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Wednesday morning we were up early and full of excitement for today we get our new home.

Our appointment at Big Boys Toys was at 9 am to start our orientation. The young guy doing it was happy that we were experienced RVer’s. It made his job a lot easier. A lot of questions were asked but nothing too challenging.

Our orientation finished early, so Ian, the owner who was to deliver the unit, wasn’t quite ready to leave so we took off as we were expecting Peter and Suzie.

There was a lot of anxious waiting until I finally got the phone call that they were at the gate. They pulled in and I must admit that at this time I was getting a bit nervous. I needn’t have worried though as Ian Backed it in, bang on target with help from his lovely wife Shannon.

She and I looked at it and neither of us could believe how well it fit our existing deck and sunroom. She said that she hadn’t seen a unit fit so well. Of course, I took all the credit for that. I had done a lot of measuring and at first, couldn’t believe it would fit so well. Even the steps for the previous trailer fitted exactly.

They unhooked the trailer and left. I sat and finished my beer and then grabbed a level to see what need to be done. I checked all over and everything was perfectly level just as they had left it. It was pure luck but again I took the credit. I dropped the stabilizer jacks and we started to move in.

Later on, Peter and Suzie left after devastating our stocks of booze and food and we took a deep breath and started to relax. Soon after Peggy dropped by for a glass of wine. We had nice a chat with her and just as she was leaving Delaine and Joe showed up. Lots of nice friends, but that’s what Spidey is all about.

The following day was Beer Day so I did very little for the trailer but had some great beer. We also spend a lot of money on accessories like new sheets and stuff.

I have had a few little jobs to do such as adding shelves to the medicine cabinet. Why do these designers think that we need a 15″ high shelf? Dumb!

Our new TV is great but like me isn’t smart. However, we watched a few shows on it and decided that the quality wasn’t too bad. We can always buy a TV box for it.  We now have to decide whether to keep it or the old one which we are both fond of.

I wish Covid would go away, we need a good party.

The old trailer has gone and looks great in its new home. All we are left with was the cleanup. Ron did an awesome job of getting it out of here but left us with a lot of brush to clean up.

It was a great opportunity for us to go at it and really give the place a good going over. I spent most of the day taking stuff to the dumping station and the wood-burning pile. Then I spend some time removing dead trees. They were so dead I just had to look at them and they would fall over. Then I got out the chop saw and started to cut up all the odd 2 X 4 and crap I had lying around.

One thing that had to be done was to make a pad for the wheels of the new trailer. I had some concrete slabs lying around and used those.

I also had a problem with the old car tent. The metal from that, I piled in the drive waiting for when I have enough energy to take it to be recycled. Fortunately, Brian, the park manager said that he would take it away for us.

Things were slowing down so for some excitement I decided to ask Brian, to look at a tree that was leaning toward where the new trailer would go. He deemed it dangerous and decided to remove it. I was pretty worn out and didn’t want it done right away but he said he and Ken would be back in an hour to do the job.

They dropped it pretty quickly and bang on target; missing the sunroom. I helped with the cleanup and went for a rest before going for dinner to Bill and Michelle’s. Just as I sat down again, Brian showed up to pick up all our scrap metal.

We loaded it all into his truck and I could at last sit with a glass of wine. Then Rosalie reminded me that I had to get showered as we were going out. When we got to Bill and Mitchelle’s I was pretty tired and probably not a very good guest. But I had survived another day. Tomorrow I Rest!

 

Thursday morning we were up bright and early and preparing for the big move at noon. Rosalie moved us back into the mobile home while I finished all the disconnections on the trailer. And then we waited…and waited. The move was scheduled to take place at noon but at one o’clock we were told it would be more like 3 pm. 5 o’clock rolled around and the Bob-Cat finally showed up and the real fun began.

I imagined that it would be a straight forward hook up and pull out, over in an hour and I could run off to the pub with the boys. Boy was I wrong.

