Vanderhoof, Hwy 16

Once again pictures have been added

Vanderhoof, somewhere we lost Hwy 5 and picked up Hwy 16, aka Yellowhead Hwy, aka Trans Canadian Hwy.  We are spending day 5 here after 238 miles (383 km)


About 50 miles north of Valemount is the cute little town of McBride nestled between the rugged Canadian Rockies and the snow-capped Cariboo Mountains in the beautiful Mount Robson Valley where the Mighty Fraser River flows. This made a good coffee break at the Heritage Railway Station we enjoyed a coffee and muffin. I can already tell that I am gaining wt on this trip.





Formerly known as Railway Siding 39, McBride was established in 1913 and was named in honour of the premier at the time, Sir Richard McBride (1903 - 1915).  Following the Second World War, the developing timber and agriculture industries attracted more people to the Robson Valley.

In town are some very cute whimsically painted fire hydrants that line the street of McBride. These hydrants were painted in 2007 by a local student who turned her summer project into multiple works of art. Below are just a few of them. We were told that this became such a popular project that people started paying her $50.00 each which went to supplies and college expenses

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We finally reach Prince George and continue right on to Vanderhoof.  This seamed like a very long drive butg was only 238 miles.  Along the way we saw a moose, black bear and several deer.  The village of Vanderhoof is located in the British Columbia Nechako Valley.  Vanderhoff is the geographical centre of the province and about the same latitude as Edmonton, and longitude as Nanaimo.  Here we stayed at Dave's RV Park for only one night.  This is a very cute little park with a miniature golf course.  A good place to stop again and do exploring.

Tomorrow we are off to Fort St James

Valemount BC, Hwy 5

I just figured out how to get the pictures into the blog.  They might not be exactly where I want them but at least they are there.  So I have added and re-posted this blog and with the next several blogs.  I will try to write a blog for each town we stop at, so come along with us and enjoy.

Valemount is about 550 miles from home and the meeting place for our 6 week caravan.  Here we meet up with our Leaders, Doug and Debra from Courtenay, BC; our Co-leaders Gene and Marilyn from White Rock, BC; Ron and Carolyn from Parksville, BC; Murray and his dog Sandy from Union Bay, BC; Tom and Ethelwyn from Salem, OR; and of course us, Joe, Nancy and our little Buddy from Olympia WA.  Several days later we will meet up with Ron and Kay from Vancouver, BC.

While in Valemount (four nights here) we checked out the local history at the Valemount Area Museum which showcases the unique homesteading lifestyle of early settlers and the history of the railroad.  Displays also included a restored 1914 Railway Station, Caboose, various antiques and artifacts.  Very well presented.

Joe on something that you could pedal down the track on, plus others below

Inside the living quarters of the caboose

Notice the "phone box" on the left of the table

Inside the museum shows pioneer life

Posted outside the train station









Downtown and across the R/R tracks turn left and there is a fantastic Swedish Bakery, coffee and pastries were sooooo goood.

Deb and Doug our caravan leaders enjoying a cup of coffee and pastries at the Swedish Bakery


Jasper is only 76 miles away but that will be another adventure.  We did go to view the tallest peak in the Canadian Rockies, Mount Robson.  The peak of Mount Robson is 12,972 feet (3954 m)  Mount Robson Provincial Park is one of the oldest parks in BC which contains the headwaters of the Fraser River. The park has a good looking campground with showers and flush toilets.  A good place to stay in the future.

Mt Robson is straight ahead with the clouds on top

While in the area we also checked out Rearguard Falls.  This may not look like much right now with the water so high, but when the waters are down in the late summer/fall  this part of the upper Fraser River is the end of the line for the Chinook salmon that just can't make it up over the jagged rock cliffs.  By the time the salmon return to this point the fish have survived several years at sea to return to the river of their birth, the mighty Fraser River.  From its estuary in BC's lower mainland to this point the Chinook have migrated upstreem over 744 miles )1,200 km).  Some of the salmon are successful battling over these falls to reach the gravel above, but for most, Rearguard Falls marks the end of their journey as the falls are too high and span to great a distance for the salmon to jump.  What a site this would be to come back in late summer to the salmon.  Rearguard Falls is just a few miles east of Hwy 16 on the road to Jasper.

After hiking back up the hill it was break time,  Buddy is so faithful waiting for Joe.

  

There must be hundreds of hiking trails here but with trying to recover from bronchitis it was exhausting to see the few things we did see.

