August 26th – Terrace to Prince George BC.

August 26^th – Terrace to Prince George BC.                                       Weather – Scattered clouds 15C

Total Kilometers this trip – 629.2                                                         Kilometers today – 559.9

Our original plans were to go to Fort St James, but my mother, Mary, sister, Mary, and niece, Caroline and her husband, Sean, were all in Prince George.  

 Sister Mary, Mom Mary, niece Caroline

Our regular stop is the Costco parking lot, there is lots of maneuvering room.

For supper we took an old friend Connie Graham out.  She was excited to see us as it had been almost two years.  Vadie and her had lots to talk about.

 Connie Graham and Vadie

After we took Connie home, we headed to the baseball field.  Sean was playing for the Prince George team as a shortstop.  We were lucky to catch them in the last one and half innings, and they became the national champions (Gold) beating  a team from Ontario.

August 25th – Kitimat to Terrace BC - Start of Long Vacation

August 25th – Kitimat  to Terrace BC

Total kilometers this trip  - 60.3                  Weather – Scattered clouds  13C

We have been finalizing all the things that had to be done for this trip. We were going to start on the August 17^th but the lab lost my blood tests which I had done, so we had to wait one extra week.

During the week, it seemed that the trip just would not get off the ground, but finally we were all ready to leave today.

We said our goodbye to Dave, gent looking after the house, and George our neighbour.

We hooked up the car, but some of the lights would not work properly, so  I had to fix that before we headed on the road.

We dumped the waste water and filled up with fuel in Terrace.

Well, as usual, we stopped at the Northern Motor Inn in Terrace for the first night.

Desire, please follow the blog and make comments too.

August 10 - 15th - Kitimat BC

August 10 to 15th

During these past days, it has been very busy and I have not had much time to update the blog, or even for myself as far as that goes.

I continued with the installation of the floor. I had to redo things a number of times as I kept forgetting things like the holes for the seatbelts. 

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 AC power transfer box

 Pedestal that was bent well out of shape

 Wood under flooring ok

 New flooring underway

 Passenger seat base plate

Other things which needed to be repaired and were done at the same time, eg.drivers chair so it could be swiveled,

I had arranged for a gent with a front end loader to dig out along the tree area so we could build a  retaining wall with tires.  He called and said that he wanted to do it on Sunday, so on the 12th, Dave Jones gave me a hand and we built a retaining wall, 6 hours of long hard labour, and it was hot too.
Other than it being dug out with the tractor, the rest was done by hand.

August 13th, was another very good day. Other than the entry way, the flooring is complete.  I installed carpet in the drivers area.  The drivers chair is fixed, and all the other stairs have been installed.

 Another little job - NOT, cleaning off years of smoke accumulation

 front cabinet had to be taken apart for flooring

August 14th,  a day that I knew was coming, a very dirty job, but the coolant hoses were replaced.  Also repaired some wiring for the circulating pumps and solenoid valves.

 So, August 15th was cleanup day.  The coach is going to Terrace tomorrow to get the sheet metal put into the stepwell.

Before I go today, all of this work could not have been done without some very special people.  Vadie, while I have been very busy trying to get the coach ready, she makes meals, does the laundry and many of the house chores.  She is also there when I need a second hand, which has been often at times.  Thanks Vad.

Also Vadie and I would also like to thank Dave, our dear friend who lives in the basement and will be taking care of the house while we are gone.  He too, has been the second hand, made a few meals but mainly his thing is looking after the yard.  Thanks Dave.

And we get surprises from our friends, extended family, from Holland.  Instead of coming to Canada this year, they chose to go to South Africa, I am sure they are having a great time.  They are fortunate to be able to go to these places.

Picture memory book from the last trip to Canada

and

2012 Holland's Euro souvenirs

 

Aug 9th - Kitimat - Working on Squanderlodge II

August 9^th

I continued with removal of the floor then installing of underlay etc. Not much to say except it was a lot of hard work, but I was actually enjoying it.

 removing carpet

 and underlay

 edging strip against marble

plywood then rubber flooring with metal strip

August 8th - Kitimat - Kitwanga - Kitimat

August 8^th

We drove out to Kitwanga, to meet George and Kellie Roberts, other Wanderlodge owners.  We decided to take the camera as Alicia, a friend of Vadie’s has said that she has seen the Spirit Bear many times in her travels.  In my 32 years up here, I have never seen the Kermodei , or the Spirit Bear.

On our trip to Kitwanga, there was no sign of the Spirit Bear.  

George and Kellie were not at Kitwanga, so we decided to drive into Gitwaynga, there we saw the old Anglican church and steeple as well as many totem poles.

When we returned to Kitwanga, George and Kellie were arriving. We had a good lunch with them at the cafe, then it was show and tell on the coach.  

We Canadianized them, he even mentioned that he was “Hyderized” and had the card to prove it.

 George officially "Hyderized"

and "Canadianized"

On the return trip to Kitimat, 5 minutes from Kitwanga at the “S” bend where the RV’s are stored, there was the Kermodei.  We could not have missed it, the vehicles were stopped on both sides of the road and the semis had a hard time getting through.

August 7th - Kitimat, BC

August 7^th

In the afternoon, I started with the removal of seats and misc items so I can remove carpet in the front part of the coach. We had purchased cork laminate with vinyl top to replace the carpet.  Removing of all the items was quite a chore. I will post pics in the next couple of days.

August 4th to 6th - Kitimat BC

August 4th to 6th

Location - Kitimat BC

 

I have been neglectful of not posting what we have been doing.  I sort have kept track of what has been happening, as most of it pertains to the upcoming trip.

When  we met with Randy and his group, I knew that I had a coolant leak coming from the circulating pump.  When we parked at Walmart, I used a bucket to catch the leak, but when I came out of the store, I noticed that there was coolant on the tarmac.  This came from what appears to be a leaking hose.

On August 4^th, the weather was real nice, and Dave Jones said he would give me a hand to put down some of the 2ft by 2ft concrete slabs, actually he said 6.  By the time we were finished we had laid 30 of them and we were both very tired. He was done, but I continued on with the finishing touches, so I brought the topsoil around and also planted grass.

 Sidewalk

On Monday August 6^th, Vadie gave me a hand with removing the cooling hoses to be changed.  I was going to change one, but then after checking them out, I have removed three but I think I will be changing five of them.  This job was particularly dirty, so once I started the job, I had to continue till I was finished.  So, three hoses were removed and the area cleaned up somewhat so I would not get as dirty reinstalling the hoses.

 3 hoses removed

 Dirty Bill, good thing I was wearing coveralls

I also replaced the Groco circulating pump, so that job has been taken care of. 

Another job that is almost complete is the towing system for the HHR.