more than 180 degree turn as it wound down a forested hill. Then Karen, our GPS unit, took a fit and tried to make us turn onto a dirt road. No thank you, Karen. Man, she can be moody.

We did make it back to the coast that evening, and wouldn’t you know it, once we were a few hours out of town, Taras finally called us. Drat!! I’m sure we’ll see him again.

We drove ‘til after dark (I don’t want to do much more of that) and pulled over into our own private rest area, where we parked on a hill overlooking a spectacular sandy beach with huge waves. We listened to the waves all night and watched the sun rise from the beach the next morning.

On Wednesday we arrived in California! It was a day filled with more driving, more hanging out on spectacular beaches (similar to Long Beach in Tofino) and we went for a hike in some sand dunes in a state park or something. The sand dunes were neat.

Wednesday evening we UTTERLY FAILED to find a place to pull over for the night. Karen the GPS unit, in another fit of moodiness, let us drive towards a “safety rest area” for an hour, only to find out that it was perfectly empty, all the street lights in it were on, and it was closed and had boards across the entrance. Who closes a safety rest area? Again it was already after dark, so we drove to a nearby state park, decided not to stay because they wanted us to pay $20 for next-to-no facilities, and we got trapped in it and had to drive the entire length of the park in the dark because there was nowhere to turn around. We had failed at the rest area. We had failed at the park. We asked Karen to find us an RV park and the nasty thing took us to a mobile home community instead. Who knew it would be SOOO hard to park somewhere for the night? We drove around until we found a cheap-ish motel and finally settled down for the night. At least we were somewhere where we could shower, although inexplicably, the hot water only ever lasted for about four minutes at a time. Also, it was harrowing to walk around in the bathroom because the floor was soft and felt like it was rotting out from under the cheap linoleum. So far California is NOT as good as Oregon. But it's still pretty good.

Day One: Washington & Oregon

We left Victoria on a cool but bright February morning. We cleared customs without any problems and were on the Coho Ferry to Port Angeles, Washington that left town at 10:30am.


Day one was actually pretty uneventful. The weather was a bit cool but very nice all the same. We spent most of the day travelling because one of our few concrete appointments takes place tomorrow near Portland, so we had to get reasonably close to it before stopping for the night.

We took the coast highway through Washington and it was gorgeous. There were beaches that reminded us very much of Tofino and we stopped to wander around for a while.


We made it into Oregon, which is (so far) another charming state. We stayed on the coast, zipped through Astoria, and stopped for the night in the town of Seaside, where we found the glory that is Pig'n Pancake. Mmm, breakfast for dinner!


I'm having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that other people are now responsible for my dogs. I'm sure I'll worry the whole trip, but the longer we go without any incidents (yes I'm paranoid and yes the people watching my dogs are great) the better I will feel. I know it's not logical. I can't help it.

Anyway that's all for now. We had a string of very long and busy days in lead-up to our departure, and we are both pretty beat. Time to recharge and have a leisurely vacation!

A Going Away party!

While I thought that our friends were busy, oh, say, dealing with disasters like this:

They were really planning a pretty elaborate going away party for us.


The first stop was Cafe Mexico, located in Market Square in downtown Victoria. Muy Bueno!




Who let the single girls sit together? You can tell from the looks on their faces that they're bad-mouthing men.


Mark is already looking a bit happy and goofy. He got so happy and goofy by the end of the night that he couldn't function at all the next day. Trivia: the guy sitting behind him is also name Mark Reed. Slightly different spelling than our own Mark Reid.


Okay, that's done. Where to now?


Stage two took place at Megan's house. Blender party!


There were sophisticated activities such as "pin the tail on the donkey". Here's a "before" shot of the winner.


Another before shot of someone who didn't win.


There was a Pinata! The boys got to know it a little better.


Everyone admired Megan's dogs. Our little Oliver will be added to the mix next week.



Time to bust the pinata. Mark broke his stick instead. That's one tough pepper.


But the tough pepper didn't stand a chance against a blindfolded hockey jock wielding a baseball bat. Take note of all the men cringing in the background.


Wait, is she saluting?


We had a great old time - our friends had all gotten together to make a video telling us how much they would miss us. It was very sweet and at times hilarious. (did you say "Bevin"? Do you hear choppers??) Callie's mom (you know who you are) contributed such a sweet and poignant clip that I was very glad for the foolish jokes everyone else's parts had. I guess we are supposed to watch the video again when we move to Nova Scotia, which will make us want to come out and visit all our friends in BC. I'm sure we'll get back again someday, but I'm also counting on everyone to come and visit us. Lobsters taste fresher closer to the source!

THANKS GUYS!! We know how much work you put into organizing the party, on top of the insanity of your own busy lives. We appreciate it, and we'll see you again.

