Snow

Here we are in snowy Roseburg (southern Oregon) in our RV spot outside Mercy Hospital. Note my new kayak! Lorne's is on the other side.

Two Breakdowns Later

Taking the coast road was beautiful, especially the redwood forest we passed through (mostly when it was dark). The local cappuccino was almost as good as Jim’s. Timewise it saved us none and cost us more but at least we were not driving through a blizzard. Much of the road was twisty so slow going. Oh well. We will get there when we get there. Our master mechanic Miguel in Uplands (a city that seems to be part of Los Angeles) is scheduled to go to a big GMC rally in Quartzite on Monday the 15th so he wanted us to arrive on Friday the 12th. It will be the 12th but just barely at this rate!

As we were zipping merrily up the Grapevine – 4 lanes of heavy traffic (in one direction) all going at least 120 km/hr (and that is the speed limit) and climbing at least 4,000 feet; we were congratulating ourselves on how well the motor home has been running! – ohhhh yes, we know that is a mistake, especially going up a steep grade at 11:00 at night. Suddenly the motor started belching smoke into the cab releasing a horrible stench – I start shouting directions – we pull over to the side of the road onto the narrow shoulder – and :

a) we both leap out
b) only I leap out while Lorne sticks his head into the motor inside the motor home

Oh yes and what would you pick? What do you think happened? The answer dear friends is b. Truly! There is an access to the motor between the driver’s and the passenger’s seats and he had opened this up and had stuck his head right in there! Meanwhile this smoke and stench was filling the motor home. I was thinking - What is he? - nuts? I thought we were on fire and was waiting for it to blow up like in the movies.

He mutters something like – It’s steam… It smelled like smoke to me and was certainly black!

Did I mention it was very cold? Winter coat cold! After trying a number of things in the freezing cold that didn’t work we managed to pull the motor home over to a side road that we were lucky enough to be close to and spent the night. Of course in the morning Lorne knew exactly what was wrong and fixed it. It was the thermostat – it had stuck shut so the motor overheated – he took it out so the water could circulate.

A thermostat for the GMC is a $6 item so it was easily replaced once we got to Miguel’s the next morning.

Miguel worked tirelessly and by Monday we were on our way – that is until we were about 20 km down the road at a Walmart parking lot picking up last supplies before Mexico. Lorne went to start up and it would not go. Miguel had left already for the rally but we called him on his cell to get a recommendation of where to get help and he sent his son who arrived in about 15 minutes! It turned out to be the starter so we now have a new starter too.

So while it was bad luck to have these breakdowns at all it was very good luck that they were so easily fixed; were close to Miguel; and they did not occur in some remote area in the Baja. So – now we are truly on our way.

Meanwhile back at home . . .

As I said previously the propane generator broke Monday night when Lorne was changing the oil. He took the head off and Bruce (our generator mechanic) picked it up the day we left – he will return it fixed, hopefully very soon. The night we left (Tuesday) about a foot of snow fell so Natasha had a challenge ahead of her getting to and from work. Relying on the gas generator till Bruce returns to fix the generator, she only had one or two tanks of gas and would have to pick up more at the gas station and hopefully be able to get the car up the hill to transport the needed gas. Hauling it up the hill is a daunting task!

Needless to say, when she returned from work the power was down – ie off – so it didn’t get charged up enough. She had to get the generator running, restart the power to the house and charge up the batteries, even though she charged it for a good length of time, the house went down again. Meanwhile more snow fell making it even more difficult for her to get up and down. She had to walk up and down so she could get to work, that’s two km of steep walking, and slippery and cold. Putting the chains (real ones) on the car is difficult and time consuming at best. So, we are currently worrying about her, hoping she has managed to get safely up and down, get the needed gasoline for the generator, get the batteries charged up and above all she is safe and warm. We have no cell service on this road and were unable to reach her this morning from a land line. So much for Natasha enjoying some time in our home – nothing but work and inconvenience for her so far! Plus she (and we) have the worry of our house freezing with the power going down resulting in serious damage to the heating/plumbing system. Sorry about all this Natasha! The joys of having an off-the-grid house!

The Butter Hasn't Melted Yet

January 11 we are on our way across 42 from Roseberg (southern Oregon) to the Coast. The snow caught up with us so at the recommendation of the locals we decided not to risk the passes and head for the coast where hopefully, it will be warmer and less likely to have black ice and snow.

We had a great nights sleep in the parking lot of the Alder Creek Kayak store (on an island in the middle of the Columbia River outside Portland, under the flight path of the Portland airport and yes, somewhere nearby was a train). Yesterday morning we picked up my beautiful new kayak – an Impex Mystic from Alder Creek in Portland. We got a great deal on it and I am very happy. It’s a Canadian made boat and I got a better deal in the US than I could in Canada – partly because it was a demo (used once they say) so has a few marks on the hull. It fits me perfectly, can’t wait to get it on the water! A bit chilly to kayak here tho without the proper gear. We spent about an hour in the store purchasing all the necessary paraphernalia for kayaking on the Baja. Brian, from Alder Creek Kayaks was a great help and I think we are good to go – once we get further south. He had many great suggestions and was an all-round good guy.

