No bad days - Update on our time so far at Totonaka RV park

Dec 5, 2021

Totonaka RV Park, San Carlos Mexico
*Click on any picture to enlarge

Hard to believe it’s only been three weeks that we’ve been here at Totonaka RV park.  It seems like longer, we’ve settled in nicely and are now turning our eyes to our next stop which will take us further down the coast to Los de Marcos which is just over an hour north of Puerto Vallarta.  Before I share more about that though, here’s an update of our time so far here in San Carlos.

Date of arrival: November 14, 2021

Temperature: 33 degrees celsius

Top: Our 1st spot before we realized the afternoon sun made it impossible to sit outside
Bottom:  The spot we moved to day 3, further back in the park

The first part of our adventure involved figuring out the power situation at our site.  Although we paid for a 50 amp site (which I admit I was surprised to hear they offered), we couldn’t find any site that we could plug into without having issues.  Thankfully a nearby neighbour saw us walking around from site to site to test the outlets and he came over to help. He too was from BC, lots of Canadians here.  As it turned out, he had an extra auto former he was selling for a friend. After buying that from him, we were set.  No worries about frying our electrical system as the auto former helps to regulate the infamously high and variable power here in Mexico. We had planned to buy one down here as they are much cheaper than if you buy in Canada.  Bonus that we got one second hand!

The beach here is gorgeous, right across the street from the park.  There are many other beaches too within a short driving or walking distance.  The beach across from us has a few palapas, a ramp to walk down and a larger ramp for boat access.  I don’t think you could launch a boat on a trailer from the ramp as it is really steep.  It does work great for us to bring our Hobie Tandem Island (TI)kayak down to the beach.  We walk it from our site across the road and into the water.  

Sunset pictures
Top: Looking West toward the sunset and the extinct volcano Tetakawi
Bottom:  Looking East at the moon bright in the sky

Heffay LOVES the beach!  His favourite part is chasing the shadows the birds cast as they fly overhead 🤣
HeyZeus on the other hand is not too keen about the beach yet.  He chose to stay in his carrier instead of exploring

We’ve gotten into a nice routine here.  Everyday we’re up just before the sun rises.  Heffay is primarily to thank for that, but I’m surprised to say how much we actually enjoy getting up that early.  It is a beautiful time of the day, quiet and cool.  Plus, even though we’re up early everyday there is always time for an afternoon siesta!  The day starts with a walk around the park and over along the beach with Heffay.  He’s learning to “heel” but is always very tempted at all the smells and surprises on the ground - especially when the stray cats in the area help out by pulling chicken bones out of the garbage.  UGH!  I’m constantly saying “What are you eating?” And reaching my hand into his mouth to recover his latest treasure. I’m hoping he’ll grow out of that. While Heffay and I are out and about, Dan takes HeyZeus for his daily morning walk.  He’s is so much like a dog, it’s crazy!  That is except for the cries he makes as he basically demands his morning walk.  He’s got quite the vocal cords.

We keep forgetting Heffay is still a young pup and still has lots of learning to do.  It’s not hard to forget he’s a pup given his size already.  I’d guess he’s near to or just over 60 lbs now.  He’s such a great dog, very smart and a great temperament.  He loves everyone and wants to visit with every person and play with every dog 🥰.  And, slowly but surely he’s winning over HoseHey and HeyZeus.  They still don’t hesitate to put him in his place though.  Sweety on the other hand, she’ll have nothing to do with him…she’s too old to put up with his shenanigans!  

We’ve had a few great days out on the water in the kayak already.  Learning something new every time we go out.  Primarily learning how to transport it even easier and also having a few fun moments like realizing shortly after we launched that we forgot to put the plug back in!  Ack!  But as the title says, no bad days.  We quickly recovered and set sail again.  We absolutely LOVE the TI, it is the best boat we’ve ever had and is SO much fun.  We laugh now as being boat owners for many years who liked fair weather boating, we were always looking for days when the wind was slow or non-existant.  With this TI though, we WANT the wind to fill our sail and take us exploring with little to no manual effort at all! It’s AWESOME!  I made a short video of our first time out.  Click  here to watch it.

