Langley

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Like Déjà-Vu All Over Again

Shortly after my last post I headed outside and stuck a hair dryer between the rig and the valves in the hope of thawing them out. Then, I got the car loaded with the bike and auxiliary propane tank. I was ready to deal with the kayak when Donna, who always has impeccable timing, came out to help. She got to work on my valves while I did some other prep and Ken helped me try to fill my fresh water tank.

The rig was ready by about quarter to eleven or so and I rolled down to the office to get propane. That took a bit of time since they seem to have a problem with the nozzle that screws onto the propane tank. I then went back up the hill to fetch the car and say my teary goodbyes after Donna helped me adjust my mirrors.

I gassed up at the Husky and rolled out of Osoyoos for hopefully the last time in my life at bang on noon. ETA for Tradex: 6PM.

Miranda performed well on the very sinuous highway 3A that took us through Keremeos, Princeton, and Manning Provincial Park. It’s a frustrating drive because you crawl up a mountain only to come down the other side. It got a bit slick near the top, so I inched my way down. I appreciate that the long queue behind me didn’t honk when it finally got a chance to pass me! My memories of the last time I did this are pretty fuzzy, but I know that today’s drive was very easy compared to that of two years ago!

Like last time, I ended up driving straight through. I got cell reception at Hope, so I was able to check the time and was shocked: it was 3:30 and I was less than an hour from Tradex!

We pulled in at just shy of 4:30 in waning daylight and I was quickly able to match reality to the maps I’d looked at. I parked but did not unhook just in case. Since it was still quite early, I decided to see if anyone was in at the administrative office. There was, and she knew nothing about the arrangement made for me to park here until I can move to power hookups on Thursday! I just had to say the magic words “I’ve been driving my RV all day and I just want to stop!” for her to agree to sort it out in the morning. So, I went back to the rig and moved to a flatter spot (I’m on grass), then unhooked.

It’s unusually cold here, too, and I’m going to be without power for three days. I’m therefore focusing on heat and my phantom draw exclusively. No lights, no water pump, no computer charging. So, decided that I might as well start off strong and not heat until as late as possible since I was only twenty minutes from Langley where there is a Montana’s right across from a movie theatre. I figure that it’d be safe to go back there after two years.

It’s amazing how much easier this gets every time I do it, with ‘this’ being the whole packing up and driving off after a prolonged period of being parked. It’s also amazing how different the rig is now than it was when I arrived in Osoyoos four months ago. I had to move all of half a dozen things and I was set up the same way I am when I’m parked.

The next few days are going to be manic! I have an early morning interview each day and I need to go to Surrey tomorrow to pick up some things I need for the show. I’ll post all the juicy details as soon as I can!

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Things; Some Bad, Some Good

Bad:

There was another shooting in Langley this week, a few blocks from the one last Friday, in a busy shopping area I used to frequent regularly. Then, two nights ago, there was another shooting, the ninth in eleven days, near the home of my relatives in Coquitlam. At least, arrests were made in that incident. The violence is escalating and has encroached on ‘home’, making me leery of going out beyond the confines of south Surrey and White Rock.  It’s a miracle that no innocent bystanders have been injured yet, but give it time. I remember the biker wars in Montreal in the late 90’s that culminated with a young boy being the victim of a car bombing and I hope that nothing so tragic happens here before the violence stops.

Good:

All roads seem to lead to Vancouver! It seems that I am to be blessed with the visit of a friend every month for the rest of my time here in the GVR! Two of these friends are from ‘back home’ in Ottawa and have not been seen since I left in September. The first visit will occur at the end of this month; my friend is coming to Vancouver on business and the plan is to meet up for dinner downtown on one of the two nights that she’s here. The second visit is a possible from my friend Donna, whom I met in Oliver. The third visit is from my best friend of nine years now (already!) who will be coming for a full week! She’s deathly allergic to cats, so she’ll be staying at a motel, but it will be so nice to introduce her to this area! Well, at least the part that isn’t riddled with bullet holes… 😉

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Well, That Was Close

The past few Friday evenings, since a couple of weeks before I started my new job, I’ve been going to dinner and then seeing a movie. I always go to the Colossus in Langley because there is a Montana’s restaurant just across the parking lot and Montana’s is my favourite place to go when I want cheap and delicious food I didn’t cook myself.

I’ve been coming down with a cold all week and it hit overnight, so I felt increasingly worn down as the afternoon progressed. I argued back and forth with myself about whether or not to go out and I finally decided to just go home.

Which is good because just about the time I would have been pulling into the parking lot at the theatre, there was a gang shooting. Twenty plus shots fired, one person gravely wounded.

Oookay, I think I’m going to start going to the theatre in White Rock instead.

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Thwarted Plans

I woke up to snow this morning; heavy, wet, stay at home in your jammies and watch bad movies, kind of snow. At least, it was only minus one, not the minus twenty-one Oliverites are experiencing!!! But I dragged myself into proper going out clothing and headed to the Surrey Museum… after not noticing the statement on their website that they’re closed the whole month of January. DOH!

The weather being way too yucky for driving of the exploratory variety, I pressed on to Langley to pick up 12V lightbulbs at the Canadian Tire there, and to see where the major shopping complex is so that I can be comfortable returning there to see movies ( 🙂 ), and went almost straight back home (with a pause at Starbucks for a caramel macchiato).

One really nice thing about this lifestyle is that you can stay in one location long enough to not feel that you absolutely need to ‘go see the sites’ in poor weather.

In other news, one silly RVer forgot to leave her water on last night and now has a frozen solid brand new fresh water hose. 🙁