THE MIRACLE

On Friday, August 31 I had a straightforward talk with Manfred to share my concern with him that Ben really misses a friend and companion. I also told him that Ben prays for a dog. Sunday night we arrive in Quesnel, Canada to visit Barkerville (an old, historically significant mining town) the next day.

Monday morning (Labor Day) as we get ready to leave for Barkerville, a cat is joining us outside at our table. Ben is understandably beside himself, he asked us to please not leave right now but wait after he is done playing with the cat. The cat seems to be friendly and tame enough. Ben gets out his chair to sit in but before he even has a chance to sit down, the cat gets all-comfy in the chair. It is a beautiful grey/blue tomcat and I can tell by the smell of him that he is not neutered. After about half an hour we coaxe Benjy to leave with us to go to Barkerville and see a really exciting mining town. He is less than happy to leave and makes us promise to stay another extra day (we planned to leave on Tuesday for Vancouver) so he can spend time with the nice cat. We give in and promise we will stay another day if the cat is still around later in the afternoon. During the day Benjy keeps asking if we think the cat will still be there…On the way back from the fun and interesting day in Barkerville we see a black bear and a moose….but Benjy keeps asking for “his cat”.

The moment we pull into our campsite, the cat comes running to us….and Benjy is in heaven. We feed the cat a Wiener sausage that he gobbles up and Benjy starts wondering if he has no home. I keep promising he probably belongs to the campground and is used to many campers passing through and is just friendly. So we have to stay an extra day and I promise to inquire with the campground host the next morning, where the cat belongs.

The next morning (Tuesday) the cat is still at our place and I walk over to the office to talk to the host. And sure enough, he confides the cat is a stray and had been hanging out for several months now.  When he showed up he was all-bones but the anglers feed him fish so he seems to be doing ok for now. The host has a cat and two dogs and will not consider taking the stray cat in and so far no camper has taken him. Mid-October they close the campground because winter in Canada comes early and then the cat might fall prey to cougars or just starve or freeze to death. More information than I actually wanted to have…L

I take the news home and do NOT tell Benjy because I know what would happen. I talk to Manfred and tell him; and HE (!!!!) of all people suggests we could take him if we are all clear on a plan B if it does not work!!!!!!!! All of you who know Manfred well will know that this is the first miracle. A cat in an RV??? A cat that drives for hours in a car??? A cat in such a small space where we even do not know where to put OUR stuff??? A cat to be kept inside all the time because we change locations every 3 to 4 days??? I think: NO WAY!

In the meantime Benjy talks to some neighbors and learns about the cat…they obviously talked to the camp host as well….he comes inside to tell us the news and immediately says we have to rescue the cat and keep it. So Manfred suggests we sit down and talk this through….miracle! Benjy seems to be speechless because he did NOT expect his Dad to seriously consider it. There are so many unknown factors: First, the tomcat is NOT neutered! That is a no go! He seems to be tame enough but has he ever lived with humans? Does he know how to use a litter box? If not, how do you train him? What if he hates driving in a car (like 99% of all cats)? What if we cannot keep him confined to the RV and he constantly tries to escape? We open the RV door approximately 50-100 times a day (no kidding)! What STRESS to try to keep him inside! We have seen others traveling with cats, but mostly in motor homes which is a different story because the cat is always in the same place, driving or not! Who can answer all our questions? There are no travelers with cats in the campground.

First, we give the cat a test drive, pack him in the car (without crate, just a leash that I got at Wal-Mart) and drive to the Canadian animal shelter to ask some questions. He behaves well enough…he does not love it but he is not going berserk either. At the shelter they look at him, confirm he is not neutered, has ear mites and needs vaccination if we want to take him into the US. He is probably young and might be part Russian Blue. They call a vet for us and we make an appointment for him the next morning (Wednesday). Poor boy, here we consider to, excuse me, “cut his balls off”, have his ears cleaned, a shot given and confine him to a small space! We want to try to keep him inside that night (vet said no food or water after 8 PM the night before surgery) and see how he might behave being confined at night! He walks all over the place at daytime and snuggles up wherever the likes it. So far he has not run off, even after giving him a “test drive”! We feed him yummy cat food at about 7:30 PM and off he goes! The moment the door opens he escapes and is not to be seen anymore! Benjy is devastated and we all go to bed without seeing or hearing him anymore! But the next morning he is back! (Clueless as he is J)

We re-consider but then decide to follow through! Off we are to the vet! We still can let him go after surgery and recovery! While he is at the vet, Benjy and I are buying a crate and litter box.