Pelicans and Dolphins!  

Another fun thing we’ve been doing is making paracord bracelets.  Dan showed me how so now we both make them and give them away once done.  It’s a fun hobby - very relaxing.  Dan makes a bunch of different kinds of camo coloured ones and we give them away to the Marines whenever we come across them, which is pretty frequent.  They seem to go over well. And now as we get closer to Christmas we can just say “Feliz Navidad” and “Gracias por su servicio” as we give them away. Dan has given away about 10 to the Marines so far and about 6 to local park RV’ers.

Our paracord bracelet/keychain hobby 

I guess my final update is that we just set up our Telcel cellular plan.  We realized quickly that the Solis Wi-Fi plan we had wasn’t going to allow us to keep in touch back home.  We burned through our monthly  20GB of 4G data within a week.  We still have 3G unlimited which does allow us to do most things online without much difficulty but isn’t fast enough to allow us to FaceTime, even if audio only.  So, to Telcel I went.  Thankfully, they had someone who spoke enough English to help get us set up.  Although I’ve been learning Spanish and trying to use it, I’m finding it a bit difficult to understand them as they talk so fast and the masks (still mandatory indoor everywhere here) also makes it a bit difficult.  No worries, though, I’ll get there!  Oh yeah, back to the Telcel plan (squirrel!). It is an amazingly cheap plan…12 GB of data and unlimited talk and text throughout Mexico, the US and Canada for only $30 Canadian a month.  Awesome!  So now we can keep connected back home.  

Oh wait!  That’s not my final update…how could I forget!  We had a MAJOR change on Nov 30….I got a new husband!  Although Dan loved his “epic” long white beard, after the second veteran in the park asked him if he was in Vietnam too…he thought it was time to shave it off.  😳🤣 I have to say, it was a truly epic beard.  My bet is that he’ll start to grow it once again.  Time will tell. 

Still loving every minute of our adventure. Looking forward to our next stop which will take us further down the coast into Los de Marcos to Bungalos El Caracol (link) where we’ll spend Christmas and welcome in the New Year.  We’ll be there from December 15 to January 31.  We’re super excited for this next stop where we’ll be right on the beach and into a different climate.  We’ll be going from the desert down into the jungle area where Dan is looking forward to hearing his birds!  The ones we’re used to hearing when we vacationed here in the past.  More on that in a future post, after I figure out what they are called!

Until next time / Hasta la proxima vez!

Week 1 - The journey begins! Our drive from Nanaimo, BC Canada through the US and into Mexico

Nov 21, 2021

Sunrise November 21, 2021 -San Carlos, Mexico 
*click on any picture to enlarge

We just finished our first full week in Mexico and it has been amazing!  We initially thought our first stop would be for just a few days in San Carlos, Mexico at Totonaka RV park.  Giving us time to rest before we headed back on the road to venture a few days drive further south to the Puerta Vallarta area.  But after a couple days in San Carols, we decided we’d like to stay for a month to fully explore the area.  So we’ll be here until at least December 17th.  Temperatures are beautiful here 25 to 30 degrees, sunny dry heat.  Then cooling off nicely to 12-14 degrees overnight.  Perfecto!

Now that we’ve settled in, I’ve got some time to start updating this blog.  My plan for now will be post weekly updates.  But, no promises…I’m finding it WONDERFUL not to have any kind of schedule 😎

The journey here began on a miserable wet day on Nov 7th.  The US land border opened 12:01 EST on Nov 8 which meant we could cross at 9:01 PST on Nov 7.  Not may people realized that which meant ZERO line up when we arrived shortly after 9 p.m.  It had to be the smoothest border crossing ever.  Within 5 minutes and after answering a few questions we were through!  Our first stop was Silver Reef Casino only 20 minutes drive from the border where we spent the night in their parking lot for free!

