June 21st - Pedder Bay, Victoria
Off we go! Finally back on the road with the Motorhome after a 16 month hiatus. Even though we did not need to leave early, old habits die hard as we were on the road by 9am. Fortunately everything worked, hooking up the car the lights etc. Whew!
Freya was easily portaged up into the coach with the help of our dog ramp and lifting belt. She seemed happy to go back to our home on wheels too. She even managed to climb up on the couch with her gimpy legs.
As we drove down Point Ideal we decided to stop for a quick breakfast at the A & W at the end of our street. lol Back on the road we had an uneventful drive, with Ray driving like a pro, and arrived at Pedder Bay at 11:30am. Even though check-in was not until 1pm our site was empty so we were able to get set up.
What a corker in temperature today. It reached 27C with a humidity of 48% so it cooked. Fortunately we were able to set up our umbrella at the back of the coach where you could get the breeze from the ocean and that is where we parked ourselves for the rest of the afternoon.
With 30 amp service we could only start up one heat pump instead of all three, so it was a little toasty inside too. To go from long sleeves and jeans last week to as little as you can get away wearing this week will take some getting used to. :) The coach is always warmer on travel day as the diesel engine heats up the floor and walls in the back of the coach and it takes overnight to cool it down. I bought a small computer fan that Jason suggested and used that by my head overnight. lol I also bought a small "portable air conditioner", really a swamp cooler in miniature, that also helps. Both charge with a USB cord. (both from Amazon)
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| It really worked. |
Ray did a little wandering around taking a few picture of the campsite. Last time we were here was 8 years ago. Nothing much has changed except you now have cell service and a much better WiFi.
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| That's a six foot high Fennel plant. |
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| Rental boats |
We did not too bad sleeping considering we have not slept in this bed for the last 16 months. lol With all the windows open and some fans on it was tolerable, although I had my little fan by my face. :)
Ray woke shortly after 5am and headed off to find the Pedder Bay Falls, which he found out about while playing with Google Maps. After giving Freya for her short walk, he left her and I to sleep a while longer.
A lazy start to the day for me. :) Looking forward to lunch at the My Chosen Café with our good friends Malcolm and Kathy and then later this afternoon Wayne and Karen, other RV friends are stopping by for a visit on their way back from the family farm in Sooke.
Ray and I took off in the car around 10 am, a little early for our lunch date. Ray wanted to see if we could get close to an old military battery place for pictures. Unfortunately, it was all blocked off so no dice. Next up was a quick tour through Weirs Beach RV Park, where we had stayed for 4 months 7 years ago while Ray recovered from his 3rd back surgery. Not much has changed except they painted the building. :) Around the corner from that was the public access to Weir's Beach. A quick stroll for a few pictures and we were out of there! I had forgotten that at this time of year a bunch of seaweed floats up on the beach and rots, what a stink!
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| The ship looks like it is flying in the air. |
Since we were finished our "tour" early we called Malc and Kathy and they also came early to the Cafe for lunch. I stood in line at 11 am waiting for them to open as did about 10 other people, obviously a popular place. While I was doing that Ray took a walk around the property for a few pictures. Here is the petting zoo.
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| The patio where we ate. |
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| Bad picture. lol They really do smile a lot. |
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| Loaded Poutine! Wow. |
I ordered the deluxe beef dip, Kathy a chicken quesadilla and Ray a lamb burger. Everyone's food was wonderful except for Ray. Unfortunately in Ray's burger, the patty was burnt instead of medium rare, and inedible. He ended up eating half of my lunch. They did take his lunch off the bill. Kathy and Malc picked up the tab. Thanks a bunch guys.
After lunch we all came back to the campsite to extend our visit. Great seeing you guys. Shortly after our visit, our next company arrived. Wayne and Karen, more RV friends who live in Langford and have an old family farm in Sooke. Wayne shares the same birthday as me. We have not seen them since Christmas at Casa Grande, December 2019. Another great visit catching up.
