Back in Canada- April 4-09

The Desert in Mesa

Good morning to everyone. It is April 23 and I am in Victoria at an RV park called Fort Victoria while mom is having her radiation treatment at the Royal Jubilee Hospital. We arrived back in Canada Saturday, April 4 which put our final mileage on the truck at 65162 km. Our trip for total miles traveled was 44985 km or 27952 miles.

To pick up after our last blog was where we left Apache Wells ,Arizona and traveled to Lake Havasu for one night before meeting up with our friends Laura and Laury Haines in Las Vegas. We really liked Mesa and Apache Wells RV Park so will likely make that a fall destination later this year. The scenery was spectacular as we left Mesa and traveled N. On Hwy. 60 then across the desert on Highway 60 and 72 to Parker and then Lake Havasu. This is a very beautiful area and certainly not as busy as Mesa. We spent one night there and then it is a short 3 Hour Drive to Las Vegas. We stayed at Sam's town RV Park which is associated with the casino next door. You can get many good RV sites at a very reasonable rate when they are associated with casinos. This was a large park that was well run and could use all the amenities of the casino. We stayed two days and had some great buffets and the Haines showed us around old Las Vegas at night. As we left on Highway 15 heading west we realized this area needs more exploration at a future date. Highway 15 through Barstow is really spectacular as you cross the Mojave National Preserve. It was a long day of driving as we made our way through Bakersfield and over to Interstate 5. I was glad to pull into a RV Park at Coalinga as the wind was starting to get bad as soon as we started north on Interstate 5. The Almond Tree RV Park is a nice park and gave us a opportunity to get a good nights sleep before heading North on I-5 for another long day. Our trip took us directly north on I-5 through Stockton and Sacramento to Mount Shasta. This was the start of the Cascade Range and our major mountain pass to go through before getting into Washington. We stayed at a nice KOA Park and again had a good nights sleep before leaving and heading into Oregon. Unfortunately the weather was typical West Coast with overcast and rainy skies. Gail and I had to put away our shorts and get out the long pants and socks. I think my body is suited to warm weather as everything started to ache. We continued north through grants Pass and Eugene. The road was excellent but could see how this would be a big obstacle if it was winter and there was snow. We made it to Brookhllow RV Park in Kelso Washington. This was a great spot that we found off the highway and had not researched our destination. The next day was a short trip to Port Angeles where we had planned on spending two nights to rest up for our big reentry into Canada. We stayed at the Elwha Fam RV Park and had a great afternoon and evening dinner with our long-time friends Susan and Dave Hildebrand. They built a beautiful house on Dodger Hill which has a spectacular view of the street. Bob and Janet Ketching came for dinner from Victoria after a three-hour wait to go through border customs south of Vancouver. The next morning we slept in and got the RV down to the dock to catch the Coho to downtown Victoria. It was a gorgeous sunny Saturday morning for the short 1.5 hour crossing to downtown Victoria. It took us about two minutes to clear customs and another 15 minutes to get to our RV Park in Victoria. This was the first time we had used this Ferry but it is clearly the preferred route to get to Washington as customs is easy, and you bypass Seattle as you head south. We certainly will use this route in the future instead of taking BC ferries across to Vancouver and then having to deal with long waits for southern border crossings. Our return trip from Texas was hurried with long hours of driving to make it home for Easter for Mom who was in the hospital at Comox. This completes our year long trip and 45,000 km later we have only scratched the surface of future adventures. We thought we would find Utopia but only saw more territory to explore. We plan on heading south to Mesa in October of this year depending on mom's health. We also have been thinking about upgrading our traveling rig to a class A motorhome and have fell in love with the Endeavour by Holiday Rambler. It is a big purchase but our future years will be " On the Road ".When I have all the financial data in I plan on doing one final chapter on this blog to outline our financial costs for the years. It is not as expensive as you may think and my goal is to encourage people to follow their dreams while their health is good.

On May 2 we will move the RV up to Mom's house in Comox and live with here until she moves into the new Comox Valley Seniors Village on June 1. Our long time friend Graham Howie who has rented our house for the last year will move into Mom's house for a long term rental. We will then return to 69 Jane Place by July 1 and start the preparation for Jennifer's visit in September.