First night in US - Nov 7, 2021
Silver Reef Casino, Washington

To my surprise, all our animals adapted SUPER smoothly.  I’m sure it helped that we spent 3 days living in the RV in our driveway with our three cats before we began.  The real test came when we introduced our 5 month old Rottweiler pup Heffay to the RV day one of the journey.  A bit of inside info….Heffay is our phonetic spelling of the Spanish word ‘Jefe’ which means ‘the boss’.  I was SO worried he’d be all over the place, chasing the cats and wanting attention while we were driving.  Thankfully, he settled in immediately, sleeping in between us in the cab for the entire journey. Dan was right, I was worried about Heffay for no reason at all 🥰

Border crossing destination:  Nogales, Arizona

HoseHey enjoying the view from the window in the bunk over the cab 
And HeyZeus, Sweety and Heffay - travelling is no problemo!

Day 2 - Nov 8 

- Departure Silver Reef Casino, Washington 8:45 a.m. - destination Portland, Oregon.  Decided not to take the Snowqualmie pass in Washington due to winter road conditions.  

- Stopped at 4 p.m. - French Prairie Baldock Rest Area - Aurora, Oregon

- 290 miles driven (467 km)

French Prairie Baldock Rest Area - Aurora, Oregon
Beautiful huge rest area with tons of RV/Truck parking

Day 3 - Nov 9

- Departure at 7:53 a.m. - destination Klamath Falls, Oregon

- GPS headed us through Umpqua National Forest, Oregon (click on light blue text link for more info).  A gorgeous area but not too much fun driving a 61 foot long RV towing a truck.  Wet and very windy roads along a gorgeous river, often with no shoulder and limited guard rails. And, the guard rails we did pass had numerous dents in them.  It was a bit of a white knuckle drive the entire day!

- Stopped at 4:30 p.m. - Midland Rest Area - Klamath Falls, Oregon

- 338 miles driven (544 km)

Umpqua National Forest, Oregon
Highway 138

Yep, that’s what you think it is! ❄️☃️

Midland Rest Area
Klamath Falls, Oregon

This is what it looked like in the morning - full up!

Day 4 - Nov 10

- Departure at 8:30 a.m. - temperature 3 degrees celsius

- Destination - Reno, Nevada

- Stopped at 4:20 p.m. - Stockman’s Casino - Fallon, Nevada

- 327 miles driven (526 km)

I love his old casino sign.  
It’s not in use, but still on the property in the back

Day 5 - Nov 11

- Departure at 8:15 a.m. - temperature 9 degrees celsius

- Destination - Las Vegas, Nevada

- This was the day I took off my socks and shoes and pulled my sandals out.  And, we saw our first Joshua Tree! 😎

- Stopped at 3:45 p.m. - Amargosa Valley Rest Stop, Nevada

- Temperature - 25 degrees celsius

- 298 miles driven (480 km)

Someone stole my seat!

Day 6 - Nov 12

- Departure at 7:30 a.m. - temperature 14 degrees celsius

- Destination - into Arizona

- We crossed into the Central Time Zone, setting our watches forward one hour

- Stopped at 4:25 p.m. - Mariposa County Rest Stop, Arizona right across the highway from the Area 51 Alien Center.  No, we didn’t go in.  Our goal was to get to Mexico, not tour the US.

