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We are still in Trail BC at the campground, but luckily for us there is a Pet Land right beside our campsite. They have everything we need to do the one thing Winston hates the most…..BATH TIME! Now to be clear, Winston loves the water…..on his terms. Being stuck under a shower head with a bunch of shampoo and conditioner isn’t really his cup of tea. We do know he feels better afterward, and he does smell fabulous! Winston also gets a treat at the end, so it isn’t all bad.

We are going to have to start taking lots of pics of the types of vehicles and trailers people use, as there are some real cool rigs out there. Let’s start with the Slingshot, how cool would this be on the road! The turquoise old school bus was occupied by a family of Australians, a lovely young family traveling to Yellowstone Park. We loved the look of this, seriously retro!! The “tour” bus was two guys on their way to a F1 race, and they had pit passes. Lori was so jealous. Of course we can’t not talk about boys and their toys. Huge RV towing a huge trailer with golf cart and motorcycles, towing a car. Honestly overkill, but certainly drew a crowd of men to “chat up” the owner.

When one retires from a company, you wonder what you get as a good-bye/farewell/thanks for everything you’ve done gift………

Lori’s leader, John MacAulay, knowing she wanted to go on a RV adventure, chose to get her a 197 piece LEGO set that turned into a fabulous Class C motorhome! Lori had fun putting it together as Barb diligently categorized the 4 packages of LEGO and all the parts that came in them. And, as in real life, there were pieces left over….thinking they were just extra in case one loses a part or the rotors go on the thing. It has a wall that opens, a rooftop patio if you want, a little family as well as all the little cooking and food accessories. LEGO thinks of it all. Once we were done and had taken our pictures, we gave it to a young family in the campground who we knew would enjoy playing with it. So the gift will continue to keep on giving. Thank you John!

We live in a small space, and yet there are times we can’t find our stuff.

Today was hot and sunny, so off to the river we went, Winston in tow. After the excursion, we could not find Barb’s sun hat……..until Winston moved onto the floor on his towel to dry off. HOW he got on the couch without us seeing is beyond me. We didn’t know the hat was there! To be fair it needed a bit of a wash and it did pop back into shape after a while……

You don’t have to limit yourself when out on the road. These pics are examples of our brunches, Lori’s most memorable meal from childhood, snacks, and other healthy dinners. Lori does admit she is still working on her presentation skills. Barb however, does a great job making afternoon snacks! And while one tries to be healthy, how can you resist a bakery and a nice lemon loaf….

The host of the City RV campsite in Trail, Brian (or BJ as he prefers), allowed us to borrow his car for the day. It was nice to get out and about to explore. What does one do when you are limited to the time you have with an alternative source of transportation? Do laundry, pick up a large bag of dog food so you don’t have to carry it yourself from the pet store, go to a fancy grocery store called Ferraro Foods (one of Lori’s most exciting things to do here – see pic below), and enjoy the local art installations in town.

Yes we are still in Trail at the City RV Campground. One would think, being here since July 12th, that we would know everything there is to know and have seen everything there is to see in the campground. There are only 14 RV sites and another 16 campsites to be fair. However if you wait and be patient, you encounter other residents of the area you were not expecting, like wild turkeys. We also had some very proud moments and a few not so much. We learned along our journey that we occasionally judged inappropriately, and self scolded. One such moment was when we saw a camper living in a very run down utility trailer, and had a very old car who appeared to be living here full time. This, along with his scruffy look, caused us to assume mental illness, drug addiction, and the like. So we avoided eye contact as we walked by with Winston on a daily basis.

Later in the month we learned from the park host Brian that this man had grown up locally and was a talented carpenter and handyman. He had fallen on some hard times, after a lay-off in this small town where jobs were not plentiful. He had made the choice to live a nomad life, so he could drop everything whenever he was called to a short contract job somewhere. The rest of the time he did one-off small repair work.

Interestingly, we had a small project of our own on the go. We had realized that the RV floor was widest near the front door however it was unusable real estate given the stairs were there. So we brainstormed how we could cover them for extra space for Winston to lounge on. So an idea came to life. Off to the hardware store with measurements in hand where we purchased a piece of thick plywood and had them cut it to our specs. Once back at the RV we added our newly purchased felt furniture leg protectors to allow the wood to easily slide in and out of place. Wow are we brilliant! We then decided it would work even better if we could add finger holes to enable us to more easily pick the board up when not in use. Hmm, how were we going to do this. Well, we thought, there is this handy carpenter living in the park. So our next walk past we engaged. He was very nice. We explained our project and he quickly said he would be happy to help and he would pop by later with his tools. Not long after, he indeed did come by and quickly drilled the appropriate finger holes and our project was complete. We got into some great chats and he taught us that the turkeys are native!? He was very bright and loved the outdoors and knew a lot about nature and the area we were now calling ‘our summer home’.

What we learned about ourselves – we know we are not supposed to judge. We thought we were non-judgemental and yet we fell prey to assumptions based on visible clues, versus true understanding. Shame on us. We agreed for the rest of our travels we would check each other whenever this occurred.

