They say that if you are an RVer going to Quartzite once is Mandatory. Going twice, however, is Stupid.

Did I mention happy hours? Did I mention that we are excited?

Today we are off to the Ocean for one last look. Next week we prepare for  Quartzite.

Last night friends Chuck and Anna (more about them later) took us to a Thursday night Jazz Club in Old Town Temecula called The Merc for an evening of “mainline, straight ahead jazz” and we had a great time.

Chuck had asked us a week or so ago if we liked Jazz and we both said “yes”. Really what we meant to say was “we like smooth jazz, you know the pasteurized stuff you put on the radio  with  a nice dinner, but we’ve never really sat down and listened to mainline, straight ahead jazz, the real stuff.

Turns out we were right, we do like jazz. And the merc is a warm and inviting 45 seat venue. The perfect spot for a few  hours of listening to good music and enjoying the odd sip of good wine.

Anna and Chuck

We had been here at Jojoba Hills for a couple of days and were out walking our puppies one morning when we saw a familiar face walking our way. Marilyn caught on first and exclaimed “Anna!”

The immediate response “Marilyn!”.

Turns out that they had been our neighbors for the past two winters at Tres Amigos in Mazatlan. It also turns out that Jojoba Hills is their home park, this is where they live.

We are extremely fortunate; we have been travelling around enough now that it is not at all uncommon for us to run into someone we know. Someone we met on the other side of the continent, somewhere.

As George would say “We live an awsome lifestyle!”

You say To-may-tos, I say tom-at-os. I think he’s pretty close. I would say the correct term is amazing but awsome will do in a pinch.

They are wintering in Yuma and came our way for a visit for a couple of days. The friendship goes back a lot of years but really blossomed 4 or 5 years ago when they too began to RV.

Since then we have hooked up for  great times in Progresso and Play Del Carmen Mexico, Edinburg Texas, Florence and Yuma Arizona, Tornoto, Madoc and 50 Point in Ontario. We will probably catch up with them again in Yuma after Boomerville in Quartzite but who knows. Anyway guys, thanks for the great visit. We had a blast.!

We love this RV lifestyle. It gives us the opportunity to connect with people who mean a lot to us all over North America.

Winter like it’s meant to be.

It’s about 10 in the morning here in Aguanga, already mid teens (60′s)and headed for the low 20′s (70′s), Not a cloud in the big, blue sky.

Like the man I passed on a walk this morning said “Winter like it’s meant to be.”

I used to be indecisive. Now I’m not sure.

Labor Day weekend last year we had an amazing party here in the park as we all got together one last time before everyone started heading out our seperate ways for the  “second summer”.

We did it up even better this year, with 40 something of us all got together, probably with enough food to feed the entire city of Hamilton, lot’s of games, great conversation and maybe even a few pops.

Obviously the questions on everyone’s minds are “when are you leaving?” and “where are you going? Florida, Texas, Arizona and Mexico will be well populated again this year.

We will all leave 50 Point with fond memories of our Summer Friends and look forward to our return next April or May.

Safe Travels everyone.

We met Bob & Marjorie last winter at Tres Amigos on Isla de la Piedra. Turns out their home is in Toronto, about 45 minutes from 50 Point, where we summer.  Over the course of the winter we shared a few cool ones, hung around a bit and became very good friends.  We travelled out of Mexico together and have got together 3 or 4 times since we got back.

This weekend we were invited to their “Summer Cottage”, on an island (called Robert’s Island) near Honey Harbour north of Toronto.

Some Cottage! And what  a fun weekend!

Meet our bud Bonita of  Pender Harbour. Just look at this lady. Now look beyond the icing. Check out that smile. Yeah, tonight she’s enjoying her birthday party but that grin is permanent. We’ve only known her for a couple of months, but I’m sure we have never seen her without that smile.

We had a little shindig  to celebrate her 39th with about a 16 of her closest local friends last night.

Same routine as usual: Water taxi to downtown Mazatlan, jam 14 people in a little red truck designed to carry max 10, ride to restaurant, a couple of drinks, way too much food, repeat red truck and repeat water taxi back to Stone Island. Rest.

We are sitting in the Pacific Border RV Park, in fact we have been since last Friday. We are right on the  Canadian/US border, the park is on Zero avenue and we are ready for the next part of this adventure. Before we move on though, we need to take a minute and reflect on what we have accomplished so far. We talked about our visit to all in Alberta and how great that was, in fact we are still talking about it. The highlight obviousy was the time we spent with Tracy, Mike, Cameron and Abby but it was all amazing.

We lived in BC for a lot of years, so this part of the trip has been away down memory lane, both with the places and the people. In Kamloops we caught up with my sister Leila and her hubby Bob, in Kelowna we had lunch with Vern & Gertie Sandquist, lot’s of catching up there. The old memory train was working over time in Chiliwack, our kids were going through their formative years when we lived there, and then we moved down to this park. Since we have been in Surrey we caught up with Garth & Lee, my aunt Molly and her family in Courtnay. We also connected with Hilda Harder, Cheryl Quinton, Karl & Kathy Hibbs and last night, Anne and Steen Salomon. We have been where we used to live, shop, run,play and just gaze at the stars. It’s been grand!

Today we will have that last look around Vancouver, a very definite soft spot in our hearts, before we prepare to break camp and step accross that so close border. And so we will end the memory part of this trip.

Where next we ask, as we look at the atlas? As much as we have enjoyed meeting all these people, the next 10 days or so we will be on our own and that’s good too. After 29 years she’s still my favorite girl and I think some days she likes me a lot too.

So pack a sandwich, tomorrow we are back on the road.

Meet Clark Snell. He’s the father of our daughter-in-law Elizabeth. That makes us inlaws, I can only hope some of his skills will rub off on me. Clark and his wife Gwen live in Hanna, Alberta.

 He says he’s just learning to work with wood, I can’t imagine what he will accomplish when he really gets going. I’ve introduced you to a couple of other folks who spend their spare time working with wood and they both do neat stuff , remember Fran and Gene,   but Clark’s attention to detail and knowledge of the subjects he is creating is quite amazing.

To this point he is pretty much self taught but has recently joined a club where he can interact with other wood carvers.

I wish I had a better shot of this hawk. The detail and coloring  are amazing! As you can see, the hawk’s sights are set on the poor little rabbit. He’s about to become lunch.

Job one Monday morning was to get a lack of power issue looked after on the motor home. We had a ten o’clock appointment at NorCan Industries to get the fuel filter changed.

We arrived at Norcan a  few minutes early and were met by the proprietor Tom. Actually we were met by three friendly dogs but thats another story.Tom loves animals and enjoys his pets. He has 3 dogs, 3 cats, 2 minature horses, 1 miniature donkey and this little girl in his arms ( Sue, if you’re reading this, you gotta know I was thinking of you). Her name, the racoon I mean, is Meecey. We caught them right at coffee time and before they could work on our rig we had to join them for a cup. We had quite the conversation and probably carried on for a half hour longer than we should have.

No problem though, after our chin wag, everybody went to work and before we knew it, we were back on the Trans Canada #1, happy with the way the coach is running and thinking about our luck in meeting Tom.

By The Way, if you ever are near Moose Jaw and are having any sort of problems, I’ll bet you Tom can help. His number is 306 693 2499. Tell him Larry sent you. Neat man; you’ll enjoy him.

Happy Anniversary Babe. I love you.