A day of rest and relaxation.

 The day before last when in Sechelt we ordered a charcuterie board from a local shop in plans to head to the ocean and have a picnic lunch. I went into town to pick up that order, and dropped off some resumes. Well 2 resumes. The second drop off hired me right away. It really is a employees market her in Sechelt. Everyone is looking for help. I got a job in retail at a cute consignment job for 1-2 days a week.

I was to start the following Thursday. So I came home after an exhausting previous day with a gorgeous charcuterie box, a job and a new outlook. I woke both kids up, because they decided to have a nap. The weather sucked. It was raining all day so our beach plans were ruined. We chilled and ate and talked about the dreaded day tomorrow. Parker was going back home. We talked about expectations, fears, and hopes. We enjoyed the food, and since it had stopped raining, we decided to go down and dip my toes into the pacific, and then swing by Trout lake so Parker could do a few final casts.

We decided to head back to the cabins, chill with our saviour cat….and flee from gigantic wolf spiders. Overall we knew this was our last day until Christmas holidays where we would be together. Parker had spent the day saying goodbye to the animals. I had spent the day anxious about tomorrows goodbyes.

Goodbye hell on wheels, hello Meep Meep

 Annika and I ventured towards Langdale terminal at Gibsons to catch the ferry to Horseshoe bay. Parker decided he was going to ride one of our bikes to the lake and fish, We offered to drop him off and pick him up, but he insisted he would sleep in a bit and venture out later that day. 

We arrived at the ferry terminal at 30 minutes before our reservation time. We waiting i line behind three cars, and arrived at the gate 27 minutes before our reservation time. The BC employee advised us that we were “expediently late” for our reservation and proceeded to put us in the standby lane. Apparently a reservation means shit by BC ferry standards, and if you are less than 30 minutes early for your reservation it is null and void. The BC ferries are a whole other reality and force to reckon with her on the coast. Thankfully we still made it on this ferry. We learned from a friendly person to record when you get into line so they cant cancel your reservation.

We got to the Cruise America location in Vancouver. They came out and inspected the damage to the RV, shrugged their shoulders and proceeded to refund me $97 because I went under mileage. WTF? Okay than….by Cruise America, thanks for the great insurance policy.

We caught a UBER from this location to Downtown Kia to pick up my new car. Kia paid for the UBER. I sent Annika onto IKEA because I knew with insurance, paperwork, etc ….I would be about 2hrs getting my new car. She was more than happy to oblige as she had a list of things she wanted for the tiny home.

To say BC insurance is a chaotic mess is an understatement. Not only do you need a full drivers abstract ( that my agent failed to inform me about) the BC government owns the insurance company and the rates are crazy. We worked around this mess by insuring me as an Ontario driver. A bit more expensive but once I chance my Ontario licence to a BC licence , I will be refunded the difference. The rate I had to pay would be similar to a first time driver in Ontario. Other that gas prices, real estate and insurance…..BC is neck and neck for expenses to Ontario. Actually I find groceries the same or somewhat cheaper than Ontario

So after all this I got my first ever, solo owner…..paid in full brand new Kia Rio. Her name is Meep Meep, because that is the sound she makes when you lock her.

Because of the delays with this, we changed our ferry to a later time so Annika and I could get all our shopping done in Vancouver. One thing while looking for cars in Vancouver online, all the used cars had accidents….I can see why. These guys drive like complete idiots in this city. It is worse than Montreal and Toronto combined.

Anika and I had a great day at IKEA. By the time I arrived to join her, and when we left she had spent 5hrs in the store, and I had to drag her out….lol

We had a good day. Onto the ferry!

Parker called through the day stating that he would not suggest riding our bikes on the highway as it was a death trap. He was getting caught in the rain and wanted me to pick him up on the way home. We pulled up just as the sun was setting. He hid the bike and I gathered up a very soggy Parker who was wet , tired and hungry. Annika and I stopped and picked up some delicious Ramen from a little restaurant in Sechelt 

Parker had not been completely skunked. He caught 2 cutthroat trout and a bunch of pumpkinseeds.

When we got home, Tia was waiting at the door and decided to rush out and disappear..Annika was a mess. Parker was cool and calm as usual , and I was trudging through woods trying to find her. Come to find out she was in love with our neighbours outside orange Tom cat. After about 15minutes I found her laying right beside him. He was nestled in the woods, not leaving her side ( she is fixed, so no risk of babies) we had no idea the name of this cat, but Annika and I decided to call him saviour. He was the sweetest Tom we have ever met. The night before he had scared the shit out of Parker, and tonight all three of us were hugging, kissing and thanking him for keeping Tortilla safe.

