Harrison Lake Adventure Truck Camper Saturday Morning

Yesterday, I got the electric bicycle onto the front carrier of the truck.  No small task, finding bungee cords, keys, locks. Eric, from Starfleet RV Repairs, had finished the improvements to the camper, second battery, tv mount, level indicators, new Venetian blind, coat hook.  Special little treats that personalized the already fabulous Alp Adventurer Camper.

 Laura arrived in her red Smart Car, pulling her overnight bag like a beautiful stewardess in Birkenstock’s and jeans.  Gilbert was beside himself with doggy glee to greet her.  I remembered to winch up the stabilizing struts of the camper with the remote.  Almost makes it feel like I’m preparing for a space ship take off. Next year. I’m in the space cadet program. My camper and truck a proto flitter. Gilbert my Chewy buddy and Laura, my Barbarella are with me.  We depart.    

At Fraserway RV we picked up our new mattress. Sounds like an easy thing.  Nope.  Lots of grunting and pulling to get the old 6 inch mattress out. Then with the help of a darling warehouse girl and handsome strong young man we all shoved the new 9 inch mattress into the camper catching the factory plastic on every door handle. Laura was not pleased with the extra ‘3 inches’.

“I had trouble getting up on the bed before. Now it’s three inches more. I don’t know how I’m going to do it.”  I witnessed a very creative struggling crawling pulling bed mount by Laura later.  To be honest, it was harder for me to mount the bed despite legs 3 or 4 x the length of Laura’s.  But the bed is still heavenly.  “I love bed!”  I opined. So comfortable.  

I arranged storage in Chilliwack with John. His son was there too. The two of them are such fine men my faith in the future is restored.  Good people. Caring and helpful.  John at Chilliwack RV Storage has helped me, above and beyond, so often over the last couple of decades I’ve stored an RV or camper there. His son last year was the muscle and genius behind my getting my KTM 690 motorcycle stored safely on a rack behind the old Camper.  We have the key to the gate for the return, our return when we drop off the camper. 

At Superstore Chilliwack where the weekend crowd was competing with Walmart for best dressed awards I got the steaks for the weekend. I’ve the little propane bottles for the barbecue this weekend.  We missed the Agassiz turn off so drove up to Hope only to find too much snow and the RV campground we like there closed still.  Back to Harrison, A little sight seeing along the way. The mountains around Hope were beautiful.  We saw a water fall frozen on the side of rock, a great fluffy snowy product of a white witch’s wand.  Lovely sunset as we passed through the truly pleasant and welcoming town of Agassiz, one of my favourite places next to Rosedale. 

Sure enough Glencoe RV park in downtown Harrison had our spot from last week free and waiting.  “Gilbert will recognize this.”  Laura said. I thought given the poor little guy is blind, it really is a good thing that I balance my own drive to explore new territory with his appreciation for the similiar.

This week there are several other RV’s here. Bookings are coming in for the rest of the month though. In summer this place is booked months in advance and the whole of the town is overflowing with tourists.  

I took Gilbert for a walk leaving Laura cursing, grunting, sputtering in a fight to the death with the new mattress and the sheets.  After Gilbert had reacquainted himself and marked his territory we returned to find that Laura had indeed vanquished the mattress.  She’s was not impressed when I said,”You won’t have to go to the gym this week.”  She’s not her normal self on Friday night. A week of patients demanding and angry at the waitlists and delays steals her normal joie de vie.  It’s takes hours of Gilbert, the therapy dog,  working his magic. I made her dinner, roast chicken and potato salad while Gilbert snuggled. Paper plates.   The people at Superstore had roasted the chicken and made the salad but left me all the heavy lifting of spooning and slicing. 

I tried setting up the tv but can’t find a cable plug on the outside wall. I did get DVD and tv working.  I love getting systems up and running.  Heater, refrigerator, shore water, electricity.  I might well be docking with my sailboat, the camper so like a land version of my yacht. 

Climbing into bed I loved the mattress.  So incredibly comfortable. I believe there’s a lot to be said for 9 inches over 6 inches but Laura insists that the 6 inches is easier to handle and leaves her more room. I hope no one heard that conversation . 