After a good night's sleep, as it definitely cooled off at night, Wednesday, we set off at 9am for a walk in East Sooke Park. They sure have a lovely beach and nice trail to Creyke Point from the Aylard Farm. Gorgeous walk.
After an hour's stroll and contemplation of the views it was off to My Chosen Cafe again for a small lunch. Ray wanted to make sure I had a "holiday too" as I will be cooking a lot when the kids arrive tomorrow. :) We just shared an appetizer and their ice cream sandwich for dessert. Kristi told us is a must. lol
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| HUGE! |
At home our Maple Tree was taken down for us. Getting way too big and causing too much shade in our little yard. I asked our neighbour Pat to take pictures for me.
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| I took this picture before we left. |
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| My potatoes are struggling in the heat. |
Thursday morning another gorgeous day. The kids arrived at 11:15 with their crew. All stuffed into the big truck. Athena in the front seat and Kristi, Zeus and baby Amelia stuffed into the back seat. Good thing it was only a 2 hour drive. lol
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| Here we go! |
When they arrived, Ray took Zeus for a walk and I grabbed Athena. Then we were on baby duty until they could get set up. What a lot of baby gear one needs!
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| Give me that baby! |
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| My turn! |
Fortunately I'd made a lasagna in advance that I reheated on the barbeque and dinner landed on the table about 4:40 pm. The kids eat early as dinner time is usually Amelia's fussy time and she's in bed by 7 and Kristi by 7:30 usually.
Friday morning another hot one on the way. Before it got too hot, Ray and Jason put up more "shade" curtains. After morning chores, we all sat outside for awhile until it was time to head out to the My Chosen Cafe for brunch, compliments of Jason and Kristi, as I doing all the other cooking this weekend. :) This was the kids first time sitting in a restaurant/patio since the beginning of Covid. It was also the first time they had a baby in tow. Little Amelia was quite content in her car seat watching all the activity and the leaves in the tree. She slept the second half while we ate our lunch ... perfect.
Although food service was slow, everyone really enjoyed their choices.
Back home after "watering the dogs" it was retreat to the shade. The boys ended up moving the whole shelter system further to the back of the site as today the breeze was coming from the water. It sure made it much more barrable.
Malcolm and Kathy arrived shortly after 1:30 for their baby fix. :) Amelia cooperated being the centre of attention in her chair in the middle so Kathy got lots of smiles.
Another great visit. Looking forward to seeing them possibly up at our lakehouse in August.
After they left, I went inside to prep for dinner and enjoy some A/C. I 'd marinated the pork tenderloins in Char Sui sauce overnight and was making fried rice with veggies to go with. Everything to be cooked outside. Dogs were in with me to cool off.
We had Amelia in her bathtub naked for awhile to cool off as well. The baby was pretty warm at one point. She seemed to like it.
Ray and Jason headed out to Canadian Tire where Kristi purchased, off the internet, the last Woods shelter as we definitely needed more shade, especially since Jason's parents were coming for dinner tomorrow. Kristi and Amelia headed into their trailer for Amelia's nap.
Left to myself, I took each dog separately to the dog area a few campsites away so they could "do their business". Once done, I fed them all so we would not have to worry about it once it was our dinner time.
Once the boys were back they erected the new shelter with Kristi's help and I was on baby duty. So much better increasing our shade area. We all sat down in the breeze for another hour.
Usually Jason and Kristi eat by 5 but it was so hot and no one wanted to eat until almost 7pm. Better for me as it was cooler out to stand in front of the stove and barbeque. The three of them took all the stuff in and I will do the dishes in the morning. We have been using paper plates so the dishes are manageable for me.
After dinner they all called it quits by 8:15. Everyone tired of the heat. I sat outside for awhile just by myself in the breeze. A lovely end to a day.
