What happened to Burning Man???

If you are landing here for the first time, check the advice in the column to the right to understand how this blog is organized - you are at the final entry.

Looking for Burning Man itself? For some, Burning Man is controversial so I've decided to cover our time there in a separate blog - see:

The Murrays do Burning Man 2008

Thanks to the many or few that took the time to look through this blog - I hope it gives you a taste of what it is like traveling about North America in an Airstream, and a little bit about life in the WBCCI.

Another flat, Dana and Aja to the rescue...

We stopped near Medford for a wonderful lunchtime visit with cousins Dana and Aja, only to find a flat tire on returning to the trailer.

With a little help from Aja and Dana, we were able to get the tire changed fairly quickly and complete our journey home.

Land Yacht Harbor - Lacey WA

After leaving Andrew we visited Washington Land Yacht Harbor, the Airstream campground at Lacy, WA, owned by the Washington unit of the WBCCI.

We camped in their transit parking lot and before we could get unhooked we ran into our fellow caravaners Malcolm and Sue, Chuck and Marggie, and Felix and Joanne. Next Steve, also a fellow caravaner and permanent resident of the park, showed up and he and Elaine invited all of us over for a spontaneous reunion dinner.

Of course, Steve also showed this rather receptive audience his growing collection of vintage Airstreams.

Seattle August 18-20, 2008

The Maple Leaf Trail caravan is over, we are in the US, diesel is cheaper, no more loonies and twonies, and we are on our way home. But first a visit with son Andrew and Mary Lou, and their dog Freddie (not shown, cats Pumpkin and Sprocket). These are all rescue animals, now well adjusted and seemingly happy.

Andrew hosted the great first night with pizza at his townhouse in Seattle; on the rainy next night Marcia made a wonderful dinner at our trailer and Freddie got to use his raincoat; tonight I’m taking the humans to birthday dinner – we had not seen Andrew since his or his mother’s birthdays.

Getting out of Dodge...the jinx strikes again

On returning from the caravan banquet in 2007, after a mishap-free trip (well mostly mishap-free), I managed to run over a hose bib in our campground. This caused flooding of 2-3 sites and the need to turn off the water throughout the campground for an hour.

This time, with the caravan completed and while waiting in line to board the ferry home, Floyd noticed that I had a flat trailer tire.

This is when this caravan stuff really pays off.

With boarding to begin in 45 minutes, Floyd, HV, and Cal jumped in and started changing my tire while Marcia hustled us all coffee from a local vendor. (Floyd -shown with his dog Taffy - and Jolene are from Colorado where he was in the Air Force and was a teacher; she spent her career working for the USAF Academy and the AF Space Command.) In the time it took me to find my spare tire, Floyd produced a battery-powered impact wrench and removed my old wheel. We had my spare inflated (it was low from storage) and on the trailer with plenty of time to spare.

What a group.

Final Banquet – Four Mile Roadhouse

Tonight, August 17, 2008, the Maple Leaf Trail caravan came to a close with a banquet at the Four Mile Roadhouse – reportedly the 4^th oldest house in Victoria’s history, and a former brothel. (Many good places seem to have a dark side in their past.)

It is amazing how easily sixty-some people traveling together can become a family. We will hopefully meet again on future caravans.

The ladies have High Tea

The traditional high tea at the Empress costs something like $20 so the Ladies of WBCCI decided to have their own in the meeting room of the Ft Victoria RV Park.

Butchart Gardens reappraised

But after that hour (or so) we and four other couples settled on the no bugs, not over-watered, not under-watered, weed-free greens of Butchart for a picnic dinner and a little wine.

Butchart provided a folk music trio which we half-listened to while enjoying each other’s company and the, well, wine. The music and singing seemed cheerful in a background sort of way, even though I caught them singing “… end of the world as we know it”. Always bring wine to a folk concert, just in case.

We then moved to a fireworks viewing area and at 9:15 PM enjoyed a half-hour of really very good fireworks, not well documented here. There were, of course, the usual spectacular sky-bursting types, but there were also excellent ground level devices that moved dramatically on tracks, accompanied by strong music and singing.

At the end we grabbed our lawn chairs and blankets and walked through the darkness toward the exit. We had heard of more entertainment in other parts of the garden, but this didn’t really prepare us for what happened next: a floating apparition of a woman in a well-lit window, a halo of lights above her head, playing “Girl from Ipanema” on an organ.

Marcia and I headed on home. The others stayed for a guitar concert in another area of the park.

Judgment: Butchart Gardens rocks these days, if you go late in the afternoon on a summer Saturday, when you can enjoy the extras.

Butchart Gardens first (or third) impressions

This is my third time here, and I’m anticipating liking it as much as the other two times, i.e. not so much.

The day doesn’t bode well because it is a little warm and humid, and the grounds are as beautiful and ordered as usual. In the darkness when the visitors are gone, man does what he has to do, and we don't want to know the details. There are no weeds, no mosquitoes, no dying plants, and everything is blooming.

An hour here should be enough.

Marcia's Victoria Secret

For her birthday, I took her to a very nice Italian restaurant called Il Terrazzo (or something close) in an alley behind Willy's Bakery (also close), the latter being on Johnson St in Victoria.

Victoria today

The photos are of the Empress Hotel (now the Fairmont Empress, gone the way of the Jasper Lodge and the Banff Springs Hotel), parliament building, and waterfront. Victoria and the greater metropolitan district are much larger than when we visited in 1985 but the downtown has maintained its charm. Biggest difference: Four-story condos have replaced vacant land and old industrial property, with prices comparable to popular areas of California.

