Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway .....

Our theme song?! Well, it really could have been with ALMS! We really were van dwelling gypsies! Or at least some people thought we were when we painted the van camouflage - remember that?! We thought it was cool and we did get a lot of compliments on the road but well, let's just say it made stealth camping a little bit more difficult! So much for being camouflaged! 

Anyway ...... we did hit the #1 highway to get us to the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal. For those of us wondering how you say that word it is often said Tah-wass-en or TSA-wa-sen. 

With rain the day before and the next day our timing was good with the weather. Cloudy but a good travel day. We were catching the 10:15 am ferry and so the roads were pretty quiet - this was at around 9ish. This road is mainly used by large trucks.

Again, I'm a little late to the party. This picture was taken well into our trip - just past the highway 17 marker on the map.

Our journey this day October 27th - Chilliwack to the ferry terminal to just south of Nanaimo and 

then on to Coombs.

This is a fairly new route, but a good one, to the ferry terminal. 

It takes about an 1 1/2 hour with only three lights!

Right on time, with about 45 mins to spare, we arrived at the terminal. These days we reserve just to be sure we make it on and don't have to wait too long at the terminal with 1 kid and 5 animals.

Vancouver's global container terminal.

The RV's ride with the big boys! At a total length of 40' it costs us around $240 per trip.

With two hours to fill and being mid morning we always head to the cafeteria first for a late breakfast and then spend some time outside. Hmmmm ..... like father like daughter - this wasn't staged!

The Wood Clan - small but mighty!

Disembarking on to Vancouver Island - it's about another 45 mins to Coombs.

Happy to have reached our first destination for a week long stay at Coombs Country Campground. We hadn't stayed here before but it was good and we recommend it.

Cassia highly recommends the zipline! She doesn't spend much time on playgrounds these days - remember the ALMS days when we must have stopped at EVERY playground along our route!

But a zipline has Cassia's name all over it - she came here every day.

Apparently it had Derek's name on it also. Who does Cassia take after?

If you look close - that's Cassia not sure if she's having fun or not. Derek is teaching her what it would be like on a seesaw if she had brother!

The park has a nice pond area .....

and a short but good walking trail.

Complete with Amanita muscaria.

They inspired Cassia's drawing. She uses Sketches Pro on her iPad.

Coombs is well known for it's Goats on the Roof Old Country Market. It's changed a bit over the years but we still enjoyed strolling around. They have an amazing international food store and really really good donuts - but the donut part is just a rumour - we didn't go twice...

And that's it for our trip traveling to the Island and pics of the area around Coombs. We had a busy week as we also visited Derek's cousin who lives 45 mins north and my sister and brother - in law who live an hour south. Between visiting Derek's mom and sister in Chilliwack and these visits we haven't seen this much family in such a short time in years!

To work in some pictures and memories from previous winters I thought that a good way to do that would be to post some - a day in history - photos. The three to follow are from November 28th 2020 - so almost a year ago. 

This is a good one because at the moment we are getting 100mm of rain here in Tofino. A year ago we were at Pacific Playground on the other side of the Island. We'll be heading back here in January.

Cassia and I enjoyed collecting and making driftwood art.

Cassia and the kittens a year younger.

I should have mentioned in the first post that we'll be posting every Saturday and Wednesday. Our life doesn't move fast enough these days to warrant posting every day and once we catch up we'll be hard pressed even to come up with enough action for three but we'll try. 

Next up is our day at Englishman River Falls Provincial Park which wasn't far from our Park in Coombs. We hadn't been there before but really enjoyed our hike there!

See you then!

Teresa

On the road .... again!

I am pretty sure this is a stolen title from A Life Made Simple! But it's a good one isn't it and certainly appropriate and who remembers anyway! These days our 'on the road' moments are fairly short. 

To spend the winter on Vancouver Island we have two main travel days. We travel the first day to Chilliwack and then the second over to the Island. It can be done in one day but why bother - we now have  5 months! What is an extra day! Plus - we prefer to not travel in rush hour or at night and that is exactly what would happen if we pushed through.

Here are the pics from the day. Not very exciting I know but that's the best part about it! But for those who follows us (ie our much loved American friends!) who haven't been here before it's a chance for you/them to see some of British Columbia - which really is a beautiful province.

So without further ado - here is our trip from Vernon to Chilliwack. 

Our route for the day - seemingly short but a lot of up and down as we cross a mountain range. Like clockwork we left Kekuli Bay at 10 am. Most of our trip time is taken up by just getting through Kelowna!

Because I'm a bit out of practice no photos until we are beginning our first 'up' on the 97C.

And up ......

So far up we've hit the clouds! Ha ha and not so funny - the snow! 

Not unexpected as we usually hit snow up here but it is a bit early. Last year we were here with snow on November 7th instead of this day October 25th.

All I hear from the back seat from snow loving Cassia is how pretty this is. It's pretty alright I say only because I know it won't last long!

Thankfully the road is in good shape..

Awww .... much better! More green than white.

 Just head to the blue Derek!

It turned out to be a nice day but cold up here. No wonder nobody lives up here!

