A Home: The Making of

The first few days of moving into a new home, whether it be a mansion, a humble 2-story house, a studio apartment, or a weather-beaten cardboard box wedged under a freeway overpass, are important in establishing positive energy for years to come. A crucial step in establishing that energy is deciding where everything goes. Which drawer do the eating utensils go in? Where will we keep the olive oil? What corner will the TV sit in? And under which false floorboard will we hide the bathroom monkey? These are all important factors to take into consideration when laying out your living space.

Luckily, C and I couldn't give a crap where things went and just started unpacking boxes and throwing things around haphazardly. After all was said and done, we were quite happy with the results.

Viola! Instant cozy living room.

Dining room converts easily into a low-stakes poker room!

We unpacked everything at a nice, sane pace (unlike our maniacal loading and unloading frenzy we undertook a couple days before) and the more we unpacked, the more the house started to feel like a home.

A charming kitchen.

The kitchen turned out to be one that even Martha Stewart would feel comfortable cooking in, meaning it's roughly the same size as the cramped prison cell she did time in. Ha ha! No, it's actually really nice and C and I love how it turned out.

I feel like I'm in a log cabin. Coooool.

The den or "office" is nice too. Nothing inspires hard work and creativity like wood panelling. Hey look, that's me taking our newly installed wireless internet out for a spin. "Oh my gawd! I'm so far behind on my Lindsey Lohan blogs!"

Attack of the Juicy Tomatoes!

We found some nice tomato plants in the backyard. When C watered them, they came up sprouting with dozens of nice, juicy tomatoes. They're growing so fast that we're worried that we won't be able to keep up with them. I guess it's a good problem to have.


The weather has been pretty mild up here. It's typically on the chilly side in the morning and warming upwards to around 20 or 25 degrees C by the afternoon. It stays warm until about 11 or midnight when it starts to dip down around 5 degrees C again. It hasn't gotten "chilly" enough at night for us to close the windows upstairs when we go to bed though. Every few days or so it'll get up around 30 degrees in the afternoon, but they're becoming less and less frequent.

How do you say "It's hot" in Canadian?

One nice surprise I happened upon was a televised Oakland A's game. Sweet! They were playing the Toronto Blue Jays and all Blue Jay games are televised up here. Nothing soothes those homesick pangs like watching the A's sweep the Blue Jays in a three game series live on TV!

"C-A-B-L-E! Cable TV! Cable TV! GoooOOOOOO CABLE TV!"

Even R2-D2 was excited to see Loaiza pitching so well! "That's right, R2. He's really got his slider working today!" Yeeaaah!

Another cool surprise was when C was out by the shed in the backyard and found a live bat sleeping inside the door! Cool! It had attached itself to the inside of the shed door and when she dragged me out to come look at it, it plopped most ungracefully to the ground.

"Hello, Mr. Bat! Nice Face-Meets-Dirt technique."

The only bats I've ever seen in Oakland are the ones made of wood and they're usually smashing through your windshield. That's not entirely true. The Oakland Zoo has a very impressive bat exhibit that I've been to numerous times. But even those bats will steal your car stereo if you turned your back on 'em for a second.

"Watch it man, that thing'll tear your face off."

Mr. Bat is hopefully one of many interesting neighbours we meet while we're here. And probably not the only one with rabies. When C tried to deftly scoot it aside with a stick, it bid her a fine afternoon with a short series of agitated squeaks and then fluttered angrily away. Presumably to go calling on another dark, dingy and quieter tool shed. "So long, Mr. Bat! Come again soon!"

Until next time...adventure!
R-

We're Home and We're Okay

Zowie, has it really been almost three weeks since we last posted? Time flies when you're almost running out of gas on the prairie and unpacking boxes.

Don't let the picture fool you, there really isn't that much out here.

You'll be happy to hear that crossing over the border into Canada was not only easy and hassle-free, but down right pleasant! Canadian border guards are probably the most nicest border guards in the Western Hemisphere. They're by far more polite, compassionate, down-to-earth and helpful than the border guards in Tijuana that I'm used to. El Senior Borderguards es muy no simpaticos!

Not only did they not give us any trouble by making us unpack any boxes out of our truck, the Canadian border guards didn't even ask to look inside the truck! Ha! Damn, we could've packed that thing full of all kinds of drugs and illegal weapons and immigrants. Idiots! In fact, the guards went out of their way to fax our info to the local immigration agent so that he could process our work visas while we waited so that we could drive away with our temporary visas until the real ones came in the mail a few short days later. Wow. You don't even get customer service like that any more at McDonald's. Of course, while we were waiting there in the Regway office, there was all of maybe four people who crossed over into Canada. So it wasn't like they were inundated with work. They were probably happy to see some people drive through for a change.