Great dreams of childhood adventures with friends.  Waking in this spectacular location, white capped mountains about, blue sky, Gilbert thankful that I lift him up on the bed so Laura can scratch his tummy. I love my indoor flush toilet and the electric fan.  I’m on my second cup of java and hearing the Manhattan Transfer singing in my mind, “I love coffee, I love tea, I love the Java, Java and it loves me.”  I heard them play at the Vancouver PNE and they were terrific. 

I might be coming down with a cold, raspy throat, sinus, but it’s probably the pollen. This is the BC time of hay fever. A Reactine with the coffee. A further reason to rest and do nothing except walk the dog and maybe get on the bicycle for an electric ride.  Life is good.  The winds of mood blow through with the endearing love of fair winds and following seas. This is just that. Some time this afternoon I’m going to ‘take the healing waters’  of Harrison Hotsprings.  I love this roughing it wilderness camping in downtown Harrison’s Lake. 

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Good Morning God

Good Morning God, I was reading Facebook and realized again I was being heavy handedly programmed. The programming was in the selection of ‘themes’ and ‘news content’.  There are thousands of themes in literature.  A hundred critical ones but even the basic 10 are not regularly represented on the ‘news’ or ‘media’.  Social ‘media’ is just another news advertising medium. As Marshal McLuhan said ,”The Medium is the message.”

So instead of hearing about the genocide of Tibetans by the brain dead Chinese communist thugs I hear again about Israel and Palestine.  

Instead of hearing about the lesbian on lesbian violence I hear about LGBT community smiley face.

Instead of hearing about the gross increase in government and the corruption through out government, I hear about a single case. The Charboneau enquiry is as quickly forgotten as money laundering or drug running.

Instead of hearing about Meaghan’s babies today I hear about some idiot ugly rich girl in Hollywood.

I never hear about Saskatchewan. I never hear about Idaho. I would like to know about Chile. I only heard about Ethiopia because there was a plane crash but when I went there last month there were ten times as many people as in Canada.  There are nearly 9 billion people on the planet and Andy Warhol said a person could get 20 minutes of fame. A lot of the media cast are real hogs!

There’s a major selection bias with stories.

So God, I thought I should talk to you. You have Infinite. All Wise, Endless tales.. You are  In the heads and lives of billions of people on this planet alone. In touch with sentience the universe over. You would know why the rings of Saturn are reducing and you would know why weather on Mars is arbitrary. I know you know about the extreme events on the moon and have insights into the unborn babies. 

You will know what is to come as you truly know what has passed.  You have an infinite gigabyte memory so the idea that time travel can’t occur because the past is deleting is simply not true. It’s changing. Just as I am changing in my fondness for bell bottom pants. I’m not any more. I don’t like Cuban heeled boots but your hard drive would be date coordinated and show that I loved Cuban heeled boots when I was 15 and lost interest in them at 17.  

I still like stove pipe pants. You do know how long and often giraffe’s vomit. Your capacity for data infinitismal and grand is endless.  You are omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotential.

But do you love me.?

Really. Are you going to protect me from government today? I’ve got a ptsd trigger to government because they have protected the killers and rapists while stealing and playing holier than thou. They have no shame.  I still have nightmares about their corruption lawlessness and abuse of privilege. I still see them breaking their own laws, bullying and threatening me, They are only showing that ‘might is right’.  I thought ‘right is might’ Lord but I’ve been hurt too often. 

I know I should not regret the past. I am today due to that. All that is good today comes from the manure of yesterday.

. Ineed to forgive and I need to let go and let god and that the rear view mirror is tiny so we look forward andcan focus on the present.

I know you are here now.  When I tried to meditate this morning I had a cat rubbing against my back and a dog rolling on his back in front of me wanting his tummy rubbed. I’d fed them. I wanted some time with you.  I felt that release when I connected for that briefest space with your omniscience. I felt I was touching the bigger flow. I wasn’t here in this little eddy of stagnating water where I don’t let you in enough.

 But I connected , then my knee hurt. By the way thank you for my knee hurting less each day. Thank you for my anxiety about my right sided weakness being lessened by my colleague who showed me there was no lateralization.  Thank you for stilling my fears.

Because I’ve been afraid. 

At the end of the day listening to complaints all day I’ve been coming home just exhausted.

