Day 5 - 7 Snowbirds in a Snowstorm!

 Sat Oct 22 through Mon Oct 24, 2022

Heffay sees snow for the first time.  “I like it mom!”

On Saturday morning we woke up to blustery conditions in Wells, Nevada.  We got a good nights rest, even though the winds were howling hard.  Wind warnings were in effect with gusts expected up to 75 km/hr.  With those conditions we decided to pull in our slides so as not to damage the awning toppers that cover them.  Thankfully our RV still has plenty of room inside  to move around and to sleep comfortably even with the slides in.  That has always been a requirement for us when buying RVs.  

Our overnight spot at the truck stop in Wells, NV

We started the morning off with a short walk for Heffay.  His reaction when I opened the door and he saw snow on the steps was priceless.  He was completely confused as he had never seen snow before.  Once he got outside, he absolutely loved it!  I can’t say I felt the same.  All I had was a light rain jacket over my sweatshirt and the wind seemed to whip right through it.  

HoseHey checking out the weather conditions.  “What the heck is this mom?”

We decided we’d stay put for another day while we waited for this storm to pass.  Conditions were not ideal with strong winds and temps hovering at the freezing point, snow and windchills close to the minus teens Celsius.  Having lived in winter climates before, we knew enough that those conditions were prime for black ice on the roads.  Something you never want to hit let alone while driving such a boxy vehicle down the road.  Many truckers in the truck stop we were at were staying put too so that tells you how bad it was.  

Brrr!

After making bacon and eggs for breakfast we decided to check the forecast again.  Temps were not going to rise much and the winds were going to continue.  That got us thinking about our water lines, our lithium batteries, our DEF fluid and our furnace. All those things were susceptible to the cold temps.  Water lines could freeze, our lithium batteries won’t take a charge below zero, the boxes of DEF fluid we bought could freeze rendering them useless and our furnace ran off the onboard propane which we had filled with butane last time we were in Mexico.  Mexico doesn’t have propane.  The difference being that butane’s boiling point is -2ºC meaning it will be difficult or impossible for it to produce gas vapour in cold temperatures.  Propane on the other hand has a boiling point of -42ºC meaning it will continue to vaporize and turn to gas in colder climates.  

With all this in mind, the idea of having a site where we could plug in sounded more appealing than boon docking in a parking lot.  Thankfully there are a couple of RV parks in Wells.  We decided to stay at Mountain Shadows RV park which was only five minutes from where we were parked.  It was also about $10 cheaper than the other RV park called Angel Lake RV park.  I got online and booked us a spot then we headed over.  It was the coldest I’ve been in a long time, but within a few minutes of set up we were plugged in and warming everything up.  Thankfully they had a site available that was big enough that we didn’t have to unhook the truck.  That was a bonus.  It was a low key day and I got the opportunity to take some cool shots of the snowy conditions on the surrounding mountains even though I froze my butt off getting them!

Our spot at Mountain Shadows RV park, Wells Nevada

View looking North from the park

View looking South from the park

Overall, it was a good stop but if we had to stay overnight again in Wells I think I’d check out the Angel Lake RV park.  I’m wondering if where we stayed at Mountain Shadows RV park was cheaper because they are right near the train tracks.  We heard train horns all night long which didn’t make for a very good nights rest.

Although temps were to stay cold into the coming days the wind warnings were removed the next morning which is when we headed out.  I couldn’t imagine staying there in that cold wind any longer than we absolutely had to.  Early Sunday Oct 23 we hit the road with cold temps but sunny skies and most importantly dry roads.  Oh, and as an extra bonus…I was officially SICK, ugh.  I had been feeling something coming on and sure enough, it hit full force Sunday morning, yippee!

Heffay, ready to hit the road 😊 

Pretty scenery with snow covered mountains as we drove out of Wells

By all accounts, the roads and the weather was looking good.  But, that didn’t last too long as we made our way south toward Ely, NV which is at a higher elevation.

Looking somewhat ominous up ahead…

I had a chance to take a few video clips as we progressed through this area.  At the top of the mountain when the conditions were the worst temps dropped to -2ºC (28ºF) and we were met with a mix of snow, sleet and rain.  It was definitely nail biting at times, but we made it safe and sound.  Here’s a short video clip to give you a sense of what it was like to drive through.  Let’s hope we never have to repeat that again!

