End of another year...

Here it is almost the end of December, another year gone, another decade really.  We are about to enter 2020...and I for one, am ready!  How about you?  This has been an interesting year for me...a transitioning one, and one of a number of personal "happenings" that makes one take a step back.

This is our first full year of being a "part-time" RVer.  Six months on the road and six months here in Arizona.  I like it, but it takes some getting used to after being on the road full-time for over seven years.  Once again it's a different life style.  For one thing, you've got the "packing & un-packing" thing to deal with.  How much double "stuff" to you keep in the RV and in the house?  It seemed to take days to load, as I was always remembering one more thing to load...and even then as we traveled, I would discover something I left at home!  Once we arrived home, I'm forever trapezing back over to the RV for something that's still in the RV!  Thank goodness it's parked right next to us!

Even planning the trip was different, as it was for only six months instead of a year.  Where to go and how long to stay at each location?  We had decided to go to an RV Rally this year as we hadn't been to a Tiffin one in years, so that became our focal point, from there we determined the rest of the trip.  We then decided to head to Canada, and since we've only really visited the area around Calgary, we decided to explore further east, then head on over to Calgary to visit our friends again before coming back down into Washington to spend time with family.

Looking back over the summer, I have to say that the highlight of the trip, for me was our time in Canada, especially the last part through the Okanagan Valley.  I really had no idea that Canada had a "wine valley" and that it was so good!  It was such a delightful experience, one I hope to repeat someday.  Spraining my ankle early on made sight-seeing difficult for most of the summer, but this little surprise at the end our our Canadian visit made up for it!

Since we've been back home, we've been BUSY!

I have been trying to finish putting my house in order by completing the "change-over" from the Southwestern look it came with to my Country look I want.  I started by repainting a couple of patio chairs I had purchased last spring, to match the other turquoise ones I already have.  Then I also repainted a window frame I had, to turquoise and filled it with some of my photos and hung it on the porch wall, added a couple of pillows, completing the porch!

While we were outside...we got tired of being poked!  All around the yard were very large Agave plants (these people loved the Southwest, I'm telling you!).  Well, after so many pokes, we said "enough already!"  So, we dug them all up, and went to our friendly nursery and bought "pretty plants"!  Two purple fountain grasses that are kind to the legs when we walk by the RV and two Texas Sage (Salvia) with a Tecoma Stans Yellow Bells in between.  So much nicer now.  Yea!

I then moved into the house...I have been collecting a variety of old style wood chairs to go around our butcher block dining table, so now I needed to sand and paint them, along with matching seat pillows (of course!)  I wanted each one to be different, and to go along with my Fiesta ware dishes!  That turned out to be quite a job, but looks really cool.  Once that was done (4 chairs later), on to our built-in buffet.  It had a Southwest color scheme...ugh, had to go!  Now, it's white (like the walls, with blue edging to match the opposite wall.  Phew!

Jack has joined a couple of HOA committees, along with a couple of fun clubs, so that is keeping him out of trouble too!

We also were able to fit in a couple of fast trips...one to Las Vegas for the Thanksgiving holiday to my niece's.  My sister flew down, and now Jack's nephew and family has also moved there, so now along with my cousin, we have quite a gathering living in Las Vegas!  We stayed for four days and had a lovely time...even got in a little hiking into the Red Rock Canyon Park!

My most favorite boss ever, the CEO of the San Diego Zoo Global retired recently and they gave him a couple of surprise send-offs (one at the Zoo and another at the Safari Park).  I couldn't pass up the opportunity to say good-bye and get one last hug from him, so we drove down that morning and attended the afternoon one at the Safari Park in Escondido.  It was a happy/sad occasion.  He is one of the finest gentlemen I have ever had the privilege of knowing...and will be greatly missed by many.

The Theater Group has already started for the season, and I've been assigned one lead number, six back-up numbers, and two all cast numbers!  I'm either going to be exhausted and thin or dead by the end of February!!  Wish me luck! 

