Friday 27 April 2018

April 7, Sydney to Saltair BC (uncle Bill's driveway)

We're excited about todays move up Island to the community of Saltair and a few days with my cousins and my Uncle Bill. Bill just turned 87 years young and he still lives and works on his acreage in Saltair. Unfortunately my Aunt Nancy passed away last year so Bill is by himself in the house but my cousins all go there everyday and help out or have dinner there so he is rarely sitting around alone. Just a great family atmosphere there. 
The weather would best be described as mixed, there are some clouds but the sun is out and we have had a shower this morning but not terrible. We did our morning routine and packed up and were on our way by 11.

We have to backtrack a little bit because the highway goes back to Victoria from Sidney and then north. Not very far, about 20 km and then north. We have to go over the Malahat going north but it's not too bad, they are widening the highway so there is a construction zone but being Saturday it was easy. We got to the top of the Malahat (356 meters/ 1156 ft) and noticed a fairly large viewpoint, what a view!! The sunshine really helped.

What a great view!

We got to Uncle Bills a little after 1pm. The road from the main highway to the acreage is a little narrow and windy but very doable.Getting parked with our rig on the other hand, not as easy. We had Google mapped and streetviewed our approach the night before and had planned how to get backed in to the driveway. I got out and watched all the corners and ditches while talking to Dave on my phone. This works well for us as Dave can talk handsfree from the truck. We got backed in without too much trouble, I had to stand on the road and block both lanes for a minute to get a good position for backing up but luckily there was a good break in traffic.
Tucked in with power and water

They had washed the driveway prior to our arrival, the chickens are usually loose and they poop alot! After big hugs and handshakes we did a minimal setup and went inside. Bill's pride and joy is his chickens, they roam free around the acreage and he sells the eggs so we were warned that Margaret can't be offleash until she learns not to mess with them. Perfect! Well Margaret is 13 pretty soon and is pretty good at doing what we tell her so it didn't take long before she was "one" with the chickens lol.

 Meh whatever, it's a chicken
We spent the afternoon catching up with Uncle Bill and some of my cousins. My cousin Susan and her husband Dave, Susan's son Jared (he's staying at Bill's right now) cousin Brad and his better half Carol were all there and we had some tea and later some adult beverages before Susan called us all to dinner at the big dining room table. So many memories in this house. 
Uncle Bill's house was the site of a few family reunions many years ago. The main house is quite large and built in the early 1900's originally as a stage coach stop, we think. It also served as a brothel (oh my) the post office and an Inn. Could have been a something "mile" pub like the others we have been to! Bill bought it as a family home in the 60's and has lived there ever since. There are 2 smaller houses beside the main house and one is rented out while Brad (Bill's son)lives in the other. It's good that Brad is right there to help out if needed. Memories of all the "kids" sleeping in the attic in sleeping bags and playing in the big yard are fond ones for sure. The main house has the creaky stairs with the big wooden bannister and the bedrooms upstairs all have a sloped roof on one side following the roof line. I could go on and on but let's get back to the rest of the trip. I'm sorry but I can't find a picture of the house anywhere grrr.
The other Dave, Uncle Bill,me and well Dave

April 8
Today we're putting together a plan for the few projects we want to do while we're here. Gotta earn these free meals and free range eggs! We have decided to fix up a couple water lines for the chickens, repair a table in the back yard and clean up some leaves and a pile of dirt at the end of the driveway. 
Dave & Uncle Bill discussing the height of the water line

We got a plan together and were going into Ladysmith to the Home Hardware but first we have a weiner roast in the backyard. Brad & Carol had lit a fire and the coals were ready for cooking. What a great lunch!! Good idea. By the time we got all the parts together it was already close to 4 so instead of starting a big job we decided to go inside and have a little happy hour with Dave x2, Susan and Bill. I helped Susan and we put together a stir fry with the leftovers from last night. Numm. We shared some more stories and laughs until it was time to turn in.
April 9
No rain today, yayy! We went for a little exercise and then back to the house to get crackin on some projects. First job is the water line our rig is hooked to. It's potable water for the garden boxes and the chickens but it is barely sticking out of the ground. We're raising the hose bib so Bill doesn't have to get down on one knee to swap hoses.
see the valve at ground level before
With a new valve at the base and a handy "Y" at the old valve on a well secured post it should be way easier to reach. 

