Cathy & Jan's Travels: August 2010

Chrome Island Lighthouse - Just off Denman Island

Before we cover the ‘difficulties’ over the past month, let us begin with the great time we enjoyed on Vancouver Island (known as ‘The island’ up here.) In 2004 we had planned to stay only 2 weeks on The Island, but ended up staying 7 weeks. We liked it so much then that we decided to come back for 4 more weeks. So, we loaded our 5th wheel onto a ferry in Tsawwassen, British Columbia and sailed on a beautiful day to The Island landing in Nanaimo. Nanaimo is about 1/3 of the way up the east coast of Vancouver Island which is over 300 miles from Victoria in the South to Port Hardy in the North. Most of the people live on the eastern side of The Island since the weather & waters are much calmer and a road could be built along the coast. The west coast has a number of fjord-like inlets and the weather can be quite severe at times.

The weather while on The Island was fantastic. It was sunny most days and the high temp reached 80 degrees only 1 day. We even enjoyed a couple of days where the high was only in the upper 50’s. What a change from last year when we were in Austin with day after day of 100 degrees. We visited many of our favorite places again, like Telegraph Cove, Alert Bay, Pacific Rim National Park (Tofino & Ucluelet), Chemainus, and Victoria. In Chemainus (noted for murals painted on buildings) we photographed the new murals that had been added recently. In Victoria, we walked the harbor waterfront and went back to Butchart Gardens to enjoy the beautiful flowers in a different season this time. The Gardens are open all year and so you see different plants & flowers throughout the year.

We visited 5 islands off the east coast by ferry (going without the 5th wheel) to Alert Bay on Cormorant Island, to Sointula on Malcolm Island, Denman Island, Hornby Island, & Quadra Island. In addition, we added 11 additional lighthouses photographed to our total. In 2004, we were not really into lighthouses and had missed quite a few. So, we made up for it this time.

This year seems to be the year for us to ride ferries. We figured up (including the Alaska trip) that we boarded ferries 21 times (sometimes with the 5th wheel, sometimes in just a truck or car, & sometimes walked on). Of course, every time you go to an island, you must ride a ferry to get back – so the numbers add up.

If you haven’t guessed by now, Vancouver Island is one of our favorite places. If we were Canadian, this place would be right on top of places to retire to. If you ever get to Tofino, make sure you visit First Nations artist Roy Henry Vicker’s Eagle Aerie Galley. We have many of his paintings (small copies, of course, to fit in the RV) and we added more to our collection this visit. The Island is covered with beautiful old tall trees and many of the Provincial Parks have very large forested sites (our favorite this year was Little Qualicum Falls Provincial Park).

Now to the unplanned ‘exciting’ times we had.

• Our difficulties started before we even left Washington when our A/C stopped putting out cold air. We have not had it fixed and, fortunately with our great weather so far, this has not been a problem.

• After crossing the border, the truck engine started losing power and started ‘smoking’. The ‘smoking’ was due to coolant splashing on the engine since Jan forgot to put the lid back on after adding some coolant. What luck! The cap was still on top of the engine! Fortunately, the engine never got too hot.

• After a bit, the engine started running better, so we went on to Nanaimo and had the fuel filters changed. The mechanic noticed that silver flakes were floating in the fuel & the fuel was murky. He did not know what the problem was (maybe bad fuel), so we had the tank removed, cleaned out and re-mounted. Later, in looking on the Internet, we found out that some Ford F450 & F550 fuel tanks delaminate (the aluminum coating inside the steel tank flakes off). Since the tank will eventually rust, we ordered a new one to be shipped from Ontario to Nanaimo. When we got to Nanaimo, the tank had not arrived as scheduled. So, we waited 3 extra days – still no tank – so we went on. Hopefully, we can make it back to Texas with a few flakes still in the fuel.

• To top it off, when we were about 20 miles north of Campbell River, we noticed smoke coming out the back of the trailer. We pulled off and found out that the trailer back tire on the driver’s side was on fire. FORTUNATELY, people were following us and with their help and with their & our fire extinguishers, we got the fire out before the rest of the trailer caught fire. What a feeling to envision almost everything that you own almost go up in smoke!

There was no cell phone coverage where we were, and again by good fortune, a wrecker driver came by and radioed for a big low-bed wrecker to load our trailer onto. We backed our 5th wheel onto the wrecker and then followed it back to Campbell River in our truck.
It was determined that the problem was caused by the brake controller activating the trailer brakes without pressing the brake pedal. One set of brake pads were really worn down & one set of pads were completely worn down - so the metal-on-metal grinding with the rotor got hot enough to set the brake fluid and tire on fire.
Amazingly, the tire on fire did not blow out. We had the tire replaced and the brake calipers and pads on all 4 wheels replaced. Plus the 8 studs & lug nuts replaced on the one wheel (these are made of brass and the heat caused the threads to get messed up).
I had just recently replaced the brake controller, so after the fire, I put the previous brake controller back on. All is working well now.

• One last problem – In Nanaimo, Jan was backing up the truck and hit a stump with the running board. So, Jan took off the running board (made with fiberglass) and with some Bondo, spray paint, and the bending of some brackets it is “almost” back to normal.

• We did have to replace a burnt out taillight, but this really seems so insignificant now.

After all of this, we still really enjoyed our time in Canada. We had a great visit with friends that we met in 2004 in Chemainus and met some really great people that helped us when we needed a hand.

We are now in Chimacum, Washington on the Olympic Peninsula. Tomorrow we plan to start our meandering down the Oregon and California coast snagging some more lighthouse photos and visiting with relatives on our way to the San Diego area. Then, it will be back to Texas by the middle of November.