Bailey

Aug 01st:  Kyle and Megan decided Allan had to have a thing, an 85lb thing,  I was in the shower when it arrived. Allan has been under strict instructions to not look at any deliveries.  I tried but could not move it to the yard.  Decorate, let’s decorate…

It was funny, Allan didn’t notice it on our way out but when we returned he’s like “what’s that?” None of your business!!!

Aug 02nd:  Much awaited visit by KyAn.  They wanted to come earlier but we wanted to be a little set up and have a bed for them.   Story behind the cylinder container… It’s some wine hooch you heat up, that contains cherries.  Kyle brought it back after his Ukraine deployment.  It is super delicious and like nothing we have here. We enjoyed a bottle with KyAn at their house.  When Kyle gave us the bottle he brought back for us we decided we would enjoy it with them when we purchased our sticks and bricks home.  What we didn’t take into consideration was US border crossings!  My nervous level went through the roof crossing cause I didn’t want them to take it.   It and I survived!

It’s a gift day! We brought them little tokens from Yuma and Los Algodones. Kyle a t-shirt that you wouldn’t find here and for Megan a crazy looking giraffe.  She likes giraffes, when we saw this one we said in unison Megan!

Allan’s turn!  He delayed his birthday till KyAn were here. So love these people!WhatwaWhat was in this one?  Father’s Day pot & pans!  

We all know how much Allan loves butter tarts.  Will this be a hit?

Out of Perth Ontario, they present BUTTER TART MOONSHINE!

What’s a birthday without a new set of PJs                   Summer show your legs off PJs

Don’t know why I didn’t get a photo but the above this is a car dash Hula Girl in memory of Wilf who had one in almost all his vehicles. He had a lot of vehicles.  This is “Kala” installed.  I thought I read Kala is princess today’s google reveals “Kala means to “let go or release” in the Hawaiian language.”

Next up Allan’s IndyCar driver race car model.   Will having this car change Allan’s luck and he’ll start winning?  Doubt it!  ** Fast forward to race day!!  I should have shut up!!! Josef finished 25th, 2 laps down (he should have stayed home) Pato finished 3rd.  I think I should send the race car model back!  Overall Josef is 3rd Pato 5th.  How will the series end??

Allan’s gift from KyAn.  He is very excited, not only did they buy it for him but they are also putting it together!   A wonderful gift!

`I made Allan wait for Kyle to help with this installation.  They did a great job!  This is one of my favourite prints.

Finally fire time! 

Night falls, time for the special “hooch”  Kyle leaps into action using the pots KyAn got Allan for father’s day.  Notice, no handles.  The set comes with 2 handles that are meant to be used to move the pots, it makes storage so easy.  Allan is loving these.

Serving it up                                                             Enjoying, sure is delicious!

Can’t get enough of fire photos!

Aug 03rd:  While they are still sleeping we enjoy a hot tub.  We all hot tubbed last night, didn’t do photos.

Walk time is followed by “Rewards” their first.

We did a thing where one night KyAn got to choice the meal & cook.  Their selected dish was Perogies with Sausages in a a cream sauce.  We added the Taber corn,aber thinks they have the best corn ever, it is pretty good.  I think we’ll make cook night a tradition.

Aug 05th:   Our last walk to see the coulees and some nice houses

Then off we go to Calgary for them to catch their flight.  It was a great visit, we always have such fun with them.

Lucky for them they have lounge access as of course, their WestJet flight was delayed.  No charge for the lovely buffet and drinks makes it bearable. Such a beautiful smile!

Aug 06th:  We take a walk to the neighbouring subdivision that we see across the field from our house.  This is the building we see, turns out it’s a very nice retirement home

 

 

 

 

 

Over there one of those homes is ours!  🙂It’s that time 🙂  Spot the “Rewards”

Aug 14th:  Beautiful sunrise I

 I don’t know who was more startled, me or the cat that jumped up onto our shed turned and saw me!

Yep, yet another chip in Bob’s windshield..  Allan decided it’s time to buy an annual membership to have chips repaired.  We’re hoping this insurance will result in no more chips.Dice time!  For those that play I’d strongly recommend one  of these dice mats.  It really tames the dice.  Thanks again, KyAn!!

Fire time!     

Good to remember…

Join me in recounting a few weeks in the life of Allan & Mary-Ann 🕵️‍♂️🕵️‍♂️

I normally proof read, not for this post.  Hope there are not too many typos!

