Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, September 16, 17 and 18, 2015 (Fort Camping, Brae Island Regional Park, Fort Langley, BC)

It's taken no time for us to slip back into our 'retirement routine'...we're still up early but enjoy a relaxing start to the day. It was mid morning by the time we were ready to get on with our day.

We expected to be hunkered down inside due to rain today but it looks like the forecast has moved the rain back by a day or two. So Steve headed outside and started taking everything out of the trailer basement...time to clean it out and wash the deck.

After that was done, he moved on to project #2...offload the bicycles from the back of the trailer, pump up the tires...and get them ready for a ride.

It was about 11:30 when we headed off on our bikes. We crossed the bridge and rode along the river trail. Of course, we stopped along the way for some pictures. Some paddlers practicing in the river...

Our rest stop along the way...

We made it all of the way to Edgewater Bar Campground....about 5 miles west of Fort Langley...

This is a beautiful campground but all the sites are too short for our rig and kind of expensive at $24  per night for no services...

After a rest, it was time to head back...I took the lead on the way home...

We stopped at Lee's Market to pick up a couple of things needed for the dessert I was making for dinner tonight. Our neighbours, Deb and Ray, invited us over for dinner and I offered to make dessert. Deb is a fabulous cook...she finds it therapeutic, so she is trying a new recipe and "cooking up a storm" for us today. Sweet! We love being her "guinea pigs"!

It was about 2:00 when we got home..with legs like jelly after almost a 10 mile bike ride! I warmed up soup for a light lunch...and we watched these critters also munching away on the bird seed on the ground...

I did a little baking...trail bars and then hot fudge pie (for dessert) while Steve relaxed watching a little TV.

Then it was time to join Ray and Deb outside for happy hour...

We chatted while enjoying Deb's homemade salsa...she also presented the menu for tonight. Sounds yummy!

And then it was time to head inside their motorhome so the cook could continue with the final preparations for dinner...

Deb...in her "happy place"...

 Looking good!

She plated our dinner...looks exquisite! And it tasted wonderful! Well done, Deb, it was delicious!

After dinner...and dessert (which tasted pretty good too!), we sat chatting some more. Ray had a great selection of music so Deb and I just had to get up and have a little dance...with the dogs. They have a couple of guest dogs visiting just for the day...Kristie and Jason (Ray and Deb's daughter and son-in-law) dropped them off this morning and will be back tonight. This is Zeus and Athena...

It must have been going on 10:00 by the time we bid goodnight to our hosts and headed home. We had a wonderful evening...thanks so much Deb and Ray!

Thursday morning Steve was up, showered had breakfast and was on the road shortly before 8:00. He was taking the truck into Gold Key Isuzu (again!). I'll pass the laptop over to him to explain what transpired there...

Sometime in 2013 we very, very intermittently would occasionally hear a slight squealing noise coming from the truck when the exhaust brake would engage. By February 2014 the squealing was very apparent every time the exhaust brake engaged. Before our return to Canada we had the truck serviced in Phoenix. The dealer there suspected an exhaust leak in the exhaust manifold but had no stock, and because we were in transit and couldn't wait, decided to have it taken care of by the dealer we bought the truck from back home.
So on our return, that dealer discovered that it was the EGR Cooler gasket leaking at the exhaust manifold and coolant was leaking inside the EGR Cooler so replaced them both. Fast forward to now, I have been back to both dealers a total of seven times, had the EGR Cooler replaced twice and gaskets 5 times! On today's visit I suggested to my dealer that if all of these parts are continually replaced and only give a temporary fix it must be where the EGR Cooler bolts to the exhaust manifold. Is it warped or cracked? They inspected that area and found no defects. So they once again replaced the gasket but this time added a special hi temperature exhaust cement made by Caterpillar that costs $300 for a very small can. I have no faith in this last fix. My extended warranty expired last January but thankfully my home dealer has covered the cost the last two times, but that's not forever. According to them Isuzu doesn't want to have anything to do with this ongoing issue even though it was never resolved during my warranty period. So I decided that I was going to send an email to Isuzu Canada, explain the situation and see what they say.

While Steve was off taking care of the truck, Deb and I headed out at 10:00 for a day of shopping. We had a wonderful "pink" day...lots of poking around the stores and taking our time looking. I loved it! Before we knew it, it was after 2:00 and we hadn't had lunch yet! So we found a Chinese food spot where we happened to be...Morgan Creek, a trendy spot in south Surrey with all sorts of shops, stores and restaurants. We didn't get home until after 4:30. I had had a very successful day...new frying pans, including a wok style one plus 3 shirts/tops.

Ray and Deb came over and we had happy hour, all discussing our day. While chatting, Steve captured this picture of an antique car coming back into the park. It's from Washington State and apparently there is some kind of gathering happening in Langley this weekend.

Friday started off in our usual lazy fashion....then we did our resistance exercises; yes, we are trying to get back into the routine of regular weight training. By the time we finished that, had breakfast and showered, it was after 11:00 a.m.!

My project for today was to give the shower stall and bathroom a good cleaning. I had just finished that when the phone rang. It was our doctor's office asking if we could come in early for our appointments scheduled for this afternoon...sure, no problem, what time? 12:30, okay we'll be there! Well, I didn't realize that it was already after noon! So that gave us about 20 minutes to get into Langley...but we made it! Sadly as we approached the intersection by our doctors office there were a lot of police, fire and ambulance vehicles. Steve saw the attendant giving CPR. It appeared that a van hit a pedestrian and unfortunately that person passed away. As we left the doctors more than an hour later they still hadn't removed the body.

After enduring all that, we got home around 2:30. We spent the rest of the afternoon chilling inside...I finished a crochet project and Steve worked on his email to Isuzu Canada.