Saturday, March 21 to Saturday, March 28, 2020 (Peace Arch RV Park, Surrey, BC)

Our first week back in BC has been anything but exciting...especially since we can't go anywhere or do anything. We have managed to get out for one or two walks around the RV park each day just to get some exercise...but ensuring we keep our distance should we come across anyone also walking. And that has basically been it...a lot of TV watching. Oh, and I have also spent a lot of time doing on-line grocery shopping, trying to find time slots where the store would either deliver or we pick-up. The first time slot I managed to get is for pick-up...on March 30, over a week away. There is such a high density of population in the Greater Vancouver area that the stores just can't handle the volume. I'm just glad I stocked up well when we were in Pahrump!

Saturday (March 21) was our last beautiful sunny day for awhile. We received a bit of disturbing news this morning...an email from Fort Camping where we have reservations for the month of May. Due to Covid-19, they were cancelling all short term reservations and closing until further notice. Fort Camping is a Vancouver Regional Park located in Fort Langley...our favourite spot that we have stayed at many times over the years. We were afraid this was going to happen!

Steve edited pictures taken on our trip home so that I could get started on a blog...and also flushed the tanks.

Sunday (March 22) ended up being a cloudy day. We got back into our resistance exercises routine (every 2 days), had great video chats with our kids and their families, worked on the blog...and of course got out for a walk.

Monday (March 23) morning we woke to the sound of rain on the trailer roof...we're in for some rainy days!

I called the manager here at Peace Arch RV Park to let her know that our reservation at Fort Camping had been cancelled and asked her if there was any chance we could stay here. I felt bad asking because when I emailed her to see if we could get in early (March 20 instead of April 1), she managed to do some switching around to accommodate us but said that we had to leave May 1...her words "departure date has to be respected".  At this point, she said that they were full and had not yet had any cancellations...but she would keep us in mind should something become available.

There was something gnawing away at me about Fort Camping's email...the terminology "short term reservations". So I decided to give them a call since we are booked in for one month. I was told that it was meant for weekend, one and two week reservations and since we were in for a month, we should be okay. She said "should" because everything is changing so quickly...and suggested I call back in April to confirm. Whew...we felt better about that! We will at least have somewhere to go May 1.

Our options expanded later on in the afternoon when I got a call from the manager here...we can stay until July 20, should we need to! I explained to her that we may be able to go to Fort Camping after-all...she asked that we let her know as soon as we confirm with them. Now the thing is...Fort Camping has put in a policy (a couple of years ago) that you are only able to stay a maximum of 30 days in a calendar year (this is during the spring/summer months...they have a winter program for long term folks from mid-October to Mid-April). With this Covid-19 pandemic, we have no idea when we are going to be able to travel again...so unless Fort Camping relaxes their 30-day policy, we would be better off to stay here where we know we have a spot until July 20.

Tuesday (March 24) it rained pretty well all day...although we did manage a quick walk after lunch. My chore for the day was defrosting and cleaning the refrigerator.

We had a beautiful rainbow though...
Wednesday (March 25) was another cloudy drizzly day but by late afternoon, we managed to get out for a walk. The sun actually came out and after our walk, Steve set the chairs up in the empty site next door where we enjoyed the sunshine...
Thursday (March 26) and Friday (March 27) were rainy days...more TV and reading. We did enjoy a video call with our oldest son, Rob and his wife, Angie...wishing them a happy 10th wedding anniversary. Hard to believe that it was 10 years ago when we were in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic! What a great time we all had!

Saturday (March 28)...a repeat of the last few days! After a walk, Steve and I had a few games of Rummikub. Much different playing with just 2 people compared to 4! I won 2 games to Steve's one!

And there you go....one week down! And on day 10 of our 14 day self-isolation (which is now mandatory)...