Ron had suggested that we put a plank under the wheel closest to the sunroom to raise it up to clear the roof. I suggested two planks to give us even more clearance. Dumb decision! As the trailer pulled onto the planks it raised up off the roof beautifully but tipped more into the trees on the other side. For the first half an hour Ron was scrambling to cut branches with a hand saw. The bonus is that we now have a lot more firewood.

The Bob-Cat slowly pulled it clear and started to make its first turn. It was really tight and the operator had to do all sorts of maneuvering to get it pointed in the right direction. At one point he had to do a lift that had the Bob-Cat tipping on its nose. finally, they were headed in the right direction going very slowly as the operator had his back to the road and had to be directed by Ron.

This is what it was like on every bend in the road.

I had to leave them to it at this point as I had to connect the motor home to the utilities. Rosalie meanwhile stayed to give encouragement to Petty who was looking a little stressed. I had my issues hooking up the motor home but that can easily be sorted by going to Canadian Tire and spending a lot of money.

Rosalie came back after about a half-hour to make dinner and told me that they were only about one street over. After we ate we went to check on progress. They had moved to within a hundred yards of their destination.

To turn some of the corners took about fifteen to twenty minutes; so progress was pretty slow. At this point, my back was getting really sore so I begged off and left Rosalie in charge. On my way back home I happened to pass Jim and Ylda’s site and they enticed me to have a glass on wine; something a good neighbour would do.

When I finally got home I felt guilty about leaving the crew without my expert supervision. Because my back was still sore I decided to take the car to see how they were doing. When I got there the trailer was in its new home and looking really good.

Ron, Brian the park manager and the Bob-Cat driver all did a fantastic job to get that beast to its final resting place. Remember that it was moved with the slides out and a roof on top. Also, it’s thirty-eight feet long and heavy as all get out. Also the last part of the trip he was pushing the trailer. The whole way he had to rely on spotters.

The move that I expected to take one hour actually took four.

First thing on Sunday morning we realized that the hoses from the motor home wouldn’t reach the outlet pipe because the trailer was still in the way. As we were going to live in the thing for ten days we thought this was a minor disaster as we would have to leave every few days to find a dump station.

It was decided to move back into the trailer until the move on Friday. The problem was that I had cut both waste pipes in anticipation of the move. So off to Home Hardware to get a couple of 3″ rubber connectors. I hooked up the sewer line with the connectors and duct-taped the greywater pipe. Things started to look a bit better.

We just got the news that the only day they can take out the old trailer is on Thursday. I guess there goes Beer Day.

In the meantime, Rosalie was complaining about the lack of storage in the new trailer even though we don’t have it yet. Me being stupid, suggested that we needed a storage unit that we could put in the sunroom. So we went out to hunt down said unit and settled on one from Home Depot.

We put it in the car with about six inches sticking out the back. I went back to H.D. and purchased some cord to tie it down with. I tied the hatchback down and we went home.

That afternoon I started to put it together and saw that we needed a bunch of shelves to store things on. The instructions to put this thing together are all graphic and woe to anyone who deviates from this path; which I had to.

Peter had donated a lovely set of shelving to us a few years ago and they seemed perfect for the job. The problem was they were in the shed doing a great job of holding all my power tools. Wanting to stay on the good side of Rosalie I decided to donate the shelves to the new storage shed, or pantry, as she chooses to call it. The shed right now, after removing the shelves, is a mess.

The next problem I had was that the best location for the new pantry was on the far side of the sunroom amid all the junk we had accumulated.  I dove in and after much moving, grunting and lots of swearing, I managed to clean space to begin construction.

I put it all together except for the doors. They have nowhere to open to, so I will install those later. Rosalie moved in really quickly even though it isn’t finished yet. Still, we do need the extra space.

I’m looking forward with trepidation to the big move tomorrow.

Okay! So we had our rest on pub day Thursday, so now’s the time to pay the piper.

We had the equivalent of a small furnished house to pack up and move to the sun-room in one day. We finally did it but with consequences: Rosalie was so exhausted that she couldn’t think straight. I, on the other hand, was in such good shape that I blithely watched as we buried the beer fridge with all the wine in it. Eventually, I managed to get it open and saved the day. It was so convoluted a process that I may sell the idea to some stupid reality TV show host. “Navigate the crap” would be a good title, with the winner getting a cheap bottle of homemade wine.