“ I hear you’re depressed. I hear you want more money” :  but I’m not your Premier or Prime Minister and I hardly have enough to live on and I’ve been working now 55 years for wages and I’m still working. So I can’t really do more than say “I understand how hard it is to live in Vancouver” :  It’s the most expensive city in the world with the greatest real estate corruption in history some say.  So there’s that whole issue of ‘entitlement’ and ‘political action.’  I used to ask people if they voted but all those complaining almost without exception didn’t.  

“I don’t want to take medication. I just need money.”

Somehow everyone wants back in the womb like I do. I miss my mother. 

Someone put up the Spot and Dick and Jane reader and it took me back to an easier time. I was part of a loving family.  My parents paid the bills. I pay them now. I go to work.  I would rather hide in my bed. I love my couch and I love my bed.  I don’t like to get mail. I worry as I have for years that someone in government is going to hunt me down and steal my time and attention and punish me for doing the right thing.  Then I’ll be punished again for not doing the wrong thing.  The whole morality game is wrong.  Psychopaths and sociopaths are coming out of the walls like mould.

I’m afraid.

But then I think, you are a loving God.  What do you want from me?  What do you want me to do. I know that G.O.D. Is good orderly direction. I know that I am to ‘suit up and show up’. I know I’m to be kind. I am to do the best I can but I no longer have resources. Another person was shouting at me because they had to wait months to see me and the next appointment was 2 months and the referral I’d made for them to another specialist was not going to happen until next year and that the tests I ordered aren’t booked till the summer and their doctors all say they never get my notes or my consults and I do them and then I read that no one has done what I suggest and that the lawyers aren’t letting any of the doctors know that the MRI”s are normal and that one doctor is hoarding all the tests. It’s bedlam. The system is broken but all I can say is I know. 

I am increasingly struck by the sense that I’m a carpenter and people need a plumber but this isn’t the plumbing department and They need a plumber. There’s nothing wrong with the carpentry

I even sometimes say I’m sorry like I’m somehow supposed to have created all the hospital beds that went to salaries for the cousins and ex lovers of the bureaucrats. We have the greatest number of bureaucrats in the world.some say. The percent increase in the last years has been 3000%. The least doctors. Managements give themselves wage increases and pensions and severance packages and make up stories about what they’re doing and take endless holidays and keep renaming themselves.

 But the patients come to me the doctor and we’re theleast number in the western world with the longest waitlists and I don’t have any of the tools I was promised. None of the tools I had 30 years ago are now available.  

I’m sometimes afraid to go to work because patients are so angry and abused by everyone and the system. The doctor is the only face they see. The PM is smoking dope on another holiday with Empress Sophie shouting “let them eat cake!’ 

All I can do is show the people the empty shelves of the socialist cabinets and say I didn’t even vote for this except when I was 20.

I’m still paying for the mistakes of 50 years ago. I’m still paying for a divorce. I’m still paying for a whole lot of stuff. But I’m so tired at the end of the day I can hardly get my key in the door.

But my mind sees this skew. You know Lord that I loved having that almost perfect shit yesterday.  You know I went ‘geesh that was comforting’. You know I was so happy to pee when I’d held it for several patients and I was so thankful for the 10 minute lunch break when I got the bowl of soup. 

I’ve spent 35 years as a doctor doing this and all I get is criticism and abuse and no support and burocrats stealing all the resources that were ear marked for the patients and more and more and more fat cat police doctors trying to find a way to destroy individuals one at a time, picking off the weak ones in the herd , while the herd circles and mulls under constant attack.  They can’t even get doctors from Canada to come to VAncouver because no one can afford it here so it’s more and more scab labour because it’s like my friend says, ‘the rulers go to the US when they’re really sick”.

Bitch, whine complain. See how my mind twists reality. God life is balanced and good but my mind and mood shift to see the dark

 I had a great day at work each day this week except for 2 or three patients, less than 10%, but our corrupt government demands perfection from doctors - the one complaining they were depressed but refused to take medicine, refused to leave their house, refused to work, refused to exercise, said The doctors were all useless. That’s not depression. That’s a pout.  I can’t say that, as much as it would at least correctly diagnosis the ‘noncompliance with medical regimen’ which was at the heart of the interview.