We pick him up in the afternoon and after he wakes up from anesthesia he really goes berserk!!! We cannot keep him in the crate; he tries to jump through windows and just wants to run!!! First Benjy starts crying, seeing that we cannot do this to him, feels all guilty and bad and is really, really desperate and devastated! I see the same thing and start feeling really bad for the cat and especially for my son who is in much distress! So I start crying as well! What a desperate sob party, I can tell you! So Benjy and I are already grieving but decided to let him go and in comes Manfred and says “no way”, we said A now we have to say B and follow through! We will give it a try as discussed and can change the plans later if needed! That is so Manfred!!!

But did he really just make a case keeping a stray cat??? In an RV, or exactly in a 5^th-wheel and therefore also in the truck when we travel? Did I hear this correct??? Ben and I are willing to give the cat up (well under tears) and he says “no way” ???

That is a miracle!

Also, while the cat that Benjy named “TOMMY” was at the vet, a new camper pulled up in the spot beside us, in a 5^th-wheel with a truck pulling the RV. They get a crate out of the truck and in it is …… A CAT !!!

Miracle over miracle! Exactly what we needed: people who travel in a 5^th wheel with a cat! And again Manfred is the one who talks to the people a long, long time about Tommy, traveling with a cat, how to train him etc. Those people have had cats they traveled with all their life and gave us tons of valuable tips and information! This is why Manfred was so confident that we just have to follow through!!!

He strongly believed Tommy will be fine, he will easily adjust and he will be happy as well! Where does this man get his confidence and insight from? I have no clue! I am the worrier…I always see problems and reasons why things does not work!

And Ben just knew it was answered prayers! He knows that God just send the cat along to be his friend and companion. He never ever doubted it for a minute! And I am just speechless! I guess I have to admit that Benjy is right! Tommy adopted us for a good reason… He does travel very well, walks all over the car, sits with Benjy, cuddles with me, sleeps for hours under the seat. He will go in the crate if needed (like when we had to go through customs coming back from Canada) or when we get ready to leave and have to do the last clean up and hitching process. He just waits patiently until we are ready for him. He loves his new home, our RV. He sits on the sofa and looks out; he sleeps under Manfred’s desks or in Ben’s bed. He cuddles and snuggles and just loves and enjoys being with us all. He does not like to walk at a leash but he won’t fight it. He sits outside with us, curls up in “his” chair, plays with toys and Benjy. It almost seems as if he is thankful that we rescued him. And, he is BEAUTIFUL!!! And he has the calmest and most loving soul I have ever seen in a cat! I guess we all, including Manfred, fell big time for him !

By the way, the vet said Tommy is approx. 2 years old. I do not know if he really is part Russian Blue but if you google the personality of Russian Blue cats, he fits quite well…J

Here some pics! Update on Tommy and us to follow!

The emotional side, third post:

Ok, it has been a while since my last post! We have been in Canada for 3 weeks and since we spent most of the time in the National Parks (Kootenay, Banff and then Jasper) we were quite often without Internet (we actually still are...even with being back in the US). The parks were gorgeous! I think I said this before; but the majesty of the mountains, the color of the lakes, the endless forests and the incredible wildlife (yes, we saw bears…..black and grizzly) are incredibly beautiful! What a treat that we got to see all this beauty!

Our happiness about the incredible wilderness (by the way: not much traffic….Manfred liked that a lot J ) got a bit damped by the pretty high prices for almost everything. Campground fees, gas/diesel, groceries, restaurants, souvenirs…all were way more expensive than in the States. So shopping, even for necessities was no fun at all.

We are now almost 6 weeks into our trip and I have to admit that the last 2 weeks were not too much fun “mood wise”. Surrounded by beautiful nature … and we unfortunately started to get onto our nerves (which had nothing to do with the nature and all with our different personalities and ideas of how to spend the time and of course the tight space we live in).

David, I had been thinking about you a lot J ! You gave me two month, right? I started thinking that you (though annoyingly) might be right!

Manfred had very precise ideas of when, where, how long and which way we all (!) would go hiking….Benjy really started to miss friends, play dates and social contacts and I needed MY space. I had/have the hardest time to never being alone anymore….

My original idea from having peace, time and quiet to meditate and study completely fell apart or to be exact, never ever actually surfaced at all. So I am frustrated and not the most patient wife or mom anymore. And I probably have been naïve to believe that this would be possible in the first place. Many days we travel for hours, the days we do not travel, we explore or prepare the next days trip.

