Osoyoos

by

Out of the Fishbowl

What a difference this morning…

I didn’t want to blog too much about this when I was at Nk’Mip, but the long term residents there were nosy and gossipy. At first, I thought it was just me, being a young single woman with Yukon plates, but others experienced the same thing. I couldn’t do anything without someone in the park commenting on it. When I opened my blinds in the front room to paint, someone knocked on the door to comment that the yellow would affect my resale value! When I had all pallets and the mattress down in the library, someone knocked to find out why I was making such a mess! My water management strategy was always under scrutiny, and when someone saw me watering my batteries he made sure to come over and treat me like I’m an idiot. Couple that with the lackadaisical management and I have no intention of returning there. It’s a shame because it’s a truly lovely park in a good setting and reasonable prices.

Tradex, located at the Abbotsford Airport, has thus far proved to be surprisingly quiet. I awoke to sun and minus 4, so, being out in the middle of a big open field, I was able to open the curtains to let some of the golden rays in. Looks like we’re supposed to climb to plus five today and keep climbing. Yaaaaaay.

by

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!

by

Thinking of a Later Departure

I was up at quarter to 8 this morning with the intention of going straight to work finishing up my departure prep, but we’re sitting at about minus nine, probably more with windchill. Unbelievable. Everything is frozen solid. Leaving without empty holding tanks and a full fresh water tank isn’t an option since I’m going to be dry camping for a week.

At least, the sun is out!!!!!

At this point I’m thinking of pushing the start of my prep to about ten since the sun is coming out and we’ve already gained a degree and get on the road for noon. That puts me in Abbotsford no earlier than five, which is sundown, but probably six, which is nighttime. I don’t relish arriving in the dark, but so long as I can be on the Transcanada in daylight it’ll be okay since I’ve been to Tradex a couple of times. I also made sure to download their parking lot map and also scope out the satellite map, so I know exactly where I’m going. I don’t even need to program the GPS. Plus, I’m headed to an airport so I expect there will be a lot of lighting!

I didn’t run any heat last night (except for the one conduction heater) since I wanted to keep the dregs of the on board tank to get this place toasty in the morning. When I got up, it was about 10 in here. BRR. Now, I’ve got the heat cranked up and I’ll let it go till the propane runs out, at which point it’ll probably be time to go down to the office and fill up anyway.

This morning really sucks. We were supposed to be sitting at plus fourish, at which point I would have been out right now puttering around. Thankfully the Fraser Valley is several degrees warmer. I want to avow that this is my last time in the Okanagan in winter, but I know that I have little control over where the vagaries of fate take me.

Interior prep is delighting me. I only have a few things to take down or put away, and my computer set up is such that putting it away for the road is no longer a huge production. I’ll finally be able to live while traveling the way that I do when I’m settled.

Well, I’m up. Might has well have another coffee and get some work done…

by

So Much For Perfect

The Okanagan has done it again. After weeks of above zero temps and a gorgeous forecast for my departure tomorrow, we are now well below zero.

It happened so quickly that my water hose froze before I could fill up my on board tank. My holding tank valves are frozen as well, with the grey being open and the black closed when I desperately need to dump before I leave since I’ll be dry camping for a week. I had wanted to close the grey tonight so that I could build up some water with which to flush the hose after dumping. I’m going to try to heat them up with the hair dryer tomorrow when there will be some some sun to help me. For the first time in three winters, I had a flash of inspiration regarding the frozen water hose and I brought it inside! It thawed in an hour and drained harmlessly in the shower. Why did I only just think to do that?!

I’m seriously POed right now about this weather change. I only needed an hour to get out of here–that includes putting a few things away inside, getting the car loaded up, and taking the rig down for propane. Now, I need to contend with the frozen plumbing. Moreover, it’s freakin’ cold out and I am just about out of propane.

I had hoped to leave around 10 tomorrow, that is pull out of the RV park at 10, but noon is starting to look more realistic. At least, if the sun’s out and there’s no snow on the ground I should be able to do the drive in the four to five hours it should take and I can pull into Tradex in daylight. I don’t know where I’m going once I get there, so I really would like to arrive before it gets dark!

by

An RV Rear Bedroom Becomes a Home Office

And now the reveal none of you have been waiting for: the study!!!

I’ve been procrastinating on this one for several reasons, one of which is the serious lack of sunlight which makes my pictures very dark. The study is much brighter than what you would think from some of these shots.

So, going back, I bought a rig with twin beds in the back:

I had initially thought I would use one bed as a ‘sofa’ and rip out the other one to build a desk, but I wound up putting a mattress against the back wall over the basement pass-through compartment. Then, for about a year, I lived with a built-in desk on the driver’s side and the base of the other bed on the passenger side serving as a storage trunk:

I ended up bringing in a new desk with drawers and putting the desk on the driver’s side, and after some searching I found a matching filing cabinet for the passenger side. A terribly disappointing paint job and new curtains later, this is the result:

it\’s not pitch black in there, I swear!

shredder

printer, filing cabinet, to-be-filed basket

a comfy place to watch movies (but not to sleep!)

Condensation-proof linen storage. One of my future weekend projects is to cover the bin with contact paper to make it look prettier

this is where I plan my domination of the world, bwa ha ha ha

my new computer chair was no luxury, not with the amount of time I spent in it pounding out a book!

stationery centre

drawers are such a luxury! and notice that my organizers match my colour scheme!

another weekend will be to finish off the top of the bookcase so it fits around the bumpout; notice the leg in the back waiting for reattachment to something

this isn\’t the only place in this room where I have books stashed!

This room isn’t perfect yet, but it’s very, very close! My next projects for it beyond what I just mentioned are electrical. I want to move the undercabinet 120V plug to a more sensible location and also add a 12V plug.