The crew “started” loading the ferry around 5:30. In fact, we didn’t load till 6:30 – a very slow process because each vehicle has to be chocked, and the load balance has to be managed. We had chosen reserved seats in the front section of the ferry, so we would have a good view throughout the 16-hour trip, rather than opting for a cabin. (Would get a cabin if we ever did the trip again, just to have a place to leave our stuff, take a nap (!), have a bit of quiet. Views are wonderful no matter where you look!) But still, we enjoyed the forward perspective, and got some great pics. Our weather was very cooperative – a bit of fog at the beginning, with mostly sun and a few clouds the rest of the day. The main restaurant wasn’t open yet (too early in the season?), so it was ferry-quality café food all the way. They allowed us to go back to the car deck several times throughout the trip, so we were able to get at our own food (and wine, had we thought of it!)

It was truly a spectacular trip. There are many who had done this trip via Alaska cruises, and who will remember this portion of their trip as quite special. We feel very lucky to have been able to do this in our own motorhome. These are just a few of the sights presented to us.

June 1-3: Living Forest, site 133. First stop on the trek north on Vancouver Island. Had been there before, and found it just as good this time. Made a big pot of chili, using the induction cooktop inside. Good smells while cooking, but took a few days to air out the van.

June 3-4: Took the Benz to Big Boy’s Toys to get the noisy heat pump fan fixed. They couldn’t do anything that day, but were able to fit us in the next day. Spent the night at Rathtrevor Provincial Park (site 185). No services, but a beautiful spot, and we would have walked the beach nearby had it not been pouring rain all day.

June 4-6: Seal Bay RV Park: Site G13. The BBT service guys did something to the heat pump, and it stopped making noise for a short time. (EDIT: The noise came back worse than ever a day or so later.) Courtney/Comox is a favorite area, with lots of good shopping. The park itself is excellent, with some permanents, but with a lovely clear area for transients like us (with Starlink!). Probably not ideal in the heat of summer, but great for us. We had a good sunny day to do laundry.

Had an excellent visit with John & Brenda Bavin, old friends from the days of building Freja II (early 80’s). They have a beautiful modern house that John built on an infill lot in Comox. View to forever, including to the glacier to the north.

June 6: Port Hardy Ferry Terminal. Beautiful day for a drive to Port Hardy in prep for ferry to Prince Rupert the next day. We expected to have to sit in the parking lot, wake up at 4:30 to get into ferry lineup, and wait there till the 7:30 departure. As it turns out, they let you actually get into the lineup the night before, so that’s what we did. We were second in line! The lineup spot was not even remotely quiet, as the terminal operates all night, doing what is not quite clear, but it was done with lots of engine noises! Nevertheless, it was better than we expected. Met a very nice couple, Chris and Cheryl, in front of us in line, and whom we ended up seeing several times over the next 24 hours.

May 20-21: Spent the night at Wild Rose Park just south of Hope. Good park, dismal day, so we did little walking around. Barely got out to set up the power!

May 21-23: Burnaby Cariboo RV Park, site 165. Tiny sites. Best of only two parks within reasonable distance from Vancouver, where we had to be to attend a meeting downtown on the 21st. Took the SkyTrain in, easy and fast. Vancouver has changed SO much; we barely knew the downtown core. Finished our business in the morning, and walked to False Creek, then took the little ferry to Granville Island. Brought back many memories of living there, building our first boat there, and in fact getting married just down the creek aways. Had fabulous soup at the Stock Market! Ferried to Science World, then SkyTrain to Metrotown Mall before going home. One of the biggest we’ve ever been in, and was it ever busy! Finally back to our campground at the end of a very tiring day. 15,000 steps!!!

May 23: Left Burnaby to get to Tsawwassen for the ferry to Vancouver Island. We fortunately asked, and were told to NOT take the Patullo Bridge, unless we would be comfortable spanning two lanes going across. SO, we went via the Queensborough and Alex Frazer bridges – no hassle. Got to terminal 45 minutes before sailing, and got on no problem. $150 (CAD) later, we were in Sidney, on the Island.

May 23-24: Spent a lovely night at Island View Regional Park, RIGHT on the beach. Only 17 spots. Very windy, but beautiful. Site 11. No services.

May 24-26: Pedder Bay RV Resort – Site 21. Excellent park, full service. Had a wonderful visit with friends Natalie & Ron McCulloch, who live in Victoria. They brought food every night, including excellent quiche one night, super fresh spot prawns the next, then platefuls of scallops the third. To compensate, and for the pleasure, we walked to Matheson Lake Park one day, then hiked a small part of East Sooke Regional Park and the length of Whiffen Spit on a second day. Again, loads of steps!! It was a special visit with the two of them.