- 323 miles driven (520 km)

Day 7 - Nov 13

- Departure at 7:45 a.m. - temperature 14 degrees celsius

- Destination - Nogales, Arizona

- Arrival - 12:30 p.m. - temperature 29 degrees celsius

- This was our final day of driving before reaching the border in Nogales, Arizona which takes you into Nogales, Mexico.  Our plan was to spend the night in the Walmart Supercentre parking lot, as many have done before.  Unfortunately, they changed their policy on allowing overnight camping, so we had to figure out an alternate plan.  After enjoying our first burger from Carl’s Jr - yum! - we decided it was early enough…why not cross the border now?  So…we set off asking our GPS (whom we named “Stella) to set our route.  The key was to ensure we were taking the route for the truck border crossing and NOT the route that sends you straight into the heart of the busy town of Nogales.  And….even after confirming the route in the GPS - Stella sent us astray.  After much conversation with the confused border guards - who were looking at us like we had two heads but who were also nonetheless very helpful and friendly - we crossed into the zoo that is the heart of Nogales with our enormous rig!  There was no way to turn around…our only option was to head on straight through.  I’m happy to say, we made it through without a hitch. Dan is a wonderful driver.  I wish I had taken more pictures, but it was a tad stressful and we both had to keep our eyes wide open.  Four lanes one way through a super crowded and tightly packed “main street”.  Street vendors everywhere, even a fire breather performing at an intersection!!!  Four lanes with cars bumper to bumper shifting lanes all over and people weaving through the traffic.  And, of course many many wide eyes watching us gringos in our enormous rig. Dan pulled on the air horn for a few guys who were cheering us on.

-Stopped at 4:30 p.m. - KM 21 Nogales, Mexico where we got our tourist visas (FMM), and our Temporary Import Permit (TIP) for the truck and our Casa Rodante permit for the RV.  We spent the night in their parking lot - again no charge 😁

Heffay decided he wanted to take the last leg of the trip.  
HeyZeus promised to be his co-navigator, but failed miserably!
This was the day we saw our first saguaro cactus.  Enormous and beautiful.

The only picture I got of our wrong turn headed straight into the heart of Nogales, MX.  
The picture doesn’t do it justice…it gets MUCH crazier past this point.  
Ah, what’s life without some adrenaline now and then though!

Day 8 - Nov 14

- Departure at 9:15 a.m. - temperature 19 degrees celsius

- Destination - Totonaka RV park - San Carlos, Mexico 

- Arrival - 2:00 p.m. - temperature 33 degrees celsius 🌞

- 502 miles (808 km - *Nov 13 and 14 together - after our adventure into Nogales, I forgot to check the mileage EOD Nov 13)

We made it to our first Mexican destination!
Totonaka RV Park, San Carlos, Mexico

Other details of interest:

Total miles driven: 2122.60

Total cost for diesel fuel (including DEF): $1389 Cdn

Total cost for accommodations through US and into Mexico:  $0 

Total cost for food: $83 Cdn (ate out only 3x)

BCAA Travel Medical for 6 months = $1311 Cdn total

BC Ferry - Nanaimo to Vancouver for 61 ft length = $380 Cdn

Mexico 🇲🇽Tourist cards (FMM) = $75 ($37 each Cdn)

Mexico 🇲🇽 TIP deposit for Truck = $606 Cdn (of which we get approx $500 back when we leave)

Mexico 🇲🇽Casa Rodante (RV) permit = $73 Cdn (permits are valid for 10 years)

Mexico 🇲🇽 RV Vehicle Insurance for 6 months - Lewis & Lewis Insurance in US  = *$1358 Cdn 

Mexico 🇲🇽 Truck insurance for 6 months - Lewis & Lewis Insurance = *$419 Cdn

    * we get re-imbursed from ICBC for our BC Vehicle insurance once we return and show proof of our time in Mexico along with this insurance

Mexico 🇲🇽 Tolls from Nogales to San Carlos:

    Toll #1 = 49 pesos for RV and 30 pesos for Truck = approx $5 Cdn 

    Toll #2 = 152 pesos for RV and 92 pesos for Truck = approx $15 Cdn

Until next time / Hasta la proxima vez!

