An Almost Fatal Lesson

Hi folks, this is Bill from Bridging Borders. Thanks for joining me today. Well, today's video is the first part of our journey from Victoria on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, to San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico on the Sea of Cortez. The first part being from Victoria to a small town called Glen, California, just a little bit north of Sacramento. And I gotta tell you, this first part of the trip was a trip for man. It was a damp and chilly day when we left our home in Sydney in November to drive approximately 30 minutes into downtown Victoria, where we had a ferry reservation to take the ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles in Washington State the next day. As we drove into Victoria, Michaela was behind me in our tow car Lola. Our plan was to meet up at the ferry terminal where we could stay the night. It's a fantastic arrangement when you arrive after 4 p.m. after the last ferry has left for the day. They allow you to stay on the waterfront, on the dock, to be first in line for the ferry in the morning. So you get a free night to stay in downtown Victoria Harbour. It's a great arrangement. I guess I was a little bit early because as I approached the ferry terminal parking lot, the employee waved me off telling me I couldn't go in yet. So I was left to driving around the inner harbour of Victoria, which is pretty congested, and find a place to park. And as I did that, I noticed so many other RVs parking in the same way. And it was because this was really the first day that the border had opened in a year and a half, 19 months actually. So everybody wanted to get south. So you had all these RVs packed into the streets around the ferry terminal waiting for approval to go into the parking lot. And within about 30 minutes, we were allowed inside the ferry terminal. After a really wet and windy night on the dock, it was just miserable. We boarded the morning ferry to Port Angeles, going from Canada to the USA. The Coho ferry is quite an old ship. It was built in 1959 in Seattle, owned by Black Ball Ferries. It's really well maintained by them. But it's a grand old ship. But as you can see from the inside, it's pretty tight. The lanes are pretty narrow. One thing I've learned about bringing an RV onto a ferry, that this is the one time when you really need to give control of your RV over to the person who's guiding you onto the ferry. Don't think that you know best what to do. And don't watch your mirrors too much, even though I know that's really hard not to do because we're so used to using our mirrors. You gotta keep your eye focused on the person who's guiding you. Something goes wrong, it's their fault. But if you misjudge and do something on your own, it's not good. And you can see from the look on this guy's eyes and his hand motion, kind of ticked at me at one point because I was worried about hitting something and took my eyes off him. Okay. And I think he was a chief officer, so you don't want to mess with him. Victoria Harbour can be absolutely beautiful. But on this day in November, no, it was bleak. It was chilly. It had been really wet the night before. There was a bit of a break between storm surges. We just wanted to go south, find someplace nice and warm and just warm up a bit. We were on our way to Mexico. Once on the USA side, Michaela and I went through the USA customs separately. Michaela and Lola, me and Monty, we just find it easier that way. We don't like to be hitched while on the ferry because there's always a risk that you may bottom out with your hitch because there can be quite a difference in the height as you come on or off the ferry. And if we had to back up, you saw what I had to do on the ferry. I had to reverse. And if I had Lola attached to me, I couldn't have done that. So we like to go separately, but we had agreed to meet up at a Safeway parking lot south of Port Angeles where we bought some food and we hitched up Lola in the pouring rain. And then we headed south to our overnight spot at the Eagle Tree RV Park in Coastal Washington. Everybody okay in there? Two cats. Good Sam. Oh, good Sam. Right. As we pulled out of our site after a two-day visit with friends and continual rain and wind, we had some warning signs that we had a leak problem. We were awoken that morning with water dripping onto our faces from an overhead, a ceiling light fixture that had just been replaced. As well, our cats Boogie and Squeaky were showing signs of illness. They weren't eating. They were lethargic. We were really concerned about them, but we thought, well, let's carry on. Let's just get as far south as we can, get out of this weather and just keep a very close eye on them. Our plan for the day was to make a stop at Les Schwab's in Poulsbo and replace our bank of host batteries, and then head further south on the Olympic Peninsula onto the I-5, the Interstate 5, and head for a truck stop, a rest stop area