May 16 - 17, 2024 Our time in Quesnel and Changes

 Thursday, May 16th, 2024

We were up and on the road heading north - a little rainy and windy:

The scenery continues to be breathtaking:

Would love to know the story of this place (we saw so many old/abandoned places):

Some blue sky!

Horses:

We have seen a few of these cemeteries along the way.  I don't know if it is a family cemetery or an old historic one:

Blue skies and puffy clouds:

Moose and Elk - we watched but did not see any:

But we did see cows - lots of cows - LOL:

Interesting house - I thought it was some type of center:

The view from this house must be amazing:

Farms:

And Flowers:

And Lakes, oh my:

Our first stop was the Walmart in Quesnel.  We needed a few items and I did learn something.  This is another country and even though some items are a Walmart item, they are not sold in every country.

Interesting tidbit: I am having a hard time finding butter.  Lots of margarine, plant based spreads and something with a lot of chemicals in it but no butter (where the ingredients say milk, cream and maybe salt.)  I wonder what that is all about.

Our destination tonight was the Airport Inn and RV Park in Quesnel.  Once we set up, we took a ride to check out the town.  We made a stop for filtered water and the local Safeway (where I did find butter - Yea).  

Not sure how long we will be here so stay tuned. 

Stats for May 16th:

Miles Traveled: 170 Miles

Routes Traveled:

Canada - British Columbia: BC-97

May 17th, 2024

Over the last week we have been watching the situation unfold in northern British Columbia.  There are forest fires around Fort Nelson, BC.  They have evacuated the town (over 4000 people) and shut down the Alaskan Highway.

Please keep all the folks as well as first responders in your prayers.  God bless them.

As of today, it has been shut down for a week and there are no plans to open it up yet.  We were told that when it opens, the residents will be first, the truckers and supplies will be next, and then the tourists (which could be up to a week after opening).

Many of the pages that I am following recommend for those heading to Alaska and currently in BC to plan on using the Cassier Highway (we did use that in 2009).  Yesterday we made that decision and we will be heading west from Prince George and then north.  ( I am SO GLAD that I do not make reservations too far in advance.)

Today was spending time going over our new route.  I plan places to stop and then have backups just in case.  We also have no problems staying in rest areas if need be.  And we may meet lots of folks along the way heading to Alaska.  Plus there are some new areas to explore.

So here is some of our itinerary:

Fraser Lake; Telkwa, Hazelton, Hyder* (if it is dry, otherwise no), Iskut, Dease Lake, Watson Lake, Teslin, Whitehorse, Kluane, **White River, Tok, Chicken, 

* If it is rainy, no.  In 2009 we spent time in Stewart and Hyder -  great places.  But the salmon are not running now so there will not be a lot of bears to watch.  We started on the road to the mine and glacier but it was so muddy, we just kept sliding and gave up - it rained a lot then.  Sooo if it is dry, we will go to see the Glacier.

**After Kluane, who knows.  That is too far in advance for me - LOL!

We will be here in Quesnel another day or two.  This weekend is a big Canadian holiday (almost like the US Memorial Day).  We were told that this is the beginning of camping season for the locals.  If we leave Monday, we will be good in finding places.  If we leave Sunday, I am not so sure.  So we will see.  

Stay tuned as we continue our journey and thank you for following along.

(Side note: Can you believe that I am caught up with the blog!  Yes, worked on that today too.  I do know that once we are on the Cassier we lose all cell phone service and internet so it may be a while until I get caught up.  Just an FYI.)

March 25th - April 3rd, 2024 - Our time in Yuma

WOW!  Time really goes fast when you are having fun - LOL!

So what have we been up to for the last 10 days?

We did organize the shed - at least in part.  We will do more when we our here next season.  We also got an estimate for some improvements we want to make on the lot.  Hopefully we can get that done in November or December.

We had our cat, Gray, to the vets for bloodwork and a check-up.  He is gaining weight but eating less food so I was concerned.  The good news is that all his tests are wonderful and he is a healthy cat.  The bad news for me is that I now have to really monitor his food by counting his calories.  Next, I will be doing that for me. LOL!

Isn't he the cutest!

In February at our park's annual membership meeting, there was an issue that concerned me so I volunteered to be on the Ad-Hoc Committee to address the issue.  The first meeting I attended by phone, the next meeting was my birthday and the last one I attended was this past week.  There is a great group of people on the committee and I am learning a lot about how parks work and some of the "legalities" of park operations.  I will miss the last meeting but will be there in the fall.

After the meeting on my birthday (3/26), members of the park went to EATS (Chinese Restaurant) to celebrate all the other March Birthdays and Anniversaries.  It was fun.

The next day (3/27), we went back to Los Algodones to my favorite restaurant to eat.

Happy Birthday to me 😁:

Yes, the Margaritas and Garlic Shrimp were still wonderful!

Our favorite bartender was there, Leo, (on the right) and gave me a big hug for my birthday and a big hug when we left.  He introduced us to his little brother (on the left).  At first I didn't believe it was his brother and he convinced me it was.  I could not pronounce his name so hopefully next year I will.

As many of you know I just LOVE yard art and this little guy came back over the border with us.  Can't wait to put him in my yard in PA!

They had an awesome camel and an awesome giraffe but getting that home would be a problem..

Our friend, Judy, came into the park that day and we spent some time getting caught up and then out to dinner.  Sadly, I did not take a picture.

The weather has been crazy here!  Cold some days; warm to hot other days; and we had lots of wind and rain.  

Pictures of one of the dust storms coming thru - Looking west:

Looking south:

Looking east:

And that dust just covers everything!!  We usually close up everything and put the air conditioning on cause it is that fine, I can taste it.  