Footnote: apologies if you got a notification of this blog publishing earlier which was incomplete.  HeyZeus decided he wanted to “help” me by walking across my keyboard while I was adding in all he photos🙀😻

Twenty five years ago…

Jul 29, 2021

Our backyard - Brandon Manitoba - July 1996

Where has the time gone!  I can’t believe we’re celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary this month (26 years together).  It all began in Equimalt, BC on Vancouver Island at the base hospital in April 1995.  That’s when we first met.  I had just started working as a clerk at the base hospital where Dan was stationed as a member of the Canadian Armed Forces (Army) working as a dental technician.  In May 1996 when Dan left the forces we moved to the middle of the country - to the small rural city of Brandon, Manitoba. He had found a job in Brandon where his parents had retired and we were able to purchase our first home for only $70k!  That was amazing considering that in Victoria at the time a studio condo was selling for $99k. At the time of our move, I had started working with Human Resources Development Canada as a clerk and thankfully was able to transfer to the same position in Brandon.  From there my career in government continued to where I am now, bringing us all the way back to the west coast in 2008 when I accepted a position working for the provincial government.

Some interesting tidbits about us; we’re both Virgo’s, we both have a recording our parents took of us as toddlers singing “Puff the Magic Dragon” and if you thought that is an odd co-incidence….wait for it….we were born in the same hospital in London, Ontario by, you got it…the SAME doctor!  Admittedly, there were a few years in between those deliveries.  But how freaky is that? The only thing that would have made it more unique would be if the recording we each had of us singing as toddlers was to the song “It’s a Small World”. [A tip: The different coloured text are links to audio or video clips]

A tip:  to see any of the pictures throughout the blog larger, just click on the picture

And, some interesting tidbits about what life was like in 1996:

• We met before the internet as we know it now was widely used.  I read an article that said in 1996 those with internet access spent fewer than 30 minutes a MONTH surfing the web.  I’m pretty sure that I spend more than that on a daily basis now.
• We had a computer in 1995, the first one either of us had ever owned.  I think we got it primarily for gaming - Dan had discovered the game “Doom” from a friend of ours.  I remember that our computer came with 8 MB of RAM and we upgraded it to a whole 64 MB.  We really wanted to upgrade it to 128 MB but that would cost us another $125 which was a huge amount of money back then.  Today, the iPad Pro I’m writing this blog on has 256 GB.  For perspective for anyone reading this that doesn’t know, one GB is 1000x bigger than one MB - mind blowing!  It may seem odd to spell that out, but I bet it won’t be too long in the future before the younger generation won’t even recognize what GB stands for, it’ll be such obsolete tech.  I can’t even imagine where we’ll be at tech wise in another 25 years.  Will we be any closer to a reality as depicted in “The Jetson’s” Lord knows, Amazon ALMOST has us able to put an order in and get it momentarily!
• Speaking of Amazon, in an article ranking the best websites of 1996 Time magazine expressed excitement that Amazon.com would let you search for books “by author, subject or title”.  We all know how far Amazon has grown now.  Heck, I think if I had a week without a delivery they might even reach out to see if I was ok!
• In 1996 most people used dial-up internet, a sound all of us who experienced dial up will never forget.  And at that time, internet speeds ranged from 28.8 Kbps to 33.6 Kbps - compared to today where “good” download speeds are at least 50 Mbps (1 Mbps is 1000x faster than 1 Kbps)
• Cell phones were around, but nobody we knew had one.  We got our first cell phone, a Motorola Startac flip phone in 1998 when we moved to our rural acreage in Beresford, MB
• The first webmail site, Hotmail was launched. There was no instant messaging software.  And of course, there was no Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Instagram.  Likewise Camera phones, digital cameras, iPods, Blue Ray, Skype, Gmail, Wikipedia and iTunes did not yet exist.  It is hard to even imagine not having these platforms or technologies now.
• The top song of the year was “Don’t Speak”by No Doubt followed by “Macarena” by Los Del Rio
• The big movies of the year included:  Independence Day, Twister and Mission Impossible
• Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be successfully cloned was born at Roslin Institute in Midlothian, Scotland.  She was named after Dolly Parton because the  DNA used to clone her came from a mammary gland cell
• Tickle Me Elmo dominated Christmas toy sales.  Every time I heard his laughter it made me smile and laugh out loud.  I even owned one myself just for that very reason!
• “The Unabomber” Theodore (Ted) Kaczynski was arrested, turned in by his brother
• On Christmas day in 1996, six year old child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey was found murdered in her basement.  The case remains unsolved
• The world population was approx 5,738,000,000.  Today in 2021 it is estimated at 7,875,000,000
• Popular quotes of the time “You had me at hello” and “Show me the Money” - from the movie Jerry Maguire
• In Canada there was “Outrage over 63 cents per litre for gas”. In Nanaimo right now, the price on the pump is 165.9 cents per litre.  Ouch!
• Bill Clinton was re-elected for a second term as U.S. President
• Jean Chretien was our Prime Minister in Canada (from 1993 to 2003)
• The “New” blue M&M was all the rage.  In 1995 after a vote for what colour to replace the light brown M&M (so there weren’t two shades of brown), blue came out the winner.  I forgot M&M’s haven’t always had blue ones!

