The work of going home

The weather in Alaska during our 6 weeks of vacation was pretty near perfect, and today may not  have been sunny, but the fact it wasn’t rainy while we turned in our RV’s, made it perfect enough for me. Today also promised to be a very long one. From here we fly to Kelowna, British Colombia to see Norm’s sister and brother-in-law. The only flights I could find on American Airlines or its partners (frequent flyer miles) were through Seattle. 4hrs to Seattle, 3 hour layover, 1 hour flight. ( It's not that far away ) Ugh.

Map of our travels in Alaska over a 6 week period

There was a bit of aggravation returning the RV’s due to their miss-communication.  There was a very strict rule that you had to have your RV in the return line, absolutely no later than 10AM. Sharp.  We didn’t have to dump our tanks, but the propane had to read full.  We hardly used ours, so when we checked it looked almost full on the inside guage.  We called at 8am to see if we had to go get propane, and we were assured we did not have to bother.  Well, whoever we spoke with was wrong! There was an outside gauge we didn't know about. That also had to read full.  We had to run off and find the place, get it, and come back.  Luckily they didn’t charge us for the inconvenience ( mostly ours ).

 We and the Little’s had several boxes of really nice camping necessities we purchased there in Alaska that we didn’t need, or perhaps hadn’t used, and planned to put the items on the table at the rental office to make available for those just getting their campers .  We took advantage of other’s generosity when we came in, and wanted to do the same. ( plastic cutlery, plates, some unopened condiments )  I felt passionate about passing our 2 cans of bear spray to a young family who otherwise might not have been protected out in the wilds.  At $50 each, it would have been really appreciated, I am sure, and nice to know we helped protect a family.

What happened was when Vickie and Norm put the boxes on the table, the employees of ABC Motorhome SWOOPED in, and took anything of value.  Large Britta, unopened food, and of course, the bear spray!

After a quick goodbye, Vickie and Dennis headed off to their hotel for a couple of days to await their cruise back to either Vancouver or Seattle, I am not sure.

Norm and my flights were not until 5PM, so we had a good 3-4 hour wait until we could check our bags in. As I sat there, I was so upset that these people took our bear spray!  I finally went to the counter and talked to someone I was pretty sure was not involved.  She told me they could not legally leave it sitting on the table ( I could understand that ) and they take them out back. If someone coming in asks for them ( how would they know? )they would give it to them.  I asked her to go get the spray, so I could give them away myself, and she could not find them. Gone!  Hah! I was really ticked off.  I told her how we all were upset at their behavior, and it was wrong.  I could probably find them on eBay next week.

We decided we were more comfortable sitting at the rental company, then at the airport so we hunkered down for a few hours, eating our bagged lunch.  Norm read, and I worked on the blog and people-watched.

We gave ourselves plenty of time at the airport because we knew we were heading into a difficult situation.  What was that?  Well, we flew up first class which allowed 70 lbs in our bags. Thankfully they were only about  55 lbs. or so, but these duffel bags measured bigger than Alaska Air allowed, plus we had 3 bags and a back pack. (Flying to British Colombia, we could only have two and they had to be smaller and no more than 50lbs.) (My memory is a little foggy on this, so give me some latitude with the facts). With a $75 charge per bag, this was serious.

Alaska Airlines must be used to this, because they had a lovely area off to the side with scales and tables for people to rearrange their bags. After weighing ours, hmmm….a couple were 5 lbs too heavy, but stuffed to the gills. We thought there was not much we could do other than buy another inexpensive suitcase (I looked they were $79 for a small one that would not be much help), toss a few heavy items, or put the heaviest stuff in Norm’s backpack for him to take as a carry-on. Bingo! As long as they didn’t check the weight of his carry-on we would be fine. After all, Norm is tough!

That solved, we breezed through security and while we waited, we dinner. Our flight was at 9PM so with the time change we arrived a little after midnight.  We learned we had to pick up our bags in Seattle, go through customs then re-check them. Because we were coming in so late, we got a hotel that night.

Norm in the storage room of the hotel.  Trying to figure out what we will need for the next few days. 

We had very large pieces of luggage –( after all we were gone a long time and were ready for every type of  weather plus hiking gear ) and would be staying a couple of days with Norm’s family in a small condo.  Not wanting to either overwhelm them or have to move this luggage around, I had the brilliant idea of leaving our huge duffel bags locked up at the hotel that we would be returning to for our last night. ( 5AM flight )! It was no problem.

I finally got to sleep about 3AM, and Norm fell asleep just about the time his head hit the pillow, perhaps an hour earlier.

July 12-14th

Over the next couple of days we had a wonderful time visiting Pat and Lou whom we had not seen in a couple of years.  We took a lovely drive along the shores of beautiful Lake Okanagan.

Spotted Lake in Osoyoos B.C. is owned by the First Nations People, and its many minerals are used for medicinal properties. It is a sacred site, and has been a revered place of healing for centuries. It is believed that the different colored circles have different healing properties.  During World War 1 Chinese laborers extracted 1 ton of salt from the surface every day which was used to make ammunition.

Lake Okanagan from a scenic drive view-point

The last evening we went out for a nice dinner and they dropped us off at the hotel so we could get up a 3AM for another long day of travel.  Boy, RV’ing is so much easier, I tell you!

Norm with his sister Pat and brother-in-law, Lou

Beautifully built Visitor's Center in Osoyoos, British Colombia, Canada

July 15th

It was a long day, with several changes of planes, getting us back into our house at a little after midnight.  An air conditioner malfunction greeted us, and with it a stifling 92 degrees, but about 3AM I got it working. ( I can’t imagine why my Housewatch company didn’t catch it – but that’s a whole other story .) We were Home!