Jean-Pierre's Escape and further adventures.

Please forgive me if I am repeating myself myself…early morning BC humour or an attempt at such.

Internet via Rogers cellular at the Kokanee Creek Provincial Park where I am camping is sketchy to non-existant and I believe it has something to do with the wind. Or the murder of crows with their early morning conferences.  Emails appear when they are at it. Or maybe it’s something in the water.

Anyhow, I cannot easily access my blog so I really do not know what I have discussed.

My Rogers monthly data allotment is running down and I some of it is easily wasted by apps running in the background. Eventually I will have to review my plan.

Did I mention the noisy neighbours with all of their toys? They are still here.

I spent a fair part of the day yesterday in Castlegar at the GM dealership having a fuel filter replaced.  The Canyon’s message centre’s ever alarming messages about the filter’s declining life span and performance were becoming a cause for concern.

As per my usual, I consulted the dealership in Ottawa because the truck had 18, 600 km. If the service guy had known a little about these vehicles, he would have told me it was normal. I recall complaints from diesel owners that they go through fuel filters.

I called the closest dealership in Castlegar, around 50 k from Nelson, and they booked me for later in the afternoon. They told me it was normal, that they stocked the part and they had the truck all washed and vacuumed for me as promised. A little over $200 but I would have had to have it done anyway. Diesel are popular around here.

I also realised the trailer’s breakaway cable for the brake was not attached to where the manual says it should be, or at least my interpretation of such.

The expert who installed the hitch had it on the safety chain hook which to me seems counterintuitive as the manual says it should be attached to the truck.

This is the system that activates the trailer brakes in case of separation.

After more on site consultations with a neighbour, an unanswered phone message to Escape Trailers, a post on the owner’s forum and a discussion with a friend and fellow Escape owner in Ottawa, I have decided to leave it the way it was installed.

Owning a trailer for a beginner can drive you nuts.  There are so many systems, electric, electronic and mechanical that you depend on not only for enjoyment but especially for safety and peace of mind.

Camping in a tent has its own sets of challenges but at least I have not heard any raccoons pounding on my door.

PerhapsI just worry too much and ask too many questions.  Perhaps I should just muddle through things like the rest of the human race.  Maybe that will be one of my life’s lessons on this trip. Or not.

No Epiphanies yet.

I have yet to make it to the phase where people add things like little privacy screens around the door or under the awning with chairs and coffee tables.  At this point for me it just seems like more stuff to pack, unpack and store in a limited space. On the other hand, if you are well organised and it makes you happy, then why not?

Just not me, not yet anyway.

For me camping is sitting around doing nothing between walks or time spent with mechanics. It’s only been a week!

This is a nice place but a little too close to the highway so it is a little noisy right now and that could be 8 AM rush hour traffic.

The lessons so far are to not be afraid to ask for help and advice, to take your time and especially to expect the unexpected.

There are no Yellow Pages and you have to figure things out as best you can.

There were three Escape trailers at the site yesterday and one left early this morning.  My neighbours are from Canmore and were at the rally in Osoyoos. Eric will help me hitch things up later today and that way I will be able to take off tomorrow morning after breakfast.  This will be the second time I hitch-up and for obvious reasons it has to be done properly.

Other than that, I just want to read.

May 28
I am at Kokanee something Park. I just do not feel like getting up to find out what the actual name is as I am enjoying my one beer of the day….Kokanee Creek. Near Nelson and Susan reminded me the Steve Martin movie “Roxanne” was filmed in the environs.
I bought a 12 pack of PC non-alcohol brew today and I’ll stick to that for the time being…tomorrow actually because I just put it in the fridge.
I was a little nervous this morning hitching up the trailer because I had moved a lot of weight from the truck. Everything was ok! I even checked the trailer brake “gain” after watching a GM three minute video a few times. Dennis from Escape had set everything up perfectly.

I also changed my approach to driving, leaving the cruise control off and I was much happier.

I suffer from vertigo a little. Precipices sort of bother me and there happen to be a lots of them in the Rockies for some reason.

So, I focus on the yellow line when the edge.
I saw a grizzly bear by the side of the road and some idiot hit the brakes and attempted a quick u-turn in the middle of the highway on a hill going down. Attempted because he had to back up and start over…some cars need lots of room. I hope the bear ate his car!
Once at the campground I had to zig and zag to get into my spot (the size of a small rink) and close to the electricity post. No water or sewer services. I filled my tank with fresh water before leaving and I am here until Wednesday. The Kootenay park had full service.  