Once through this stretch, we set course to get as close to Las Vegas as we could and gradually temperatures started to warm up.  By 4:30 we had made it to Loves Truck stop just north of Las Vegas.  We filled up our diesel and set out to find a quiet spot in the busy truck stop to overnight.  After moving the RV three different times and realizing it was not going to be a peaceful place to stop, we decided to head into Vegas to stay at the KOA we stayed at in the spring.  And, rather than just pushing on the next morning we decided we’d take a couple nights rest to recuperate and finish stocking up on dog food and food goods.   They had a spot available for us, but we were lucky as they were almost completely full! 

It was cooler than “normal” in Vegas with highs of only 18 ºC but, having been where we’d just been that felt wonderful.  I wasn’t about to complain one bit!

Our site for two nights at Sam’s Town KOA in Las Vegas

It was a good rest, although on Monday morning I realized our electric water heater wasn’t working.  Thankfully we were able to get a mobile RV tech to come and fix it that day.  Unfortunately though, our warranty had run out earlier this year and so the full $1200 Cdn bill hit us pretty hard.  Isn’t that always the way though?  Something expensive like that happens within months of the warranty running out.  On a positive note, by the time we left Vegas I had started to feel a bit better.  My ears were no longer plugged and my throat wasn’t as sore as it had been.  I’d keep crunching on the chewable vitamin C I picked up in Costco though, to hopefully keep it at bay.

On Tuesday we’d set out on the road again to continue our journey south.

Wells, NV to Las Vegas, NV

Start Time - 9:30 a.m.

Temp at start - 0ºC (32ºF)
End Time - 5:30 p.m.

Temp at end - 16ºC (60ºF)

Total driven - 348 miles

Accommodation cost - $42.81 Cdn for 1 night in Wells, NV + $199 for 2 nights in Las Vegas

Fuel - $250 US ($341 Cdn) - 44 gallons @ 5.67/gal

Miscellaneous - Repair water heater $1240 Cdn ($904 US)

Day 3 & 4 Crossing Oregon, into Idaho and Nevada

 Oct 20 & 21, 2022

After a night of virtually no sleep thanks to the trucker beside us running his engine all night and HoseHey howling his displeasure, we hit the road just before 9:30 with temps a comfortable 15ºC (60ºF).  This day our goal was to get close to Nampa, ID where we would make some stops to stock up on dog food and a few Costco items.  Overall it was an uneventful day where we just clocked miles and got within 45 minutes of Nampa, ID.

HeyZeus loves the RV!

It was on this day that we activated one of our day passes with Solis for unlimited 4G WiFi.  Although I’d bought a US SIM card for our phone that was capable of tethering, it only allowed speeds of 3G while tethered.  It’s crazy how fast we’ve come accustomed to 4G and 5G speeds.  Dropping down to 3G felt like being on dial up.  Thankfully I had 7 unlimited day passes left from the year prior.  Day passes are $9 US for 24 hours and they never run out. And, during certain times of the year like Black Friday and Christmas they often have deals that get you up to 40% off the day pass prices.  I’m not sure if I’d bother with a US SIM card next year.  Instead I think we’ll stick with the Solis day passes and keep my Mexican TelCel plan active which gives 2.5G of data and unlimited US, Canada and Mex calling for only $10/month.   

We stopped for the night at the picturesque Snake River View Rest Stop in Idaho at 5:30 p.m.  We were hopeful for a better sleep than the night before, even if this rest stop was very close to the highway.

Snake River View Rest Stop, ID

We managed to clock an impressive 317 miles.  Needless to say we were quite tired and ready for a good sleep.

Outside Yakima, WA to Snake River View Rest Stop, ID

Start Time - 9:25 a.m.

Temp at start - 15ºC (60ºF)
End Time - 5:35 p.m. (But we gained an hour due to a time change)

Temp at end - 23ºC (73ºF)

Total driven - 317 miles

Accommodation cost - $0

Fuel - $231 US ($319 Cdn) - 42 gallons @ 5.479/gal

Day 4, October 21, 2022

We got on the road at 9:00 a.m. with our first stop marked in Nampa, ID where there was a Costco conveniently located next to a box store mall that had a Petco where we could get Heffay’s Acana dog food.  Unfortunately, our Vet in Canada suspects Heffay has food allergies and so while we’ve been home we’d been working him through different kinds of food.  By the time we’d left I had him stable on a single ingredient lamb based formula made by Acana, a Canadian dog food producer.  Unfortunately, Petco’s in Mexico don’t carry it.  Thankfully, it is a common brand sold throughout the US. 

