Remembering Sweety Pie

 

2009

It’s always so hard to lose a furry family member.  This August we said goodbye to our sweet 17 year old girl “Sweety Pie” aka “Sweety”.  She joined our family in the fall of 2005 when we were living outside of Brandon, Manitoba.  We had just unexpectedly said goodbye to our sweet boy “L’il Dude” who left us at way too early an age due to a degenerative illness.

Our special rescue L’il Dude 
Just before he passed unexpectedly in 2005

Mourning his loss we did what we always do, we sought out to fill the huge gap he left in our hearts.  Off to the local SPCA we went.  While there we fell in love with some newly born grey and white kittens.  Before adopting right away we decided to sleep on it to make sure we were really ready.  The next morning I went off to work and Dan headed to the SPCA.  I had asked him to “get the one with the pink nose”.  There was one kitten who stood out and he had the cuttest bubble gum pink nose.  When I got home from work we had our pink nosed little guy who we named Monkey Face, and because he didn’t want to separate them, we also welcomed his little sister who we named Sweety Pie.  

Sweety and her brother Monkey, doing what she did best, hugging 💞

This wasn’t the first time we didn’t want to split up brother and sister, when we first moved to Brandon we adopted two lab crosses who were brother and sister who we named Bart and Maggie.  After all, we are “The Simpsons”, lol.  I still remember Dan saying “We can’t split them up they’re brother and sister!” ❤️ 

But I digress, back to Sweety.  The name suited her to a T.  She was genuinely the sweetest cat right from the day she joined us.  She could always be found cuddling and cleaning her brothers or snuggling with me.  Not long after we welcomed Sweety and Monkey, we also welcomed Tweety.  He was a stray cat found in the parking lot at my work.  We brought him in and as there was no room at the SPCA we agreed to foster him over the weekend.  Of course he fit right in, so when the call came from the SPCA on Monday morning we happily told them he’d be staying with us.  Let’s just say the manager of the SPCA wasn’t too surprised by this news.  She had come to know us over the years  and was more than happy to know Tweety now had a wonderful home.  So three kittens to replace our L’il Dude…that’s about right 💜.

Sweety, Tweety and Monkey
Their first weekend together - like peas in a pod
2005

Our beautiful Sweety outlived her two brothers who both passed away earlier than we thought they would in late 2019.  Thankfully, she still had her younger brother Lou for companionship when they passed.  And, in early 2020 we welcomed her bengal brothers HeyZeus and HoseHey.  Even with the house full of cats again, it was never quite the same for her after Tweety and Monkey passed.  She didn’t have the same crazy energy her younger brothers had 😊. 

Instead, she became even more attached to me, I was her person 💕 

January 2020

In the fall of 2021 we set off for our RV adventure through the US and into Mexico.  Sweety had been showing signs of her age, nearing 17 and we honestly didn’t know how far in the journey she’t make it.  Neither of us actually thought she’d make it all the way to Mexico.  She surprised us both, making the journey without any difficulty.  She slept a lot on the drive, but also took time to get up and check out the view.

Checking out the scenery on our drive through the US headed to Mexico

Her favourite place, cuddled up in my lap ❤️ 

Not only did she make it all the way to Mexico, once there she was determined to walk on the beach and feel the warm sunshine on her old bones. She spent most of the day curled up in her favourite spot in the RV, every now and then venturing outside to explore.  And without fail, every night as soon as we turned the lights out she’d climb up on the bed and curl up right beside my head where she’d purr, pummel me and then eventually settle in to sleep for the entire night.  

Feeling her paws in the sand and the sun on her in Lo de Marcos 💕 

Enjoying sunshine on the beach

Her brother HeyZeus loved to cuddle with her.  He couldn’t resist when he’d hear her purring.  It was nice to see her have her brother cuddle with her (aka climb on top of her) even if sometimes she wasn’t up for it. 

Sweety and HeyZeus

She would tolerate HeyZeus, but she and HoseHey never did see eye to eye.  Miraculously though, on the way home HoseHey even curled up somewhat close to her.  For Sweety, these young boys just couldn’t replace her brothers Monkey and Tweety.

