SOME DOWNRIGHT NASTY WEATHER

When we went bed last night, the ground was getting white and big snowflakes filled the air.  I was awakened by wind and rain pelting the motor home about 2 am and when I looked outside, the ground was bare again.  We had planned to go to Campbell River to visit cousin Bill but he called to say the power was out and the weather was terrible.  We decided to postpone our trip.  Later I read online that Campbell River was the hardest hit with trees and debris down on many streets.  There was also a report that a house roof blew off and into the neighbour’s yard.  Maybe we’ll go tomorrow.

After breakfast we went down to the beach to check out the waves.  French Creek was the best, with big waves blasting the shore.  We went to several other areas but some of them were pretty sheltered so the waves weren’t much.  The tide was also going out as the morning progressed which minimized the wave effect at the beach.  After a while, we decided to head home as we were getting hungry even though it was still too early for lunch.  When we went in the motor home, Aileen noticed the time and remembered we hadn’t set the clock in the car to daylight saving time so it was actually past lunch time.

Some waves at French Creek Boat Basin

These deer took advantage of a lull in the rain to grab a snack

Rainbow at Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park

Rathtrevor has some dandy fir trees in the campground

Mitzy had the right idea for today's weather

MIXED MARCH WEATHER

My Mom planted snowdrops many years ago and they are still creating a beautiful carpet of  cheer every spring

The weather has been all over the place recently.  We’ve had snow then minutes later the sun will be shining and nice and warm and within minutes it will be raining.  It sure is nice to be plugged in to power so we can have an electric heater running.

Chas and I went to visit our Mom the other night and she was doing fairly well.  She doesn’t seem to have lost any ground since last fall.  It is so good that she can be in a home where she is well cared for.

Aileen and I had another bonfire and burned up a lot of branches and debris.  We also burned off some dry grass.

We took a drive over to Port Alberni a couple days ago to poke around.  I had found an interesting little restaurant called Bare Bones, which advertised gluten free fish and chips, by typing in gluten free eating in Port Alberni.  They grilled some sockeye salmon for Aileen and their chips are always gluten free.  I had beer batter cod and chips and we both enjoyed our lunch.  Aileen had no ill effects later, which was good.

Aileen's sister Anne, and John, arrived midafternoon yesterday.  We visited awhile then went to Roong’s (Sheila’s Thai sister in law) Westhill Restaurant for supper at 5:30.  Chas and Sheila and Ethel and Terry (Sheila’s Mom and brother) joined us for a delicious supper.  John went home with Chas and Sheila to watch the Canucks get beaten in the hockey game while Aileen, Anne and I went to the Bluegrass show at the Rodeo grounds.  Ethel and Terry were there too.  There was some good music but some was a little loud.  We got to see Chris Stevens and John Milne from the Chris Stevens Band who are from Eagle Bay near Salmon Arm.  I’ve heard about them for years but never seen them perform.

As we approach noon today, it is beautifully sunny and blue skies.   Anne and John just left a few minutes ago to visit their son Mike in Port Alberni.  We hope to spend a month, or so, on Northern Vancouver Island with Anne and John this summer.

WE SHOULD STILL BE IN ARIZONA

We are having trouble keeping the motor home warm enough with the cool damp weather that is happening.   Several degrees of frost forecast for tonight.  When I took Mitzy for her walk this morning she was somewhat surprised to find her tongue skidding along the surface when she tried to have a puddle drink.  She only tried a couple times before telling me we’d better get back to the motor home for a drink.

We have been busy earning our temporary parking spot at my brother Charlie’s (and Sheila).  We have done miscellaneous chores around the place and today had a large bonfire cleaning up one section of the back yard.  Aileen enjoys having a fire and doesn’t consider it work.  I leveled a corner of the yard so the lawnmower can access it instead of having to use the weed whacker.

Aileen has been arranging visits of some of our relatives for the short time we are in this area.  We are both arranging appointments for our few weeks in Salmon Arm, our former home.  We don’t think we’ll  stay there too long this year.  Last year we stayed much longer because we were building our storage shed at our daughter’s.  We need to be down in the south Okanagan for a celebration of life for our friend Carole on May 5^th and have no idea yet which direction to go from there.  One advantage of this full timing is the ability to change direction fairly easily.

This is my office.  Aileen has been typing my Mom's diaries as an ongoing project spanning several years.  I proof then print them.  My Dad actually started the diary in 1946 before I was born then Mom took them over.  She was still writing them until just a couple years ago until her mental health declined too far.  Yesterday, I finished printing 1993 ending at page 4,563.  Yes that's right!!