New & improved, insulated too.
Next up is the table top. Bill uses this table for a variety of backyard chores and has a vice for quick fixes also. The other top was pretty old so we burned that in the firepit and installed a new top complete with the vise and a new backing board. It took some work getting the bolts for the vise off but we got it. WD40 to the rescue. 
Table complete, vise secure and sprayed with WD40
Our last job was real easy and that was just raking up a few leaves on the driveway and the piece of grass by the water line to clean that up too. We sprayed down the cement driveway when we were done so that was clean too. Remember the chickens run loose everyday and the entry carpet in our rig is starting to smell like chicken poop!
Not many leaves but it's cleaned up
It's just the three of us for supper tonight so we are making barbecue steak for supper with garlic mashed and brocoli. They grow lots of garlic right here of a few different varieties and it's great. We thoroughly enjoyed sitting chatting with Uncle Bill and enjoying a glass of wine or two after dinner. He has so many interesting stories to tell about his life as a commercial fisherman and when he was working for CN rail and how he met my Aunt Nancy and.... well you get it. We loved our time together. Another great day here in Saltair!
April 10
Bill has some errands to run and other things to do so we are driving over to Dave's cousin Holly's house for lunch at the pub. Holly lives not far away in a community called Cassidy very close to Nanaimo airport. We are moving to Rondalyn RV park Thursday which is a kilometer away from Holly and her husband Bob. We had a nice visit and a walk to Timberland pub for lunch and then back to Bills for dinner and a quiet evening.
April 11
Our last day at Uncle Bill's we got up and had a small breakfast and went for a walk. We came back to finish up all the projects and tidy up what we could. Dave and Sue came over for another visit.
Love this picture of Susan. Always a huge smile and a great laugh.

This kitchen table holds so many great memories for me. It has been surrounded by so many of the people I have loved the most in this world. Great memories!


More great times with Dave, me , Uncle Bill and Dave

After Susan and Dave left we made up a great spaghetti using Aunt Nancy's amazing home made sauce. So good!! Throw in a salad and it was another fantastic meal. Never a shortage of great food in this house. Since it was our last night Uncle Bill brought out a very nice store bought bottle of red wine. After that we brought in another from the trailer that he had enjoyed. The conversation was really flowing now. Dave and Uncle Bill found so many interests they had in common and it was tough to get a word in edge-wise! lol. With the party in full swing Uncle Bill brought out a huge jug of his homemade red all from hand picked berries on his land. So good!!


Note the big, almost empty jug on the table....ooops! Jared was helping too ;)
In case you missed Margaret in the bottom right of the above picture. Poor thing having to sleep on the floor while we had fun.

Anyway, we stayed up way past our bedtimes and are going to hate ourselves tomorrow as we are moving to our next adventure but it was so much fun none of us wanted it to end, especially Uncle Bill. 


Wednesday 25 April 2018

April 4-6, 2018 Sidney, BC

Wednesday morning was very rainy and was our move day from Fort Victoria to Oceanside Resort in Sidney. We remind ourselves that rain is better than snow but it still makes tear down and set up less fun. It was a short 45 minute drive (max) and we arrived at our new home away from home.

