Long Drive Around....

We want to buy an RV to travel the island and the states in with our dogs and to go where we feel would be fun. The touristy places are good times but we also like those abandoned towns and mines as well as the little lakes in the middle of no where.

So on Saturday we went for breakfast with my father and then we started our drive to look at RV's. We headed up over the Malahat and stopped at Timmy's in Millbay for a tea, checked the local ads there and headed north. We cruised around Duncan a bit but nothing in the lots or the few side streets we travelled.

Now we had arranged to see one in Cedar, we got there a bit early after driving around the community of Cedar. It is a nice place, very community orientated and lots of happy looking people. We found the address and drove into the yard. There was the first RV... a simple older one, looked okay. We checked it out and it had a very bad leak in the front, the mattress was pretty much ruined and mould was starting. I showed this to the owner and she was shocked.

Next we checked out a large RV dealer, to see one that was advertised on their website. Apparently the only person in the entire world was off that week and the website was not updated.. no RV. Pissed I was and I happily let them know that they needed to step up to the 21 century and maybe hire a 2nd web master.

We drove around to a few lots and looked at what they had.. all were either huge!!  34 plus feet long or over priced. We drove to the next city past Nanaimo and we did find one in our price range, looked really nice, low miles until the salesman came along and said is was a rolling POS.. and to run fleeing !??!?!!? Guess he wanted it...  so we fled!

Drove back along the hiway up into the hills to see another one listed. This one was about 20km up back-roads... finally we found it..  Looked nice, a bit long though. We climbed all over this one and poked and looked in everything. The owners were in Victoria but told us to look around and let them know. We said no thanks... loads of mileage and it had been sitting a while.

Back into Nanaimo we head.. My phone rings and there is an RV in Sooke.. so off we go...now thats only 120 km... Vrooooooooooooooooom.. we head off there... up into the back woods we go and there is a huge compound freshly built in the middle of no where..we can see te RV but it is behind locked gates.. We circle a bit and make arrangements to see it the next day.

We find another.. this time it in Lands End.. right by the ferry terminal... Vroooooooooooom only 60KM this time..

Now this was an awesome machine.. newer.. clean...very very clean.. but sooooo much mileage.. ~damn~

Finally we get home and have a quiet evening... the island is lovely to see.. and see it we did!! haha

Mt.Doug

Monday we decided to get out and work on some up hill walking.. we go to the gym regularly and beat the hell out of the treadmill on an incline of 10 at 3 to 5 miles per hour for a solid 30 minutes... calves hate that but man o'man do I have nice calves and a tight ass!! HAHA

We decided to venture up Mt.Doug. 228 meters in height, a total of 183 meters of climbing in a very short time. Not big or difficult in the world of hiking or climbing but a wonderful way to get some fresh air, work our lungs and slowly prepare us for our Inca Hike next year. That bad boy is over 4000 meters up... a far cry from our 200 meters!!

In total with the walking, relaxing at the top to watch an eagle fly and to take pictures it took us 2 1/2 hours to find the car. haha!!  not a since map has a dot that says "You are here"  so we did not know where we were at the best of times.

The yellow dots show the in and the black dots show the out...

Happy trails ...

~Michael and Teddi

Hiking... a new interest

We have picked up on the idea of hiking as something to do that we would both enjoy. We have done several hikes around the island such as the West Coast Trail, Mt.Work and various other small but enjoyable adventures. Now we have turned our eyes across the oceans to Asia.. and down the continent to Peru.


In Asia you have the largest mountains there.. now climbing Everest would be a blast, I would probably be dead at the 3rd maybe 4th base camps. So I have turned my eyes to the Annapurna circuit. A 3 week hike up some amazing mountains in Nepal. That is our end goal.. it reaches an elevation of 18,000 feet!! So to build up to that we are starting with some local hikes in Colorado and down to Peru. One cant just run up 18k of mountain and not expect to fall over dead!! haha


The Inca Trail is our first major hike.. its a 4 day hike with a guide thru some of the most amazing country you will ever see and the end point is Machu Picchu! So we are planning this one for early next year before the rains and the nasty weather comes along.


Happy hunting
~M

It Begins....

So far we have traveled to many exciting places, seen so much and experienced tons too. These adventures have always been in our blood, but until recently we could only afford to do them on a local scale. That has changed and the world has opened up to us.
We are not the type of traveler who likes to fly 1st class, stay in the upper scale hotels and have people attend to our every need...sorry that's not an adventure at all.. We stay in good hotels, like minded people recommended and more in touch with the area. We fly coach...seats are comfy, drinks are still free and I am mostly there to sleep or watch a movie.
When we arrive at our destination we take a train, cab or bus to the hotel and plan the week from there. The two of us are very easy to travel with and we make fun and excitement everywhere we go.

As we travel, I will chronicle our trips.. what we see, what did and what to avoid. We always end up in the "avoid this area" situation on every trip. So sit back, enjoy the read, correct my grammar and enjoy!!

Happy Adventuring
~Wombats...