HoseHey and Sweety getting close on our RV drive home

Sweety spent her final summer at home here in Nanaimo.  Whenever the sun was out we would let her out on the deck where she’d sleep for most of the day.   She was in indoor cat, but loved being outside on the deck or in the yard. Occasionally she’d surprise us by venturing off the deck down onto the grass and out into the yard.  She seemed almost suddenly to get so very thin and frail, yet it wasn’t sudden and had happened gradually over the last couple years. I remembered the miracle that CBD oil is and how it helped our old guy Hank during his final days so I got some for Sweety as well to help ease her stiff joints and keep her comfortable.

In early August, with her health starting to take a turn for the worse she became more confused and started to lose her sight.  We noticed when she started walking into walls, poor girl.  We also had some fun times trying to figure out where a urine smell was coming from in our downstairs laundry room.  Turned out she wasn’t finding the litter box and was peeing in one of the upstairs registers which was then running down the vent over the laundry room.  Poor old girl.  We helped her by moving her litter box closer to where she was on the main floor, closing the doors to the rooms and vents she was gravitating to and putting dog training pads on the vents just incase she made it into the room.  Which did happen a fair amount since her brothers don’t like closed doors and know how to open them!

I’ll remember her for her sweet nature.  She was a genuinely sweet being, a wonderful cuddler and the loudest, strongest loving purr . It’s never easy making the decision for when it’s time to help them move on.  But once she lost her sight and her old frail bones were causing her trouble getting around, we knew it was time to make that horribly difficult call.  

I’m grateful for the compassion at our local veterinary clinic where they had a special room set aside at an entirely different part of the clinic reserved just for these difficult appointments.  Sweety is now at peace, out of any pain after living a very full life and giving us and her brothers many years of love.  

Rest in peace sweet girl
Thank you for all the love you gave us 💞
August 18, 2022

The Beautiful Columbia River & crossing into Canada May 6 & 7

On Friday May 6 we hit the road just after 9 a.m. It was a brisk 14 degrees celsius and with the wind that seemed to never stop, it felt quite a bit cooler.  I know, I know…14 isn’t “brisk” for early May…but when we’d just spent the last 6 months in 30+ degree weather, it felt “brisk” to us.  On this morning, our destination was to get just outside of Portland, Oregon.  

The first part of the morning we were still headed roughly north westerly on I84 with miles of beautiful green rolling hills on either side of the valley the highway ran through.  For some reason, I have no pictures of this stretch.  Maybe because it was still quite windy and somewhat stressful of a drive.

Around lunchtime we had crossed into Oregon and stopped for lunch at Deadman Pass Rest Area.  It was here that it first smelled like home again.  The pine trees, the humidity, my allergies kicking in (lol) and we even had a short downpour!  It was the first time we’d seen rain, real rain, since we left Nanaimo!  HeyZeus and Heffay got out for a quick exploration of the area, we took advantage of a free onsite RV dump station and hit the road once again.  For some reason, I didn’t take any pictures here either.  Don’t worry though, I make up for it later in the day!   I did grab a screenshot of the aerial view of this rest stop from Google Maps though. *Click on any picture to see larger

We left this stop and the rain followed us on and off.  The roads also got a bit more hairy as we navigated down 6% grades in the rain and at times amongst the clouds as our eardrums popped.  There were even stretches of sun showers like we’re so used to in BC.  Sun just a beamin’ while it’s pouring down rain.  I can’t believe I took no pictures of this stretch…so odd!

By mid afternoon I84 started to head more westerly running alongside the magnificent Columbia River.  The scenery is breathtaking and so is the relentless WIND!  It is a corridor known for it’s wind and is lined with many wind farms to harness it’s energy. 

Wind farms on the horizon

Stunning geography

By 4 p.m. and after another time zone change taking us into the Pacific time zone, we arrived at our spot for the night - Memaloose Rest Stop.  Of all the rest stops, this one had to be the most stunning!!!  The couple google map satellite views don’t do it justice.  Thankfully, I DID pull my camera out for this spot.  It was hard to pick which of the myriad of pictures I took here to share!

Here are some of the views looking across the Columbia River.  It was like looking at a painting.  And the dark clouds lingering in the distance, threatening a storm only made it more magical!

HeyZeus was in heaven, again!  We had a good hour long walk exploring the area and taking pictures.  So long that Dan started to get worried about us.  Funny part was, we didn’t even walk that far a distance, we just took our time and explored every nook and cranny and every amazing camera angle.

