The Ouseys in Victoria Page

We are home, well in Victoria anyway. We are not in our house until tomorrow. We arrived back yesterday. The weather all the way back was great except for some headwinds one of the days. We got the 2 pm Ferry in Port Angeles, and are currently parked in Fort Victoria. Tomorrow we will go to the house and help Rachel move out, then we can move back in.

We had a lovely dinner with Tony and Ann yesterday, after we got back. Roast of Beast with Ann's wonderful Yorkshire pudding. Great catching up with them.

Today we went over to Noni's and saw, her, John, Chelsea and Jacob and of course got to see the new puppy "Duck". He is so cute. Also we met Lorianne, the French exchange girl that Chelsea was with in France. She is enjoying her visit to Victoria.

Tonight we may go to see David and family if we can get hold of them. Good to see everyone again.

The best part of going away is coming home.

Ciao.

We got away early from the AVI resort, after saying goodbye to Karen we were traveling before 9:00 am. We stopped at the Walmart on Rosedale highway in Bakersfield, and as is often the case with RVers and the frequently occurring "it’s a small world", we ran into Gary and Judy Hare, and Moe and Laurie Palahicky. They have been traveling together in their respective "new to them" motorhomes. Gary and Judy are one of the couples we are going to cruise the Med with and Moe and Laurie we haven’t seen for years. They live in Comox, the Hares are from Victoria. We had a pleasant evening exchanging stories of our winter travels. Yes! It’s a small world after all, it’s a small world after all, it’s a small..... I’m going to have that ditty going through my head all night now.

We stopped at a Walmart in Willows, last night and made it through the mountain passes this morning on a bright sunny day, it was beautiful. We are currently in the new campground at the 7 Feathers Casino and Resort (and RV resort too). My, is this is beautifully constructed park, with all of the amenities one would want, including a big indoor pool and hot tub, to which we availed ourselves tonight. And free WiFi which I am using right now. The pictures show the well groomed spacious sites.


If all goes well we should be close enough to Port Angeles, tomorrow, to catch the Friday afternoon ferry to Victoria. We will be staying at Fort Victoria for the weekend.

Chelsea emailed us to tell us that she really enjoyed France and can’t wait to tell us all about it. We are looking forward to it too.

Westward ho (ok ok! northward ho).

Ciao.

Well our week here is almost over. We have made several trips to Laughlin, & Bullhead city. We have seen a couple of movies. Reign on me, recommended and last night "the last Mimzy", which we really enjoyed and is also recommended. We walked around several Casino's, I bought a Riverside 40th Casino Jacket, quite nice and reasonable. We didn't put any money in any machine, so we are way ahead on the gambling front.

Karen and Rod are here, unfortunately Rod has a cold and is currently in bed. We had a Chat with Karen and caught up with their goings on with the Kirkwoods. They had a great time in Grand Canyon, but Karen had the cold then. We hope to get together with them later today or tonight if Rod is up to it. Carolyn is doing laundry prior to our departure.

I finally gave up on the WiFi here, it went down again today and they have refunded my money. I wouldn't be happy with the service had it been free, which it turned out to be. The park is going to a new service next month and it will be free, hopefully better as well. Actually I am blogging from the office computer.

We will be going via, Bakersfield , I5 to 7 Feathers to Port Angeles. If all goes well we could be catching a ferry on the 30th, but we will really have to boogie to do that. It gives us a day or two buffer as we don't have to be back until April Fools day. "April Fool's Day" we're home HaHa

I'll connect whenever I can, but it may not be often, this may be my last blog until we're home.

TTFN, ta ta and Peace.

