Archive for February 2012
February 26, 2012: in Walnut Groveyard
While not technically on the road yet, we have begun this year’s travel with a traditional “good-bye” stop with our Lindsay “grand-family” in Walnut Grove. Also, an over-nighter in Kitsilano on Thursday gave us a visit with the Shepherdson family, and a chance to see Tess, who named Truck House for us about 5 years ago.
At Walnut Grove, three very active teen-aged grandchildren participate in community, school and musical lives, while busy parents deliver transportation, co-ordination, and a loving home. Along with our own main daily diet of sleeping and reading for the next 5 weeks, we joined Paula and Doug as cheerleaders at a very chilly soccer game this morning. Rebecca’s game ended in a called overtime tie after the lines were whited out by a mix of snow and hail. Meanwhile, Matt was the sound engineer at a play at the Walnut Grove High School, while back at the warm Walnut Groveyard, Hannah was playing piano, and working on a school project.
Tonight, the forecast is for -6 C. I will turn on the Truck House furnace as a protection against frozen water lines.
Tomorrow, we will get on the road early and meet up with Mike and Marlene Harris from Comox with their truck and camper. I received an email with the following links promoting “group” travel. Makes sense to me! Hope you enjoy these. Love to all…
Quilter and the Quill – Sandy and Tony
http://www.youtube.com/v/LuVPnW0s3Vo?hl=en&fs=1&autoplay=1
February 22, 2012: Kicking the tires, and a road test
Greetings,
Today the sun shines, and we race around to complete last minute packing. A weather report that I heard an hour or so ago predicted snow in the forecast. Sounds like a good time to leave!
I thought it would be wise to send out a last posting before we leave. For those who have indicated that they were signed up to receive the email notifications of new blog entries, this will be the “road test” mentioned above. I will confirm that I have posted this with ONE more email reminder. Please delete the upcoming email if you have already received the blog.
Sandy said a strange thing to me this morning. She commented that she is already missing her quilting! (I haven’t locked her out of her sewing room.) I could reminder her that we are heading toward Needles, CA…oh, and that major quilting warehouse in Portland. In any case, I will try to keep her in stitches.
Well, we will both have wonderful activities to look forward to when we return in mid-April: Sandy, with some new sewing projects, and me, with new sailing adventures – on Graystone, or with Nanaimo Yacht Charters, or with other friends.
Until we return, then, here begins the 2012 edition of Road Quill Road Notes.
Welcome to the Road Quill (and Quilter’s) travel journal
Greetings to all!
After one year of trying another blog site, and finding that the “subscribe” process was unnecessarily complicated, I decided to switch my blog software. Welcome to the new home of “Road Quill” where I will share the tales of Sandy (the Quilter) and Tony (the Quill) as we explore new roads and revisit old roads in our lives.
Most of the time, this will be a descriptive of our various visitations, but on occasions the visitations may only exist in our minds – well, mostly my mind! I find that the real truth is usually somewhat mundane and deserves to be polished up a bit. I will therefore take that liberty as I put my thoughts and memories to paper. (The following story, as described to me by my daughter, Paula, should be cautionary to me. Her son, my grandson Matt, had been given a bunch of old coins that were in pretty sad shape. In an effort to add value to them, he carefully polished them all up until they shone. Upon presenting them to a dealer, he was told that it was too bad that he had polished them…they had had greater value before he had shined them. That was a sad moment for him, and the story may help to keep my embellishments to a minimum – but it probably won’t!)
In preparation for our departure in just over a week, yesterday I washed Truck House (2005 GMC and 2006 Adventurer Camper). Afternoon temperatures in Nanaimo reached about 10 C. This is quite different from previous years, and once again, there is the pesky and nagging thought – Why are we leaving such a beautiful place and weather? Oh yeah – I remember now…there might still be weeks of rain on the Pacific “Wet” Coast.
I must admit that I hadn’t planned on writing this blog note today. It is mostly to welcome my email family, friends and neighbours who are planning on following our journeys through the blog.
Truck House
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