The Salmon Dance

Our RV park is located a few minutes from Goldstream Provincial Park. We decided to try and catch the tail-end of the salmon run that occurs here every year. We didn't see the teeming hoards of salmon thrashing madly upstream as my minds eye suggested. We did see lots of salmon carcasses littering the stream and it's shores. If bears and predatory birds had raucous frat parties, this is what I imagine the morning after would look like. It was macabre but kind of interesting to see little eddies forming around their hollow eye sockets. Nature, you are simultaneously ruthless and beautiful, not unlike many females I have known over the years.

Patches and Maggie met several of their furry brethren and for the most part responded with minor conniptions. I wonder if they make a canine counterpart to catnip, if so our dogs should be on it. The old growth trees here are amazing, especially when you try to imagine how old they must be and how many generations of people these trees have outlived. Phew, I came close to sounding a nutty tree-hugger in that last sentence, sorry! All in all it was a relaxing and awe-inspiring afternoon (can you put those words together in the same sentence? Is it possible to be in awe of something in a relaxed fashion? We may never know).

In closing, here is a picture of a tree that looks like a bum-hole.

Photo Walk

Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll

It's been a fairly quiet week here at Casa Ogilvie. The weather hasn't helped much in the way of giving us energy to do anything. The island received a nice unseasonal dollop of snow and cold temperatures a few days ago, which gave us a good excuse to sleep until noon each day, and do as little as possible in our waking hours. Fortunately, the temperatures have been slowly rising, and it should be warm all weekend, so with any luck the dogs and I can get Zach out to do some errands and walking at Goldstream. He's going a tad batshit stir crazy, if I do say so myself. The dogs and I however are perfectly happy sleeping our lives away, as per usual.

Although we have been spending most of our time in the camper this week, we were lucky enough to get out a couple times to socialize. Our first visit was with The Grand Emperor Clinton, who not only introduced us to a cat with Downs Syndrome, but helped us find a pub that sells $4.75 pints. We had a great visit, and many laughs, and with any luck next time we get together we'll have more than $20 between us, and the weather won't be so Saskatchewan-like.

The next evening, Katherine and Ryan invited us over for supper and a visit, and even let us bring the dogs. Poor pups have had to spend almost every social engagement waiting in the truck since we left Regina. Patches had a nice visit with Rusty, while Maggie spent her evening barking at poor Rusty and at reflections in the window, among other things. It was nice to catch up with Bink and Ryan, and they better be prepared for more visits, 'cause we think they're pretty awesome.

Other than that, not too much to report. We've been eating all our dried and canned goods**, and inventing slow cooker recipes since we don't have propane at the moment, I've been shamelessly self promoting my Etsy shop to try and make some cash, and today we went for a nice walk around the campground when the rain let up a bit. (I'll post some pictures later.)

So sorry folks, life can't be all about sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll all the time. Sometimes it's just about bad weather, eating, and getting very comfortable peeing in front of your spouse.

** Some people were very concerned about our large supply of dried goods, and crossing the border with them. (I'm lookin' at you, Walker.) Not to worry, we are too poor to buy fresh food, so most of them have been going in to soups and stews and casseroles, and should all be gone before we head to the States in January.

Wordless Wednesday

The Reason.

Giving up an affordable, three bedroom apartment in downtown Regina that we loved, to live in a sixteen foot camper sounds incredibly stupid and crazy to the majority of people that we have talked to about it in the past few months. There are a small percentage of folks who were totally gung-ho about it, happy for us and wished that they could come with us, but let's be honest, they are the minority.

We are both aware of how crazy this idea seems to most people. We know that it won't be easy, but as far as I'm concerned, it wasn't always easy in our affordable, three bedroom apartment in downtown Regina that we loved. Life was beginning to get quite dull, what with the financial problems, job stress, friend drama, and then on top of it all we were told we had to move because of our dogs, and learned very quickly that there truly was nowhere we could go that would alleviate any of the stress or make us happy. We could settle into a shitty, over-priced rental house and be poor and grumpy, or we could be creative and figure out another course of action.

We were driving out to Echo Valley to walk the dogs and enjoy the sunshine when we got to talking about retirees and their "snow-birding".

Neither of us are fans of the Saskatchewan winter, for various reasons, and both of us love to camp and travel. Living on the road meant no rent, no utilities, and the freedom to work and live wherever you wanted to. If you got bored, you could just move on. Sounded like a good idea to us, and here we are now. :)

Once we finalized our decision, we immediately began plans for selling our belongings, taking care of debt, and looking for an RV that we could afford, and wouldn't be too horrible to live in. We already knew where we wanted to go, we just needed to take a few months to get there. Compared to other times I just packed up and went somewhere, I think that this time, I was much more responsible when it came to taking care of loose ends. It wasn't easy, but in the end, everything worked out in our favor, even if it didn't go as planned.

