Posts Tagged ‘Truck House’
July 19, 2015 – “Have you bought your maps yet?”
Our summer travelling time has finally arrived, and this time, our anticipation and excitement don’t seem to be as high as we sometimes experience. For one thing, our trip is a very long one, and for another, one of the driest seasons on record has created huge fire danger potential. Also, we are quite enamoured with our homebound hobbies of quilting and woodworking, and my workshop is nearly ready for productivity instead of organizing. These hobbies along with family and friends will give us great incentives to be eventually homeward bound.
A fish-eye view of my new workshop. The “door” wall at my back, is seen on the left and right of the photo.
My new workbench using pipe-clamps instead of traditional vises. (The plan is modified from “Fine Woodworking – A New-Fangled Workbench”.)
In preparation for leaving this week, I sought some electrical wiring assistance from my neighbour – Jim Clark. (I have added an after-market backup camera so that I can judge rear-view distances a little more accurately.) As he quickly resolved my issues, he asked about our itinerary. I explained we would head down into Birch Bay, Washington and then across to the Penticton… “Tony,” he interrupted, “Have you bought your maps yet? Alaska is NORTH!” Yes…we have all our maps, and the 2014 edition of Alaska State’s “Milepost” book. We are on our way with the first stop being in Fort Langley at the new digs of our Lindsay family. We will eventually visit with family and friends in Birch Bay, Penticton, Kamloops, Prince George, and Whitehorse.
Truck House is as crammed as it has ever been, and although I saved a bit of room by downsizing our barbecue, I then added a 5 gallon diesel can for reserve. Although I am not sure that it is needed, our experience in the Springtime of almost running on empty in southern Oregon (“sage rat” episode) has encouraged me to be more cautious. Multiple fish “guns” are stacked in the crew cab, and the kayaks loaded on top. Fishing is a high priority for me on this trip as well as the opportunity to see new vistas and travel down new roads. We are probably carrying way too many books, but many of them are used to it as seasoned veterans of our travels! Perhaps they will get read this time.
We’ll keep you posted and will look forward to your comments – both on the blog, and via emails – whichever you choose.
Much love and best wishes to all, and we hope that you all are enjoying your summer wherever you are – including the snowy regions of Australia!
Sandy, the Quilter and Tony, the Quill
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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