Personal

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Woman Lives in Her RV in Vancouver for $500 a Month

There is a lady living in Vancouver in an RV for $500 a month. The police actually recommended the park where she lives. Kudos to the authorities for dealing so positively with the housing crisis in Vancouver!

I did find it sad that life in the RV is seen by the narrator as so hard and full of sacrifice with few luxuries. This lady has a nice, big, class C. She is fortunate to have all the comforts of a small apartment, a great view, and no rent in one of the world’s most expensive cities! I look at this as fortunate misfortune. She might be out of work and poor, but she has a real home in the city she loves.

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A Sunday in the Eastern Townships

Sunday, I’d promised my dad’s brother that I would go visit him at his trailer in East Bolton in the Eastern Townships. I took off around 8:30 and arrived around 9:30.

Uncle K has had a trailer in that campground for about 30 years. Until a few years ago, his trailer was from the ’60s but he has since upgraded to a trailer from the ’70s. The RV spot is large and he planted all the trees on it, so he saw them grow from saplings to the mature, shade-providing, trees they are today.

The campground is on Trousers Lake, so named because the general shape of the lake is a pair of pants. It’s a lake with an inlet and an outlet, so the water is cool, but clean. Motorboats haven’t been allowed in years, so the fishing is very good (bass and pike mostly).

Uncle K took me for a brief walk to see some of the sights and then we were joined by Uncle J (dad’s late sister’s husband) and his grand-daughter (my second cousin).

We piled into Uncle J’s tiny Nissan to go check out the site of the cottage my grand-father started to build in the ’60s and never finished because of his untimely death in an accident caused by a drunk driver.

The cottage was on Lake Gilbert. Today, you could drive to the site, but in the ’60s, you had to park on shore and pack everything over by boat. From shore, it was a 20KM walk round trip to get groceries.

The next stop was the Benedict Abbey (Abbaye Saint-Benoît), known for its beautiful grounds and superb cheeses. Had I not had several hours ahead before access to a fridge, I would have bought some treats at the large monastery store! Uncle J picked up a jar of caramel spread, something that was obviously a treat he gets whenever he’s in the area.

The abbey was founded in 1910

this is the older part of the abbey

the brickwork is gorgeous!

simple stained glass

floor mosaic

the left part of the abbey is ‘new’ from the 1980s

the little chapel

We drove around the countryside a little more after this, looking for, but failing to find, our family cemetery (I should have printed off the directions, but I can always go back later this summer; it’s not far). The Eastern Townships (Cantons de l’est) is one of the most scenic regions in Canada and very popular cottage country. You can run into politicians (eg. former Prime Minister Paul Martin) and movie stars (eg. Donald and Kiefer Sutherland) here.

We grabbed some goodies from a popular bakery for lunch, ate at the campground, and headed back to the Montérégie mid-afternoon. I was glad to have my iPod because I got caught in the expected Sunday afternoon traffic jam on the 10:

It started 3KM from the exit for Chambly and it took me almost a full hour to get home from that point. I could have walked home almost three times as quickly! I just cranked up the Cowboys Fringants and had fun watching the RVers run out of their rigs to use the bathroom and fix snacks!

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Why Would a Full-Time RVer Want or Need to Go Camping in the Toad?

The title of this post comes from a very good comment/question by Kathe in reply to my post about converting the truck for camping.

Before I try to articulate an answer, I think that the best house-bound analogy I could make is, if you own a home, why would you want a cottage? Or an RV, for that matter?

For me, using my RV as a homebase and exploring in the toad means cheaper excursions because of needing less gas, access to rougher roads, and not having to break camp when I’m coming back to the same location. A toad I can sleep in also means saving money on accommodation and that I don’t have to rely on others for a bed. Finally, I will be reducing wear and tear on my aging RV.

Some examples:

-When I hiked the Chilkoot Trail, I stayed with a cousin who has a tiny house with little privacy. There wasn’t really any good place to pitch a tent in the yard, but I could have slept more comfortably in my parking spot while having access to the bathroom. Moreover, why do the round trip in the rig ($500 in fuel) when I had free hookups in Dawson and cat sitters?