 

Exploring Trout Lake, and Sechelt

 Parker was pretty eager to explore a local lake called Trout Lake. It is stocked yearly with rainbow and cutthroat trout. It is only a 4 minute drive from Halfmoon Bay RV Resort. It is right off the road, and so beautiful.

We explored the cute little town of Sechelt, located the hospital (hopefully we won’t  need it) and got some groceries to supply our cabins for the next few days. I will admit, this old ladies body was aching after that slip and fall the night before. The kids suggested that we eat out for dinner. I let them pick the restaurant. Sechelt is much like Kingsville, where as almost every other store is closed on Monday.

We went and ate at El Segundo. A cool little restaurant with some delicious food.

We had a wonderful meal. Such a great day! 

Once we got back to the cabins, I cleaned out the RV , getting it ready to return to Vancouver the next day. While moving it in front of the cabins to unload all our crap from home for storage, I managed to run into a rock wall (because my side mirror was broken) Both kids where napping when I did this so I had no copilot to direct me where to go. All I could say it” thank God I got that insurance!” 

I was so ready at this point to get ride of this gigantic tank . Cleaned and rednecktified.(duct tape holding things together) I had literally drove 5400 Kim’s without a scratch and now in the last 48hrs I had managed to make this RV a hillbillies dream. Tomorrow is another day! Off to Vancouver to return this heap, do some retail therapy with my girl and pick up my new car. Parker planned to fish at Trout Lake all day.

Home sweet home?

 We left Kamloops at a decent time. Ready to make our voyage to my new home. The drive was pretty uneventful, arriving into Horseshoe bay around 2pm. Unfortunately while driving through a round about a tiny car cut me off( over a 2 tonne rv….go figure!) and I swerved to miss this rude driver and my side mirror came in contact with a large branch….shattering my mirror. I have never been so thankful for paying the extra zero liability insurance for this tank from hell. It only gets better from here. Since we were early, we decided to stop in Horseshoe Bay and grab a late lunch, early dinner as our ferry didn’t leave until 4:45pm. We enjoyed the beautiful view from one of the oldest restaurants in the town. 

Shortly after lunch we got in line for the ferry. Our reservation was for a 25ft RV. With the bike rack on the back, well….we were past that. Luckily we had a nice BC ferry worker whom forgave the discrepancies. Will getting in line, going 10km hour my rv launched over an unmarked speed bump causing Parker to levitate off the back bed colliding with the cupboards over top. It continued to get better from there. Unfortunately I was on concussion watch for the rest of the night. Did I say I hated this tank from hell….lol. We got on the ferry and continued our trek to the Sunshine Coast . When we arrived to Halfmoon bay I had arranged with my landlord to rent some cabins, because truthfully travelling 5400kms with 3 cats, one dog and 2 kids was a bit confining. I rented 2 cabins so we could get a good nights rest. Also I needed to empty the RV and clean it to be returned in 2 days to the rental pace, because my rental contract was up. While emptying the RV for that night, this clumsy fart managed to skid down a gravel incline taking off three layers of skin from my left elbow and breaking both wrist veins on my hands. I literally rolled to my back and screamed” I have had enough of this fucking day.!” 

Bedtime couldn’t come soon enough. Of all the days travelling, I couldn’t wait for this day to end. 

I managed to get things, kids, and animals situated and turn in for the night. Tylenol, Advil and a little prayer on board. Tomorrow is another day, right?

 

Kamloops…..fire devastation

 We drove out of Banff realizing that you literally need 2 weeks to even see a fraction of this beautiful park. One thing I disliked about camping across Canada was that 3/4 of the campgrounds were not manned or staffed when we arrived. It seems like any campgrounds that had staff, closed up by 4pm. So if you arrived after this time you were struggling to find your campsite, and worse yet half the facilities were locked. Granted we had a bathroom in our rental, but the shower was basically 2ft x 2ft. So half the time we had a quick shower because it was in such a confined space. Getting a hot shower after Labour Day across Canada in a campground was proving to be difficult. Banff on the other hand was the most beautiful, clean and well staffed campground I have ever been to. I would highly recommend. I do not have enough words to describe the beauty of it. We decided to make a pit stop at Lake Louise. You think its just going to be another lake, but oh my goodness. Gorgeous . But crowded and so ruined by tourists.As we were driving out of Banff towards Kamloops we could see the clouds of smoke rising in the air. It was a very strange sight to see plums of smoke coming off the mountain side, yet everyone was functioning as they normally would. As if the fires didn’t exist. It was like we were driving through an alternate universe. It very surreal. As we were approaching our redneck campground( queue the bangos ) it was sad to see half the mountainside burned down to short dead grass. As you drove along, we saw so many charred, black, barely standing trees. Yet to the people who live here its just another day. 

