Week fifteen @ CMR

Sunday August 21st to Saturday August 28th 2022

Sunday and it is shortly after midnight, it has been a long tough night, but I’m just trying to unwind from all the bull sh!t of dealing with people, mental note to self never, never work at a membership park, the members are quite simply nasty, and also try to avoid transient parks as well as they are the true gathering places of the weekend warriors. With that in mind I’m going to head off to bed, it sounds reasonably quiet outside of the coach windows right now, and I need some sleep.

I rolled out of bed, just before seven o’clock, Mister Sam was thinking he needed someone up, mainly for snacks but I was rewarded with a little lap time before he moved on to the big bed. Miss Laurie is on the Sunday day shift at the camp store, and if I stay up it will be another day working in the coach basement as it is all about preparing to hit the road at this point. When Laurie gets up we have a coffee and a bowl of cereal before she heads out the door.

As I mentioned I need to redo the original repair on the fresh water tank, this has had a number of repairs with a number of different products, so I thought I would try the water weld product, but on testing this morning it has failed to stop the leak, so after draining the tank I decide to make the repair with eternabond tape, this is a staple in the RV world and can be used for many different repairs, mainly on rubber roof repairs. I had used it on this leak before but I had just added it overtop of all the other repair attempts and it held for a while but started to drip when I was checking the water tank last week so now I’m going to try it as the main repair and will paint it with Flexseal after confirming the repair. I have refilled the fresh water tank to confirm this second repair and will let it sit overnight to test it.

Our campsite looks like a tornado has struck, as I have totally emptied the basement because I need to move the house batteries, to allow the new Clam to fit, but that is tomorrow’s project. Now I’m settled in the Clam with Mister Sam as my afternoon shift start time is closing in quickly. It should be a quieter evening as there were near 60 departures today, but time will tell. The workload at the shop has dropped off, as we need another skid of lumber for the picnic tables, and now the big panic is keeping the sprinkler systems on and operating to try to keep the grass green, and the new issue in the park seems to be people with electric vehicles trying to find a place to plug them in. When they are staying in tent sites they have no electrical feed, but they don’t want to spend the money for a site with hookups, so we will find a vehicle parked with a long extension cord, when we find this happening we shut down the site at the locked box, as they normally don’t leave their site pass in sight in the vehicle. I have suggested putting in a charging station, it should eliminate any excuse for stealing power, and could be a profit center, if there are any provincial assistance grants for installing stations.

Well the shift was peaceful, I stopped for dinner at 7 o’clock, as usually, the off to close the pool, I was going to re mortar some bricks on the mini golf course, when I got called to clean the barbecue at the rental RV, ok I had just mixed a bucket of mortar, and got one brick done, so I had to dump the bucket and clean up my tools before going to clean a barbecue in the dark. I have got to the stage where I never question the order any more I just go and do it, it really doesn’t have to make sense. So after the barbecue, I complete my lock up rounds, shut down the sprinklers, and did the security rounds, thankfully it is a quiet evening, no kids on the playgrounds, no loud music or conversation, and I get to head to the coach by eleven o’clock.

Monday and at 7:00 I get up, Miss Laurie is up already, so the coffee is perked and ready, this is battery moving day for me, and most likely Laurie’s worst day, a couple of hours of gardening followed by five hours in the office with the dream team. While I’m hoping to get the basement reassembled today, and I expect this to be a busy day, before my last afternoon shift of the week.

Well the battery move went well, I was able to accomplish it with out disconnecting any of the batteries, and when I had them in place I repositioned the guides, it appears that the Clam should fit now but I can not be sure till I try it, but I’m not ready to take the Clam down yet as we still have a month to go before we break camp. Now the repacking of the basement, and to my delight everything seems to fit back into the basement, but I do purge a few items that have not been used enough for the valuable place that we have.

I get finished up and head off to my shift before Miss Laurie makes it back to the coach, after her shift, I get back to the coach at 7:00 for dinner, before heading off to close the pool, and because there is not any tasks on my agenda this evening I decided to build a new cover to the coach, the fresh water tank drain had a cover over it, but it was just made of aspenite and was falling apart, so I made one out of scrape plywood that was in the shop, I need to fit it then possibly paint it. It had acted like a small shelf in the basement where I piled tape so if it fits I may add a dowel on the top to put the tape on, I need to confirm it fits properly first.

