Surrey

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Thwarted Plans

I woke up to snow this morning; heavy, wet, stay at home in your jammies and watch bad movies, kind of snow. At least, it was only minus one, not the minus twenty-one Oliverites are experiencing!!! But I dragged myself into proper going out clothing and headed to the Surrey Museum… after not noticing the statement on their website that they’re closed the whole month of January. DOH!

The weather being way too yucky for driving of the exploratory variety, I pressed on to Langley to pick up 12V lightbulbs at the Canadian Tire there, and to see where the major shopping complex is so that I can be comfortable returning there to see movies ( 🙂 ), and went almost straight back home (with a pause at Starbucks for a caramel macchiato).

One really nice thing about this lifestyle is that you can stay in one location long enough to not feel that you absolutely need to ‘go see the sites’ in poor weather.

In other news, one silly RVer forgot to leave her water on last night and now has a frozen solid brand new fresh water hose. 🙁

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Paralysed

In my (albeited limited) world view, Vancouver is the Los Angeles of Canada, the dark, nasty, don’t get off at the wrong exit or risk a violent death, city, the Gotham of Tim Burton or Chris Nolan. I’m not that timid. I’ve survived Chicago’s South Side, New York’s Washington Park at midnight, Ottawa’s Market after dark, riding the Montreal métro with skinheads, playing chicken with Hells Angels in Gatineau, getting lost in downtown Baltimore, even wandering around the bad parts of Calgary (Calgary has bad parts?). Hell, I’ve even survived a trip to Los Angeles… and that’s what’s not helping the Vancouver situation!

Surprised? 😀

Like with Los Angeles, I know there is a lot to see and do in Vancouver, but, like with Los Angeles, getting around is the issue. In LA, I was advised to not walk around, drive unless I knew where I was going, or take public transportation. I think this left taxis? I wound up driving straight to my hotel on Sunset Boulevard and walking between it and the famous Hollywood sites like the Kodak theatre (even though I’d been advised to not even walk those twenty or so blocks). After less than a day there, I was so exhausted from being on my guard all the time that I just left without going beyond Hollywood (nasty place) when I would have enjoyed doing a studio tour or even just visiting the Griffith Observatory. Looking back, I realise that I would have needed a native guide.

Same thing with Vancouver, it seems, and especially Surrey! Surrey gets a very bad rap; you wouldn’t believe the number of people who told me not to go to Surrey and to especially not be out in Surrey after dark! Last night, I did go out, taking two main streets to go to Walmart and back. Tonight, I’d like to go to a movie, but I have no idea which theatre is in an okay part of town. I’ll need to speak with the very friendly camphost here and ask her what her recommendations are.

Also like in Los Angeles, traffic is absolutely terrible here, maybe even worse than Toronto, but, of course, not nearly as bad as Montreal (because no place in the US or Canada has traffic worse than Montreal).

So, I’m here and really excited and happy to be here but shocked to discover that here is just as scary as I expected it to be!

At least, the RV park is a lovely, non-threatening, bubble. 😀

My first order of the day for tomorrow, then, is to have a chat with the camphost, descarify myself, and come up with one activity for each of  Saturday and Sunday that will get me comfortable with this city!

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Adventures In No Man’s Land

Here is the daytime view at my new park. Yes, I need to wash my windows. The roads were sandy yesterday! 🙂

daytime view at PB

Walking down Zero Avenue, I was treated to this sight:

Spelling Fail

Spelling Fail

*ggl*

Then this little guy stopped his wanderings long enough to pose for a couple of shots!

deer1

deer2

Notice the water of salty persuasion in the background… 🙂

Getting closer to the water:

5nml

Zero Avenue ends at Peace Arch Park, a sort of no man’s land that straddles the 49th parallel, existing between the American and Canadian customs. I don’t know if Americans can do this, but I was able to take a stroll down Zero Avenue in Surrey right into the park without requiring any sort of identification. I was told I could walk to White Rock through the park, but I couldn’t find a legitimate way to get out of there other than the way I came in or actually going through Canadian customs, so I didn’t pursue the issue and will ask for further clarification.

A not-so-excellent adventure on a US military base in California taught me to be very careful about taking pictures anywhere near US government installations (no, I did NOT try to take pictures of a military base!), so I was very cautious about taking out the camera at the park. I did sneak a couple of pics:

I'm in the United States!

I’m in the United States!

Otherside of the monument... and I'm in Canada!

Other side of the monument… and I’m in Canada!