Some earlier pics of us. The top two were in 1995, the year we met.  
The bottom two we were living in Brandon.
 I’d estimate they’re from between 1997 and 2000

We’ve been very fortunate in our many years together, fortunate for many things including good health, good jobs and an ever deepening relationship.  We are each other’s best friend, finishing each others sentences or sometimes even predicting what the other is thinking.  We’ve had some beautiful experiences, having the opportunity to live in various different settings (urban apartments, city homes, rural properties and even a gorgeous log home on 40 private acres just outside of Brandon).  We’ve had some wonderful full of personality furry kids over the years - even up to 7 at once!  Today we’ve got a happy four felines, two or three of whom will join us on our RV adventure later this year while Lou hangs back and keeps mom (Dan’s mom Carol) company.

Our furry kids over the past 26 years:
Buddy, Spooky, Lucy
 Lucy’s kittens, Bart & Maggie,
 L’il Dude, Monkey, Sweety, Hank, Lou & Tweety

Our current furry kids:
Sweety (16 yo) HoseHey (23 mos)
HeyZeus (22 mos) & Lou (11 yo)

These pics span from between 2009 and 2016

Throughout the years we’ve enjoyed many different activities together - we do everything together  including: camping, fishing, hunting (rifle and bow), ATV’g, snowmobiling, kayaking, boating and travelling.  

We fell in love with Mexico after our first trip to the Mayan Riviera back in 1999.  Returning more than a dozen times since then, we are SUPER excited for the next adventure that will take us into Mexico this fall. That is when we’ll take our home on wheels, our Super C RV AKA “the beautiful beast” into Mexico to live and experience the magnificent country for a glorious six month stay!  We’re just three months away from embarking on our journey (so long as the US opens the land border to us “non-essential” travellers - fingers crossed).

Today 💞

Here’s looking forward to many more years ahead, full of love, loads of laughter and new adventures!

Until next time / Hasta la proxima vez!

We bought a sailboat! Well, sort of…

Jul 8, 2021

Here she is set up in the backyard.  HeyZeus approves!

A new toy for our upcoming adventure!  And, more than just a sailboat this is a Hobie Mirage Tandem Island Trimaran.  A mix of a kayak, catamaran and a sailboat!  I can already envision us out in the warm waters off Mexico’s coast using our “island” as the perfect oasis.  Just drop the anchor and lounge, swim and snorkel off her!  We’ll also be setting up rod holders so we can fish from her too.  The Hobie kayaks are pedal kayaks, so no paddling unless you want to…but with a sail and a bit of wind you don’t need to do either!  Personally, I’m looking forward to the peddles.  We’ve had many kayaks over the years but none that were pedal driven.  We can also use it as a tandem kayak just on it’s own for narrow waterways or if we don’t feel like setting it up fully.