 “I don’t want to go back to work and the insurance company wants me to see a psychiatrist but I won’t do any of things my doctor wants because my doctor is a stupid bitch. My husband is doing drugs and my boyfriend is doing drugs and neither of them took me to Hawaii like they were supposed to so I need a vacation and the only way I can get one is to tell the bitch at work to fuck off. That’s what I told the insurance agent too.  Now you’re supposed to help me and I don’t believe in any of you big pharma doctors and I’m not getting my kids vaccinated.”

It’s one a day.  When I was a family physician I sent the biggest asshole to the psychiatrist. They were called “personality disorder” but you can’t ‘offend’ the patient by giving them an ‘unattractive diagnosis’. Everyone is bipolar. and we all agreed to be nice to them. 

Now they come with a bureaucrat,  an activist, a lawyer and a dozen other parasites just waiting to catch the doctor for a little sideline drama to explain why they’re at home watching tv and the insurance company is paying. Everyone is a healthcare ‘consumer’ and we want the doctor to support the consumption but nothing is available because the shelves are empty - I kept saying that’s rationed.  “I read on the internet this is what you’re supposed to be giving me’

Yes but the government won’t pay for that.

I”ve on my 19th nervous breakdown. I had compassion fatigue 20 years ago working with the dangerously insane and listening to ethics philosophers paid big bucks discussing whether I should have committed this person who ate their daughter’s arm to the hospital and theoretically they should be allowed to be free on a technicality.

The ‘etheicists’ was the latest parasite on the doctor patient interview.

Here’s what’s in my cabinet I say to the patient. That’s what I’d recommend. I’ve got 30 years experience was a really bright light once was trained by the best of the day.  That there though is what the bureaucrat doctor, the communist company doctor recommends and what I’m supposed to sell because it’s cheap and politically correct, some politician is getting a kick back for us pushing that product but personality i use the other one. You want that box because you read it on google. Fine.  

Next week’ You’re not helping me.”

“You’re a lousy doctor.”

You’re not doing what I recommend. You’re doing what google recommended. 

It’s insane.

The patients actually are now more sane than the government so it’s the same old asylum story the bars are on the asylum to protect the inmates from the outside world.Bitch, bitch, whine , complain, vent. Everyone is hurting . It’s the tax squeeze. I’m just the punching boy because everyone is afraid of government. Kafka’s castle. 

“I went to the hospital and was ther 12 hours and they did nothing”

“I saw my doctor and she did nothing but sent me to you’

I’m seeing the glass as half full. I laughed half the night watching Gilbert and George interact. They have this game. George knows lying beside me is Gilbert’s place but George does this because he wants to be my number one.  Then Gilbert wants to be in that place. This plays out over and over and over now for weeks. George didn’t use to want my attention. Now he’s very much into me partly because it pisses off his friend Gilbert.

The flowers have been spectacular. The weather is improving. I love the sunshine. I have this magnificent little mini i enjoy scooting to work in. I rode my motorcycle and that was a treat not to get killed on yet again.  I escaped a dozen impaired Vancouver drivers in rush hour and survived getting to a meeting. I have the best family though I miss my mother, father, aunt and brother and grand parents.  Friends are getting really old but some are doing great pilgrimages and travels and having grand children. They’re entertaining.  I love that other friends are writing books. I love seeing the new babies.

So all this good stuff is happening. I’ve paid the taxes. I’ve paid the rent. I’ve food in the fridge. I’m hurting and aching and aging but I’m not facing a diagnosis of cancer or waking with lines in my body after a drunk hit me on my motorcycle.  I’m afraid of dying. I’m thinking about death more and though I have you and I look forward to seeing my parents and family again I am sad about this life.  All the angry women in the world. All the lying media.  All the religious wars and the lying and the continued Arms Dealing by the Big Girls and Boys. I really wanted peace on earth when I was young. I wanted academia and ideas and love and lust and gluttony and now I’ve got sloth.  I was in the hot tub last night and could have stayed.

I have no reason to complain. I should count my blessings but my damn mind sees the negatives. It dwells on the fear. It goes back to the past and dredges up the memories of psychopaths and sociopaths , those committee members who killed my patients. I think I should hunt them down and torture them one at a time but they’re just the Nuremberg lot. They murder by negligence and covert aggression, like the hospital administration I called out who took the money ear marked for the baby incubator and bought himself a new desk for his office.  He was eventually fired.  I don’t know how many babies died for his ego.

