Hot at the Lot

     That sounds like a song title!  We have been way less busy with landscaping projects this summer - no dump truck loads of heavy rock!  Donald has a small project of some landscaping tie levels and berming and I have planted a new rose bush, as one was lost to the winter weather.  All the rest of the plantings seem to have faired well over the winter, which was very mild according to a neighbour.

 We spent a few hours at the beach and the water was warmer than we thought and very nice to cool your toes in!  There is new construction taking place around our little lot - some of the houses as big as 6000 square feet being erected - all I can say is - been there, done that, don't want to clean a monstrosity any more!  The 5th takes only a quick 45 minutes to give a good cleaning - whoo hoo! 

I will have to take some pic's of the garden and roses that are in bloom.  I think that will be todays big goal.  Ah, the life of leisure.

Fun at the River, travelling and a new Window

Don managed to pull the new 5er down to our friends riverfront property.  Our dinner club has a windup at this time of the year and our hosts were offering their great property, complete with a beautiful fire ring, music and sheltered picnic tables.  It was a great time, with lots of fun conversation and stories.  Dinner was a mess of yummy BBQ ribs and about 10 different kinds of salads, followed by the greatest BBQ pie: Lemon meringue.

The next morning, we were off and running down the road to our other lot in the Shuswap.  We overnighted at the brand new SuperWalmart in Williams Lake.  We had an unbelievable view from the high parking lot, across the valley and mountains with the lights of the city.

Poor old Gatorgirl thinks the new steps are high for those wee little legs!  Turns out that they are wider and deeper, and are actually easier for her to handle getting up and down.

We take a back logging road to make our route much shorter - we don't have to go through Cache Creek, and then onto Kamloops.  It cuts out all of that.  The road has been sketchy at times, but last fall a Smithers construction crew did a remarkable job with grading, widening and laying down calcium.  This is the start of the logging road by Adams Lake resort.

 

The day that we arrived at the lot, so did our son and daughter in law ( Nathan and Keira ) from Victoria.  We had a great visit, with a drive over to Salmon Arm.  Why? Well, we have to get used to the turning radius on the new 5th - we took out the back window of the truck, and went to Apple Auto Glass in Salmon Arm to get it repaired.  Ah, the lessons of life.

the gal's tour

This is the living area, and with the opposing slides, it makes for a nice 14 feet width.  The chairs are recliners and I have suggested to D that perhaps one should come out to be put away in storage, and a small desk in its' place for sewing or computer work.  I am thinking there may have to be more discussion on that.    I have already covered the couch because of doggy paws.

This new rig has lots of cupboard space, but we are trying to be very frugal in our packing and are really watching the weight.  So, all the upper cupboards around the slides are empty.  I suppose if we were to sit on the RV lot for some time they would be used more. Of course, I need a step stool for most of them.

I opted for a smaller kitchen to realize a bigger living room space.  You give up something to get something else when it comes to RV space.  The countertops are Corian ( which was not a selling point for us ) and came with a little copper disk embedded in the corian on the corner by the sink.  Some times, we are such deep thinkers - both of us though it was a sticker and gave it a swipe to remove it.  It is the 'corian' logo.

Lots of light with windows.  The cupboards are a dark cherrywood, so lots of windows are great.  We are really enjoying the height of the ceiling.  The 'hallway' is short compared to some units we looked at and we wanted it that way, as a hall just uses up space.  I have already put up some pictures of the kids.

And then, onto the bedroom!  Door to the left is the bathroom. Jeepers, who left the clothes closet doors open.  Better go up and close them.

Ah, nice light colored bedding and it looks like someone was laying about reading a book and trying out the mattress. ( it was just right, says the princess ). Now, when we were looking at rigs, the salespeople assumed it was the big TV and fireplace that sold the unit. NOT.  Believe it or not, it was the $2.00 (probably) piece of 'counter' next to each pillow - to put your readings glasses, alarm clock, etc.  You would not believe how many 'retirement' rigs have no place for the ol' reading glasses. Yep, most of us past a certain age need them, and we need a place to put them at night.  Small thing for sure, but if it is not there....The other appealing thing in the bedroom was the opening windows in the slide ( mentalpause heat, you know I need the cool air )and in the main part, the opposing slides.

