being tested the first week

But first - a picture of our winter overnight at Walmart in Williams Lake on the way to Victoria:

You would think that our trip down the province to green grass land would be adventure enough.  Tonight, we have all the slides pulled in and we are experiencing 63 - 70 kmh wind gusts.  Well, not just gusts as they are pretty steady.  You know, the ones that sound like a train howling through.
We will be fine, but our 300+ square feet suddenly became a lot closer.

Wee Gator girl received a summer haircut at a large pet store chain, we picked up a Garmin GPS, and a small television for the bedroom.  The television is already installed in the bedroom TV cupboard and looks and works great.  I have been told that the GPS figuring out is my job as Chief Navigator.  We are becoming more and more aware that moving out of the 'north' and the prairies means tight roads and tight parking lots, so going further we will need to plan carefully our routes and fueling places.
We swear that Vancouver is only made for Smart cars.  Costco was bonus in our books today, because we realized that they paint double lines between parking stalls, and their parking lots are lovely for trucks.

                                            On the ferry to Vancouver Island

Sunday and now a week to rest

We decided to leave Vancouver this morning and had a wonderful, easy drive to the ferry terminal.  We arrived to be four back in line, and only 10 minutes and we were on the ferry and headed to Victoria on a lovely sunny day.


Even though we have probably just missed Rick and Paulette, we ended up staying at the Oceanside RV about 25 minutes out of Victoria.  We called multiple times to Westbay Marine and RV and attempts at e mail contact, but no replies back.  Oceanside is the most lovely park and because of that and friendly staff, we have booked in here for a week.  The rain has now started this evening, but we are so glad to be done with our winter driving and resting and making preparations for the next bit of travel.

This evening we visited with our oldest son and wife, taking in a bit of the Grey Cup game at her parents and then taking them to a local pub for supper. 

made it to green grass land

What an adventure!  We started from our home town, driving 6 hours to the nearest city of Prince George, BC to have work done on the RV.  Yes, Rick had a laugh, that our first night as full timers was spent in a motel.  We picked up the RV at noon the next day and had the ice truckers drive to Williams Lake, BC.  We thought perhaps since we were further south that the road would be clearer, but this was not to be.

When we purchased this 5th wheel, it was supposed to be a " 4 Season" model - good for cold weather.  Well, Jayco, we sure did test it.  We stayed at the Super Walmart Centre in Williams Lake on Thursday evening.  It was about minus 14 C.  We were warm and probably used quite a bit of propane, but it was an excellent test of our batteries and systems.  We had the dealer switch out the 12 volts for 2 , 6 volt batteries, and they were great.  They were still showing 3 bars out of 4 in the morning.

From Williams Lake, we were on our way once again on snow packed slippery roads.  We passed a few vehicles in the ditch.  On the morning radio, we heard that Hwy 1 through the canyon was closed all day due to an accident.  We decided to press on to close to where the closure was.  We took it very very slow and very cautiously, and at Boston Bar came upon a HUGE line of transport trucks.  They waved us through as there was an RV park just up the road.  Luckily, yes, they were open and had power hookups.  We trudged through the un-plowed snowy RV site and enjoyed our night there.  As we didn't have any groceries,we walked to the local diner for our supper.  There, we learned that the road was closed in front of us due to 2 tractor trailer trucks going over a bridge with a pick up truck. Shortly after we arrived in Boston Bar there was an accident right behind us with 2 more fatalities.  Our hearts go out to those families.

We left Boston Bar about 10:30 this morning on foggy, wet roads to finally scrabble our way through Vancouver traffic and we are now in the city. Mr D is the most awesome driver, and I on the other hand ( or foot in this case ) wore out the carpet on the floor on my side of the truck.  It was plus 7 C when we arrived and the RV office attendant was complaining about the cold.  My goodness, it feels like Hawaii to us!

Tomorrow we hope to board the ferry and head on over to Vancouver Island and Victoria.  We look forward to resting for a few days in one place and organizing the RV and visiting friends and family.

have you seen Ice Road Truckers?

Have you seen the tv show, Ice Road Truckers? It comes on History channel, among others.  Well, that was us yesterday.  We are not looking for new careers.

Day one

Well, we made it out of the gate and we are now full - timers.  It was a 5 and a half hour drive today to the nearest city where we purchased our fifth wheel.  We made it before their closing time of 4:30 PM to drop off the fifth, and we are staying in a motel tonight.  It is warming up here and now a balmy minus 10 degrees C.  The roads were mostly clear with a few dicey spots. 

Now however, it is snowing and pretty soon we will check the road conditions and weather on the web.  Drive BC is a great website for road conditions.  The service department at the RV dealer said it might, get that: MIGHT be ready by noon tomorrow. We have a few things to get done such as repairing the insulation pack in the underside that they themselves cut into in a messy way.  We also have these lovely decorative wall lights that keep falling off the wall, so they are being fixed.  Finally, the slide top awning on the couch slide and a storage compartment lock that needs some attention. The good thing is that the unit was hauled inside their building for the night, and out of the snowstorm. Yes, snowstorm. Oh my.

I will try to take pictures tomorrow. How do we feel?  Well, we were pretty rushed to get out of town before the big snows started, so it has been " hair straight back ", with multitude of chores and arrangements.  So, we haven't relaxed as yet.

Oh yes, because it is so cold, we had to have the cat in the truck with us.  She rode just fine, except for howling when Don leaves the truck.