So God I ask you what am I to do. I am tired of being the little boy with the thumb in the damn while others make money dumping raw waste into the water then demanding I pay tax for their waste. I’m tired of having the shit slosh around in my head.

I think too much. My mother said that. Life is good I’ve got a weekend of camping planned. I’m going to be with the fur baby and my friend Laura and life is good but I over think it and find some self pity poor me, some body did me wrong, some shit when you’ve said over and over again.....I should have an ‘attitude of gratitude’ and that I should sing praises.

Post modern jukebox was a lot of fun last week. Thank you Lord for all that entertainment and talent.  

Thank you that Eric came back from his holiday and fixed my refrigerator leak and put the second battery in the camper.  I really appreciate the tv mount in the unit and all the other little repairs he did.  I’m thankful for all that. It’s my own fault I don’t clean my place or get a cleaning lady. I bitch and complain about the same things. I swam this week but i shouldn’t have had a second helping. Fatso. See I immediately slip out of gratitude into cricitism and offence.

Look at all the other great men and women in bureaucracy doing their jobs well. Looks at those lawyers and journalists who are working with even greater assholes than some of us have to work under. Look at the stink in government cities. I’m here on the coast and it’s sea air and sunshine and the snow is going. I have so much to be thankful for yet I steal my own joy. God help me see the positives.

Count my blessings. Thank you God.  Mom used to say that when I bitched to her about school and the idiots.  I miss Mom.  I miss Dad too. He’d know what to do with whatever mom didn’t know what to do with.  I’m doing okay.  My friends are taking care of me.  I’m really blessed.  I just have to stop the negative thinking and the fear.

Thank you God.

Harrison Lake and RV Camping

We are so blessed to have these healing springs and this glorious lake and tourist town so close to Vancouver.  I love coming in the spring when it’s not as busy as the summer rush hour. Here and now it’s only for the intrepid with ice still on the lake.  It’s so beautiful though. The snow capped mountain crags are magestic.

Waking in the 2017 Alp Adventurer truck camper I was looking out at hemlock, blue sky and magnificent mountains. I took Gilbert for a walk along the beach early morning thinking of all the times before I’d come that way.  Three dogs have been walked here, Shinto, Stuart and Gilbert. I brought my parents out here in the 80’s for a weekend in the cabins of the Harrison Hot Spring Resort.  I”ve hiked in the region, brought canoes and motorboats. We’ve stayed in so many of the hotels, favouring the Bungalow Cabins, Harrison Hot Springs Resort, Ramada/Executive, and the Beach Hotel.  We’ve swum in the lake , off road motorcycled, quadded  and camped all around the western and northern shore where I used to hunt.  The wilderness hot springs in the back woods were great hikes when we were younger.

Now I”m so enjoying RV Life.  I had a marvellous soak in the public pool where people always seem a little weird.  Today a lady was wearing sandals and I thought, “I hope she showered.”  Then another girl had a ginger ale by the pool side despite countless signs saying no drinks.  The kids and old people are always cute seeming to merge in mood and appearance. I’m observing not judging because I was rather pleased to get the senior rate. 

Back at the Adventurer camper Laura was reading her iPad. She’s become an Amazon junkie, loving to read selections before buying a book. I’m reading a book I should have read a selection on.  Good action scenes but the characters seem written by a shallow young man who likes to drink.  A bit like a millennial hipster version of Sean Connery in James Bond.  Coming off more like Mr. Bean despite the accurate discussion of weapons, possibly from Wikipedia.  Still I’m speed reading through knowing it’s not everyday I’m blessed with a great novel.  I’ve enjoyed some westerns I’ve read this last week. It’s not like I’m seeking intellectual stimulation. RV reading isn’t much higher up from Beach reading.

I made us bacon sandwiches with maple bacon and fresh buns. Suzy’s, the ultimate bacon and egg sandwich cafe , was closed for renovation.  We’re roughing it here.   I had to turn on the RV propane stove and get out the frying pan. Of course despite having the fan on I set off the smoke detector alarm. I finished getting  the bacon crisp like Laura likes it with the windows and door open.  The sandwiches were delicious.  Almost as good as Suzy’s.  I made more Millena Expresso coffee with cream and honey.  Decadent.  We read for a bit more after that.  My main concern is how to make this seat feel like a couch. I’m experimenting with a pile of pillows.  

