Goin' on da road trip

Yep, heading down to the Lower Mainland (southwest coast of B.C.) to visit my and my Husband's family. Gonna be a busy one. Everyone wants a piece of ya when you go to visit. Mainly we stay at my youngest Sister's house, the one that has kids comin' out her ears, 6 of the unruly things, smiling. Love my Nieces and Nephews, just kidding. But what a household. And....two family events, one Saturday night, where the adults are having a party where we dress up as a story book character. The Sunday, another family dinner at Sister's home, with adults and kids. My Siblings number four, so lots of kids and family.

We also visit my Husband's family. A little more formal, and we will go for a big brunch on SAturday. Sunday, a visit to another dear old friend for lunch. I feel lots of good eating and good times coming this weekend.

The home that we are staying with is full of music. All my Sister's kids are musicians. With two of the boys, 16 and 18 being in a little band they call the Jackalbees......did you hear that? Jack al bees....did you get bees? This is the family that, when we lived back in Maple Ridge...shared our acreage with us. Oh those were the days, with my Daughter and her kids living on the property, my Sister and her kids and us and the foster kids, there was a total of 18 people, but we never got in each others’s hair. Bear in mind there was three separate residences, smiling.

Back in that day I had kept up to 10 colonies of bees. Did ya hear that. Yep. Bees. Guess where the name of the band came from? Yep. Bees. In memory of their Auntie that kept bees. This brings me great honour, really, it does. Those boys have always loved us to pieces, they do not have any Grandparents alive, so we were that place. I can’t wait!! I have seen these boys performing on facebook on their accounts and they are really quite good. Musical talent runs in our family big time.

This was not meant to be a lengthy post, but I am that way, that be me...in a nutshell. In a nutshell. Wonder where that expression came from anyways, weird one. Couldn’t fit in a nutshell. Period. Too big, smiling.

Ya, so we got dogs in our back seat. We decided this time to leave our big dog home, much more room that way. Our oldest Grandson and his girlfriend are coming to stay and housesit him. He will be sad, but he loves the Grandson and he can stay in his warm and comfy dog bed, and he likes it there. He is coming up to 13 this year, so rather set in his ways of liking to sleep alot. Perfect for him.

Also bringing a little bun bun. Yep. A friend dropped this little white angora rabbit off yesterday and she will come down with us too. She is incredibly beautiful, I could not believe it when I saw her, wow!! She has a new owner that is so excited to have her come to live with her. So she will be hanging out too. I have a nice box she is in, so she will be comfy too. I thought about just letting her meld with the puppies, but she might not be nice to them, don’t know if puppies and bunnies would get along if they don’t know each other, smiling that big smile.

When we go down to the coast for that 4.5 almost 5 hour drive, there is no hurry. We meander our way down, of course doing the speed limit, but we take our time. These kinds of getaways are not ones that I want anything done in a hurry. Just relax and enjoy the ride. Merritt is the half way point. We stop there and have a lunch, dogs out for business and then back on the road, a wonderful way to travel, no fuss, no muss, just travelling down that open road. That Coquihalla highway bugs me. I have traveled that so many times. The road conditions seem to never be what the lit highway signs indicate. The last time we went down in November, the flashing sign said compact snow and slush. What. Well, OK, no problem, got some pretty hunkerin’ good snow tires. The roads were bare. I mean bare. The sun was kind of shiney and there was not a drop of snow....when was that sign updated? Like days ago. So expect anything on that highway, especially near the summit. I don’t trust what the signs says, clear vision is what I listen to. It will be well, as said, we are never in a hurry.

Yes. So another thing that is coming in tow, is my old Mantis rototiller. Got that refurbished with new tines, cause the old tines had broken one on each side. Beauty of this brand, lifetime warranty on tines. So yes, in the trunk it travels. I know full well that my Sister will be using my old friend to the max, and he will perform. My amazing little partner in crime that helped me and her to cultivate and clear so much land, so many years ago.

Also in tow is two trays of wheat that I sowed and has sprouted. Yep. For wheat grass. We have began to grow this stuff alot and juice it each day. What a most incredible tasting drink. Tastes like you put a whole handful of grass from the lawn into your mouth, only better. I do like the taste of grass. And my understanding this is pretty good for ya, smiling. Yes, so I have wheat grass growing for her and her family. Now about 1 inch tall. Into the trunk it too shall go.

Ya, so may get some time to peek in over the weekend, just to see what my friends are up to, but probably won’t be posting much. Seems we keep pretty when we are away with family and friends. Now ain’t that a thing of beauty. Have an awesome day, CynthiaM.

Drive carefully CynthiaM and have a great time. I can hear the excitment in your post and know you are looking forward to it. I think your sister in law is going to LOVE her new/old Mantis.

Eat, drink and be merry!

Arrived safe and sound. The only bad place was around our area and 20 miles to the west, just west of Salmon Arm, go figure. The rest was clear sailing. Well, that darn snowshed area of the Coquihalla, the hill that Zopkios is on, think called Box Canyon, that long, looooong hill, that has the tunnel at the bottom, that was awful. It was not ploughed. Before the hill it was and after the tunnel. You had absolutely no choice but to drive very slowly down that hill. And I am nearly positive this non-ploughing, well it was ploughed a little, but compact and slushy snow, was done on purpose so that absolutely no one could go fast. I really believe it. Made sense. So a very slow ride down Box Canyon hill. The more I think about it, the more I believe this was highway maintenance to cause EVERYONE to go slow as a slug. Well, if that was the plan, it surely worked. Just popping in to say it is beautiful down here on the coast. Windy as ol' blazes, which blew away the clouds and rain, and made some very blue skies. Have awesome days, CynthiaM.