We arrived at Knutsford Campground. This campground was settled in a hidden valley. I am sure many unemployed families lived here…..lol. It was the least welcoming campground that we stayed at on this journey. I managed to get laundry caught up in the laundry facilities after called the maintenance person to return my $13 loonies swallowed by machines. By this campground my family was spent. We were tired of the rv, which was falling apart with every mile. RV’s are so cheaply made nowadays, it is truly sad. And honestly having 3 people, all my belongings,3 cats and a Whitney ass dog crammed into a 25ft rv was horrible at this point…..lol. But it did give us some experience with tiny living, just not this frighten tiny. Parker made dinner while I did laundry. Shortly after we passed out cold, exhausted from our trip. The only thing that motivated us on this day was the thought of arriving to our final destination tomorrow. Exhausted, one thing I did learn…..you need at least 14-16 days to drive across Canada to enjoy it and feel rested. I drove 5400km in 9 days. I was the only driver. If I never drive another RV in my lifetime, that would be too soon! 

A little piece of heaven. Day two in Banff

Waking up knowing we are going to explore a little of this magical place was easy to rise to. We really had no agenda today. We agreed to drive down to Bow River and let Parker fly fish for a while. Just driving though the quant little streets to arrive at the river was amusing. Seeing all the resorts, and chalets with huge timber frames was very on point with all that you have heard or seen about Banff. We parked our RV right beside a power dam and explored the river front.Parker got his fishing waders on and ventured out. Annika and I just relaxed in the shade of the rv and worked on little projects. It was soothing and relaxing, until Beans started growling at the window. She was growling at a juvenile black bear. Our precious guard cat. I snapped a picture quickly the got my air horn and blasted it. It ran for cover. I texted Parker about it because he was upstream….but he got his own experience as it came out of the woods and ran across the stream in front of him…..lol. He was shocked to say the least. He can running back to tell us….and didn’t realize I texted him only moments before. Annika insisted that he have her bear whistle on him at all times after this. We saw two park rangers shortly after that and they advised us that it was way more scared of us than we were of it.

Parker was having no luck fishing, so we moved to a location the rangers recommended. It was gorgeous. Unfortunately the current was so fierce Parker lost his favourite net (which he later replaced from the local Canadian Tire) to the current. He also managed to come stomping back to the RV with flooded waders. All this and Alberta skunked him at fishing. You win some you lose some. Even after all this, it was an experience he will never forget! We came ack to the campsite, made dinner and settled into our beds…..tired from all the travel. Making plans for the next week and our journey tomorrow to Kamloops.British Columbia here we come!

Meeting zerosquared tiny home crew, and arriving at Banff

 I never thought I would be so excited to head to Alberta. Alberta meant Calgary. Calgary meant Zerosquared Tiny homes. That meant I could meet the crew whom was presently building our tiny home. Scott, the owner of zerosquared met me with a grin and a hand shake. He proceeded to hand me off to Sean the head carpenter with whom I have been talking to the most online and via phone. Sean introduced me to Amy , who was one of the head builders. I was so impressed with the diversity of the crew. There were several women working on the builds. There was 7 different homes on the go. Amy came out to the motor home to grab a case of red wine from Pelee Island Winery (thank you Tara) that I brought for the crew to thank them for their hard work and for storing all my furniture for free ( I ordered a new rug, sofabed, two new beds, a vacuum cleaner, and two trellis garden privacy planters) After I met the crew( about 22 members) and everyone either waved or shock my hand, Sean proceeded with the tour of the facilities, some of the completed models and finally my home. I loved the little touches and differences from each model to the other. If you want to check out their website: Zero Squared Tiny Homes

My home is the 34 ft Willow, you can find it in the tiny homes tab.

Here is a video of it as of 2 days ago:

We arrived into Banff around 6pm. We were a little later than expected because we ventured downtown Calgary so Parker could visit a Fly shop. We picked up some groceries and then stopped at Denny’s for dinner that Parker treated us to.

To say that Banff is an absolutely heavenly place would be an understatement. I can’t even put into words how magical it is. Parker and I both stated we had goosebumps and actually teared up as we drove up to the mountains. We all agreed that it is the most beautiful place we have seen to date. Pictures do not do it justice. There is a calming almost soothing vibration you feel from this place. It truly is a gift from God.