He’d been on this formula for just 3 weeks at the time we left Canada, so it was still unclear whether this would be the solution as it takes a good 3 weeks to see results.  It has been a stressful process.  Seeing him struggle with scratching himself raw, various scabs and sores and ear infections.  Being so late to get my blogs done, I can tell you as I write this now in mid November that the food seems to be working well.  No scratched open sores, but still scratching here and there.  Now I’m wondering if he’s got an environmental allergy, perhaps to grass?  Who knows.  But it is much better than it had been.

While in Costco we stocked up on bottled water and a few provisions including vitamin C as I had started to get a sore throat the night before.  I was surprised as many of their prices were similar if not more than in Canada so with the conversion it was much more expensive than in Cda.  

While in there, Dan stumbled upon a bag of 150 halloween size chocolate bars.  Just like a kid he looks at me with wide eyes and asks coyly “can we get this?” LOL!  The reason for the ask was because he knew we’d stocked up on chocolate bars before we left, to ensure we had a good variety while down here given the selection was limited last year.  Of course I said “yes dear” 😊  MAN!  I wish we had bought more than one bag. I hadn’t taken the time to read what the bag included, but of course in addition to some regular brands like M&M, Twix, Snickers it had American chocolate bars in it that we can’t get in Canada.  They were SO good!  Next year we’ll have to grab a couple bags to throw in the freezer.

Here’s a picture of the actual bag.  I had to laugh though, when I searched for an image on google this came up available to buy from Mercadolibre in Mexico for the low low price of $949 pesos or $65 Cdn! Yeah, that’s a hard no. 😲  

An interesting fact about Nampa and this part of Idaho, it has a unique smell.  Yep, you read right…the air smells well…like urine.  Dan first thought we had a leak of our Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) which is made from urea and water.  When a fellow RV’er in the Petco parking lot saw him walking around checking our rig and smelling the air he shared with him a bit of history from the area.  It wasn’t urea he was smelling, it was sugar beets.  Apparently in WWII there was a shortage of sugar and local farmers came together to make sugar out of sugar beets which have a very pungent smell when they are being processed. We had seen many trucks hauling these, and now we knew why.  I don’t think I could get used to that smell though, wow! 

We finished our very long day stopping in Wells Nevada at the Petro Travel Centre.  Winds were brutal, but we found a spot at the end of the parking lot away from other trucks and sheltered somewhat from the wind. It was a very nice stop with a fully paved lot and even a nice small dog park where Heffay met some fellow travellers from BC who too were headed for Lo de Marcos for the winter.  It was shaping up to be a nice quiet night, until we looked at the forecast.  Snowbirds are supposed to miss the snow right?  Well…not so for us unfortunately but more on that in my next post.

Snake River View Rest Stop, ID to Wells, NV

Start Time - 9:00 a.m.

Temp at start - 8ºC (47ºF)
End Time - 4:30 p.m. (We lost the hour we gained the day prior an hour)

Temp at end - 19ºC (66ºF)

Total driven - 392 miles

Accommodation cost - $0

Fuel - $300 US ($414 Cdn) - 55 gallons @ 5.45/gal

Day 2 Over the Snoqualmie Pass, WA

Smoky skies on the Snoqualmie Pass, WA

Day two of our journey started off slowly.  After a relaxing breakfast, coffee and a walk for Heffay we headed out of the Silver Reef Casino Resort parking lot just before 11 a.m.  Temps were still mild at 13ºC celsius with smoky air and skies.  The decision to fill up our fuel at the end of the previous day was a good one.  When you’re ready to go it’s nice to just get on the road and drive.  This would become our routine at the end of each driving day whenever a fuel station was nearby. 

Unlike last year, we decided we weren’t going to get on the road at first light.  We decided we’d make the “journey the destination”.  We learned last year how hard the drive can be on the body.  There is a lot to pay attention to when you’re 63 feet long driving a box down the road.  This year we took a new route south, over the Snoqualmie Pass in Washington.  By taking it we saved driving through the busy freeways around Seattle, Tacoma and Portland which we drove through on both the way down and back last time.  

