Paradise Lost

Tomorrow we move down into the Slocan Valley. We were able to get an email reply from Sandy of the Mulvey Creek Land co-op saying that it would be alright to visit. Perfect, because we were just starting to wonder what the next step should be. Knew it would be going down in that direction, but not sure exactly where.

Today was a "rest" day for us. I use the " " because we didn't leave camp but we were busy all day, with our laundry, diaper laundry, cleaning up, and of course, Uma wrangling. She was so nuts for a two hour period today, and then a little calmer in the evening. She can grab a window ledge or a table and pull herself up to standing now, but sees things she wants and will let go and dive towards them. Lots of dangerous movement all the time and can't leave her alone for a second. Usually quite entertaining but today I was really tired for some reason. So I had a bit of a nap made possible by Martine taking her for a walk (Thank you thank you!)

We've been staying at a campground near Williamson Lake, which is about 5km from downtown, a nice 20-25 min bike ride or quick 5 min drive. It's mostly RV's and trailers here with some tenting sites right down by the water. The freshwater lake has been super nice to swim in. Packs of kids diving off the float and spinning like crazy on the merry-go-round at the playground. Was talking to the camp host here this morning. Horst breathed deeply and said with smile, "Ah, another beautiful sunny day... it really is paradise here!".  We agreed but added that we probably wouldn't be able to afford to live here!

Last night we went for a bike ride even farther out of town, towards where there is property with acreage, also where the new ski resort is located. Since the valley was so wide, by 8:30 the sun still had not set behind the mountains, and it was a pleasant ride in a sweater with shorts and sandals. We saw a lot of prime land for sale, beautiful meadows that would be perfect for what we want to do, growing food and grazing animals, already cleared, with plenty of sunshine. Unfortunately, all the land we saw will likely be developed into condos. It's all just 5 min from the resort.

So we are moving on!

Mosquitoes don't like babies?!?

Yes, there have been a few occasions in the past week now where as dusk approached and the swarms of mosquitoes begin to buzz around where I have thought, uh-oh! Uma's is going to get eaten alive. And then strangely, as we both get bitten all over, Uma is left untouched, happy as can be. My theory: you know how eating certain foods will make mosquitoes bite you more or less? (Apparently, mosquitoes love bananas) Well, maybe mosquitoes don't like breastmilk!

I don't know, maybe that is a strange way to start this post. Travelling with a baby has been interesting so far. Some days are awesome, other days are a little taxing or downright challenging. Uma loves the new experiences and meeting new people all the time and at the same time, the lack of normal routine on travel days and sudden changes means that sometimes she has trouble adjusting. I'm really glad I put in all that work into sewing all those curtains because it has really paid off to be able to make the bus quite dark for the daytime naps. And of course good daytime naps are essential for good nighttime sleep, a happy baby, and sane parents who are not about to throttle each other's throats.

Everyone who meets Uma says, Oh what a cute, happy baby! (which I agree with, she is 98% of the time) or Wow, she is really calm and quiet (to which I have to laugh because she always is when she meets new people and she is checking them out, but the adjective Martine and I use most to describe Uma is "crazy") She is so active, and demands a lot of attention. I don't mean it like she wants us to pay attention to her. Right now, she is slowly getting mobile, and so she wants help standing and moving all the time. And she needs you to use both of your hands, so she can stand up at the table and grab everything on it and put it in her mouth. Or grab your hair or you beard, or your nose, or your mouth, or your knee, one time she even tried to eat my foot. The only other baby I met who was like this around this age was Miwa. So Ben and Jill, you guys know what I'm talking about. All the others I see are happy just sitting and sucking on their pacifier. Not Uma... I'm exhausted but I can't help but really love who she is.

We are still in Revelstoke and plan to stay until Monday. Their farmer's market is on Saturday morning and it is always a good way for us to meet like-minded people, buy awesome produce, and just get a feel for a community. So far, we really like it here. The people are down to earth and friendly, the town is a nice size, easy to ride bikes to and around in, the surrounding area is beautiful - the valley is big and wide even though there's huge mountains all around. Heard from multiple sources that the growing is really good around here. The owner of natural food store in town said that she's lived all around BC and her garden does the best here out of anywhere she's been. In fact, she said that before BC Hydro dammed the river here and flooded the valley, there were over 200 farms in the area. The other thing I like is that there seems to a lot of young families here, we've met a few others with babies already. I'm sure there'll be tons at the farmer's market.

Uma had a round of "firsts" since she's been on the road. She had her first outdoor bath last night, on the picnic table. She's had her first solid food, which she seems to be enjoying. From the first bite she wanted to grab the spoon and feed herself. She has put her toes in a lake for the first time. She kind of looked down as she squished the sand around.

Going to back-post a few photos here. I know some of you are dying of boredom reading so many words. So here are some pictures, taken the day that we left. Eight jugs of oil from A&W at Parkgate(160 litres) got us to Revelstoke with some to spare, the diesel tank is still full. Tomorrow we will get more oil from a few restaurants in town, the folks we talked to were all super open and willing to help us out!

Transmission leaks, Tombstone trolls and German tourists, Summer on the road begins

So finally we departed on our quest. Currently we are camped beside Williamson lake near the rapidly growing town of Revelstoke. Uma is just falling asleep while Joyee sings her lullabys. But let's recap our past week and a half. Departed Friday june 11th at around 3pm Arrived in Cultus lake around 5pm just in time for dinner. Our friends the Howdens(Alex, Nancy, Reece and Jesse) were kind enough to have us for the night. Nancy whipped us up some venison burgers for dinner and the boys entertained Uma while she sat in the high chair.

The next day we discovered that there was transmission oil all over the underside of the bus, not good. Aamco was accomadating and set us up with a shop in Chilliwack, only thing was this wouldn't be till Monday Morning.

