October to December 2020

The Trip

Planning the route to Kenora, where to stop? Should we look for a trailer on Kijiji? Where to stop between Kenora and Big Bar? There are some provincial travel restrictions.

Waterloo->RB557->Thunder Bay->Kenora
Waterloo->Wawa->Kenora
Stop in kenora for a few days
Kenora->Canmore (how far?)->Big Bar->Vancouver

Date	From-To	km	Stay	Gas refill
Sat Oct 24th	Waterloo-Wawa	969	Parkview motel	SSM
Sun Oct 25th	Wawa-Kenora	946	Comfort inn	TBay
Mon-Wed	Kenora	0	Comfort Inn	Kenora
Thu Oct 29th	Kenora-Swift Current	1029	Coastal Inn	Swift Current
Fri Oct 30th	Swift Current-Canmore	613	Canmore inn & Suites	Canmore
Sat Oct 31st	Canmore-Vancouver	864	1408 E15th St.

Stayed in Vancouver for three weeks ecept for a side trip up the Sunshine Coast. Then on Monday 23rd November, we had a 7AM alarm call, said bye-bye Max and Keelin, drove down to Tsawwassen for the 9:55 ferry, which stopped at Galiano, Mayne, Pender islands and finally at SaltSpring. Easy trip into town. Easy to find #175, looks like a great find. Unpacked the car for the first time since Temagami, moved in. Internet, wifi, TV, fire stick, the whole nine yards. So our new address is

    175 FULFORD-GANGES RD
    SALT SPRING ISLAND, BC
    V8K 2V6.

Went for an evening walk around town, lots of coffee shops, book stores, artisan sales stores, restaurants, nice little grocery stores. Could be a nice town.

On Tuesday, it poured rain most of the day. We drove to Fulford, saw the little harbour, then went up towards Maxwell landing. 2km in the dirt road (1/5th of the way to the landing?) we decided we weren’t going to live there.

We then drove up to Vesuvius, round the north point, picked up some hitchhikers and brought them to Ganges, then went to see the farm location on Upper Ganges road. Went for another walk round town, this time we checked in at Moby’s and went out the Long Harbour marina. Big marina, lots of nice places on the east shore of the harbour.

On Wednesday we walked down Fulford-Ganges Road and up Charlesworth to see the houses with the nice views on Devine, Cudmore etc. Back down a little trail that brought us to the sushi bar.

First week of December

December 1st is day 9 of self isolation on SSI. Again no rain, -2 at breakfast time.
Helly Hansen research
- HP foil
- Odin Skarstind
- Garibaldi 20
Mobys to watch some football, but no DAZN for them. View from our seat was gorgeous. Matt said Kelly Regan was his realtor.
$300 off Trek eBikes, but maybe not yet.
Lots of sun so far ……
Out to Tin Can Alley to drop off our recycling.
Down to Ashiya Rd to have a look at this place. Maybe not enough sunshine, possibly too many steps, but nice views and small community.
Drove to look at a couple of fancy places on Mount Erskine drive. Quite a damp looking place. Some beach access down the bottom of a really big hill.
Also saw the three level place on Collins Road. Nice but too many levels.
Visited all the side streets around Vesuvius. Some very nice west facing locations.
Monday 7th, First rain for 10 days.
Facebook call with the kids. Pulled the plug on the Christmas canoe trip and AirBNB rental.
Short walk around the pubs in town. None of them has DAZN :-(
Saw this plane at the coast guard dock
Used kayaks for good price
Free Dostoevsky books
Nova Scotia place for the same price as our Waterloo place - L&S 1197B.
Wed 9th: Steady rain all morning, will go until 9pm according to Alma’s weather app.
Nice clean blog with some good info.
Thursday 10th, Happy Christmas IST - Zoom call with a bunch of retirees
Want to set up our GPX hikes like this
Did some hiking at Channel Ridge. We like Canvasback and Sandpiper. Maybe consider some lots up there.
Some hard to look at pictures of old growth logging
Watching a Github repo that emulates Netlify.
paddle for $75
Blackwater paddle for $115
How to embed a GPX track on your own Openstreetmap
Sun 12th: Hiked up Dean Road to Bishop’s walk on Saturday.
Looking at lots for sale. Maybe Brad Gringler or Green City Builders.
Thanks Mick! Check out the [Walker Roaders] (https://www.americanbluesscene.com/the-walker-roaders-members-of-the-pogues-dropkick-murphys-and-flogging-molly-share-rendition-of-howlin-wolfs-smokestack-lightning/) version of Smokestack Lightning.

The Christmas drink

Got some ideas for a christmas drink or even this.

Ingredients: 1 oz Raspberry Vodka (Burnett’s), 1/2 oz Chocolate Liqueur (Godiva) and a Brandy Snifter.

Directions : Add chilled raspberry vodka and chilled chocolate liqueur to a brandy snifter.

In the end, we made this: West Coast Chocaholic using : 1½ oz Laura Secord Chocolate Cream Liqueur and ¾ oz vodka. Shake ingredients with ice in a martini shaker and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with chocolate shavings or drizzle chocolate sauce over the surface.

Words: Stylish, well dressed, blini, smart, Kind, generous, Peaceful, good attitude for the world, loyal, make good friends, organized, don’t miss any steps, giggles, can’t hold them in, Adventurous, always up for fun, Thoughtful, caring individual