The fridge is right at the back under the jug of wine. I tried to blame it onto Rosalie but she was having none of it.

The next day was D day (D for disaster.) the move was to take place at 10 am. I was up bright and early in spite of the wine I drank the previous night. We had a few things to pack that were leftover from the night before and we took care of those easily. I disconnected the water, propane and power and waited for the moving guys.

They turned up early and Brian the guy who was going to do the move said “Not today.” It turned out that if we dropped the hitch onto the truck we would hit the roof of the sun-room. I didn’t see that coming! I suggested to Ron, the guy buying the unit that if we knocked off the roof overhang it would solve the problem. He wasn’t too enamoured with that idea so we had to come up with something else.

To add to the problem, Brian drove the route that the trailer had to be taken and realized that with his big truck he wouldn’t make all the turns. Oy vey! He suggested that we get a guy he knew with a large Bob Cat to come and do it as they are way more maneuverable. It would also solve the roof problem.

It’s fortunate that the new RV isn’t coming for two more weeks so we have a lot of time to sort things out.

Rosalie, Peter, Suzie and I took off for lunch to the Sandbar Restaurant in Bowzer and tried to ignore the problem for a few hours. And so we wait.

A few hours later Ron and Petty showed up to tell us that the move couldn’t happen until Friday next week. We could have done it on Thursday, but you know: Beer day is sacrosanct. We had several glasses of wine with them, swapped stories and settled in, to see what is in store for us in six days.

We had invited Peter and Suzie up for lunch and dinner just before the madness set in.

Because of all the stuff I had to do to prepare for the big move on Saturday, the yard is in a mess. The little storage shed under the hitch had to be removed so that is lying in the yard as well as all the crap I had stored in there.

For some time we had been trying to sell our big granddad chairs which were stored in the sunroom, but we had no bites. So in desperation, we decided to give them away. Bruce, our neighbour wasn’t sure if he wanted one or not but then his lovely wife Mary Ellen persuaded him that he did, as his old chair is getting a bit ratty. One down, one to go! They also took our bed frame for the same price so now there’s some room to move.

Art Sr.  also wanted one so that problem was taken care of. I was so exhausted with the whole thing that I sat in one of the chairs and had a nap. They are so comfortable that if we had the room I would have been tempted to keep one.

Looking at the logistics of this whole thing, it looks though, as if it may all work out. Peter and I drove the route that the trailer will have to go to reach its final destination and although some of the places were a bit tight, it is doable. All I have to do now is make sure it can be pulled straight out of our lot.

Today I started to clear all the parts of the deck that encroached on to the trailer. I had to climb onto the roof for some of it, and decided to have a glass of wine after it was done.

The biggest problem was moving the veggie garden. I solved that one by lifting the boxes on end and then shovelling the dirt out of the way. Problem solved!

During all this chaos, our car, which had been at Craftsman Collision for the past two weeks, was ready to be picked it up. When the car tent fell on it, it did over $8,000 worth of damage.

We also had to stop by Big Boy’s Toys to finalize our deal. When that was out of the way we found out that delivery would be in about 10 days. It’s lucky that we have our little motor home so we can live in that for a while. It’s gonna be cozy but what the heck.

Just to add to all this chaos, we had promised to meet our friend Peggy today, at Harbour Air to drop her car off to her. She is returning from Mexico and has to quarantine. I really didn’t have time for this so another friend and Rosalie drove it there for her.

Oh! and during all this fun our toilet clogged up and we couldn’t find the plunger. Thanks again for our little motor home.

Tomorrow is pub day, so we will take a much needed day off to have a final push on Friday.

The Mad Wellsies strike again.

We have been contemplating for some time what we would do if we couldn’t get back to Mexico in the fall; or, had to come back in an emergency where would we stay? Both of us decided that we needed to find an all year round park to move to. There were several options to look at; but we found that we either didn’t like them or they didn’t like us so we re-evaluated.