Tuesday morning and today is the day for our new coach tires, there is lot of work involved to get the coach ready to move to the tire shop, the whole trip to the tire shop and back will only be 27 kilometres (17 miles) but any breaking of our campsite involves a number of things that need to be done just the same, but because we had just moved a few days ago it was reasonably quick. And Mister Sam and I were headed down the road just before ten o’clock and pulled into the tire shop at 10:05.

They had a crew of employees ready and we were out of there in less than two hours, six new Toyo tires, and $4500 later. Tires on the coach are just a regular expense, no different than re shingling the roof of your house, and in the case of the tires they deteriorate because of the sun and the weather, as this is most likely the fifth or sixth set of tires on this coach which has less than 150,000 miles, and each set of tires are rated for 100,000 miles. Tire shops like this that do truck tires have the staff and equipment to make short work of something as simple as changing six coach tires, I also had six new valve stems installed, and set the front tires at 100 psi and the rears at 90 psi.

Wednesday morning at 6:00 I rolled out of bed, I was greeted by Mister Sam who just seemed to want some companionship. He had food in his bowl which indicated that he had woke up Miss Laurie for food already, so as I sat in the recliner, he jumped onto my lap, and other than raising his head to check a bird at the feeder has rested on my lap for a hour and a half. We are going kayaking today, I’m not just exactly sure where but I believe it is near Ladysmith, I still have to load the kayaks into the truck as I removed they to get the spare tire for the coach switched out with the best tire of the six that we just took off. We have been carrying a spare for a number of years, kind of as an insurance plan.

After an omelette we started to prepare for our adventure today, cameras all charged up, kayaks secured in the truck, Miss Laurie has made some lunch, and got the water bottles filled and ready. Today we are headed to Elliots beach an area just past Ladysmith, on a peninsula that extends into the gulf islands. Unlike our venture around Newcastle Island, the Gulf Islands will shelter us from the open waters of the Straits of Georgia. We will be entering the water at low tide, which will bring lots of sea life into view, part of our adventure will be a trip around Coffin Island (I will assume it is named because of its shape, as I didn’t notice any coffins) where we seen an abundance of under water creatures, boat traffic was limited, and the waters of the Stuart channel were calm and we had no trouble exploring the shoreline.

Here are a few of todays photos, hope you enjoy, even some underwater shots with the GoPro.

We stopped in Chemainus to pick up this week’s groceries, before returning to the coach by four in the afternoon, but our days adventure was not over. No we had a meet up with Tom & Fay, and while those names may not ring any bells, it is because we had not met Tom & Fay until this afternoon, we picked a neutral spot the Tim Hortons in Ladysmith. Tom and Fay are going to be part of Mexico adventure, they have been before and are going again this year, they are Canadian, they live on the British Columbia mainland and they also own a Beaver motor coach. Fay had reached out to Laurie to see if we wanted to meet, we said YES, as it gave us a Canadian point of view toward the travel in Mexico, availability of diesel, the ability to use credit & debit cards, plus it will be great to get to know some of the participants before the adventure starts. We know a number of the people traveling in the caravan, but have not actually met the majority of them, let’s just call it a YouTube thing.

So after a very busy day we make it back to the coach by 7:00, to get some dinner and catchup on some YouTube videos, and some of the TV series that we are presently watching, the whole Mexico trip is starting to feel real, as we have to start planning route for the winter escape.

Thursday and after the smoke alarm going off at 2:00 and waking the whole coach for no obvious reason, 7:45 seemed like an appropriate time to get up for real. Today I’m picking up our new tow bar and I’m hopping to get a lot of it installed, I had told the shop I would pick it up early this morning, but with a late start maybe not so early. We are replacing the damaged tow bar with an upgraded non-binding style, it just made sense to do it now, and we are also upgrading the auxiliary braking system for the toad as well, so lots of things to keep me busy on my day off.