June 26th:  What’s going on now?  The microwave, that’s been working well, started to shut off after a few seconds.  Plug it into another outlet, same results.  New microwave time.  Buy it, plug it in.  Does the same thing.  Nue-Lit Electric to the rescue

June 28th – On our way to Ikea Calgary an SUV passes up and we hear the dreaded “bang” on the windshield.  Fortunately it’s just a chip and can be repaired.  Detour to Speedy Auto Glass in Calgary; although we have glass coverage we paid out of pocket as they consider the $60 a claim against our policy.  We’ve learned it’s not worth putting it through.

Then on to Ikea     

July 01st:  Picture hanging day.  First a beautiful sunriseWill we get it right the first time, likely not. Fast forward, we didn’t 

It’s also weeding day.  Gosh do I hate anything garden related.  Have no clue how some people find it relaxing.Taking a break and walking around Lake Henderson.  Been awhile since we’ve had  “REWARDS”         

July 05th:   Install Ikea floating shelf day.  But first walk up to a beautiful sun rise

Installation went very well!!

July 7th:  Build the outdoor patio set day, so much to build

In the evening friends popped by for a visit.  Allan beat Shelly at Quatro; but it was Shelly’s first game-a rematch is sure to come.

July 09th:   This is where we are putting the hot tub, first a lot of the greenery will have to be removed and a platform built for the hot tub to sit on

Some of what is growing here

Our first outdoor card game.  Loving the new glasses

Then a delicious dinner     

July 14th:  Pick up dining room chairs at the Brick day.  The first thing Allan didn’t have build.  We just had to remove the plastic.

There was lots of debris on the pick up ramp, unfortunately, we ended up with a flat tire.

July 19th:  Fire wood delivery day!  🔥🪵

July 20th:  It’s build (by others for a change) the hot tub platform.  They did a wonderful job!

 

Celebration fire! 

   July 21st:   What’s on the build menu for today?  Chairs!!

Box and parts = these   

Way too much styrofoam, off to the dump 

But first a quick stop at the hot tub store to visit our newly arrived tub.  We  are so excited to have a tub again….

July 22nd:  Getting the pergola ready for the hot tub.  The patio stones are being removed to make way for the 6×6 framed gravel base.

July 23th:   Allan working hard to remove the bush stump.

Allan the VICTOR proudly displaying the stump

  Whoops didn’t realize it was the grape bush

We may plant more but not behind where the hot tub is going

This is our third attempt at a great room carpet.. whoa such a small box for an 8′ x 10′ area rug!                                                           Hum! A lot wavy!!

It’s so super soft, we love it hope it smartens up!   Fast forward, it did 😃  Look at me now!!Just fluffy not wavy!July 25th:  Another building day.  Today, our shoe cabinet and control centre units

While Allan is building I’m trying to get the garage organized.

 

 

We went out for a walk and came home to more stuff to build!

 

 

First use of the seat!  Yahoo, it didn’t collapse 🙂  The other piece is our “control centre”

The finished products!

July 26th:  Build, build and more build.  Today’s project…

Allan is such a pro at this by now.  Great job, looks wonderful.

July 30th:  Today we set our best, length of time for a fire.  We started it about 7am and stopped it abut 5 due to the weather.  My ❤️‍🔥 god rules!

July 31st:   Allan’s Birthday 🎈🎉🎈🥳🎈

It starts with a fire   

Then a breakfast prepared by me with a beer

Bailey is hiding cause she doesn’t want to go back to storage.

We get to choose dinner on our birthdays, Allan selected 🍕&🍺No surprise here 🙂

The pizza place has a special on 3 pizzas, mix & match. 

Allan had a great birthday, started in Tabor and ended at home 🏠  We will be having another celebration when Kyle & Megan get here!!

 

Many of my FB friends know we lost Wilf, a dear friend, Allan’s best friend, since he was 14 unexpectedly on June 23rd.  The only good that came out of this was Wilf was doing what he loved.  He was on a mini motorcycle getaway with 2 of his friends.  He had over 400 people attend his Celebration of Life.   He will be more than sadly missed. We’ve kind of been in turmoil since.

Us in happy times

That same day we brought Bailey to Diesel Tech to get our “out of province” to become an Albertan.  Should take a day or twoFour days later, when we still hadn’t heard anything we visited Bailey.