We both came to the conclusion that we liked it here at Spidey and didn’t want to move. So what next? This is our home for five months so we needed something a little more comfortable than the trailer we are in. It’s fine for weekends and even a week at a time but if we are going to actually live here for five months we needed something a little more spacious and comfortable.

Driving home from a doctor’s appointment in Nanaimo, I foolishly suggested that we drop into Big Boy’s Toys to take a look at some of their park models. Just to see if we would like them or not. Bad (or good) idea! We fell in love with a 40-foot unit and bought it. Check it out. This one is 2019, ours is 2021.

Problem number one: what to do with our old trailer. BBT would take it but I’m sure we would get next to nothing for it because of all the reno’s I did. It couldn’t be sold online because it has a roof now and the slides don’t go in. So, we have to sell it within the park. We put a notice on the park bulletin board and settled back to wait for several weeks of no interest.

The next day we were gabbing with the neighbours and trying to get them to buy furniture that we didn’t want ( and neither did they) when a couple showed up and wanted to look at the trailer. They loved it and wanted some friends to view it before making a decision. Their friends happened to be the new park manager and his wife. They liked it so much that they said they would buy it if the other couple didn’t.

Long story short; we sold the trailer. The couple who bought it: Ron and Petty, came over that evening and gave us a deposit. They brought a bottle of wine with them and between sips we talked about how and when to get it out of here. We decided to move it this Saturday so we have a heck of a lot of work to do. Ron and Petty are really nice people and are originally from Hong Kong many years ago.

Moving will be a huge challenge. The trailer is very close to the deck so they will have to pull it out, in a very straight line. I have to move the veggie gardens but fortunately, the garlic is just about ready. Lots more in coming posts.

As for coming home early,  we decided that we would be financially able to make other arrangements and besides that, we have our little motor home and if necessary we still have a tent; although that may be a little chilly as well as silly.

I’m looking for investors and donations to go into the statue industry. 

I think a fortune could be made, with the idiots of the world scrambling to jump on the bandwagon of hauling down statues of our national and historic heroes. I would make and sell custom made statues. Just tell us who you have the biggest grudge against and we will make a statue of him or her, erect it in a prominent place and you can haul it down at your leisure. Because you paid for it you can’t be arrested.

As a suggestion: A group statue of the Toronto Made Leafs. Everybody except me hates them. I will make a statue for $5,000 and you can take all your frustration over your own team being useless, by hauling it down and stomping on it. 

Why are we doing this??? I got particularly pissed off when they hauled away Sir John A. McDonald’s statue because he started the residential school system. The decision was made based on the feeling of the day. It was believed that this was a great way to integrate indigenous people into the white system and would be good for them. It was wrong; very wrong,  but how did he know all the abuse would take place?

In Mexico, they revere their heroes no matter how brutal they were. Most of the streets are named after them: Vicente Guererro, Emilio Zapata, Eddie Van Halen. Maybe even Speedy Gonzales and tons more. If you had intentions to pull down a statue there you wouldn’t get within a foot of it.

We’re too quick to judge these people without looking at all the facts.  We only choose the facts that suite or own agenda and use that to let off a bit of steam by pulling their statue down. I think most of the people who do this are hooligans looking to let off steam and don’t have a clue who they are defacing.

Of course, some statues should be removed. There were a lot of tyrants out there. However, most statues were put up to celebrate our national heroes. Winston Churchill; why would you want to tear him down? He wasn’t the nicest person but he lead Britain through very rough times and ultimately, it was partly thanks to his arrogant attitude that pulled us through.

Sir John A. wasn’t the squeaky clean person that we would like him to be, but if it hadn’t been for him most of Western Canada would now be part of the good old US of A. Check your history.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to think before we act. And stop trying to change history to suit our own agenda. Also, pigeons are getting really fed up.

What a decrepit old couple we are becoming.

