Kastle's Journey: June 2023

Monday we woke to cloudy weather and rain started in the afternoon. Definitely a dreary day.

Ray spent most of his time today trying to contact BMT Group in Victoria They promised us a quote on our MH, including the roof leak. We'd also like to find out where're there with the status of repairs. So far we've waited 1 1/2 weeks from the date promised have tried to contact them for three days, leaving about 7 messages ....since we dropped off the coach June 2nd. Finally later in the afternoon I managed to get a salesperson for Ray to talk too who moved our concerns up the chain. Ray actually received a call at 5 pm from one of the owners, who said he would have some numbers for us tomorrow. Shortly after that call, the RV Repair Manager, Josh finally called us angry, sarcastic and rude, with a lot of excuses as to not answering our calls. Apparently he has 80 to 100 calls waiting in his messages! Not our problem!

Anyways, we should get an estimate tomorrow or Wednesday morning at the latest. They apparently took down the ceiling panel on the inside to find the leak.

Tuesday, another dreary day .... By 10 am it cleared somewhat, so we decided to head into Duncan for a few things and go for lunch. We walked through the downtown being a tourist in our own community. We managed to walk part of the Totem Pole Walk. Duncan is know as the "City of Totems".

Starting at the old Train Station Museum. There are 44 poles in downtown Duncan. We took pictures of the 23 we walked by. Next time, we will do the Totem Walk and find all of them. lol Duncan managed to win the $50,000 grant for a refurbishment of their museum, beating out quite a few other communities by our community voting so much. Yeah us!

Here is the news article about the Grant they received.

Troops depart from the Duncan train station during the First World War. (Cowichan Valley Museum & Archives)

Above, Canada Avenue totem pole display. Left to right: The Feast, Raven’s Gift, Pole of Wealth and Transformation

Station St Common Food Court

Duncan Courthouse

Sea and Sky totem pole, Station Street at Government Street, downtown Duncan, B.C.

Here are some of the street scenes we found including down hidden alley's.

These pictures are in memory of what this area looked like in the early 1900's with the Chinese Community before they were torn down.

This guy is drawing what it looks like before it was demolished.

Another hidden restaurant who's front door is down at the end of this little alley.

Beside the old Capital Theater built in 1925 is the Station Street Café. Very old school diner decor. A great place to have homemade soup and sandwich.

This guy was playing the piano next door.

Here is a short video.

A very skinny building with a lovely mural on the side.

These paintings are in the Seniors Centre depicting the members through the years.

There is a working business called Joe's Tire Hospital. They have this display you can look at through the windows.

Joe’s Tire Hospital at 176 Government Street is one of the oldest operating businesses in downtown Duncan. It was started on this site in 1930 by Joe Drennan (1907-2005). Since 1958 it has been operated here by members of the same family.

Downtown City Hall.

The City Hall building was originally built in 1913 as the Federal Building and Post Office and was used as the Post Office until 1958, when the Post Office moved to its current location on Ingram Street, one block east of the City Hall.

After the Post Office moved, this building remained underutilized and poorly maintained. By the early 1970s, it had deteriorated to the point at which demolition was being seriously considered.

That changed in 1974, when then Mayor Ken Paskin and the Duncan City Council decide to renovate the building into a new City Hall.

We went in all the little shops, but other than an original painting we would have loved to buy, but have no room at home to display, we came home empty handed. lol There's a E.J. Hughes Gallery we discovered.... Ray thought they'd shut down, but they only moved. Love Hughes' work.

A great couple of hours spent. Once we were back home, we invited Pat and Darryl over for a drink before dinner. An enjoyable view from our deck while the sun is out briefly. A great day.

Wednesday, more cloud although they say we should get some sun on this first day of summer. The forecast going forward after today is sun and much warmer temperatures. Back to summer. I puttered making chili and Ray played with "stocks" lol Later in the afternoon we drove over to Warren and Debbie's across the lake from us for a drink and tour their newly built house. Gorgeous. They look right across at us. :)

Thursday, we started off the morning having coffee down on the dock. It's been awhile since we were able to do that with the lake flat calm and the sun out.

At 9 am, Ray's new chair for the motorhome arrived ... only waited 3 months. We will be ready in the fall. Ray finally heard from the company in Victoria regarding our Motorhome repairs. The leak did come from where we thought, the installation of the satellite dish, 10 years ago. When the old one was removed, the new base is smaller and much heavier. The weight is more than the rood is designed for, creating a dip, and the area wasn't sealed properly. Now we have some rot and part of the ceiling has delaminated mid coach. They took down the whole ceiling panel inside and will repair any rot, replace some of the insulation, run some new TV cables and reinstall everything. They also said the solar panels were not caulked very well so they will redo everything on the roof as well as fix the rear cap. They were able to buff out a lot of the scratches on the outside of the coach, but a few will be repainted. They will check out all the wiring for the 3 heat pumps due to moisture and fix anything required. It should look brand new and we should be good for another 10 years. Finally they will do a generator service and oil change and lube the chassis. We should get it back the end of July. A one stop shop.

Ray finished putting in the new screws into the dock's gazebo roof. It should not blow off again with winter storms. While he did that, I puttered in the house and did some grocery shopping. At noon I made lunch for us to eat at the dock, where we spent the rest of the afternoon. Not quite warm enough to go swimming but very pleasant.

Friday, another gorgeous morning. We did our morning chores, I went for my walk, and then we sat down on the dock. There's a ton of spiders in the gazebo that Ray is always trying to get rid of. Debra, next door saw him taking down webs and brought over some spider spray she purchased at Home Hardware. Wow did that stuff work. Ray kept busy squishing spiders for 10 minutes after spraying. They were all dropping down to the dock, all 21 of them! We will have to buy some of that miracle stuff.

It's quite warm, so we actually went for a quick dip. The water temp is only at 65F after the week of cold weather. Look at that face .... yes it is cold. By 3 the wind came up so we headed up to our deck.

At 6 pm we were invited over to Roy and June's with Ron and Donna for drinks. Great evening, and didn't come home until 10 pm!

We bundled up Ray and me when it got cooler.

Saturday morning we woke to low clouds/fog. Today is our Strata Potluck next door at Mike and Debra's. They asked me to make my baked beans. :)

For lunch I made homemade pizza with my pizza oven. Delicious.

Wasn't that a Party! The weather is sunny, but a little cool with the wind. Then vver to the strata potluck, hosted by Debra and Mike Mike's Traeger skills are on display, with delicious ribs and chicken. He cooked all day. June's appetizers and Darryl's salmon are tasty. Great potato salad from Donna, my favourite with lots of eggs. There were multiple other salads too and of course my baked beans. lol 11 of 13 people attended from the Strata and some of Mike and Deb's kids as well as some good friends of theirs, Shannon and Justin, with Debra's mom Lolli and stepdad Brad. Lots of laughs and drinks. What a fabulous time. Thanks again for hosting, judging by all the liquids we all imbibed (except Ray of course), everyone enjoyed a spectacular time.