I've even managed to decorate for the holidays this year!  Drug out all our decorations from the shed, rummaged through them and figured out what I could scale down to fit into our tiny house (from our large house we used to have), and not look to "over done"!  Having another "tradition" too...our Annual Holiday Soup Party!  We used to hold one every year for our friends when we lived in Escondido.  I would make about five different soups and about eight different breads and have around forty to fifty family and friends over for the evening.  It was quite festive.  It will never, ever get that big here, my tiny house could never, ever hold so many!  I'm starting out with a dozen people and two soups and four breads!  We shall see how that goes!

As I always do, on my last blog of the year, here are the stats from our travels....

We stayed at 36 campgrounds, for a total of 138 nights on the road
Total campground fees: $5,238.02 (including the rally and Colorado State Park Pass for the year)
(That averages about $37.96 a night, which is pretty typical for us.  We stayed a week with our friends in Calgary and another one in Washington with family, which is also typical.  If you factor those in, that would raise the per night stay up to $42.24.  But for being in Canada most of the time, you have to also adjust the dollar rate too, back down that comes!  ;-) 

Mileage for the RV: 7,000
Mileage for the toad: 8,687 (all of 2019)
Gasoline for the RV: $3,480
Gasoline for the toad: $1,256
Propane: $24

...kicking back in sunny Arizona,  Marie

R & R in Calgary...

Oops, pardon my backtracking...I forgot to put this blog in before we ventured onto Jasper!

Everyone needs time to take a break and spend time with friends… and that’s what we did in Calgary. 

Touring, seeing new places and doing new things is all fun and good, but every now and then it’s just nice to sit back with wonderful friends and do - nothing…and that’s what we did.   Talked, drank good wine, ate wonderful food, laughed, played games and enjoyed each other.  

We all met several years ago when we were at the same campground for a month and became fast friends.  Since then we have made it a point to meet up either camping or vacationing together, or at their home in Calgary.  We’ve met most of their family over the years and they’ve made us feel part of it now.  Such a warm feeling…

It was a great respite and good for my ankle, to be off of it, as it seems to be taking it’s time healing.  Old age isn’t for the impatient, that’s for sure! 

We did take one day and go for a jaunt to see The Days of Yore Festival in Didsbury, AB.  A cute little thing with reenactors from Vikings all the way to WWII.  They had mini battles from sword fights to cannons going off at various times.  All across the field were the various encampments set up by century.  Vendors (food and merchandise) were there, of course, as well as crafts etc. for the little ones.  All in all, quite amusing, really.  It was fairly small, as these things go, but so is Didsbury, I’m told, as we had a nice chat with one of the characters during a lunch break.  They have only been doing this festival a couple of years, so kudos to them!

Back on the road, we headed off to get as close to Jasper National Park as we could.  Being the “high season” I knew our chances would be slim getting a camping site in the park, but after many, many phone calls, we were finally able to get one in Valemount BC, about an hour or so outside the park.  We took it!  A couple of one night stays to get there, then through the park to the other side, and then we would be there for four days.  We were looking forward to it! 

Hugs all around to our friends and off we went to more adventures - Canadian style!

Catching up in Arizona,  Marie

If you wish to view the rest of the photos from this trip, you can at my Flickr account at:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/74905158@N04/

Rocky Mountain High Canadian Style…

Since we had already visited Baniff and Lake Louise in previous years, and it’s the most congested areas during the summer, we decided not to go through there this time around.  Our friends showed us another route that would take us straight through to Jasper without all the traffic and congestion of Baniff National Park, and still enjoying the Rocky Mountains - yea!

…and it worked wonderfully!  What a beautiful drive.  The weather was wonderful and the view, spectacular!  At every turn, each of us kept say, “wow, look at that!”  You would think neither one of us hadn’t seen mountains or lakes before, but because of the glacier melts, the colors of the water in the lakes are more teal than blue, the waterfalls seem more rushing, and maybe because of the elevation, or the fact that the fire or bugs haven’t destroyed the forests yet, they seemed more lush.  I don’t know, I just know it took our breath away. 

That first drive through, to get to our campground in Valemount, we could see the Columbia Ice Fields, but didn’t really stop, as we wanted to get settled, and we had the RV, so not a lot of space to pull over.  But even at a distance, they were impressive…we were so glad we had booked ourselves into four days to come back and really take our time here.