So after the initial unboxing of the tow bar and equipment, I decide to work on the coach first today, it is quite warm here today with lots of sun, the back of the coach is shaded and the toad would mean working in the direct sun, so the coach is the place to start. I have remounted the electrical connector, and added the air brake connector, the coach had an air line to the back already, I just needed to add a quick connector, this style of tow bar means that all the connections to the toad happen at the toad, where as before all the connections happened at the back of the coach, and that my not sound a lot different, but in reality it is quite a difference, now when we disconnect all the equipment stays with the coach as opposed to hanging on the front of the toad, so now I’m not working under the spare tire carrier of the coach.

All has gone well today, the connections on the back of the coach are almost all complete, I have one wire that the instructions say should run to the dash of the coach to indicate the toad brakes are applying, I’m not sure why, but I will do some more research on that, running a single wire over forty feet through numerous compartments doesn’t sound like a real lot of fun, so I’m going to defer that till the end. Now the shade is onto the toad so I start to work on the positioning of the new air line on the toad side of this connection.

While we were shopping yesterday we decided to pick up a steak, we have not barbequed a steak it seems like forever, the price of beef has been crazy everywhere, but even more so on the island, but we are having baked potatoes and big old T-bone steak on the barbeque tonight. And yes it was just as good as it sounds, and just to top it off key-lime pie for desert, but remember this is our “Sunday night” dinner as we both go back to work tomorrow.

Friday and this is our Monday, I have a dayshift today and Miss Laurie has a day working in the gardens. The real hot weather has cleared out and there is a possibility of rain this afternoon, but as much as we have had hot days, here on the island the temperature drops each evening and as much as the natives here speak of humidity, it’s not Great Lakes humidity. But I’m not upset with a cooler day for my only dayshift this week, so after rising at 6:30 we have time for eggs and toast this morning, then my day will be the regular, open the clubhouse, vacuum the pool, then clean departure sites, after lunch it will be what ever the power to be, have decided is today’s priority items.

The morning started with an issue with the pool vacuuming, well first of all the, the pool pumps would not draw water through the vacuum hose, so after checking for a blockage I decided that we had to be drawing air some where, it ended up just being a stuck skimmer door closed, so once that was corrected I got the pool finished only about ten minuets late. There were 35 departures today which kept me busy till noon, after a quick lunch, my next project was to wash a window style air conditioner. Apparently when the building was washed earlier this year, enough crap got into the air conditioner to block the drains, so on a humid day the unit dumps water into the store onto a recently installed floor. So my task is to clean the dirt and debris from the unit, reassemble, and reinstall the unit back in to the hole in the wall.

Every day is a little different here at Country Maples RV Resort, I recently spent close to four hours cleaning a box fan that most likely cost less than $20 when it was purchased, was it worth $65 in labour to clean it?

Saturday and I’m up early again today, I have an afternoon shift today but I want to work on the the new tow bar today if it doesn’t rain, and if it rains I have coach projects to work on before my 4:00 start. But for now I need to get to work on the blog, so many gaps to fill in, so many photos to upload, Mister Sam just left my lap so its time to hit the keyboard. As I’m checking my countdowns app, I see that we are only 42 days till our passage back to Washington state, and the start our southern trek, but we have one more long weekend to survive. Labour day weekend, and the park is fully booked, the weather forecast has rain for the long weekend, that would be such a shame if it was too wet to sit out around the propane fire pit, wouldn’t it.

Miss Laurie is up now, so I have a fresh perked cup of coffee, as I type away this morning, the hot weather seems to have moved on and there are some storms around us, but it is very dry now. The park just received notification of water restrictions that are now in effect, so rain is badly needed, quite a change from our first 45 days of rain after our arrival in May.

Well I have been working on the new tow bar and connections on the toad, and I have got the new air brake connections in place, the new break away air brake switch is installed on to the break away canister, and I have changed the toad lighting from a seven pin to a four pin connector, and this along with a quick trip to town for some supplies and I have worked right up to my afternoon shift time.