Monday to Friday, March 16 to 20, 2020 (Travel to Peace Arch RV Park, Surrey, BC)

We managed to get on the road fairly early this morning, around 8:30, but unfortunately we had conflicting GPS directions that took us around in circles until we figured it out. Serena, our Garmin Truckers GPS wanted us to retrace our route part way back to Las Vegas, before heading south...Google Maps told us to go the other direction to highway 372 and cross the mountain range. We finally decided to go highway 372...and learned the reason why Serena wanted us to go another way. Apparently there was a length restriction warning that 65 feet was too long...as soon as I changed our length to 63 feet, we were good to go. It ended up being a fabulous route!
Very scenic...too bad it is cloudy though...





A dry shallow lake bed ahead on the left...




The highway took us to Shoshone and the junction with highway 127, where we turned left (south). If we had continued right that would have taken us to Death Valley on the other side of the mountain range...

Colourful mountains...
There is a huge off-highway area...Dumont Dunes OHV Area...
Sand dunes...
One lone van in this huge boondocking/OHV area...

Mountain reflections in this shallow lake...
Soda Mountains Wilderness Area...a dry lake bed...
That was a very scenic route with very little traffic. At Baker, CA, we hit I-15 and headed southwest towards Barstow. Another shallow lake...
Flowers blooming along the highway...


Don't know what happened here but obviously the driver lost control and rolled his car...
Once we passed Barstow, CA., we took the exit to highway 58 west, towards Bakersfield. Lots of  yellow flowers covering the desert...
The forecast is for a big snow storm in the Tehachapi Pass for later today, 2"- 4" and 55 mph winds so we had our fingers crossed that we would get through the pass and down into Bakersfield before the storm hit. Doesn't look good...
Hundreds of wind generators as we near Mojave and the start of Tehachapi Pass...

A train winding it's way through the mountain tunnels...

Blowing dust in the farm fields in the valley below as we near the bottom of the pass...
We made it through without any snow, thank goodness! But as we passed Bakersfield and went north on highway 99, the rain started, and by the time cut across to the I-5 on highway 46, we were into major rain...
We arrived at our destination for today...Harris Ranch Inn and Restaurant...just after 4:30. It is our first time stopping overnight here so we weren't really sure where we could park. Earl texted us some pointers, though, and we found it was easiest to cozy up to 3 motorhomes parked on the edge of the truck stop lot. Today's travel was almost 8 hours, 623 km/387 miles...
After we got settled, we decided to get out for a walk and check it out more. There is a parking lot between the restaurant and the hotel that a couple of RV's had taken...we may have been able to get in as well but we know for next time. It certainly would have been much quieter than beside the I-5 and the trucks running all night!



We looped around the property...and then navigated around puddles the best we could. All these other RV's are all heading home to BC. In fact we kept running into them at our next two overnight stops. Kind of reminded us of our Alaska trip where we kept running into the same people over and over and have become great friends with some since...
We were up extra early Tuesday (March 17) morning...not a very restful sleep in the truck stop, especially right beside the I-5! So we were on the road before 8:00...with a very foggy start!
The fog finally lifted and we had a mix of sun and cloud as we headed north. An orchard in bloom...
A young orchard...
We saw a number of these signs..."Disinfect 2 Protect Wash Your Hands"...
So many semis on the freeway...and lots of vehicles, both RV's and trucks/cars, with Canadian licence plates heading north.  A very colourful roadside...
Crossing the Sacramento River north of Sacramento...

Colourful along the freeway...
We pulled into Rolling Hills Casino in Corning just before 2:00...almost a 6 hour drive, 476 km/296 miles. It was pouring out and windy!
We lucked into the corner spot in the truck parking lot, quickly got levelled the best we could, and hunkered down inside. The casino appears open but we are self-isolating...do not want to expose ourselves to the Coronavirus (Covid-19) anymore than necessary. It sucks, though, we would normally go inside for drinks and dinner....now I've got to cook! Drats!

The view of the RV park out our side window...
Lots of RV's started arriving to park for the night...
Wednesday (March 18) morning...and up early again. Mind you, we are going to bed at 8:00 p.m. to watch the 12-volt TV...power management! After showering and doing the dishes, we still managed to be on the road at 8:40 a.m.