Now Laura and I have returned from a late afternoon walk with Gilbert. He loves RV camping.  2 long dog walks today. 

Oh yes, I failed to mention, this morning he met a young little dog with a whole bunch of attitude growling at him and trying to hump him despite being smaller than Gilbert who was quite nonplussed by all the pugilistic behaviour. It became rapidly evident that the poor little dog was out of his league.   I was so proud of Gilbert. Blind and old, he didn’t even bother engaging in militaristic display.  Rather he lifted his leg and pissed on the dog. He did it twice. At first I thought he was blind and hadn’t intended to pee on his adversary but the second time I figured it was intentional. It had it’s effect with the little aggressive dog quite stymied before running off to catch up with his owner. Dogs are supposed to be on leash anyway.  I remember  Stuart who would piss on the shoes of any guy who raised his voice at me as if to remind him that if he bothered me he had Stuart, the Scotty, to contend with too.

Now Laura on this walk has let Gilbert pee on everything.  She’s much more patient and lets him sniff to his heart’s content.  He sniffed everything.I didn’t mind enjoying the view of the lake and watching the ambulance come to rescue a woman and child who apparently had tried to walk on the ice. They fell through but didn’t get a Darwin Award because they rapidly got out and the ambulance arrived with blankets.  I don’t know why people stay home and watch tv when outside there’s so much sitcom material.  

Now we’re back at the RV. Gilbert has drunk a whole bowl of water and gone to sleep.  I’ve tried out the sewer hose and emptied the black and grey water tanks because I can. Laura has downloaded another novel and is reading. I’m blogging.  Life is good.  The sun is setting and I’m going to have fry up the steaks because I don’t have a little propane tank for the barbecue.  I just have to remind myself we’re roughing it.  Fried steak instead of barbecue. I’ll have to wash the frying pan before I can use it for the steaks too. I don’t know how much of this stress I can take.

Alp Adventurer 86FB Truck Camper - first journey

I’m in heaven.  Laura, Gilbert and I are in Harrison Hot Springs in my new to me 2017 Alp Adventurer 86FB Truck Camper. It is a truly skookum home away from home, the weekend cottage on wheels.  There’s snow on the ground outside but the propane and electric furnace kept us warm. We arrived last night in the dark.

Roy, our salesman at Fraserway handed us over to this bright delightful young guy who did the final walk around with Laura and I.  

“He’s really cute,” Laura said. 

I liked that he could answer all my technical questions succinctly. He’d make a good teacher. Despite having had a camper I learned some really useful ‘tricks’.  I’d asked for a ladder to be installed and loved it. Like a King I climbed to the top of my new domain and surveyed my territory. 

“The roof is made so you can walk on it.” He’d told me. “ There are no leaks but the only way to keep units that way is to check the calking and seals regularly.  Every three months it’s a good idea to go round and make sure with the travel and movement no seal has opened up. “ 

I loved the refrigerator with it’s automatic closing of electricity or propane depending on whether we were plugged in or not. 

The unit had been winterized for storage so had non toxic antifreeze in the lines. He purged these for us showing where the hose is that can be used to draw non toxic antifreeze into the system as well as which valves to turn on and off for this price. 

I liked again the accessibility of the black water and grey water outlet, the panels showing whether they were empty or full. The black water was empty but the grey water sensor said full.  He ran  off the grey water there, suggesting I watch the sensor and emptying as it hadn’t emptied as robustly as he would like. 

“Sometimes sludge in the tank.  If that’s it, you just fill the tank then stand inside and rock it a few times and purge. That usually clears the sensor or the sludge.” 

He showed me where the Happy Jack Electric Jack fuses were and how to use the manual jack if the electric failed.  On my previous camper the electric jacks had often failed so I was well versed in manual operation and thankful for this new system.  Further it came with a remote which was really an improvement allowing me to do all jacks together or one at a time.  

It even had a solar panel battery charger already installed with a panel showing the state of the new battery as well as effectiveness of the new solar panel. I had one of the earliest solar electricity systems on my offshore sailboat 25 years ago so appreciate how the technology has advanced.

