Day 13

Yesterday was my day to explore the Victoria harbour, and I did spend around four hours walking and wandering around the harbour. 

First I wandered around one end of the harbour and then the other. The first part I wandered about was more residential in nature and quite picturesque at that.

  

I then drove over to the more traditional downtown core and parked in the first space I could find. 

Parking was at a premium so I paid for parking on this side and it was expensive, but I am still in “vacation mode” so I didn’t complain or get mad.

What I did do was set a saved location (pin) of where I parked on my map ap and set an alarm for when the parking was going to expire, five minutes early as a matter of fact.

This way I could wander and explore and still have time to run back to the truck (and know how to find it) before my time was up. 

Here is some of what I took on the other side of the harbour.

  

Some of the ships and yachts were gargantuan in size and scale. It seemed odd that anyone would need a ship that size for your personal runabout. Perhaps that’s just me. I didn’t take pictures of specific ships, as that just felt wrong to do.

It was as picturesque and lovely as I had imagined and I soaked up the scenery and the atmosphere. I ended up going home early and just plopping down.

I seem to have hit a wall as this morning too I feel like I have literally hit a brick wall. 

I am exhausted and it took some doing even to get out of bed by 9:30. For someone who usually gets out of bed at 4:00 am, this is saying something.  

I seem to have gotten to the point in my vacation where I need to just plop and rest. My greatest achievement over the next two days will be to find a Laundromat to do my laundry. 

So, if anyone in the Victoria area wants to visit with me, be prepared to come to my corner of the world. I am just not able to go anywhere . . . I is pooped. 

Day 12

Yesterday I slept in (like today) and then got up to visit family. I visited one sister and her family for the afternoon where I got to visit and play with my youngest niece.

After that it was off to spend an evening with my other sister and her family. We even went to a secluded beach to see the ocean.

  

They showed me the reclaiming of an old gravel quarry which is being turned into what passes for a new “development” these days. 

As in those massive houses packed in as tightly as possible before they become townhouses. Here I thought this was just a Calgary phenomenon.

All in all it was a good day, and I plan to head on out to the Victoria downtown area and explore. I shall see what I can see and go where I can meander.

As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive and keep moving forward.

Day 11 – Travel Day

Today was a travel day where I travelled to the island and connected with the family over here. 

So, as I was leaving and packing up, I decided to take a quick shot to show you of where I have been staying while in the lower mainland area. 

  

I got up, packed up, and then made sure to fill all of my tanks and yes spare water tanks before leaving. 

This is a thing that I do, I always pretend that I am not staying in a campsite for a while, even though I have made arrangements for a place to stay the next night.

The simple reason for this is that the only guarantee in this lifestyle is that I am responsible for making sure that I have what I need to live. 

There are any number of a thousand reasons as to why I will not be in a campsite the next night, so I always like to be prepared. 

So this means charging up everything that needs to be charged up, filling up water tanks, and doing my dishes and anything else that makes sense to do with a: water, sewer and power connection.

Pretty much as long as I have had Wanda, there has been a problem with the water level sensors in her black water tanks. 

It always reads at least ¾ full no matter what is actually in there. This is due to “klingons” inside the tank attaching themselves to one of the sensors.

One little trick I did to try to clean out my black water tank, was to fill it half full of water before the trip. I also poured some dish soap and chemical cleaner down there as well. 

The reasoning is that the motion of driving and the rocking motion of the ferry will swish and swirl that water around in that tank and therefore clean the inside of the tank.

When I got to my new campsite I not only drained the tanks but also did that water flushing trick with that new wand washer thingy that I have down the toilet.

Well, it worked and her sensors now read accurately. So, yay! Okay, back to the trip.

So on my way to the ferry I was almost smashed into by 3 impatient drivers and saw a road rage incident

One driver got out of their car, and rushed to the car in front of them and opened the driver’s door. The driver of this car, screeched out of there, turned left from the right hand lane on a red light and sped down that road. . . . welcome to Vancouver.