So after a little more than an hour's wait at the border, we were back in the truck and heading home. But our troubles weren't quite over yet.

We came real close to running out of gas about halfway from the U.S. border to Regina. Ha ha! Wouldn't that have been the kicker to this whole crazy trip? Run out of gas in the middle of the prairie? Hell I've run out of gas before, but not with all of my earthly possessions riding in the back loosely secured with a $6 padlock. What happened was we decided to forgo gassing up until we reached the next little dot on our map. We were cutting it close but we barely had enough gas to make it. Unfortunately, that little dot was Ceylon, Saskatchewan, which is much less a "town" or "hamlet" than it is a tiny dot on a map. A dot with NO gas stations. By this time the fuel warning light had come on in the truck a few kilometres back and I was getting that sinking feeling in my gut. That feeling like me and my fallen arches are about to go schleppin' up the gravel shoulder of a two-lane highway for a couple hundred kilometres.

We decided to park in Ceylon and walk over to the houses to see if any of the locals would sell us Yankees some gas. Didn't I read this in a Stephen King novel before? Or was that Dean Koontz? Maybe Mad Magazine?

Some nice people coming out of the liquor house told us there was a gas station about 20 kilometres north. "Twenty klicks! I don't think we'll make it." I mean, we were lucky if we were getting 12 miles to the gallon in that thing. But what were our alternatives? Stick around for lunch and hope we aren't "squealin' like a pig" by midafternoon? No. We jumped back in the truck and I slo-o-o-o-owly crept the truck north at about 70 km/h, which is pretty damn slow compared to the 110 km/h speed limit. I think we actually caught an old lady in her Volkswagen giving us the finger as she sped by. Luckily, we covered the 20 klicks and I coasted the Ryder into the aptly named, Oasis gas station. Whew.

Any day you don't have to leave all your belongings along the side of the highway and hike 20 kilometres to a gas station is a good day.

Okay so maybe it wasn't that harrowing. Maybe I've seen The Hills Have Eyes too many times. I'm talking about the original version, not that crappy new release. I'm talkin' about the really scarey one.

We finally pulled into Regina and up to our house late that afternoon. We immediately had a cold, refreshing beer, then proceeded to sleep for a good four or five hours. The Ryder truck had to be returned by noon the following day, so it was up at 10:00 pm later that night to begin unloading the truck. Once we got the bed out, we stopped there and conked out for the night. We were freakin' exhausted.

The next morning we got up and finished emptying the truck. It was still up in the low 30's (mid-90's F) but we were treated to another flash thunderstorm. It poured down about 2 inches in ten minutes. Huh, maybe it wasn't those Montanian's playing a trick on us. At around 2:30 (2-1/2 hours after the truck was due) we finished unloading the truck. Aaaaah!

"I hate loading and unloading furniture out of a truck THIS much."

The house was in disarray since we were in a hurry to just empty the truck and get it returned. But we knew once we got those buggers in the house, we could take our time unpacking everything.

Who knew we had so much stuff?

That box of dishes must be from Italy! Better be careful.

Somewhere in all that mess is the toilet paper. Doh!

So we're here, we're safe (albeit somewhat banged up, sore and dehydrated) and we're happy. Thanks to all of you for your positive thoughts and prayers, they did come in handy!

Tune in again soon as we post more pictures from our first few days in our new home.

Until then... adventure!

R-

I hate moving.

I hate moving.

Wait wait wait wait. I want to be sure you understand me. I... hate... moving. Always have, always will. But it's days like these that make me hate it passionately.

It's Full Contact Unpacking and Loading!

C and I will have moved this pile of junk four freakin' times by the time it's all in the house! We counted it: first we moved out of C's apartment to Hayward, then we moved out of Hayward into the moving containers, then we moved everything out of the moving containers in Billings, Montana and into the Ryder truck. Tomorrow, after driving it from Miles City, MT, where we're spending the night, we drive the final 6 hours and move it all into the house. Whew!

And of course no moving experience can be truly miserable without temperatures hitting triple digits while you are wrestling with 75lb. boxes full of art books and software manuals. As you can see from the above photo, there was no shade. We were humping exercise equipment, mattresses, shelving units, tables and office chairs in direct sunlight, my friend! As you can imagine, we drank four bottled waters each without having to pee the whole afternoon.

Not only that, but we were pressed for time too. The moving company wasn't open on weekends, so we had to be sure we got everything unloaded and loaded up before they closed. So as much as we wanted to not over exert ourselves in the punishing heat, we had to get our butts out of there fast!