I am homeschooling, I have to do laundry, buy groceries and cook meals. I underestimated the time all those things take, especially preparing the next trips. We often research for hours to find THE (!) RV park, the one that is in beautiful nature, has hook-ups and is conveniently located. Then we also have to research the route in detail because it is very, very stressful if you accidentally take the wrong route with a big rig like ours and you, for instance, have no way to make a U-turn, or no gas station with diesel for the next 100 miles. We already encountered several of those situations and believe me: that is no fun at all. Usually finding the actual campground is the tricky part; finding the right road and taking the right turns is trickier than you might think (remember, the options to turn 60 feet around are limited). And do not believe that our navigation system knows its way…oh no! If we would have relied on that one as our only source I would be most likely writing from Timbuktu right now.

So, not much “Silke-time”! BUT: spending time with my only son 24/7 is priceless!!! On a normal school day he used to be gone for at least 7 hours and often for more than 10-12, depending on after school classes and play dates. Now I have the chance to really connect with him, the home schooling gives us time to talk and to explore, I newly discovered how he really “ticks”. The talks we sometimes have on our hikes are so wonderful, stunning and hopefully life forming! I just love it and consider it my biggest blessing yet!

We are also finding out that 3 never seems to be an easy number in relationships. What works fine are all combinations of 2: Manfred and I, Ben and I and Manfred and Ben. In those combinations we ALWAYS have a good time. If it is the 3 of us our interests seem to clash and we start fights in all of the possible above combinations of 2.

So the solution seems to be, instead of always doing everything in threes, we should start doing more in pairs. That also gives the 3^rd person a breather and time in quiet and solitude.

Which brings me to the problem that Benjy does not need quiet and solitude but a friend and play date. Hanging with his parents gets old after some weeksJ

This seems to be developing into a problem. He starts getting irritated and complains daily that he misses his cat so much and he wants a dog! We see almost every RVer having a dog or cat and we are the only ones without a pet the complaining goes!

Benjy told me that he prays daily, sometimes more than once, that his Dad will allow him to have a companion, preferably a dog. I know that this would need a miracle to become true but encourage him to keep praying because we all know and trust that God works in mysterious ways.

Follow the next post about THE MIRACLE!

Jasper National Park

Jasper NP is the last one of the Canadian parks we are visiting. It is also the largest one and has the richest wildlife. We were lucky enough to see elk, wapiti, black bear and grizzly - before the backdrop of the grandest mountain scenery one can imagine.



Black Bear



Grizzly Bear




That's what is called a "wildlife" jam...

                                          








Maligne Lake

Why do they smile so happily?



Because they took the cable car instead of hiking!

The Icefield Parkway

The Icefield Parkway (144 mi, 232 km) links Banff and Jasper national parks and is considered by many as one of the most beautiful roads in the world. It ows its name to the Columbia Icefield and boasts pristine mountain lakes, ancient glaciers and broad sweeping valleys. See for yourself:

At the tow of the Athabasca Glacier, part of the Columbia Icefield

 

 

 

In the Heart of the Canadian Rockies

After Glacier NP, our next destination were the Candian Rocky Mountains, where we stayed at three beautiful campgrounds in Kootenay NP, Lake Louise, and Banff NP. Kootenay NP is mainly located at the west side of the mountain range, and the campground is on a hill next to the town of Radium Hot Springs. Like the name suggests, hot water is coming out of the earth along a fault line, and is feeding two swimming pools, one of them 105° (40°C) hot. The campgound is sprawling with wildlife:

From Kootenay, we drove up the Columbia valley and across the continental divide to Banff NP on the east side of the Rockies.

The Columbia valley in British Columbia, Canada.

Across the Rocky Mountains, eastbound on the Trans Canada Highway.

Our next stop was a large campground at Lake Louise, where we had our first (and so far only) bear sighting. One morning, Benjamin was looking out the trailer window and suddenly said: "I see a bear walking down the road", and I responded: "yeah, sure, and a kangaroo next to it!" But it was true - there was a two-year old male black bear (as we learned later from a park ranger who we reported the bear to), who had decided that the campground was a nice and unchallenged area to roam around and feed from the huckleberry bushes there. We got out of the trailer and tried to follow the bear at a respectful distance, but he decided that he didn't like us and disappeared in the forest before we could even get the camera ready.

Lake Louise and the adjacent Moraine Lake are arguably among the most majestic sceneries in all of the Rocky Mountains, most famous for their incredible colors beneath the backdrop of  countless 10,000+ ft mountain peaks. Pictures can only give a less than perfect idea of how impressive these lakes are.

Doesn't this look as if the photo was made in a studio before a picture wall?

After Lake Louise, we spent three nights in Banff, the "capital" of the national park. Although the town's only purpose was and is tourism, it is still a relatively quaint mountain village. But everything is incredibly expensive; in the town's best steak house, for example,  a NY strip costs $45, plus sides, of course. We found a nice French restaurant with decent prices that offered the "real" French food, probably thanks to the Franco-Canadian influence from far-away eastern Canada.

