Back in Canada

Just a short post as we set up.  The plan was to cross the border yesterday, but it was just pouring rain and would have made for a miserable drive, so we spent another evening at the Fairgrounds in Omak, Washington.  Leaving there at 9 am this morning, it was a lovely sunny drive to the border and a final fill of 1/4 tank before hitting the crossing.

The crossing went well - fruits and vegetables? Liquor? How much did you spend? Alterations or Repairs to any vehicles? Ok, thanks, have a nice day. Yippee, we're on our way.

A one hour stop in Penticton as we thought we could get a rebate on our out of country extended medical policy. Nope - forgot we took annual policies. Anyway, we renewed our BCAA membership for another year.

On to driving through the crazy city. Kelowna. Ack. So, we are presently set up at Wood Lake RV Park and Marina, and it is full hookups and right on the beach for $20 a night. Normal price? $85 for being within touching distance of your next door neighbour. We would not even fit here in the summer.  There are about 4 other rigs here, and none within the aforementioned touching space.  The bonus is that the young man who is working here, and doing landscaping, wood delivery, office.. and working on his CMA is a delight. He ran up to our rig when we got here, introduced himself and offered his hand to shake. Got to like that. Smiley, too.  We have a couple of boys like that....

So, we drove up to Voyager RV to confirm our appointment Monday morning then went out for Chinese Dinner smorg. Wonderful fresh food at $11. each.

Oh yes, Donald still hasn't put on long pants. Rick, there is an ad in the paper here for a sale on John Deere lawn tractors. One has cruise control! Should we send you the flyer?

The return of long pants

A long driving day yesterday from Pendleton, although we did miss all the wind that Russ and Donna enjoyed after we left. Whew.

Presently we are sitting in the rain in the Omak, Washington Fairgrounds RV park.  Right behind us is the river, and the hill that men and horses fly down during the Suicide Race here in August. It must be really something to see.

Still yet to decide whether we will be off today to cross the border, or wait for the rain to clear off. Ah - long pants. Oh well.

Great Day that goes out with a Bang

Since we didn't unhook the truck from the 5th while in Mountain Home, Idaho we had a great start to our day.  The biggest city yet to travel through on our way back, other than Kelowna was Boise, and driving through there at 9:30 Sunday morning is a great travel time. Whoosh... we were through.

A beautiful day with a great drive, and an early arrival at Wild Horse Casino RV Park in Pendleton, Oregon. Our site backs onto a gigantic farmer field, complete with tons of birds, deer, and something we have yet to see, but we can hear it. Sounds like a turkey and it is in the field.  Now this 'turkey' is as scared of thunder and lightening storms as most dogs are. Poor Poppy! Yes, we are parked next to Russ and Donna and their lovely dog, Poppy. They were able to get some fantastic pictures of the storm last night. www.therapytravels.blogspot.com.  I tried, but only managed to get some sheet lightening behind the clouds.  Every time the thunder boomed, the poor 'turkey' sound worse.

Since we just blew through here last year, Don decided we should stay for 2-3 days and have ourselves a little explore.  This morning we are off to breakfast with Russ and Donna at a downtown place they say is pretty interesting, then I have our tourist map to explore some more.  Oh my, I did make a note of the quilt shops. ( yes, Paulette... how can we stop and not check those out, EH?) Donald is thinking about checking into an oil change for the truck, although it is not quite due.  He did notice that quite a number of B.C. plated RV's were already set up and their satellite dishes, when we got here at about 1:30 in the afternoon. What? They beat us here when we had an early start? Oops! It was hockey game night, and unfortunately for B.C., the last. 'nuff said 'bout that.

I must take a picture of our site and post it. Marvellous here. Good rate too. $21.00 per night, all hookups, big sites, VERY quiet, buses to casino and museum. HUGE golfcourse with 5 lakes. WE sit outside with our binoculars watching the deer in the field and the vehicles coming down the killer hill on I-84, way off in the distance. ( 6% grade for 6 miles ). The only place on our travels that give you 3 warnings about the need to downgrade. In BIG letters on BIG signs. The last one of course, says LAST WARNING!!!!  Up in the Nisga'aa territory, there are 18% grades. Tiny signs there. Only one sign per hill.

parked next to grass!