We were fortunate to find this 2019 lightly used model for sale right here on the island from a couple who live in Brentwood Bay.  This past Sunday we took the Mill Bay ferry to go pick her up.  In all our years living on the island we had never taken the Mill Bay ferry.  It was a perfect 25 min trip over that allowed us to avoid the Malahat mountain.  That was important because we are still waiting for our new cap for the truck to come in, so had to build our own wooden rack in the truck bed to be able to go and pick it up. I won’t get into the cost of a 2x4 right now…ouch!  Trimming off that drive time was well worth the cost of the ferry.  I’d like to say it was a nice boat ride over, but it was freezing cold and windy, so we didn’t get out to sightsee.

Dan double checking the tie down points while we wait for the ferry.
“That ain’t going anywhere!”

View from the front
 (to see the pictures larger, just click on any picture)

Home at last!

We got her home safe and sound.  She’s a bit of a brute when it comes to weight.  The main kayak is 130lbs unrigged.  Fully rigged she’s 18’6” long, 10’ wide and 240 lbs.  To see it in motion check out this short Hobie Tandem Island promo video. She’s gonna be so much fun!!

View from top
 (without the trampolines on either side)

Next steps are to give her a name and a good wash-down.  I look forward to a future blog to share our adventures out enjoying this beauty!  Not too much longer to go until my leave from work starts!!!  🏝🇲🇽Things are looking up for the land borders to be open again by this fall, fingers, toes, arms, legs and even 👀’s crossed!! 😜

Until next time / Hasta la proxima vez!

UPDATE - Grey Hair Freedom - 2 Years Later

UPDATE! February 2021

I can’t believe it’s already been TWO years since I decided to stop dying my hair and let the natural greys sparkle through!   Nor did I realize it would actually take THIS LONG to grow it out completely.  It could have taken less time if I had cut off all my long hair into a short style - but from past experience, I knew that would be WAY to drastic for me.

Although it didn’t take five years to grow out, I found this picture from 2016 and thought I’d try and strike the same pose for a good side by side comparison

Thankfully, even though I decided to leave it long I have to say I feel very fortunate that my transition wasn’t difficult at all.  I think it is mainly because of when I decided to do this.  I remember making my decision.  I was sitting in a hair salon in Vancouver.  While on a business trip I decided to treat myself to a haircut at a nice salon.  The stylist I got was amazing, and when I told her I was thinking of just quitting the dye altogether and letting my natural hair colour come through, her response surprised me.  Right away she said she loved hearing when people made that decision, even as hard as it could be.  That wasn’t my experience in other salons in the past.  Whenever I mentioned it, they always sighed and would say something like - “you’re too young, people will think you are old” and then...”we can always play around with the colour - highlights/lowlights/toner”...aka $$$ and continual dependence on the salon for touch ups!!  No thanks!  Funny enough, when I was in that salon in Vancouver I happened to see a woman who was probably in her mix 60s in for her weekly or bi-weekly “root touchup”. She had beautiful short hair that was jet black...and then there was the skunk line.  The funny part was, her skunk line was a beautiful crisp white.  I bet she would have been gorgeous with her au natural hair. 

Recognizing the pain in the ass bi-weekly root touch ups alone would be really solidified my decision to ditch the dye right then and there.  And, don’t get me wrong, I am not judging women who decide to continue dying their hair.  The freedom to choose that option is certainly theirs.  For me, I wanted a different kind of freedom.  I have to admit, making the decision when I did, with more dark hair than grey most certainly made the transition much easier on me.  I admire women who make the decision when the distinction between dye and their natural colour is so much more drastic.  

I absolutely LOVE my natural colour! I equally love no longer dying my hair - the hassle - never quite getting the colour I imagined - the brassy/red tones - the mess - the money, the list goes on.  I look forward to watching the progression as my hair changes in the years ahead.  And to boot, just yesterday someone at work said to me “You look so young, seriously you look like you’re 29!” So of course that made my day, heck make that my YEAR! She was seriously shocked when I told her I’d be 49 this year.  I’ll credit that to great family genes....and hey maybe it has something to do with what people are always telling me and writing in every single performance review I have “Yvette is always so calm”. 🥰

For anyone pondering this move, my advice is to take the plunge.  In time, you won’t regret it!