If you click on this next picture to enlarge it, you might be able to see the train running alongside the river on the other side of the bank.

W o w

So much to see and smell!

Now that’s a place for a picnic!

A double rainbow!

If you click on the picture below and look closely you can see the train tunnel cut into the rock.  So amazing! I swear I just walked around in awe saying “wow” over and over! 

Stunning!  
You can see the train a little better in this shot.

Black Creek Rest Area, Idaho to Memaloose Rest Area, Oregon

Total miles driven - 364 miles - another long day of driving!

Total cost of fuel - $135 US (25 gal) approx $175 Cdn

And, here we are, at the end of our journey.  We began our final trek on Saturday May 7, leaving just before 8 a.m. at a cool 11 degrees celsius.  Our goal was to get as close to the border as possible, or even to the border.  On our trip down we stayed overnight at the Silver Reef Casino a short 20 minute drive from the border crossing.  We knew it would be a long day, but depending on how we were feeling we left our options open to either stop one more night or cross.  We knew driving through Portland, Tacoma and Seattle would be stressful with all the traffic and multiple lanes, so even though the GPS estimated our arrival at the crossing in the early afternoon, we’d know for sure if we’d cross this day only once we were closer.

Once we got through the bumper to bumper stop and go traffic that felt continual from Portland through Tacoma and through Seattle we made the decision to keep on going.  We arrived at the Pacific Highway Port of Entry and joined the long line up at 3:30 where we proceeded to sit and idle for 1 hour and 45 minutes!  It was NUTS how long it was taking.  Although we thought we’d have lots of time to get the last ferry to Nanaimo, on that day the last ferry running was 5:45 p.m. so we knew we had another night to spend, but this one would be in Canada.  

Eventually we made our way to the extremely tight booth - the mirrors of the RV were literally within inches of touching the concrete booths on either side, even though we were in an RV lane - yikes!  And of course, who isn’t nervous at a border crossing.  Sitting for almost two hours in line didn’t help.  Of course, we had nothing to be nervous about…other than we spent WAY over our $800 per person allotment.  And, I wasn’t sure how much information they would need on what we spent, how much etc and then how much duty and taxes we’d have to pay…or how that would even work.  

Well, all that worry was for nothing.  As we got to the booth it was clear the agent had had a long day.  He sat with arms crossed, a not so friendly face and deadpan asked how long we had been gone, where we travelled and if we had any drugs, alcohol, tobacco and then if we had anything to declare.  We told him we had spent a few thousand over our allotment, which also included the $1000 tow bar we had to replace in Arizona but that we had read may be exempt because it was an emergency fix.  To this he simply asked how much over did we spend and what kinds of things did we buy.  I itemized a few things and I’d say within no more than 2 minutes of conversation he waved us through.  We had to ask him to confirm, we were good to go?  Yep.  Wow, how amazing was that!? Not at all what we expected.  Definitely a pleasant surprise. 

Our final destination for the night was 35 minutes away, to a Walmart parking lot.  This location allows one overnight stay in their lot for free and is located in the Tsawwassen Commons shopping complex, a short 6 minute drive from the BC Ferries Tsawwassen terminal.  Super convenient!  The next morning, on Mother’s day May 8th, we boarded the 10:15 a.m. ferry headed for home. 

We’d spend the next few months freezing our butts off with unseasonably low temperatures, dreary and grey wet days.  Definitely a hard transition after what we had experienced the last six months.  As I write this final post now on August 2, we finally just got a stretch of heat but almost too hot with 30+ degree weather - some days as high as 40 with the humidex.  That’s one thing you can count on here…the weather will always change, sometimes quite drastically.  Two days ago 9 p.m. the humidex was still reading 40 celsius.  And tomorrow?  Calling for a high of 19 with rain.  Ah, island life! 

Memaloose Rest Area, Oregon to Walmart, Delta BC

Total miles driven - 373 miles - the longest day of driving yet!

Total cost of fuel - $217 US (38 gal) approx $280 Cdn

Total cost ferry - $405.60 Cdn

Total miles driven in the RV Nov 7 until we got home on May 8 =  5757 miles

This was the most amazing adventure of my lifetime so far.

  It turned out to be as phenomenal as we had imagined.. 

 For sure a time we will never forget!

Until next time / Hasta la proxima vez!

