Homemaking

by

Home Sweet Home

Whew. Moving just a kilometre and a half (even less far than I’d estimated!) is as much work as moving 200km!

So, I’m here. As Croft describes it, this park is of the drive in sort. It’s on pavement and the rigs are parked tightly together in a herringbone pattern. I’m tucked away in a corner where I have a bit of grass and trees. It’s definitely one of the nicer sites. Next door to me is the house they offer campground hosts who don’t have an RV. It’s empty at present, so I’ll be given a key to it so I can access the laundry room and television until such time as the park owners decide what they will do with the house. The television doesn’t interest me, but the free laundry does!

One thing I figured out five minutes into arrival is that I need to come up with an efficient interior privacy curtain for the cab. Until now, I’ve been using an exterior cover that works great, but it’s a pain to install and remove. The only way I’m going to get direct sunshine into this coach during the day is through the windshield, so I need something I can open and close easily. The way the cab is set up now, there are little bits of velcro around the top for hanging a flimsy curtain. It’s an even bigger pain to install and it doesn’t hide much.

This afternoon, I’m settling in and running errands, then I’m going to get keys from the manager so that I can start my gate closing duties. It’s not Sunday night (duh), but the people who work the nights I’ll be off are not here this weekend, so I was asked if I’d mind hitting the ground running. Not in the least.

Some people might be wondering if there is a catch to this arrangement. There is. I’ll be responsible for closing the gates at 11PM. No biggie, I’m up at that hour. But I’ll also be responsible for opening them up at 6:30. Yeouch. So much for a good night’s sleep four days a week! That said, I can just stumble out of bed in my PJs, get the gate open, and go back to sleep if I so please. So, if I don’t find work that starts insanely early, this should be fine.

Being the night owl that I am, I am beginning to think that a night job would be ideal. I could close the gates at 11, go to work, come home to open the gates at 6:30, run a few errands, then sleep a full ‘night’ until I go on duty here at 5. Another possibility to consider.

The handyman at the last park spent three winters in the area and comes from out east, so we spoke the same language today when we talked about the winter climate here. He told me that I absolutely need a heat tape on my water hose, but that there is no risk of my tanks freezing. What we’ve been living the last few days is very comparable to what we’ll be getting in the next few months, but it will be much less sunny. I can expect temps to go down to as far as minus 10 at night, but to rise above freezing most days. So, next time I go into Penticton I need to get insulation for my skylights, a heat tape, and weather stripping for the exterior doors. I already have plastic for my windows. I hate putting that stuff up because it just looks ugly, but I’ve been using it for years, so I know it works.

It’s weird to be set up here and know that I’m likely not going anywhere for the next five months. But I’m okay with that. I’ll get to know the area and be able to take day trips in the toad and perhaps take Miranda out a few times. This is actually closer to my vision of my life on the road than the last month was. Traveling every couple of days, even once a week, is positively exhausting and you remain a tourist. I want to stop somewhere, get a feel for its rhythm and move on when I’ve had enough.

by

Evaluating Miranda

I’ve been on the road with this RV exactly a month now. I can’t believe that this day in September was my last day of work! Now that Miranda and I are so well acquainted with each other, I thought I’d share a list of things I like about her and one of the things I don’t.

Let’s get the negative out of the way first!

Things I Don’t Like

Since it has been on my mind lately, I will start with the battery compartment. It’s spacious enough that I could put in eight golf cart-sized batteries if I want, but maintaining the batteries is a pain because of lack of overhead space. I am considering installing a pull out battery shelf, but I need to look into how much reinforcement would be needed.

The storage space under the dinette benches could much easier to get to. The bench behind the driver’s seat is especially a waste of space. There is a tiny, hard to open, drawer, accessible from the aisle. Taking it out would give me a large storage chest. It’s on my to do list.