The service area is a minute away and I will be fine.
I goofed up when setting up trailer at my site, no damage but a good lesson and I will read the manual again tomorrow morning.
There are so many things to remember and account for and it can be confusing.
Supper tonight…no idea. I have envelopes with rice, perhaps that. 
Off to check out the lake….beautiful!

Friday, May 26

How frustrating it is when you just cannot connect to the internet!  Why bother telling us wifi is free when it just will not work?

Studying at Ottawa U, I could go into any building or parking lot and get high speed but camp grounds will just not invest.  So this post may go through, or not.

(It did not so I will use personal hotspot.)

I am leaving Osoyoos  Sunday. It has been a hectic few days since my arrival Tuesday but today (Friday) I was finally able to relax.

Lying in bed last night I realized I had three empty bins right above me. Lots and lots of room, I also managed to rearrange my short sheets to make  something a bit more comfortable and less entangling.

Today a French speaking couple stopped by the trailer looking for me. Her brother had asked them to touch base with me to find out what my thoughts on the trailer were. He lives in Magog and absolutely wants an Escape. Hélène, his sister, told me he was considering buying a Kia to tow and I suggested he do his homework and count the numbers. If he does purchase one and mentions my name I could get $200.

It was the appreciation supper hosted by the manufacturer this evening, tons of people. We had to bring something to drink that could be exchanged, bottles or cans of beer for example.  It was mostly men running about looking to trade and BC craft beers were the most popular. Some had bottles of wine and I don’t know how that exchange went.

The dinner was picnic fare with sandwiches, potato salad, veggies and a few other examples of deep-fried finger food.  There were chicken wings which I avoided because they appeared to have been boiled or steamed and then lightly roasted in an oven, at least some of them. The odor reminded me of boiling turkey giblets. It was a pleasant evening.

The owners told us they have sold over 2000 trailers over the years and will be ramping up production to accommodate increasing demand.

It is whole new community for me, people stop by for a chat, asking about the trailer of course and then…perhaps me! Great fun!

Today I dumped the grey tank to see if I could actually do it. But the black is the gauntlet and my tank is too low to be emptied…I will have to wait.

I have taken a couple of showers, there is plenty of hot water but I am hesitant to spend too much time as the water fills the holding which must then be emptied.

Saturday, May 27

It is all coming together and I am less nervous about taking to the road Sunday for a 3-4 hour drive in the mountains to Kokanee Creek campground, a provincial park, for three days. Absolutely no internet, perhaps cellular, no water or sewage, only hydro. That’s OK as I have a tank for fresh water.

After Kokanee, it’s three days at Kootenay park, a National Park.  I have no intention to visit anything! Just chilling!

I will leave Kootenay June 4 with no further plans Perhaps I will come up with something by then. Rather, I will come up with something!

Wednesday was a long day of unpacking and looking for various things that I had seen only a few minutes ago. At a certain point, I was a little pooped, I began to wonder if I was going crazy…

Just.Too.Much. Stuff!

Today, a bit of cleaning, more sorting, fuelling up the truck and enjoying a beer and conversation with my California neighbours,

But…

Tuesday, delivery day, Orientation in Escape Industries-speak, was a day for nerve testing, not wine tasting…

A year of planning, spending, and then more spending has ended and a new one of surprises began.

The first surprise for me was that I was actually in BC doing this! I thought I am really committed, no backing out, too late…

The plan was to drive to Osoyoos in the early afternoon but Steve and Anita’s car had a little problem that was eventually cured and we were off around 5.  It was fairly smooth sailing once on Highway 3 except for a couple of idiots dangerously signalling their immense displeasure of having to follow a couple of trailers through the mountains at the less than posted speed.

C’est la vie…too bad….get a life!

Once at the campground in Osoyoos, a kind gentleman ran up and guided me through the parking procedure which did not go too badly. Anyhow, small world, they had lived in Greeley years ago when he worked at Nortel and they were now living in Whistler. They were towing a 37 foot Airstream.

I spent a  lot of time both yesterday and today going through gear, clothes and food trying to figure out where everything should go…and immediately forgetting where I had put things…which led to cutting two locks with a missing key that should have been put in the key section of the trailer instead of in the glove compartment where I found it a few minutes later.

