Departure Day 2009 Looms Large

Well it's nearly time to roll on out of here, toward the sunny south. How the time has flown by since we got home from London, Budapest and Prague in early September.

There is fresh snow on our nearby mountain, Mt. Benson, and we have been watching it descend down toward the base of the mountain, and our town.

Today there is a real chill in the air, and we don't have antifreeze in our trailer system, though the water lines have all been blown out.

In fact Lary had a terrible time getting the water filter reinstalled, he has to take the trailer down to Duncan tomorrow Saturday to have a bit of help from the dealer, seems that a kitchen drawer has to come out for access to the water heater, located under the kitchen sink. Ah the joys of a new rig.

Meanwhile we are still thinking about getting a motorhome, a Class A or bus, as it doesn't have a bend in it, and should be easier to back into a campsite space.

We are very disappointed as our friends Dave and Wendy from Nelson won't be joining us right away in Desert Hot Springs, their house sprung another water leak which Dave just detected, and their daughter in law has a medical concern that has yet to be addressed.

A first for me, Di this year is trying to learn to play the Native American Flute. I now have 2, one in the key of F sharp, and a second one in the key of C. But what I do is blow each note instead of just blowing a steady stream of air, and playing the needed keys for each melody.

Last night found me hurriedly making fleece bags for each of my new flutes, they turned out alright, and temporarily satisfied my need for "crafting".

I will miss my new flute teacher Terry Mack from Nanaimo, she is such an inspiration. At my last lesson she offered to give me their 3rd cat, Napolean, he is a big ginger cat, a real lap cat. But I declined, graciously. Having an animal complicates our travelling lifestyle, though I think Napolean is really nice.

Last night we went to the Port Theatre and watched Ed Peekeekoot, he's a tall Cree native man who was the first to teach me the basic notes of the flute at Rommy Verlaan's workshop, what an entertainer he is.

He plays guitar, banjo, fiddle, native drum and of course Native American flute. He is so entertaining, a favourite moment of mine was when he played both the guitar held between his knees, and a banjo at the same time, for a dueling banjo type of song.

And his jokes and song writing are just marvellous, he had us all in stitches, and what was supposed to be a half hour of music from him turned into 1.5 hours. He's 6 ft 5 inches, 6 ft 6 inches in cowboy boots, with a long grey pony tail, and the type of craggy looks that really suit him. It was Random Acts at the Port Theatre, and we were all seated right up on the stage, it was such a nice atmosphere.

Tomorrow I have to clean the house to prepare for our housesitter Tara, who will be here most of the winter. And gather up the last of my stuff to go into the trailer, it's always such a temptation to take too much, and overload the trailer.

Bye for now.