With the warm fall we’d been having there was no risk of snow on the mountain pass.  In fact, the smoky skies followed us up almost all the way to the top.  Once at the top the skies cleared and the sun shone bright creating gorgeous reflections on the Keechelus Lake.  Temps were also much warmer at a balmy  26 ºC (78 ºF).

Keechelus Lake, WA

As we started our descent down the pass we ran into construction slowing us right down as everyone merged into one lane.  It was a good 20 mile stretch of construction and gave HeyZeus an opportunity to come hang out in the cab with us.  He is such a great traveller.  All our boys are!

Love the reflection in this shot! 💕 

HeyZeus also got out for his first walk of the trip when we stopped for a short afternoon break.  He just loves exploring new places.  He gets SO excited!  HoseHey is happy to just stay put in the RV, thank you very much, lol!  He wasn’t as happy a camper as HZ, he was definitely missing his big brother Lou and his big yard to run in with multiple trees he could climb.  

HeyZeus stretching his legs and exploring the new sights and smells

Our day ended at around 4:30.  We’d made it to just outside of Yakima, WA and settled in for the night at the Selah Creek Rest Stop.  Skies were still smoky and temps were still very mild at 21 ºC (70 ºF). 

Smoky skies create such cool sunset pics, check out that red sun!

Not many truck spots available. We’re second from the left
That’s why we make sure we stop well before sunset, to ensure we have a good chance of getting a spot.

The bridge you cross just before the rest stop

The smoky view from the rest stop - looking out over Selah Creek

The rest stop had beautiful scenery as well as an RV dump station and water.  Unfortunately, as pleasant as the surroundings were it was the WORST night we’ve ever had.  The trucker beside us ran his engine (not his generator, his engine) the entire night and it was SO loud.  Neither one of us slept very well and poor HoseHey was a bit of a basket case howling and crying all night long.  This stop made me really reconsider the benefits of overnighting at a rest stop.

Silver Reef Casino Resort, WA to just outside Yakima, WA

Start Time - 10:45 a.m.

Temp at start - 13ºC (56ºF)
End Time - 4:30 p.m.

Temp at end - 21ºC (70ºF)

Total distance = 224 miles

Accommodation cost - $0

Fuel - no fill today

Currency conversion rate: $1 Cdn = $0.726 US 

And we’re off!

In the BC Ferries line up

Our original plans were to leave for our second snowbird trip in early October.  Basically as soon as we’d stayed the minimum 153 days in the calendar year to keep our British Columbia provincial medical coverage.  Technically we could leave as early as October 7th.  But then we learned about a warranty fix for an ongoing door issue our year and model of RV has been having (2020 37K Entegra Accolade).  The issue is at highway speeds the top of the door rattles and can make a fair amount of noise.  The door has never opened on us, it just sounds and sometimes looks as if it might.  For those of you who read this blog who may also have a Jayco Seneca or Entergra Accolade, click on this link for more info.   

We reached out to Jayco to request the part on Oct 7.  With Jayco confirming the part would be en-route via courier the next day we waited around hoping it wouldn’t delay our departure too much.  It wasn’t so bad, given the gorgeous weather we continued to have right into the middle of October.  After about a week we decided to check in with Jayco to see if they could tell us an ETA for delivery.  That’s when they told us the part wasn’t in stock.  Wonderful!  They had told us when we called originally that it would be couriered the next day.  I guess they didn’t figure they needed to give us that update - argh!  Learning there was no point in waiting around for the part we started to make our final preparations for our trip including purchasing our individual travel medical plans through BCAA, activating the US SIM card we purchased through Amazon and finishing stocking up the RV, loading the bikes, the kayak on the truck and the truck itself.  

We literally drive the equivalent of our entire house down the road!  We also move into the RV in the driveway with all our furry beasts a few nights before hit the road.  We do that for a few reasons.  To make sure we haven’t forgotten anything, that everything is working and so that the animals can start to get used to being in the RV again.  Our two bengal boys HoseHey and HeyZeus travel with us along with our big Rottweiler pup Heffay (aka “el jefe” as in “the boss”

) Our big orange tabby Lou stays back with Dan’s mom who lives with us and looks after the house.  It is hard to leave our big love bug Lou, and mom but they take care of each other while we’re gone  💞

Mom and Heffay

Lou and HeyZeus

HoseHey

HeyZeus

This year a snapped a few pics of Dan’s ingenious way of loading the kayak.  It’s a beast of a kayak, a Hobie Tandem Island.  The kayak itself weighs 140 lbs and the two side AKA’s add another 35 lbs each for a total weight of 210 lbs.  We load it on the roof of our Ford Ranger via a game hoist.  I told you it was ingenious!  

