RV is finally parked.

With the lovely weather we have had this winter it took 2 months but my RV is now parked next to the house. It turned out to be a lot more work than I thought it was and it's a tight fit but it finally is parked where I can actually do some work on it.

I started with this.

First job remove the hedge which turned out to be the hardest part of the whole job. While removing the hedge I broke 2 irrigation lines, and now have to redo the garden area but that is for another time.

Once that was taken care of the rest went quickly with the exception of the 2 clean outs that ended up in the middle of the new addition but we managed to work past that.

Next obstacle was the weather this is just not the right time of year to be doing this. The weather was great right up till I was ready to pour the concrete and then it decided to snow!

It took another 2 weeks till we were able to pour and I really should have waited longer but I needed to move the RV. Fortunately even tho it snowed after we poured the temperatures were mild enough that the concrete seems to have come thru undamaged.

And now it's home, still have to finish repairing the irrigation lines, build a brick wall were the hedge use to be and a few other things but it's parked at home and I'm happy. The rest will get done in time.

Irragtion repaired, wall replaced on to the next project.

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Finaly Made It Home

Up early on my hopefully last day in the US to get things organised for my trip to the border. First problem to deal with I need to bring the slides in on the RV but the awnings that sit over top of them are covered in frozen snow, the solution bang on them with my broom to try to remove the ice from the awning. That solution sort of worked.

Managed to get the slides in with a little complaining from the slide motors, put everything else away inside and it’s time to head for the border. Unfortunately in my haste to get home I drove right past the little kiosk I was supposed to stop at in order to export the RV. So once more after explaining my mistake to the Canadian border guard, who had me repeat the instructions twice on how to get to the proper place, I once again crossed back into the US.

Made it back across the US border without any problems, the border guard didn’t seem surprised just pointed out where I needed to park. My one biggest fear was that I would make a mistake on my paper work  and would be unable to export the RV, but the export process went very smoothly only taking 1/2 hr. Then it was finally time to cross back into Canada, this process took over 2 hrs while they went thru all my receipts for the solar equipment I had purchased, as well as all the other needed upgrades to the RV. Once that was done the customs agent informed me that he did not believe my purchase price was accurate. I spent another 20 min trying to convince him but it took me showing the withdrawal from my bank account on my cell phone before he would believe I was telling the truth. Once that was settled I just had to give them a lot of  money to cover the taxes and they finally let me go.

I got to the border at 9:00 am it was now just after 12:00 but I was finally back in Canada and heading for the ferry. I missed the 1:00 pm sailing but fortunately the next sailing was at 2:00 so I made it home for dinner and a badly needed shower.

The next day was spent organizing extending the insurance on the RV, arranging the required RIV & Provincial Inspections and praying my Form 2 would be ready tomorrow. Getting up the next morning I quickly checked the RIV website for my required forms, they didn’t even have a record of the form 1 they issued me. I spent the next two hours phoning and emailing them to get all the required documents before my 2:00 pm appointment. Made it with 10 minutes to spare but I did have to give them an extra $100 since the rates went up on Jan 1st. Oh well, the RV passed both the inspections and it was on to do the final paperwork with ICBC.

2 1/2 hours after getting to the Insurance Office all the paperwork was finally done. No one in their office had ever done a RV importation. One of the requirements they said I had to fulfill was getting the RV weighed, after some discussion they  agreed the sticker on the door was acceptable.

Due to doing this over the Christmas holidays I spent 3 weeks in the US and travelled over 6600 Km with a total travel time of 86 hours on my journey home, and even if this was the craziest thing I have done so far, it was worth it and I would do it again. I still have a lot of work to do in order to be finally finished up with this project but for now I am going to take the next week off and hope for warmer weather.

The map below shows the 9 stops I made on my  journey home.

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Hopefully my last day!!

The wind started to pickup after dinner last night. By the time I went to bed all the snow and ice had come off the tree beside me so I had a decent nights sleep.

With the wind blowing temps here dropped to -13c was a little uncomfortable crawling out of bed this morning but within 1/2 hr the furnace had things warmed up nicely. Ran into the first problem of the day when I went to replenish my water supply. The RV is winterized so I have no water onboard. Over night all the faucet’s in the RV park froze up so I now have no way to get water. If I’m careful I should be able to make it thru the day with the RV antifreeze I have left.
With the outside temps being what they are I’ll be spending the day inside again. I still have a couple of books left to keep me occupied since the Internet here has stopped working.
Internet just came back up so I’m going to try posting this before heading to bed. Then it’s off to the border in the morning hopefully without any problems.

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Sitting in Lynden

Found a place to wait out my exile in Lynden, it's about 25 miles from the border crossing. While their are quite a few trailers parked here it seems no one is living in them.
So I have the park to myself, no sharing the free internet which is spoty but unfortunately the washrooms are locked up. I was really looking forward to having a shower today but that's not going to happen. It started snowing a 1/2 hour after I got here I'm hoping it will stop soon.

