May 24, 2015. Game Time!

May 24, 2015.  It is game time again.  We stopped by Cabela's this morning.  We moved from one campsite to another and the other hadn't been vacated yet. We were out of Nanaimo Bars and knew that Cabela's had some more.  While we were there, Annie began pointing out displays of many of God's creatures.  "Take a picture of the bear.  Take a picture of the skunk.  Take a picture of this.  Take a picture of that."

"What am I going to do with all these pictures?" I asked.

"It's game time!" she responded.

And, so it is.  The photos above are cut from of a larger picture.  Participants must identify the animal from the cut-out.  The game is for kids only.  No adults can enter.  Got that, grownups?  The reward is $15 for the family of kids which gets the most correct.  The reward for second place is $10. Third place finishers get $5.  And, don't ask me for the money.  This is Annie's idea.

The contest will end at 7:00 PM CDST, Tuesday.  The teams consist of the two sisters, the sister and brother and the three brothers.  Siblings must agree on each answer.  Good luck to all!
 

May 23, 2015. More of the Same.

 

May 23, 2015.  Another day when we didn't venture out.  We talked about the rest of the trip, cooked out, ate, walked, read and napped.  It was a good day.

Several of the pictures above require explanation; the bathtubs.  Nanaimo has been called the "Bathtub Racing Capital of the World."  In the 1960s, the race was from Nanaimo to Vancouver, a distance of 50 miles.  Later, the race became confined to waters adjacent to Nanaimo.  It appears that, originally, people actually paddled bathtubs in the race.  It quickly evolved to bathtubs mounted on a speedboat frame powered by a gasoline engine.  In the interest of full disclosure, the final two pictures were copied from the Internet.

I found myself wondering if the discarded tub pictured above was just junk or if it is a relic from past races.  I don't suppose I will ever know the answer.

We are not yet sure when we will leave here or exactly where we will go when we do.  When we know, I'll tell you.  For now, we are as much in the dark as you are.

May 22 2015. Nanaimo, BC.

 

May 22, 2015.  I bring you more of the beauty and color of Vancouver Island today.  We went into town this morning and did some grocery shopping and searched for Nanaimo Bars.  We found success in both endeavors.  We also drove around the harbor and snapped some shots of the water from a scenic drive along the shore.

The afternoon was filled with sitting in our puffy chairs in the forest and reading. We took another walk around the campground and snapped photos of things we hadn't discovered before.  Some of the campsites here are occupied by permanent residents.  They are easily identified by the yard ornaments and the winter proofing of their units.  The colorful flowers continue to startle and amaze.

We understand that the weather will change over the weekend.  Sunshine will be replaced by clouds and rain.  Actually the clouds and rain are more normal here than the sunny days we experienced earlier this week.

And, the Nanaimo bars were delicious.  I liked the fudge bars we purchased at Cabela's.  Annie preferred the traditional bars we acquired at Serious Coffee. Neither disappointed.  All failed to survive past sundown.  I am confident the bars would have been disappointed to have survived longer.

After surveying the parkway, we elected not to ride bikes.  The parkway is hilly and rough terrain.  Our recumbents were not intended for hilly terrain.  That's because the pedals are in front of the rider's hips, rather than below them.  That means that the force propelling the bikes must be generated completely by the rider's legs without assistance from the rider's body weight.  They are fun on level surfaces - not so much on hills.

We will stay a few more days here on the island.  When we leave, we will travel through Seattle visiting family along the way.  It has been nice here.  Neither of us is eager to leave.  But, we will.  There is beauty and additional sights to enjoy in the days and miles ahead.

May 21, 2015, Today was Yesterday.

 

 

 May 21, 2015.  Today was exactly like yesterday.  T-Harvey didn't move and we stayed at the campground all day.  Aside from a couple of walks, we didn't leave the campsite.  "But, you are on Vancouver Island!" you say.  Yes, we are and we'll get out and about tomorrow.  Neither of us wanted to do anything in particular today, so we didn't.  We didn't do anything at all.  It was a fine day here on the island, temperatures in the mid-70s and bright sunshine. It was a good day to sit in the sun and look to the east, over the river and mud flats to the snow-capped mountains beyond.  As I type this, the tide is in and the still water reflects the mountains against a blue sky.

The vegetation is lush here.  Ferns and flowers offer a variety of colors around the campground.  The maple leaves are enormous.  This area gets 4-5 inches of precipitation each month.  By contrast, western Missouri gets about 3.  On average, it rains every other day here.  The rains aren't heavy, just regular.  The result is that everything is green.

So, tomorrow, we will move to a different campsite, in the forest.  That's why the place is named Living Forest Oceanside Campground.  After a couple of nights in the forest, we'll move back here, to the same campsite.  After relocating, we will go into Nanaimo and bike the parkway for a while.  There is a Cosco here and a Walmart Supercenter.  We may drop by one or both.