C tries to get a hold of any of the family to mercifully fly up and give us a hand packing.

What made the whole day even more ridiculous was a brief, albeit refreshing, drizzle. That's right, in the middle of the 100-degree afternoon, a cloud came over and RAINED on us and all of our stuff. It lasted only a moment (just long enough to get everything wet) and after the cloud moved along and the sun went back to baking all of our belongings, there was no evidence of the rainfall at all. Personally, I think it was Montana's good-natured way of hazing the witless Saskatchewan-bound Californians. Oh those wily Montanians.

Next time, two words: YARD SALE.

After over 5-1/2 hours of unloading and loading in the freak Montana weather, we got everything in the Ryder truck and were finished. Oh sweet mercy. By the time we locked everything down and pulled away, we were both feeling a touch of exhaustion and heat stroke.

We topped this wonderful day off by having the worst Mexican food either of us had every had at a Chevy's-like restaurant called Dos Nachos or something. We were both starving and it was the very first restaurant we came upon after leaving the shipping terminal. I understand we're a thousand miles from the Mexican border, but jeez people, you've gotta season your chicken enchiladas with a little salt and pepper at least! Ay dios mio!

The only thing left now was the two hour drive back to our hotel room in Miles City. Doh!

We ask for all of your prayers that the Canadian border guards don't make us unload everything to search our stuff tomorrow.

Until next time... I hate moving.
R-

We're HeeEEEEeere!

Home, sweat home. As in we were all sweaty when we pulled up. It was a long, tough push from Medicine Hat to the Regina city limits, but after about 8 hours of determined driving through a moth migration...

Oh the carnage!

...C and I made it to the house! Our amazing realtor, Cortne, met us there with the keys and after a tiny mix up with exactly which keys were the right ones, we finally got to step into our new home.

"Nobody's takin' a step into this house
until we take a picture, dammit! So say cheese."

We were all relieved that the house was in good shape. C and I were worried that the previous owners were going to leave the place in shambles, but everything looked clean and in pretty good condition.

Of course, in strict accordance with Filipino Old Wive's Tales Protocol, the first thing we moved into our new home was rice and water.

Bring on the prosperity!

After walking throughout the house and checking out all the rooms, Cortne left us to take a much needed nap before we headed out on the road again to Billings, Montana, where our belongings were being shipped. The shipping company shipped to every province in Canada except to Saskatchewan! Imagine that. So instead of having our containers shipped to Calgary (10 hour drive) or Winnipeg (10 hour drive), the next closest city was Billings (8 hour drive). Wonderful.

"Punch it, Chewie!"

We couldn't leave, of course, without trying out the wicked cool slide in the backyard. After giving it a try, C admitted, "It's a pretty fast slide. You have to be careful." Hmmm. Maybe I'll try it later.

So after basking in the glory of our new home for all of an hour and a half, with 15-foot Ryder truck in hand, we headed out of town. Again. For there is no rest for the crazy.

Until next time... adventure!
R-

It's Fun In Alberta!

Set course for FUN!

As we sit at the brink of the Saskatchewan border, C and I would like to thank the province of Alberta for a great time! We crossed over from British Columbia on the 6th of August and spent the day in beautiful Banff National Park!

We took this from the patio area of the Banff Springs Hotel. It was a bit hazy that day as there was some forest fires a few kilometres away.

While in Banff we visited wicked cool Banff Park Museum with lots of stuffed birds, cougars, bears, bison, elk, and various other varmints.

"Nice one!"

Whoa! This stuffed beaver weighed 75 lbs, and that isn't even the biggest one they've ever found! Yikes!

"Hey! You! Get off of my glacier!"

After admiring the dead animals, we headed over to the Athabasca Glacier, part of the massive, yet still shrinking, Columbia Ice Fields. We believe it's the only glacier in the world that you can drive up to and walk on (without a team of sled dogs or a ice truck or something).

Now we can say we actually stood on a glacier before they all disappear. Cool. Literally.

C shares some photos with Walter

We then left Banff and headed to Rocky Mountain House to visit with C's step-father, Walter. It was cool to see C reunited with some of her family.

We had a great time and even got to sleep in a real log cabin out in the middle of the woods. I kept having flashbacks to watching Friday the 13th parts II to IV. Oooo creepy.

Then we drove to the Priddis/Red Deer Lake area, to see the old house that C grew up in. It sits on what was then a huge cattle ranch, which is now a wildlife preserve called the Cross Conservancy. She hadn't been able to visit the actual house since 1982. There wasn't anyone living in the house, so we just parked and walked around. C showed me the backyard and all the pastures she used to ride in on her horse. It was a pretty emotional visit for her.