It will be about one month before we get all the final pictures uploaded and the financial data analyzed so expect " The Final Chapter " about the end of May.

Pictures from Florida to Victoria

Homeward Bound

Picture- Luchenbach Texas

Good morning,

It is April 2 and a sunny morning in Mesa Arizona. We are on our way home and left San Antonio about two weeks ago. We headed to southern Texas for about 10 days to explore the Brownsville area. Our first stop was Rockport. This is just north of Corpus Christi and discovered a wonderful RV Park called Lagoons RV Resort This is owned by a man from British Columbia and it is a gorgeous park in a small town like Comox. We are continually looking for utopia and a place to return in the winter months. This certainly may be the area as it is on the beach and in a wonderful location. We explored the area and the bustle of Corpus Christi. We left and went south to Brownsville where we stayed at the Tropical Winds RV Park in Harlingen which is just north of the Mexican border. We stayed there for three days and went down to South Padre Island. This area of Texas is extremely windy, the relative humidity was 90%, and it was about 95°. Needless to say Gail was not impressed and I doubt we will be returning to this area on a regular basis. We left Harlingen and traveled back to San Antonio for two nights and stayed at Travellers World RV Park. On my return I had a blowout on my fifth wheel about 20 miles south of San Antonio. This was huge bang was a lot of smoke. Fortunately everyone was safe and the tire changing people came after a call to the good Sam road service insurance. This delayed us for 24 hours while I got a new tire put on our rig. We said a teary goodbye to our friends Doug and Louise Perry and pulled out of San Antonio Sunday, March 29. It was a nice drive west through Fort Stockton to Balmorhea. Balmorhea is a gas station in the middle of the desert. They have an RV site there but it's usually used as a stopover for people transiting the area. The next morning we were about to leave when we saw a rig's pulling in at nine o'clock in the morning. We quickly discovered there was a sand storm coming with high winds and all high profile vehicles were to stay off the highway. We are glad we stayed as the sandstorm was amazing. Anyway this left us stranded in the middle of the desert for an extra day. We met some interesting friends and had happy hour as usual with more stranded travelers. The next day is probably one of the most beautiful drives of my life. The sun was behind us as we moved in the morning West along I- 10 towards Las Cruces. The desert with the backdrop of the beautiful mountains was simply spectacular. We arrived early in Las Cruces New Mexico and stayed at the Sunny acres RV Park. Las Cruces is an interesting town with a lot of history. I barbecued some great steaks that evening as I couldn't eat anymore Mexican food. There was another wind warning that was coming up at the end of the day so we wanted to get on the road early to make Mesa Arizona our next stop. We continued along I 10 and then turned north at Lordsberg on highway 60. We drove for hours in the middle of the desert without seeing anyone and thought it would be a good idea to always travel with another vehicle as the area is so remote. It was very beautiful and after eight hours of driving we finally made it to Apache Wells RV resort in Mesa. We plan on staying here for three days and are enjoying the company of longtime friends, Harold and Pam Stevens.

Most of you are wondering how my mother is doing. She finally has a diagnosis of a malignant lymphoma starting her abdomen and has metastasize to her pelvis. This is the reason she's having a hard time walking. She has been in the hospital for the past two weeks and went down to the cancer clinic on Monday for some palliative radiation. Alan went over with her and met the radiation oncologist at the Cancer clinic. As usual mom was her delightful witty self and impress the doctor so much that they decided to offer her a more aggressive treatment with a possible cure in the range of 30 to 50%. This was good news but it does mean she will have to go down to Victoria for three weeks of treatment. This will start on April 14. Our plan is to return to Canada about that time and leave the RV in Victoria to be close to mom. We are not sure what route we be taking home yet. This is something that we work out over the next couple of days and let everyone know. Thanks for all the people who have gone to see mom as she really appreciates the company. Her cell phone is 250-650-0793 and she usually keeps it on also time. When we get our final itinerary updated I will let everyone know.