The Beast Is Out of the Barn

Even though I wasn't going to leave until next Tuesday, I was persuaded to bring the Beast to Tsawwassen so we could spend the night close to where Festival Polynesia is being held.  It sure beats having to drive home for an hour at midnight after a long day.  Naturally, there was no space available on the weekend, so I took Monday off and brought the Beast through downtown Langley in a monsoon.   I also discovered why the economy is so lousy..... because nobody works!  Apparently, most of the population of Langley spends its time driving up and down Glover Road.  Trust me on this.

 It was raining so hard when I got to Tsawwassen that I couldn't even get stuff out of the car.  By the time I was done setting up, I was drenched.  I don't even get that wet when I'm swimming!

 Anyhow, the Beast is set up in the Dog Park (why do rednecks always feel the need to buy loud, barky dogs…. Is it a manhood thing?).  I swear it looked like a movie set at times - the people across from me had the requisitional vicious drooly hound, they had a succession of old beat up cars in their driveway, they smoked like chimneys and swore like sailors.  I was looking for the camera crew.

 Anyhow, it looks like the Beast made it through winter okay.  There was some water leakage but I think we have that fixed.  There are also a few ants in the RV but the ant apocalypse will not take me too long.  I'm looking forward to taking off on the first leg of the Big Beastly Adventure next week.

Woohoooooo!

Beast, Brakes and Bank Account

All I can say is....thank heavens I decided to work a bit longer for some pocket money.  The Beast's new tires cost me nearly $3,000!  The good news is that I won't need a brake job - my mechanic friend says that they're at 70%, which should see me down a couple of mountain passes.

The doghouse, which had a tendency to go flying whenever there was a breeze, is now clamped down tightly.  It's a wondrous thing to be flying along at a heart-racing 35 mph and have this huge chunk of your vehicle come flying up, leaving nothing behind but boiling hot engine heat and an unobstructed view of the pavement directly under your feet.  It's especially invigorating when this happens as you are trying to control your vehicle down narrow, winding roads on one of those "scenic" highways on a long weekend in September!  (Note to self:  scenic is the latin word for "don't drive your RV down that road).

I still don't have a working TV, my roof leaked during the winter (we think we know the reason) and I've got a few ants in the kitchen area (which I'll deal with this summer - stay tuned for Ant Apocalypse 2013).

Otherwise, I'm good to go..... only 15 days left!