Until next time / Hasta la proxima vez!

Ok Rain, that’s about enough...!

Happy New Year!  

Now if we can just get some reprieve from this damn rain!  I guess I’ll have to give in and dig out my happy light.  It’s just been relentless the last number of days, so dark and just plain nasty. 

I find myself thinking about fellow Canadians who flocked out here to the coast for the winter because the borders are still closed.  I wonder how they are making out, stuck in their RVs in this dreary soggy weather.  I bet they can’t get the chill out of their bones.  I doubt they realized how miserable it can get out here.  Sure, the temperatures are not too bad.  Today it got up to 8 degrees, much “warmer” than in other parts of the country where they are below zero, but that 8 degrees is not as great as it sounds when it’s pissing down rain and the puddles are building all around the house making you nervous about water getting in.  It’s been a bit difficult to find a reason to get out of bed these last few days.  This kind of weather will do that to you.  It’s repetitive days like this I actually find myself missing the brightness of the snow!

On a brighter note, HeyZeus got an outing yesterday.  It’d been awhile since he was out for a walk in the stores.  We took him into Bosley’s pet store for his first time and he made out great!  He settled in on the top of a tall cat tree while everyone in the store came and fawned over him.  He sure knows how to play it up.  The store manager even gave him a catnip toy for free, he’s such a charmer 😊. Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of that adventure.  I’ll have to get some next time.  

We had a little bit of fun the other day, when there was a break in the weather I let the boys out into the backyard.  They weren’t too impressed with how soggy everything was and before long, they decided they  were wet enough and came inside.  Sadly though, I forgot that whenever they are finished outside the first thing they do when they come in is go into their litter boxes.  Turns out that’s not such a great idea when they’re drenched!  I didn’t notice the impact until I saw HoseHey walking all funny, shaking each paw as he stepped.  He was COVERED in litter, all over his wet paws right up to his shoulders and hips.  And of course, so was his brother HeyZeus.  

In hindsight, that would have been a good picture to take...but my first instinct was to get them into a bath asap so the poor guys didn’t try and start cleaning themselves and ingesting all that cat litter!  This was their first bath.  I partially filled the kitchen sink so I could get all the litter off their paws. Interestingly enough, HoseHey did really well.  At first he resisted like all cats do, and he made one really sad and pathetic yelp.  But soon after that he just stopped and stood still letting me clean him off.  He likely figured out I was helping him, and it doesn’t hurt that he actually seems to like water.  HeyZeus on the other hand wasn’t too keen on it.  He resisted the whole time, but we got ‘er done.  I call it a huge success, as measured by the fact that I didn’t have any bloody scratch marks to show once done!

With more of these dreary days on the horizon, I’ll refocus on our RV adventure.  We were ready to go in the fall of 2020, but prevented from it due to the border closures.  So in terms of having everything we “need” for the trip, we pretty much have that covered.  One “bonus” item I’ve been researching though is drones.  I figure that’d be a great way to get aerial shots of our adventure, the RV parks we stay in, the beaches and towns.  I’ve settled on the DJI Mavic Mini 2.  Looking forward to getting that and practicing with it before we go.  Will likely wait until spring to purchase it, once the weather is better and we can actually get outside to use it.

Next winter we’ll be able to escape to much drier and sunnier surroundings.  The countdown has restarted, and assuming the borders will be open by next October we’re only about nine months away!  I’m hopeful the time will fly as quickly as the last nine months have gone.  

I’m looking forward to writing more blogs focused on our preparations for the trip, including getting all our four legged furry friends ready to go!  Until then, we’ll continue to dream of sunshine, turquoise waters and sandy beaches 😎

Until next time / Hasta la proxima vez!