The wardrobe doors suck. The sliding doors have hard plastic holders to keep the doors from moving when I drive. I have yet to access that closet without striking one of those holders with a wrist or elbow. The doors have a tendency to get off their rails and forget about trying to open them if stuff inside has shifted. If I’m going to live in this coach for any length of time, I need those doors replaced with ones that open out. That’s no longer a luxury item! I had considered a tension rod and curtain solution, then realised that this wouldn’t hold the items in while driving. So, back to real doors I go. All I want for Yule is…

The towel holder on the inside of the bathroom door has got to go. I say this an average of once a day. Early on in my trip, I hit my head so hard on the darn thing that I had a dark purple egg on my forehead from Nipigon all the way through to Regina!!! Yesterday, it almost took an eye out. Yet, it’s still there. I need to remember to bring a screwdriver in there the next time I, erm, go.

The cockpit console. I’m told that there are other ones available, so I’ll have to do a search. I’d like one that could hold my atlas and other guides and which wouldn’t make reaching for the glass of water/a pen/a pad of paper/the camera/my sun glasses/the lip balm/the hand cream/ the Purell/etc. a treasure hunt.

The house door sticks as though it’s not exactly square. Maybe it just needs an adjustment. I’ll have to take a closer look at it.

The cockpit door locks only occasionally open from the outside with the key. I frequently have to reenter from the house and open the doors from inside.

Things I Like

The layout is pitch perfect. The spaces flow well into one another and make the coach seem really spacious. I’ve lived here a month and a bit now and I have yet to feel cramped at all. I really like having to cross a room (the main part of the bathroom) to get to the kitchen and that the entrance to the kitchen isn’t exactly in line with that of the study. I am a lot happier having many small rooms than a few big rooms. The fact that the toilet has its very own room is a bonus. In such a small space, having to open an actual door is a real luxury.

The furnishings are well chosen. The absolute only thing I wish I could change, and I’ve said this before, would be to swap out one of the chairs in the lounge so I could fit in a credenza with shelves and drawers. I was surprised to discover that I like having the other chair. When I’m traveling, I overturn my computer chair in the back room, making that room fairly inaccessible. If I’m just stopping for a few hours for lunch or making a late stop in the evening, I don’t bother ‘making up’ that room and instead I find myself plopping down in one of the chairs at the front to read. Unfortunately, the chair that would be easiest to remove, the one behind the passenger’s side (because the bolts are easily accessible via the battery compartment), is the one I want to keep. The chair by the door tends to be a catch all, so I might as well have a proper surface there.

I’m surprisingly fond of the dinette, too. I usually eat there and it’s where I sit with my laptop and research materials to plan out my day. When traveling, I take the wicker baskets that I placed over the fridge and store them on a dinette bench. Eventually, I’ll get around to creating some sort of securing mechanism so I can leave the baskets above the fridge when traveling, but for now they’re completely out of the way on the dinette bench.

The ‘upstairs bedroom’ is a cozy space that works for me even though some might find it a tad tight up there with my mattress. I like that there is room for overflow storage without cramping my sleeping space. I’m not fond of the fact that I have to climb up on the dinette to get up there, though, since it’s getting the dinette dirty. I supposed I c/should put a towel over it. But climbing up (and down) isn’t a pain at all, not even in the wee hours of the morning when my bladder is screaming at me. There is a conveniently located light above the bed and I really like the curtain on a hospital rail. Closing it at night is the equivalent to shutting the bedroom door and gives me the feeling that I’m cozy and secure in a private little nest.

The kitchen is surprisingly efficient. There is just enough room to work. The only thing I’d change is that I would replace the double sink with a single one. The sink could be deeper, too, but that’s a minor complaint. The stove and oven are fantastic. A couple of weeks back, the piezo (sparker), the one part I was told didn’t work, started to work! So, now I don’t have to use a BBQ lighter to fire up the stove. I absolutely adore cooking on a gas range; it’s so much faster than on an electric one. The oven is excellent, too, and doesn’t require any feats of athleticism or eyebrow risk to light. The size is just right one-person sized casserole dishes. As for the fridge, no complaints there. It’s huge! I can’t even keep it completely filled, but when I have something oversized, there’s room for it.