Our time in Ely was great, especially staying at the Casino for $15 a night, that included 2 margaritas, indoor pool and spa, and the cheapest laundry machines I have come across yet.  This morning we left with the rest of the northbound snowbirds and after a long day of wind free driving, we are now located in Mountain Home, Idaho.  This is the first time since 7 Feathers RV Park last November that we are parked next to grass.  In fact, this park is set up much the same as 7 Feathers with the roads and RV pads, but just not quite as nice.

If we get our butts in gear early in the morning, we hope to make it to Pendleton and meet up with Russ and Donna.

Northern Nevada Railway

Don here today.  This morning we took a brief tour around the town of Ely, Nevada and checked out the new Post Office, a small quilt store downtown and some old houses and architecture.  After a good lunch at the Train Cafe, Kim returned to the RV site at the Prospectors Casino to do laundry, and I returned to the Northern Nevada Railway Museum and yard for a personal tour with Bob ( yes another Bob!).  The personal tour was $9, and he would show me all the equipment, building and yards for whatever time I needed. Great Deal.  Man, there was a lot of rolling stock and it was pre-1900 to about 1950.  There were spreaders,  Coal Fired rotary snowplow, auxiliary crane, passengers cars, cabooses and even a passenger car from the Grand Trunk Railroad. Locomotives: electrics, diesel electrics, steam.  Two of the steam engines were operating and two of the diesels  both in use for their excursions.  Sometimes they even run a double headed steam train!  Bob says the rail buffs really like that.

Operating Coal Fired Steam, doing scheduled maintenance till Memorial Day weekend

I only took a few pictures, Sam.. so that you will be curious enough to put it on your to do list!  They also have complete locomotive and car repair shops.  It was a huge amount of rolling stock and trackage, restored buildings.  You can easily spend a lot of time going over it all. The volunteers are more than happy to answer questions and give out information about their operation.  Yesterday I saw Shelby race cars being built to order, and today old steam engines!

Steam engine running on tomorrow's excursion

Oh yes, Kim got the laundry done and I didn't even have to help fold as it was all done by the time I got back. Good timing, she said.

Shelby Land.....drool

Time to leave the Vegas area and start the long trek homewards.  It is just too hot.  We have no power hookups at Lake Mead, so no A/C and it was fairly uncomfortable sleeping with no breeze. We left Lake Mead through the Las Vegas Bay park entrance, which saved time and no long drag up to Boulder City through to the other side of Vegas.  So, a quick trip through the city and a fuel stop at the Vegas Motor Sports Speedway area, and wouldn't you know it, we were 2 minutes ahead of time for a factory tour of the Shelby plant. Whoo hoo.  There were pictures allowed in the museum, but none on the factory floor. We toured the Shelby side with the racing cars being built, and then the Shelby Ford GT's being built in another part of the factory. 

The Shelby 1000 could be ordered today if we wanted ... the package msrp was $ 154,995, not including the base vehicle. You have the option of driving it yourself off the factory floor. ( Shelby performance 1000 Horsepower fuel system included ). If the package for this vehicle still isn't enough, even though they are hand built, you can customize your car further.

So, we signed our names.  Scared you.  We signed our names on the factory wall. Cool!

Now spending a couple of nights at Ely, Nevada so that we can visit the Nevada Northern Railroad Museum tomorrow.

long touring day

Up and at'em early this morning with a hamper/cooler bag packed with cold drinks, some ice and we were off to Pahrumph, Nevada.  Not much to see there, except a nice drive up the hills west of Las Vegas. So, change of plans.  The small city had a very nice Albertson's grocery store and we purchased some sandwiches and threw them in the bag to continue onto Death Valley.

HOT!  The truck computer was telling us that it was 34C at the Interpretative Centre, and our GPS let us know that we got to -280 feet below sea level. Whoo wee. What an impressive valley.  Our route ended with us going up the valley to 4300 feet and out to Beatty, Nevada and then all the way back to Vegas via 95.  A long drive.  More interesting was area 51. Black vehicles way in the hills, probably watching.