Just north of Redding, CA, there was a vehicle inspection set up...ensuring all vehicles were carrying chains. This backed traffic up for over 6 miles!
Also a long line of traffic behind us as far as you can see!  As we inched along...for about an hour or so...the traffic sped up. Apparently they had removed the check-point. Steve had actually purchased chains for the truck last fall before we headed south...we plan on carrying them, but never having to us them!
Lake Shasta in the fog...
There had been a storm in the mountains the other night...fresh snow!
Today we have many mountain passes to conquer...
We experienced very light snow flakes through here...yikes!
Black Butte...unfortunately Mt. Shasta was hidden in the clouds...
First time we've seen a Rolls Royce pickup...very cool!
We arrived at Seven Feathers Casino, Canyonville, OR to find it closed...
The main parking lot was blocked...
But luckily the RV parking area was open. There were only 2 other RV's when we arrived but there was a steady stream coming in shortly afterwards. And look!...blue sky and sunshine! Today was a 6.5 hour day, 433 kms/269 miles...
After getting settled, Steve got the chairs out and we enjoyed some sunshine. It seems the further north we went the weather got better.  That's a helicopter pad...
Looking back to the RV parking area from the helicopter pad...
After fuelling up and getting propane at the travel centre Thursday (March 19), we were on the road at 8:30. We had thick fog again this morning...
But the fog burned off and we had clear blue sky the rest of the day. About to cross the Columbia River in Portland...
The traffic through Portland, Olympia, Tacoma, Bellevue (we took 405 Seattle by-pass route) was busy but not the stop-go slowdowns we are used to. So it was a much more enjoyable drive...if you can call going through such a busy section of the I-5 "enjoyable"!
We arrived at the Tulalip Casino, just outside of Marysville, WA, around 4:30. We knew that all Washington Casino's were closed but were hoping that they would leave the RV parking area open...but not so, all parking lots were blocked. So, plan B was to try Cabela's, just adjacent to the casino. Luckily we managed to get the last truck/RV parking spot...unlucky, though...it happened to be right beside an old beater motorhome with the engine running, smoking and sounding like it was ready blow...
Then they decided to start their 7500 watt construction generator that smoked as bad as their motorhome! We had to sit inside with the door and windows shut because of the smoke all the while listening to it for over an hour, which happened to be right outside our side window!
Steve eventually had enough and went over for a talk. Apparently they lost their air which locked up their air brakes so they were running the generator to power this huge portable air compressor they had. They said if they could get their brakes to release they would be leaving. Eventually they turned off the generator and didn't leave so I guess that was a failure...Ahhh...peace and quiet finally, except for the noise of I-5...

Friday (March 20)...and the last leg of our journey home! Its a short drive today and although we started out with a sunny sky, we ran into fog again...

As usual, whether on our way south or north, we stopped at the Pilot Travel Center in Ferndale and filled up with diesel...$2.76. It was shortly after 10:00 when we arrived at the border. There were only a couple of vehicles ahead of us and the crossing was a breeze. We were asked when we left Canada, how much did we spend on goods to bring back into Canada...and if we felt sick or had a fever. No questions about how much alcohol and/or tobacco! He then asked if we were aware that we had to self-isolate for 14 days, gave us an info sheet...and we were on our way...
It was a short drive to Peace Arch RV Park. They have put in precautions for Covid-19...only one person can go into the office to register and we must stand 6 feet back. Although check-in time isn't until 1:00, she said if the site was empty, we could go in. Unfortunately when we pulled up to our site (C-9), the folks were still packing up so we had to wait for about 15 minutes or so until they pulled out.

We got situated on our site, level and unhitched...and both of us got to work on our set up routine, then showered. The sun was wonderful...it was much warmer sitting outside than it was inside our trailer!
So once the work was done, it was time to relax and "cheer" our return to Canada! But we maintained our 2 m/6 ft social distancing, LOL! Todays travel day was just under 2 hours, 139 km/86 miles...
Ahhhhh...it's good to be "home"!