We fueled up before leaving Valemount and paid $5.00 gal for diesel.  Wow!

Next stop is Vanderhoof

Well it's about time

     Wow! so much has happened.  First I haven't posted for a while because of just being  so busy getting settled in, getting ready for a trip to British Columbia, selling the house and then developing a whopping cold/bronchitis the day we left for BC that is taking me forever to recover from.  But that's enough of that.  We accepted an offer on the house and  hopefully closing by June 21.  I don't want to believe it until I see the money in the bank.  I know how deals can fall apart when you least expect it. 
We got the offer on our house just a few days before we left for our trip to British Columbia.  Luckily we can communicate by cell phone, email and fax. 




     So we left for Hope, BC, our first stop.  This is a favorite stop for us, we usually plan to have a lunch or dinner here.  Hope is a great little community on the Fraser River and nestled right up against the rugged Coquihalla Canyon.  Hope has a beautiful park in the center of town.  Across the street from the park is our favorite little place for a latte', sandwich/soup or pastry called the Blue Moose.  We didn't leave home until the afternoon so we will be spending the night in Hope.

We ended up eating at Rolly's a nice family resturant with good food.




 Behind the Visitor's center is a good level area that is ok to say the night.  Before morning two semi trucks pulled along side of us.
     The next morning we head out early, before breakfast.  as we have a long way to go up the Coquihalla Hwy, Hwy 5.  This is quite the mountain and a long pull.  We went from spring weather with everything blooming and leafed out up to the snow level and the trees were not even budded out.  On we went to Merritt for a nice rest stop and breakfast at a small cafe with really good coffee.  Then through Kamloops and eventually to iRVins Campground in Valemount where met up with four more Airstreamers from our club.  This is the start of our caravan.  We stayed for four nights which was a blessing as Joe and I are fighting a cold with a terrible cough.  This gave us time to really rest up.
     More tomorrow if we have internet.  pictures to follow

Safe travels to all
Nancy

Stress, What Stress ?

Well how time flies when you're having so much fun.  Since my last post I have fully retired, had a wonderful retirement party with my patients and then a great luncheon pot luch with my co-workers.  Then for some unknown reason I agreed to work 2 days in March and 2 days in April.  What was I thinking?  But now I am fully retired and have already received my first pension check.  That was pretty cool.  Next week I will get myu first social security check.  Yea!!!!

So in the meantime we have been to Sacramento, 1 1/2 day drive in just the car and then on our way home the road was closed over the Siskiyous so we had to stay in Redding for a day. The next day after about 10 miles we had to stop and put chains on our little Jetta.  Then a stop at Camping world while traveling through Oregon to buy a Honda generator.  This is our first generator to be used for emergencies and/or a double grande latte.  Home again and now the start of moving from our 1400 square foot house to our 850 square foot mobile home in Lacey Wa. Still selling stuff.  Getting our house ready to sell in this depressed economy, settleing my Dad's estate, selling our furniture and still get ready for our first trip as retired people to British Columbia for 6 weeks.

Stress, what Stress? 

Safe travels to all

Nancy and Joe

Almost retired

Well I have just two more days of work and then retirement! Yea! I finally did it. 
It's snowing again, I sure hope I don't have to put chains on to get to work.  This is the first snow I have had to navigate in without my trusty 4x4.  I had a 1988 GMC Jimmy 4x4.  That was a great SUV.  Back when we bought it they were not called SUVs, in fact the DMV called it a station wagon when we bought it in 1988.  So now I have a new Jetta TDI with studded snow tires.  This will be the last year to drive in the snow.

Thanks to my new followers, I really appreciat e the fact that someone might want to read my blogs as sometimes they may go on and on without saying much of anything.  So Thanks to Donna aka Froggi (aka 2 taking the 5th), John & Ellen, Mike Mills, Rick and Paulette and Kate. 

I was not aware of all these travel blogs and I am having a great time reading all of them.  You have all given me great ideas of things to see and do when we start our full timing adventures.

Sunday some of my co-workers and patients joined me for a Retirement Brunch at Bob's Burgers and Brew ( this is a local place that has very good food and good prices too)  We had a great time visiting everyone.  Several of my patients have been with me for six years or so, they will be missed.  Hopefully they will be able keep up with me on my blog to see where I am and what I'm up to.

