Sunrise on Avalon Bay, Catalina Island, CA

Sunrise on Avalon Bay, Catalina Island, CA

Saturday 8 June 2019

Lake Days and Getting the Motorhome ready for it's first adventure in 18 months

Hard to believe another month has gone by ... today is Saturday June 1st.

This morning breezy and cloudy until 7:30 when the fog burned off. After our coffee and Carolan's, it was time to get to work. Ray disappeared downstairs to his workshop after walking Freya and I began cleaning the hot tub. I drained it overnight so I could scrub it out and refill it before the anticipated water restrictions come into place next week and would mean that I am not allowed to fill it. Timing is everything. lol

Lots of activity on the lake today. We saw more jet ski's than we saw all summer ... probably not but it seemed like it.

 A real tiny houseboat.

The lake level is quite low, sort of like last August ... does not bode well for the summer.


August 17, 2018
Tonight we went with our neighbours Pat and Darryl to the Chemainus Theatre for dinner and Mama Mia production. What an awesome show. We all totally loved. it.


Pat and Darryl
 Ray and I took a walk outside to stretch our legs during the 20 minute intermission. They have a beautiful venue.





The staff were pretty accommodating as Ray was able to bring his non-alcoholic wine in to be served to him at no extra charge.

Sunday, still windy out on the lake. The neighbour down the lake spent the day having 2 new pilings driven in so his dock does not get beached again.  They, then used an excavator to realign it with his walkways.



The excavator is pushing the walkways to move the dock out to the new piling.

Securing dock to new piling.

Adding a new section of walkway.

Our neighbour, Roy, had the piling driver come back to his foreshore area to fix a piling piling that they put in last year that was ended up really crooked. It was pounded down another 10 feet and seemed to straighten up. This is in preparation for a swimming dock in the future.


Today I did a run into Duncan to buy stuff to restock the motorhome and then hauled it in and put it away. That pretty much took me all morning. Left Ray at home as he was pretty sore from our adventures yesterday to the Chemainus Theatre. The afternoon was spent sitting on the lawn out of the wind. By late afternoon darker clouds had moved in and looked a little stormy so we moved inside. Another wonderful day at the lake.

Kristi and Kat returned home today with their culinary trip over ... poor Kat no more lobster. lol

Monday morning much cooler than it has been with some clouds but mostly sunny. The window guy is supposed to show up here at 10 am TBA!

He did show up at 10:20 am. Had a helper and was all done by noon. Looks pretty good, we are happy with the fix. Now Ray will have to have a discussion with Coulson regarding the remaining outstanding monies as they have charged us a bunch for the guy to come back and fix the hearth .... we are not paying that. We said we would pay for the slate piece but not the labour for installation as they did the rock hearth so poorly in the first place.



Stayed breezy all day although it calmed down somewhat in the afternoon and got warmer, a balmy 18C instead of the 26C we have been experiencing. No complaints. This afternoon I made Gin and Tonic popsicles for me and Watermelon popsicles for Ray in preparation for warmer days. The G & T recipe came from facebook. lol



Kristi sent us pictures of roast duck she had in Montreal and Ray was drooling, so I made him one on the barbecue rotisserie. Yumm.

Tuesday morning after dishes etc., I was off to Duncan to finish buying stuff for the Motorhome that I had forgotten. Ray spent part of the morning in his workshop building his tables. It's looking good and starting to take shape.


Wednesday, woke to cloudy skies as predicted. It is supposed to rain this afternoon. We sure need it for the forests and the lake. Ray headed in early to Duncan taking the car to Ford for them to fix the wiring for the front hookup to the coach. He got a rental car as he had a dental appointment in Nanaimo to have a tooth extracted later in the afternoon with a bone graft in preparation for an implant next spring. Poor guy, This seems to be the case for many of us over 60 ... our teeth start to fail. Fortunately we can afford an implant where many people cannot. The procedure went well and by the time he dropped off the rental car and went back to Ford to get our car he was home about 4pm. A long day for him. We had hoped that when he got the rental car and showed them my driver's license, that I would have been able to take the car back for him but no such luck even though the last time I got the rental car the guy told me I could do it this way....

I spent the day making lasagna and cabbage rolls in preparation for our 10 day camping trip to Port McNeill with Kristi and Jason on June 15th. Ray and I are heading out 2 days earlier and stopping at Campbell River to catch up with Steve and Dianne before heading to Port McNeill. We are meeting up with Kristi and Jason at the Cluxewe RV Park with Jason's parents for a week long family campout.