When we first bought it we searched for different ways to load this heavy beast on the internet and none of the options people had come up with looked very good.  They all still required a fair amount of heavy lifting and/or crazy contraptions.  Dan, as a hunter knew about game hoists which are used to lift game up into your truck.  They can lift up to 350 lbs and break down to lay in the back of the truck bed or even in the back seat.  Using a heavy duty tow strap he attaches the kayak to the hoist and voila! Next to no manual labour required!  Dan is always the first to say “if you want to know the easiest way to do something, ask a one legged guy”!

Setting up the hoist

Securing the tow strap - finding the balance point

Dan cranking it up off the ground

No human lifting effort required at all - just crank and guide!

Ready to shift onto the roof racks

My turn, unhooking the straps so we can slide it up onto the roof racks

Basically the only muscle effort required - sliding it up onto the roof racks

Kayak up - now to add the AKA’s and AMA’s

Voila! Ready to lay the sail on top and strap it down

Our last step was to get our reservation on the ferry taking us from Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, BC over to the mainland.  After an unexpected cancellation due to mechanical issues, we secured a spot on the 3:15 ferry.  We left the house just before 2pm and made our way to the terminal. The skies were super smoky with an air quality statement in effect.  I caught a glimpse of the fire hazard sign as we hit the highway, which still read “high risk”.  Crazy for mid October! It felt odd leaving to escape winter with such warm temperatures. 

Smoky skies leaving Nanaimo

You can just barely make out the downtown Nanaimo skyline in the distance through the heavy smoke. 

After a 2 hour ferry ride, we made our way to the Peace Arch border crossing.  We arrived at the border at around 6:15 p.m. and by 6:30 we were on our way.  This crossing was quite a bit different than last year.  Last year was so easy it made us do a double take - the border agent basically asked us where we were going, for how long and then waved us on with a smile and “have a nice trip”. This year, we got the stereotypical border crossing agent - Mr. Serious…and boy was he serious!  He asked us the usual questions where are you going, for how long etc then asked “what do you have in your RV and trailer”.  That threw us off.  We don’t have a trailer, we trailer a truck though so Dan clarified that we were towing a truck.  Silly us, we forgot you can never correct a border crossing agent even if you think you are being helpful.  Let’s just say his mood didn’t lighten any.  So he asked again “what do you have”.  How broad of a question is that?  We literally have just about everything you have in your house in our RV.  A bit flustered and not really sure where to start, we started to rattle off some things.  Then he asked specifically about food and fruit, vegetables and poultry.  We told him we had lots of food but no fresh fruit, vegetables or any poultry.  He then walked down the length of the RV, looked through the windows in the truck and then waved us on.  We were more than happy to move on.  I mean seriously…what do you have? Sheesh!  I still don’t know how I’d begin to answer that question if asked again.  Where would we start?  Maybe with “everything from our house”. LOL!

Peace Arch border crossing in British Columbia, Canada.

By just after 7 pm we were at our final stop for the night, the [link] Silver Reef Casino Resort in Ferndale, WA.   We had stayed there on our trip south last year too.  It has a nice big back parking lot where RV’s are allowed.  I didn’t snap a pic this year.  This year was much warmer than last and much busier with a good 8-10 RV’s/truck campers parked for the night.  Here too it was very very smoky.

That marked the end of day one of our 2022/23 Snowbird adventure.  

Nanaimo, BC Canada to Silver Reef Casino Resort, WA

Temp at departure - 19 ºC (66 ºF)

Temp at arrival - 10 ºC

Ferry cost - approx $430 Cdn (63 feet long)

Fuel - $311 US ($430 Cdn) - 57 gallons diesel @ $5.459/gal (equivalent to $1.44/litre Cdn)

Distance travelled - 261 miles (163 km)

Distance driven - 60 miles (37.5 km)