Victoria and Deck Pictures

Our trip over the Coquihalla started with fair weather from the Shuswap and Kamloops, but quickly turned into those monsoons as we hit the summit and started down the other side of the watershed, through the Great Bear Tunnel and beyond! Ah the wet coast!  Our first evening was spent with friends, Rob and Doris, in Hope.  They had a lovely supper ready for when we arrived and we had a great visit.  Rob and Doris are our neighbours at the Sands during the winter.

We have been requested to put up some pictures of Donald's major summer project:  the decks surrounding our new Park Model.  We have more landscaping to do next summer and finish off the stairs between the two decks, but we love it.  The top deck is covered in Trex decking, and the bottom is green treated lumber.

So ok, Russ! There it is!  For those quilty ladies, you can see just a bit of the roof of the blue quilting "hut" in the back.  We have grass behind the park model, and next summer there should be some in front of the lower deck.  Park model units are quite a bit bigger here than the ones in California and Arizona.  Ours is 46 x 14. 

The sun finally came out in Victoria yesterday, and we took advantage of this by taking our little 2 year old grandson to Juan de Fuca Community centre playground and then coffee at Timmy's.  His mum says he had a good nap in the afternoon, so mission accomplished!  

When we left the Shuswap, we were both running around trying to do as many chores as possible, and this was Donald's first time winterizing the unit.  I helped out where I could and remembered to take the Shaw HD receiver from the living room, but! I forgot the electrical cord as the plug in to the back of the receiver was one of those tiny circle plug ins, and I thought it was for something else! Oh no.  Yesterday we visited a Shaw store, and we were able to pick up another cord. Whew!  Who knows what else we have forgotten - we need to have better lists!!! I also really scrubbed out the fifth wheel, removing things we have carried for a couple of years and tried to get the weight down.  ( does that mean more room for the important Q stuff, Paulette?)  So, now its a game of " where is ???? "

Granddog, Finny, takes his first leap off the swim platform this summer

Ah, the sleep of babes

Countdown

The "to do" list is becoming shorter every day as we prepare to leave our sunny summer abode for further travels.  Donald has worked very hard all summer on the massive decks around our place, and they are beautiful.  He decided to go with Trex decking for the main upper deck, and even though it was pricier than treated decking, we feel it was so much worth it.  No worries about staining and cleaning every year.  The sun and heat in the sunny Shuswap is really tough on wood decks.

Yesterday we put away the lawn and patio furniture and most of the 5th wheel is packed up.  Last evening, we had our Escapee friends, Bob and Karen, here for taco supper. A good time! I had to apologize that supper was tacos, but they loved it and I got to use up more items out of the fridge - less to haul!!!

Some of our neighbours have left already for the winter, so with the cooler temperatures and now the rain, it is a sure indication that fall is here.

Our 19 year old cat managed to make it through the summer, so I guess she'll be a traveller once again. More news once we're on the road .....where was that list again?

emma

We have made our trip to see our newest little grand daughter, Emma, and we are thrilled to bits.  Mother and baby are fine, and her big brother loves his babe.   It was good to be able to make a couple of meals for them, do dishes and best of all, take our wee grandson to the petting zoo and playgrounds while his family could get settled. 

The little hat and afgan were made by Doris, our neighbour at the Sands in Desert Hot Springs.  Just lovely.   This pregnancy, our kids took the advantage of a midwife, whom was with them all through her pregnancy, came to their home while she was in the early stages of labour, delivered the baby at the hospital, and then comes daily to their home afterwards to check on mom and baby.  She is also available 24 hours a day on the phone.  Such great support and totally taken care of under our BC Medical.

Donald is busy working on the new monster deck, installing the Trex composite boards on the top. Big job, especially in the heat we are experiencing.   We have to get it done as we have company in 2.5 weeks and then the Sands group is arriving mid August!

A blogging break for the summer

Our summer season looks like hair straight back and we're running.  Huge decks to be built by ourselves, a new grand daughter on the way, a visit to the north country, a " Sands " reunion in August that we are co - hosting, a Chapter 33 Escapees RV Club Rally that we are co - hosting and more.

We may make a post entry when our new little love is welcomed to the world..... but in the meantime, our building and garden projects are calling and all we can do at night is put our feet up and snooze on the couch!!! You know how it is.

Talk to you later........

We're home

Rick posted today about how they never envisioned staying in a Walmart parking lot as part of their RV'ing experiences. Ok, we're guilty! In fact, we stayed in the parking lot at Canadian Tire in Salmon Arm, which is allowed, on our last night before home.  There are no RV camping spots in Salon Arm that we like, and this 'site' has an awesome dumping station where we can do a super job before we get to the lot.  Our arrival back home is only about an hour away, and we arrived about 10 am.

We knew that our gazebo had collapsed over the winter due to the extreme high snow load in the Shuswap, so this morning Donald is trying to salvage what he can, see what can be fixed and whether the fairly new gas bbq that we stored under the gazebo can also be salvaged. It's all pretty much flat, so there is not too much hope!  On the bright side, we left the car out all winter with only a car cover and after hooking up the battery, she was ready to go! Luckily the collapsed gazebo missed hitting the car.

So, today is more unpacking the 5th wheel and starting on cleaning up the gardens.  The weather has warmed up and it's sunny and so away we go!

The gazebo WAS nice