A trip to Edmonton and 6 new wheels

Now that the house has sold, we will be living full time in our trailer. We knew going in that it would be a bit small for full time living so were looking for something a bit bigger. One of the important criteria for me was the ability to be able to bring my airplanes with us without using up most of the available storage space. The obvious choice would have been a toy hauler but we both felt that having a 10 foot dedicated garage at the back of the rig would be a huge waste of space as it wouldn't be a comfortable living area.
We then found a company that had come up with a new layout that seemed to answer that problem. What they had done was create a smaller garage and put the bedroom above it. The garage is big enough for a golf cart or small side-by-side or a couple of dirt bikes or maybe even a few model airplanes. We'd taken a look at a few over the last couple of years and felt this would be the ideal solution but didn't have the ability to acquire one at the time.
The company is Grand Design and while being quite new, had a very good reputation. The specific model of trailer we wanted was their 374TH.
We were just waiting for the house to sell so we could take the plunge. A month or two before that happened we had heard they had discontinued that particular model and the only new ones left were already on dealer lots.
I think the reason they discontinued it is they have an almost identical model in their true toy hauler line. It is a bit more utilitarian and lacks some of the nicer finishes this one has though.
We were afraid we would lose out until one showed up at Woody's RV in Edmonton. Almost as soon as we closed on the house, we contacted Woody's to see if it was still available and if so, would they hold on to it so we could come see it.
We hitched up the Cameo on Monday and headed north, arriving in Edmonton Tuesday afternoon. They had the rig powered up in their showroom so we were able to spend a good hour exploring and playing with it. Afterwards we sat down with the salesman and talked numbers. While it came in a bit more than we were hoping, we were still able to come to an agreement.
Wed, Thurs and Friday they had it in the shop going over a few minor issues that needed to be attended to and moving our satellite dish over to it. We were able to start moving our stuff Friday afternoon and spent our first night in it last night. I wanted to spend a couple of nights parked in Woody's lot just in case we ran into any issues so that is where we are now. So far, so good; nothing of any consequence has come up so we are here tonight but plan to head back to Kamloops tomorrow.

This is our new rig parked in Woody's lot.

The rest of these are GD's promo pics but ours is virually identical.

This shot shows the garage. The bedroom is right above. The queen bed rests on the ceiling of the garage.

And the bedroom. The ceiling around the bed is still over 6 feet so no bumped heads!

I'll have a bit more in the next few days as well as a few posts on rebuilding my solar installation as most of that stayed with the Cameo. Someone is getting a kick ass solar system on that rig!

The next stage of our adventures begins!

It’s official! We have sold our house! Now the next stage of our adventures begin.
The last 6 weeks have been pretty hectic to say the least.
To recap; On our way back from the US in March we started to discuss how we wanted to continue with the snow bird lifestyle. We realized that keeping the house was neither logistically nor financially practical. So back in April we contacted a couple of realtors and by early May had a couple of appraisals and had selected the realtor we would go with. Then the fun started. We now had 22 years of accumulated stuff to go through, sort and decide what was keep, what was trash and what was sell. We held 2 garage sales about 3 weeks apart where we sold over $2,000 worth of stuff. I also sold off a bunch of my modelling stuff. We bought a 20’ sea can to store the stuff we wanted to keep and spent the next 3 weeks packing, cleaning and doing some minor repairs and overdue painting. It was crazy, and we had a few ‘disagreements’ but we pushed through them and ‘got ‘er done’.
On Thursday, June 6, we loaded up the trailer and headed North to Burns Lake for a fun fly figuring it would be best if we were completely away for the first couple of weeks that the house was for sale. Friday, June 7, the listing went live and that day there were 4 showings. Saturday, there were 3 more and that afternoon our realtor called with an offer! And the offer was for $100 more than we were asking!
We accepted that afternoon and all that was left was for the buyers subjects to clear. The last being the home inspection which happened last Thursday. I guess it went OK because we found out yesterday that all subjects were off and we could consider the house SOLD!
Now the lawyers get to do their thing and earn their cut of the commissions. That is going to take about a month with a possession date of July 26.
Full timing; here we come!

