About Me

Lee Creek, North Shuswap near Chase, B.C, Canada
We went full-time Rving in October of 2005! We retired from full time to part-time as of the end of 2015. Our present "small but comfortable" Wagon is a 2008 Camper trailer(TravelAir Rustler), pulled by a 2008 Dodge Dakota, 4X4.l. Our home is now a Gated Community Park, in Oliver, British-Columbia, Canada. I retired in 2005 and my Life Companion, Valerie, retired October 1, 2006 from nursing. We invite you to follow and share our new adventures and mishaps. Life is but an adventure full of dreams yet to be fulfilled!

Monday, May 31, 2010

May 28 to 31, 2010; Olds, Alberta

MAY 28 to 31, Friday to Monday; Olds Alta and back
We left around 10:30 am for Olds, Alberta. Hwy 1 was very quiet on the East bound lane. After a lunch break in Golden and a fuel stop in Canmore, we arrived in Olds around 8:30 p.m. local time (one hour ahead of ours). We are staying at Ken and Iva’s house so that Audrey will not know we are here. The retirement party is a surprise put on by her husband Marcel thus our hiding until Sunday when the party is. Ken and Iva were out but they had told us where the key was hiding so we let ourselves in. They arrived home around 11 p.m. and we visited catching up on news and finally went to bed around 1 a.m.
Saturday was spent getting the stuff for the party, running around getting booze, food and other things and in the mean time, hoping we wouldn’t run into Audrey. Iva cooked us a marvellous dinner then we visited for the rest of the evening and were in bed by 10 p.m.
Sunday, we got up early and went to the hall for the final preparation and decorations; we couldn’t do it yesterday as the hall was being used by another party so had to do everything this morning. Friends, John and Bernice also showed up to give us a hand and we had everything ready by 11 a.m. The party started at 2 p.m. when Marcel walked Audrey in the hall under the pretence of helping Ken and Iva doing a BBQ for the Elk’s hall. It was a TOTAL surprise! And we had a riot of a time! Of course Audrey had a marvellous time too! There were over 60 people present including Val and Audrey’s sister Dori and Dori’s daughter and husband and baby. A band played and since a lot of Marcel’s friends play music, everyone took a turn at playing or singing. Lots of good talented people were present and even Marcel played a few tunes. The whole thing rapped up around 9 p.m. Once everyone was gone, we cleaned up. Audrey was quite drunk to say the least and wasn’t much help! Hihihihihihi!
Monday, after saying goodbye to Iva and Ken, we met Marcel, Dori and Audrey at Smithy’s for breakfast. Audrey was hung over so we had fun at her expense. Too soon, it was time to say goodbye and hit the road. A lot of constructions were happening in the Park and near Golden. They are widening the highway to 4 lanes and at one point, we had to wait a half hour for some blasting. We finally got home at 8 p.m., unpacked and hit the sack early.
It was a very good and fun-filled week-end

Thursday, May 27, 2010

May 23 to 27, 2010; Gateway

MAY 23 to 27, Sunday to Thursday; Gateway
Well, the week started cold, rainy but with the odd sunny period. I moved all our stuff out of storage and into our container then cancelled our storage space; one less monthly expense! Val started work on Tuesday and I am still applying at places around here, Chase, Sorrento and Scotch Creek but no luck thus far. I had a doctor’s appointment on Wednesday and received a clean bill of health although my cholesterol is still too high so he is doubling my dosage and my sugar level is still border line. Picked up the mail then came home, cleaned and topped up the batteries on the “Bear”. Thursday, I did the laundry and picked up our homemade wine and ordered another batch. Tomorrow we head to Olds Alberta for Audrey’s retirement party.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

May 18 to 22, 2010; Gateway

MAY 18 to 22, Gateway
Our steel container was delivered on Monday morning and I got that ready to receive our storage stuff. I drilled venting holes at each corners and I moved two loads of boxes from the storage in Chase to our new container and some stuff from our little shed which was getting over-full. I made a trip to Salmon Arm to pick up our mail and a couple of little things and some wood to make a shelf in the small shed.
Val got back on Wednesday in the evening safe and sound and that night we had a terrible wind storm and lots of rain. The next day, the road was half flooded and loose stuff had been blown everywhere. Two of our neighbours got their gazebo damaged from the wind.
Thursday we did laundry in Chase. It’s been a cloudy, rainy and windy week and the long week-end is no better. A lot of people are out in the park getting their respective places ready for the summer.