Here are some of the shots from that drive through...

...catching up in Arizona,  Marie

If you wish to view the rest of the photos from this trip, you can at my Flickr account at:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/74905158@N04/

A Brief Stop in Medicine Hat, Alberta Canada…

As we continued on our journey west through Canada, we made a two day stop-over in a small town called Medicine Hat to check out a place we had read about called the Medalta Potteries. 




Medalta is a historic factory - a time capsule to the beginning of Western Canada’s industrial revolution.

Medalta Potteries first operated from 1912-1954 and at one time was once considered state of the art.  Updates were done and expansions were made to keep up with growing demand, changing products and to take advantage of new technology. 

Even though Medalta’s kilns were based on medieval design, they were the height of technology.  Kilns like these once dotted the North American landscape.  They were a sign of progress - of the settlement of the Canadian West. 

The stoneware market plummeted during the depression when glass replaced stoneware and in the early 1950s they were bought by a Montreal firm who concentrated on movie house giveaways, but then television came along and that no longer was viable.  By 1958 they went into bankruptcy.  The building sat empty for years. 

Jim Marshall and Jack Forbes saved this wonderful building from destruction.  Back in the mid 1970s they had a “dream” of reopening the pottery.  They were able to organize a group of volunteers to help them and work hours and hours of labor to dig out and excise the old kilns and factory to begin again to create and to also still leave some as a museum. 

A gentleman by the name of A.T. Schlachter (Tony) made rather a large donation to the museum…his personal collection of over 2500 pieces!  He has been (and still continues to) collecting South Eastern Alberta pottery made by the Medalta Potteries.  His collection was really quite something to see…rows and rows of beautiful crocks, each one a little different, as well as a full room of beautiful vases and glassware. 

It is a great place to spend hours roaming through, learning, viewing and enjoying.  Well worth the stop! 

Medicine Hat itself has quite a few “artists”, so I can see why Medalta has been successful once again.  As we drove around town, we spotted some great murals.  Some carved out of stone, by a gentleman by the name of Jim Marshall who has has done quite a few here.  I particularly like one of some storks…

...catching up in Arizona,  Marie

If you wish to view the rest of the photos from this trip, you can at my Flickr account at:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/74905158@N04/

Hello Saskatchewan!

From Manitoba, we moved on to the Province of Saskatchewan,  to stay in Moose Jaw for the next 10 days.  It made a great "home base" to explore the surrounding area without having to move from campground to campground...and it was a charming little town with a great name!  ;-)

As you know, the first thing Jack wants to do is stop at the Visitor's Center when we arrive anywhere, and Moose Jaw was no exception.  We were greeted first by "Mac" the 30' tall Moose!  Well...Mac looked a little strange...seems he was missing something here...something rather important for a moose, I'd say...like his antlers?  So, I inquired about them as we entered (probably like hundreds before me).  Seems they are being fixed by a local taxidermist due to high winds and a previous problem they had before that they wanted to avoid, since he weighs in at ten tons!  Mac is quite famous, it seems...he was the tallest in the world, until the Norwegians' moose built one a bit taller...well, that wouldn't do.  So the citizens around here got out the word and people from all over Canada, US and even London sent in money to put their abilities to work and make Mac bigger!  He is back on top as the world's biggest!  Way to go Mac!

One of the best things I loved about this town, was the murals!  Wow, they had a bunch too!  We spent several days just driving around town enjoying them and (of course) taking lots of pictures of them!  Here are some of my favorites (although it was really hard to pick just a few).  I love how they "go outside the edges" on some of them, doing unusual things...very creative artists here!

Canada Mosaic 150 by 150 communities (each submitting individual handmade tiles)

History of the Moose Jaw Exhibition Company

Cruising Mian Street by Grant McLaughlin (c2011)

Living with the Land by Grant McLaughlin (c2013)

The Lady and the Cow by Ernie Bereti (c1991)

As we wandered around town, we ran into a small place called the Saskatchewan Burrowing Owl Interpretive Centre.  I love owls, so we just had to stop and see what this was all about!  A sweet young lady was in the front office and told us it was a "self guided tour" and gave us a brochure, and pointed us to the door on the opposite side...so out we went.  There were about a dozen small enclosures with these small Burrowing Owls inside...mostly hiding.  There was one larger one with displays and explanations of what is happening to these tiny  creatures.  One sad fact...As recently as 1992, Moose Jaw was a hot spot for burrowing owls, with 39 pairs nesting throughout the city.  But by 2006, not a single nest remained.

