Aug 26 - 30 The day after and back to Alberta.

Aug 26
 Ugh ! The day after. I feel like I had way too much fun last night. Leslie had a few drinks and danced lots and had a great time and wanted to stay later. I, on the other hand, got a little too friendly with the pints of craft beer and a couple shots of tequila and needed to go home earlier than we should have. Definitely not my proudest moment. Enough said.
Sam and Heather are leaving for Vancouver today to visit more friends before returning to England. John is driving them to the ferry and they will walk on. With big hugs we said good bye for now. Leslie and I really hope to get to Europe soon and we will make London our first stop to see these awesome peeps. So great to meet Sam and get to see you both!
After John got back from the ferry we decided on a walk on UVIC campus for some air. It's so nice over there, great place for a nice walk. 

As close to "going to UVIC" as we get lol

Kevin & Lisa called as we were getting back to the house. They were done lunch with Lisa's friend and are stopping by before they fly out to Calgary this afternoon. We sat out on Johns deck and had a nice visit with them. More good byes with hugs and handshakes and they were off to the airport. We are going out for dinner with Patty tonight to a place called 5th Street Dinner. We've never been there before but Patty says it's an after work stop for lots of work people. 

Nasty selfie.

We dropped Patty off at home and went back to Johns place to relax a bit and then off to bed. Travel day tomorrow.

Aug 27

Up early to try to catch the 8 am ferry. So close! We missed it by a few minutes but definitely on the 9 am. No worries. It's a nice day and there is coffee available so we're good. Loaded on the ferry we went outside on top for pics. Vancouver Island is beautiful. The sun and the ocean just always make a person feel better.

See what we mean?

Happy couple.

We got a text from Ryan while we were crossing wondering when we would be getting home. Margaret gets pretty bad separation anxiety when we leave her and she's having a rough time this trip. Ryan & Ashtyn's couldn't be a better place for her. She has Kirby to play with all day but she misses us I guess. We decided to push as far as we could today and pick her up tomorrow. Long day in the Mustang. Sore back and butt day! 

Passing another ferry in Active Pass.

The ferry trip was great! I like them actually, so relaxing really. We hit the freeway and headed for Trans Canada #1 without any incidents this time. Beautiful sunny day and 120 km/h speed limit on the Coquihalla. You can easily stretch that to 140 and still have Alberta pickups passing you!

Going up the Coq, pick a lane buddy!

Close to Merrit looking into Nicola Valley

We made great time through to Kamloops but back to two lane roads and some construction past there. Not heavy traffic though so still not bad. We stopped for fuel in Blue River and Leslie took over the driving for a while. We decided earlier that we would try to make it home to PGR. I'll rest and we'll make it before midnight.

Mt Robson with the top in the clouds

Leslie drove to Hinton from Blue River and then I took over again. Only a couple hours left! We got home just after 11pm Alberta time. Left Johns at 7:30am Pacific time and home at 11 Mountain time. Fifteen hours and we are sore and tired. We went straight to bed but it took a bit to unwind enough to sleep.

Aug 28

We slept in this morning, not surprising. Had a slow start to the day but we are jumping in the truck (much softer seats than the Mustang) and heading into Edmonton to get Margaret. Our buddy Paul is still in hospital in Edmonton so we texted and he's good for us to visit for a little bit. His surgery for colon cancer went well but he unfortunately is battling an infection after the fact. More pain with a drain tube in him now. We're hoping he gets better soon. It has been way too long dealing with pain. We got a short visit and really glad to see him and Diana. Big hugs to you both.

We picked up a super happy dog at Ryan's a little later. There was no way we were getting out of the house without her this time! Thanks Ryan & Ashtyn for looking after her. We drove back to PGR and Leslie did a load of laundry but other than that we did NOTHING lol.

Aug 29 

We have a very calm and happy dog with us again. She slept between us on the bed making sure nobody went anywhere.

A little personal but how cute is this?

We're getting a little rain but not bad enough to stop us from taking Margaret on a walk. We're still stiff from the trip so it's good for us as well.

Happy dog in her rain coat

The big project for today is to get the trailer ready to move again. We have been parked all summer and the storage has been taken over with tools and tool belts for the garage build. We're still waiting for the garage door and trim pieces. We're going away for the long weekend. We pulled almost everything out and vacuumed the storage and then reload with what we want on the road.

Everything out

Vacuum and sort

Repack for the road

While I was doing the front and rear storage bins Leslie was inside reorganizing cupboards and closets. I like my job better. She is making sure that nothing gets broken during travel. Amazing how much stuff gets moved around when you sit still for a couple months. We had cold beverage by the fire pit to burn some stuff from the build and called it a day. 

Aug 30

We are driving to Bonnyville today and staying one night in our house. We have a group site booked at Ross Lake Campground for the long weekend with family and friends. Really looking forward to this weekend too. The site is great and the people that will be there are pretty nice too ;)

Some lucky farmers are harvesting grain already and we drove by one field with 5 combines working. So cool to see them lined up like that and the trucks pulling in. 

2 combines in the lead away from the others

Unfortunate glare.... here comes the crew!

There is rain in the forecast. Hopefully it's not so much that the farmers can't get in the fields. The crops look pretty good in our area so they just need to get them in the bin.

We had a nice drive to Bonnyville and backed the rig in our driveway. We are spending tonight in the house and then wash the sheets and clear out the little bit of stuff we have to take with us. Derek and Devan have started moving stuff to the garage already and they will be staying in the house after the long weekend. It was a little weird in the house... seemed almost not ours anymore. Odd feeling but I guess we're used to the rig already. Sure glad we have them looking after things for the winter. Couldn't have worked out better for us.

We are off to Bonnyville to pick up a few groceries and meet up with Ron & Shelley. Then we have about a 45 minute drive to Ross Lake and our long weekend fun. That's another post though.... stay tuned.