The propane stove was nothing new to me but I did appreciate him showing me how to light the oven pilot light again. “The trick is holding it for 10 seconds once it’s lighted so it stays on.”  I’ve generally not used propane ovens because I obviously haven’t been patient with the lighting process. I can see using this oven now knowing the problem is me not the technologg.

Both Laura and I love the toilet and shower in the Adventurer.  The Jensen sound system with blue tooth, DVD and USB, indoor and outdoor speakers is going to bring us joy. I imagine a candlelight dinner with Laura and Gilbert and  Mozart playing quietly in the back ground 

The best though was loading the camper onto the back of my truck.  With my last camper I’d repeatedly banged up the truck box and camper in this process.

“This is how I do it ,” he said.  Well, his technique which can be used solo or with a spotter involved lining up the wheel wells from the ‘danger zone’ under the camper and simply going back and forth multiple times and checking the alignment on both sides. John, from Chilliwack RV Storage in Yarrow had used a similiar technique.  John is my favourite  wiseman when it comes to vehicles and campers. Now I know what he was aligning when he was giving me directions for backing up.   I had had  this weird idea that one could just back in directly. Naturally this Captain Ron ‘docking’ technique hadn’t worked so well for novice me.  Slow and easy and multiple checks is the future which will save this camper the experience of it’s predecessor.  I also won’t have to kidnap and tie up one of these guys to have with me when I want to load or unload the camper.   

The new tie downs are space age, expensive but a major time saver.  My iron extension connections under the truck had rusted but with my approval and encouragement the guys freed them up with  application of the ball preen hammer philosophy. No damage but a quick solution. 

“Here’s a new manual.” He said in parting. 

“What was his name?” I asked Laura later.   

“I don’t know.” She said. “I don’t think I ever got his name.”  

The anonymous tech assistant might well have been  the Lone Ranger having done his good deed but left us to ride off into the sunset.

Victor was waiting in Chilliwack. As his friend had bought the old camper as a wreck, Victor  been kind enough to stow the contents in his garage.  Victor’s new home and garage are the envy of all men with his Harley trike project almost complete in the centre of the garage with moose and deer racks all around the upper walls.  Definitely it’s fast becoming a major ‘men’s meeting space’. Screw women’s town and country homes, by all men’s standards, this is an award winning garage.  

“That’s a nice unit.” He said as we we handed Laura the kitchen boxes so she could load them into the cupboards over the sink. I put the old tools in the space under the outside door. Lots of clothes and books went into the back of the truck to be taken home as we were going to have be be a bit more utilitarian with this camper.  I just seem to collect clutter but then the last we’d used the other camper had been in hunting season so there was a lot of fall and winter clothing and tools for that activity. Nothing we’d need in the spring and summer.  

“Thank you, Victor.” Laura and I said sincerely as we departed.  What a great guy with a skookum garage.  Thanks to him we’d been able to get the old camper to his friend in the winter and now load this new camper with the kitchen ware, tools and barbecue for spring camping.   

We headed out with him waving to us in the mirror. “Happy Trails.” was playing in my mind. 

Last stop, Superstore for weekend groceries.  While we have less open space without the slide I really like not having a slide on a camper. Great on RV’s but slides on campers make the interior space less functional when closed.  This task of unloading groceries into the refrigerator was a trial in the old camper with the slide but a breeze with this one.  Further if we had to pull over for a nap on a trip no one would know. 

It was 6 pm and dark as we headed on to Harrison’s.  I’d decided we’d find something close where we knew our way about rather than heading out into the wilderness campsites this first weekend.  Glencoe RV campgrounds in Harrison was open.  The delightful manager welcomed us and wished us well with our new camper.  Harrison’s has several RV campgrounds, the provincial campground out of town and many wilderness campsites further north.  Here we were right across from the Harrison Hotsprings Town Pool which I certainly will be partaking of. Healing soothing waters are calling to my aging aching body.   We’ve often been to the fabulous Harrison Hot Springs resort or stayed at the Bungalow cabins or the luxurious Beach Hotel but this is the first time in a camper. With snow on the ground and ice on the roads we’re the only camper in the park.

The Happy Jacks made set up easy. I had connection to the shore power electricity on. The furnace worked with one button and the freezer was automatic. I didn’t have a slide to worry about. Laura had the bed made. Gilbert had his walk and sniff.  

