Today I have chosen a shot of us walking through the treetops at Whitefish ski Resort in Montana. Pretty interesting and a different perspective of a forest. We see a lot of forest from the ground up, seldom from the treetops down. I can only imagine what it would be like doing this in a tropical forest. One can dream can’t we. Anyone out there ever done that?
I thought I’d share a photo from a few days ago. We spend some time here while we are summering, and it can be quite rewarding.
We showed you a blank canvas when we last talked about our RV lot. https://joebeans2002.com/2024/07/19/creating-our-year-round-haven-leasing-and-developing-in-bc/
We had this unit near Balfour, BC, on Kootenay Lake. The sight was perfect in every aspect except one. It wasn’t open all year. It also didn’t have running water, power, or sewage. The new location had more and more, including shower and laundry facilities and much larger lots.
This was the 2nd part of our quest. We were looking for a location that offered us affordability, convenience, and proximity to the necessities of life. These necessities we determined before our search and included:
Access to an airport, in this case Canadian Rockies International Airport, just north of Cranbrook, BC.
Access to a hospital, also in Cranbrook.
Access shopping and groceries, again this box was checked.
Access to a variety of restaurants, check.
And finally, a range of outdoor and indoor activities within a fairly large radius from our location. There is skiing, hiking, hot springs, national parks, kayaking, biking, cross country skiing, waterfalls, golf etc. etc., all within a 3hour driving range.
Now the hard part begins, making this lot a workable living space. We will be presenting our efforts from time to time, and we are still working on it.
To sum up with some helpful advice, we spent many suppers discussing how we were going to deal with retirement. We talked this over more than a few bottles of wine. Our goal was to handle retirement in a responsible and economical manner. We settled on this path based on cost. We wanted to live comfortably and still maximize our available funds to help in funding our travel bug.
If we had something to pass along, it would simply be, talk. Put your hopes on the table and figure out a way to get the most out of them. It also very important to not put this off to the “future”. The future is now! It has taken us 20 years to get to this point and we still have things to work out.
Way back in 2011, I posted this one as the first picture I personally took on here. It is fitting today as it is a shot of Athabasca Falls, which is close to Jasper, Alberta. I haven’t heard anything about the status at the falls yet, but I’m sure we will at some point. It was a terrible day for the people who lived there and a tragedy for the rest of the world. It is iconic, beautiful, and basically irreplaceable.
Ah, Portugal. In 2012, we decided to include Lisbon in our Spain tour. It was a spontaneous decision, but it turned out to be the best choice we made. Lisbon was amazing—the food, the atmosphere, the attractions. Then there’s Sintra, a place with a unique history that dates back to the 9th century when it was occupied by the Moors, and it continued to thrive until the late 19th century. It’s a National monument and has been partially restored to its former grandeur. It’s a fascinating place and definitely worth a side trip to experience it.
As promised, here’s a quick tale of our sailboat, the JohnLoriEh. The boat was a 25-foot 1979 O’Day moored for the winter in Kaslo Bay, part of Kootenay Lake. As you may notice, there is a bit of snow onboard, and this was after cleaning most of it off. As a point of interest, Kootenay Lake does not freeze up.
Long story short, it was tied up to the dock alongside a boat shed. The shed collapsed due to snow load, immediately sinking several not-cheap cruisers and, in the process, amputating the dock from the shed. Our boat went Flying Dutchman and crossed the bay. Once there, it met up with a steel-hulled houseboat. Once there, it bounced up against it for a day or two until she was noticed. By that time, a major gash was formed at the point where the hull meets the deck.
We were contacted by a friend in the area who recognized the boat. We were leaving for Mexico the next day and had to cancel everything and drive from Calgary to Kaslo to facilitate the next steps. Once it was safely docked and inspected, we decided to motor to Jones Boys, a boat dealer and shop about an hour south on the lake. The forecast called for no wind and two above, so we made the run. We got the motor going, and I headed out alone, with Lori meeting me there with the car and trailer.
There were definitely some worries here, as the lake can get quite rough at times. The vessel was not exactly seaworthy and could easily take on water. Fortunately, the lake stayed calm, with barely a ripple to be seen. All in all, it was a beautiful run, albeit a bit cool for boating.
Once we reached Jones Boys, they hauled it out of the water onto our trailer. It was then placed in their lot, waiting for an insurance inspector to estimate the damage (it was a write-off). We stripped it of whatever was on board and drove away, never to see her again.
The main downside to it all is that we stopped sailing, something we truly loved to do. Maybe someday we will do it all over again, minus the snow.
The JohnLoriEh under sail on Sunshine Bay near Harrop and Procter, BC. On a bit of a memory bender, bear with me, I’ll move along soon. This shot was taken in 2017.
Today’s photo has nothing to do with our photo library and everything to do with just being content. Looking up is the thing tonight as we sit on our deck enjoying the cool of the evening. July is almost over, and before you know it the leaves will be changing and we will then move onto the next season, the next year, the next thing, whatever that may be. Sometimes we just need to look up!
To keep the streak alive, 3 in a row.
One of the many pots kicking around the lot right now. Seems to be thriving in the plus mid 30c temperatures of late.
So far so, so good, 2 days in a row. Let us reach into the vault and see what we have.
Let’s go with this from 2017. A blank canvas, otherwise known as the lot we lease in BC. I’ll drop a new one chronologically from time to time. We has an extensive search throughout the Kootenays, trying to find a place that would serve us year round, with power, sewage and water. As you can see, power was not an issue. Conveniently neither was water or sewage. Resort is open year round as well. The vacant lot backed onto the Moyie River and we could see lots of potential. We settled on this location and have been working on it ever since.