A New Border “Fence”

I have always been fascinated by the border wall/fence and the border patrol check stations … and watching the TV show Border Patrol. So when we stopped at the outlet mall in Calexico yesterday I had to check out the new border fence. And I say fence on purpose because of things I have read on the Internet, maybe true, maybe not, but here is what I found out.

This section of border fence use to look like this.

Border fence in the parking lot of the Calexico Outlet Mall.

I took the above picture in 2015 but it still looked like the same last year when we visited the outlet mall.

Apparently US Customs and Border Protection had always planned on replacing an eleven mile section of border fence in this area last year, it had been in the budget planning for years. When they began to build the fence last year President Trump made an announcement that this was the beginning of the new border wall he had promised during his election campaign and he made a visit to Calexico to officially open the new wall once it was built.

The powers that be in both Calexico and US Customs and Border Protection insist that this is not a wall, it is just a new border fence that they had plan to install all along.

I’m not sure what the real story is but the new “fence” is much more imposing and taller than the old fence!

I only took one quick picture because as you can see Border Patrol was sitting right there and I’m not sure if I’m allowed to take a picture … fortunately I’m still here so I guess it was okay 🙂

Until next time …

Goodbye Fall … Summer Here We Come!

Today was a busy day doing all the final preparations for our departure south tomorrow. All of the Christmas presents have been wrapped, our travel insurance has been purchased, and Maxx and the truck are packed and anxiously awaiting there departure tomorrow.

This afternoon hubby and I took our last walk of the year through the paths in our daughter’s neighborhood and enjoyed the fall colors.

While I love the fall colors and our family I’m looking forward to the return of flip flops and summer weather 🙂

Until next time …

Squirrel Update

Cat 1, Squirrel 0 😦

Until next time …

A Noisy Critter

Last night hubby and I were sitting inside Maxx contemplating dinner when hubby said “What is that noise?”

“I don’t know,” I answered, “But its being going on for a long time”.

Hubby decided to go outside and see if he could find the source of the noise. “You won’t believe this, come and look,” he says to me. So I head outside to see what he is talking about, I look where hubby is pointing 20 feet up the side of our daughter’s house and there is a big black squirrel paralyzed with fear, chirping and hanging from the stucco on the side of the house!

I quickly reach for the camera but before I can get the picture the squirrel scurries along the stucco toward the backyard. I had no idea they could grip stucco and actually walk sideways hanging from 20 feet! I did manage to get a picture before he headed around the corner of the house.

By now hubby has gone into the backyard and notices that the cat is sitting at the bottom corner of the house and has no intention of letting the squirrel get down from the house. The squirrel, not to be outdone, quickly heads back around the corner to the side of the house.

Despite what I think is a terrified look on his face, the squirrel manages to take a leap of faith and lands safely in the cherry tree. The cat, not to be outdone, takes off after the squirrel. I have no idea who won this battle but my bet is on the squirrel.

Until next time …

One Last Camping Trip :-)

This past weekend we enjoyed our final B.C. camping trip before we head south this winter. We spent the weekend at Bear Creek Provincial Park with our daughter, son-in-law and four of our grandchildren.  Hubby has our solar panel system working so well that even though we didn’t have much sun we still had enough power to work the toaster, coffee maker, and microwave all weekend and as an added bonus I was able to blow dry and curl my hair before we headed home! It is so cool to be able to camp without hook-ups and not have to give up any of the amenities 🙂

After we dropped Maxx off in our daughter’s driveway on Sunday we headed out to pick up our other grandson for a fun filled visit that included pictures and dinner at his favourite restaurant, The Old Spaghetti Factory. This will be our last visit with him until Christmas time.

We had a good time taking pictures of the grandkids and wandering the paths of this park overlooking the golf course.

Our next few weeks will be spent completing last minute errands and chores such as Christmas shopping, birthday present shopping for those birthdays we will miss before we return in the spring, checking over the truck and Maxx to make sure all is well, obtaining travel insurance and renewing vehicle and trailer insurance, and final visits with friends and families. We will fly out to Edmonton for the Thanksgiving weekend which we will celebrate with our three children and their families and then the following Thursday, October 15^th, we will start our way south. Our travel plans at this point are very Jello Solid, a great term we first heard on a blog called Wheeling It, the term means we have made some travel plans for the winter but on any given day they can change, which has already happened a few times during our planning! The only thing we know for sure is that we will be in Phoenix the second week in November to attend the NASCAR Race with hubby’s sister and brother-in-law and following that we will head to Yuma, Arizona for three months. We made the decision to save some money, due to the crappy exchange rate on the Canadian dollar, and stay in Yuma for three months. Most people who have been to Yuma complain about the wind but we have spent time there the last two winters and have never had a problem with the wind. Maybe the wind is worse in the Fortuna area than it is in the area we stay which is near the California/Mexico border. Anyway we are looking forward to our time in Yuma where we have great neighbours and we enjoy spending time riding our bikes.