The bathroom is the best space in the coach that I didn’t design myself. It does not feel like a stereotypical RV bathroom. There is plenty of space to walk around in the main part of it. The vanity is generously proportioned, with a medicine cabinet that offers more usable space than I have need for, plenty of counter space, and an under sink cabinet that is roomy enough for all my cleaning products. Next to the shower, there’s enough place for me to put a storage tower I had at my old house, effectively giving me the exact same amount of storage in the bathroom as I’m used to having! The shower is very luxurious and just the right size for me. There’s no elbow banging involved in it! The only thing I’d change is the shower head since it doesn’t have the adjustment for turning off the water while soaping up. The toilet room is surprisingly pleasant for such a tiny space as its white walls and window make it very bright and airy. This room was also the source of a DOH! moment for me. I was frustrated that the coach doesn’t have a broom closet. Yesterday, I finally clued in as to why there’s a hook behind the toilet. Whadya know, it’s just the right height for hanging a broom. Or a Swiffer stick in my case!

Then, there’s the room I call the study or the living room. Oh, I LOVE this space! My mother really outdid herself with her fine tuning of my design. The two mattresses and pillows make a wonderful place to recline and watch a movie or read. The night table is at just the right height and distance for placing a mug of tea or a glass of water. The useless bar has turned into a very useful place for storing all the cables for my electronic equipment. There’s also just enough room to put a litter box and box of litter out of the way, tucked in the space between the toilet room wall and the edge of the storage box topped with the night table.

Looking up, I have no less than four skylights, two of which have covers enabling me to leave them open even when it’s raining. They add a lot of light to the coach and bring in less noise than do open windows. I do need to think about insulating them for the winter.

Finally, there’s the basement. What else can I say about the basement, but thank goodness for all that usable storage space! I packed the basement in Ottawa and have had to make only a few minor tweaks. There can be a lot of shuffling involved to get at things that are stored in the bowels of the large pass throughs, but it’s not tedious at all.

All of these elements combined make for a very airy and livable coach. I don’t feel cramped in here in the least and I just left a 900 square foot home!

by

Saskatoon

I wish I had time to share all the pictures I took of Saskatoon, but I have to be out of this site by 11! 🙁 Every other place I’ve stayed, checkout has been a much more civilized 12 o’clock.

At any rate, let me take you back to Regina one last time, to the set of ‘Laundry Day On the Prairie’.

Even though I haven’t blogged about it since I bought it, I’ve been using and absolutely adore my Wonderwash. I use it to keep on top of the cleaning of small items like dish cloths. The machine cleans things beautifully. I should have taken a before and after picture of one of the cloths I cleaned; it was so filthy after washing a BBQ grill that I thought it would have to become a rag. My Wonderwash got it back to brilliant white! At any rate, I woke up Thursday to discover that Ms. Tabitha had been sick all over the bed. Yay. Not. I decided to wash the sheets in the Wonderwash. This was not as tedious an endeavour as one might imagine even though it took about an hour. The sun was shining so hard that I barely had to wring anything out; within an hour everything was bone dry.

The owners came by at one point because someone had told them that a tenant had strung a clothesline, an apparent no no. They laughed when they saw I’d strung the line from one of Miranda’s mirrors to a utility pole. That was fine; the no no is to string a heavy line between their precious tiny poplars. I can’t believe that I can believe that some idiots would have done that. Me, I’m good at improvising. 🙂

Croft will be happy to see a white hose in this picture. I had to use my green hose for black tank related matters back in Manitoba, so since I needed a new hose anyway, I made it a point to look for a white one. I hate it, it leaks at the connection where it screws to the tap and Canadian Tire won’t take it back. I’ll have to fix it next time I stop; thankfully I have the parts to do that.

So, Saskatoon. I’m going to have to move here since it hosts my dream home!

I decided that the only thing I absolutely had to do in Saskatoon was the Western Development Museum’s ‘1910 Boomtown’.

It’s fantastic!!! The museum is a recreation of a street in a circa 1910 Saskatchewan town.

You can go into each building and see a typical commerce, service, or home from the period.

That took up the entire morning. As I was coming out, the lady at the admissions counter ‘had’ to introduce me to her other colleague as ‘the gal RVing across Canada with her two cats.’ Without prompting, she then told me I had to visit the University of Saskatchewan campus and pulled out a map showing me a walking route I could take. That sounded fantastic. I needed the exercise and I wasn’t in the mood for more museums.

The walk was quite long, about 7.5km, if I reckon correctly, and was breathtaking. I started at the Saskatoon Weir (dam) and climbed up to the CPR Bridge.