And then we hit the north end of Vegas at rush hour, which resulted in 1.5 hours to drive through the city. Still a good touring day, even with that. Nice to see diesel prices drop as well: 3.99/gal

lake mead

We had a great drive yesterday, with the new brake magnets working well on the 5th wheel. Way better! It was a long pull up out of Laughlin, then an easy drive up to Boulder City.  Last year, we noticed some trucks and construction equipment in the middle of nowhere on this highway.  This year, a beautiful, amazing Nevada Tourist Information building with awesome picnic spots has been constructed, however, it was not open as yet. Well done, Nevada!

Presently we are located in Lake Mead National Park at the Boulder Beach campground, having met up with our friend, Bob.  The birds are mating and very loud and it is quite lovely.  Well, maybe it is because the weather is wonderful! There was no problem getting a spot on a Sunday afternoon, after the weekend campers had left.

Bob mentioned something about possibly going into Vegas today.

Brakes fixed!

When we left the Shuswap in the fall, we stopped at an RV dealer on the Island to have our brakes checked and fixed. The tech there said that the brakes were fine, but travelling around lately, they were not fine.  After the drive to Bullhead City, only the passenger side trailer brakes were working and they were super hot! No heat on the drivers side.

Our appointment today at Mohave Rv fixed that, with the tech showing us that 3 of the magnets did not work and these had to be replaced. The shop was very busy, but the staff there were very polite and efficient. She even looked up all the weather reports for us so that we could decide whether to hit the road, or not. The weather ahead in the Boulder City area looks cool, windy ( 77+ mph wind gusts ) and rainy, so we elected to stay here for another 3 nights. 

Now, we just have to get in touch with Jayco to work out the warranty work again.

Yuma to Parker

The road beckoned, and we are currently in Buckskin State Park, Arizona just a few miles from Parker.  There are lovely huge trees here and great large sites, but very noisy from boat traffic on the Colorado River.  The verizon signal is pretty slow and Donald spent over 3 hours yesterday trying to get the satellite dish to get a signal, to no success.

Heading towards Lake Havasu today with beautiful hot weather. 

Oh the weather up north is blowing.....

So we decided to hang out in the Yuma area for a few more days. This afternoon we are off to the movie " Mirror, Mirror" with the boomer Escapees group and that usually involves dinner after someplace. Today the temp is supposed to be 90 F, so we may have to turn on the air conditioners. Well, we may just sit in the pool.

The new plan is to leave here Saturday.  There is an appointment made for April 30 in Winfield, BC to have a final go through of the rig prior to our 2 year warranty expiring. There is not much to do so hopefully we won't be stuck there too long.

Bob, on his perch. Morning Sunrise

A week at Kofa Co-op

We have just spent a week at the Escapee Park in Yuma, Kofa Co-Op.  The park has a few people left and there was an ice cream social, a Saturday breakfast and as always, a warm welcome from a few members.

While we were in the park, the rig got washed and hand waxed and the carpets clean. Who hoo! Another load of laundry tomorrow and then we are set to go on the road again.   The great thing about the laundry here is the laundry 'hang out' area.  I LOVE to hang clothes out on a line, and this park has an outdoor area with about 6 long lines and tons of clothespins. MMM MMM . Fresh sheets.  Speaking of nice smells, we were driving the other early evening and drove through an orchard area and the smell was so incredible.  It was like getting hit over the head with a bottle of perfume!  In the daylight, we drive back and noticed one of the orchards had faint blooms and a fellow rv'er thought that they might be lemon blooms.

Took a drive south of Yuma, as far as San Luis.  This is the farthest south we have been in our travels, as it is further south than Algodones, Mexico. ( not by much ). There was a small celebration at the local community grounds for Ceasar Chavez Day, but we didn't stop in as it was near the end. 

Don has been looking at the maps, trying to find a different route home, but there are only so many choices. Route to be determined.

Our hearts go out to the Bayfield Bunch, who lost their 15 year old little dog, Cora. It is almost exactly a year ago we lost our old pup, here in Yuma. Same way, just passed away quietly.