-If I had had a toad I could sleep in, I would have probably taken off for a few days and left the RV in Hinton instead of driving the Ice Fields Parkway

-There was no way I was taking Miranda on the Dempster Highway to Inuvik or the Pacific Rim Highway to Tofino.

I am also thinking ahead to the next few winters, when I plan to spend several months in the American Southwest. Having a toad I can sleep in means that I will be able to plot a fairly U-shaped journey in the RV that will be as fuel efficient as possible, leave the RV in a few set locations, and then take off exploring for three or four days at a time. I am also thinking of leaving the RV on my lot next summer and taking off for Yellowknife in the toad.

In summary, having a toad I can camp in will reduce the limited mobility that comes from having a big RV while still allowing me to have a nice mobile home. In short, I’m going to get a taste of the best of both worlds.

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A Colourful Hibiscus and an Extra Helping of Toes

I have two important jobs this week while my mother is on vacation. The first is to keep the garden watered. I think I’m doing okay since this beautiful hibiscus bloomed overnight!

The second job is to take care of Boris, the polydactyl wonder:

Can you see his giant mitts?

Boris is just about 99% an outdoor cat. He comes in between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. for food and cuddles, then goes back outside. I was surprised to find him on the porch at 9 this morning when I went to the garage to check up on Bitha and Nee, and even more surprised that he was still there at noon. It is pretty damp out today, so maybe the porch was the one dry lounging spot he could find. Boris is incredibly affectionate and will seek cuddles from anyone; he was just as happy to see me the first night I was in charge as he would have been to see my mother. Boris kept my dad company when he was dying and spent hours and hours in dad’s room providing much needed comfort. So I have a soft spot for this lovely and gentle cat.

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A Date With Grand-Maman

It was coming on noon today and I was thinking that I really should call my grand-mother to plan an outing when the phone rang. Of course, it was her. I think we’re psychically connected!

My grand-mother lives in a seniors’ complex where she has her own independent apartment, but there is also a dining hall, hair salon, chapel, games room, and more. She was calling to invite me to eat dinner with her at the dining hall tonight. She has 10 meals there a month. I’ve been curious to see what sort of food she gets there, so I agreed to meet her at her place at 5PM.

Well… we kind of got our wires crossed. I walked over and went up to her place at the stroke of 5:00 just as she was heading down to the lobby to meet me. It took almost a full half hour before we found each other! I hadn’t wanted to go down in fear that I would miss her and she had actually gone out on the street to see if I was coming. I told her everything was good at my end and that, hey, it made a funny story to blog about tonight. *petit clin d’oeil*/*winks*

We were late for dinner (boy, seniors eat early!), but there was still food. We started off with some nice salads, skipped the soup, and opted for the fish as main course. We were served a really nice rice with sole stuffed with minced shrimp and a side of a really yummy butter and wine sauce. We agreed that it was a shame that such a lovely meal was served with mushy asparagus. Grand-maman says the food is usually very ‘ordinaire’ (eg. they had hot chicken sandwiches last night), but that they know what to do with fish.

There was no choice left for dessert and we were served bagatelle, something I had never encountered before even though it is apparently a traditional French-Canadian trifle (bagatelle literally means trifle, as in a little something that’s nothing as well as the dessert). I can’t even describe the dessert it was so odd. There was a white part that looked like a custard, but was rather solid, closer to cranberry jelly than Jello-O but not quite, and the topping seemed to be a soft apple crumble. Grand-maman wasn’t impressed, but I liked it! The coffee was excellent. So a nice dinner and now I know my grand-mother isn’t being poisoned 10 times a month. 🙂

We went back to her place after, opened a bottle of white wine, and took out the dominoes. I beat her 99 to 256! 🙂

It’s lovely having her walking distance away and we look forward to catching up this summer since I will be here long enough for us to have a few more meals and maybe go out to a movie or museum at some point, too. Je t’aimes, grand-maman!