And here we are. We've lived in the camper since October 1st, and we've been on the road for two weeks. We're alive and well, and figuring things out as we go.

Life hasn't changed much since we lived in the apartment.

It's still just us and the dogs, we see friends

and family once in a while, and Facebook, email and

Twitter keep us connected with the people at home, just like it did before.

We aren't sure how long we'll be on the road, but we know we'll be back next summer for the annual Canada Day camping trip, and are thinking of staying in Saskatchewan for the summer. We might decide to stay there for good, or maybe we'll have found somewhere else we want to live by then. Or maybe, we'll have saved up enough money for a

better RV, and we'll continue on as we are right now.

Only time will tell.

Not so Wordless Thursday

I had intended on starting a weekly "Wordless Wednesday" post this week, as so many other bloggers do. However, upon learning a few short hours ago that today is, in fact, Thursday and not Wednesday, I realized that I had missed the boat on that one.

"Wordless Thursday" just doesn't have the same ring to it, but I figured better late than never. Maybe next week I'll be more on the ball.

Actually, now that I think about it, most of the people who will be reading this blog live in Saskatchewan, where it is, in fact, now Friday. Sheesh, I'm just not gonna win this one, am I?

Well then, have a good weekend, and keep each other warm, while we attempt to keep dry.

Vancouver and Beyond

After taking our time driving through the mountains, stopping and visiting family and such, we arrived in Vancouver. We've been camped out in a Walmart parking lot in Burnaby until today, when we decided that we needed to park this trailer, so we could be more mobile in the city while we visit friends and wait for Rogers to deal with our Rocket Hub.

We drove out to Tsawwassen this morning and set up camp at the ParkCanada RV park. I don't think either of us expected to find the greatest place on earth, but at the same time, we were not prepared for the mud, the less than stellar facilities, or the folks that live here in their motor homes turned houses. (I will try and sneak some photos in the morning.) The upside was that they had public showers and believe me, we were both getting pretty ripe, since our last shower was in Armstrong a few days ago.

Once we got settled in, I gathered my toiletries and headed off to the shower room. I have honestly never been so paranoid and scared in a shower stall before. I don't know if it's because it's the off-season and no one else is really around, or maybe it was the redneck hunters, and sketchy looking trailer park boys and their dogs that weirded me out, but the whole time I was washing my hair, I kept peeking around the curtain to look for shadows and listen for foot steps. It was a scene that could have started any B-rated horror movie or zombie flick. Needless to say, I got the hell out of there as fast as I could, and I won't be going back unless absolutely necessary.
(Zach was none too impressed with the showers either, he was afraid that some local inbred child would walk in on him.)

Needless to say, we are not sticking around these parts for long. We want to have one more visit with Steve tomorrow, and we have some planning to do for the next leg of our journey, which will take us across the water to the island. This just isn't the right time of year for Vancouver and the Ogilvie's to be together, what with the grey and the rain and such, although it's been great to see Steve, Vince, Nat and Nathan. I'm sure we'll be back over here in a couple months to visit some family and friends, before we mosey on down to the USA.

G'night folks. Drop us a line and let us know what's going on with you in your neck of the woods. scampercampers@gmail.com

Travel Daze

Banff and Lake Louise are all but deserted at this time of the year. It's too cold for most forms of summer recreation and there's no snow yet for skiing and snowboarding. We pulled off the #1 about 7pm Sunday evening and found our way to Tunnel Mountain campground just outside Banff. Leaving Calgary as night fell, our entrance into the mountains was like driving into a black void.

Waking up early I found everything coated with a layer of frost. Sure enough, that black void we drove through had given way to an expansive mountain range. We headed into a sleepy, tourist-less Banff and fueled up with gasoline and coffee. We inhaled some breakfast in Lake Louise and then continued west through the Kicking Horse Pass. Coffee, drive, pee, repeat. On to Rogers Pass where we sprang forward or fell back or whatever it is you're supposed to do with your clocks. One thing I'll miss about Saskatchewan is the lack of daylight savings time!

We hit heavy rain from Revelstoke right up to Armstrong. There was a huge double rainbow that followed us for about a half-hour. The leprechaun is full of beans, there is NO end to a rainbow, it's an optical phenomenon and you'll never find any gold! We pulled into my grandparent's place about 5pm and we're being forced to drink wine, eat tasty food, baking, and mandarin oranges - it's terrible!!