Dave went in to the office for check-in

Margaret was ever vigilant about ensuring Dave's safe return
After we got all set up, John (Dave's brother) came over and we went to the Prairie Inn for an early supper. 
The food at this pub is amazing. Tonight Dave and I were both looking for some comfort food and ordered the meatloaf. The entire meal was delicious and the portion size was huge. We definitely have enough leftovers for lunch tomorrow. The Prairie Inn was built starting in 1893 as a hotel. There have been additions and many renovations over the years and the history shows well everywhere inside. Many of the floors were not level but they have remained that way on purpose, to preserve the original feel. We loved it!

Original building contract
Thursday morning was another rainy one. We geared up in rain gear and did some walking anyway.
Grey, grey, grey
Great timing that Dianne and Steve, our great friends from the Living the Dream blog, arrived in town yesterday from their time down south. John joined us as we met up with them for lunch at The Rum Runner in Sidney.

John, Dave, Leslie, Dianne, Steve
When Dave and I started thinking of retirement we started researching others that had decided to try full-time  RV living. One of the first Canadian blogs Dave found was Living the Dream. For a couple years we read and learned and formulated our own dream. In 2016 they mentioned that they were travelling fairly close to where we live. Dave sent a message to them stating that we were NOT axe murderers and if they wanted to come to our little acreage we would provide them with parking, water and power and a few fun quad rides. As luck would have it we all got along famously, they stayed longer than planned (in case we truly were axe murderers) and met a number of our friends. Over the last two years we have visited them down south a couple times and really enjoy any opportunity we get to spend a bit of time together. Here is a link to their blog post when they arrived in Bonnyville.


  • Friday, August 12, 2016 (Travel to Bonnyville, Alb...
  •  After our lunch at Rumrunners we extended our visit to include a trip up to their former home (which now belongs to their son and his family) It was great to spend some time together. Such nice people!
  • Friday we started our day with more walks. It's still overcast but at least it's not pouring. The resort is located oceanside on a bird sanctuary and estuary.
  • I am not a bird person so am unsure exactly what these are but they were big! The park connects to paths through the estuary and along the beach. It would have been truly lovely in better weather. Sidney is also a very nice place and I would recommend a stay here if you're ever in the area. 


  • Finally got Margaret a much needed raincoat.
  • Heading up-island tomorrow to go visit Uncle Bill. Yay!! Really looking forward to a visit and some projects with Uncle Bill. Oh and maybe some great home cooked meals and homemade wine ;)

  • Saturday 21 April 2018

    March 30

    Just noticed we forgot to include our supper stop after our day hiking at East Sooke Park. Guess where we went? A pub! This time is was the Seventeen Mile Pub near Sooke. My liver is starting to hope that John doesn't know any more "Mile" pubs
    This old guy was telling us how bad Alberta drivers are....hhmmm

    Beautiful dog patiently awaiting his owner

    March 30
    Started the day with Dave doing a bike ride and me and Margaret going for a walk. It is a beautiful day with a high of 17C. In the afternoon John took us over to his friends place, Lynn and Eryl. They are a lovely English couple who make their own beer and wine and also happen to be the most amazing gardeners ever. They have both worked their whole lives working with plants and landscaping and Eryl has been a major force in the beauty that is Finnerty Garden at the University of Victoria. If you ever get the chance go see it...amazing. She was kind enough to walk us through their backyard and show us her early spring garden.
    Love the bench and the art...so inviting

    The closer you look the more amazing the variety of color and textures is.

    Love the numerous hidden characters scattered throughout

    Some of the relatively few flowers. Such diversity.

    Camouflaged...can you find me?
    I know all these pictures might be boring for our friends in the south but for all my fellow gardeners in Alberta this is amazing stuff for March. So jealous!
    After the tour we went in for some home made beer and wine and a great visit. Delicious and so interesting to hear of all the travels they have had. Our next stop was John's place to make spaghetti and a salad for supper. Patty joined us and we had a nice visit.