Today was also a big laundry day. I just sat down at 4pm and then Ray walked in the door. Made Ray Ichiban with egg and leftover duck for dinner as he is on a soft diet for a couple of weeks. His mouth is not too sore fortunately. Apparently they really had to yard on his tooth as it would not come out and finally they drilled it all out. I am amazed that other than it is sore to touch his cheek he is okay.

Thursday morning was actually just a little cloudy with some sunshine. By 8:30 though, the clouds became thicker. I brought in the slides of the motorhome, lifted the jacks and we moved it forward in the driveway to get the car in behind to test out the lighting after it was repaired at Ford yesterday... they rewired the car but obviously didn't test for continuity before charging us $475 because the signal lights are still reversed and no brake lights!!!!!! So it was back to Ford at noon to say WTF. This whole wiring thing sure has been a pain in the butt! Fortunately, they are reversing the charge and sending us a cheque. We're never going back there if wiring is the issue.  If you remember this started with a burned out taillight

Later in the afternoon Ray re-examined the motorhome wiring again and we are suspecting that the cord between the motorhome and car might be suspect as well, since what had power before now does not. Ray dropped me off in Lake Cowichan for my hair appointment and came back home to work on the wiring. After an hour or more playing with it and becoming very frustrated an appointment was made with Revy RV for Monday morning to get this working properly ... Such a pain when I am trying to get the motorhome ready for travel next Wednesday. Revy although booked up, will slide us in as we are "such good customers". I'll say ... we have dropped a bunch of $$$ there this past year. They also need to fix the hot water tank access door that was installed last January. The tab does not line up with the hole to close it and has now broken off while trying to secure it.

Friday morning, cloudy again with the possibility of some showers. Although we have had on and off showers for the past few days ... it has not amounted to very much for the lake level. Our morning got a little more exciting when Ray cut his finger in the shop while using his mitre saw ... a piece of wood came up and jammed into his left index finger quite deep, so off to the hospital we went. Fortunately Emerg was not too busy and and hour later with 4 stitches he was out. Went to Original Joes for lunch as a consolation prize. lol


Rest of the day quiet. We had several thunder showers on and off all afternoon.

Saturday morning cool with high fog. Today is the Town of Lake Cowichan's Lake Days. We went out to the free pancake and sausage breakfast at the firehall.


Well attended!
An hour or so later we plunked ourselves down in our chairs to watch the parade. We set up at Saywell Park, which is just down the street from us .  All the other festivities, food trucks, vendors, a beer garden and live music were held there. Quite the event for our small town. At 10:30 the sun broke out in time for the parade. Tonight they even have a steak barbecue for $7.50 per person. Unfortunately with Ray's tooth extraction and bone graft he is on a soft diet. :)

We sat with our neighbour Darryl and his two grandchildren ... grandma Pat, was in the parade with the Pickleball Club. It was great to see lots of kids waiting for the parade to come by and the candy thrown to them. lol


Here comes the parade. Always nice to hear the pipe band.


The club that Steve and Dianne Colibaba used to belong to.

It's the Town of Lake Cowichan's 75 birthday this year.









Lady of the Lake Queen Princesses




Here comes Pat ... second in from the left.





Always love the Shriners clowns in their little cars.

More of the Cowichan ATV club.

Then it was over to Saywell Park for the other festivities.

Lots of food vendors.


Lots of free activities for the kids.




Too funny.

Although mostly sunny today, it was pretty cool out on the water with the wind. Good day for the festivities though as it was not too hot outside for all the people dressed up in the parade.

And that was our week. Looking forward to getting out in the Motorhome next week.


4 comments:

  1. Wow, cannot believe the water levels fluctuate that much! Although Ray's finger injury must hurt and will slow him down, it could have been much worse!

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  2. Yes it could have been ... like take off the whole finger. He tells me he has learned a valuable lesson though ... not to try to cut such small pieces with the chopsaw, he should have used the table saw. lol

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  3. Love the gin and tonic popsicles! Great on a hot summer afternoon! Poor Ray had quite the week between his tooth extraction and slicing his finger! Hope both heal well.
    Good luck on the MH/car wiring...it will be nice for you to get out on the road again!

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    Replies
    1. Have only had 1 gin and tonic popsicle ... will pack them. lol

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