And, so ends the tour on this nice and sunny day.  Tonight is our first night out with the new rig - no we did not sleep in it on the driveway!  The RV gang and dinner club are meeting down at the river for a rib and salads BBQ.  My portion is to be a fruit salad, which is good because I worked today and I am now off for three weeks. Whoo hoo!

Our salesperson, Al Bompas, of Happy Trails RV in Prince George has been extremely helpful, especially with any PDI issues and 'making things right'.  Al sold us our very first RV - a Coleman Tent Trailer ,when our boys were little. So, he has been in the RV business for some time, and he knows his stuff. If you are in the area and are looking for a new unit, we recommend him.

Stay tuned for the ' river happenings'.

the guy thing.....

Hey, this is Don here.  This is the front basement compartment prepped for a generator with the fuel tank.  Inside the rig there is a start station for the generator - which we do not have at this time.  I don't know if we ever will, but there you go, it is prepped for it and we only realized this when we picked it up.  We might have to go to Quartzite now to pick up this generator - ha!

This is the wires for the prep.

 This is the Utility centre.  The combination of switches allows for filling tanks from pressurized system or non-pressurized for sanitizing, running on city water or out of the fresh water holding tank.  The number of switches makes it confusing because tonight I was filling the fresh water tank and couldn't figure out why the pump would not supply water to the outlets and taps. DUH. You have to change the settings in the utility centre.  Ha! Then it worked fine. Minor panic.  The switches to the right determine the bypass for the hot water heater to winterize or through the hot water tank for general use.  There are 2 grey tanks, one for the bathroom and one for the kitchen.  We have had other trailers with an outside shower of course, but never one with a soap dispenser.  I am sure the dog will enjoy that! ( not ).  Since seeing them on other trailers in the past, I have always wished for the black water flush and boy oh boy I have it. Joy.  Not seen in this picture is the fancy paper towel rack that was supplied in the storage compartment there.  Of course, our RV friends have been stopping by and it's pretty bad when people ask what something is, and the only answer is " don't know, haven't seen that before"

Ok, look at this clicker, not for the TV.   Yes, it remote controls the 3 slides, the front jacks and the awning.  Of course, the first minute were were home and trying to set it up in the driveway, I couldn't get the front jacks to go down - could not find the problem and had to put them down by hand in the pouring rain ( of course! ).  Sure don't want to do that again. The bedroom slide wouldn't go out either. Numerous phone calls with the tech and we determined it was a fuse blown, and then the hunt was on.  We finally located it in line, right next to the batteries. The wiring and the fuse were neatly tucked down behind the batteries, where of course they were not visible, and nothing was said in the PDI walk around.  I changed the fuse and immediately ran the levelling jacks to their upper limits and blew another fuse!  I couldn't seem to get the legs to go down, so finally after 4 fuses, I put the truck hitch under the 5er again and manually cranked the legs down again ( only an inch this time and not in the pouring rain ).  This gave me some room to the upper limit and I watched the direction of the rotation of the motor shaft.  When the leg went up, I had some room to stop before the 5th fuse would be blown and SUCCESS - the jacks were lowered properly.  Needless to say, there is a 5 pack of fuses now for spares in the battery compartment in the case of another brain fart.

Stock equipment on the model is one 12 Volt battery.  We had the dealer replace the one 12V with 2x 6 volt batteries.  They thought there should be an extra charge.  I don't think so, according to my wife. Done.

Here is another example of my technical knowledge ( or not ).  I understand that with 2 x 12V batteries, you can get about 240 amp hours versus 2 x 6 volt batteries, you can get somewhere in the range of 440 amp hours.  I have no idea what this means, but more amp hours is better, right?  Please tell me it is better because if not, this set up may make us idiots.  We actually considered this set up at other times, and felt that the perfect time to make the change is when you did not have to throw away 2 perfectly good 12 V batteries.

