Plan C – We Made It!

Plan C turned out to be the one that worked!! We left Qualicum Bay on Friday afternoon – pulled into a parking lot to share our last meal on the island with friends from Wildwood and then headed down to Duke Point to wait for the right time to line up for the 5:15 AM ferry.

Why, you say, would anyone want to catch the ferry at 5:15 in the morning? Well . . . it’s all a matter of money, isn’t it? We found this great sale that would save us over 40% on certain ferry sailings . . . so . . . does that answer the question?

Anyway, we pulled into the parking lot at the terminal at 10:40 pm (after the last ferry left). Needless to say, we were first in line for the morning sailing. There’s an advantage to being “turtles” – we went to bed and slept until the Bang! Bang! Bang! on the door at 4:15 am to inform us that it was time to wake up and get ready to go through the toll both!!

Of course, it had rained, but then what else would you expect. Groggily, we got up and dressed and went on to wait in the next line-up for the ferry. I figured there must be something wrong cuz nothing happened – smooth getting on, getting off and even finding a pull-off and hooking up the car. Things were looking up. Maybe this was a sign?

Actually, we can’t really complain about the trip back to Lethbridge. When we got off the ferry in Vancouver, there was a heavy fog and then rain and then some snow, then wind and horrible pot holes on the TransCanada and finally a road wash-out around Fernie but, hey, what can you expect at the end of March? The cost of gas went from $1.14 in Vancouver to .955 in Southern Alberta – that’s progress, isn’t it?

We got home in record time after spending the night in the now-closed Government truck scales lot in Golden, BC watching four deer lick the salt off the car. By 4:30 Sunday pm, we had winterized and parked the Motor Home; emptied the fridge and collected the essentials to come into the Condo; and by 5:00 I was sitting in a very hot bathtub where I stayed until I was warm and wrinkled!!

The one thing I must say about Lethbridge, you can always depend on things staying the same. Six months and it feels like we haven’t even been away. Everything is exactly the same as when we left. The hot tub is closed for repairs; the same people use the same exercise machines at the same times; and the same people sit and wait for the mail talking about either their ailments or the weather. Aw-w-w, the stability of life!

I think it’s going to take us a few weeks to get organized and into the mood of planning our next adventure. We have decided not to go to Kelowna this year and maybe venture east across the country – weather and the price of fuel permitting.

P.S. Today is April 1, 2007 and it is snowing in Lethbridge!

Remember the TV Series-“The Prisoner” . . .

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Do you remember the old TV series called “The Prisoner”? Patrick McGoohan played an agent who wanted to retire from the Secret Service (British) but they wouldn’t let him out into the regular population. Instead he was renamed No. 6 and entrapped on an island. Every time he tried to leave the island, these huge balloons came out of the ocean and stopped him or, at least, that’s what I remember most clearly.

That’s what it’s felt like the past few weeks. Every time we’ve made plans to leave Vancouver Island, these big balloons come out of the ocean to stop us. Well, that isn’t entirely true – it’s life and circumstances (mostly the weather) that are out of our control.

Plan A was to leave Nanaimo and the Westwood Lake RV Park when our month was up on March 16^th and start the trek back to Lethbridge. Then the weather started to get nicer and we thought about Plan B. We would still leave the RV park and Nanaimo but go up island aways and find a place right on the ocean for a couple of weeks. As the 16^th grew nearer, we became painfully aware just how much the cost of gas had gone up (7¢ in just one day) and just decided to cut our losses and start back.

Lo and behold, up comes the 17^th storm of the season. We woke a few days before we were scheduled to leave and discovered there had been massive rock slides in the Fraser Canyon (between Lytton and Spence’s Bridge) that washed out about 36 kilometres of road, railway tracks and fibre optics. As well, there was a mud slide on Highway 1 near Bridal Falls west of Hope that was stopping traffic. Oops! Not the time to head eastward. So we pulled out our trusty Passport America guide and have ended up here at Qualicum Bay.

We haven’t been sorry about our decision – we needed to move on but weren’t quite ready to head back. A bit of anxiety when we remembered we really hadn't moved for 5 months and there are things you forget!!

All the inside stuff stayed in place - I was so pleased.

We're at Qualicum Bay Resort in Bowser and the ocean is right across the road.

I went out for a walk the other morning and had quite a conversation with the sea gulls. They are in great abundance and folks around here say there must be some connection with the herring run and that they have never seen so many all in one place.

