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