Inaugural Camper Picnic

Cooper and I had our first official camper picnic yesterday. 

After a visit to the Qualicum First Nation Campground, where we picked out our favourite spots for future visits (#6,7, 18 0r 19), we headed to Qualicum Beach. We were too late for the weekly farmer's market which is over by noon, so we picked up lunch at Quality foods and headed back down to the beach. Found the perfect parking spot (an empty spot on our right side meant we could comfortably sit with the side door open) and enjoyed lunch with a view.

Then a wander along the beach checking out all the tiny crabs scurrying about - "Zillions of them" - and sand dollars... the first time I'd seen them in situ, although I have always loved the dried white ornamental ones. 

Qualicum Beach

One of the things I love about life on Vancouver Island is that it can be mid-day on the weekend in mid-summer and there's always lots of room on the beach for everyone.

Introducing Ruby Twosday

On Tuesday, July 2 we 'brought Ruby home'.

She's a 1993 VW Eurovan, equipped with pop top, two-burner stove, sink, sleeps 4 (if two are willing to sleep in the bunk in the pop top). 

     No awning - yet. This is a priority for me to provide covered outdoor space. But very expensive ($2,000) to buy an installed one. A post on the Vancouver Island VW Camper Facebook Page led me to Dr. Bjorn's Auto, a Cobble Hill company that is a dealer for the US company Bus Depot. They have what's called an EZY Awning, that I will be checking next week. II had thought a free-standing awning from Walmart might do in a pinch. The wheels attached to the carrying case gave it away - I'd be hard-pressed to move the thing, let alone put it up myself. And the EZY Awning promises that you can store it under a seat, which the Walmart option would not.

     Another priority is to figure out how to lift the van's pop top. It looked easy when the seller - a late-30sh woman - showed me how. Me, I near broke my back on my first try. I need a stool to give me a few extra inches, a couple of more demos, and some upper back strengthening exercises before I will be able to manage it, I fear. 

    But my grandson, and fearless traveling companion, won't wait long. He can't wait to test out that upper bunk. But until I get it figured out he will have to stay home. I've slept with him before and it's like sharing a bed with sack of coal - hard to shift and taking up more than his share of the space.

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