Recap of our adventure

I'll give you a little recap and some of our favourite things that we've done so far. We started our adventure in September of 2006. We can't believe that we're already in our 3rd year; and we both absolutely love this new life of ours.

We have stayed in or driven through 5 provinces and 29 states. We have put 57,936 kilometres on our truck; and our gas total is $9,693.04. We have stayed at 78 campgrounds and stopped in 20 casinos to play poker. It took us 18 months to go from the Atlantic to the Pacific. And luckily, we've only been snowed on twice.

We arrived at the Atlantic Ocean in late September of 06; and I finally put my feet in while in South Carolina, Dec. 06; and it was freeeezing. We arrived at the Pacific in March 08 and didn't put my feet in until August 08 on the Long Beach, Vancouver Island. Almost as cold as the Atlantic.

Our top 5 favourite places we've parked our rig on are:

1. The desert in Ajo, Arizona. Hands down the nicest place we've parked our rig on in 2 years.
2. Our current park - Living Forest Oceanside RV Park, in Nanaimo, BC. Lives up to it's name, beautiful tall cedars and giant leafed maples all over the place.
3. Goblin Valley State Park, Utah. Cliffs and slot canyons in our background.
4. Lake Fausse State Park, Louisiana. Back yard had a private dock on the bayou.
5. Glenwood Canyon Resort, Glenwood Canyon, CO. Colorado rushing behind us, with a railroad, mountains and a full moon. Beautiful.

Our favourite national parks

1. Bryce Canyon; hands down the most beautiful place I have ever seen. Undescribable beauty.
2. Mesa Verda; close 2nd to Bryce with the cliff dwellings dating back to the 1200's
3. Arches; incredible arches shaped from rocks, in beautiful reddish tones.
4. Rocky Mountain; snow capped, tree covered, bare, big and breathtaking.
5. Grand Canyon; deep, wide and majestic.

Some of our firsts, mostly mine, as Mike has done or seen some of these things before:

1. Seeing so many types of cactus - saguaro's, ocotillo's, prickly pear, cholla, teddy bear cholla, barrel, organ pipe.
2. Walking through a slot canyon. Antelope slot canyon in Page, Arizona was incredible.
3. Having a crawfish boil and seeing a tree house in the Achafalya Basin in Louisiana.
4. Joshua Tree National Park. Had never heard of or seen a Joshua tree and now I have.
5. Camping in the desert. Loved every minute of our 23 days there.
6. Snorkelling in Key Largo, Florida; swam over Molasses reef and saw amazing ocean life.
7. Seeing a Gannett colony; there were 10's of 1000's of them on Bonaventure Island, Quebec.
8. Seeing our first ghost town, Tin Cup, Colorado.
9. Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, CA.
10. Seeing the amazing cliff dwellings throughout Southern Utah.

I've included just a few pictures from each area; but if you wanted to see more pictures of one area, go to that specific album.

Hope you enjoyed this little recap.

Visit in Victoria

We ended up going to Victoria late September for another visit with Barb, Liz and Lorne. We met some new people in our park, from St. Thomas of all places; and drove Bob to the airport in Victoria; and then spent the night with Barb.

We went out to a nice pasta place and met Liz and Lorne for dinner. We had a nice time; and when we arrived back at Barb's she told me that her bathtub was all ready for me to indulge in! The thing I miss most is my bathtub; and when the park doesn't have a hot tub; I miss it even more.

I must have spent close to an hour in there; and enjoyed every minute of it! The next day, Barb toured us through Sooke; and part way to Port Renfrew before heading back to Victoria. We enjoyed seeing the gang again; and have plans to do it again.

Roughly a week later, we had some excitement at our site. We had a really bad wind storm; and this place is filled with trees. Lots and lots of really tall trees. We had just gotten off the phone with Mike's brother, Ken; and went out to get some fresh air before dinner. And much to my surprise, a tree had come down and was lying right across our fire pit; extending right across the road! WOW! Didn't even hear it come down. Our guardian angels are still looking out for us though; cause the tree fell away from our rig; and didn't do any damage to us. The park workers came and cleared it off the road the next day; and finished the clean up on Monday. Only tree in the whole park that came down.

Take a look at our pictures

Living Forest, Nanaimo, BC

We arrived in Nanaimo, BC in the early part of August. Within a short time of setting up, both Mike and I agreed that this was the nicest RV site that we had set up on, in close to 2 years.

The park is called the Living Forest Oceanside RV Park; and it certainly lives up to it's name! We have a two tiered campsite with the rig parked on the upper level and our fire pit on the lower level. We are completely surrounded by large cedar trees and can see Nanaimo Bay from our site. We are surrounded by roads; and cannot have a neighbour! It makes for good privacy.

A week or so after arriving here, our good friends, Sally and John; came for a visit. It was nice to see some familiar faces and get one of Sally's infamous hugs. While they were here, we took the opportunity to drive over to the west coast of Vancouver Island.

On the way, we stopped at Cathedral Grove; and saw some of BC's oldest and largest douglas firs. They were massive! This area is known for it's rain; and judging by the moss on everything; I believe it.

We continued on to Long Beach; and enjoyed a picnic lunch on the beach with the Pacific Ocean as our view. Sally and I also braved it; and strolled in the water for a bit - pretty cold!

We ended our drive in the roaring metropolis of Tofino. It took us all of 10 minutes to drive around the whole community 3 or 4 times! On the way back, we stopped so I could get a photo of me and my namesake creek, well at least the sign.

We also did some blackberry picking while they were here; as this place has 1000's of bushes along the river; they were quite tasty on the cheesecake and pancakes.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit with Sally and Johnny.

We spent labour day weekend up at Salmon Point; with our newly acquired friends - Liz and Lorne; and Barb, Marjorie and Alyssa. We drove up on Saturday for dinner and a campfire. And went back again on Monday to tow Barb's 5th wheel back to Victoria for her. She doesn't own a truck; so we volunteered our services; and got a whole truck load of wood (twice) and a nice dinner for our efforts. When you meet really nice people along the way; it's nice to help out.

Take a look at our pictures