Well a typical Saturday night, with the weekend warriors causing all sorts of issues, drinking other than their site, noise, rowdiness, it’s like some of these people have never been in public before, I really don’t understand why but I’m glade there is just one long weekend left before my sentence is over, although I see for much of September I seem to have pulled both Friday & Saturday night security … lucky me.

It is after lunch on Sunday as I’m finishing this blog, as I wanted to finish off some things on the Toad this morning, and so now Mister Sam and I are kicked back in the Clam dreaming of all these little darlings going back to school!

64 days! till our Mexico adventure

Blog 441

Day 1789

Week fourteen @ CMR

Sunday August 14th to Saturday August 20th

Sunday morning and it is 7:15, after a very long and very late night, Miss Laurie has an early shift at the camp store this morning, so when I got up the coffee was already on and she quickly fried a couple of eggs for my breakfast. Today I have to prepare the coach to be pulled out early tomorrow morning for an 8:30 service appointment in Ladysmith. So today I will do as much as possible, like moving the coach down off of the blocks and bringing in the slide to make it a quicker procedure tomorrow morning.

So after Laurie left for her shift at the store, I get to work at preparing the coach for tomorrow’s move, removal of tire covers, then removing the sunshades from the front windows, disconnecting the sewer hose, taking down the flag pole, I also removed the spare tire carrier from the back of the coach, just to make getting into the engine compartment easier.

It’s now one o’clock and Mister Sam and I have settled into the Clam, the coach is ready to roll down the road in the morning. The sun shades are off the front windows, the slide is tucked in, we are off all the blocks, but I have re-leveled the coach using the on-board leveling jacks, I have checked all the tire pressures and only have the three small widow awnings to roll up later today. I have also warned most of our neighbours that I will be leaving early tomorrow morning so they can park their vehicle accordingly, our site looks like a tornado just struck it as we will be pulling back in tomorrow afternoon if everything goes according to plan.

Now let’s talk about my hot dog dilemma, I have always enjoyed a good hot dog, l mean we all know a good hot dog starts with a good wiener, not one of those all chicken wieners, and usually not the all beef kind either, no it’s got to be a good pork wiener. As a kid on the farm whenever we had a pig slaughtered the packer which was Brant Packers as our farm was in East Oxford close to the Brant Country line, and dad would purchase a box of wieners, it was a big box, I suppose it had to be 5 pounds or so, and they were a real big deal back then. We made our own burger patties from ground beef, but wieners just always seemed to be such a treat. As time went on Brant Packers kind of fell by the way side and Schneider’s became my go to for wieners, and the Schneider’s Jumbos were soon the only wiener I would purchase, they were as close to the Brant Packers wiener that I could find . Schneider’s was a meat processing plant in Kitchener Ontario, and produced all kinds of cold cut meats, so when we went shopping here on Vancouver Island I was delighted to find that the Schniders wieners were available every where, and have been enjoying them all summer.

But that brings us around to the bun portion of a hot dog, finding the correct bun is always a challenge, if it is too small it just falls apart with the addition of a few condiments, and the sausage buns which fit the length of the wiener better are just too much bread, they may be ok for a sausage, but no darn good for a hot dog wiener. Now back when I lived back in Ontario there was a bakery chain called Buns Master, and they were my go to spot for great hot dog buns, their hamburger buns were too large so we would purchase their large dinner rolls to use for burgers, but as time marches on Buns Masters Bakeries fell by the wayside as well. A couple of weeks ago we were introduced to bread made by “Portofino Bakery” and they located in British Columbia, and while their sourdough bread was great, it was also expensive as heck, well Miss Laurie went shopping the other day and came home with some Portofino brioche hot dog buns, keep in mind that she bought them because they were on the reduced rack, but now I’m thinking they are really good, in fact good enough to maybe even pay the regular price. So up till now the bun has just been a vessel for me to enjoy a good wiener but now I’m wondering is this brioche bun too good to just fill that roll? No bun pun intended!

My afternoon shift was quiet and easy, I rebuilt another picnic table and then proceeded with my normal lock up procedures, the rest of the evening in between security rounds was spent cleaning and organizing my tool bags, as they have been abused for the last couple of months, I’m trying to just use shop equipment when ever possible, but find a constant need to dive back into my tools, and quite frankly at the wage that I’m being paid there should be no need to be using any of my equipment. After my shift I was back in the coach a few moments after eleven and tucked in bed before midnight.