Just being in someplace different has calmed me down considerably and we’ve been exploring again – that is oh, so, nice.

Our first outing was to Horne Lake. It is a Provincial Park up a very bad logging road on the side of Mount Mark with its $22.00 per night Provincial Campground fee (no services, boil your water, etc). It is billed as being one of the great wilderness adventure places on the island but pricey. A three hour guide tour through the caves will cost you $54. You can do a self-guided tour but it wasn’t recommended except for the main cave and the smaller cave. I’m sure that

some of these exorbitant fees have priced the natural beauty of the island right out of reach of many local people. We stuck our heads and the camera in but went no further.

The ocean and the beaches are the primary attraction for us here. Walks along the beaches – trying not to get caught in the in-coming tides and visiting places we’ve been before and, of course, indulging in the fish and seafood.

We headed to a ship-restaurant we remembered at Union Bay only to find it closed down and falling down. The tide was out and we watched some folks digging clams and picking oysters on the beach. There were Sea Lions lounging around way out on a big log boom. We couldn’t see them all that well but we could hear them loud and clear. As we walked along the beach, I managed to just miss stepping on the first LIVE star fish I have ever seen. I realized I had only seen dry, dead ones before and this one was bright purple and very much alive.

Parksville, Qualicum Beach – great sand beaches to walk along and sit and listen to the sounds of the ocean. I am constantly fascinated with the smells of the ocean – something I never noticed before.

Today is the first day of spring and the blossoms and bud are starting to come out. In my mind, that doesn’t make one iota of difference – there is still snow and cold weather in Lethbridge but our Plan C is to head back next week-end (March 25th).

Visiting the City and Friends

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Mike is an old friend!! I knew him in Lethbridge and Fred met him on Long Beach so many years ago. We haven’t seen him for at least 25 years. The amazing thing is that even after all those years; we just picked up where we left off. We caught up on all the major events like travels and children but carried on with the stories and adventures we shared so many years ago. Old adventures revisited – new adventures began.

As we toured around Victoria, Fred told me all kinds of stories from his notorious past and we even went down to Chinatown and had a wonderful dinner at a place Fred had frequented in his younger days. As always, we were drawn to the water and spent a good amount of time walking along the beaches.

Of all the places we have frequented, Victoria ranks pretty close to the top as a city we could live in (not saying that either of us want to live in a city). Even here there is unbelievable development but somehow the city, itself, has managed to retain a link with its history and the natural beauty that surrounds it – impeccable gardens everywhere, crowded long walkways along the shore and always a greeting as you meet others on the paths.

From Victoria, we took a jaunt up the west coast to Sooke. Sooke is certainly more laid back than Victoria but again there is construction everywhere. We both commented on how busy the road was, even though it was the middle of the day in the middle of the week. Sooke had been hit pretty hard with the winter storms. Some remnants of fallen trees remained but they seem to have survived well.

Being folks who tend to travel on our stomachs, when Mom’s Kitchen was recommended for lunch, we were going to take advantage of the opportunity. We were not disappointed. It reminded me a lot of “Peggy Sue” in California but more genuine, traditional and better food. It came complete with a real jute box complete with outlets in each booth and a great old wood stove.

The day was warm and sunny and again, we were drawn to the ocean.

Whiffin Spit (I love the name) is a breakwater accessible right in the middle of town. We sat and watched the waves come and go and splash up against the shore.

How can you possible describe the sight, the sound and mostly the smell of the ocean? A total assault on all your senses!!

This outing put the icing on the cake – we came back to Nanaimo and gave our notice to leave the 16^th of March.

Where to? Much depends on the weather. Chances are that the passes still won't be easily passable so we are searching out a different place here on the island.

It is definitely Spring - you can feel it in the air.

Oh, BTW, I’ve had another article accepted. I’ll let you know when it will be in the RV Times.

On-the-Road Again

Once we started traveling, we really didn't want to stop so we planned a trip up island as far as Port Hardy. Alert Bay on Cormorant Island and Sointula on Malcolm Island - both small island just off Port MacNeill - looked interesting so we planned to stop there and explore the islands.

We did think about waiting for better weather but then decided it could be May before there was a break in the rain and it wasn't that cold and we weren't going to shrink - so we went anyway.

It's a long way!! Once you get beyond the rapidly growing developments in Parksville and Qualicum Beach and up through Comox and Courtney to Campbell River, the settlements are few and far between. The road is windy and tunnels through a thick wall of trees.