Before heading to the camp site I stopped at Walmart to pick up the supplies I would need for the next few days. It never ceases to amaze me how busy they are, does not matter when you arrive they are always packed with people.

Had a special dinner tonight cooked a frozen pizza in the convection/microwave. It was not nearly as good as Jackie makes but compared to what I have been eating lately it was great.

Spent the evening watching New Year's Eve specials on TV I even watched CHEK HD for awhile to try and see the Inner Harbour Fireworks but must have missed it.

When I awoke this morning I was greeted with 15cm of fresh snow. It's quite pretty but I hope it melts soon. During the day the temp has risen to 2c and I have been listening to the snow drop off the trees onto the RV roof all day.

The biggest down side to staying here besides the lack of showers is the closest coffee shop is over 2 miles away so no coffee for me today. Will be spending the day inside reading. I wonder what tomorrow has in store?

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I should be home now!!!

I spent last night in a Pilot parking lot it was noisy and cold but it should have been my last night in the US.

The morning went from bad to worse, when I arrived at the border all the access lanes were blocked off and the border patrol were using a dog to check all the vehicles. When my turn came I asked were the admin building was so I could file my paperwork. He politely informed me that I would not be leaving today since the office was closed and would not reopen till Tuesday. With the building of Vancouver in sight I had to turn back and cross back into the US.

If things had gone according to plan I would be sitting at home freshly showered and wearing clean clothes.

Instead I'm stuck in the US till Tuesday!! Stopping in Eugene to get the furnace fixed seemed like a good idea, what I did not take into account was, not only did that push my crossing back a day, but with all my travelling I had lost track of the days and today is Saturday and the Pacific Highway Border Crossing Office is only open Mon-Friday and because of  the New Years Holiday will not be open till Tuesday.

So I get to spend another 3 days in the US in a cheap KOA were at the moment it is snowing!!! I am sure in  week from now I will look back on this and laugh but that's not how I feel at the moment. 

Oh well I have power and Internet I should be able to entertain myself for the next couple of days.

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Heading for home

I take back what I wrote yesterday today's drive was defiantly the worst day of driving in what had been a very long journey.

The day started off great,  after spending another cold night in the RV the service manager banged on my door at 9:00 to let me know that the circuit board had arrived. After handling him the keys I headed inside to warm up and grab a cup of coffee. Just over an hour later they told me the repairs were done I went with the service manager to settle up the bill. They contacted the dealer in Akron who authorized the payment of $370 and by 11:00am I was already to go.

Checking the nav system it was only a 6 1/2 hour drive to the border plenty of time for me to make it home tonight.What the Nav system doesn't calculate is traffic. I5 runs thru 3 major cities and that is where it stops being a freeway and turns into a parking lot.

My total travel from Eugene to Bellingham was over 9 hour!! That meant no chance of catching a ferry home till tomorrow. Showed up to spend my last night of overnighting in a Walmart only to find that is not allowed here. Time to get back on the road and find a place to stay the night.  :-( 

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Getting the furnace fixed YEH!!!

Left Las Vegas early yesterday morning aside from the long climb out of the valley yesterday's drive was long but uneventful. Stopped twice on my way thru California to try to get the furnace fixed but got the same story. It would be two weeks to a month till they could even look at it, let alone fix it!!

Since I wasted so much time trying to get the furnace fixed it was after 11:00pm when I finally reached my stop for the night. 

With the temp in the RV at -2c I was up at 5:30 and on the road by 6. The plan for today was to make it to Eugene to pickup my Solar parts and visit the Camping World for one more try before heading for home.

The first 2 hours went well but after my first fill up I started going up thru the mountains the California side was okay but once I entered Oregon things got a little more exciting. I thought the 6% grades were bad enough, but just to make it more interesting they added twisty roads with snow and ice, and mile long cloud banks.

Today's drive was defiantly my least favourite, especially after the logging truck in front of me dropped something off it's load and put a crack in the windshield. Due to the driving conditions I did not make it to Camping World till 4:00pm.

While I was driving thru this winter wonderland I received a phone call from Bob enquiring how things were going. I told him I would call him back and 45 minutes later at the next rest stop I explained the problems I was having getting the furnace fixed. He called me back 10 minutes later to let me know they were expecting me.
Even though I showed up an hour late they brought the RV right in, and 45 minutes later came out and told me the problem was the control board. They did not have one in stock but figured they can get one tomorrow. Will be spending the night in their parking lot. Hopefully this will be the last cold night I spend in the RV.

 

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Still here in Vegas

The past two days have been pretty uneventful, I get up eat my breakfast then walk the 1/2 mile down the road to purchase my morning coffee at 7 Eleven. Yesterday morning after purchasing my coffee I continued on down the road, after getting off the main drag I walked thru a large residential area. I should have paid more attention to where I was wondering as I got quite lost for a bit, ending up in an area that was pretty run down.Fortunately google maps was able to guide me back to the main road and back to the RV park.