I am not that organized, it does not come naturally and requires serious effort, and I realize that I will have to be in this new world of mine.  But this is a fun thing, organization should not govern the adventure, just make it easier. So, I will be looking for that balance.

Tomorrow I want to read and write. My neighbours, Dennis and Jessica from the San Francisco area, and I are having a bbq.

Speaking of food, I prepared a wonderful little chicken fricassée last night and cracked open a bottle of Beringer Cabernet Sauvignon for the event. Vey nice.

I would say most of the people attending this rally, close to 150, are retirees in their 50s and 60s.

Some are full-timers having sold their houses and living on the road. Some are couples and some are singles, both men and women. I admire them. I don’t think it is something I would ever attempt and I hope to understand why they do it over the next couple of days.

Picking her up tomorrow morning at 8 where I will be in orientation for a couple of hours and then a driving lesson at the truck driving school next door.

There is wifi at the Osoyoos rally site so I will post an update either tomorrow or Wednesday.

I attended a small Escape rally in Niagara Falls last September and really enjoyed myself even if it poured rain. But, hey!, we are campers and our trailers do not leak. 

Of course, my solidarity is a little misplaced because I did not have a trailer then, just a seedy motel room. 

There will be a pot luck dinner at some point and I think I will prepare an orange and garlic salad.

Cheers!

I am wondering what I would have done with my life (at least for a while) had I not done this.  I simply cannot come up with an answer. Painting the house and the deck just will not do it!

I have been looking for something, not “something to do”, just something for years.  A rotten break-up, a rotten end of career, my parents with their catastrophic and grossly unfair illnesses and deaths were exhausting.

Time helps put these things in their own little boxes, stored away for safekeeping, to be tapped into for reference at some point. Or not.

I cannot remember having been so nervous and excited.  There is always something new to occupy the brain’s worry zone: gear, mechanicals (will that thing in the truck to what it’s supposed to?), food (what will I have for dinner when I get t here?), the bloody highways! That’s the BIG ONE!

The dips and curves, the precipices, and the unending distances to get anywhere.  What a big country!

All of these things, and others, are on my mind, constantly,

The gear is all there. Anything missing can be bought and I will get loads of great advice in a few days.

The truck has been all checked out, and it works.  I think I have figured out how to use the cruise control to slow me down on the hills.

Food. I have food, and beer and wine.

The highway. Well, lots and lots of other people have driven their new trailers along that road so I can too.

And so it goes…too much thinking going on up there.

Having said all of that though, after this, I am pretty sure I will have got BC out of my system.

Right, about 2017.  My New Year’s resolution was to make 2017 a year of adventure and happiness. No more sour grapes, sad memories boxed and shelved.

More smiling, talking to strangers and holding the door open for anyone.

Perhaps a 15 minute workout before breakfast will help smooth things for a bit.

Today, I will go looking for an ocean and a carwash!

4500 km et une semaine plus tard, me voilà enfin rendu à Chilliwack!

L’aventure a vraiment commencé il y a un peu plus qu’un an lorsque j’ai décidé de passer une commande pour une caravane Escape.

L’idée, le rêve, me trottait dans la tête depuis au moins 25 ans et il était grand temps de décider si j’y allais ou non.

Parfois je regrette ne pas avoir plongé plus tôt, mais mes esprits étaient vraiment ailleurs.

Enfin.

J’en prends possession mardi, un petit cours de conduite et puis je pars pour un centre de villégiature à trois heures de route, Osoyoos. Pour moi il y a deux ou trois façons de le prononcer et aucune n’est la bonne.

J’ai parcouru le chemin, la BC 3, direction ouest aujourd’hui. Oh là là. Des grosses, vraiment grosses, montagnes et un chemin parfois tortueux, large, très étroit, plein de chicanes, quelques précipices, de la faune sur le bord du chemin menacent à tout moment de scrapper l’aventure.

Alors, le voyage vers Osoyoos mardi sera excitant.

Une fois rendu, je serai entouré de plusieurs dizaines de propriétaires de caravanes Escape réunis pour le rallye annuel de la compagnie. Ce sera un peu l’université Escape pour moi. L’occasion idéale pour rencontrer des gens de tous les coins de l’Amérique du Nord et d’apprendre comment faire le rangement, le vidage des réservoirs, bien gérer les piles et le capteur solaire et ainsi de suite.

Après le rallye, quelques jours dans les parcs de la CB et puis le retour vers Ottawa tranquillement pas vite.