I got to the ferry terminal after a nice leisurely drive and was welcomed by an eagle. an actual bald eagle flew beside my truck just a few metres to my left. 

I don’t have a picture of that because I was driving and to do so would be distracted driving. 

So here I am at the ferry terminal.

  

Here I am in the lineup at the ferry, where I had a one sail wait. 

  

One note of interesting trivia is that my truck and trailer all together from the front to back is 45 feet long. They had to measure it for the ferry. 

Another bit of trivia to remember is that for one, the ride was 230 bucks, and the other is that they only take credit cards, no debit. Odd that.

Here I am in the ferry car deck.

  

Of course here we are pulling away from the dock.

  

On the trip there were some lovely coastal scenery.

  

Finally I made it to the campsite that I had booked and settled in. Here is my home for the week.

  

After getting settled in and flushing out my tanks I rested for a bit but ended up at my sister’s house for a game of “cards against humanity” to play with the kids (the naughty cards had been removed).

Here is a shot of everyone playing cards.

  

And here is a shot of me and my two sisters on the couch.

  

Here is a shot of us trying to make this shot work yet someone kept photo-bombing. (This was the best).

  

Here is a lovely and artistic pic of my sister and her daughter (my niece), nicely framed.

   

Here is the final shot of this blog, my extended family that lives down either on the island or in the lower mainland (minus one sister and her family).

   

As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive, and keep moving forward!

Day 10

Sunday was a good day and the last day that I spent with my family in the lower mainland.

After a day of baseball, we ended the day with sushi at a local restaurant that is a favourite one of my brother’s. So much so that there is an off the menu special that bears his name.

So, today is the day that I head to the island. After packing up my house I drive to the ferry and see how long of a wait that I will have to make before sailing to the Island.

Tomorrow’s blog will have pictures once again. For now, though, I need to run.

As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive, and keep moving forward!

Day 9

Another day, another fun filled day spent watching baseball and spending time with family.

So, this once again makes for a short blog entry, but a full life, or rather a day full of life. 

Once again, I won’t go into detail or post pics of the family, as my life is out here on this blog for all to see, not theirs.

It was a good day of reconnecting with family and I have one more day here in the lower mainland before heading off to the Island to see more family.

I will post more pics then as I do plan to do a bit more touristy things over there, as it has been some time since I have been over to the island.

As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive, and keep moving forward.

Day 8

Yesterday was a day to spend with family. I spent the day watching my nephew’s baseball game at a tournament that they are attending here in the Vancouver area.

After that we went for a celebratory meal, as our side left the other team in tatters. After that it was back to my brother’s family’s house where we visited around the fire pit.

All in all it was a good day but, since I was in the moment, I have no photos. Due to the personal nature of the day, it seems appropriate. 

Due to the fact that I suck at remembering to take photos at such times, this will probably continue on into today. 

Since this morning is the sixteenth it means that the last of my automatic payments have gone through. I have been able to stay above zero in my main account even during this trip.

How I have done this is to be spending directly out of my Mid-Term Savings account using the ‘savings’ button on the direct payment terminals. This way I am drawing down on that account and not on my Main Account.

Whilst I am interested in having fun and seeing family on this trip and not so much on what this is costing me, I still want to keep my financial plan on track.

The best way to do that is to separate my vacation expenses from my operational expenses. As long as I keep remembering to press that ‘savings’ button, this will continue.

As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive and keep moving forward.

A Dirty Job That Has To Get Done

Okay, so before heading out to spend the day with my brother, I did a bit of maintenance on Wanda that I should have done for some time now. 

I pressure washed the inside of the septic tank, or otherwise known as the “Black Water Tank.” 

As we know or can understand this can get dirtier than your Greywater Tank, due to the very nature of, shall we say, what goes down into that tank.

So, first of all we need a wand that will reach down into that black water tank and wash the walls for us. That is best done with this contraption that I found at a big box retail store and not at an RV dealership.