Monday morning and the whole coach is a buzz of activity, I’m taking the coach in for service this morning, we are just going a few miles up the road to a truck repair shop, so this morning will be a toasted bagel, a cup of coffee and we are off. My appointment is at 8:30 so I need to be on the road by eight o’clock at the latest, most of the prep work was done yesterday so as not to be too much of a bad neighbour with the starting of the diesel this morning. Mister Sam doesn’t like our travel days so he will start the journey in his carrier, and as Miss Laurie is working today, so this will just be Mister Sam and myself, but wow there is no better feeling than aiming Thunder in a new direction and feeling the power of the 425 horse power diesel pushing us over the open road, that is just a feeling that I just can not put into words.

So imagine my disappoiontment to step out of the coach this morning to find the right front tire flat! Yesterday I had checked all the pressures, the same as I do when ever we are going to move Thunder, and I had removed a couple of the extensions that were on the tire valves, as they seemed to leak a little after being checked, well I guess that was the case on the right front tire as well. So as soon as I fire up Thunder I pull out the air hose and proceed to refill that tire back up to 100 psi, and remove that tire valve extender.

So for today we have made our destination with five minuets to spare, Nothing to do with fixing these coaches ever happens fast, there is no 20 minute quick lube bay, and I would not want such a service, nope this just takes time, new oil and filter for the engine, and new fuel filters, a complete chassis lube and all the fluids checked and an hour and a half later and we are repositioning Thunder for the rear axle seal repair, there is gear lube all over the rear disc brakes, so we will have to determine if they can be cleaned up or do we just replace them, there is a lot of pad life left, but I’m relying on them to stop my home on those long downhill grades out of the mountains, I think this is a case, where it is best of error on the side of caution.

So when ever there is a mechanical repair needed, finding the cause of the problem is always the one thing that I have always felt was a priority. And as things are coming apart we appear to have found the cause, the axle bearing has started to deteriorate, and as it deteriorated it allowed the hub to have some movement which would have caused the axle seal damage. Our coach has what is referred to in the automotive trade as a full floating axle, which in simple terms means that the wheel bearings are bathed in gear lube from the differential, as opposed to being packed in grease, which would need to be checked and repacked with grease every so many miles like all trailers. The problem with this style is that when a seal leaks that gear lube makes one hell of a mess, now they are trying to locate the required parts to complete this repair, so as everyone stops for lunch, Mister Sam and I will be having some lunch to.

So as lunch comes to an end there is still an ongoing search for new wheel bearing, this is the problem right now any where in the world, but it just gets exaggerated when you are on an island, so worst case senarial we will spend the night parked in front of the shop. Good news they have found bearings in Nanaimo and the shop owner is going to get them, and while this happens, a clean up of the lube covered components is underway, when the bearings arrive, the reassembly take us out past five o’clock, I was to be on shift at four o’clock, so Steve is covering my shift until I can get back to the campground.

So, after a short road test by the shop owner, I have paid the repair bill and I’m headed back to the campground, and by 6:30 Thunder is tucked back into site “J” beside the mini golf, I have had a quick change of clothes and I’m back on my afternoon shift. A big THANK YOU to Steve for covering the first few hours of my shift, and thank goodness it is not a busy evening for the maintenance, so just a few small issues as well as the normal security checks and lock up and I make it to eleven o’clock the end of my shift and to my much needed bed.

Tuesday and I roll out of bed at seven o’clock, today is my regular day off, and I have to admit I’m not real motivated. But Miss Laurie needs a ride up to the office by ten o’clock and I need to get some new tires ordered for Thunder, yes it is time to get new shoes for our house. So after a coffee with toast & eggs, I drop Laurie off at the office and I head down the road to the tire shop, now you must keep in mind that tires for our coach are not cheap, I had quotes from $6,425 American to $4,200 Canadian, so just all over the price range, I had shops recommend all kinds of different makes, but I was thinking Michelin, that’s what I have on the coach now, so I thought stay with what works, but I couldn’t buy Michelin tires as there are none in Canada, and there are none scheduled for production, so I have ordered Toyo’s, which would have been my second choice. Our tires are not worn out, they just are getting cracks in the sidewalls, commonly referred to as weather checking caused from deterioration from the sun, but at eight years old our tires are cracked quite bad. So there were two tires in Vancouver and they have to find the other four, so I expect a week or so before we can get the new tires installed.