Did you know that Nanaimo Bars originated here?  You know what a Nanaimo Bar is, don't you?  They are dessert bars and treats which require no baking.  It consists of a wafer crumb-based layer with custard-flavored butter icing covered with chocolate.  There is actually a Nanaimo Bar Trail here where you can go to different establishments and sample any of three dozen desserts.  No, we won't do them all, but we may visit one or two . . . or three . . . or four.  The first picture is one I borrowed from Wikipedia in case you want to see an example.

So, that's our plan for tomorrow.  I hope your day is as good.

May 20, 2015. A Quiet Day at the Campground.T

 

May 20, 2015.  The day began with a shower.  I trudged up the hill to the shower house.  Unfortunately, I discovered that the shower operated only with the insertion of a loonie, the Canadian one-dollar coin.  It is called a loonie because it has a depiction of a loon on it.  I didn't have any loonies.  I had toonies -  a two-dollar coin - but no loonies.  So, I returned to T-Harvey and showered there. The shower is large enough for Annie but not for me.  I did manage to turn around in it and get clean. When I exited, I banged my head on the door frame. "Ouch!" said I, or something like that.  Next time, I'll make sure I have a loonie and shower in a stall larger than a coffin.

We walked a hiking trail around the campground before lunch.  The two-mile walk took over an hour because someone kept stopping to take pictures.  I tried to hurry her up, but you know Annie;  anything worth doing is worth doing right. We saw all the usual things you see on a trail; water, flora, fauna, flowers, dog crap, signs and wood carvings.  Actually, Annie didn't photograph the dog crap because it was dog crap.  She photographed it because it was in the shape of a question mark.  Always the teacher.

The afternoon was spent reading and napping in the sunshine.  The temperature was in the low 70s and it was a beautiful day on the island.  I cooked outside tonight.  We had pork chops and they were tasty, if I do say so myself. Tomorrow we will do something equally as exciting.  G'nite mates.

May 19, 2015. Nanaimo and Rest.

 

May 19, 2015.  Ah, after 6.5 days on the road, a three-hour ferry ride and 2300 miles - or 3700 kilometers - we are in the Living Forest Oceanside Campground in Nanaimo, BC.  We arrived here shortly after noon today, checked into the campground, then found a Mexican place for lunch.  The rest of the day is depicted in the pictures.  Oh, the pyramid looking apparatus is the suspension cables of a bridge near Vancouver.

Annie Farkley is in deep trouble.  I had lost some weight after the first of the year.  Near the end of my period of self-discipline, she told me that I looked like a prisoner of war.  She didn't like my appearance without the padding I had been carrying around in my midsection.  So now, after seven days on the road and eating everything between here and western Missouri, she evidently has a different view.  She just came up behind me, reached over my shoulder and patted my belly.  Then, she giggled for nearly two minutes.  In less than a week I have gone from a POW to Humpty Dumpty.  I hope she is happy now.  And, I guess she is.  I can still hear her giggling inside T-Harvey.

It is 7:30 PM Pacific time and the tide is in.  Earlier today, the view from our site was mud flats.  Now, there is water where there was mud this afternoon.  This is a beautiful place to unwind, as if I had been wound to begin with.  Still, it is a quiet and calming place we have found.  Tomorrow . . . well, we don't know about tomorrow. We'll figure out tomorrow, tomorrow.

May 18, 2015, Lake Louise to Chilliwack, BC

May 18, 2015.  It is 430 miles from Lake Louise to Chilliwack, BC.  We are just over 100 miles from Nanaimo, BC, on Vancouver Island.  We will be there tomorrow night.  Our plan is to spend about a week on the island, then move south, eventually into northern California.

Today was another long day of driving in mountainous terrain for nine hours. Annie wasn't happy.  Her tolerance for all-day drives is waning.  To be honest, so is mine.  The curves and elevation changes were enough.  But, we also encountered about two hours of heavy rain.  Topping it off, there was unexpected congestion on the road.  Evidently, today is Victoria Day, a national holiday in Canada.  All those who fled the city of Vancouver for the mountains returned home today.  As we approached Chilliwack, traffic came to a standstill.  It took us thirty minutes to cover the last five miles to the campground.

The first picture is from our campsite at Lake Louise.  You'll have to guess the second picture.  Other pictures were taken on the drive or after arriving at Cottonwood RV Country Club in Chilliwack.  The final picture shows a goose high in the top of a dead tree.  We guessed that she is nesting there.  A local wag pondered what the first step of the goslings would be like.  Steep, I suppose.

Today is Levi's birthday.  We called using FaceTime this morning.  It was apparently hard to tell which of us had been out of bed the longest.  I thought Levi had pillow hair.  Mikki thought we looked like we had just awakened. Mikki was right.

So, after seven days of driving, we will reach our destination tomorrow.  I recall that on our return from Alaska in 2011, we covered the distance from Bellingham, WA, to Kansas City in three days.

But, we were younger then.