British Columbia

by

A Wenatchee Detour

Donna, another friend, and I headed into Washington state today. The purpose of the trip was so that Donna could have her defective Verizon phone replaced while it was still on warranty, something which was going to expire in a couple of days. Verizon had told her that Omak had the nearest store. We figured we’d pop in at the Princes grocery store in Oroville then go to Omak, do the Verizon store, grab some Mexican food at Tequila’s, and finish the day at Walmart. I drove because my car was quicker to empty than was Donna’s truck. 🙂

Slight change of plan at the Verizon store, which is located in the Ace Hardware. They are just a distributor and it was necessary to go to a proper Verizon store. The nearest ones were Spokane or Wenatchee. I’d seen a road sign for the latter, so I confirmed that it was just a hundred miles away. We’d already come this far, it made no sense to let the warranty on Donna’s phone expire! So, we came out of the store and told our other friend that she could either spend the afternoon at Walmart or join us on an impromptu road trip. The decision was easy to make!

Unfortunately, Tequila’s was closed, so we decided to push on and stop at the first promising location for lunch.

The drive to Wenatchee was just gorgeous and easy. Our stomachs were a rumbling trio when we got to Pateros, so we pulled into the strip mall and decided to try out the little bakery there. We had nice turkey and cranberry sandwiches (Thanksgiving, remember!).

Coming into Wenatchee was a bit stressful because we didn’t really have directions and I’d left the GPS behind. We got off the highway, crossed a bridge, and headed into downtown, which made the whole day worthwhile. Downtown Wenatchee is stuck in the 1950s! Nearly all the store signs are those old signs they had back then. It was a most amazing time warp! The road through downtown led to the shopping district where we recognized the landmarks we were told to look for. We’d gone a little out of our way, but not actually done a detour. I definitely want to go back and do a photo tour of town!

It was late afternoon when Donna’s phone issues were satisfactorily resolved, so we agreed to shoot straight back to Omak, do Walmart, then grab dinner at the Mexican place in Oroville if it was open. We stopped again in Pateros for gas and then pushed on. It was getting late, so we didn’t dally at Walmart, but I will be going back there with fabric samples ASAP since I found there something for the rig I’ve been looking for since I started planning the decorating phase….

Thankfully, the restaurant in Oroville, Trino‘s, was open! Between the chips with cold slaw, the gigantic burritos, and the deep fried tortilla cheese cake bites with ice cream (not my idea!), we pretty much rolled out of there! I may not have to eat for a week. 🙂

Getting back into Canada was reasonably painless and then it was a hop, skip, and a jump to home. What a great day!

by

Something Unexpected

It’s a holiday Monday, I’m off on a road trip in about a half hour, and when I get back, I’m going to be behind on the list of projects I need to put out by Friday. It doesn’t rain, but it pours!

Right now, I’m just keeping the wolves at bay and scraping by, but one project is from a repeat client I only just picked up, so I’m optimistic that this upwards trend will continue now that I have refined my my method for finding and bidding on contracts.

Soon as I have a moment to breathe, I will update my post about work from home resources.

by

Holidays are Better With Friends

Tonight, Donna, Ken, and a couple we met back in Oliver gathered together for a bit of an impromptu Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings. Such fun! I forgot how nice it is to bundle up a dish of food, a plate, and utensils, and trundle over to a neighbour’s place for a communal meal. Thankfully, the Ark is plenty big enough for a gathering!

We did Thanksgiving tonight since tomorrow we gals are going on a road trip!

by

Timing

Today, I landed a small contract with a short turn around time, so I’ve been busy transcribing and translating. It’s been a long day and I still have a couple of hours to do on it tomorrow, but this addition to my portfolio is most welcome.

I was perhaps half-way through the job when I heard the distinct sound of a heavy duty truck pulling into the site next to me. I didn’t even need the red kayaks for confirmation: the roving acres had arrived a day early! We settled for a quick catch up, knowing that we’ll have plenty of time together in the weeks to come.

Finally, I’m moving forward with that thing I still won’t write about and I think that an announcement will be forthcoming very soon!

by

The Toilet Room: Before & After

I guess I could have kept on with a bit of a nautical theme and called this room the head since toilet room is so ugly and throne room or potty room are too cutesy. But I’m practical and not afraid to call things for what they are. It’s a room with a toilet, so it’s a toilet room.

When I bought Miranda, this room had one use only and the decor was not very inspiring:

toilet room before

Talk about a blank slate! The only thing I really liked about this room was the shape of the curtain and the linoleum, which reminded me of my dad.

Not being meant for full-timing, Miranda lacks storage for certain things in the place where you’d expect storage to be. Take toilet paper, for example. I could stack some around the toilet, I supposed, but I had other plans for the floor space. So, I decided to think vertically and came up with this monstrosity:

toilet room shelf

This shelf is a prime example of how I see the world. Readers probably see an ugly piece of plywood jammed into an otherwise pretty room. I saw something that just needed trim and paint to blend into its surroundings. I was right!

(don’t mind the wavy tension bar; it was a casualty of the Ice Fields dash!)

You can also see the new curtain I made, which matches not only the toilet room paint, but also the dressing room.

The other bit of storage I added to this room was the pocket door organizer:

The organizer makes the door a bit heavy and prone to shut, but is otherwise not a nuisance and an excellent use of space. It’s also a good place to store a roll or two of extra toilet paper to have some on hand.

The rig has brass accents throughout, so I did an experiment in toilet room to see if I could paint some of them, in this case the trim around the light switch and the toilet paper roll holder. The experiment was a mitigated failure in that at first glance they look fine, but a closeup shows what a crummy job I did. It was probably a combination of the wrong kind of paint and my inexperience with spray paint. Even with the paint job being the way it is, I prefer the dark brown look to the brass and don’t regret the attempt at improvement:

Finally, this before and after post was delayed because of my difficulty in finding frames to put up some art on the bare walls. I finally got two pieces up today and decided that they would do for now. I’m not sure if I should be putting artwork on the other wall or not. If I do, I’ll post an update. Both pieces are cheap post cards with images that have personal significance.

The first is of the schooner Bluenose:

Those who thought “Oh, that’s the boat on the Canadian dime and it reminds her to make money!” are completely wrong! 😀 This image reminds me of a movie I adored in my childhood, known as Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveler in English. It’s the store of a boy who travels around the world on postage stamps, and the Bluenose stamp features prominently in the story. So, the Bluenose makes me think of travel and wild adventures.

The other post card is an imagined scene from Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales:

Pilgrims on a journey. Relevant to my RVing life, no? 🙂 I love The Canterbury Tales and have read them a dozen times. I was fortunate enough to take a course on Chaucer in university in which the teacher insisted we read medieval English lit in the original Middle English, a very rewarding challenge. But I digress!

Here’s a final after shot:

Another DONE room!