I discovered here that there is no way I am ever going to be able to make it up the Eiffel tower. The stairs are metal mesh that you can see through. I barely made it to the top, and that’s because I finally had the smarts to close my eyes. The view from the top was breathtaking, but I couldn’t get off that bridge fast enough. If a train had come by as I crossed, as one did an hour later when I was safely on the ground, a rescue crew would have been needed to get me moving again!

Once I got across to the U of S campus, the daring bridge crossing was all worth it. I got some fantastic shots of Saskatoon.

It was past lunchtime when I got back to my car, so I decided to head to the ‘trendy’ Broad Street area to scope out a place for a nice lunch, which I found at the Broad Street diner, where they have some amazing fries. Just off Broad Street I found a used bookstore with an owner who is quiiiiiite the character. He talked my ear off about how people today, especially politicians, know nothing about our history. I’d picked up a book on ancient Egypt and he told me I could have it free if I bought the autobiography of Nellie McClung, a suffragette, which he had seen me pick up (and put back down because it was pricey). I hesitated just long enough for him to offer me an even better deal, so I walked out with both books. In my defense, there were so many books on my ‘wish list’ in that store that if I was still living in a real house I could have easily bought a couple dozen!!!

Since I still have that nasty cold (better today, thank you), I was pretty exhausted by this point, so I went home to do laundry and come up with something fun to do in the evening.

The Saskatchewan activities guide mentioned boat tours, but that these tours stop on Labour Day weekend. That said, I’d found the launch for these tours on my walk and a sign there seemed to indicate that there would be a tour at 7PM. A quick phone call confirmed that, so off I went after dinner for a 1 hour cruise up and down the Saskatchewan River. It wasn’t a particularly good cruise in that we had to get any information we wanted from a brochure that was given to us. The brochure was great, but it’s hard to read and look at the scenery at the same time! That said, it was a lovely hour on the water and the weather was mild. Unfortunately, my pictures didn’t turn out.

CIMG0183

CIMG0184

CIMG0185

CIMG0186

CIMG0187

CIMG0188

CIMG0189

CIMG0190

CIMG0191

CIMG0192

CIMG0193

CIMG0194

CIMG0195

CIMG0196

CIMG0197

CIMG0198

CIMG0199

CIMG0200

CIMG0201

CIMG0202

CIMG0203

CIMG0204

CIMG0205

CIMG0206

CIMG0207

CIMG0208

CIMG0209

CIMG0210

CIMG0211

CIMG0213

CIMG0214

CIMG0215

CIMG0216

CIMG0217

CIMG0218

CIMG0219

CIMG0220

CIMG0221

CIMG0222

CIMG0223

CIMG0224

CIMG0225

CIMG0226

CIMG0227

CIMG0228

CIMG0229

CIMG0230

CIMG0231

CIMG0232

CIMG0233

CIMG0234

CIMG0235

CIMG0236

CIMG0237

CIMG0238

CIMG0239

CIMG0240

CIMG0241

CIMG0242

CIMG0243

CIMG0244

CIMG0245

CIMG0246

CIMG0247

CIMG0248

CIMG0249

CIMG0250

CIMG0251

CIMG0252

CIMG0253

CIMG0254

CIMG0256

CIMG0257

CIMG0258

CIMG0259

CIMG0260

CIMG0261

CIMG0262

I have to be off within the next hour. I’m Alberta bound! Tonight’s destination: the Walmart in Lloydminster, a border city of which one part lies in Alberta and the other in Saskatchewan! Tomorrow, I’ll get to Edmonton.

by

Sweet Home Manitoba

I am presently in nowheresville, Manitoba, somewhere between Winnipeg and Brandon (closer to the latter), taking a much needed break. It has been a long, long journey from Nipigon to here. Now, it’s time to slow down and spend a couple of days at various strategic locations.

So, last you heard from me, I was about a 100 klicks shy of Thunder Bay. There isn’t really anything of note between Thunder Bay and Winnipeg, so I decided to do a short haul to Thunder Bay to recharge my batteries, then undertake the very long haul to the Winnipeg area, from where I could slow down.