May 26-June 1: Sooke River RV Campground, Site 38. This was a return for us, and a welcome one. Great open space for the StarLink, only a few sites occupied, and the people and services here are great. Water & Electricity only. Sani-dump at exit. We’ve been spending time with Garry’s sister Daphne and her husband Lynn and working on some projects. Garry installed the strut kit for The Benz hood to replace the dinky OEM manual support, and did preliminary work for the thermostatic shower control installation which he plans to complete on Sunday. Ann experimented with the installation of Reflectix in a couple of the cupboards to see if that might reduce some of the heat transfer. And we did a huge laundry at the local laundromat. And, we walked…..up the long hill from the campground into town…twice. Great coming back though, and 8000 steps each time. All in all, a fun time in Sooke. AND, we had three sunny days in a row!

May 4-6: Two one-night stands – Indian Head Saskatchewan, and Eagle Valley in Alberta. Good parks, almost empty. Mainly to get to Calgary.

May 6-11: One night at Staybridge Suites in Calgary, waiting to turn The Benz over to ZR Auto for PPF on front and Ceramic coating over all. Then 4 nights with Scott and Kat (Tom’s son and his wife), both eagerly awaiting their first. They have a great house in central (SW) Calgary, and we thankfully occupied their basement suite. “The Kids” were working most of the time, but we had a rented car from ZR, so we were able to to some chores, enjoy a little retail therapy, and watch their excellent very big TV. Had good visits with them in the evenings.

As a superb bonus, Kat’s parents, who live in Calgary as well, graciously let us use their driveway once we had The Benz back from ZR, so we could stay the weekend and tackle, once again, the cruise control that continued to stop working when faced with no traffic in front. (This is a known MB problem, in fact more of a feature than a problem in their eyes. The original engineers figured that if the traffic sensor can’t see vehicles in front for some time, they would cut off the cruise control so that you have to pay attention. Or something like that.) MB in Winnipeg had tried to fix it with software updates and sensor adjustments, but it didn’t work. So we waited over the weekend to see if MB in Calgary could do better. (UPDATE: It’s working better, though not perfectly.)

May 14 – 16: Granview Recreation Park, Granum AB, just south of Calgary – 2 nights. OK, good for a stop. Full services (almost not – they had JUST turned the water on). Had to make an emergency trip into Lethbridge to address a bank card scam that caught us (we think – but got cards replaced to be sure).

May 16 – 17: Kikomun Creek Provincial Park, AB, Site 69. Beautiful park, mostly empty. Spectacular sunny morning (see pic). No services, but SO lovely.

May 17 – 19: Crawford Bay RV Park, BC Site 12. Decent park, lots of permanents. All grass sites. Full services. 10 minutes to the Balfour Ferry – last free ferry in BC. Nearby RED’s bakery had been recommended. VERY good, but VERY pricy.

May 19-20: Sonora Desert Winery, Osoyoos, BC; Harvest Host. Drive there from Balfour was beautiful. Did a short tour of Nelson (Garry’s home town), then followed the many twists and turns of Rte 3A and 3. Had lots of sunshine, interspersed with heavy rain and even some hail. Site at the winery was on their back lot (grass) – quite a beautiful spot. Did the requisite wine tasting, bought 2 bottles. Winery owner explained that his entire crop of vines that looked dead – probably were! They had a frost of 30 below for 10 hours in December, and it killed everything. Many vineyards around the area, tho not all, were also affected. They are not sure if anything will come back. Very sad.

It’s been a cold couple of weeks!

Our trip north from Texas was on very windy highways, with mostly dry though cloudy weather. Not a lot of drama, in fact the drive gave new meaning to “the flatlands”. For the early part of the trip, the winds came across the highway, and that did make driving difficult. In the latter days, the wind was from behind, giving us a boost.

The bonus of our travel schedule is that we missed the terrible tornados that came across Nebraska and Iowa last week.

A very nice 2 nights at Pelican Lake Recreation Area in South Dakota. Again, no one there but us, but our site (#33) next to the water was delightful. Easy in, easy out, fairly level. A short drive into Watertown to a laundry (badly needed) and to an ALDI – for fun and a bit of shopping. A full moon gave us a great evening walk.

Our final nights in the US were at Icelandic State Park in North Dakota. We had booked site 72, but it was not very level, and we wanted to be as close to level as possible without the levelers. So as there was not one else there, we drove around and tested several of them! Turned out #59 was perfect, so that’s where we settled. The nights went down to freezing, but with the help of our little electric heater, and leaving the locker doors in the van open, we were able to keep the water lines running. We did, however, need our extra blankets! Unfortunately, the park water sources were not open, so we were on water rations for a couple of days. As it turns out, we actually weren’t the only ones in the park – there was one other camper – another LTV Unity!

We had a service/warranty appointment at LTV in Winkler (Manitoba) on the 29th, and so we came to Canada on the 28th, at the Neche-Gretna crossing, more or less due south of Winkler and Winnipeg. We were the only vehicle in sight. We went to what we thought was the truck/RV lane, but the agent came out waving his arms, directing us to the car lane – he thought we were trying to go across without being processed! Once he realized we were not, he was very professional, asked us about gifts, alcohol and guns, and we were through in a few moments.