Sunday and Monday was spent making some upgrading to the bus. Alex suggested he could weld up a couple of frames the prop up the tool box in order to make room for a spare tire, oil and wood. Splendid Idea. We also painted out the window where the wood stove is since we couldn't put a curtain there. After some inspection at J&A Transmission it turned out it was a minor fix, a little tightening and we were good to go again, well at least till Kelowna anyways.

Off we went to Silver lake near Hope. I've been going to this spot for years and a knew it would be a good spot to relax for a few days before heading over the hills. We stayed Tueady Wednesday night, beautiful, peaceful just what we needed.

Kelowna was next, we timed it so that Uma slept most of the drive. We rolled into Beyond the Crux Climbing gym at around 4pm, the parking lot would be the home for the next 2 nights. Mike Shannon was up to his usual tricks. We still had some errands to run that we didn't get done before we left North Van, the gym gave us a good central location to ride around on our bikes. It was easier than driving in a lot of ways, especially traffic is totally insane. We became BCAA memeber, went to the farmers market, got a longer hose for the propane tank, purchased a used tire to be our spare, and best of all, we had the transmission checked once again at the Aamco. Another small leak, arg, not sure how common it is to have this many leaks, but I think we are going to have it checked when we get to Calgary as well. Two more nights at Mike and April's place up on the hill and we were ready to move on again. The last thing to do was to get veggie oil. Luckily our friend Annis worked at Prospera Place which had 10 fryers, yahoo. We filled our boots and noted a good place to stop for oil when trying to get back to Vancouver to visit.

From Kelowna we headed North east along the trans Canada until we hit Revelstoke. A little stop at Mara lake for a swim and here we are.

Thoughts

In car accident on Friday...Neck sore today...dodge Ram lives up to name...Breaking practice was painful... Sam's Audi write off...found new home for Pathfinder... mailed taxes from 2008 today... Cleaned bathroom and found it slightly meditative, strange...

Today was a good day
Martinstien...

Over drive,Transmission problems

Over drive has been over driven!!!


Unfortunately this is our overdrive, total melt down. Good thing that we took care of this problem before we hit the road or we would have been stranded on the side of the road somewhere.

The transmission is being rebuilt as we speak at Aamco. The day before we took the bus to Aamco, we had a company called western bus service check out the transmission. They took the transmission oil pan off to check for metal shards. only problem was when they installed the gasket it was off centre causing the gasket to squish out and leak!! Yes, that is correct, they sent us home leaking tranmission fluid!!! Not sure what has happened to workmanship these days? We are in a bit of a battle with them to try to get some of our money back for this work.

We feel like our departure date is coming very soon now, transmission will be fixed by tomorrow, that leaves us one day to do a final clean and pack the last few things into the bus.

Signing off,
Martinstien

Photo update! Ta da!

Martine finally broke the ice and posted on the blog which we have neglected for quite some time. I don't have any excuses other than that Uma keeps me busy. She is six months old now, sitting up alone and can roll over really well to one side and not at all on the other. I'm getting pretty fit from carrying her all around the house and up and down all the stairs of this house. Potty training is going well and not. I catch her pee whenever she goes over the bucket and needs to go. But poo has become more like Russian roulette because she's not going everyday anymore so when it happens it's always a bit of a surprise. The positive is poopy diapers only every 4 or 5 days!
 She knows how to high five, but isn't super consistent.


 We still get a lot of people who think she is a little boy. But that is partly my fault, for not dressing her in pink!? She just looks good in other colours! This green dinosaur suit is my favourite, it fits super tight, like a wet suit, so she kind of looks like a green ninja.

Okay. Enough about Uma. The bus the bus. We are so impatient to leave! The bus looks great, we have cooked a couple of meals in there already and are really happy with the layout and functionality of our design. It feels like home already. But it seems like things keep holding us back and we are trying to be patient. Being here for longer has given me the opportunity to go through more of my stuff so we're not leaving a pile of it here at my parent's house. (Don't worry mom and dad!) So that is a positive.

And now, what you've all been waiting for, a look at the bus! This is a shot from the back looking to the front. There is a giant hole in the cabinet on the left where the pipe for the wood stove goes through, that has been done since I took this picture. Ryota is making lunch here while Uma is hanging out chewing her things. The curtains I sewed, they are a dark blue corduroy and do a good job keeping out a lot of the light for her naps.

This one's taken from the front toward the back. They're hanging out on the the bed area. You can see there is a ton of space. We had a farewell gathering and had more than 10 people hanging out onboard comfortably for a bit!

I want to take some more detailed shots of different features we put into the bus but haven't had time yet. That will be the next post.

Patience of plenty

Finally the bus is almost ready for departure. We had a custom flashing made for the wood stove, only problem is it took over 2 week for them to complete. They completed the flashing on Tuesday May 25th. On the 27th I went to get the stove pipe from Vaglio Stoves. Ryota came over to help yesturday install the pipe and flashing. Its raining today, but luckily we finished all the outside work and only need to complete the pipe from the top of the stove to the bottom of the round support. I looks crazy!!

A few more things need to be tied up before we depart. we need to put a fan under the stove to suck the propane fumes out the window. We need to install a battery isolator so that the engine alternator can charge the house battery as well as the engine batteries, but blocks the draw backward to that the engine batteries don't draw power from the house batteries when stopped. Also, the bus has some overdrive issue that we are having looked at on Monday 31st of may. So that puts our departure date for Tuesday or Wednesday if all goes well.

I would have never imagined that there was so much involved in creating a home on wheels. We have learned so much about creating a living space, lessons that will serve us well when we begin to build our own home.

Maybe go to farmers market today however its pretty miserable outside.