I was back at the coach before eleven o’clock and have worked on getting our site put back together after our little excursion, I will wait a little before putting the windshield screen on, in case the tires are ready to be installed next week. So I’m starting to work on getting the new tow bar & toad braking system set up, the old tow bar got damaged last March, and the electric brake system worked but not with out issues (either too much or too little brake application), the new air operated system will be more proportional with the coach brake system, but means running an air line back into the toad, so I need to get at it.

Wednesday and I’m up at six o’clock, and we have another adventure planned today we are off to Horne Lake which is located north and west of Parkville today for some kayaking.

We were back to the coach by 4 pm, and again I had issues with one of the video cameras, but between Miss Laurie’s repaired camera and myself we had enough photos for my blog about Kayaking – Horne Lake

We are experiencing a bit of a heatwave here on Vancouver Island, it was 30C (86F) when we got back to the campsite, but Laurie had started the air conditioner on the coach to keep Mister Sam comfortable while we were gone today, so it was nice and cool in the coach, tonight we are watching Americas Got Talent and I’m catching up on this weeks blogs

Thursday and I’m up too early again, it’s before six o’clock, but I do find it is nice quiet time to work on editing my blogs. There was no lap time from Mister Sam as he has taken over my spot on the big bed. Today we need to pickup up this week’s groceries and Miss Laurie is talking about taking the kayaks up to Nanaimo and getting them into some tidal water, as it is forecast to be another warm day, being on the water is a great choice.

We left the coach at nine o’clock, and arrived at Brechin Boat Ramp in Nanaimo around ten, there was pay parking at the boat launch and for only $6 for a 24 hr. period, we loaded up the kayaks and walked them down the ramp, there was an outfitter there trying to get about a dozen people into kayaks and into the water, so we just walked past them and slipped into the water. Today’s journey is going to take us approximately 8 kilometers (5 miles) around Newcastle Island, it will also expose us to the Straits of Georgia which is the body of water between Vancouver Island and the British Columbia mainland.

So we headed off from the launch into the direction into the prevailing breeze, my thinking was that on the exposed side of the island it would be easier to have the breeze at our back. And as much help as that was we still found ourselves is some 3 to 4 foot swells, and with the occasional rouge wave we both took on a little salt water. Let’s just say there was not a lot of photos taken on that side of the island, but as we turned the corner on the southern tip of the island the waters calmed and we found ourselves a good spot for some lunch and a chance to eliminate some water from the kayaks. We had taken our new folding chairs that we purchased earlier this year from Costco, and they gave us a chance to sit and enjoy the beautiful scenery along the coastline while having lunch. If you look real close in the top two photos below, in one you can see Laurie and in the next one she is hidden by the swell.

After lunch we headed back toward the boat launch, and into the breeze, making it a difficult paddle, but being on the sheltered side of the island at least the swells were much smaller. The rock wall face was amazing how it had areas that were worn into the limestone, the day was a great adventure but maybe a little much after a full day of paddling the day before.

After kayaking we made a quick stop at Costco for this weeks supplies, before heading back to the campground, it was a hot day here on the island, and at five o’clock it was still 32C (90F) so we were glade to get back to the coach with the air conditioner running. Miss Laurie prepared some dinner from the barbequed chicken we picked up at Costco with some salad, then we settled into watch some television, before turning in at nine o’clock, as we were both pretty much exhausted.

Friday and it was a slow start to my day, my old hip joints were aching during the night so I had been up and down a couple of times, and now it’s after seven o’clock and my shift actually starts at eight, so just a quick cup of coffee and a bowl of cereal and I’m out the door to start the days tasks. The regular items, opening the clubhouse, vacuuming the pool, and then on to cleaning departure sites, there were 32 departures today so that took us till noon.