From Nevada into Idaho - May 5

 

Thursday May 5 we continued our trek north headed out of Nevada and into Idaho.  We were following Interstate 93 travelling toward Interstate 84 where we’d head west.  I84 is also called the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Highway and runs along the magnificent Columbia River.  In the early part of the day we saw flat lands with small scrub brush bookmarked by snow capped mountains on the horizon.  It was a bit hard to stay awake at times because there wasn’t too much of interest to see, until we crossed into Idaho and headed west onto I84.  *Click on any picture to see it larger

Interstate 93

We took a small rest break over lunch in Jackpot, Nevada where HeyZeus and Heffay got out for a walk.  HeyZeus absolutely LOVED this part of our travels, stopping and opening the door to somewhere new.  We could see the excitement on his face and in his body language, not to mention his voice!  It was so cute! 

By mid afternoon we crossed into Idaho where we had another new experience, stopping at a “boat inspection station”.  I realize there are parts in Canada that also have these inspection stations.  Idaho was the first I’d seen them though.  There were a few along the route, the first one we came upon indicated all watercraft must stop.  So, because we had our kayak on the roof of the truck we pulled over.  Sure enough, a woman came out and did a walk around of the kayak checking for any weeds, barnacles, standing water etc - anything that could possibly pollute or contaminate the waters in Idaho if we launched there.  After passing the inspection she “tagged” our kayak gave us a letter for any future stops and we were on our way.  

Well, almost on our way.  While she was doing the inspection Dan noticed a State trooper parked at the edge of the parking lot.  He was strategically set up there to catch any passers by who had watercraft but did not stop.  Figuring he was having a boring day, Dan he went over to offer one of his paracord bracelets.  He had made many different kinds including some that were law enforcement inspired - black with a thin blue line woven through.  I forgot to mention it in the last post but Dan also gave the kind trooper who let us off with a warning the day prior a ‘thin blue line’ bracelet as well. The officer this day was very grateful and thanked him for the bracelet.  In return he gave Dan an Idaho State Police challenge coin.  Very cool!  

The terrain and weather conditions changed as we entered Idaho.  From flat scrub lands to wide canyons as we drove through Twin Falls.  At times the wind was brutal though, creating a fair amount of stress.  At one point we were contemplating stopping for the day at an upcoming rest stop but decided to push on a bit farther.  No sooner than we passed the turn for that rest stop did we drive through a downburst that nearly blew us off the road.  The wind and rain in the burst made it impossible to see anything at all.  It was like we were in the midst of a tornado, even if only for a brief period of time.  That was a super stressful event and had only added to the stress of driving most of the afternoon in high wind conditions.  We were grateful that we weren’t in back to back traffic when the down burst hit.  I’m sure there would have been an accident had that been the case.  After that experience, we learned to trust our gut and stop when we first considered it instead of pushing on. Mother nature can sure be powerful!

Twin Falls, Idaho

Snake River, Idaho

We stopped for the night at the Black Creek Rest Area just on the outskirts of Boise at around 5:30 although if felt only like 4:30 to us as we’d gained an hour during this leg.  It was a smaller rest station, but still very nice.  I’m always so impressed with how well kept the rest areas are across the US.  

Sadly, the wind was too brutal and prevented HeyZeus from getting his walk.  No way we want to risk him getting spooked and managing to get out of his harness this close to a busy highway.  It’s easy enough for him to do if he’s panicked and with high winds, that alone can set him into a frenzied state.  

The next day’s travel would take us further west along I84 headed toward Portland and from there we’d head north toward the US-Canada border for the last leg of our journey.

Google Maps view of the Black Creek Rest Area

Black Creek Rest Area
Boise, Idaho

Our spot for the night.  
By the time it was dark the entire parking lot was full of truckers
along with a few other and RV’ers

Schellbourne Rest Area, Ely NV to Black Creek Rest Area, Boise Idaho

Total miles driven - 329 miles - a long day of driving!

Total cost of fuel - $153 US (29 gal) approx $200 Cdn

Until next time / Hasta la proxima vez!

Leaving Las Vegas - May 4

 

Holy crap, how did it get to be August already?!  I’ve been procrastinating this part of the blog for long enough…time to wrap it up and tell you about the last few days of our fantastic snowbird adventure.

