Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder?

Back friends!!

After Mother's Day we started a few different camping trips.

May 18th to 22nd: Chilliwack Lake Provincial park

Best of friends...

Two cans of Pilsbury Grand cinnamon rolls, cut up, with pie filling spread on them. 45 minutes in the camp oven and you have breakfast.

Clearly I am explaining something to Holden

I still love that Jasper will hold my hand. He and I are normally known as the tardy ones in the group. Always stopping to look at something. Josh always jokes about "who let those two 

be at the back of the pack?"

Doug, August, Kathy, Holden, Josh

Jasper & me.

August and Jasper spent the night in 

Eurii in the "upstairs suite"

Grandpa & August making the traditional Sunday pancake

breakfast. Doug says that August is getting so good

that soon Grandpa won't have to help at all!

After the May long weekend, we came home, cleaned up and repacked to head to the Kootenay's to see Teagan, Shawn and Rudy. Super excited!!

May 24th to 31st: Kootenay area, BC

We love the drive there. It takes us about 7-8 hours depending on how often we stop. I especially love the fact that we both drive.

Taking a break at Manning Park Lodge

Biggest raven I have ever seen.

Beautiful British Columbia

Of course it started raining just before we got to 

Kokanee Creek Provincial Park.

The rain was short lived, thankfully!

Our favourite, Site 62

Beautifully well run provicial park. 

We give it a five star rating!

Kokanee Creek

Rudy, now 7 years old!!

Teagan, Rudy, Doug & me

Took a little visit down to the rail yard. This old safe was just sitting there. A bit unbelievable. It had to be 100 years old.

Hamming it up at the marina

When you know, you know.

Grandpa and Rudy sharing a laugh about something

He's such a beautiful little dude

Of course he did have to go to school so we took a day trip about 40 minutes away to Kaslo. Super cute little town. Here's our walk-about.

Paddlewheeler being restored to it's former glory. 

Used to take people up and down Kootenay Lake.

All too soon it was time to leave. See you in July Rudy!! We really miss them. At times it seems that they are so far away....

I'll stop the post here because I have a few more posts to do still. I know, I know....I keep saying that I will stay up to date. I'm really trying to do better.

Peace out friends.

Thought for the Day: If you smile lots, your wrinkles will be in the right places when you are old.

Life in White Rock

We are pretty lucky to live here. It's a really nice community, close to shops, restaurants (not that we use them much), libraries, parks and the ocean. We can walk to all the above, including family. We love it.

Not much is going on here. Just getting back into the natural swing of things. We do have our first camping trip planned for the May long weekend up here in Canada. We leave May 18th to 22nd. Home on the 22nd and leave for Nelson on the 24th. Doug was getting itchy feet to get camping again. 

Most important is a very HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to both our amazing Mom's. I know I write about them every year and we are blessed that they are well. Doug's Mom, Helen is 100+ years old. Lives in Medicine Hat AB in a full service care facility. My Mom, Nadyne has almost 90 years on her odometer. She lives in a senior's active living condo about one hour away from us. They have both been instrumental in every aspect of our lives. They have given us unconditional love and support. They are true inspirations to all those around them. We love them both SO much!

Helen - Doug's Mom

Nadyne - My Mom

That's pretty much all happening. Just settling into our Canada routine. The weather has definitely turned warm so we are loving it. 

Thanks for checking in.

Peace out friends!

Thought for the Day: The greatest failure in life is to stop trying....Credit to Juan-Manuel Guerra

Wrap and more

Home, sweet home. It really is true isn't it? As much as most of us like going away, coming home is the BEST!!

I have to admit, first off, that I said I would do the Mexico re-cap "after the dust has settled" but to be fair I haven't dusted yet so it's still there! Oh well....

There was only one tiny mechanical issue with Eurii. He did amazing. Turns out it was a brake light switch that cost $13 Cdn. Caused Doug a bit of concern and it was a bit annoying as it wouldn't allow the van to go properly into gear once you stopped and put it into Park (this is a highly non-technical description). We learned from our mechanic here at home that it probably meant that we had NO brake lights from when this first occured. YIKES! Luckily it happened the evening that we arrived in San Carlos on our way home. The only other "thing" that Doug had to attend to, along with his buddy Martin, was sorting out the fan in the fridge. We noticed that the fridge slowly stopped being as cold as it should have been. I think it was just overheated after several months of 25C heat. Anyway he figured out to run a bypass fan thingie in the motor and it worked like a champ during the heat. He is so smart, isn't he?

So, here's the breakdown:

Total distance driven: 11,727 kms (7287 miles)

Total campground fees: $2,382 Cdn 

Total hotel stays (2 nights): $357 Cdn

Total tolls: $500 Cdn

Total gas: $2,600 Cdn

Total Mexico Insurance for Eurii: $854 Cdn 

Total TIP (Vehicle permit for MX): $79 Cdn

Total Tourist Visas: $100 Cdn

Total Medical Coverage: $1,325 Cdn

Costs - We were slightly surpised at how much more expensive things have become since our last tour, which was in 2016. For example, lots of the campgrounds that were around $150 to $250 MXP in 2016 are now sitting at $400 MXP per day or more. One in La Penita was $650 MXP  for a night....the ill-fated overnight stop that we had in the "strange vibe" place. Of course, none of the above costs included food, drink, excursions (which there really were no "excursions". Only one we can remember, which ended in Doug getting SEVERE food poisoning). We tend to stick pretty close to "home/van" enjoying our warm time together, hanging out at a beach or two.

