ABOUT DONE WITH OUR VISIT TO NORTHERN VANCOUVER ISLAND

We had two cruise ships come by one behind the other yesterday.  This is the Coral Princess

And this is the Zuiderdam a Holland America ship.  It blew its horn several times at these fishermen who were in no hurry to get out of the way

That's the Pultenay Point Lighthouse in the background.  The ships come through the narrow strait between Malcolm Island and Vancouver Island

We’ve enjoyed our trip to the north Island as usual and it is almost time to head back down Island.  We will be in Campbell River Monday night and hope cousin Bill’s friends can help us get this water leak fixed in the motor home.  Twice in heavy rains in the past five weeks, we have had water in the back of the motor home between the bed and back wall.  It seems to start in the middle and go both ways which makes me suspect the backup camera is the problem area.  We had quite a time removing the screws holding the camera cover in place.  Finally mechanic nephew Dennis brought his impact wrench out and managed to break them loose.   

Aileen has been plagued with back spasms for most of our trip so unable to do much of what she wanted.  Just when she thinks it is improving, she gets hit with another bout.  We’re pretty sure it is her MS acting up but it would sure be nice if it would just go away.  Today was a showery morning so Foster’s came and played Mexican Train with us.  John was winner followed by Anne, Aileen and then me the scorekeeper, who can’t seem to minimize my own score. 

We managed to see all our relatives in this area finally.  Most of them ended up coming by our campfire to visit at some point.  With Aileen’s back issues we didn’t get out and around as much as we normally would but we didn’t seem to have that much free time.  We’ve had a great time visiting Aileen’s sister Anne and John and things will seem quiet on all sides when we depart, I imagine.  John and I put 300-400 kms on the ATVs and saw some interesting sights.  We only had two rainy sessions, I think during our four weeks.  Unfortunately, today is one of them so the ATV riding may be done for this trip since tomorrow’s forecast is the same as today.

I bought a Wilson antenna and booster from The Source in Port Hardy hoping it would give us dependable internet but it didn’t.  I returned it yesterday for the second time.  After I had returned it the first time, one of the guys thought of something else so I bought it again.   One thing the guy there did suggest might work for us was to buy a smart phone and set it up to create an internet hot spot.  I will have to check into that for next year.  Something else I read recently, mentioned getting a new type of phone that could be taken to the US and tied into a monthly plan down there when needed.  I can’t remember the term that was used to indicate the way the phone would be set up but the concept is intriguing.  Dependable internet is our orneriest challenge with the mobile lifestyle we are trying to follow.

We have a wedding in Tofino next Sunday and hopefully a boat trip to Hot Springs Cove the day before.  Soon after that we will make our way back to Salmon Arm to visit and tie up loose ends.  I made some prints to enter in the Salmon Arm Fair this year so will try to help the club with the setup and later one day’s guard duty on Friday September 9.  The plan is to depart Salmon Arm on September 10 heading for Colorado Springs by no later than the 17^th.  I have a week long photo conference there.  We would then have five weeks to wander the southwest before arriving at our winter abode about November 1^st.