From Vegas we had roughly three nights and four days of travel to take us back to Canada.  We decided to take a different route than the one we took on our way down.  Well, to be accurate we decided to take the route we had originally planned to take down, had we not missed one of the exits we were planning to take, ha ha.  

The trip home was relatively uneventful, good weather (although quite windy for some long stretches) and of course beautiful scenery.  I’ll break this up into 2-3 posts instead of one long one.

We left the KOA in Vegas just after 10 a.m. on Wednesday May 4.  We’d decided to stay an extra day at the KOA due to high winds which don’t mix well with large box style vehicles on highways.  This day was somewhat exciting when we got pulled over by a state trooper!  Yep, Dan had rolled through a stop sign when the highway we were on, in the middle of open space just ended. Now, he’ll say that he thought there was going to be a merge lane onto the next highway, but I do remember saying “hey, you do see that large stop sign with the red flashing lights on it, right?”  Of course, he did, but we were literally in the middle of nowhere, so he slowed but didn’t fully stop - a pretty blatant roll through the sign.  What neither of us noticed was that although there didn’t seem to be anything around for miles, there was of course a state trooper dead ahead of us as we made the corner.  Ah crap!!!  Knowing right away he was caught Dan pulled over before the trooper even had enough time to put his lights on.  That one proactive move alone helped us out.  We thought for sure we were in for a tongue lashing and hefty fine, but thankfully the trooper let us off with a warning.  How lucky were we??  Phew! The trooper chatted Dan up about being in the Canadian Military and of course Heffay was up in the cab beside us on high alert to this stranger at the window who thankfully loved Rotties. Although we didn’t hit any jackpots in Vegas, this sure felt like one on it’s own.

Interesting terrain - mid afternoon in Hiko, Nevada

Shortly after that experience just at before 5 p.m. we found our stop for the night.  Although we were headed for a state rest stop we noticed directly across the highway an abandoned motel and RV park.  We were able to park behind the motel where it was super private, much quieter, had gorgeous views and was surrounded by sage brush which smelled AMAZING!   It smelled like someone was doing laundry close-by, but it was just the natural smell of the wind blowing across the sage brush.  A new experience for me.

Shellbourne Rest Area - I 93
Abandoned motel and RV park on the left

With lots of open space to explore HeyZeus was in heaven!  Both he and Heffay got out for a walk to explore the area.  HoseHey preferred to stay inside, watching us from the dash. With such amazing scenery I took a few pics.  Remember, you can click on any picture to make it larger.

Cool graffiti on the back of the motel

Heffay on patrol

Old power posts from the abandoned RV park

“This way mom…”

HeyZeus - Happy Boy

GORGEOUS!!!!

Our spot behind the motel

This was a pretty cool site, until it got dark and I kinda got feeling like I was in a horror movie.  It was SO dark, and SO quiet and with the abandoned, vandalized buildings all around us I was a bit freaked out.  I could totally imagine zombies stumbling out of the shadows - lol!  The best part was at 3 a.m. when all of a sudden we both shot up in bed when we heard a vehicle horn blare three times.  WTF!!!!  We both got up and peeked out the windows but didn’t see anything.  We thought we were being rousted at 3 a.m. and were waiting for someone to come bang on the door and tell us “you can’t park here”.  But, there was no one around, no other vehicles by us so although confused and a bit freaked out, we went back to bed.  It wasn’t until the next morning that I discovered what had happened.  I was out walking Heffay and all of a sudden heard a horn, again!  Not someone else’s horn…OUR horn.  I came running to the RV thinking Dan was in trouble trying to get my attention only to see HoseHey sitting all pretty watching us from his perch on the steering wheel.  HE had been the one honking the horn by sitting on the steering wheel.  OMG, I laughed so hard!  From then on we made sure the wheel was angled down so it didn’t create such a convenient perch for him. Too funny!

We made our way out of this spot just before 9 a.m. Although overnight the temps dropped down as low as one degree celsius requiring our furnace to kick in, by the time we hit the road it had warmed up to a nice 16 degrees.  Northward we headed, aimed for somewhere around Boise, Idaho.

Sam’s Town KOA Las Vegas, NV to Schellbourne Rest Area, Ely NV

Total miles driven - 288

Total cost of fuel - $258 (45 gal) + $184 (32 gal) = $442 (approx $570 Cdn)

Until next time / Hasta la proxima vez!