It has been almost 1 week since our last post. What has happened since then? Well let us tell you……

1. We have driven a total of 8 km. From campground, to hotel, to truck auto-shop, to hotel, to campground.
2. We have learned the “shaking” issue we had on the downhill was the rotors. They are warped and blue according to photos we have seen from the truck mechanic.
3. We now understand the gravity of the brake situation. The mechanic tells us that every summer he sees multiple big rigs in his shop for this issue from the same Salmo mountain descent.
4. Parts have been requested, which will take approximately 3-4 weeks as they are on back-order and coming in from the States. You know that supply chain thing we have been hearing about, it is real….. Barb has been diligently calling Ford Canada and U.S., who are each advising it’s the others’ responsibility to approve the warranty claim. Why?Because the RV is U.S.-manufactured, but the incident, owner’s residency, and registration are all Canadian. What a sh#$% show! We continue to press this issue as the cost for parts and labour is over $2,000.
5. We are learning to love our campground and its limited amenities/activities, as we are fortunate to have a nice grocery store, pet store, and $ store to get our day to day items within a 5 min walk. There is also a pet-bathing station in the pet store which we will be introducing Winston to, much to his chagrin.
6. We had an awning issue where it no longer wanted to extend out. Well we rectified that by using our knowledge gained in Brandon Manitoba where we recalibrated the slide motors. Lori climbed up on the roof while Barb was at the controls. Barb hit the power button while Lori gently pushed the one side of the awning where the motor was slower to respond. Voila!! It is working perfectly now, with the exception of a piece of plastic that apparently covered an essential motor part, which came off in Lori’s hand, is now affectionately referred to as Exhibit C, and is stored in a plastic ziplock on the kitchen table. Which will be presented at our annual service appointment back in Ontario…..if that ever happens….

What we are now looking forward to, NOT, is the hot weather upwards of 40 degrees coming over the next week. Our non-shaded site will certainly test the RV’s AC capabilities. While there is no pool or beach here, we have discovered a beautiful freshwater creek coming from the mountains with a spot for us to easily get into to cool down and for Winston to lie in.

Well we have an appointment at the garage!!

We got a motel room for 3 days to start as we don’t know how long they will need our RV to fix it. We packed up Winston & Safiya and filled a cooler with food, as the RV will NOT be plugged in so things in the fridge and freezer had to come with us, and the heat in Trail is stifling.

The motel has an outdoor pool and BBQs for us to use. The motel allows dogs, but we had to get special permission from the owner for Safiya as they don’t normally allow cats. Lori had to promise that Safiya would be in her kennel 100% of the time in order for us to move in. So we got everything from the RV into the room, which was a huge chore, locked up the motel room, and headed off to drop the RV at the garage and do some shopping at the store which was just across the street. We had BJ’s car, so Barb drove the RV and Lori followed in the car.

Side note, well a bit more than a side note: While we said that Safiya would be locked in her playpen 100% of time, we all know that wasn’t going to happen, and what could possibly go wrong! Well, did we mention this is a motel? The doors to each room are at street level, the motel is on the main highway, and the motel is a little old. While we “thought” we closed and locked the room door…..apparently not! So while we went to drop off the RV, and do a little shopping to kill some time, things were developing back at the motel. About an hour or so later Lori decided to check her phone, only to find a phone message which stated, “do you own a dog and a cat, they are wandering through the lot towards the highway”. Well that didn’t throw panic into us!! And how did this happen?! We dropped what we were doing, hopped in the car, and rushed back to the motel. The maid, who had evidently rescued both Winston and Safiya, was outside and stopped us right away, seeing the panic in our eyes. She explained the animals were safe in our room. She let us know that Winston was very easy to get back inside; Safiya on the other hand took some ingenuity. The maid had actually grabbed a willow brush and wiggled it in front of her to draw her attention and slowly bring her back to the motel room. OMG, seriously, this could have ended up being a complete disaster. We ended up buying her a case of beer as a thank you, as that is what she wanted when we asked. We are also not sure how we didn’t get kicked out given Safiya clearly was NOT locked up in a kennel. We also think the following happened: the door didn’t latch and the wind blew the door open just enough for Safiya to notice. Safiya opened the door enough for her to go through (yes, she knows how to open doors) and Winston, seeing this, nudged the door open further and followed her out. Then they went their separate ways exploring the area. Good grief!

Here are some pics of the motel. We wanted to show the outside where Winston and Safiya were wandering before they were ‘lured’ back into the motel room by a maid. The motel is right on the main highway through town, and the road is VERY busy with cars and lots of semi trucks.

As discussed the evening prior, our first stop was the Trail Ford dealership.  It seemed wise to have them check out the RV to ensure nothing shook loose yesterday and that our brakes were still in strong working order.

Unfortunately the Ford dealership is too small to take us, but Mark referred us to Mike at another service company that is able to handle big rigs. So off we went, only to find out and to no surprise, that Mike is fully booked.

We have found a place to stay, the City RV Park, and Brian the host was incredible in trying to help us out in our time of need. He has found us a site for tonight and another location until next Tuesday. Fingers crossed we will be able to get into Mike’s to get checked out. We can’t do much until we do, as we don’t want to chance our lives/motorhome just to get to our next destination. Stay tuned all as we continue our adventure: the good, the bad, and the ugly. We do LOVE IT ALL!!