The poor thing, stuck in the back

Turns out it’s the tag axle bearings that require replacement.  Just our luck these were discontinued by Freightliner.  How crazy is that??

They suggest they can take it apart, and see if they can find a replacement.  We have no choice, so they went ahead.

They did find a replacement: order part.  There was a miscommunication between who ordered the part and the parts place so they only received one.  Another order placed and of course more delay.

3 weeks later, Bailey is finally ready for pick up

Bailey is an Albertan!!     

Off we go to Bailey’s storage location, we wished to find an indoor location but didn’t happen

Next day, off we go to Back Country RV.  They have Bailey’s broken blind that we need back, we now have Allan’s driver’s side blind that doesn’t retract, needs a fix. Just our luck they can’t be repaired..  We have to order replacements from the States

There is also an issue with the house batteries.  We thought the “out of province” would take a maximum of 2 days as a result we didn’t think to unhook the house batteries.  The tech said to plug it in.  We asked at storage but no available plugs.

Bailey comes home!

2 full days of being plugged in makes no difference; batteries still not charged.  Boo!!

Back to storage Bailey goes!  .

Plan B: Spend a night or 2 at an RV park so see if plugging in to higher power will do it.  Fingers crossed!

 

Saga:  The “we’re so happy we have stable internet” phase didn’t last long.   Back to sporadic internet.  A Telus service call sends Luke to the rescue and we’re now good.

We are still in the find it, buy it, build it

June 14th:  Our lawn mower arrived yesterday, Allan charged the batteries and is now tackling the overgrown lawn time.  It takes a few passes but the lawn is now looking good.

We have done several trips to thedepot 

June 16th:  Our bed arrived yesterday, today is our first night in our new home.  Guess we were both over excited because we awoke super early to see the sunrise and have our first 🔥 Didn’t know the sprinkler would be joining us 💦💦

Our first breakfast

Backyard visitor, oh 🦌             Taking the big leap

Another nice sunrise   

Off to the dump we go.  We have tons of styrofoam that has to go.

Next purchase!  Pit Boss Wood Pellet Grill.  We like charcoal a bit better but the embers go where they choose, Allan is worried about burning down the deck.  This is one heavy grill weighing in at 167 lbs / 76 kg.  Somehow we wrestle it to the backyard and put it together.

First meal on the “Boss”, yummy delicious 🙂

Our life at home and Bailey as a travel get-away started officially on June 22.  Our stint at Elba’s RV Park is done.

Bailey now needs her “out of province” inspection to become an Albertan like the rest of us.  We dropped her at Diesel Tech.  Hoping they don’t find anything expensively wrong with her.                                                                                                                                                     🤞

Many of you know we purchased a home.  It was the strangest deal, offer put in May 3^rd, ended up closing June 1^st.  Date was the seller’s choice.  They also left the weirdest stuff, a heavy duty juicer, a Breville expresso maker, lots of art.

We searched several towns in Alberta & BC and finally settled on Lethbridge.  Lethbridge has our old town, Newmarket, type of feel when we first moved there in 2005.  Small town with everything you want, except for Ikea & an airport – Calgary for that.

TADA our sticks & bricks!!

      Our new home keys 🔑🔑🔑 😁

No furniture yet but enjoying our first drink in the house 

Many have asked if we are keeping Bailey.  A BIG yes!  We have not yet accomplished what we purchased Bailey to do: follow the IndyCar circuit.

We were in St. Petersburg, FL for the road course race, the roads were closed, the stands were brought in,  then on Friday the race was cancelled.  So disappointed but everyone was during Covid.

Bailey and travelling Canada & the US was not our plan but Covid helped to make that happen.  It’s been an amazing time, we saw and did so much we otherwise would not have done. We made the decision to sell our final Ontario property and head to BC to be closer to Kyle & Megan.

Recap!  House sold; we are busy selling most everything when we get the call from Kyle that he’s deployed to the Ukraine.  Change our plans again!  The rest is well documented in our Bailey blog.

All this to say, we always knew we would get another home, we just didn’t know where.  We tried to be happy in BC but that province just wasn’t for us.

Time to get the “sentimental” stuff we have stored on the island.

Friday, June 3^rd, Allan along with his friend Wilf flew to Victoria to pick up the stuff we just couldn’t part with. Here’s Allan being picked up by Wilf.

