The Beginning

 Ahh, the beginning.  The start of the blog.  It brings the thought into my mind, what to name my blog this time?  Something boring?  Which might make you not really want to open the first pages, never mind the future ones.  Or something catchy, to feed and hold your interest.  To want to follow along on yet another of our adventures.  Not that our adventures are really all that exciting, but sometimes shit happens and I get to poke some fun at Ray or even at myself.  Which does bring a chuckle or in the least, a smile to your face.  I really do love writing the blogs and I have referred back to previous blogs many times over the years.  Mostly to win an argument!  For now, I have titled this "Ontario 2021", simply because I have to start somewhere.  I will likely change the title before I actually post it for all to see.

     We are currently preparing for our trip.  We have this new much smaller (24') travel trailer to call home for the next 6 plus weeks.  We sold our 30' fifth wheel and the difference is amazing.  Wayyy less room.  Way less storage.  No privacy to speak of, unless of course you lock yourself into the bathroom!  I know we will miss the space we had, but seriously how much time do we actually spend inside.  It is "camping" after all, with maybe a little "glamping".  Ray is not crazy how the trailer feels in comparison to the fifth wheel, for towing.  But he will get used to it and as it is a lot smaller, I will take my turn at driving it.  Sometimes, somewhere. 

    We will be travelling from our home to Ontario.  No further this year.  As everyone on the planet knows, we have not been anywhere in over two years.  We have not seen Riki and her girls, or my sister and her family, or my niece Amanda and her family, or my friend Nancy (who is like family to us) since 2019. So this trip is simply to see our family,  hug everyone and maybe shed a tear or two.  We won't be travelling south of the border this trip to see Cia and her family this trip for obvious reasons.  But hopefully before years end we can fly down to see them as well.  We are both fully vaccinated and are armed with plenty of masks and sanitizer in all forms.  We have filled all of our needed prescriptions so we don't run out.  Trailer is almost packed.  Once I figure out exactly how many pairs of shoes that I will need, the packing will be complete.😁

    I started typing this out a couple of days ago and have now come up with, what I think is an appropriate title for this blog."Escaping the Inferno".  Right?!  That is exactly what we will certainly be doing, if and when we can actually get outta here!  With the Coquihalla Highway closed between Hope and Merritt right now, we may have to take a longer route to get to the "Loops" when conditions are safe to do so.   It is apocalyptic here in BC right now, with fires surrounding our towns and cities in the southern interior and the Okanagan.  It is terrifying to watch on the news, and can only imagine what the residents of those towns feel.  Tanya is feeling the stress of dealing with the thick yellow hot smoke, as the fires are moving closer and closer to Kamloops.  Our first stop will be Kamloops, but that may now mean it is only to drop off our house keys for Tanya and Dean in the event they have to evacuate to our place.  I have always tried to remain positive, but this is really stressful time we are in between the fires and Covid! Oy vey..

     Hopefully my next post will have us safely out of this wretched inferno and on the road to see our Ontario family and friends.  Don't worry, we won't pull out of the yard if we cannot do it safely! May have to postpone a few days.

Lori and Ray