We arrived in Bullhead River City RV park, on the Friday, set up and missed Lew and Carol by minutes as they had headed out to Riverside Seafood buffet. It was just as well. We were hot and tired anyhow, so relaxed the evening away. The Wifi there was excellent and very reasonable. $3 /day. Skype worked a treat so we caught up calling family and friends. On Saturday we got together with Lew and Carol and arranged to go with them, his cousin, they were visiting and some of the park folks to go celebrate St Patty's day at O'Leary's pub. We donned green stuff and away we went. There must of been 20+ people from the park there. Later the four of us went to the Castle Cafe where 3 of 4 of us, had the Liver n'onions, which is supposed to be great, and which apparently was, but you couldn't prove it by me as I wasn't one of the 3. The food was great, the bill came to $27 for the 4 of us.

Back at the park we sat out and caught up on old times and heard of the great time they had in Mexico. They have been going down there for years, so this summer we will get together with them, with Rob, and Tony and Lew will brief us all for our adventure to Mexico next winter.

Sunday found us at the Riverside Casino for a breakfast brunch armed with "two for one" coupons. Again most of those at O'leary's were there for breakfast. The pool and more happy hours and talk rounded out the day.

Monday we headed for AVI RV Resort and Casino. The Park (a KOA) is surprisingly reasonable. $119.00 for a week. The hotel pool is great, very large and accessible for the RVers. Great hot tub too. The Wifi however, is slow and very expensive. $8 /day, $30 / week, and $60 / month. Couldn't believe it as we have never paid even half that before. It was too slow for Skype, and any streaming video. However, next month the wifi will be free. If it is the same company that will make it worth it, though it doesn't do much for me at this time. The picture is taken from the beach over the resort at sunset.

We will be here for a week. Carolyn is a bit under the weather right now. It may just be an arthritic flare up. We are both hoping she is not coming down with anything. The weather is in a cooling trend, today is cloudy, but still 82 F (28 C)

TTFN,
Peace.

The night before we all left Casa Grande, the six of us went for our last supper. We went to Mesa to the Organ Stop Pizza. We were there a couple/three years ago and really enjoyed it. I blogged about then too. Still great see the link to read about it. A biggest Wurlitzer Organ comes up out of the floor with a musician at the controls, controlling over 6000 pipes, plus other voices. Tremendous. Carolyn as well as the rest of us enjoyed yet again as much as we did last time. It was a fitting finale to our visit with Ken and Helen, as well as Karen and Rod.

Friday Carolyn and I headed for Bullhead City. We are staying at River City RV park. It is a nice park, though a tight squeeze for us in the pull through. The back in sights are a bit wider. However, we are here to visit with Lew Ferris, and Carol. Which we did today, we went with them and part of the park crowd to O'Leary's pub for none other that St. Patricks day. We went mid afternoon and enjoyed to Irish pub atmosphere until dinner, then went to the Castle Cafe for good home cooked food.

Tomorrow we are headed to the Riverside Casino Buffet for a buffet breakfast. Lew and Carol really enjoyed their time in Mexico and are a fountain of information about it. They didn't stay in one spot more than a month and in many cases a week or a few days. They were really on the move. Lew has offered to get together with us Mexico bound people this summer. They have been going to Mexico for years.

That's it for now. Wifi here excellent and only $3.00 a day, cheaper and better, go figure.

Happy St. Paticks day all.

Ciao, and Peace.

There was a fly-in at the nearby Casa Grande Airport. Many private planes were on display. Rod, Ken and I enjoyed the day walking about seeing many new and old models of a wide variety of private and old military aircraft. Four of the biplanes even showed off with a few formation flypasts.

Sunday Rod, Karen, Carolyn and I went to Tovrea Castle and Carraro Cactus Garden in Phoenix. The Castle itself is in need of restoration, currently not open to the public, although we were privileged to a quick walk through of the main floor.

The Cactus gardens themselves were quite impressive and obviously where most of the current restoration work has been done. Many Cacti from not only Arizona but from several parts of the world including some rare specimens.

The tour was guided and quite informative particularly since we had the gardener on the tour, who the tour guide trainee referred to as "motormouth". It didn't stop him from interrupting her on more than one occasion. He declared up front that we should direct our question to her but then we watched him intercept nearly every one of them. She finally gave up and he finished the tour. The website has more info if your are interested and I would recommend it if you are in the area.

