Saturday, Sunday and Monday, October 10, 11 and 12, 2015 (Fort Langley and Travel to Tulalip Resort Casino, Marysville, WA)

Saturday morning I walked up to the gatehouse to pay the deposit for our stay here next April...while there I thought I'd ask one more time if we could stay an extra night and leave on Tuesday. As I mentioned earlier, the weather forecast has another storm coming through Monday...and we'd much rather not travel in it. Besides after Steve spent 3 days cleaning the trailer we will work around the weather to keep the trailer clean for as long as we can. Unfortunately, we can't stay so we will be starting our journey south tomorrow.

Today, though, we have a great family packed day planned! We headed out shortly after 10:00...we are meeting family at the Earl's restaurant in Burnaby at noon but we had a few errands to do on our way. Our first stop was at Walmart in Langley to pick up a couple of new 5 gallon water containers...no luck with that, hopefully we'll be able to get them somewhere in Burnaby/Vancouver.

Next was a stop at the TD Bank to pick up some Mexican Pesos that I had ordered for our trip to Cabo San Lucas...along with a little US cash. The Canadian dollar had gained a little $0.77 U.S. over the past few days, thank goodness.

Then we carried on into Burnaby where we met family for lunch. Going around the table, left to right...Nicole (Cheryl's daughter), me, Steve, Cheryl (Steve's cousin), Rob, Bev (Steve's cousin), Angela, Chris and Nick (Nicole's boyfriend).
We spent a wonderful couple of hours catching up...great seeing you all!

When we left the restaurant, it was pouring out! We followed Chris and Angela to their place and managed to park the truck on the main road near the side street they live on...excellent! We're always worried about where we'll be able to park and the side street they live on barely lets single lane traffic get through with residential parking on either side of the street...just no way there'd be room for our truck!

Chris took Steve out to Canadian Tire to see if they could find the water containers we needed while Angela and I stayed home, visited and got started on the prep for dinner tonight. The guys weren't gone long...coming back with two new 5 gallon water containers.

Angela's family arrived...and then it was dinner time! Around the table, left to right...me, Steve, Angela's mom, Lucy, and brothers, Marco and Joe, Amanda (Joe's girlfriend)...and finally, Angela's Grandma, Nonna, and dad, Luigi.
And a picture of Luigi that's not blurry...

Thanks for taking the pictures for us, Chris! For some reason, the camera on my phone isn't working...and, of course, our small camera is sitting over at Rob and Angie's!

It was around 8:00 when with big hugs and handshakes, we headed home. Thanks for a wonderful dinner, Angela and Chris...it was so nice being able to spend time with you both, and a real treat visiting with your family as well, Angela!

Sunday morning I had two loads of laundry on by 7:00. Today was supposed to have been our pack-up day in preparation for leaving tomorrow...however, since we have decided to leave today, we had a lot to get done. We aren't going that far today...only to the Tulalip Casino in Marysville, about an hour and a half south into Washington State.

Shortly after 11:30 we pulled out of Fort Camping and said goodbye to Fort Langley...see you next April! We took the Aldergrove/Lynden border crossing into the USA...a heck of a lot faster with no waits and lanes that can accommodate large RV'. We passed Wiser Lake as we headed south towards Bellingham.

After fueling up with diesel in Bellingham ($2.66/gallon...not the cheapest but it was convenient since we were towing), we continued on to our next stop...Camping World in Burlington.
We needed to get a new Rhino Flex sewer hose and hadn't been able to find just the hose (without the fittings). As it turned out, they were all out of just the hose so we had to buy the whole kit anyway...but it was a lot cheaper there even with the dollar exchange.

After we'd finished our shopping, it was time to continue on to our destination for today...Tulalip Casino Resort. They have free RV parking and we usually make it a stop...whether heading south or north.

And right next door is Steve's favourite store...

Although there was plenty of room in the RV parking, our favourite spot at the end of the pull-through's was taken, so we pulled in beside a motorhome. We leveled off and unhitched...we normally don't bother but we plan on spending a couple of nights here and have a bunch of shopping to do tomorrow.

Steve decided to install the new sewer hose right away while I did a minimal set-up inside.

It didn't take Steve long to install the new hose and reattach the sewer hose boom...then it was time to raise the antenna and see what 'over the air' TV channels we can get. For some reason, none came in...we're sure we've been able to get some channels in the past. After checking and re-checking all accessible cable connections, still nothing. It worked last week when we spent a night at Travel Land RV,  however they had to install the new grey tank cables and may have done something unintentionally or we're in a dead spot. We'll try again at our next stop. Since we are going to be here for a couple of nights, we decided to set up the satellite dish.

With that done, we had dinner and settled in for the night...our winter travels south have begun!

Monday we woke to a cold, damp trailer...and it was 7:30! We haven't slept in that late in a long time...mind you, we were both awake at 4:00. I managed to get back to sleep but it took Steve a long time to finally doze back off.

Today was a shopping day...it was after 10:30 when we headed off. Our first stop was Costco where we ended up getting a lot more than I expected. The Costco's in the States seem to carry a lot of different things that we can't get in Canada. We also enjoyed a very nutritious (haha!) lunch and then continued on to our next stop...Suburban Propane to fill a propane tank. Then it was off to Co-Op Supply to refresh our supply of Fresh Cab mouse repellent for $12.99 a 4 packet box...and finally Walmart.

It was after 2:30 by the time we got home. I quickly put all of the groceries away and then it was time for Steve and I to go our separate ways for a little more shopping...he went to Cabela's and I went in the other direction to Seattle Premium Outlets.

About an hour and a half later we both returned to the trailer...I had a new pair of flip flops from the Columbia outlet store and Steve had a new pair of sunglasses.

We chilled for a bit in the trailer...and then went across to the casino for a beer...no, we decided not to do any gambling this time.

We're planning on hitting the road again tomorrow...but we'll see what the weather forecast is for our route. We may stay put for another day...we're in no rush...

 Wishing all of our Canadian family and friends a very 
Happy Thanksgiving...

So much to be thankful for!