After lunch I went over to the movie theaters located at Sam's Town. Out of the 17 available movies I chose to see Assassin's Creed it turned out to be not a bad movie and killed a couple of hours. I would have rather watched Rouge One but promised my brother I would see it with him once I  got back. After that it was back to the RV to make dinner and watch a couple of TV shows on my pad. The RV park does offer cable hook up's but I do not have the required cable to do that. The RV has a digital antennae and I can pickup over 40 channels but they are either in Spanish or so old I can't stand to watch them.

This morning was the same routine except instead of doing some more exploring I headed straight back to the RV. I was expecting a call from Bob about getting the furnace fixed but he never called. I guess that means I'm on my own. The plan now is to head out early tomorrow morning for the 1500 mile drive home stopping along the way to see if I can get someone to fix the furnace. At this point I'm not very hopeful and I really just want to get home, but with out a working furnace it's going to be a very cold journey.

  

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Christmas Day in Vegas

This is the first time in a very long time that I haven't woken up with my wife on Christmas day,it makes me a little sad but in less than a week I should be back home and all will be good. My luck may be improving on my hike today to get coffee I found $100 lying on the grass next to the sidewalk. Hopefully this is an indication of things to come.

Christmas here in Vegas is much different than back home it just doesn't seem like Christmas. Their is very little in the way of decoration's displayed and most business are open it just does not feel like Christmas here. On my way to get coffee I passed by a McDonalds that had 1/2 a dozen cars in the drive thru waiting to be served.After getting back from my morning walk I spoke to my wife and kids which helped cheer me up.

Will be heading out to Red Rock Canyon which is about 30 miles outside of Vegas this afternoon. I arrived at Red Rock Canyon expecting to have the place mostly to my self was amazed to see a large lineup of cars waiting to get in. 

I spent the rest of the day exploring the canyon, walking along the trails checking out a little waterfall.

 It was a pleasant day despite the chill in the air. Hopefully I receive good news from Bob tomorrow, either way 2 more days and I'm out of here.

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Christmas Eve & I'm not home

Took the day off today, slept into till 9:oo then walked 1/2  mile to get a cup of coffee. Spent another 90 minutes walking around to get some exercise. These city blocks in Vegas are enormous, they are 4 to 5 times as long as 1 of our blocks back home.

 

When I got back I walked around the RV site, there are over 275 sites and even at this time of the year, it is over 3/4 full it was funny to see how many RV's had ramps so their pets could get in and out easily.

After lunch I sat around waiting for Bob to call with news about getting the furnace in the RV fixed, unfortunately it wasn't good news. He was unable to contact anyone today, not surprising since it's Christmas looks like I won't be leaving for a few more days. He is going to call back Tuesday after checking some more places on my route home. 

I was suppose to be eating dinner at my sister-in-laws today, instead I splurged and went to KFC Yum!!  I can't wait to get out of here and will be leaving on Tuesday one way or the other.

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Things were going so well

Things were going so well I knew something had to go wrong eventually. Went down to the Las Vegas strip last night had a nice dinner. Then I walked the strip for a couple of hours it really hasn't changed that much since I was last here. After walking the strip I went and saw Terry Fador and as expected it was really great after the show I headed over to Fremont street to listen to the bands and people watch. It was after midnight by the time I got home.

My luck has been pretty good so far and it finally ran out. When I left for the evening I had turned the thermostat down but not off, so I was surprised that it was so cool in the RV. Checked the thermostat it was still turned on, raised the temp to 70 and nothing happened. Okay obviously I have a problem, I checked to make sure I have not  run out of propane, gauge is not reliable but all the stove elements work and the flame is bright blue so not a simple problem. Jump on the Internet to check for a fix all of it looks like it's going to take time and it's after 1:00am so off to my cold bed I go, will deal with it in the morning.

Once again I wake up to a very chilly RV, I really should be use to this by now. Watch a couple of video's on trouble shooting furnace problems so I'm all set to go. One problem the furnace is behind a panel and I don't have any tools so off to my favorite store I go to purchase some cheap tools. Next problem after removing the panel all you have access to is the back of the furnace all the serviceable parts are in the front. To access those I would have to remove the furnace and it doesn't look easy or fun.

I contact the dealer I purchased the RV from but they really can't help me but do give me the number for their tech support line. Spoke to a very nice man who gave me the number of the service manager here in Vegas. After speaking to him on the phone I head over to have them check it out. When I arrive at the dealership an hour later I am told that the soonest they could look at my RV is the end of January!!  After a lot of negotiating and me insisting that their service manager (found out he wasn't working that day I had spoken to him at his house) had said they would, they finally agreed to send a Tech out to check it out.

An hour later he showed up, spent 5 minutes in the RV and told me "Yep it's broken" and to diagnose it they would have to remove it from the RV. Went back into chat with the man in charge, who informed me that their was no way they could help me till the end of January. His recommendation was to buy a electric heater and head for  home.

I finally arrived back at the KOA at 6:00 having wasted the entire day and accomplishing nothing. Hopefully I will have better luck tomorrow.

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