After lunch we had a lot of different small projects, the craziest project today was cobbling a couple of blinds together, and install them in the old laundry room that has been taken over by the RV Rental office. It sounds impressive but we only actually have one rental RV, so to have an office seems like overkill at this point, but we are still like a ship without a rudder. But I was back at the coach shortly after four and decided to get caught up on the blog.

After watching the news we barbequed burgers for dinner tonight and some sausage for dinner tomorrow night, then caught up on a couple of YouTube videos before finishing the evening with a few episodes of the curse of Oak Island

Saturday and I out of bed before six o’clock, which gets me some lap time with Mister Sam, a great start to any morning. So today I move to the afternoon shifts again, Miss Laurie I believe is on gardening again today, so I expect to work on the coach today. We are less than 50 days to the start of our winter travels, and that time sneaks up pretty darn fast, so today will be a preparation day with that deadline in mind. But for now the coffee is perking and I’m going to have to bother Mister Sam to get a cup of fresh perked coffee.

Ok now that I have a steaming mug of coffee in hand, I need to look at what is happening this week, I guess one important event would be taking Thunder to the tire shop on Tuesday for six new tires, that is kind of a big deal, as it means uprooting our camp site again, but it should be our last outing before our departure in late September. After Miss Laurie rises I turn on the news to catch up, so here in British Columbia we are in the middle of a strike, so the liquor supplies are dwindling fast and there are now limits on how many bottles that can be purchased, I can’t see that hurting all the restaurants that have survived COVID to awful very much! So the union is pushing commercials on the local station that wages aren’t keeping up with inflation … now let’s just stop and imagine if you can, anyone who is working a normal job and their wages are going up 8% per year, so that is an honest statement but probably the stupidest statement that the union could have said. I have no idea what the workers at the distribution warehouse make per hour, but I’m pretty sure it is a lot more than most of the people working in the hospitality businesses, and I’m also pretty sure they have health, dental, drugs, and most likely a pretty nice pension on top of it, so the restaurant worker that you just put out of work is most likely not going to be very sympathetic to you wages not keeping up with inflation. But enough of my mini rant on the short comings of some government employees, back to the real world where we are all suffering because of the world inflation right now.

Well today we booked our passage on the ferry back to Port Angeles in Washington State, again a little more expensive that booking on the BC Ferries but the way they have been cancelling passages on busy weekends, just not an annoyance that I want on a holiday weekend. So we are leaving Canada at 3:00 pm on the 8th of October (Thanksgiving Weekend), we should be off the ferry early enough to stop at Walmart to reload with supplies before heading to the Washington coast.

I’m also working on a previous water leak repair on the fresh water tank, this is one that I originally repaired in Florida the spring of 2019. but that I notices dripping after testing my last repair, it takes longer to clean up the areas to be repaired, than it does to actually make the repair, again I’m going to use the “Water Weld” product and will paint the flex seal over it after I leak test the area tomorrow. I also have to shift our battery bank to allow the new Clam to fit where the original one did, should not be a big deal to gain that six inches of space that I need and I think the wires will be long enough to make it work, so wish me luck.

Well it’s closing in on the start of my shift time, so I will try to close this off and publish it after my shift if all goes well and we don’t have to many idiots in the park this weekend. Well there were lots of idiots in the park, most of which were drunk and disorderly, but if I have learnt anything this year it is that transient parks should be divided into two classifications, family parks with strict quiet times and nice family things to do and then there is the weekend warrior group that just go camping to get drunk someplace different than normal, for them no quiet time in fact I think security should start around five in the morning with the noisiest carts possible and then have a nine o’clock check out time.

This park tries to be all things to all people, like this week end in the group camping area we have seven sites all in the same group, and they are gathered on one site, What the hell can one old fart as a security do to make 30 people tow the line. Even just normal conversations with that many people, is too loud for quiet time, but as long as we can sell seven campsites then it is up to the security people to try and keep peace in the park. It’s after midnight and I just made it back to the coach, I decided to finish off this weeks blog before turning in.

It appears that summer has came to the island!

Blog 440

Day 1783