We were impressed with how good the road is - better than a lot of sections of the TransCanada.

Sometimes being spontaneous is good and sometimes it just doesn't work out. This time it was just not the right way to go. Once we got to Port MacNeill we booked into the Haida Way, thinking that for the amount they were charging, it would be a fairly nice place - NOT!

Port MacNeill didn't offer very much - there was an old steam donkey and a couple in the Visitors' Centre who couldn't think of anything interesting in Port MacNeill or even why they lived there.

It was too early to travel up island - it was an experience but not very satisfying. The whales don't show up til March sometime, most of the museums are closed for the season, the day we wanted to visit Sointula and Alert Bay (on Malcolm and Cormorant Islands) was the day they shipped "dangerous goods" and were not taking passengers. The ferry doesn't sail from Malcolm to Cormorant anymore, you have to come back to Port MacNeill, get off the ferry, go around the toll booth and get back on the ferry so you can go to the other island. Besides which, there was an IT seminar going on on Cormorant and there was no place to stay. We went to bed Monday night thinking we would figure a way (within our budget) to visit both islands and woke up Tuesday morning deciding not to even try.

Instead, we traveled further norther to Port Hardy. Port Hardy turned out to be more appealing and more friendly. The gal in the Visitors' Centre suggested that we go out to Coal Harbour that went from one industry - coal, whaling, fishing, mining - to another and then to Port Alice that was a company town and see the different between the communities.

Nimpkish Lake had attracted our attention on the way up, so on our way back to civilization, we followed an old logging road that went down to the lake. Ah-h-h, the difference between traveling in the car and having the truck!!

The car ain't made for old gravel-limited back roads but we made it! What an incredible find. The logging company actually maintains (the extent of the maintenance is questionable) a very primitive camp ground along the shore. The silence and stillness was overwhelming.

Nimpkish is a large lake surrounded by tree covered hills. The untouched, natural British Columbia they talk about in all their commercials.

Fog and clouds hung down over the water and wandered in and among to trees. I find this so eerie but so fascinating.

It was a long way - I think we were a couple of weeks too early, but it was a good get-a-way.

Next stop the City - we're heading down to Victoria to visit our dentist-friend.

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Our Time Away



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Well we've managed to get away to Tofino and the west coast of the island.
Going over there was a wonderful reprieve.
The highway over to Port Alberni is good but beyond Port Alberni to the "T" in the road that goes to Tofino or Ucuelet is a lot like going over the Logan Pass (Road to the Sun) in Glacier National Park in Montana - hilly, narrow and cluttered with a multitude of "snake-type" signs that tell you about the winding road for the next 1 or 2 or 12 km. and warns you that the speed limit is 30 or 40 km/hr.

It seems like there is a SLOW sign at the bottom of every hill and right now the pot hole could take out a "Smart Car". We were glad we went by car instead of bringing the motor home.

Once you got to the west side of the island, all the signs remind you that this is a major tourist destination during the high season. There are "resort" signs all over the place, gated entrances to large private homes and almost every road points you to another B & B.

We booked a cabin very close to Tofino right on MacKenzie Beach. Once we got there, we realized that the "off-season" traffic is very light and reservations aren't really necessary.

Long Beach used to be the primary beach of choice but it is now part of the Pacific Rim National Park and other beaches are far more attractive.

While parking at this time of year to go down to the beach is free, apparently at "high-season" even day parking is incredibly high.

Our favourite beaches turned out to be MacKenzie and Chesterman. We walked and walked and walked-tides in and tides out. Every other minute seemed to be a "Kodak" moment and we ended up with over 70 pictures.

Hope you enjoy these.




























After walking the beaches all day, it was oh, so pleasant to go back to the cabin and sit in front of the fireplace and listen to the surf pounding against the beach.

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The Winter of Our Discontent

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Like many RV’ers, we spent our winters in a warmer more amiable environment rather than the snowy, bundle-up city streets of Alberta. We called it “going to where they don’t sell snow shovels”.

2001 – The year of major significant events – devastating and traumatic events for the whole Western world and a momentous happening for me. That was the year I discovered that I was no longer “having fun” in my consulting practice and let my partner convince me to totally downsize, pack up the 5^th wheel and go travelling. Oh, I refused to retire but did agree to take a major sabbatical for two years – just to test out this new way of life – mind you.