More ocean, a lineup to get into the US, and a glimpse of Peace Arch Park

More ocean, a lineup to get into the US, and a glimpse of Peace Arch Park

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The Peach Arch

Coming home, I passed a couple out for a stroll:

Mr. and Mrs. Mallard out enjoying the weather

Mr. and Mrs. Mallard out enjoying the weather

When I checked the forecast last night, they were calling for rain today and the rest of the week, but it’s been sunny so far. What a reprieve!

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Quiet, Blessed Quiet

I can’t believe how noisy the other park was! I didn’t even notice at the time, but after the night I just had (and the morning I’m having), I sure can see the difference! Being right on the US border here, literally butted against Customs, I would have expected this place to be noisy and bustling, but not at all. It was lovely to wake up under my own steam and hear absolutely nothing but the cats’ meows and a couple of birds. I’ve got a gorgeous view out the back. This isn’t the best shot, so I’ll take one later today, but I needed to record for posterity that I got up before sunrise voluntarily!

viewfromstudypb

This view out the back is, in all honesty, creeping me out since it looks like the view outside the study I had at the house I owned!

So far, there is no one on my left and the owners of the unit on the right are not on site. Not having neighbours AND a great view out the back is yet another wonderful reprieve.

What I am going to miss is being walking distance to all the services, although I was told that there is a lot I can walk to, so we’ll see if it’s to anything practical.

Depending on whether I pick White Rock or Surrey, it’s either PLUS one or two right now and the rainy forecast has been changed to sun!

Check back later today for pictures of the Pacific Ocean!

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I Love This Life!!!

Greetings from the Fraser Valley!

Majel (the GPS) told me that a 9AM departure would get me here at 2. I laughed and figured 6 if I was lucky. Fate took that difference and split it; I arrived at 4.

I was up around 8 this morning since I didn’t have that much left to do and I didn’t want to wake up everyone since what I did have left to do was noisy. The RV battery wasn’t charged enough to crank the engine, so I had to take the trickle charger out, but it got the battery going in the time it took me to bring my trash to the dumpster. Hooking up the toad was surprisingly easy. I mean, really, really easy! Everything I’d worried about didn’t happen, so I had an uneventful ride out… once a helpful neighbour managed to pry my levelers off the very frozen pavement. 🙂

Google maps has a wonderful feature that lets you see topography. Using that, I was able to figure out that from Oliver almost all the way to Hope would be uphill into increasingly poor weather, but that the rest would be downhill into rain. Sure enough, that’s what happened. Part of the drive to Hope was of the white-knuckled, hands clenched around the steering wheel, variety, but only because  a lack of guard rails next to sheer cliffs made staying on the road the foremost thought on my mind. As I’d expected, the roads were fairly devoid of other drivers, which reduced the stress considerably.

I had thought to stop in Hope for a leg stretch before continuing on the final third of the journey, but finding spots to stop wasn’t easy and I wound up getting all the way to Chilliwack before I could stop and rest for a half hour!

No sooner had I entered Surrey than I had my closest call ever with Miranda. There was a semi driver ahead of me whom I think was either half asleep or inebriated. He kept on switching lanes with very little notice. I tried to stay as far behind him as I could, but he still managed to cut me off. Thankfully, Miranda’s brakes are really, really, really good and while I laid down a patch of rubber, I didn’t hit him. The only thing that budged in the coach was my spice rack, which spilled most of my cumin down the sink. 🙁 I try to find the humour in such situations. 🙂

The park is literally on the border with the US and had I followed the GPS directions, I would have found myself in line for customs! Thankfully, I noticed little signs indicating the detour to the park and followed them to avoid the long lineup that preceded my turnoff point just before the ‘all vehicles beyond this point must report to US customs’ sign.

Settling in was a non-event although the handyman insisted on guiding me in. I appreciated his help, of course, but told him that I have a hard time translating flailing arms with what direction to turn the steering wheel. Backing up is one of those things I can do only if I don’t think about it. So, getting in wasn’t as smooth as it sometimes is, but it wasn’t embarrassing. I just hooked up the propane and electricity since my water hose is now just 10′ long and I need a much longer one to get to their tap. This is something I’d expected, so it’s not a big deal. I have plenty of water in the holding tank and the temps being above freezing, the pump is working just fine!

The cats were great on this trip, Neelix staying close by me, Tabitha sticking to her favourite spot on the bed.

Foremost on my mind right now are dinner and a loooong swim. Pool’s open till 10!

The last three months feel far behind me already.