We took (and highly recommend) a 45 minute harbor cruise on the small people ferry you see in one of the photos. These boats looked identical to the Otter service on the Sacramento River.

Victoria now claims to be the busiest North American seaplane port, recently passing anchorage.

Craigdarroch Castle - Namebrand genes aren't always the best

This home, now a museum, was built by a man named Dunsmuir. He was into everything - mining, logging, railroads, and real estate. He knew how to push the right buttons in business and politics a century ago and produced many progeny, including misfit alcoholics and lunatics. He was the richest man in British Columbia.

A sad family history. He died before the house was finished. When his wife died the 20 acres high on a Victoria hill were subdivided and sold and the furnishings auctioned. It is now an impressive building refurbished with donations sitting on a tiny plot of land.

One Dunsmuir handled the family interests in California, got his name on a town, and built an estate in Oakland. Unfortuntely he died on his honeymoon.

A very star-crossed family.

Victoria BC beach

Top - '57 Tbird, in mint condition
Middle - '46 Hansen, in great shape, finding the Pacific can be quite cold
Bottom - '41 Murray, needs work, doing lifeguard duty anyway

Pacific Rim National Park - a pile of rot

Marcia and I drove to the Pacific Rim National Park in a light rain, having excellent fish-and-chips from a lunch wagon in Ucluelet – a ranger recommendation. We saw little else of interest as trees lining the highway block most views, but cataloged a lighthouse for old times’ sake.

We then drove toward Tofino but again had the same problem – no views to the ocean that didn’t require parking and walking in the drizzle. We stopped short of Tofino and instead hiked the Rainforest Trail, a plank 1 KM walkway with a forest canopy too thick to let in much rain. This was a beautiful walk through standing and fallen huge trees, with the ground never visible because of the dense decomposing vegetation.

Hector at the Echo Center

Port Alberni (pop: 17,700) residents are very friendly, on an official and also casual basis. The WBCCI has made caravan stops in Port Alberni since the mid-l980s, and in this pond we are big.

We had a catered dinner in a community center and were welcomed by the Chamber of Commerce head, the president of the community center, and a representative of the mayor; the mayor sent his apologies but was in Beijing with 64 other locals cheering on a Port Alberni contender in the Olympics. Entertainment for the night included a local clogging couple and a group of six senior singers led by a near-toothless man named Hector, who had a good voice.

After dinner we drove to the river to see if we could see bear, as recommended by the C of C head. Nope. Later we were told they probably wouldn’t appear until September when salmon would be present in greater numbers. Others said simply that the salmon are way down this year, and if we see bear at all, they will be trash bears.

McLean Mill historical site

This steam-powered sawmill shut down in the 1960s but in the 1990 locals began restoring it to fully working condition as an historical site.

No hidden diesel engines or electric motors or safety screens.

Using steam, four or five “workers” pulled a log from the mill pond and cut it into boards in a demonstration. In the 1960s there would have been 27 workers and much larger logs, and faster operation. But this looked dangerous enough, and in fact the man that oriented the log for cutting almost fell when the platform he was standing on suddenly moved. This was a great demonstration but sadly I don’t think you will see anything comparable in the lawsuit-happy US.

The blacksmiths are Larry and Chuck, and they spent most of the day at it. Chuck is a retired insurance claims agent from Delaware. He and Malcolm (not shown), a retired science teacher also from Delaware, like to geocache. We spied them geocaching even in a Vancouver WalMart parking lot, of all things.

The gentleman meditating is on his own caravan.

Steam train to McLean Mill - near Port Alberni

We took a steam train ride into the woods to the old McLean Mill, passing “Flag Waving Sally” and some other very friendly locals. The photo of Sally is on the return trip, when she was not as animated.

Our train companions were Ray and Jean from Massachusetts. They have also been our neighbors in the last two campgrounds, and they have a nice cocker named Freckles. Well, usually nice; he barked most ferociously the two times I mistook his trailer for our trailer.

Jean is from Nova Scotia so they get to the Maritimes often. Ray is retired from the Postal Service and is a very convincing defender of our postal service verses the system in Canada. I notice from his license plate that he is also a Purple Heart veteran.

Port Alberni, Vancouver Island

We are camped here in the fairgrounds, electric and water connections daisy chained much as in Bozeman. The foreground walkers are Marcia and Shirley.

Sproat Lake is the headquarters of an aerial firefighting unit the flies Martin Mars water bombers. These are huge WWII planes originally built for large transport, but converted to water tankers in the 1950s. The company has two planes of only seven ever built – the others have crashed or been destroyed in ground related accidents. One is currently fighting fires in California at Lake Shasta; they were also dispatched to the San Diego fires a few years ago.

Post trip note: The second Martin Mars was visible on Lake Shasta as we drove south at the end of our trip. It was not at that time active, however in early September we talked with a WBCCI member from Chico who reported seeing it in his area. Fires burned within a couple lots of his house.

The water tanks actually take up very little of the cargo area - water is heavy per cubic measure.

HV and Pat put on a spontaneous casual dinner for everybody called a Corn Boil. Corn, sausage, carrots, onions, and potatoes boiled together then spilled across a table. Help yourself. Very good. Again, presentation is important. (HV used to own a bunch of McDonald’s franchises, but picked up this meal specialty from southerners on a prior caravan. Pat was a hair dresser in her prior life and became one of several caravan hair-cutters, giving me a nice trim in Hope.)