Saturday, March 18, 2023

Home at Last

Day 332

The day started with a very cold start in the Rv. Since New Mexico, we have been required to heat the Rv during the nights. As we continued to move further up the west coast, the furnace has been running day and night. Our propane usage had risen to where we were getting about five days of fuel before I needed to refill the tank. Yesterday was day five and I needed to either take the Rv to the propane station or attach my 20lb canister to the Rv. Because we were leaving early this morning everything was packed and ready to go so I opted to use the heat pump on the air conditioner and save what was left of the propane for the fridge as we made the journey back to Airdrie. 

The majority of the provincial, state and private campgrounds outside of the KOA’s have all disappointed in the power aspect. The voltage would fluctuate wildly at these sites trigging our surge protector to click off and kill the power to the Rv. This campground did not disappoint with that theory and in the early AM the power fluctuated killing the power to the heat pump. By the time five o’clock rolled around it was pretty cold in the Rv. 

With brisk motivation, I quickly got dressed and took the pups for their morning walk. Upon returning I placed the pups poop bag on the picnic table in front of the Rv door, to drop in the garbage bin towards the entrance of the campground on our way out. We quickly packed up what little we had to do to the Rv and was pulling out at six o’clock. We stopped down the street from the campground to hook the truck to the Rv. Just as I was finishing the connection of the vehicles I remembered I had forgot about the poop bag on the picnic table. I had hopes Lori had seen the poop bag but unfortunately it looks like I have left the next occupants a little gift.  

We hit the highway and settled in for a long drive home. I will admit, I was a little apprehensive of driving for this amount of time. As we made our way up the valley to Salmon arm and then into Revelstroke, I began to feel pretty confident that I would be able to make the balance of the trip without getting tired. The day turned out to be beautifully sunny with clear roads all the way to Banff where the roads began to be covered  in runoff and we needed to stop in Canmore for more windshield washer fluid. We arrived in Airdrie around five o’clock and running on strictly adrenaline we began to unload the Rv. 

After 332 days on the road we have done a complete round circle of Canada and the US. During this journey I had done a fair bit of soul searching and hope that I have come home with some insight to the next phase of our lives. 












Thursday, January 26, 2023

M.A.S.H

Day 281

When your growing up, there are things in life you do or watch that seem to stick with as an adult. You develop fond memories around these childhood moments and every time you think, see or in my case watch, it acts like a mental teleportation back to the past. My particular time machine is the tv show M.A.S.H. 

I was still pretty young when the show was on the air (1972-1983) and remember mostly sitting in the room with my dad wondering why the one man was wearing a dress in the army. When I became a little older, the show was no longer in production, but I began to watch the reruns religiously before supper during the weekdays. To this day if I come across an episode of M.AS.H on tv, I will sit and watch it. 

I believe I was in my late 30’s when I learned the location of the filming site was in a California state park. Thinking that would be a hike I would love to do, I wondered if I would ever get there. Moving forward another 20 years (getting old 😱), when Lori and I began discussing this trip, I marked the state park down to be one of our stops on our journey. Today was the day to complete a twenty year ambition. 


The hike is classified as medium difficulty - distance 2.4 miles in. 
The country really is beautiful in California. 


After a short period the trail turns into a single path. 

Ape City from Planet of the Apes was constructed in the valley in 1968. The city was almost the length of a football field and created out of polyurethane foam with an iron rod frame. 
Ape City 
The storms that hit California a few weeks ago washed the trail away or covered in with debris. This make shift bridge was the worst obstacle on the trail. 
We had to climb over debris and exposed drain pipes as we made our way in. 
Washed out tail. We only knew we were headed in the right direction from the odd footprints in the sandy areas. 

We made it. 










During the show
Same view today. 
Road to the helipad 
The helipad 
Helipad during the show. 
A little energy snack before we hike back out. 
Almost home. 
Made it home with only minor scratches. It truly was an obstacle course from the storm.  




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