3rd to 10th May. Days 4 to 11.
It’s been a week or so since the last update and much has happened. All positive though and we are on track to hit the road on Monday morning at 7am. There is a date to keep in Squamish, (a commercial town between Vancouver and Whistler) at 8am with a wheel alignment shop.
Whistler is a giant playground, mainly for the affluent but there is a considerable workforce looking after their every need. Houses up here start around $2m and spiral upwards. Many are empty for much of the year. Tim, my son-in-law is a builder and he’s just finished a house that cost C$14m and there are two living in it. Oh! and it’s beautiful at this time of year. Lots of snow on the mountains, sunshine, fir trees and blue sky.
They are an industrious couple Tim & Sarah and have two gorgeous kids, Charley (7) & Jaxon (5). Sarah has just sold her hair salon and Tim is just about finished his part time job of building them a new house.
About twelve years ago they bought a 4X4 Mercedes Benz fire engine in France. Had the chassis extended and a self contained cabin built on the back, in Germany. They are focusing hard on chucking the kids in the back and hitting the road for a year or two in Central and South America soon. We are planning to catch up with them somewhere around Montana and head south together. That will be amazing.
For anyone interested they have a blog started and it can be found under the heading ‘Links to Other Adventurers’ on the home page.
The Land Rover.
Back to our activities while in Canada. The Land Rover now has a new turbo and a set of rear brake callipers. Had a filter and oil change by the excellent team Rovalution in Vancouver. Guess what! Despite replacing the fuel system relays and the second Mass airflow Sensor and doing a thorough inspection, they cant find the hard starting cause! We are going to replace the fuel filter housing, as almost the last resort. So, we are mobile and will battle on. Meantime I have replaced the steering links with heavy duty ones and done a myriad of fiddly jobs including waterproofing the Caranex. Jen is in the process of sewing some strapping to the roof to stop it collapsing in heavy rain.
On Monday, after the shopping in Vancouver we head south to White Rock, very close to the US border. Our plan is to catch up with friends Bill & Joan then head east to Calgary.
In Calgary we get to catch up with Jan and Bruce. It must be eleven years ago one of my first tours with Kirra, (a NZ tour company) I took a group of about 30 golfers from Alberta around NZ. Well, we are really looking forward to visiting them before heading north.
Visits: 34
I admire your patience with the Land Rover and I am sure that in another million kilometres you will have it sorted
Enjoy your family and your start to your journey
Hi! Lindsay, laughing…forever the optimist and know we will find the cause. The clocks ticking.
Glad to hear you made contact with the Mother Ship and I hope the mechanical gremlins stay away for a while. Very familiar territory to me that you are exploring at the moment with lots of family and friends in those areas, enjoy..
You definitely need to enter into rodeo whilst in Calgary Dennis 😉
Hi! Mel, how was Italy?
Mother Ship has had plenty of nurturing and we get to sleep in her tonight for the first time. Wonderful.
We’ll keep you posted on progress.
Rodeo!!….laughing
Hope you have got on the way ok. The LR had better behave itself, if not then the answer, I am told, is to beat it with a big stick! Have fun xx
Yes, we on our way this morning. The Caranex waterproofing is going to be tested, it’s raining..:). Have had the wheels aligned but when we called to Rovalution in Vancouver to pick up the new fuel filter housing they were keeping for us, they said they had sold it!!! We’ll look for a suitable sized branch..:)