Because these owls nest on the ground in grasses, small bushes or reeds, they are easy prey, as well as easy for farmers to mow over.  The Centre is trying to educate as well as reintroduce these owls back into the fields.

After we toured the area, we came back inside and chatted a bit with the young lady.  She is studying zoology.  She has spent her whole life (all 18 years!) in Moose Jaw and was surprised to hear we found it fascinating here!  She enjoyed hearing about our travels, and we encouraged her to get a passport and be open to travel and explore the "big world" out there...she was sure wanting to!  ;-)  It was a great little stop...one of those unusual ones that are special finds along the way...glad we took the time.

One other interesting place they had  for us to visit was their Western Development Museum.  It was established in 1949, and we were surprised at not only how large it was inside, but how many things they had that in all our travels, we'd never seen before!  They really had quite a collection of unique items from all over Canada...trains, planes, autos, snowplanes, a horse drawn ambulance, a mechanical horse, I could go on and on...but my favorite, was the cutest little homemade trailer made back in 1946!  Here's just a small sample of what we saw...

Diesel-Electric Locomotive (c1956)

...catching up in Arizona,  Marie

If you wish to view the rest of the photos from this trip, you can at my Flickr account at:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/74905158@N04/

A Brief Trip to Brandon, MB Canada...

Brandon is the second largest city in the Province after Winnipeg and is an agricultural and industrial center - but Jack was interested in it's military history and made his first visit to their Royal Canadian Artillery Museum.  He enjoyed it.  I stayed in and finished my book...;-)

We met up and wet to the Tourist Bureau for Canada and met a young lady who was a wealth of information for the rest of our trip!  She loaded us down with a ton of books and maps!   She also made a great suggestion for lunch and an afternoon visit to a place called the Crow's General Store, so off we went.

Lunch was in a refurbished firehouse called Prairie Firehouse, and she was right, it was fabulous!

You just never know what you will find, or who you will meet when you set out on an "adventure".  Today was one of those special occasions.  Crow's General Store is unique, but even more unique is it's owner Don.  When you turn the corner and first see the store, your mouth drops and words almost escape you...finally an "oh my goodness" comes out as you try and take it all in...which isn't easy.  Slowly walking around, you see vignettes everywhere.  From "people" setting in theater seats to old cars at a gas station to children's tricycles and toys.  Farm equipment and wheels, wheels, and more wheels.

Inside is set up like an old fashioned ice cream parlor.  While we were there we were pretty much the only ones inside, so we got to talking to the owner.  As we shared our story, Don shared his and how he got started.  He had been a landscape artist, but suffered after a severe flood that happened a number of years ago and lost all his savings.  He then lost an eye, and couldn't drive his truck any longer, so that ended that as well.  He looked around and decided that he had all this acreage and still needed to do something, so started collecting stuff (and friends and others have added) and opened the ice cream parlor.  He works 7 days a weeks, more than he would like, but although business is good, it's not quite enough to hire another person full time....yet.  He has plans to expand and add a miniature golf out back (that should do it!).

He was a delight, and certainly made our afternoon!  He asked for my phone and took tons of pictures of us in various poses around the ice cream parlor...I'm not sure who had more fun, Don, or us!  

Saturday, we set out for the Farmer's Market.  I love local market's and always try to find one wherever we are on a weekend.  You just never know what you can find.  Some are small with just a few fresh veggies and things but some are super large with all kinds of food, crafts and music..you just never know until you get there!  This one just turned out to be a wee little market with some baked goods, fresh veggies and a few crafts.  We did pick up a loaf of freshly baked bread though, that's always a treat!


...catching up in Arizona,  Marie

If you wish to view the rest of the photos from this trip, you can at my Flickr account at:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/74905158@N04/