Saturday morning, another bright sunny day. Going to be even warmer. Jason figures he will give everyone their own bucket to put their feet in to stay cool. lol
Ray and I were up about 6:15 and by 7am I had a load of laundry already in the dryer and one more in the wash. Spewing babies create a lot of laundry. lol Ray helped me with the dishes so we have a good start to the day. The A/C finally caught up by bedtime to 73F inside. It was struggling earlier in the day and got up to 79F inside, a little warm. I know I am not talking Celsius but as this coach was purchased in the USA all my temp gauges read Fahrenheit. lol
Another scorcher of a day. Had good news for Kristi and Jason though, their A/C unit was fixed yesterday and a friend went and made sure it was working and set for "cool" in their house. All of us managed to survive with wet shirts and buckets of water for our feet. Even baby Amelia had some time in her bathtub in the afternoon. We kept the dogs as wet as possible with the hose and watered the gravel in the campsite. It was HOT!
I was going to cook a "prawn boil" for dinner, but when Jason's parents came they said Dale was allergic to shellfish and Nadine did not like it! I'd asked Jason beforehand, but I guess over the years the subject never came up. Oh well, Ray saved the day by ordering pizza from the restaurant up the hill from us. The pizza was artisan style, thin crust and baked in a wood fired oven.... awesome pizza!
Ray and the kids did a quick trip up to Matheson Lake so see how busy it was. Ray snapped a few pics.
Nadine and Dale arrived around 2:30. It was nice to see them again.
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| Nadine watching Jason dance and entertain Amelia. |
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| We were fortunate to have a breeze at this end of our campsite for most of the day.(Me, Jason, Kristi, Dale and Nadine. |
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| Amelia getting drool wiped by Pop Pop |
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| Amelia's quite fascinated with Dale's green shirt. |
At 6:30 we all moved chairs to Jason and Kristi's site as it was cooler .... blocked by our motorhome from the sun now as it was lower in the sky.
Sunday another scorcher of a day on board. Jason and Kristi decided bright and early to go home a day early. They all had a terrible night, Amelia up every 2 hours, the dogs were up having to go outside and poop (hot weather I guess) so Jason and Kristi did not get any sleep. Friday their A/C at home had been repaired so that helped make their decision. Ray and I were on baby duty after she had been fed so they could finish packing up. By 8:30 they were on their way.
Ray and I decided to go to Sooke Potholes so Ray could get some pictures. I guess we should have left much earlier ... arrived at 10am and was in a "parking lineup". Fortunately there was one handicapped spot left in parking lot #2. We found a trail down to the river. I guess we should have researched a little better as we were nowhere near the trestle or waterfall that Ray wanted to take a picture of. Also it was a Sunday so a lot more people looking for a cool spot in this heat wave. Boy was it a hot walk, even in the trees it was 35C plus. Too hot for this kid! Ray took a few pics and ended up giving instructions to a "bathing beauty" who was very interested to learn settings to take water pictures. She is a dental technician.
I even noticed a bunch of people gold panning.
Realizing this was a bust, we headed back towards Sooke and decided to eat lunch at the Stickleback Pub on our way back to Pedder Bay. I ordered a great order of fish and chips plate and Ray the Chicken Burger. It was pretty hot on their patio under the umbrella so I was happy to get back into the car for the drive home.
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| Our view from the patio. A lovely little cove. |
Heading back to the RV park, we stopped for these pics of Spirit Bay.
Back home we resumed our positions of hiding from the sun under the sun shelters. Fortunately there is a breeze and we kept watering down the gravel and Freya so managed to stay fairly cool. We were humming and hawing about leaving a day early ourselves ... kind of tired of this heat and knowing that we have great A/C at home and the lake to jump into .....
Monday morning we woke up early again and there was absolutely no breeze, that sealed the deal! The pack up began. Ray and I were on the road at 9:30 am heading to the lake. It sure is nice to pull into our driveway even though it was smokin hot. All we did was take a few things out of the coach, plug it in and start up a couple of heat pumps. (We have 50amp power at home) and left the unpacking until tomorrow. Way too hot. Ray picked up some lunch at the A & W and then we sat the rest of the afternoon down on the dock jumping into the water every 10 minutes. Thankfully we have a gazebo mounted down there to stay out of the sun.
It was a great shake down with the coach after not using it for 16 months. Everything worked ... yeah!