So, yep home. Was going to leave about 9:00 yesterday morning, and still did, but Daughter phoned and said the Coquihalla was closed until 3:00 PM. What the devil? Oh well, guess we'll just take another route. That choice would be the Hwy 1, through Hope and then up the Canyon. Did. What a beautiful drive. Clear roads, no snow, and after just past Boston Bar, even very little snow accumulation, anywhere. I had forgotten how lovely this drive was. Before the Coquihalla was built (oh man, dating myself here), we used to go up the Canyon to go to places in the interior, so not new to us, but long forgotten. Lovely drive, along the river in many places and just nice. The drive took us about 1.5 hours longer to go this way than the Coquihalla highway, but so worth it. May take that route a little more often when we are coast headed, just for, well, it was a nice and leisurely drive. I remember years ago, the Dairy Queen in Cache Creek was a favourite place to stop for goodies when we took the kids on vacations to the BC interior. It was kind of cool to see this establishment still alive and well. So, yes, got home much later than we ordinarily would have due to the highway closure, but so worth it. Oh yes, by the time we had got to the turning off point in the highway to head through Hope, it showed that all highways were open, so no clue actually what Daughter had warned us about. But it was an oh well, regardless.

On the way down to the coast, I got a sinus cold . What the heck. I knew something was up when we got to the bottom of the last big hill on the Coquihalla and my ears would not equalize that something was up. By the time that same night occurred, full blown sinus cold. I was pretty sick all weekend and am still, in that I have a nasty head cold, but managed to visit and do all that we had wanted to. Just put a huge crimper into how I was enjoying all the visits. Blah....oh well, nose full of snot, I am still not the best, but feel that I am on the mend. Blah. The last time I had a cold was about a year and half ago. I had picked up my Grandson at school. I had a poweraide that I was drinking. I knew he had a cold, but he had gone back to school as he was "over" it. Right....he wanted a drink of the drink, so I said OK. Mistake. About 2 hours later I felt a sneezy nose feeling. That went into the most horrible cold I can remember, very quickly, and I can still remember it took me about 2 weeks to get over it. Blah....shoulda never let him drink on my drink. Anytime now that he wants a drink of my drink, I think deeply, does he have a cold? has he had a cold in the past bit? Do I want to share my drink? Grandma'ness sets in. I let him drink my drink, I like to share and he hasn't shared any illness with me since then. It is good to be home. Back to life normal. Well, kind of. It was late when we got home, about 4:00, so set about putting things away and today I will go and visit the chooks and babies. They have been well looked after while we were gone, I know that, but they need some mamma attention. Yep. Good to be home. No place like home.

No clue what on earth our oldest Grandson did to our bed while we were gone (and I really don't want to know, really, when I begin to think about it, imagination can fly). Him and his girlfriend stayed over for the few days we were gone and housesat our home. Our down duvet was rolled into like a big ball, the sheets were all messed up, full of stuff like crackers, chips, dry soup noodles . What on earth did they do? I know they are very responsible and would not wreck our bed on purpose, but what the bling bling did they do? Oh well, the bed was clean, no need to change sheets. I don't even think they slept under the down, maybe they slept on the down and then rolled it up in a ball. Weird. The down was clean, just everything looked like they had had fights with dry foods and got that stuff everywhere. Oh well. Never look a gift horse in the mouth, the dog was looked after, the house was clean, it was just the bed. Oh that poor bed....have an awesome day, CynthiaM.

CynthiaM wrote:Oh yes, by the time we had got to the turning off point in the highway to head through Hope, it showed that all highways were open, so no clue actually what Daughter had warned us about. But it was an oh well, regardless.

There was planned avalanche control scheduled to shut the Coq down until 3:00 p.m. but the weather was so bad at the spots they needed to do the work, that they decided to stop it and so the highway remained open with a severe winter weather conditions warning.

I'm surprised it didn't say something to that effect down at the junction. I guess everyone is expected to have a smart phone nowadays and be able to check DriveBC.ca. I heard about it on CBC. I got held up for a bit in avalanche control at 3 Valley Gap yesterday.

Ha, ha, Farmchiq, my phone is smart, it is a blackberry and I think it is smart. But I opted to not have internet access on my package, so I don't get internet, so can't check internet stuff. I guess I could if I had wifi signal from somewhere, but don't get that muchly either, that I ever noticed.

Right...avalanche control, makes sense now. Now from what I hear I am really glad we didn't then attempt the Coquihalla route. It is over such high mountain ranges, that weather can be so undetermined. That Fraser Canyon will probably always be the winter route for us now, doesn't really go up high in the mountains very much at all, and I was amazed at how little snow, anywhere, even on the sides of the roads on that route. So what about a bit longer time, it is a long time on the road anyways, what is another 1.5 hours when one can feel so much more safe driving Have wonderful days, CynthiaM.