Very strange happening. We are snow bound in the middle of town, and will probably be for a few days. They have almost no snowplows here because it's not supposed to snow like this. We are lucky that we still have power -- thousands in Victoria do not. Anyway, it's very pretty.
Looks like we will still be here for a while -- we have an "open ended" agreement with the house owner, so we will stay on for a while and continue fixing things up.
We still have the van (of course), so are not doing a lot of driving. But we are practically in downtown Victoria, so we don't have to go far for stores & restaurants.
The weather has been cool and drizzeley.
We are still here in this tiny house in Victoria, (Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada) sawing and sanding and painting and papering. We laid a new floor of wood-laminate in one room, papered 2 walls, painted 2 walls & the ceiling, finished baseboards, etc. Doing lots of filling and sanding.
Manfred just spent a lot of time and money getting the van "legal" for here in Canada. (Of course, he has not sold it!) There were several small repairs that had to be made to get the sticker. Gas here costs more but insurance is cheaper than the US.
Current telephone numbers are : 678 748 5806 == this is a Georgia (U.S.) number & is a local call if you are calling from Atlanta 250 984 1319 == this is a Vancouver Island (Canada) number, a local call from Victoria but not from Port Renfrew 250 385 7758 == this is a Vancouver Island (Canada) number, a local call from Victoria & also from Port Renfrew
The first 2 numbers are the internet phone, you can leave a message. The third number is the house phone here and there's no message service.
We are not using the cell phone at the present, because every call made or received to/from Canada is long distance.
These photos show before and after sanding floor.
Yes -- we're still here. But we do have plans. We are going to Victoria tomorrow to buy some furniture so we can move into the Victoria fixer-upper house. We will take a load of stuff, mostly stuff that's still in the van. Then, the following Sunday or Monday, we will actually MOVE IN.
In the meantime, our contact numbers are still the same, for what it's worth.
Manfred is not sick any more, but he still has a cough and is very weak. Somehow, I managed to NOT get it--whatever it was.
This pic is looking out of the window of Bill's house (note the eagle on the post).
The picture shows a deer that was resting under a bush in the yard of Rosemary's neighbor.
We are staying in Victoria with Rosemary untill tomorrow or Sunday. Then we will go to Bill's place in Port Renfrew. The phone number here is 250-385-5195 (but don't call unless it's urgent) and the number at Bill's is 250-647-0022 (after Sunday).
We don't have a proper phone line, yet. If you call our old number (678-748-5806) that's the Vonage internet phone, and we won't have it hooked up until we can get a hi-speed internet connection. Port Renfrew only has dial-up, so far. You can leave a message on that phone, we check the messages every 2 or 3 days. Calling our cell is a call to Atlanta, and counts against our minutes. And we cannot call out on the cell from here in Canada without paying 40¢ per minute.
The best way to contact us is to put a comment on this blog or email to observer@islandnet.com.
We finally arrived here in Port Angeles on the 4th of July, but we couldn't get our mail because of the holiday. Today we got it and the passport is here, thanks to Steele's prompt sending. We will be going to Victoria today, provided they let us in. Then we will be heading for good old Port Renfrew -- after visiting with Rosemary, of course.
On the way through Oregon, we stopped at Ken Roberts' place, which was closed (Sunday).
We've been on the road since Thursday morning, wending our way up the coast of California. We visited Hearst Castle, which was something else. A ranch house that rivals Biltmore Estate. See Citizen Kane. We couldn't make the Monterrey Aquarium, but have had a good time taking in the great views and interesting scenery.
Internetting has been a problem -- wireless internet at several motels didn't work -- but we finally got one that does, here in Eugene, Oregon. We will probably be one more night on the road before arriving in good ol' Port Angeles, WA.
If you want to tell us something, you can put a comment on this blog, or write to observer@islandnet.com
We are having a great time here in CA. Our present plan is to visit Hearst Castle on Wednesday and then continue on north, so we will be on the road for 2 nights and almost 3 days before reaching Port Angeles.
We have finally reached Robin's place near Arroyo Grande in California. It is a beautiful place, very rural and full of horses. We are staying with him and his finacee, Virginia. They think it is very hot, but after 116 degree weather, we think it is quite pleasant (high 80s).
On the 5th nite, we stayed in Williams, Arizona, where there was a biker's rally -- over 1,000 Harleys -- it was lots of fun, but the wireless at our motel did not work.
On the 18th we crossed a whole lot more hot desert to get to Las Vegas. When we crossed the Colorado River at the Hoover Dam, there was a steep hill to climb on the other side, and the van was not at all happy about it. We got to Vegas and the 4 Queens Hotel, where we had a reservation, about 2 p.m. At 9:30 we went to get Bill Jones at the airport and discovered that the van was leaking transmission fluid. It is now (on the 19th) being repaired.
We could not meet Chuck and Diane Fitsgerald in California, as we had hoped, so we are staying one more night here in Vegas, at the 4 Queens. It is incredibly hot, but lots of fun.