  

If you notice the end there is a bar that spins and two nozzles at the end of it which will not only spin the bar around but wash the walls as well.

In order to do this you will need a few things: 

1. Two water hoses (rated for fresh water)

2. A Y-Splitter

3. That wand washer (thing)

4. Your sewer connection hose.

First, you connect your sewer hose to your rig, and making sure it is ready and able to drain nicely.

  

You will notice here that I have a hose support rig that bends and goes down on an angle so as to allow the water to flow nicely. 

This is quite handy and I recommend getting one of these, along with rubberized work gloves so you are not directly handling the business end of that pipe.

Also, note the clear pipe that is between my sewer connection and the pipe. This is quite handy as it lets me see when the water is finished draining out of the tanks

Not only that but by looking at the water flowing out of the tank, I can see what colour it is. The colour is necessary in this procedure so as to know when the tank is clean.

Next you connect the two hoses to your handy dandy water supply tap. After that you connect your two water hoses to it.

  

Next you connect one hose directly to the “septic tank flush” connection. This is connected to a series of nozzles located inside the tank that is supposed to clean the tank for you. 

This helps but it won’t clean the pipe leading down to the toilet or the bottom portion of the toilet, from the under the bowl and down. This wand thingy will.

What that septic connection will do is help flush what you are knocking off of the walls out of your tank and into your septic drain hose.

Next you run the other hose into the RV and make sure it reaches the bathroom. Here is what mine looked like.

  

Next you connect the wand washer (thingy) to that hose and make sure it can easily reach that toilet. 

Thankfully this wand has an on/off valve on it, make sure that you turn that valve off before turning the main water supply on or you will have a very wet bathroom.

With the water on, the septic cleaning nozzles will be flushing the septic tank, as they are supposed to do. What you do is go inside your RV, pick up that wand and start cleaning.

  

How you do that is step on the foot pedal to ‘flush’ the toilet. As in, open that valve in the bottom of the bowl and leave it open.

Stuff the business end of that wand (thingy) into the toilet and past that valve before turning the on/off valve on. 

Next what you do is slowly lower and raise the end of that wand down that pipe, lingering just under the bowl of the toilet. 

Once you are down into that septic tank you can then try to swish it around a bit. Again, the point of the whole exercise is to clean that tank out, so do this for a bit. 

If possible, have someone monitoring the colour of the water gushing out the other end of the sewer connection pipe. 

Keep cleaning until nothing but clean water is rushing out. That’s it, you’re done! Pack it up and clean up.

Since we are on the subject of water hoses let me mention a few things about them. First of all you don’t need an ‘RV rated’ hose what you need is a hose rated for ‘drinking water’ and a good one at that.

What that means is that the inside of the hose is rated to be able handle water that is meant for drinking and not contaminate it in any way. 

The RV rated hoses are also designed not to break down and pass little bits of hose into your water pipes.

Why this is important is because if those bits get into your water pump they could damage it, and probably isn’t all that healthy for us, either.

To insure that does not happen, I bought a small mesh screen and put it on the end of my filler nozzle. This is what they look like.

  

That filler nozzle is a small hose with an on/off valve on it. This way I can control the water flow at the fresh water filling station and not at the water tap. Trust me this is important once the tank gets full.

With regards to the hoses themselves get a commercial grade one and one with a decent hose connection on it, here is an example, 

  

The darker hose is a commercial grade hose, the red hose is a standard hose. The commercial grade hose has a connector on it that is one piece and, if needed I can put a wrench on that to turn it.

Trust me, this is important if it is four in the morning and you are trying to pack up camp so you can drive to work. 

At that point, you do not need to have a hose connector that spins and spins and spins and so you never get the hose to come off. 

I even contemplated cutting the hose off and leaving it there as I drove down the highway to work. I would then have wrestled with it after work, but I was eventually able to get the hose off.

That is all for today, sorry for the log blog entry, but I hope some of you find it helpful. 

As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive, and keep moving forward!