Some of this stuff is new to me and I am working my way through it.  I should have it figured out soon - I feel pretty confident.  I might be slow but my work is poor.
Final comment - maybe a rant.  I always look for the cheapest propane, it seems to vary more widely than gasoline.  So, all you have to do to get 2 full 30 lb. propane bottles is spend a few thousand for a new rig.  Ha!!!!!!

We're movin' on up!!!! To the (big) side (slide)!!

This was our decision from a couple of posts ago.  We said goodbye and see ya' later to Donna, Ralph, Chris and Norm who continued on their way to Alaska.  We passed them Monday morning pulling our travel trailer - they were just leaving their campground.  Big honks!!! and waves.

We continued onto Prince George to pick up this new rig!  There will be more pictures to follow as we have been so busy with learning all the gadgets and features of the new rig and of course, I was right back to work.  Oh - Donald just said I forgot to say what exactly it is - well, it is a Jayco Eagle 321 - RLTS 5th wheel.  It makes our truck look like a teeny toy truck.   Donald was pretty nervous leaving Prince George, especially as it was rush hour traffic.  He looked a little green!  No worries, within an hour he felt much better.  Donald says: " Didn't seem to suffer too much on fuel, and actually after measuring it turns out to be 3 feet shorter overall, than towing the travel trailer. The new 5'er hitch installed by our mechanic son went fantastic! What a good kid!"

This week we have been packing it up ( carefully watching the weight ) for leaving soon.  Can't wait! More pictures to follow......

What absolute FUN!

   We have had the best time getting to know and visiting with Donna, Ralph, Norm and Chris as they stopped in for a couple of nights on their way to Alaska.  Wonderful people, wonderful company and great laughs.

     We started out by advising them to stay at one of our 4 local camping spots - they had a beautiful view of our Hudson Bay Mountain.  Friday night was visiting and a get to know you and we gave them out little gifties of "one of a kind" hotpads for casserole dishes for their motorhomes.  They really enjoyed the moose fabric on the back - hope you see a real one soon guys!  It was a pleasure to make them and give.

     Tonight we hosted them in our home for a great Canadian BBQ - Buffalo burgers, chicken wings with blue cheese dressing, hot artichoke dip with crackers, greek salad and spinach salad.  The gals brought along a beautiful cheesecake dessert to add to the feast.  A few glasses of wine, some good after dinner coffee with bunny and the night was great.  If you don't know what 'bunny' is, maybe Donna will tell you on her blog.  I think Costco might have an upcoming sell out of 'bunny'

  
  What a great time!  Tomorrow we are off to the city......   it is a good thing to have a mechanic son when you need to have special equipment installed in the truck......

Cowboy cookies? Quilt Gift!

     When some fellow Canadian bloggers went south this past winter ( Al and Kelly; Rick and Paulette ) they were treated to a gift of Cowboy cookies from American bloggers Jerry and Suzy.  Well, I don't know if that is starting a blogger cultural tradition or not.  After all, we do read each others blogs, but meeting up in person is pretty rare.
     Ralph and Donna and their friends will be here on Friday, and I can't bake for the life of me!  Oh no.  Think, think.  Whatever it is should be something "canadian".  Well, I do quilt.... but they probably have enough blankets in their RV's for the frozen north here. Ha!  So, how about a hotpad so they can put hot casserole type dishes on their countertops in the RV?
     Now, the theme.  Yep, gotta be Canadian, but subtle.  Yep, should probably match colours in their RV's.  Yep, should probably have an "Alaskan" theme as well for their big trip to cross the border 3 hours from here.

So, I used some fish fabric from one of my favorite designers, Lisa Moore of Sitka, Alaska, and mixed it with the subtle Canada theme.  Now wait, what about something about our little place?  All winter long, our yard is visited by moose, so I made it reversable!

I hope they don't prefer cookies....... mine would taste like moose!

some decisions made ....

    Some time ago, our wee brains were having a tough time with " do we get a park model, do we get a fifth wheel, do we stay with the travel trailer, do we... do we..." You get the picture.  One decision was made via a deposit holding it this past weekend.
     Stay tuned!