I had a full day ahead of me as I had decided to wash the motor home. Halfway through I needed a rest and went and sat with Rosalie. After a while, she went into the trailer and a while after that I heard this little voice say “Chris, can you help me.” muttering mightily because I was trying to rest I went in and there she was all crippled up with a back spasm.

I helped her out to the deck and sat her down to try to get her comfortable. Me, being me, was skeptical as I know she does these things to get attention. (As I would.) As if I don’t lay lots of attention on her as it is. Unfortunately, she seemed to be genuine this time and was in quite a bit of pain.

I finished up with the motor home and went to tend to Rosalie and make lunch. She sat there with this happy little smile on her face knowing that I would have to wait on her for the foreseeable future. She had no idea that I had other plans. But neither did I.

She can’t take Tylenol so we dosed her up with a marijuana cookie and put her to bed.  After lunch, I went to help the neighbour with his deck. We had to reconfigure it to fit his new trailer. Reconfiguring involved hacking, sawing and using the back end of a splitting maul and me literally tearing it apart. It’s all ready for me to back their trailer in, in a few days.

By this time I was tired so went and had a nap and a glass of wine. When Rosalie woke up she made a sandwich while I went to tend a new batch of wine. While doing this, a TV table that we are trying to sell fell on my head. Swearing mightily, I continued to tend to the wine. That is until I noticed blood everywhere. ‘Mama mia’ I was bleeding. My life rushed before me, Which took some time as I am getting older.

I rushed to the sink to wash it off. In the meantime, Rosalie was hobbling around looking for a clean towel to staunch the flow. I thought this might be a great way to get some sympathy but then realized that scalp wounds bleed a lot but are usually far from fatal.

After a while, the bleeding stopped; I lit a fire and sat drinking wine for the rest of the evening while Rosalie though of more errands for me to run for her. Another day in the crazy life of the Wellsies.

We moved to our new camping location but not before going into Black Creek for a few more supplies: Yes, you guessed it, more wine. Rosalie drinks more than I calculated.

Our new site was better than the last one except we were worried that our connections may not reach the sewer cleanout. We made it, although we did have to get the maintenance guy to come by and modify our electrical plug-in once more.

Peter and Suzie came for a visit and we had a great day with them. We went for a walk, drank lots of wine, lit a fire, Peter and I told lots of lies and we generally had a great time. For lunch, I made my world-famous hamburgers. Then in the afternoon, I cooked my equally world-famous Jalapeno poppers. Unfortunately, they didn’t turn out a good as I would have liked. We forgot to bring a cookie sheet so I had to BBQ them and they made a right mess.

Most of the campsites around us have kids. It’s great to watch families at play. The kids were all great and the parents did a great job of keeping them under control. The other good thing is that we hardly saw any kids with cell phones or tablets; most were hurtling around on bikes trying to run people down. But it’s okay, they were having fun and Rosalie and I were in no danger.

Camping is a great way to raise kids. We saw many of them with their fishing rods heading to the marina to get the catch of the day. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any of them with a single fish. Much like my fishing experiences.

In the middle of the afternoon, a three-quarter-ton pickup truck pulled into the site behind us. A petite young woman and two kids hopped out and started to put up a tent; well the Mum did, the two boys took off playing. She was by herself and put up a  tent with great expertise. I guess her husband was working as he showed up later. Just another example of families having fun.

I think it’s sad to see fewer and fewer tents. My first experiences with camping were in a tent. When I was about six, my family would camp in the orchards and spend the late summer and early fall picking first fruit,  and then hops. During that time we lived in a surplus army tent.

Actually, my first experience with a friend was under a plastic sheet in the pouring rain. Rosalie and I still own a tent and I still enjoy the feel of sleeping in one. Sadly the time has come to move on, so we plan on selling it. I hope it goes to a young up and coming family.

There seems to be more money these days. When I was first camping, everybody had a tent and eventually, as we became more affluent, a  tent trailer and then perhaps a slide-on camper. Now, all young families seem to have huge trucks and equally huge trailers and campers.

I still wouldn’t trade the way we started camping, for starting out in an RV. Tents are great but you have to be a lot younger than we are.