Since I was in no hurry on Tuesday, I decided to follow the signs promising Canada’s longest suspended bridge. The road there was a bit scary in a motorhome, but the signs said that there were RV sites at the end of the road, so I took a chance taking Miranda down there and it turned out fine. I wound up on the bottom of gorgeous Eagle Canyon where a path took me up to the first of two suspension bridges.

I couldn’t cross them. I have a touch of acrophobia and these bridges were too much for me. I made it a quarter of the way across the shorter bridge before I started to see red. I don’t let my fear of heights stop me from living and I challenge it regularly, so I go easy on myself at times like these. I took some pictures, then followed the path down to the river at the bottom of the canyon, enjoying a brisk hike around a lake before returning to Miranda. It was a fantastic forty minute detour and well worth the 18$ access fee that is easily explained by the impeccable installation.

CIMG0009

CIMG0010

CIMG0012

CIMG0013

CIMG0014

CIMG0015

CIMG0017

CIMG0018

CIMG0019

CIMG0020

CIMG0021

CIMG0022

CIMG0023

CIMG0024

CIMG0025

CIMG0026

CIMG0027

CIMG0028

CIMG0029

CIMG0030

CIMG0031

CIMG0032

CIMG0033

CIMG0034

CIMG0036

CIMG0037

CIMG0038

CIMG0039

CIMG0040

CIMG0041

CIMG0042

CIMG0043

Eagle Canyon campground 2

Eagle Canyon campground

Eagle Canyon chimpmunk

Eagle Canyon river from up

Eagle Canyon rock face 2

Eagle Canyon rock face

funny bathroom sign

Inukshuk

stairs down

suspended bridge

bridge rules

CIMG0008

In Thunder Bay, I picked up two items that would make my life easier. The first is a coffee press. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to discover these fantastic devices. I don’t think I could go back to drip coffee!

The second item is a speaker dock for my iPod. This enables me to now have music or podcasts on the road. Radio stations have been far between and satellite radio is as huge a monthly expense as would be satellite internet! I can also listen to music in the evening without having to start up the iMac or use headphones. I went into FutureShop not really knowing what it was I was looking for and the clerk figured it out in two seconds flat. Ah, it’s so lovely to be able to have something to listen to other than the cats meowing. 🙂

I slept amazingly well in Thunder Bay, waking up refreshed and relaxed. It was cold in the rig (13 degrees) and it was great to get up around 6 to use the bathroom and be able to turn on the generator to get the furnace going, crawl back under the blankets, and just doze with the kitties for a half hour until the temperature inside rose to a comfortable 16.5 degrees!

Speaking of cold mornings, the temperature fell to zero the night I was in Nipigon. According to Environment Canada, that’s the worst sort of night I can expect in the Okanagan Valley. If that’s the case, I have nothing to fear this winter.

So, I was bright eyed and bushy tailed in Thunder Bay and decided to head back east for a minute to the Terry Fox memorial, which I’d skipped the day before.

cimg0050

cimg0051

cimg0052

cimg0053

cimg0056

cimg0057

cimg0060

cimg0062

cimg0064

terryfox

One of the reasons I felt I could do an almost 800km day, as I was ‘gaining’ an hour.

Tabitha spends our driving time in the overcab bunk, staring out the window. Neelix, however, likes to be right in the midst of the action (he is SO CUTE!).

Just outside of Kenora, I stopped at the Dixie Lake rest area.

cimg0073

cimg0077

I stood in that spot three years ago almost to the day, overcome with emotion. Back then, I had left Winnipeg about two hours before, knowing that from that moment on, my life was about to take a very different path. These first steps back onto the Canadian Shield cemented my decision for me. The next time I would go through that way would be heading west, hauling all my possessions and aiming for a new life in Winnipeg. I gave myself a deadline: March 2009. And then I went to work making this dream a reality. That dream died the first week of this past May, leaving room for an dream so much grander that I couldn’t have even fathomed it that September day in 2005. But, I did accomplish part of that initial plan, and six months early to boot. I felt almost like a traitor to Winnipeg today when I drove by her without stopping, hauling all my worldly possessions and zooming west, as though I was thumbing my nose at her and being ungrateful for all that she gave me these past three years. But I visited her in April and I remain convinced that she will one day be home to me. So, goodbye, but not farewell. I’ll be back this way again.