We are still going through the house and garage trying to eliminate stuff.  We've been collecting items that will go on Craig's List.  Hopefully we will get a fair price.  It sure is hard to eliminate things and decide if it will go in the trailer or into our small place in Lacey.  We have been taking stuff to our place in Lacey and it seems to be getting smaller as we start to fill it up.

We aren't nearly as organized as some people but we are working on it bit by bit and hope to be out of our house in a month or two.  The outside needs to be painted, but it needs to warm up a little for that.  About the middle of May we will be on our first trip as a retired couple.  Wow that sounds good, "A Retired Couple".  We will be heading up to BC for about 6 weeks with a group of other Airstreamer Folks.  We are planning on a trip covering the very northern parts of BC.  Should be lots of fun as we have traveled with most of these folks before.

Thats about it for us.  Not too much going on.  Hopefully next post will have a couple of pictures.

Safe travels,
Nancy & Joe

One more thing checked off the list

We keep making check marks on our TO DO LIST.  Last week I went to the dentist and I haveanother apt this week.  Joe has an apt next week and then I think we will be done for awhile. Now I need to see the optometrist, yearly check up and probably so other medical things.

Almost every weekend we take a truck load of stuff to our new place in Lacey.  Our house in Lacey will probably end being a storage area for a couple of years and family can also star there when we are not there. 

Our place in Lacey. 
 

Another item on the To Do List was to attach a Hubodometer to the center hub of the front tire.  I might be calling it the wrong name but is to keep track of the mileage of the trailer.  We took it off our old trailer and it had 23,617 miles on it.

First you have to take the tire off to get to the hub and then punch a hole in the hub to attach the Hubometer.

Carefully backing up on this little lift ramp.

This will lift the trailer with the rear tire and

the front tire can then be taken off.












And then the tire is finally off

After Joe pulled the hub off he had to find the

exact middle.

This is where he will then drill the hole to attach the Hubodometer

The round canister on the right is the

Hubodometer

This is the Hubodometer showing 23,617 miles on it

Drilling the hole and of course Buddy is on guard to make sure no squirrels will come too close.














I forgot to take a picture of the finished product. 

I would have posted this sooner but I had forgotten how to post pictures.  Remember I am real new to this.

Safe travels to all,

Nancy & Joe

Where does the time go?

Wow!, it's already been one month since I started this blog and this is only the second post I have made.  Just where does the time go?  I can't believe that I already have 10 followers.  Thanks to Carol and Dave (Carol K) from Vancouver WA for being the first follower, we are going to be neighbors (well almost, we will be about 110 miles apart when at home).  Also thanks to all the other bloggers: Randy & Pam, Kenny & Angela, Judy & John, Dennis & Donna, Gail & TC, Dawn & Denise, Bob & Vickey, Heyduke50 and The Old Geezer.  Thanks to all of you, my very first followers.
I am still working full time and trying to go through "stuff" that we need, don't need, might need. and things that we think we might need.  I have sent bags and bags of stuff to Goodwill.  We have been taking a pick-up truck load every week to our "new to us" manufactured home in Lacey which is 86 miles south of Everett.  Since we are moving into a house with about half the square footage we are also having trouble putting everything away. 
Then on Monday 1/31/11 my 90 year old father passed away.  This was expected but it is still hard when it actually happens.  He will be missed.  He started fulltiming way back in 1980 and continued until about 4 years ago.  Back in the 80's there were no cell phones so people had to find a pay phone to use.  If you were in a place like the big "Q" you had to stand in line for the phone.  If you were on the phone too long the others behind you would kind of give you "the eye" and look at their watch every 30 seconds.  My how things have changed.
My last official day at work is 2/26/11.  About the same time heyduke50 is retiring.  We still have lots to do at our house to make it more desireable than all the others that will be flooding the market this spring.  We live about 5 miles from Boeing in Everett so I sure hope they get the contract for the refueling tanker.  Since this is a government contract it really should go to a U. S. company.  It will really help our economy here.
One thing about retiring for me is the fact that I have to say goodbye to all my patients (I am an RN at the local kidney dialysis center).  Some of them have been my patient for 5 - 6 years.  I already had to say good bye to the first ones, J & C (can't say their names, HIPPA rules). They are going to California for a few weeks and won't be back until March 1st.  I will have to stop in to see everyone when I am back here in the area.  And, of course we will all be able to keep in touch through email and my blog.
Remember I am new at this, I will try to have pictures next time and hopefully it won't take me another month to post again.

Safe Travels to ALL
Nancy