Until next time …

Crazy Creek Resort

Our friends headed home on Sunday afternoon but we decided to stay another night at MacDonald Creek Provincial Park. We spent another afternoon sitting on the beach and wandering around the campsite. Monday morning we headed north past Nakusp toward Revelstoke, B.C. where Maxx was treated to his second ferry ride on a much bigger ferry and a longer crossing. We were sandwiched in the middle so I couldn’t get any pictures but I did get a shot of all the inuksuk’s along the beach … Many people must have spent time building these while waiting for the ferry to come 🙂

Our destination for Monday night was Crazy Creek Resort and Waterfall located between Revelstoke, B.C. and Sicamous, B.C. We have driven by this resort many times on our way out to Alberta so we thought we should finally see what it was all about. We arrived in the early afternoon and chose to dry camp for $27.00 a night, full hook-up is $40.00 a night and the sites are a long distance from the hot pools. Our site was in a nice wooded area but it wasn’t really worth $27.00 a night. Once we were set up we hiked up to the suspension bridge and waterfall, this trek cost another $19.00 for the two of us.

The term hike really isn’t the best description; an easy walk up a slight incline is a more appropriate description. The waterfall is pretty and the best views are from the center of a suspension bridge, which crosses over to a gift shop. Honestly unless you really like suspension bridges (and I don’t!) I think there are many other waterfalls that are just as pretty and can be viewed for free … such as the waterfall at Fintry Provincial Park that I blogged about this past June.

We followed our hike with a visit to the four hot pools which range in temperature from 63F/15C to 104F/40C.

We chose to purchase a multi visit pass at $33.00 for the two of us and we did make another visit later Monday night and again on Tuesday before we headed home.

All in all we were glad we stopped but I do think it a little overpriced for what you get.

On the way home we had to stop on Highway 97A to allow a HUGE black bear to cross, I was so busy admiring how big and healthy he looked that I forgot to take a picture 🙂

Until next time …

Nakusp, B.C.

Last Thursday we headed off to Nakusp in the West Kootenay area of B.C.. We were meeting friends at McDonald Creek Provincial Park on Friday for the weekend and we had hoped to get into our site a day early.

Maxx was pretty excited about the trip because our route took us over Highway 6 to the Needles/Fauquier ferry where Maxx enjoyed his first ferry ride 🙂

Maxx was pretty excited about his first ferry ride and he had a great view during his ride!

Arrow Lake

The ferry is diesel powered and uses a winding drum on a pair of 1-inch-diameter (25 mm) cables, which are suspended in the lake. The crossing across Arrow Lake is normally 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) in length but the water level is so low right now that I’m sure it was much shorter. The ferry was full of RVers and even though we were the second unit on we were one of the last off. Normally that wouldn’t bother us but this time it really worked against us! By the time we arrived at the campground all the other RVers had taken up the empty sites, in fact the fifth wheel in front of us got the last spot 😦

So we headed into Nakusp and checked out the municipal campground but we weren’t overly impressed, we then decided to head up to the Nakusp Hot Springs where we have stayed before and we knew there is a really nice campground. Alas, that wasn’t meant to be either, the campground was full. Off we went back to the municipal campground and actually found a site that wasn’t too bad and since we were right in town hubby thought we should ride our bikes to a local pub and have dinner.

The next morning we headed back to MacDonald Creek Provincial Park and checked into the site we had reserved for the weekend. We were really please with the park and the site our friends had reserved.

View of the lake from our campsite.

The water level is the lowest it’s been since 2003. It’s a long walk out to the water for a swim but there sure is lots of sandy beach!

The next morning we woke up to heavy fog, which made for some interesting pictures of the lake.

 

We decided to take a trip into Nakusp and walk the promenade along the lake. In 1968 the Hugh Keenleyside Dam at Castlegar was completed. The dam raised the water level of the Arrow Lakes by 24m/80ft which caused the loss of thousands of acres of farmland and numerous First Nations archaeological and burial sites. Entire towns along the valley were submerged and thousands of people were forced to relocate. Nakusp fared a little better since is was built on the elevated flood plain of Kuskanax Creek and only two residential streets and some industrial land were submerged under the lake.

