June 30th 2016 - Fort Steele Historic Park

June 30th - Fort Steele

We packed up again this morning and the coach is back into the shop by 9:30 am. As it's going to be a few hours, we decided to tour Fort Steele Historic Park as Freya's allowed to come and it is hot out again. It took us 2 hours to tour the town .... more than we wanted, but we sucked it up and kept on going as we had no home to go back to. Ray is really going to pay for this now and have to take one of "Alice's little blue pills" to survive this many days out of our routine.  Fortunately we finished walking around the place as the clouds opened up just as we reached the car. We may go back and do just the steam train, a 20 minute ride around the place in the next couple of days.

Hi Ya Freya!

Clyde and Dale were pretty curious about the dog too.

Fort Steele offers wagon rides as well as steam train rides here ... all at a cost of course. The steam train is out of service today and we could not take Freya on the wagon.

Even the employees were trying to stay in the shade.

Dr Hugh Watts in the background

Kootenay River

We checked on the coach at about 12:30 and they were "waiting for the okay from the Extended Warranty people and BCAA for the tow damage. It turned out that not only did the idiot that towed us wreck the exhaust pipe for the generator and bend the steel angle iron holding up the generator he also cracked the lower fiberglass cap with his impatience of unhooking the coach from his apparatus which we witnessed. Anyways BCAA paid the portion of our bill to fix the exhaust pipe and angle iron to the tune of $700. We still do not know about the cracked fiberglass and would not get it fixed until September. The extended warranty company is still fighting with Freightliner about not wanting to pay the whole bill less our deductible. They're trying to say we should've ordered used parts. Horse Shi....... Freightliner people are awesome and I would recommend the guys in Cranbrook to anyone needing Cummins Diesel Care. Anyways, they let us leave today and we are back at Fort Steel Resort for the night. I managed to be able to book for three more days but in a 30 amp site as it is the long-weekend and we do not know which direction we are going in yet.

Ray's mom seems stable at home. Ray is couched here for now and other than moving to our new spot tomorrow we are not going anywhere. Later this weekend we may drive to Kimberley and see the mine museum and train ride. We shall see.

Pics of the pasture backing up to the RV Park

Here is a picture of where we take Freya for a swim and throw the chuck it for her, a two minute drive from the campsite.

Wildhorse River

June 28th 2016 - Jail Break!!! and the Cranbrook Railway Museum

June 27th - Shop Time

The coach went into the shop at 8:30 am this morning as the parts were arriving a little later in the morning and they were going to fix the generator support angle iron and check the exhaust pipe for the generator while waiting. Parts were installed and we got the coach back temporarily for the night so we could go to a plug in site and dump.

We found space at the Fort Steel RV Resort, 18 km up the highway. The towing caused damage to the front frame holding up the generator and the generator's exhaust pipe. This was discovered when the technician wanted access to the computer port to check out the A/C which is accessed in the generator compartment. He discovered the drawer would not slide open. Good thing it was discovered as we would have blindly carried on. Also the exhaust pipe was pinched and split, so we might have had trouble down the line with the generator. We will have to go after BCAA for this charge and they will have to go after the tow company. Hopefully this works out. (Turns out the towing company refused to pay and claimed Freightliner caused all the damage.  ICBC didn't do their job and Ray had many angry calls with them before they turned the file over to an investigator.  The towing company went so far as to repaint the towing hitch so they could tell ICBC the orange paint left on our fiberglass wasn't there.  The ICBC investigator finally found the towing company at fault as I told her I could drive around at Freightliner so why would they need to tow me.  The towing company are sure assholes! 

 Unfortunately, Freightliner had to outsource the exhaust pipe and the dummies bent up the new pipe the wrong way after taking their measurements, so we have to go back for a couple more hours tomorrow before we are good to leave. Freightliner is also having some difficulty with our extended warranty people, so hopefully all will come out to our benefit in the end or it will cost us more $$$. The service manager believes that insurance companies play like this in hopes that we just throw our hands up.

One of 3 cracks in the fiberglass front cap.

Ray and I spent a couple of hours this morning while the coach was in the shop, touring the Railway Museum in Cranbrook for something to do before it got hot out, as Freya stayed in the car. Wow, it sure is nice to see all of the old train cars. They have several cars completely refurbished to 1929 standards and even a 1907 wood train set with four cars. Two of the cars were recovered from being used as cabins on a lake in Michigan so they were in much better condition.

Cranbrook Train Museum

Model Train Display

Here are some pictures of the 1907 Soo-Spokane Wooden Train Set.

The next pictures are of the 1929 First Class Trans Canada Train Set. They had the interpretive one that isn't refurbished and one set which is refurbished with original pieces. Because in the 1940's they were all refurbished with lead paint because the old varnish did not last and it had to be done 3 to 4 times yearly in the 30's so they finally painted all that glorious wood. Lots of work stripping it and bringing it back to it's natural beauty. It is all Honduran Mahogany.

This piece was found in a chicken coop!

The handcrafted inlays are beautiful.