Our LTV experience was excellent. Upon arrival at the lot provided for LTVs waiting for service the next day, we found there was no open water source there either, so we walked across to our favorite Canadian grocer, Real Canadian Super Store, to get water and something for dinner. But not long after we returned to The Benz, a pickup truck arrived to drop off two bags of food! Included was 2 big cartons of hot soup, 2 fried chicken dinners, with gravy and mashed potatoes, some cole slaw, a huge platter of cut fruit, a full-size chocolate cake, an apple pie, a big carton of cherry ice cream, AND 1 dozen roses in a vase! Our donor announced himself as Henry, a “long-term employee” of LTV. We found out later that he often does this sort of thing with LTVs that are sitting in the service waiting lot. We were truly overcome – with astonishment and gratitude. Fortunately, another LTV arrived not long after (same one as had been in the Icelandic Park), and we were able to share our bounty with them.

Service the next day was equally satisfactory. Kevin Friesen, LTV’s service manager, arrived at 7:30 (!), and got the process going. They dealt with a couple of squeaks that we had found, replaced a small piece of flooring that had some odd stains from the sub-floor, and had a look at our leveling jacks, one of which we were worried about. They addressed a couple of other things that we hadn’t even noticed, and generally took very good care. We will definitely come through again next year as we approach the end of the warranty period.

The last week has been spent with Ann’s brother Tom and his wife Kathy in Winnipeg. The Benz stayed at Tom’s son Paul and his wife Megan’s house (below) for most of the time, except for a visit to the local MB dealer to get a cruise control software update and sensor adjustment. Took advantage of that visit to get the oil and filter changed in prep for Alaska. The weather continues to be mostly rainy, though the Winnipeg folks are glad of it – the farmers too. Picture day was a delightful, if short, spot of sun. Visiting with family, though, is the best. We’ve enjoyed every minute of it.

We are one of 3 families camping in this IOWA State Park – which normally holds over 75 camping rigs. I guess the predicted area temps down to 1C (33F) and winds of up to 50 kmh (50 MPH according to another source) were not much of an incentive to be out “in the wild”. Fortunately in this park the winds are much lower, and there’s even a bit of sun occasionally. Luckily, once again, we were able to get our Starlink positioned so that internet is available. 100 MB download speeds – gotta love technology.

We had booked #72, in the middle of the FHU sites (marked on the pic), but we were the ONLY RV in that whole western part of the park. Moved to #2, closer to where the other 2 sites were occupied. Just felt a bit lonely down there, and there were more trees that we didn’t like being so close to, with the winds predicted.

Speaking of in the wild, we bought an air fryer a couple of days ago, and tried it out last night. It’s smaller than our one at home, but hey, we’re sort of living rough. Still having fun, and grateful for our little electric heater and propane furnace.

Two stops since leaving Texas, with plans to get to Canada by the end of the month.

First, Keystone Lake State Park, in Sand Springs, OK (near Tulsa), Site L26. We arrived grateful for some refuge from the strong winds that blew across (of course) the highways and backroads as we headed North. The park was almost empty. We chose a site with FHU (full hook up – meaning water, electricity and sewer), all of which were without shade. We thought that would be a problem, but when the temps plunged at night, and then stayed there the next day, along with continued gusty winds, we appreciated the little sun that we saw. We took the opportunity to reorganize (again) some of our outside lockers, probably not for the last time. The pic is of the lower picnic area, where later in the season there would be crowds enjoying the excellent facilities of the park.

Our second 2 night stop was in the Cedar Grove Campground of Bloomington East Park, near Topeka, KS Site 76. It’s on Lake Clinton, one of many sprawling lakes that cover the country, at least on our routes. A CoE (Corps of Engineers) campground, it is very popular with the Topeka camping crowd, and we were there on a weekend. It was almost full, but it turned out to be very quiet, mainly because it’s not gone above 10 C, and has remained cloudy all day. Only the kids and a few crazy (IMHO) adults seemed to be able to ignore the cold. We did get out our down jackets, and are contemplating long underwear!

The pic below is of the road down to the water where one can fish, swim and launch boats. Pretty, but with it being so cold, not too much activity in that area!

Finally, we finished the bulk of the work we needed to do in Texas.

Our 3 days of travels from Ajijic to Dallas were without drama, other than a VERY long and frustrating 2 hours waiting to get through the border into the US.

“The Benz” was in fine shape when we got to her, and we were able to sleep aboard the first night without any difficulty. After some serious shopping to get stores, we set off for Willis (just north of Houston) where we had plans to work with Josh McBryde, a LTV specialist, to get some small but complex upgrades installed. Josh is very good, but the weather was not cooperative, and we spent 2 of our 4 work days being inundated with rain, thunder and lightening. However all got done eventually, and we were able to head north again.

We stopped for Sunday night at Levon Lake, a popular camping and recreation spot not too far from Dallas. Quite beautiful, and only a short hop to Denton, where we had plans to get our Borg stems and tire pressure monitoring system installed. These last two were key to our ability to keep tabs on and manage the Benz’s tires.

Then we had two days at Ray Roberts State Park, about an hour north of Dallas. Beautiful spot, and despite some fierce winds on Monday night, it was a relaxing time. Next, it’s on to Oklahoma!