I received the final batch of pictures from Escape Trailers today and she (?) is ready!

I have yet to find a name for the trailer…perhaps after a few days.

It has been quite a journey and I am not talking to my (close to) cross-country trek.

Another journey of self-discovery begins in a few days with new challenges: from operating and driving to sleeping, cooking and trip planning.

I am not afraid to ask questions or laugh at my goofs and I try to leave my ego at home unless I really, really blow it.  Escape Trailers supplies a user manual and the owner forum has answers to all problems…many different and differing answers of course.

I am off to Chilliwack in the morning, a drive through mountains with lots of hills and curves.  In a few days I will take most of the same road in the opposite direction on my way to Osoyoos and later to Kokanee and Kootenay parks.

I am really not sure on why I planned to stay so many days there, seemed like a good idea at the time I suppose.  An opportunity to read and write.

I doubt there will be internet and the blog will probably hibernate.

After escaping from the Travelodge in Swift Current, a sad hotel way past its prime and golden years, a passing truck threw up a rock, a missile in fact, that took out a smallish portion of the windshield.

After stopping to make sure that new spot was not in fact a dead bug, I screamed a bit upsetting a few grazing cows.

A call to Myers, once again for advice, confirmed that I had to get this thing fixed.  I called Susan and she found the address for the closest Speedy Glass and that was in Medicine Hat. I stopped there, called the insurance company and was back on the road within 45 minutes.

While there, a very kind man offered to let me take his place in line. I thanked him but let him know I was from Ontario thus offering the opportunity to change his mind! He told me all was cool as he was from Trenton.

All this to say it is important to have a network of family and friends programmed into the phone. An open mind, able to accept what the road (literally) throws our way, a sense of humour and all and out optimism help us make it through these challenges.

Still, a totalled tire and a chipped windshield within a few days is a bit much.

It was glorious to see those beautiful mountains again. Truth be told, I would have preferred being in the Mustang on several stretches of highway. The Canyon handles well enough but nothing like a low sports car.

The drive through the Frank landslide was impressive. A whole chunk of mountain invaded the valley below. The highway now snakes its way through the debris.

http://history.alberta.ca/frankslide/slidefacts/slidefacts.aspx

I had forgotten how noisy BC can be. Many pick-up trucks thrive on noise and smoky exhaust. My hotel room came with two sets of ear plugs because I am street side. I cannot imagine sleeping with those things in my head.

The latest pictures from Escape are exciting. The bedding and cushions may be last things in.

Tomorrow is a travel free day and I treated myself to a glass of beer.  I’ll go exploring…or not.

I am having trouble setting the date  publication parameters. I have posted this on May 18 and it’s showing May 19.

Tomorrow, the Rockies and Cranbrook.

But, for now I will have to put up with a so-so room not far from a very noisy Trans-Canada highway…wind howling through the door as well. I just don’t care right now! I was told that hotels in SC tend to be old and along the highway. Tomorrow is another day!

There are advantages to being with CAA, I am not and I booked at the last minute. I am pretty tired so it will have to do. I should have driven somewhere for supper but there is a Pho at the hotel and staff recommended it.

Mistake, I did not finish and ended paying $20. I left a big tip because I’m sure they will not be getting too much business this evening.

I made it easily to Winnipeg where the tire was replaced costing a little over $300. I guess the whole tire adventure cost me four or five hours in time but did not have me alter my plans.  I am very happy with GM service and let the service manager in Winnipeg know it.  The Canyon behaved well today, mileage is great.

I really enjoyed driving across Saskatchewan. At one point, I saw a sign for a small town promising fuel and food. Not 30 metres of the highway I was on gravel looking for the promised services. I found a forlorn restaurant serving Canadian and perhaps Chinese with one car parked in front, next door was a tattoo parlour. I kept on going!

The highway system here is great, four lanes at 110 kph. Every so often there are side roads cutting across and you have to be on guard because some folks just zoom on through. Not too many places to stop (see above) though.

I have been wanting to cross the country this way for years and I am loving it…even with the noisy hotels and lousy food.  I was talking to an older couple earlier and they cross the country every year from Nova Scotia to Vancouver Island, seeing friends and family along the way.

I will have to start thinking about the trip home after camping in Ososyoos, Kokanee Creek and Kootenay through to June 4. No doubt, I will get valuable tips at the Escape rally next week.

Long day tomorrow, almost time to hit the sack.