We had a glorious sleep in the quiet of the sleeping town. Now it’s a new day and I’m so pleased with Fraserway RV and this new to me Adventurer Truck Camper.  We learned that these rental units are most commonly used for trips from BC to Alaska or up through the Rockies.  I imagine we’ll be taking this unit in time to places it’s been bringing joy to others as it will bring to us.  Gilbert loves it.  From the ashes of the poor old Palimino this Adventurer has arisen.  I do like roughing it with furnace heat, refrigerator, hot and cold running water, electricity and wifi. Now that I’ve had coffee and made Laura coffee I may have to walk Gilbert down to the little cafe that makes the best egg and bacon sandwiches in the world. 

Robbie Burns Dinner, SFU Pipe Band 2019

What fun this was!  A Nicht wi Burns!  A beautiful Scottish Lass ,Anne,introduced me to my first Burns dinner on North Vancouver Island in the late 80’s when she was a social worker there and I was a doctor.  She’s now retired  back in Scotland continuing to fight the good fight.

I’m here in Burnaby down the street from  SFU and the North Road Executive Hotel. 

 There are other Robbie Burns Dinner’s and we’ve loved the dinner and dance many a year at the Scottish Cultural Centre.  The ladies are the best dressed there but at SFU I’d say the men are the peacocks. It helps that dozens of pipers are scattered about. SFU pipe band music is the finest in the world  so it’s like a night with Pavarotti or Gretzky.

Laura Murray, previously a Dunn, is my favourite guest enjoying everything but the haggis. This could well be seen as a nefarious plot of mine since I get her portion.  I am rewarded the year over with the spiritual wealth and genius all Scots  attain with even the tiniest portion of this blessed supernatural fair.  

The piping in of the Haggis was done to perfection.  Jim Gallacher, the night’s MC, (for the last 20 years), gave a toast to the Haggis that even the great Burns would have approved of.   All about me the lassies were flushing with ardour as his passion for this lowly creature was espoused with the greatest of vigour.  Terry Lee, Former SFU P/M delivered a fine Selkirk Grace known for it’s potency and brevity. 

Executive Hotel does a magnificent feast with this years haggis the sweetest I’ve tasted in years.  I’m not sure if this is good as quite possibly in the old country the more awful this food is to stomach the better it might be judged.  A bit like the fire of scotch to an innocent. Haggis is certainly an acquired taste. The roast beef with horse radish was nearly as scrumptious.  I was delighted that my friend Lorne Kay was able to join us as he too is a connoseiur of haggis and all things Scottish.

The Heather Jolly Highland Dancers were spectacular.  I am always moved by the sword dance. I remember as a young man, late after an evening at a Glasgow pub with my elderly great aunts, rather red faced and affectionate, pulling swords off the wall to teach me, the colonial,  sword dancing.  Much laughter, stumbling and scotch toasts by the whole ensemble went into my education. It was lucky no one was skewered and ambulances were not required at least until the  morning after.

The Robert Malcolm Memorial Bands were a delight. One child was smaller than the drum they carried. The music still was so rich.I’ve always loved the pipes but I was fascinated most this year by the complexity of the drumming with their baton twirling.

All the while the silent auction was taking place with the very best of swag.  Lots of ancient fine malt whiskey’s, no doubt  pried from the grasping hands of sotted academics, whose wife’s insisted they’d had enough. “Just give one bottle for the pipe band children!” They’d begged.  “Ach, it’s for Scotland,” he groaned,falling back planning on hiding future pricelesss bottles in more secret places. West jet as usual graciously offered flights.  Shannon crystal, exotic  weekend retreats,   golf and country clubs passes, nights at  fine hotels, ladies spa outings, chocolate and coffee baskets, Celtic jewelry, beautiful paintings, and Freyie Stainless Steel Steak knives which came home with me.  A Scottish Canadian can never have enough knives. 

The Simon Frazer University Pipe Band, six time world champion, then played to the awe and pleasure of all attending . What a joy to hear such blessed music so artfully coordinated and splendidly performed.  (Their next performance is at Vogue Theatre in April). 

The ladies demonstrated the Gay Gordon which Laura and I so enjoyed dancing at this years St. Andrews Ball.

The night closed with of us  standing and singing the great Robbie Burns traditional classic, Aud Lang Syne. 

What a wonderful moving evening!