At any rate, the rest of yesterday leaves me with mixed feelings. After ten years of driving Ontario’s roads, I was pulled over by the O(ntario) P(rovincial) P(olice) for the first time, an hour from the Manitoban border, for going all of seven kilometres over the speed limit. Soon as the cop told me that, I relaxed, realising that he just wanted an excuse to pull over the young chick in the big ass RV. He spent about 10 minutes asking me questions about my rig, where I was from, and where I was going, and then he sent me on my way. Looking back, it was actually pretty funny. I need to get Miranda’s odometre checked, though. According to it, I was doing 94 in a 90 zone, not 97. Okay, speeding is speeding, but who the frell gets pulled over for doing 97 in a 90 zone? LOL!!!

I hit Manitoba soon thereafter and that’s where the day went to hell. I stopped at the tourist information kiosk to get directions to a dump station since I was planning on doing the Walmart thing again and was (am) still having issues with the black tank. I followed the woman’s instructions to the letter. They were wrong. I took the turn she told me to take, on a paved road, and promptly came to a dead end. No way to turn around without making major damage to both the car and Miranda. No way to unhook the car. No cell phone service to call for help. No help to be had on foot for ten kilometres. Result: one crunched RV back bumper (merely cosmetic damage), one crunched front car fender that is causing a noise that makes me suspect I’ll need to take it in for proper fixing, and one very disheartened and exhausted driver who isn’t exactly sure yet how much of that was her fault and isn’t convinced that she made the best decision.

Let’s just say I was in a foul mood (depressed and tired, not angry) when I got to the Walmart in Selkirk. This store was out of my way compared to, say, the one in St-Vital in Winnipeg south, but I was trying to avoid Winnipeg. 🙂 They had never had an RVer stay overnight before! The manager was quick to give me permission.

Back in Nipigon, I had met some semi-timers who RV 6 months of the year, who said that they gave up on doing the Walmart thing because they feel they have to spend at each one, and end up spending more than they would have had they gone to a campground. What I’ve been doing is making a list of the things I actually need and picking things up bit by bit at each store. This way, I have a bag of merchandise to hold up when I ask for permission to stay, but I’m not spending money I wouldn’t have needed to spend. Yesterday, I finally picked up a water pressure regulator, so tonight I’m hooked up to water for the first time (and to sewer also).

So, this morning, I took off in pea soup fog and stopped off at the first RV park advertising wi-fi (not free) and full service 30AMP sites. It’s a nice spot in the middle of nowhere (60 klicks to the nearest grocery store) and motivation to stay home tomorrow and get some things done around the coach.

I got settled in quickly (backing up is so not an issue!), then took off towards Brandon to visit the reptile zoo I’d been hankering to see. The map to get there sucked and the GPS was no help, so I’m really glad I went in the toad. When I arrived, I didn’t know what to think. The outside of the place looked like a dump! But it was open, so I went in, and paid the very reasonable fee of 5$.

The zoo turned out to be amazing and WELL worth the detour!!! I saw pythons and boas and anacondas, Nile crocodiles (the only ones in Canada, apparently), all manners of toads and frogs and turtles, big ass roaches, tarantulas, scorpions, geckos, and lizards, oh my! The owners need to do some major professionalizing of the place (especially when it comes to signage), but I can tell that the animals are very well cared for and that the owners are working on making the place look less amateurish.

Then, I made it to Brandon, where I got gas and groceries, then I headed home feeling absolutely exhausted. I immediately revised my plans for the next few days. I’m staying home tomorrow and will visit Brandon on Saturday (overnighting at the Walmart if I get permission).

Next, I’ll be moving on to the Regina area. I’d like to find a location somewhere between it and Moosejaw to hunker down for four or five nights so I can do day trips with the toad.

I’m a week into my journey and have but three left to go. It’s time to start pacing myself!

by

Small Things

Before I push off, I wanted to show off Miranda’s amazing 40$ makeover. I had bought some pulls for a dresser I was going to refinish, but I never got around to completing that project. Since I gave the dresser away, I chose to keep the pulls as they fit Miranda perfectly. I got some more and replaced all the ugly gold pulls in the coach. What a difference!

new knobs

new knobs