This is yesterday out the side window

This was out the front window.  Today was a gorgeous sunny day but only just a few degrees above freezing

THE TERRA HAS LANDED ON VANCOUVER ISLAND

That wasn’t the best night for sleeping.  We were awake several times in the night.  Aileen finally got up about 5:30 to wash her hair then fed Mitzy.  I took Mitzy out then did the power cord, garbage and readied the car while Aileen put the slides in and the jacks up.  We pulled out about 6:02 am and headed down to the ferry lineup.  We were about number five so no problem getting in without a reservation.  It cost us $247.50 this time, I believe.  The crossing got quite rough with the ship wallowing side to side and slamming down into troughs causing spray to come over the bow and drench the windows.  I was starting to feel quite queasy for a while.

                The customs guy was very polite and easy to get along with which was good.  We got out of town as fast as we could and started up the Malahat which the electronic signs proclaimed to be bare and wet.  Not!  We ran into snow before even starting up the first hill and before long it was sticking to the road.  The guy in front of us had a two wheel drive pickup towing a car on a dolly and he did quite a bit of fish tailing.  The Terra motor home felt very secure, which was good.  I’m not sure about some of the rest of the crew though!  We stopped at a rest area south of Nanaimo for lunch and the rain mostly stopped for it.  We even had some sunshine in the Nanoose to Parksville area.  Thankfully it was not precipitating while we did our set up at Charlie and Sheila’s.  It was 3072 kms from Florence (1920 miles) to Errington where we will be for the next few weeks.

This pilot boat was getting lots of water over the bow just like we were

Oh, Oh!

And then it got worse!  At least most of the other traffic was driving carefully

LAST DAY IN THE US THIS TRIP

Yucky on the windshield

Our plan was to hang around Victoria to visit the kids on the weekend so I thought we’d stay a couple more nights at the cheap park in Elma since it is so expensive near Victoria.  However, Aileen found out this morning that wasn’t the case after all, so we decided to head for the ferry today, blow through Victoria and get further up Island.  We are in Sequim, WA tonight and hope to get on the ferry in the morning without a reservation.  We took a drive out to Aberdeen, WA this morning but there wasn’t much to see as the weather went downhill on us.  It started raining before we got to Aberdeen and didn’t quit until we were in Sequim hours later.  We had snow building up on the windshield several times whenever the road gained a little elevation but it wasn’t sticking on the road.  We only put on 180 kms today in about 2.5 hours of driving.  That would be about 112 miles, I think.

OFF I-5 FINALLY

Not too far north of Grant's Pass we ran into this

I took Mitzy for a big walk in the cold before breakfast.  We drove over to the gas station about 7:30 but it was a couple minutes past eight before we had the $294 gas in and the car hooked up.  I drove for a couple hours then Aileen for about one and a half up to lunch.  I did the rest and tonight we are in Elma, WA.   The Passport America park I had planned on staying at near Castle Rock is now a KOA park and PA is not honoured.  I am wondering about my wisdom in taking out this membership.  I had intended using it enough on the way north to cancel out the cost of joining but with only this park in Alma and the one in Gila Bend, our savings are about half of the $39 fee.  Another I wanted to stay at wasn’t valid in February while yet another wasn’t valid on the day of the week we would have been there.

We put on 726 kms (425 miles) yesterday and 614 (384 miles) today.  So much for our target of no more than 500 kms (300 miles).  Yesterday our excuse was getting past the possible storm.  Today was getting away from that danged freeway.  Most of the RV parks along I-5 are right along it so they are horribly noisy which is not nice for two people who seem to have very sensitive hearing.  I guess there are times when some hearing loss does come in handy.  The next drive for the motor home will only be to Sequim which is not much more than 125 miles, I think.  I’m considering staying here another night and perhaps taking a run out to the coast tomorrow to poke around.  The lady said it was only 19F degrees here this morning so we’ll just have to see.  We dumped our tanks when we arrived this afternoon and filled the fresh water tank.  That way we don’t need to have any hoses hooked up to freeze.

A little further north and the co pilot was starting to get nervous but then we dropped a thousand feet and all was well

OVER THE SISKIYOU PASS AHEAD OF THE SNOW

We were up at 6:17 this morning and on the road at 7:14.  I topped off the tank next door so we didn’t have to worry about gas the rest of the day.  I drove 2 hours and 40 minutes getting us well beyond Sacramento before making our first stop.  Aileen drove the next 1.75 hours then I drove us the rest.  We got in to Henderson’s in Grant’s Pass a little after 4 pm, so about nine hours today.  That’s where we had our suspension worked on so successfully last year and they told us to feel free to come and plug in outside the shop if we were passing by, so we did.  There was lots of wind in several places along the way, but nothing like yesterday   I had planned to take Aileen to The Vine, the great gluten free restaurant we ate at last year, but they are closed on Sunday so it was supper at home. 

The weather for the next few days looks rather lousy and especially, wet.  We are planning on taking two days to get to Port Angeles, where we’ll take the ferry to Victoria, but it seems we might have a bit of snow even in the lower elevations.  I guess we’ll just have to see what happens.  The forecast for the Siskiyou Mountain area is predicting possibly several feet accumulation as there is about four inches of rain forecast coming in from the coast.