We hadn't been driving long but it was nice to stop at the Loon Lake rest area. It was a short stay as it was pretty cold!

One of my favourite areas of BC. This is just past Aspen Grove. We drove this stretch of highway a lot when we worked Kentucky Alleyne Provincial Park in 2014.

On our way out of Merritt where we stopped for gas.

A forest fire area from this past summer. 

My least favourite part of the Coquihalla as I'm not a fan of going down hill really fast. And no - one does not need to go down it fast but Derek seems to think it's his yearly ride on a roller coaster!

The end seems in sight along with this mountain by this point!

And just like that - a mere 4 hours later - we are in the Fraser Valley. 

This is our third fall doing this trip. From here we head to Derek's mom's place in Chilliwack. We often just spend a night because she lives in an apartment and we park on the street. This year we stayed 2 nights because with the wind storm that took place the day after we arrived and the ferries being shut down we delayed a day. 

From here we get up early and head to the ferry to take us to Vancouver Island. That's up next post!

Teresa 

 

4 years later……..

Well ....... hello! and welcome! 

If you followed the Wood Clan at A Life Made Simple (ALMS) it's has been 4 years (!!!!!) since we posted over there. 

Rather than continue with that blog, Cassia and I have decided to start a new one of our winter travels. These days we stay closer to home heading west instead of south. You'll need to bare with us a for a bit as I (Teresa) am a bit rusty and Cassia - well, she's a newbie blogger. Hopefully she will become more active as the months go by. She really is a wonderful writer and illustrator and perhaps she'll become comfortable with contributing here. In the meantime I'll share some of her work as it is nice for her to have an audience other than Derek and I.

And, speaking of sharing ..... we are happy that you are here to follow along with our adventures. The reason we've decided to begin another blog now is that Cassia and I often visit A Life Made Simple to take walks down memory lane. It really has become a great way for us to remember our trips and for Derek and I to remember Cassia as a toddler. Speaking of which - Cassia is twelve and a half now! When we started ALMS she was 2 and it ends when she was 8. Many regular blog readers watched her grow up. It's hard to believe so much time has passed - isn't it?!

One day we'll be able to look back at this blog recalling all of our days here on the West Coast. We'll also be adding in photos from the last few winters so that we have those memories here as well. If you haven't been with us on Facebook we spent the winter of 2018/19 on Vancouver Island, 2019/2020 back in the States - mainly Utah, Texas and Arizona, 2020/2021 back on the Island and now this year on the Island as well. 

In our last blog post It's Been Quite a Year at A Life Made Simple, Dec. 30th 2017 we talked about the last year ending with our move from Fintry PP to Kekuli Bay PP. Well, we are happy to say that we are still at Kekuli having just completed our 4th season there. Although all Parks have there pros and cons and particular personality - we do like where Kekuli is situated. We have great neighbours and community there and we are close to Vernon. 

We closed the Park on October 18th - completing our 12th year of managing. 

Ready to go! We hook up the Jay Feather the day before and sleep in it so that we have a quick get away the next morning. This year we left Kekuli on October 25th. It isn't easy moving from a 30' to a 17'!

Now for the introduction to the Wood Clan. If you followed us at ALMS you will know the cast of characters. Over the last few years we have sadly lost a few but have happily picked up a few.

To know us is to know that the only time we are in a photo together is usually in one of our silhouette pictures - our favourite way to do a group photo!

Rufus and Bubbles - brother and sister respectively - red Siberian huskies and something else undetermined. They are twelve years old now. 

This is SnowToes - she has been with us for 15 years now. Very sadly for all of us was losing her sister Willow last August. 

And .... Peach and Fluff - affectionately known as the boys. If you are on Facebook with us you will have seen your fair share of pictures of them since we rescued them back in early August of 2020. We were at our favourite dairy in Salmon Arm and were told that relatives had kittens whose mother had been taken by a coyote. We took these two home when they were about 1 month old and nursed them. 

So cute!

They were very dirty and malnourished when we brought them home. Here they are looking much better.

Many of you may recall that Cassia pleaded for a kitten and we relented for her 8th Birthday in 2016. We were happy to welcome Kitkat into the Clan. Tragically, he was taken by a coyote in the park in March of 2020. 

Cassia and her new BFF - Peach.

And so, things have continued on for the Wood Clan. These days life is a little more stable with much less travel. A little less adventure too. Boy are we glad we traveled and were van dwellers when we were! 

The picture above has Cassia and Derek in it. When I took it  a few days ago I was thinking back to this picture from 2014. Remember? Back in our days of boondocking near Terlingua! 

We've been procrastinating for the last few weeks as it was difficult to sit down and get this first post up. It's going to take a bit to get the formatting fine tuned. We've now been here on the Island for almost a month! Next up we'll show you our trip from the Okanagan to the Island and where we've been since we arrived! 

It hasn't been burning! But it has been wet!

We've called this new blog 'West Coast Explorers' as this is what we come to the Island for - to explore the coast! Get ready for a whole lot of beach pictures! 

Teresa and Cassia