FAIL

Today was our day of organizing all the stuff that will need organizing with outside people and/or companies. Here's the tally so far:

- get a charity to pick up our furniture: FAIL. (Nobody can come pick up until March 4th at the earliest. Today is February 4th.) We called every place in the yellow pages. Does everyone really book this stuff one month in advance? Really?

- get Arlo on a direct flight to Ontario: FAIL. There is ONE direct cargo flight from Victoria to ANYWHERE in Ontario per day, and he's not allowed on it because "it's too early" and the workers won't be there in time to load him. What is the use of a cargo flight that does not accept cargo at the departure point? I'm calling the head honcho on Wednesday to argue some more.

- call my mom because I couldn't talk to her yesterday: FAIL. Mom was not home. She called me yesterday when I was in the middle of moving furniture at a friend's house. I didn't recognize her voice at first, and then kept getting distracted by the chaos going on around me. I called her back this morning to actually have a conversation, and she's not home.

- Get the propane on the Yukon Ho certified: APPOINTMENT BOOKED! This is the first useful thing we've accomplished all day.

Not a great start. I hate relying on others. They disappoint.

The Solar Boler

The Yukon Ho has harnessed the power of the sun!!


Almost a month after of purchase, the solar setup is finally done. Or at least done enough to use. With a great deal of help from a friend, the panel has been mounted on the roof of the truck, and the rest of the bits and pieces have all been wired up.

The hardest part was drilling the first 3/8" hole in the shiny new truck canopy. Also, the second hole. And the third. And... well, all of them. Following the rule of "measure ten or so times, cut once", we managed to get the six holes aligned pretty much perfectly, and with a touch of silicone to seal the deal, the panel was battened down. It rained for four straight days after mounting it, so I can safely say that it doesn't leak.

Oddly, the typical RV mount for this type of panel relies on threaded rubber liners to put in the holes, but nothing on the inside to anchor the panel to whatever you've mounted it on. I kept having visions of the panel flying off while driving down the highway, so we ended up adding a bit more security by bolting a couple of large washers on the inside to guarantee that the panel isn't going anywhere.

Inside the truck, all the wires feed into a plastic box from Canadian Tire -- the idea being to keep everything neat and tidy. This is also where the voltage regulator and inverter are mounted. So far it's worked out beautifully. I even used solar power to drill the last two holes in the bucket. Very convenient.


I'd originally planned to set up a string of Christmas lights in the back of the truck, but unfortunately in our hurry to get rid of all our stuff, we mixed them in with a load of stuff we gave to charity. Oops... That'll learn me for giving.

Anyways, the past few days have been gorgeous and sunny (very strange for this time of year), so our battery is topped right up. I started out with a free battery, but it turned out to be beyond rescue. I saw a used car battery out back of Canadian Tire, so I asked the parts-dude if he would mind if I took it. He said "yes", which wasn't exactly what I'd expected... Apparently if someone brings in a battery to be recycled, they feel some kind of moral obligation to actually recycle it. Julie pointed out that #2 in the "three R's" is "Re-use", but alas, I didn't think of that argument at the time. The lesson here is: Don't ask. I ended up buying a new marine deep cycle battery instead, which should work a lot better than a car battery anyways.

I'm waiting on one more part from the solar supplier - a shore power transfer switch - and I have yet to install a mysterious button that came with the kit. I think it initiates the self-destruct sequence. Other than that, it's all done!

It's the FI-NAL COUNT-DOWN

WARNING: Skip this post if easily bored. Nothing too exciting here. Maybe just look at the random "Vancouver Island" pictures I've put in.


We have a month left before we leave British Columbia. I will miss my job at the SPCA and we will both miss our island friends, but other than that neither of us has any regrets.



Suddenly there is lots to do and our departure looms closer every day. A few days ago Mark installed our solar panel onto the truck's canopy. We opted not to install it on the "Yukon Ho" (the Boler's name, remember?) because, well, Boler roofs are round and solar panels are flat. It wouldn't have worked out so well, I don't think.

We are awaiting our travel insurance documents, which are in the mail, and have already received our WWOOF membership and info book. I have four pages of instructions written out for the care and feeding of our dogs while we're gone, and the flight for Arlo is turning out to be sticky, but we're figuring it out.

We have started to pack up our belongings and sort them into three piles: the "mail to Nova Scotia" pile, the "garbage" pile, and the "give away to friends or charity" pile.


If anyone living on Vancouver Island wants some furniture, kitchen appliances and/or utensils, et cetera, et cetera, give me a shout. We've got lots to give away. We got rid of all our books at a charity book drive this morning.

Our friends have informed us that they are throwing us a non-surprise party the weekend before we leave. I feel loved!


I'm putting some pictures of the island in this post - a sort of a salute and farewell to this place we've been living in. It's really beautiful.