Bulkley Valley Fathers Day Fun Fly

For the last week we have been in and around the Burns Lake, BC area attending the Bulkley Valley RC Flyers Fathers Day Fun Fly. This is a fairly small club that draws members mainly from Smithers, Houston and Burns Lake, BC. Ever year on Fathers Day weekend, they host a fun fly that draws pilots from all over BC and a few from Alberta as well. While the main event is focused on the weekend, some, like us, arrive early and stay all week.
The venue where we fly is first class; the Lakes District Burns Lake Airport (CYPZ). Here we have 5,000 feet of smooth paved runway, a nice grassy area for camping near the runway and access to the terminal building with washrooms and other amenities.
The event had been held at the Houston airport up until last year, but the Houston municipality started requiring too much money for the use of the facility so the club moved the event to the Burns Lake airport.
We have been to this event 4 or 5 times over the last 10 years or so and it certainly doesn't disappoint. 

Saturday evening the BVRC club puts on a steak and shrimp feast for all the pilots and immediate family. This year was just as good

The weather this year was near to perfect. We had a few light showers early in the week and a bit of wind in the afternoons but Saturday was almost perfect with sunny skies and no wind. Lots of flying by all made it another great event.
Today we break camp after another hosted breakfast and head home. We still have a few things to take care of around the house before we can say it is totally ready for the new owners.

Taking the plunge!

If you have been following this blog, you know that for the last 2 years, Chris and I have been spending our winters down in the southwest US. Mostly Arizona. We have enjoyed that so much that we want to continue doing it. However, snowbirding and keeping the house is just not logistically or financially practical. On our way home in March we made the decision that upon our return, we would sell our house and take up RV’ing full time.
Yup! We are now vagabonds!
The house was listed today and once it sells, our plan is to upgrade the trailer to something a bit bigger and more suitable to full time living and then basically follow our noses, spending summers here in BC and Canada and winters down where it (usually) doesn’t snow.
I gotta say though, the process of decluttering and downsizing to get the house ready to sell has probably been one of the most stressful times either one of us has ever experienced. We had a couple of pretty good spats but managed to work through them.
One piece of advise I can offer though is that 22 years is way to long to stay in the same house. We held 2 garage sales where we got rid of quite a lot of stuff but still had lots left over. I hauled about 500 KG of crap to the dump and we donated probably another 200 KG or so to charity. Even after all that we still managed to fill a 20' sea can with the stuff we want to keep for now.

Our immediate plan is to take a few weeks and relax. There is a model event in Burns Lake, BC that we are attending and after that a few weekends through July with other events then back to Burns for a float fly.
While the plan is to live mostly on the road, one thing we will be looking for is a place to basically call home. We will need to find a place somewhere as we legally need an address.
Ideally we would like to find a small lot somewhere big enough to be able to build a pad to park the trailer on and for me build a workshop. We also would like enough room to store the sea can as well.
If anyone reading this knows of such a place, please let us know.

Princeton Spring Jet Rally

After leaving Sandy Point Wednesday morning we headed back to Kamloops and made a quick stop at the house to refill with fresh water and swap a few airplanes around. Next stop is Princeton, BC for the Spring Jet Rally hosted by the Princeton Jet Flyers RC club.
The event is held at the Princeton municipal airport where we have almost 4000' of paved runway to play with.
We arrived around 3PM and found about a half dozen others here already. We set up camp near the main pit area and started to get things set up.
As this is a full scale airport, we had a NOTAM that came into effect Thursday morning which is when the flying gets started.
The day started out very nice but after noon the clouds started to build and we soon had thunderstorms all around us. Nothing came over us but there was frequent rumbling and the wind started to freshen.  This kept a lot of the guys on the ground.
Friday was a very similar day but if anything it got windier in the afternoon and quite warm. At one point we had thunderheads all around us but we still had clear skies over us.
Again Saturday was almost the same if windier yet. And just as hot.
Despite the weather, the mornings of all three days were very nice and we still managed to get a fair bit of flying in.

Here are a few shots of some of the attendees and aircraft this year.

 

I believe I heard the tally of attendees and we had 20 pilots from BC, Alberta and Washington. Everyone had a good weekend with lots of stick time.