As we walked along the promenade the fog started to lift but it was still heavy along the water.

The promenade is anchored by the Nakusp Marina on one end and the public beach on the other. The paved walkway takes you past the Spicer Garden, the Japanese Garden and the historic Leland Hotel, the oldest continually-operating hotel in B.C. where of course we had to stop for lunch on the deck.

You can’t beat the view from the hotel deck!

With a final walk through the streets of Nakusp we arrived back at the truck and headed back to the campsite for happy hour on the beach :-).

The town if full of beautiful flowers!

Happy hour on the beach as the sun sets.

Until next time …

Smoky Skies :-(

Most of the blogs I read have made comments about the smoky skies and forest fires where they are staying and the Okanagan area of BC is no exception. Our family was forced to evacuate our home in 2003 when fire ripped through our town. Fortunately we were not one of the 239 homes that were lost but it was still a pretty scary time so I can really relate to all those affected by the fires this summer.

Last Sunday we headed up to Armstrong BC to camp for three nights with friends. What should have been an easy drive with beautiful views of the lakes along the way, turned out to be an easy drive with nothing to look at but smoky skies.

This picture was taken one year ago.

Picture taken last Sunday.

But the smoky skies couldn’t keep this group from having fun! The four of us walked and rode our bikes around town for three days.  We spent time wandering in and out of many small shops, and even made a few trips to the pub at the Armstrong Hotel for some refreshments.

It was at the hotel that I think our most entertaining moment happened … hubby was at the bar paying the bill, I was reading some of the fun signs posted on the wall, friend wife was doing something and friend husband went to the washroom … so far it sounds pretty unentertaining right 🙂  Well hang in there it gets better! As I’m reading the signs I hear friend wife say, a little incredulously, “What happen?”, I turn around to see friend husband standing there with blood running down his face!

Actually I think I will continue the story with the email that friend wife send to their children and family after our time at the bar.

A guy goes into a biker bar, sits down has a beer. Decides he has to
take a leak, goes into the can, trips on the step up and gashes his
forehead on the Harley handlebars that are mounted above the urinal.
True story!

Guess Who?

Well they had no trouble guessing 🙂  After many laughs that night us ladies decided we needed to see what this urinal looked liked, hubby had gone in for a look after friend husband came out with blood on his face but of course us ladies couldn’t go in to the men’s room. So the only solution was to go back to the bar and send hubby in to take a picture.

I’m guessing the handlebars are there in case you really overindulge!  Friend husband caught his flip flop on the concrete edge of the cement base and really was very lucky his injury wasn’t worse.  And honestly he only had one beer!

We had a lot of fun a this pub and yes friend husband is okay and he barely has a scar to show off for his escapade 🙂

Until next time …

Don’t Cry Over Spilt Milk

Can I cry over broken eggs?

Image from clipart.

If you have a life you probably have better things to do than read today’s blog so feel free to move on to something more interesting. Apparently I don’t have anything better to do and the theme for this blog has been going around in my head all day, so here it is … but remember I gave you the chance to bail 🙂

“What are you going to do today” hubby asked as we sat in bed enjoying our favorite morning ritual of drinking coffee and watching the news. “I thought I would finish pruning daughters hedge” I replied.

Shortly after I got up to make breakfast and dropped the egg carton breaking three critical eggs. Why critical you may ask? Well when you live in an RV grocery shopping once a week can be a little challenging because it needs to fit into a smaller fridge. We each have a boiled egg in the morning so we need fourteen eggs to get through the week and since it’s cheaper to buy eggs at Costco I save enough fridge space to store two and a half dozen eggs. Yesterday was grocery day but I knew I had just enough eggs to make it until next Wednesday, which was good because I also didn’t have enough room to store an additional two and a half dozen eggs. So aside from the mess the three broken eggs made they also foiled my egg storage plan for the week and now I either have to make a special trip to Costco the day before shopping day or we have to find something else for breakfast one morning.

But back to breakfast, I stepped around the broken eggs (I couldn’t clean them up as I only had one free hand because my morning routine also involves brushing my teeth while getting breakfast started) and put two of the remaining eggs in a pan to boil and continued on with the process of setting the table. Once I finished brushing my teeth I used mega paper towel to clean up the mess, which is okay because it was plain white paper towel and I didn’t like it anyway, I prefer paper towel with flowers or some other decoration on it … see I told you I was sure you had better things to do than read this blog! Anyway it’s a messy job wiping up broken eggs, although as I was doing it I was wondering if egg is good for lino, I heard it is good for hair so maybe it will may my lino shinny, but no such luck.

