We're Off! January 9, 2007

This first picture on the left is a view of our driveway going down the hill, the picture on the top right is a view of our house from thedriveway, the bottom left is what happened to just part of the grove of trees near our house with our much increased view of the harbour in the distance. We were lucky.


In our predictable fashion we left only about 24 hours behind our idealized schedule with (hopefully) nothing left undone. With the motor home stuffed with heaping boxes of unrelated and highly necessary stuff - we rushed off for the 11:00 am ferry, only to arrive at 11:08….. So, we had breakfast in the parking lot, sorted out the inside somewhat and caught the 1:00 ferry. Such a crossing! Much wind; waves sloshing on deck, as we lurched about in the dark caverns of the deepest part of the ferry, sandwiched tightly between the wall and huge tanker trucks with inches to spare. I had several rushes of claustrophobia trying to find navigate between these huge trucks to get upstairs and down. We will be in Portland to sleep tonight as we travel south trying to get ahead of this storm.

Lorne arrived home late Sunday night – I had been entrusted with getting us all packed and ready to go – except for Lorne’s personal things and his idea of necessary items for the motor home (bits of rope and rubber and metal things much of them greasy and dirty and taking up a lot of space – the price one pays for being married to a handy guy!). So we were ready. All that was left to do was put all the extra stuff away into the nooks and crannies of the motor home that I can’t get to - like the handy storage under the bed – one day we will install those hydraulic lifters so I can lift the bed up to access these storage areas myself, and making it a one person job. Then there was Lorne’s last minute to do things and to pack the fridge….. Well – he had to fall a very large tree that had been threatening to topple over since the big wind storm. Then he had to replace the thermostat for the furnace, change the oil in the generator – oops it broke – so then he had to take the head off and the back-up gasoline generator had to be put into action.

Oh yes, I am responsible for the bike maintenance – Lorne’s chain needed serious attention having commandeered some rust – so thinking there surely must be some great new product on the market – I chose to consult with none other than a Wal-Mart guy who recommended WD40 – now I know better than to use that so I got a second opinion from a Canadian Tire guy who with absolute certainty assured me that he had just the stuff for me. Well – when will I ever learn that guys don’t necessarily have more expertise than me when it comes to bikes and that there really are no short cuts. Both chains are now a HUGE mess. The stuff I put on is like heavy duty lube with the consistency of slug goop – a cloth sticks to it and when you try to pull it off the goop clings to the cloth somewhat like very thick sticky chewing gum. Oh oh dear. With no more time to spend on the bikes we strap them on and hope that the rain and snow we go through on the highway will somehow “melt” this stuff off.

It’s sort of been like this for the past month or so . . . Broken hot water tank, tank replaced on warranty with a malfunctioning thermostat requiring three call backs by the repair guy – the water heater replaced on warranty cost us $700 – for labor and shipping, the tank was free but nothing else was! A huge tree fell down on our water line down the mountain, taking Lorne more than a day to find the spot and fix it in the pouring rain and not much in the cistern until he was able to do that. Then there was the snow which kept us trapped at home for a week, then the devastating wind storm that bombed so many of our beautiful trees. (see pictures above)

It has been quite the winter so far. Hopefully we are leaving all the problems behind us as we wheel down the highway for our third year on the Baja. This time with two kayaks strapped to the roof, well one so far, we pick up mine in Portland.