Monday, May 17, 2010

May 9 to 17, 2010; Gateway and surprised visitors

MAY 9, Sunday, Gateway, Happy Mother’s Day!
A quiet day at home. I washed Val’s car then we went to Sorrento for a brunch outing with Donna and Marcel. In the afternoon, Val and I went geo-caching on a trail near here and walked a total of 2.5 miles. It is a beautiful trail and we had biked it before so it was even nicer walking it. We came home, had happy hour with neighbours, Jack and Mim, and afterwards I BBQ’ed spare ribs for dinner followed by a quiet evening at home.
Since we are home at Gateway now for the summer, I will write this blog only once a week, recapping anything of interest.


MAY 10-17, Gateway
A quiet week ending with a surprise visit. We went to Salmon Arm for mail and groceries at the beginning of the week and I washed the car; Val got new planting soil and new flowers planted. I finally found a 20’ steel container, at a reasonable price and after seeing it, we bought it. We called a transport to have it delivered and we will place it in Gateway compound. It will be delivered next Tuesday.
Joanne and Don came for a visit on Thursday and we had a very nice visit. We got our laundry done and on Saturday, we went to a “Meet your neighbour” at new people that recently bought into Gateway. Earlier in the day, I washed the awning and the roof which was overdue.
Sunday, we had visitors from Ontario; folks we had met a couple years ago and he had pumped me for info about full-timing! Well, now they are full timing and were on their way to Edmonton to visit their daughter so stopped for an overnight visit. We had a fire and a few drinks and reminisced over the old days and chatted till the wee hours of the morning. Monday morning, after I cooked a nice breakfast to all (if I may say so me-self!) then they were on their way to Edmonton. Val left later in the afternoon for a working trip to Vancouver with Donna. The day ended with heavy rain and strong winds.

Sunday, May 09, 2010

May 1 to 8, 2010; Gateway

MAY 1, Saturday, Gateway
A lazy day at home! I helped Marcel get his satellite set up then we went to Scotch Creek for some shopping and then found a couple of caches.
For dinner, Val cooked a buffalo roast; it was a bit tough but still delicious. Watched the Canucks win over Boston!


MAY 2, Sunday,Gateway
It rained all day, very windy and very cold too. We stayed home, read and watched TV


MAY 3, Monday, Gateway
Val had a doctor’s app’t at 1 pm so we went to Salmon Arm and did some shopping before. We got back at the rig around 4 pm after finding a couple more caches. We got the rig ready to leave tomorrow then relaxed.


MAY 4 to 6, Kamloops
We spent these past 3 days in the yard at “South Thompson RV” getting some warranty work done and servicing the furnace and water tank. As I suspected, the water tank heater element was damaged from the water in Yuma, even the Service guy made a comment right off the bat. We also had a fluorescent light installed above the kitchen sink to give Val more lighting around there. Val worked on Wednesday; and on Thursday, we did some laundry and some geo-caching of course! “Bear” was ready by 3 pm so after settling our bill, we left for Gateway where we set up once again.


MAY 7-8, Logan Lake
We had a weird thing happened this morning; when I got up the coffee had been made but the coffee maker was off...it had quit working. I checked everything but it never came on again. I called the 800 number for repairs and they will send us a new unit, all I have to do is send them the plug!!?
We left home around 11 am for Logan Lake and on the way, we stopped in Kamloops to pick up a couple things in town. On the way to Logan Lake, it started snowing of all things, quite heavily too. It is at 3700 feet after all. We got to the Kirkby’s safe and sound and after a short visit, we all went over to our friend's house, Rick and Pat, around 5 pm to have a happy hour and see our friends and Pat’s cousin, Glenda and Terry and Bill & Georgia who are along with Terry & Glenda for a couple weeks. They are all headed for 100 miles House to help Glenda’s sister at their farm.
We had a marvellous visit. Friends of ours and the Tate’s, Joanne and Don, were also there and can't forget Rick's mom, Marie, so it made for a full house. Lots of food and good company made it a successful time.
We spent the night at the Kirkby’s and the next day, after a nice breakfast, we headed home.