What a wondrous four years!! Our yearly itinerary was determined by the weather. We toured the northernmost places in early October or late March and spent the majority of our time in the warm climes of Arizona, California and Mexico. I learned that the desert is not necessarily all white sand; that cacti mostly bloom at night; that the Navajo Nation is humongous and I could never expect to see it all in one winter; and that the road runner is a real bird and not just a cartoon. We became committed RV’ers. Travelling in an RV is our chosen life-style.

I was taken with the contrast in the topology; the geography; the fauna; the flora; and most of all, the different cultures. I took pictures; I wrote and I created a Web Page to record our travels and adventures in a Photo Journal.

Then it happened!! My partner got a pain!! Now, we all get pains but for Canadians over a certain age – who want to travel – a pain CAN be an extremely unwelcome nightmare. That is, it can severely limit your travel plans. This wasn’t just any pain: it was a pain that seemed to defy diagnosis. It took months to finally rule out any simple cause, then months to consult with a specialist; then months to follow the medical regime he laid out until finally we got the word that my partner’s condition was stable and he was “good to go”.

Well, by that time we had spent the entire winter waiting and missed the opportunity for our southern snow-avoidance venture. While touring in Canada in the non-snowy seasons is a “not-to-be-missed” experience, travelling in the winter is an exercise in road terror.

Being committed RV’ers we took off to places we wanted to revisit as soon as we could get the 5^th wheel out of the parking place. Vancouver Island is reputed to be the finest weather location in Western Canada and became the chosen destination for our good weather expedition. We took our time touring and crossed onto the Island in early June.

We were not disappointed!! It is glorious!! So much to see – so much to do!! Besides spending time with old friends, there were beaches to explore; huge cedar forests to investigate; and wineries to visit. The multitude of small islands between Vancouver Island and the mainland are home to many artists and eccentric personalities, most of who are willing to share their views and talents with outsiders. They say the winter storms on the west coast are outstanding and late spring brings an incomparable opportunity to watch the whales migrate from the south to the northern Pacific Ocean.

As we left the Island in our new Motorhome to do our presentations at the annual RV Owners Lifestyle Seminars at the Okanagan College at Kelowna, we felt incomplete – we would return!!

Our winter misadventure started when we discovered that Travel Medical Insurance would either:

• not cover my partner for anything that emanated from his previous “pain” (and we know how the Insurance Industry can connect ANY dots); or

• demand all our worldly possessions for insurance if he was stable for six months; or

• demand only half our worldly possessions if he was stable for 12 months.

Not being of the upper socio-economic strata and determined not to spend another winter not travelling, we opted to return to Vancouver Island where our Provincial Health Care Plan would cover us.

They Lied to Us!!

Vancouver Island, in general, and around the central part of the east coast of the island, in particular, is reputed to be the most weather-friendly area to spend a Canadian winter. Certainly not the dry sunshine we had become used to in our usual winter travels but a reasonable amount of sunshine and a minimal amount of snow. Yes, Virginia, you cannot escape the snow and there is significant precipitation in the form of rain, but, as they say, “at least you don’t have to shovel it.”

According to the Statistics [1] the winter in Nanaimo can offer you: no snow cover over 50 cm (20 inches); maybe 8 days over the entire winter where the snow cover might be up to 20 cm (less than 10 inches); but you can expect precipitation (but mostly in the form of rain or heavy fog) on more days than you can expect sunshine; the temperature seldom goes down below freezing and when it does, the lower temperatures don’t last very long. Considering the alternative of snow, wind and cold, these conditions seemed tolerable.

To our delight, we arrived on the Island to beautiful, sunny, dry weather. In fact, it was so dry the west side of the island was worried about running out of usable water; many of the rivers were barely running; and the number of salmon swimming up the rivers to spawn was down significantly but it was good for us. We set up the Add-a-Room and started planning our adventures for the next few months.

And then the rains started and it rained and it rained and it rained! O.K. this was not unexpected and we had considered that in our planning, but by the end of November, all records were broken: more rain; more snow; more wind; more storms! This was not what we signed up for!

They lied!!

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January 10/07

Well here we go again !!!!

According to the local TV Sation this Storm # 14 ( yes they are actually keeping count of them).

It started snowing last night and once again we have a white playground at our RV park.

It hasn't snowed very much but it has slowed down the getting around as driving has been impeded from the campground. We are up the side of a mountain which means that it is really slippery going as they aren't very good at sanding/salting the roads around here as this isn't something they usually have to do.

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