With a late start we headed south only to have me develop severe pain in my right leg while driving. It was so severe that we stopped at the hospital in Roseberg to ensure it wasn’t a blood clot. They were fabulous to us; and no, thankfully it wasn’t a blood clot – likely muscular skeletal, so I will have to take more care with getting up, walking, and stretching during this trip. They provided travel advice and insisted that we drive no further due to the snow and black ice conditions on the I-5 passes, and to consider going over to the coast the next day after it warmed up a bit. They also provided us with free RV parking complete with plug-ins! In the morning they insisted on checking the road reports for us and provided the same advice – head for the coast! So, here we are. As we near the coast the sky is turning blue and the snow on the ground is much lighter, so hopefully we can pick up some time.

We had some very sad news, our friend Kenyan, husband of my dear friend Jayne, has passed away. In spite of all his efforts and those of his doctors his cancer returned for the third time and this time it took him away. He was only 48 years of age and Jayne and he were so very happy together.

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.

And the wind blew and blew . . . .

Whew! You may have heard that we have had hurricane force winds here on the West Coast. Well it is true – they were as high as 100 – 150 km/hour. They were certainly the highest winds we have ever experienced. With windows the size of ours and no curtains I lay in bed watching the huge trees swinging around till I couldn’t stand it any longer and about 2:30 am we moved downstairs to sleep on the floor next to the stone fireplace. We had the grandbabies over so we moved them onto a mattress on the floor next to the fireplace too, well away from any windows. The wind howled and screamed all night. Needless to say while the children slept on undisturbed I didn’t sleep at all, and Lorne had a short nap. I was busy planning what we would do if one of the windows blew in or a tree came down on the house. Of course the kids were up at the crack of dawn – yawn.

The devastation outside was shocking. We were so fortunate that no trees hit our house or vehicles or the cabin, although some came very close! The tree with the lightning rod on it next to the big deck snapped in half, falling about 2 feet from the generator shed. One tree fell directly in front of one of our cars yet it remained undamaged. Branches big and small carpeted all the decks and the roofs. The roadway was completely green with branches and needles and huge trees.

Speaking of the road – there were 6 very large Douglas firs and Lodge Pole pine across the driveway right in front of the house. Once Lorne cut these away and we cleared them off the road so we could drive down the first part of the hill we rounded the corner to find another 5 trees on the next part of the hill! Two of these had fallen down in the middle of the roadway so he had to cut all the branches, carry them off the road AND buck up the trees before we could move the car down any further.

It was at this point that the grandbabies lost interest in hauling branches. At age 2 and 4 they did very well to have lasted that long. So while the kids and I trundled back to the warmth of the house, Lorne continued cutting trees off the road until past dark, by the headlights of the car! This only brought us down the first km of our road and the next km which is shared with our neighbors was also covered with trees down on their power lines. They were very busy for days clearing these trees off. The snow from the previous week had knocked several trees down and they had just had their power and telephone restored. This wind damage was very discouraging and an expensive proposition for them as they have about 2 km of power poles that they are responsible for.

We are very glad that we are off the grid!

Lorne has been busy every day since the storm cleaning up the debris. I have been helping too, as has Mike and Kate, and our friends Ian and Debi. We are very concerned about fire with all the trees down in the forest around us. As Lorne says, it looks like a bomb has gone off the way so many trees have fallen. We are not talking about small trees either! Some of them are so big around that both of us together can’t put our arms around their trunks. We used to have a thick forest view, now we can see right through the trees to the hills and water beyond.

We have done as much as we can for now, the rest will have to wait till we return from Mexico in the spring. We plan on leaving the 8th, 9th or 10th of January, after Lorne returns from helping his dad move into a seniors’ center. Hopefully this blog will work for my travel journal. Looking forward to receiving some feedback from you dear readers……

Slush

The rain has finally started and the snow is finally melting. We have been stuck on this hill over a week ! Lorne has driven down and up the hill with heavy chains on all four tires but then what - it is such a pain to take those big chains off and on that we have to leave the car at the bottom. Its all clear on the main roads of course. I remember when we had two cars and we would just park one at the bottom and hike down the 2 km if we had to, at least we weren't stuck till the snow got really deep, or it was just really icy. I did manage to get out on Saturday for a birthday lunch with my sister and to pick up some groceries (she picked me up at the bottom of the hill and dropped me off again).

We Have to get out tomorrow as Lorne is flying off to see his dad.

I cannot believe how much there is to learn about kayaks. Probably even more to learn once we're in the boats!! I thought we could just drop into the store and pick a couple up, no, no no, never that easy. It is in fact, quite confusing. With all this at-home time I have been researching kayaks and kayaking on the web. Lots of information there that's for sure and lots of very helpful people as well. I think we have found a nice used one for Lorne. I'm a little more difficult (of course). We have to get this done before we leave, and the clock is ticking! We will actually test drive a few before we go - a bit chilly for kayaking but something that must be done to make sure we have a good fit. Apparently one "wears" a kayak.