MAKING THE MOST OF THE WONDERFUL SEPTEMBER WEATHER

Sept 27/09
Our second week in Barriere started out much the same as the first week. We had a quiet Sunday where we went to a local church and then had a relaxed day “at home”. Monday was another fishing day and we carefully chose to go to Allan Lake which is about 45 minutes drive to the west up on the Bonaparte Plateau. We drove through the area that was burned in 2003, but the fire did not reach the lake. We saw a couple of deer on the way up and grouse on the way back.

We were the only ones on the lake and set out with high hopes of catching fish. It was mostly sunny but there was a cool breeze on the lake and it always seemed to be blowing against us. Stuart did catch a fish, a squawfish, and it was so ugly that we released it right away. We had nothing after that, although we saw fish jumping and we trolled around for a few hours. Just one of those “off” days.

Tuesday was better as we went golfing again and had a really good time. They were aerating and sanding the greens so the putting was not optimal although it seemed easier to make some of the putts (go figure).

We were in Kamloops most of the day on Wednesday as I had day surgery. That has put the skids on our golfing for a week or two until I heal up properly, so we’ve created a list of chores for Stuart to keep him out of trouble. He polished the entire outside of the trailer and did various things around “home”. He hasn’t learned how to do things the retirement way yet—pick one or two “to do” items and spend the whole day doing them. He still has the tendency to get the list completed as quickly as possible, all in one day.

We tried fishing yesterday at Johnson Lake near Adams Lake, but it was too windy when we got there. We tried to find another lake in the area that was calmer but we had no luck with access to any of the small lakes. So we had a lovely, though dusty drive on some new roads and had sole for supper instead of rainbow trout. We are going to Latremouille Lake on highway 24 west of Little Fort today. The weather is supposed to be good for the next few days and we want to take advantage of that. It is cooling off at nights now—only 3 degrees this morning (Yikes!!).

FIRST WEEK IN BARRIERE

Sept 19/09
Not only do we have no fixed address but we have no cell phone coverage in Barriere. We’ve used Skype to make a call or two but otherwise, we haven’t been talking to anyone by telephone.

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been here for over a week now and it’s been great, just like the first week of a fall vacation. The weather has been fantastic, sunny and warm most days although we had rain and thunderstorms today. We’ve been out golfing 3 times (yippee!) at Chinook Cove and it’s a scenic and challenging course. We’ve met a few interesting characters but have mostly played by ourselves.

We also went out fishing the other day and were the only ones on Hallamore Lake which is north and east of Little Fort. We took the ferry across the North Thompson River to get to the Dunn Lake road for access. We hooked half a dozen fish but released a few that were too small and the biggest one broke my line just before Stuart could net it. Oh well, we’ll try again another day.

LAST NIGHT - THEN ON THE ROAD

Sept 11/09
We spent the last “house” night in the trailer but used the indoor plumbing for showers and our "house kitchen" for breakfast. We cleaned the house and loaded the last items into the trailer. We were hooked up and on our way by 10 a.m.

We drove all the way to Barriere which is about a 50 minute drive north of Kamloops. It was a fairly easy drive which was good for the first one. We learned a couple of things about our first “loaded” road trip:
1. Don’t take all your tools from home
2. Don’t load everything in the front of the trailer
3. Don’t make purchases at Costco within 6 months before moving.
4. Diesels are amazing tow vehicles.

FINISHED PACKING AND LOADING

Sept 10/09

We finished packing the BSB on Thursday, September 10 and it was picked up in the afternoon. The final papers for the house sale were signed and we picked up the cheque late that afternoon.

It was an incredibly busy day as we had garbage and cardboard to dispose of and we had to get some items into a small storage locker where we are keeping our boat, fishing gear and motorcycle.

 

GETTING OUR NEW HOME

Aug 31/09

In the middle of 2.5 weeks of packing, we took a trip to Kelowna to pick up our new fifth wheel RV. It is a beautiful rig and it looked huge when we first saw it. We loved the floor plan, the décor and all the lovely details in the design. We had an orientation and within a couple of hours, we were on the road with a 12,000 lb. 38 foot RV.

We towed it up the Coquihalla Connector from Peachland to Merritt and then from Merritt to Kamloops. The truck handled it really well and we figure that was one of the most difficult sections of road to travel with a big RV.

Stuart did an excellent job of driving and parking the rig in our driveway. We didn’t have a lot of room as we had the BSB there as well and also had to be sure there was room for the slideouts. It all worked out very well.

START PACKING UP

Aug 28/09

The next big event was getting our Big Steel Box (BSB) storage unit delivered to our driveway and that occurred on August 24. It was amazing to see how easy it was to place in the exact location that we wanted. At first, the inside of the box looked really small and as we started loading a few things, it looked bigger.

The greatest challenge was taking apart some of the universal gym machine and moving the frame up into the BSB. We started our own muscle building routine with the packing and moving and it eventually turned into a successful weight loss program. We packed the BSB carefully each day as if we were playing a game of Tetris. Everything had a place and we had to figure out each section and fill all the spaces right to the ceiling before we could move on. It was a mental and physical challenge that we both enjoyed.

HOW IT ALL STARTED

Aug 14/09
It all began to change on August 5th, the day we played golf at Logan Lake. We had a great time, just the two of us, and didn’t have a heavy thought other than what we’d have for supper that night. We came home to messages from the real estate agent saying that we had an offer on the sale of our house. So we kicked into negotiating mode and had a deal made at about 10 o’clock that night. It wasn’t an easy negotiation but we were satisfied with the deal which would be finalized on August 13 and a possession date of September 11 at noon. We had a few more bumps along the way and were very relieved when the “subject to’s” were removed late on August 13.