 Who finds the McDonalds in this photo?

The main road in Banff, Alberta, Canada.

Boondocking in Glacier NP

Boondocking (or dry camping) is RV-language and means staying overnight without  hook-ups: fresh water from the tank, electricity from the battery, and all waste water goes in holding tanks. While one night usually is no problem, the three nights we had to boondock in Glacier NP have been a little bit of a challenge. In 24 hours, we consume about a quarter of the electricity that is stored in the 4 batteries of our trailer. Although we have a generator that recharges the batteries, park regulations limit the use of generators to a few hours daily – which basically is a good thing because generators are pretty noisy.

Most US national parks don’t provide hook-ups (as opposed to Canadian parks) which means, if you want to stay there, your RV needs to be prepared for boondocking. But the reward is huge: The campgrounds in national parks usually are in the middle of nature, very quiet, with camp sites that provide ample distance to neighbors and privacy. Most private RV parks are quite the opposite, providing full hook-ups for the RV, but being rather parking lots than campgrounds.

Bottom line: If boondocking is what it takes to stay in a nature as beautiful and breathtaking as the next pictures show, we’ll do it over and over again!

What a campsite!

 

Second blog about the emotional and spiritual (female) side of living in a RV fulltime

I am writing this on our 21st day on the road. Not that long yet….just a nice extended vacation time. But it does feel a bit like it has been forever.

I am sitting in Banff National Park in Canada (approx. 3000 miles away from HHI) without Internet or cell phone reception. Means I am still not sure if or when I will be able to publish this.

Ever since we made it to the Rocky Mountains we are taking it a bit slower with a bit more time in every campground to actually experience life! We figured out that we have to stay at least 3 nights in one campground to make life (homeschooling, household like laundry, grocery shopping, cooking, hiking, exploring) work. The more often we break up camp the more stressful it gets. You kind of never really arrive or settle, never get used to the place, never meet people to talk to or play (Benjamin). Three to four nights in one place seems to be the magic number. After that time you might feel like leaving again and finding another great place to stay! That is, IF your campground is great and you really feel “home”. Many of the private campgrounds are really crowded and tight with other RVs only feet away from our own which just truthfully does NOT feel good at all. The most space, privacy and beauty we find inside the National Parks. Downside there is, that we often have to boondock, means without electric power, water or sewer. For this we do have the holding tanks for fresh water, black and grey water, also 4 batteries and gas to cook and heat. You have to watch the amount of water and electricity you use, or you run dry!

The other day, after boondocking in Glacier NP we sorrow beginners woke up to the beeping of the fridge which indicated that we were out of gas (did not know that both gas bottles are used simultaneously) which meant we had no way to cook or heat! Since Manfred did not want to give up on his hot coffee in the morning, he insisted his batteries and inverter are able to run the microwave to boil some water! I was doubtful…This try actually blew the 300 Amp fuse of the batteries and we were out of battery power as well!!! As I said: bloody beginners! Now, to be able to move away our big rig to get gas and hopefully a new fuse and to make it to our new campsite we actually needed battery power in the first place: the slides only move in with battery power and to retract the jacks (we were standing on) we needed battery power as well… Now what??? Luckily my husband is very, very versatile and knowledgeable so he was able to bridge the broken fuse with another piece of cable that allowed us to pull a max. of 30 Amp, before we could potentially start a camper fire. Thank God each slide out pulled a bit under 30 Amp so we were able to pull in the slides and retract the jacks and actually made it out of the campground in one piece J.

Replacing a 300 Amp fuse is another story: we stopped at several car and RV dealers in Canada but no one could help us! So far we are still driving and camping with the broken and bridged fuse. We were able to have our gas tanks filled right outside of our Glacier campground at another RV park that did provide gas.

This funny and a bit deplorable story sidetracked me from the original challenge to find THE ONE campground where everything is just right! Where you have space, great nature, quiet, nice (not too close) neighbors, all hook-ups and possibly Internet and cell phone reception.

Finding THE ONE seems to be as challenging as meeting THE ONE Santa Claus at Christmas, possibly because they both do not exist!

But I need to admit that we are really close right now! Great spacious campsite, all hook-ups and elk sharing our campsite! Only the view of the mountains, cell phone reception and Internet are missing! But I guess we should not ask for too much!

Overall I feel much better with a bit slower pace and time for all the things that need to be done and time to sit and read, think, talk, play or write a new blog. This is what I tremendously enjoy!

Do you see how close to our RV the elk is?

There are 2 elk in the pic! One lay down just by our picnic table!