The rest of the day we spent at a park a short distance from the shop under the trees throwing the ball for Freya and buying some KFC for lunch. Ray even rested on the grass on his back. We finally got the coach back at 5 pm and headed out to Fort Steele.  A lovely RV Park and it is bloody fantastic to have 50 amp service as it is 33 degrees outside, not to mention dumping after two weeks on the road. Last night the temperature did not start dropping until 9:30 pm and it was still 20 outside at 11:30 pm. Looking forward for AC all night!

We also heard from our daughter Kristi today, who went to visit Ray's mom this morning and take her to a scheduled doctor's appointment before heading over to the island. She opens up her new OB/GYN practice on Monday in Nanaimo so cannot stay. Mum was feeling poorly yesterday, but did not want to go to the hospital as she had the appointment today. Kristi took her to the appointment and Mum was sent by ambulance to the hospital with acute renal failure and dehydration. She had not been drinking anything yesterday as she was feeling poorly and it just made her other problems much worse. After giving her a liter of fluids, she's feeling much better so they sent her back home. Fortunately she has a friend in her building who checks up on her otherwise they probably would not have let her come home today. But she is very stubborn 92 year old, so who knows. 

The doctor is now going to start the process of Mum going into assisted living, which she would like. Hopefully this does not take too long. The earliest we could head back to Vancouver is Friday morning and it would take us 2 days. So we will see how she does tomorrow. She really wishes just to "wake up dead" at this point, often talking about that she is ready to go. Mum told Ray for us to stay the course and continue with our plans and that she is fine but you never know, so we are at another crossroads as to what to do. Coming back and finding a place to stay would also pose a problem with the summer and lack of RV sites available. Fortunately my Dad has settled in well with his caregiver Larny and they both are doing fine. They also have the help of his nurse and good friend, Bev.

We were hoping to visit Fort Steele Historic Town tomorrow but since the coach goes back in and we could only get a site here for 2 days only ?????? don't know.

June 25th 2016 - Road Tour to Premier Lake and back through Kimberley

June 25th - Touring around Cranbrook

With the Freightliner shop closed on Sunday, we took the opportunity to scout out a few forest service sites and Premier Lake Provincial Park as possible destinations for us when we come back through this area at the end of July, beginning of August. We knew it was going to be a longer day for Ray, but I always like to scout out the area before we commit with our large coach.

We drove up Highway 93 past Fort Steele and checked out Wasa Lake Provincial Park first. The campsite is across the highway from the Lake and is a standard provincial park heavily treed. The lake seems to be used mostly for water sports rather than fishing so strike that one off.

Next stop a bit further up the highway is Premier Lake Provincial Park turn-off. The Lake is 15 km up the road which is paved and then there is about 7 km of good gravel road treated with calcium chloride treatment, so no dust and the drive in from the park is back to pavement. The campsite is above the lake but there is a large dock to moor your boat. There are lots of campsites that would fit us in the trees, but they do have one loop of about 10 or so campsites which are in the open which would work for us. Most of the sites are first come first serve as well. (61 sites and only 20 reservable) $25/night. Ray and I saw fish jumping and apparently the fishing is good. The colour of the water is amazing.

We would consider coming here for a week.

Back to Highway 93 we turned towards Canal Flats and tried to see Johnson Lake Rec Site. A goat track so we did not even get to the lake. Very misrepresented in the Backroad Mapbook.

Another few kilometers back towards Cranbrook, is the turn-off for Larchwood Lake Rec Site. This site is up behind the Skookumchuk Pulp Mill on about 3 km of gravel that had been treated and about 2 km that was not treated up to the lake. Fortunately the lake was far enough away that you could not smell the pulp mill, unless the wind turns southeast, or hear it. What a wonderful little lake. There are 21 sites available for $14/night. We spoke to the camp host, Paul, and he mentioned that it does get pretty busy. He kindly gave us his phone number so we could check if anyone was leaving or there would be any room before making the journey up there with the coach.

One of the upper campsites that we would fit in and with a great view.

Back to the highway again and then taking the cut off to Kimberly there is another recreation site called Hahas Lake Rec Site. Again a lovely lake but the camp sites are very small and the road in is very rough. I think the coach would have hit a bunch of low hanging branches if we even attempted it. We did however see the most interesting fishing craft. Maybe Ray's next floaty boat????

Getting hungry so we continued on the highway into Kimberley. Ray and I walked the Platzl and decided on lunch at the Stonefire Pizzeria. Lovely pizza and great Fernie craft beer. Most of the businesses were closed as it was Sunday and I think that they do not really ramp up for tourists until July.

You pay $1 and the "cookoo" comes out yodelling.

Sitting here I heard the cuckoo clock a lot with people coming by and putting the money in so they could take pictures.

On the way back to Cranbrook we stopped at the Riverside Campground and any size rig would fit. A lovely campground, it looks to be ex-Provincial Park with power added to some sites. The highway back to Cranbrook follows the St. Mary River with open vistas of the Rocky Mountains, gorgeous. Back at home, we fired up the generator to cool off the coach ... it was 85 degrees inside. With 3 heat pumps it only takes 15 minutes to bring the temp back down to 73. Ray went and laid in bed for a couple of hours to get control of his pain, while Freya and I enjoyed the shade outside. A lovely day in spite of our breakdown. Tomorrow laundry at the laundromat for me.