Speedy trip, fly out of Calgary Friday at 1130pm, hang out at Kyle & Megan’s and catch the Saturday 10am ferry to Vancouver. This would not have been possible had K&M not taken Friday off to pick up the U-Haul and load it at the storage place.  Who has the best kids??

We do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Their handiwork!  Storage unit full                         empty

Loaded U-Haul in Victoria   

The ferry back, yes that’s a whale 🐳 

June 4th 1:23p – Allan & Wilf arrive in Lethbridge 😀 Fortunately they had an uneventful drive back.

Unloaded, thanks much for the help Wilf!! What do we find??  Again our amazing kids

Perfect gift!! 

With everything going on who needs a safe?  We do!  Off to Costco …  Weighs 333 lbs, have lots of help loading.  Whatever are we doing to do to unload???

Back home, attempting the unload, my crocs just keep slipping, no traction to help push.  “Stop” I say, “let me get my runners”.  Takes seconds and I come back to this!  How the heck did Allan get it on the ramp and down it??

I help, just a bit, to get it here       

House comes with a mini library, not sure we are fans but it is a cool oneTaking a break to go for a walk, we spot this..

Yep a radar trap!  We got caught by this last year and paid a hefty fine.  Strange! The radio station announces where the radar is placed, we still got caught didn’t know the rules or know the streets. when we were here last year.  Not that we try to speed, but this caught us off guard.  A much needed break  🙂

Trials and turbulations.  Telus Fiber, was supposed to be installed yesterday in 2.3/4h, they are back today.  2 dudes and 2 more hours later we finally, maybe have internet.Our builder, stools!

Stay tuned for more exciting furniture, if we ever buy it, building….

Goodbye Pincher, a slow hello to Taber… It’s a 90 minute drive when you are not stuck behind this contraction for 20 minutes, no way to pass.Next delay  a seemingly endless train!

Home till Monday We are here with 3 super fun couples and their kids

Names withheld to protect the (not so) innocent!

We learned a few things: use an egg to crack another egg, bocce ball, Orbeez water balls, that we can almost be off grid for 3 days, (almost cause we can’t break our Duolingo streak)  but most delicious was the introduction to new pie!  The selection was cherry, apple and can’t remember the 3rd,  made with a pie iron.  Base is white buttered bread, OMG delicious!  Here’s Shelly in buttery action!Loading up the pie iron

More pie action…

No fire ban 🙂

Such a beautiful night!

  Yummy nightcap 🎆

Walk up the mountain to get internet to do our Duolingo.  Nowhere as challenging as Telepath Mountain in Yuma but still not a fan of “UPs”

Not sure about this trail, we weren’t packing!The view from on top Duolingo done!  🙂

A great weekend with amazing folks!!

Bye to Elbas, Hi to Pincher Creek (notice the engraved items on the top of the sign?)

We are the first campers here this season!!  Sadly, no prizes for this.Whoops slight injure!   

All set up!

First time I’ve seen a deer pee! 

Finally, it’s fire time!!!

Not much going on, the weather flucuates between really nice to really not. We have been getting our daily walks & 10k steps May 7th – Had a rough night of not sleeping, coughing, sneezing, get up to a wicked cold.  I’m getting by with the essentials ….

May 8th – Yahoo!!! moving from the Lethbridge KOA to Elbas Farm.  KOA was the only option when we arrived in March.  They have monthly rates so thought we were good.  Didn’t know how hard the hard water really was, night tempseratures were below freezing so we couldn’t hook up our water filters.  Glasses came out of the dishwash cloudy, the counter had continual rings, didn’t do my OCD any good. Glad to be moving on.

The drive is 15 minutes, what can happen?  We are making 2 stops on the way over; one for diesel other for a Bailey wash.

This happened!  Waiting at the red light behind a Boots Transport tractor trailer, light turns to an advance green, the truck proceeds to the wrong side of the traffic light.  We’re both, “WTF” the trailer rips off the traffic light.  He backs up and is heading to us, all the vehicles from all directions back up to allow this “yahoo” space.  All but us, we can’t back up with Bob hooked up.  We were so dumbfounded I didn’t think to take a photo, wish we had one.