Groceries/Food - Good grief this category has gotten expensive. I mean really noticeable but then that is the same as at home too. I suppose that maybe tequila, beer are cheaper but we don't drink much beer. We tried to just eat normally (whatever that means when you are traveling). Certainly took a few dinners out but nothing crazy that's for sure.

Well, that's the costs now let's talk about the rest. We had opportunity to visit 4 new spots. Puerto Penasco (Playa Bonita RV), La Placita (Rancho B), Santa Elena/Atotonilco de Alto (Charly's RV) and Patzcuaro (Patzcuaro Villas & RV). That was really enjoyable, seeing new places, new people. We were happy to see some of our old standbys well, still standing. We weren't sure after hurricanes, COVID, etc what would be there still. 

One of our greatest joys was seeing Pedro and Pachita, the little senior couple who run the street-side taco stand in San Patricio (Melaque/Obregon). We had the pleasure of eating there a number of times. We were thrilled that they made it through COVID, that was for sure. Rosita's Loncheria run by the unflapable Rosa Naranjo. She works 7 days a week, employs some of her family (a lot of her family actually). It was always a delight to enjoy her hospitality and feel the family support surrounding her and her efforts.

The drive - It was long. I mean 12,000 kms seemed like a lot of driving, especially when you decide it's time to come home and you look at the map. Wow, we have a  long way to go! Any police/military/drug enforcement checks we went through (and there were many) all personnel were professional, kind and courteous. We had the occasional language problem trying to tell them what we were up to but mostly it got many laughs from them. They were mostly interested in the van and how it worked. We went through a number of the fruit/veggie checkpoints where they will tell you what fruit and/or veggies can cross state lines. For us it seemed like EVERY time I bought anything fruit/veggie wise I lost it if we were on the road, the beautiful mango and potatoes especially hurt! I told Doug next time I would only do canned fruits and veggies....ha ha ha!

Cash or Credit - This was the first year that we used our credit card exclusively for gas and groceries wherever possible. In the past, we relied mostly on cash which meant more trips to the bank for withdrawals. There were a few small problems with our debit card not working at various bank machines so we would just use our credit card (we travel with two from different banks) and then the financial wizard would just transfer the money once we were back at the computer to avoid bank charges. We never carry too much cash in the van that's for sure. I would rather pay a few dollars more for ATM charges than have more than we are comfortable with onboard. You always need cash for the small markets, restaurants, etc. The exchange rate was about .073 so it wasn't as good as the last time we went down. Oh well, not much a person can do about that. The exchange rate going through the US is always horrendous for us Canadians so I guess that goes without saying. 

The Mexican people - Just the best. Kindness, politeness and smiles everywhere we went. Our language skills are rather poor (Doug is better than I) but never once did anyone make us feel anything but comfortable. We were sad at times to miss out on genuine conversations due to lack of skill. Something to work on for the future.

Safety - The "elephant in the room" is always the question of safety and if we felt safe. Always. Always. Always. We do travel with our heads on a swivel everywhere but especially when we are out of our own country. We always felt good about where we were going, who we might be with. We normally know our next move and generally let someone know where we are going. We do not tend to go "off-road" nor do we boondock. Boondocking just isn't our style. We never complain about the costs of campgrounds. We acknowledge and understand it is just part of the gig for us. Travel safe and smart, that's our motto. However, I don't think you can convince (nor should you try) someone that they should go somewhere if they are uncomfortable. To each his own. Just be aware of where you are going, who you are with anywhere in the world you travel. I always try to remind myself that there are so many great people in the world and I like to think that we "nice" people outnumber the lousy ones.

I do believe that's a "wrap" friends. Not much else to add. If you think I missed something or you have a question, just let me know in the comments and I'll do my best to answer.

Peace out friends!!

Thought for the Day: Life is about using the whole box of crayons...Rupaul.

HOME!!

Super fun surprise for us when we got home. The kids had labeled EVERYTHING in our house with Post-It-Notes. If you have never seen this, let me tell you it is a hilarious surprise. It makes you realize how many "things" you have in our environment! Super funny!!

There "was a beer" in here!

Most items in the cupboards were labeled also

Always good to know...

And we keep finding more in hidden places. They had the boys write their own notes, sounding out what they wanted to write.

Yes, there are 500'ish posties around the house!

Then it was off to their place for a pizza party.

Holden seems glad to have Grandpa read to him. 

April 3 - It didn't take long for us to get up to the school and pick up the big boys and go for a treat and beach afternoon.

August and Jasper missed Eurii too!!

Off for some local beachcombing. 

Much more fun with the boys! 

Catching up on fun times with hot chocolate a few days later.

Cheers!!

Okie dokie everyone. NOW we are all caught up. I will be doing the fun Mexico Re-Cap post in a few days once the "dust" has settled.

Thanks to everyone for riding along on this adventure, offering up encouragement and comments. We really appreciated knowing you were all out there.

Peace out friends!

Thought for the Day: The only difference between good and bad weather is poor clothing choices.