Last night we went to dinner at Barleen's Arizona Opry at Apache Junction. We had a very nice meal and the entertainment was great. Though there was some Country and Western they covered many genre's of music. A very talented bunch. The producer George Staerkel played many instruments and did a medley of 17 songs with 17 different instrument, mostly brass with some reeds and flutes thrown in. He also played other instruments and owns 70 of them. They all were very talented and the evening most enjoyable.

We will be on our way Friday and will post again from our next stop, Laughlin Nevada.

On the home front, Tena's sister Leanne had a baby boy last Friday, Nathan Alexander Lambert, 7lbs,12oz, and they are all doing well. Congratulation Leanne.

Talked to Mommy yesterday and she is looking forward to the move and especially moving in the motorhome. She will be able to see lots of sights that way.

TTFN, Ta ta and Peace.

Lewis has a nice newsy blog out, primarily speaking of moving Phyllis' Aunt from Orlando to Saskatchewan. Not to dissimilar to what Carolyn and I will be doing with my Mom from Winnipeg to Victoria this spring, except Mom's will be from Cold to Warm (well warmer anyway) as opposed to from Hot to Cold esp at this time of year. See his blog for details.

Ken, Helen, Karen, Rod, Carolyn and I all went to the "Body World 3" Exhibit in Phoenix yesterday. It was quite an experience to see real cadavers in a variety of natural poses. We all were not sure how we would react to seeing cadavers exposing their innermost parts and pieces, but for the most part, and after some queasiness for some, we all became comfortable with it and found it all very fascinating. Besides the bodies, there were also many displays of body parts, showing both healthy organs and tissue as well as diseased such as black lung of a smoker.

This exhibit, unlike many others of similar nature such as "the amazing body-the universe within" and others, is created by the inventor of plastination Gunther Von Hagens. His is the exhibit that only uses bodies donated by the orignal occupant. Others, copycats as he calls them, such as the one from China use executed Chinese prisoners. You can, if interested, read it all here.

Overall an excellent exhibition that I would recommend to anyone. Unfortunately, Body Worlds 3 came to Phoenix Jan 15th after finishing a run in Vancouver Sept/06 to Jan 14th 2007. So if you didn't catch it then, then you will have to go to Montreal or Portland to see it.

Weather has gotten, (don't really want to complain) well, too warm, 83 F in the motor home right now at noon, and expected to get warmer not only today but for the next week. Looking at low 90's F (33 centipedes, hee hee). Carolyn is moaning about the heat already, she's either too hot or too cold, no doubt she has a wonky thermostat.

Ta Ta all, and Peace

Word has it Dizzy Lyn isn't dizzy much any more, she's pretty much all better. She did half days up to Wednesday and resumed full time work on Thursday. You can read it in her blog. Congratulations to Catherine, just a few days on the market and her house is sold with an occupancy of 15 April, so she will be heading west to Vancouver on or before that date. Nice houses in a good area move fast. Ken, Rod and I went to a Car show in Chandler. It was quite nice and we had lunch at a 50's diner. Of course I took some pictures and as usual with emphasis on 55, 56, 57 Chevys. This one is a 55 which looked very much like my 56 Chevy of long long ago, which accounts for my fasination eh!

Gerry and Natalie came over for dinner last night. These are our "old" military friends from way back, like, 1961 on course in Winnipeg. They now reside in PEI but have been coming to their park model for here in Casa Grande for 20 years. We hear that some mutual military buddies are arriving on March 11th, so we will get to see them before we leave on the 16th.

Upcoming plans, include a trip to Tovrea Castle and Cactus gardens, Casa Grande Air show, "Body Worlds 3" at the Phoenix museum, Blaney's Country and Western show and Dinner. We are catching up with some of which we could have done earlier. Oh well we're retired and we can take all the time we want to do things.

TTFN
Ciao. and Peace.