Hard to figure out but…. we were coming from the other direction, the tractor was suppose to end his left turn on the road, instead he went between the traffic light pole & the  yellow sign taking down the traffic light.  Took this photo a few days later.  Traffic light was replaced Fueling goes well, next up Bailey wash.  Went well except for all the cow poop in the bay.  We manuvered around it.  Bailey is clean again 🫧🫧🫧

Back at Elba’s                                                   What’s not opened?  Yep, the large slide, never a dull/cheap moment

The animals greet us.  Strange but we almost think “Whitey” remembers us

Changes here: no more cows,  When Ernst, the owner, was asked where they are, he responded with his classic “in the freezer”  He did say it was a tough winter and he lost an alpacas.  The 2 in the photo are new to keep Whitey company.  There are a lot less sheep but it’s still a working farm.

Tonight’s sunset 

May 9th –  Sunrise  B

Back Country to the rescue!

Slide opens again, fingers crossed it will close and open when we leave here.

Here’s our Allan keeping the locals fed 🙂

May 14th – Mother’s Day

Great day! A much needed, pedi!                                               A fun call from Kyle & Megan.  2 laps around Henderson Lake, to get us close to 10k steps

Then the IndyRace, but oh POOP Allan’s driver’s won.  Not nice on Mother’s Day!!

Then Allan made us delicious TikTok pasta with sausages.  A perfect day!!

Apr 11th – A much awaited day, Bailey bath day.  Think this is the dirties she has ever been!

As we’re doing our pre-launch routine the TPMS (tire pressure monitoring system) starts crying. The rear tag is at 43lbs, all our other tires are 100-ish lbs.  We call our trucker friend who says we’ll be fine, get Bailey fueled & washed, come back then call our road side assistance.

I trust Wilf but am still nervous!   At the Petro-Can they have air so Allan topped the tire up.  I’m feeling better.

Bath time!

Notice the dirt rolling off?

Done, not perfect but so much better.  Allan has a new respect for fire fighters and their handling of hoses.  Allan’s 💪, they are aching.

We put off calling our Road Side Assistance cause we have a few busy upcoming days

April 14th –  Moe’s Tire to the rescue. 

That’s Jerod under Bailey.   Trouble is our tool to remove the wheel hub is being held captive in the back compartment.  It’s jammed closed.  Not locked just jammed.  All the others open. We asked our Winnebago FB group, solution yank it open… hard and replace the plastic thingy that’s going to fly off to release the door.  That done Bing, bang, boom, the wheel is off.

There’s a little nail in the tire.  Bailey appears to love Lethbridge, last year while here we had to replace a tire.  Think she doesn’t want us to leave?Going for a walk Allan takes another look at the tire..The steer tire was put on backyards.  The steer should be going forward not back as it is now.  Another call and 25 more minutes of Allan’s life on the phone with Coachnet,  Moe’s Tire is back to flip it. Just happy this didn’t happen on a travel day.Jared left so bad!  He made no excuses, just felt bad.

Fun thought for the day 🍷🍺🍷

 

Wake up to a frosty windshield, but we were toasty.

You’d think the park would make some effort in plowing, but no

Are we brave enough to hook Bob up in the park?  Yes we are!This is the main in/out road

Happy to be on dry pavementThere are many oversize marked vehicles, this was one of the most oversized we’ve seen

Scenic country

Useless fact:  Our TPM (tire pressure monitor) tells us it’s 46F on the sun side of Bailey 39F on the non-sun side

From mountainous to flatness 

Our second back break stop in a rest area                            The road leaving Fast Forward:  Happy to report this tiny yucky section was the only one we encountered on our trip

Coutts here we are!!

Oh PooP!!  We were scheduled, in our mind, to cross back on the 20th.  A weather check looked like we’d better move that up.  Result is about 12 left over eggs.  This morning I scrambling eggs and packaged in serving size.   Why ?? Cause when we crossed to the States they seized our Costco unopened flat of eggs and bag of frozen chicken breasts same rule applies to crossing back to Canada.   Why Oh PooP??  Cause the Border Guard never asked anything about any food.  All he asked about was liquor, cannabis & firearms.  We declared our hooch and paid the duty.  Entire crossing & payment was just under an hour.  The line wasn’t that long, the over 40 minutes waiting surprised us.

First stop PetroCan that was more like a lake!   

Then on to 

Our street is in the Arizona area 🙂

Wish the weather was similar

All set up,site 101