Besides the normal shopping, laundry, etc., I spent a considerable amount of time planning the next few months of our journey.  I only do reservations about 2 weeks in advance and also have backups if it doesn't work out.  Depending on the weather, we hope to spend a little time in Nevada before heading north.

I also spent time on the phone preparing for our trip thru Canada:  What credit cards can we use and not incur any charges? How about cell phone and internet coverage?  Insurance? Medical?  Do we have enough of our medications? What can I bring into Canada - food, alcohol, etc.?  What paperwork do my cats need?  ETC...  I also found out that I could get Canadian money from Wells Fargo with no fee so we made that happen here since there is no Wells Fargo in Canada.   Finally, since my cats eat special food, I ordered enough for the next few months until we get to Anchorage.  I think we are covered!!

One interesting thing I did over the past week was take part in an Alzheimer Study.  As many of you know, my mom had Alzheimer's and a few years ago I inquired about participating in those studies.  I have been in one study now for almost 5 years.  I do it online every three months.  They contacted me to see if I was interested in doing a short term one - every day for 5 days and then repeating in 6 months.  Since I knew we were going to be stationary and the internet was good, I went for it.  I will tell you that this one was hard.  Plus at the end, they asked for an evaluation of the test.  Yes, I will do it again.  I have also participated in other short term ones but most of them I did not qualify.     If anyone is interested in participating in studies like this, you just need to Google the specific disease and make sure the study is done by a university or hospital.  Once you are in one of them, others will contact you.  Also, if you need testing, many doctor and hospital groups participate.  One of the studies I was in two years ago, the pretest was bloodwork and they referred me to a doctor in Pottsville. (I had to give 11 vials of blood and they actually paid me. That was a nice surprise.  But, I did not have the specific proteins that they needed so I could not participate.)  If I were home more, I would look into some of the cancer studies because of the prevalence of cancer in my family.  

Tomorrow we start our trek north so stay tuned and enjoy today.

March 18 - 22, 2024 Casa Grande Part 3 and News

Well, we had a semi-boring week - LOL.

We did get our fuel filters changed at SpeedCo - a division of Love's.  On Wednesday, we were there when they opened at 7 AM and by 10 AM we were on our way back home.  They were great and it was a minimal charge.  Now, we did buy the filters from Amazon because we found out that the one filter is readily available but the other is not.  

The other days were doing the normal laundry, groceries, packing up (see below) and trip planning (see below).

Here is our news...

News Flash 1

In 2023, we started the year with our home and three lots in Co-ops (Florida, Casa Grande, AZ and Yuma, AZ) and said...we are lot poor.  We made the decision that in two years we would have our home and one lot.  In 2023, we sold the lot in Florida and I could not make up my mind on the AZ lots.  There were pros and cons on both.

In January, we got a new lot in Yuma with a great "shed" and it backed up to the storage area.  Not that we are happy on the storage area but there are possibilities.  Another plus is that the "shed" can have a his/her area plus storage so I can have my "space" to do crafts, and Andy can have his radio area as well as a work bench and storage above.

After being there and looking at the possibilities, we decided to give up our Casa Grande lot.  We are sad to leave this park because of the many memories but now we have one house in PA and one lot in Yuma.  So stay tuned for some of the things we want to do to make Yuma our home away from home.

We have not left for good.  It is still a great park to stay and we will be dropping by now and then.

News Flash 2

The picture tells it all.. (from our 2009 trip)!

(Yes! That is on the Alaskan Highway in April 2009.  There are no words to describe the beauty. And yes, I did take those pictures.)

Alaska, here we come!

We have decided to spend the summer in Alaska and then come back to Arizona in Fall of 2024.  In the spring of 2025, we will be in PA.  We have been in Alaska in 2007 and 2009 and it does call you back.  We felt the time is right so we are going for it! 

Right now we are still making our plans but tentatively...we hope to cross into Canada sometime early May and spend some time seeing the sights.  So sometime in June, we will  cross into Alaska.  Gosh, the only thing I can say is that we are blessed!  We are excited!!   

Tomorrow we are heading to Yuma so stay tuned and enjoy today.

October 17 – 18, 2022 Dunes and Future

October 17, 2022  Part 2

After we left the lighthouse, we followed one of the back roads and ended up in the dunes area.  They are huge and beautiful and amazing.

We watched a few ATVers go up and around.  OMG, one of them was a little girl on her own little ATV.  She looked like she was 5. And she was having fun!

The road between the sets of dunes:

We stopped at one pullout that said “Beach Access” and followed the path:

These beaches are just beautiful:

I could just listen to those waves forever:

Beautiful!

My Andy watching for ships or whales – I am not sure:

I don’t know this person, just thought it was a cool picture:

The dunes at the beach:

Near each of the paths is a number that helps us remember where we parked the car.  You can easily get lost..

Lots and lots of driftwood:

Beautiful!

As we made our way back to the highway, we stopped for lunch at a little corner restaurant in Reedsport.  Great chowder!

The area where we saw the elk was only 5 miles away so off we went to see if they were there.  Bummer, no luck.

Heading back home, we checked out a couple of Days End sites and then relaxed at home.

What a great day! 

October 18, 2022

We had to take care of a few things this morning and make a few phone calls. 

As many of you know, I strongly DISLIKE making reservations far out cause then I feel that I lose the spontaneity of travel. But knowing today’s environment, I am now trying to set up a schedule on where we are going to be for the next week or so.

We only have one more reservation scheduled so this afternoon we figured which direction we are going and where to stay next (at least for the next two weeks).  We are also watching the weather to decided how we will be going south.

We finished the day having dinner at the Elks Lodge – Yum!

Tomorrow we are heading further south so stay tuned and enjoy today!