    March 31
    Got up this morning and it was nice but a bit cool so we knocked out a blog. After that we took Margaret for a long walk. Dave's ankle is starting to feel normal so all the walks and rides are paying off. We met up with John and then headed over to Patty's to help her set up for Easter dinner on Sunday. Then we were off to the Canoe Club to meet up with Nathan, Patty's son, Shannon and Dan and Shannon's friend, Brittany. We had a great supper and a nice walk to the Arena for another Victoria Royals playoff game. Unfortunately the Royals lost but we all had a great time.

    John, Patty, Dan, Dave, me, Shannon and Brittany


    April 1
    Happy Easter!! 
    A fairly nice day so Dave headed out for a bike ride while Margaret and I did another walk. After some chores I headed out for groceries as I promised to bring a second dessert for supper at Patty's place. I found a lovely assortment of cakes and a tub of Chapman's Blackjack Cherry frozen yogurt. If you have never tried it, it is AMAZING! Hope everyone likes it. We arrived at Patty's around 4 pm and were introduced to some of her family. We had great appetizers, wine and conversation while supper was cooking. Patty is an amazing cook and it was smelling fantastic! Turkey, ham and all the trimmings. Yum!!
    John, Patty, Corrine, Sage, Gavin, Duncan, Olivia, Doug and me
    Unfortunately Shannon wasn't feeling well so her and Dan were unable to come. We had a great time. Thanks Patty for your hospitality. We really enjoyed it.

    April 2
    Another nice day so Dave and I decided to do a bike ride together. Of course Margaret gets to come too.
    She LOVES being with us...even on a bike ride.

    In the afternoon we took care of some chores until John came over. We had a nice visit and supper in the trailer and a nice, quiet evening.
    April 3
    Our usual walk and bike ride in the morning. I went to do some laundry and Dave was working out side when he heard the CO alarm go off in the trailer. When he checked it out everything looked fine. A little while later we noticed smoke coming from our fireplace. We turned off the breaker, pulled the unit out and discovered this!
    Needless to say we are very glad this happened while we were home and not sleeping as it could have ended very badly. Dave  disconnected and removed the damaged wires and reconnected the power to the heater only. We have heat from the fireplace but not the "look" of flame as those wires were toast, literally. We don't leave the fireplace on when we aren't here anymore.
    So after that little scare it was time to head over to John's place for supper. He made a big batch of slow cooker split pea and ham soup from the leftover ham at Patty's Easter dinner. We have tickets for Game 7 of the Royals vs Giants hockey series for tonight!!! Shannon unfortunately isn't feeling well tonight so we'll be giving Dan a ride home tonight. He's pretty close on our way home. Poor Shannon, she would have enjoyed the game.

    Royals win!!! 4 - 3 on to the next round
    It's been fun going to these games but we move to Sydney tomorrow and up Island before they come back for another game. This is more hockey than we have been to in years. Retirement is fun sometimes :)



    March 26 - 29, 2018

    We're doing our best to get caught up on our blog but travel days and fun are slowing us down! We got so far behind at the start due to not getting the setup right until Shannon and Dan fixed us up. They are so awesome with this stuff. Okay here we go.

    March 26
    We have been trying to be much more active as part of our retirement goals. With my disc issues I can't run but I can enjoy bicycles and walking/hiking as long as I don't get crazy so Margaret and I are walking lots. Dave is trying to jog a bit which he hasn't done in a very long time. So it was a beautiful day and we headed out on the paved trail that runs right in front of Ft. Victoria Park. Me for a brisk walk with Margaret and Dave out for a jog. We had gone almost 2 km when we meet up with Dave and he is limping a bit, uh oh. Turns out while he was walking on a rocky road and having a drink he rolled his left ankle....again. It's happened before and his ankle is weak from previous twists, he managed to slowly jog back to the rig but a few days off are in the future. Margaret and I kept our brisk pace going and we all met back at home. Showers and a ice pack on the bad ankle for a bit to help with swelling and we have chores to do. Off to Costco !! Cheap propane and some groceries but nowhere near our usual Costco haul. Storage space is limited in this new lifestyle. We dropped stuff off at the rig and headed east out of the park to do another errand. The traffic was slow due to some construction and we were basically stopped at the entrance to 4 Mile Pub....hmmmm. Wait we said we would make this a "no liquor Monday". 

