Month: December 2008

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Final Push?

It was a brutal minus seventeen this morning when I went out at 6:30, but the temperature has been steadily rising (minus eleven at time of writing). Tomorrow, we are still being promised minus three (which we reached yesterday!) and then Sunday onwards it looks like we’re pushing up above zero. Yaaaaaay!

The forecast for January 2nd is a little worrisome (looks like it could end up being freezing rain), but I’ll be monitoring things closely and taking off as soon as I feel I can safely travel. I’ve slowly begun to make preparations for departure and I plan to spend January 1st readying Miranda’s exterior. Hopefully, my black tank will have time to thaw out in the next week! I hope to have a sufficient number of days of above freezing weather to determine if any major damage was done to my holding tanks and also to clear off the melting snow and ice to prevent water infiltration.

My next stop is officially Surrey and while I have pretty much made my decision as to what RV park I am going to next, I will withhold details about that at this time. 🙂

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Feeling Seasick

Miranda has been buffeted by strong winds for two days straight and she is rocking back and forth like a dingy on a stormy sea. Okay, I’m exaggerating a tad and I have never been seasick a day in my life (well, except for that one time on the North Sea after I consumed way too much whisky on an empty stomach), but the rocking is getting a tad annoying!

Anyone else tracking Santa? Last time I checked, he was in Athens, Greece. I really don’t get much into the holiday spirit, but visits to the NORAD Santa tracking site always make me smile.

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Fragrant Memories

Some travelers collect pins, others shot glasses or bar coasters, tee-shirts or ball caps; little trinkets to remind them of where they’ve been.  I have no patience for things that are just for looking at, so over the past few years, while I was still bound to a sticks & bricks existence, I collected blue willow dishware and artwork. Since hitting the road with Miranda, I have, for the first time in fifteen years, begun to rely solely on photographs and journal entries to remind me of where I’ve been. However, there is one purchase made in Edmonton, at Rutherford House, that I like to pull out on chilly mornings like this one, to remind me of those heady first weeks on the road: tea.

I like visiting museum giftshops because you can occasionally find unique items there. At the Rutherford House giftshop I was greeted by a lady who just had to proudly show off her personal tea blends, packaged by herself into tiny and rather pricey packages. The blend she was most proud of was the Rutherford House, which she based on the Queen’s favourite tea blend of jasmine and Earl Grey, with a personal twist. I took one sniff of that mix of my two favourite types of tea, with a secret ingredient I couldn’t identify, and I just had to have it! I think the lady was surprised to have a sale!

Since that September day, I’ve only had four cups of this tea. I have to ration it out because there is so little in the bag, enough perhaps for two or three more cups. It is a strong and fragrant blend, rather exotic, more reminiscent of warm climes than of Edmonton, and yet each sip transports me back to the parlour of Rutherford house, with its apricot walls and emerald green draperies.

Such a souvenir is more transitory than a painting, but when the tea is gone I will associate Earl Grey and jasmine to Edmonton. That is the kind of memory that lasts a lifetime.