Since I had now washed the section of floor by the sink I decided I might as well wash the entire floor after breakfast. Now this is a chore I had been putting off for some time as it requires moving some furniture and washing the entire floor on my hands and knees … yes I know I could use a mop and I have one but there were little spots of sticky stuff that the mop doesn’t get. This is where my full time RV life and my feeling of always being on holidays come to a major collision! I shouldn’t have to wash the floor while I’m on holidays which is why I keep putting it off and just sweeping, but then that little gremlin called common sense knocks on my head and tells me this is also my house and washing the floor is a chore that should be done more regularly. So today I listen to common sense and washed the floor, now I can go back to my holiday.

And what was on hubby’s plan for the day? Well I’m sure it didn’t include hauling furniture in and out of the trailer but he was a good sport and helped me out. After that chore was done hubby also helped me prune the hedge, which was probably fun because he was able to do some chainsaw pruning!

When our daughter and son-in-law first purchased their house three years ago I was itching to get at their hedge and do some pruning, but they liked it the way it was. Over the past three years the hedge has grown taller and our daughter finally decided that it did need to be pruned … Oh Boy, this was a job I was looking forward to 🙂

Before

Hubby took the chainsaw to the top of the hedge to bring it down to some of the lower trees … I wasn’t able to do that with the hedge pruner.

Once hubby was done with the chainsaw he left me to it and after about three hours I decided to call it quits. I still need to tidy up the road side but it was getting to warm and the yard waste bin was full so it seemed like a good time to stop.

So if you decided to stay with me during this eggciting blog I hope you have better things to look forward to for the rest of your day 🙂

Until next time …

Family Time

We have spent most of the past week hanging out at hubby’s sisters place in Abbotsford. We had a great time and really enjoyed our evenings chatting with them while sitting around the fire (a propane fire since BC has a province wide fire ban on right now).

We had a very pretty parking spot under the trees on hubby’s sisters acreage.

The main purpose of our trip was to attend a get together with hubby’s siblings, their families, and his mother. Unfortunately our oldest two children and their families were unable to attend due to work commitments but our youngest son and his wife flew out from Edmonton for the weekend. Saturday brought bright blue skies and warm temperatures so we were able to visit outside under the trees, it was a great party and really fun to catch up with everyone.

We spent Sunday wandering around downtown Vancouver with our son and daughter-in-law before we took them to the airport to catch their flight home. On Monday we had a great visit with hubby’s mom, did a little grocery shopping and then had dinner out with hubby’s sister and brother-in-law. Tuesday was a fun day spent riding our bikes around the Stanley Park Seawall.

Stanley Park is a 1,001-acre public park that borders downtown Vancouver, British Columbia and is almost entirely surrounded by the waters of Vancouver Harbour and English Bay.

 

The land was turned into Vancouver’s first park when the city incorporated in 1886. It was named after Lord Stanley, a British politician who had recently been appointed governor general. Most of the park is densely forested, as it was in the late 1800s, with about a half million trees, some of which stand as tall as 76 metres (249 ft) and are hundreds of years old.

The Vancouver Seawall, which is nearing a century old, draws thousands of residents and visitors to the park every day.‪ Stanley Park also features forest trails, beaches, lakes, children’s play areas, and the Vancouver Aquarium, among many other attractions. On June 18, 2014 Stanley Park was named ‘top park in the entire world’ by TripAdvisor.‪

 

We purchased 3 hours of parking at $3.25 an hour and headed out on our bikes. The weather was perfect for our ride, a little cool but no rain and we really enjoyed ourselves. The ride around the seawall was 12 km, 7.5 miles, and it took us about an hour with many stops to get the camera out and take pictures.

Lumberman’s Arch … When I was a kid this was a saltwater pool that used water from the ocean. Once a week the pool gates were opened at low tide to release the water back into the ocean before the next high tide brought in clean water. This was where I took the Vancouver Sun’s Learn to Swim Program.

  

On Wednesday we headed to Tunkwa Provincial Park near Logan Lake, BC for the night to visit again with hubby’s older brother and his wife.

We were parked right beside the lake and woke up to a gorgeous view this morning 🙂

Today we headed back to our home in the driveway and tomorrow we will move into our daughter’s house to look after our four grandchildren while they enjoy a weekend away with friends.

Until next time …