    Okay we're weak and we just retired, right? lol. They have a delicious Brown Ale on tap so we only stayed for one. Margaret is in the truck after all. We felt a little guilty but it is a great place and we will be back, you'll see. We went back home and had supper and put our feet up for the night. 
    March 27
    John texted this morning and he is coming over and we are going for a walk around Thetis Lake Park trails. It is really close to where we are so John parked at the RV park and we took the truck over to the park.


    Lots of trails to choose from



    It was a great walk around a beautiful lake on a pretty nice day. Thanks for joining us John. Well... after our walk we all felt a little thirsty so we drove back to our new favourite place. Yep, the 4 Mile Pub ! It's a great place and we only had one pint. We have to get back to the rig and prep supper for tonight. Shannon and Dan are coming over tonight for dinner and to help us set up the blog page! Very exciting, they are both so good with computers because that's what they do for a living. We had a real nice dinner and some chatting and then they got to work setting up our page and the mobile site. Man so cool to watch and listen to them go!! 
    Dave is looking for a picture, the real genius is happening on the far side of the table. We had the park wifi and hooked to our phones for net connection for all the laptops. Shannon also hooked us up to their home wifi so we could watch Survivor after they went home. Can't thank you guys enough for all your help, so nice to visit and watch you work. Thank you both.
    March 28
    John is coming over today with his bike in the trunk and we're all going for a ride on the Galloping Goose Trail which is also very close to our park. The "Goose" is an old rail trail that runs from Sooke to Sidney but we are only doing a small section today. We rode towards Sooke on the trail, it is an awesome ride. The trees and bushes are so close on the banks of the trail and you can smell blossoms. What a great place! We rode to Royal Roads College and back, about 14km round trip. Interesting fact about Royal Roads is that it is where they filmed X-Men movies when they were at the "school". Very nice place but we forgot to get any pictures again. We're still learning to take pics everywhere. So after a long ride like that we were all pretty thirsty again. We extended the ride down to .... you guessed it, 4 Mile Pub :)  
    stained glass above the fireplace

    John and me
    We had a pint and and some snacks and rode back to the rig. John went home and we will see him tomorrow for another hike. He's going to drive us. Like we said before he's a great tour guide and really active. He's wearing us out. Not really, we are having a blast seeing all the sights we can. We took Margaret for a walk, after a light supper, to an off leash park nearby. She didn't get much trail time today after all.
    March 29
    We are planning a walk in East Sooke regional Park today but first we will have lunch at a restaurant John knows about along the way. We stopped at My Chosen Cafe (in Metchosin). It was quite busy being lunch time but we got a nice table and had a great lunch so we can fuel our hike.
    We asked John to stop at another RV park that we had a brochure for called Pedder Bay Marina/RV park. All I can say is wow! We won't be staying here this time but we will sometime in the future. Their premium sites back onto the edge of the water by the Marina. Super nice place, would be so nice with the view of the water out the back window.
    I could stay here!
    Okay, off to East Sooke Park for a hike with Margaret. It's a cloudy day but not raining so it should be great.

     A split Arbutus tree

    The 2 short guys :)
    We hiked out as far as we felt comfortable with, the rocks were actually pretty slick in places. We found a geological marker and we think it marks the southernmost point in BC. Hard to read.
    Tough to read
    Our phones welcomed us to the United States so we were definitely far south. We hiked back and walked the beach a little bit then headed back to the car. Along the way another girl walking her 3 dogs mentioned that last week she saw a bear and a cougar down by the beach trail we had just come up! Glad we didn't see them.  We drove back to the rig and relaxed for the evening. Long day.