Here C peeks into the window of her old bedroom.

After saying goodbye to C's old stomping grounds, we hit the road again to Drumheller, the dinosaur capital of Canada. We visited the Royal Tyrell Museum, an amazing dinosaur museum, and the Hoodoos.

"Get in my belly!"

I took a ton of pictures at the museum but this was one of my favorites.


That's all for now. We've to get back on the road and head into Saskatchewan and to our new house. Woo-hooo! We probably won't be able to post much until we get all moved in and get internet access all set up. Maybe by then we'll even have pictures of new puppies! Eeeeeee! Stay tuned!

Until then... adventure!

R-

Last stretch!

Hey! We're in Medicine Hat, Alberta at a Best Western Hotel - with WIRELESS access in all the rooms! How civilized. If you haven't already, check out the pictures and read Raul's latest post about our trek across Alberta, recounting our adventures since the great Ogopogo hunt by clicking here.

Well, the last few pieces have fallen into place with the house since we've been on the road, and our realtor Cortne called us yesterday to say that she HAS THE KEYS in her hand! Woohoo!

We are just fixing to hit the road on this last stretch. We'll be in Regina in four or five hours and we'll be driving straight to McIntosh Street, where we'll meet Cortne out front, get the keys, and walk in to our new home!

How crazy is that?

Hunting the Ogo Pogo

Howdy!

We are now 1300 miles into the trip and Raul is driving like a champ. I can stay awake if I'm not driving but for some reason I can only do a couple of hours at a stretch behind the wheel before I need toothpicks to hold my eyes open.

We are in Penticton in the unbelievably beautiful Okanagan Valley. The towns around here are called things like "Summerland" and "Peachland" so you get an idea what kind of place it is. It's temperate and down the middle of the valley is a huge lake, the Okanagan, which is 1000 feet deep in some places.


Last night we a brief but fun visit with my lifelong friend and best buddy, Kevin, who I have known since I was four. He is one of the coolest people I know. He is a beekeeper, and an amazing photographer and photojournalist with stories in two recent editions of Canadian Geographic: one on beekeeping and one on his walk across Saskatchewan. He came home late last night from shooting a wedding and left this morning at 6:30 to take part in an outrigger canoe race in Vernon, leaving us to loll around in bed a little longer. Today we are off through some more picturesque land on our way through the rest of the interior of British Coloumbia and into the Rocky Mountains. We hope to make Banff by nightfall.

We may not get out of the Okanagan so quickly however, as Raul does want to embark on a hunting expedition of the Ogo Pogo.



Ogopogo (or, as he was known by First Nations peoples, N'HA-A-ITK, or "Lake Demon") is a lake monster residing in Okanagan Lake. Ogopogo is dark green in colour, estimated at one to two feet in diameter, with a length ranging between 15 to 50 feet, and a head resembling that of a horse or goat head with a beard.

To appease the monster, the Indians offered small animals at its legendary lair, the submarine caves off Squally Point near Rattlesnake Island. Ogopogo frequents the waters between his favorite island and Mission Valley and has made journeys to both ends of the lake. Recorded sightings date as far back as the early 1800s. In 1860, John McDougal lost his team of horses when they were pulled under as he was swimming them across the lake in a canoe... never to be seen again. Interestingly, the government in 1926 announced that the new ferry being built for travel across Okanagan Lake would also be equipped with special "monster repelling devices."

Scientists believe Ogopogo could be a giant serpent, an aquatic dinosaur left over from the Ice Age. The Okanagan Lake mystery is believed to be one of up to 36 other marine phenomena that inhabit our world.

Howdy from Vancouver

After some long drivin' and not a few pit stops, C and I finally crossed the border yesterday into Canada! Weeeeee! We had dinner with C's friend Murray who she's known since high school, and spent the night in a Victorian mansion B&B in a cool old neighborhood with curvy streets and huge trees. We're in Vancouver right now at a dim and sweaty internet cafe. The city is beautiful! We both admit it rivals San Francisco in sheer beauty.

Yesterday we rode away from Creswell, Oregon where our dear friends, Ron and Sandra live. We spent the day before with them and had a great time. The meals were home-cooked and delicious!

"Mmmmmmmmmm... Sandra's homemade biscuits and sausage gravy"

We even got to go horseback riding with C's other friend Betty Jean. We were out on a trail for about two hours and got some funny pictures of me in the saddle.

Is it me or does this horse look tiny?


"What's this for?"

Doh! The internet guy here just gave us the two-minute warning. So I'd better sign off for now.

Stay tuned for more pictures of our trip.

Next stop: The Okanagan Valley!

Later fools,
R-