for the night that Michaela had researched. It was an absolutely miserable drive. This is why we don't live in the Pacific Northwest during the winter time. There was record flooding. Oh, just let's get out of here. We were so thankful to finally reach the rest stop after an absolutely miserable day of driving. Once we were settled though, we realized that our bedroom, our rear bedroom, was completely soaked. The ceiling, the walls, the carpet around the bed, all wet. But more importantly, our cats were in distress. Squeaky and Boogie were still lethargic. They weren't eating, and Squeaky in particular could barely stand up. He was wobbly, unstable on his feet. We knew we had real problems. Okay, it was official. This was now a trip from hell. By first light, we were desperate to get help for Boogie and Squeaky. We phoned every vet we could find in the immediate area, and we luckily found a country vet who could take them immediately. So we got onto the I-5 as quickly as we could in search for the vet. The rain was relentless. Monty was still soaked, even more so than the day before. It was a miserable start to the day, but we were just focused on getting help for Boogie and Squeaky. Once at the vet's office, both cats had an examination and blood work, and within a very short period of time, the vet came into the consultation room with sad-looking eyes to tell us that he believed, based on the information that he had from the blood work, that both cats were suffering from renal failure, kidney disease. We were amazed. It just didn't sound right. Up until a couple of days ago, both cats had been healthy. They're both young cats. Boogie was only five. Squeaky's four. We were just shocked. I asked him how long he expected the cats to live based on what he thought, and he said, a year, perhaps less. We were stunned. We paid a bill of $900 U.S., which was about $1,200 Canadian at the time. We were loaded up with food supplements that the cats never eat, and we left just completely stunned. We drove through the last part of town onto the I-5 in complete silence. Neither one of us could speak for a while. Now, wait a minute. This channel is supposed to be about love, laughter, and late-hearted fun. Where is all of that? There hasn't been much of that, has there? Well, the love's been there, but the rest of it kind of went out the window the last couple of days. But you know, the next day, we were greeted by bright sunshine as we worked our way through Oregon towards California. We talked openly about what we felt was happening with Squeaky and the water intrusion into our cabin area. As for Boogie and Squeaky, they both appeared to be feeling better, and we vowed to take them to a trusted and skilled veterinary hospital that we know of in Mexico once we arrived. And that put our mind at ease. We just thought there must be another explanation for their condition to change so quickly. To link that with renal failure, it just didn't seem to make sense. We thought there must be some environmental factor that was at play here. And about the water into Monty's rear cabin, we concluded that it might have come through the air conditioning opening because I had not replaced the gaskets on the air conditioners when I resealed the roof this past spring. Or alternatively, the water could have come in through the two roof air vents that were left open while we were traveling, although they were not open very wide. But the wind and the rain conditions were incredible, so perhaps there was a really special movement that was driving water in. In any event, there was a lot of water. So we put those two matters to rest for the time being and enjoyed the drive into California. Our destination for the night was Weed, California. No, not what you're thinking. It's a very cool town with Mount Shasta as the backdrop. Our destination was the Mount Shasta Brewing Company, which is up in the residential area with Mount Shasta right behind it. It was fantastic. We went inside. Once we got Monty squared away, Lola unhooked and the cats put away, we went inside and had a lovely dinner and a beer. We were 20. And it was terrific. And the nicest thing happened while we were there. There was another RV couple in the same restaurant. As they got up, they looked back at us and they said, please, don't pay for your dinner. It's being looked after. I want to tell you a little bit more about that encounter, but let's leave that until we're back on the highway, on the I-5 heading south. After a good night's sleep, we left our Harvest Host, traveled a few miles south to dump our tanks and pick up some traveling food. And before long, we're once again on the highway, the I-5 heading south towards our friend's home in Glen, California, where we plan to stay for a few days. Glen is a little bit south of Redding, California, and a bit north of Sacramento. Okay. A little snippet, but a very important snippet about the encounter we had with fellow Harvest Host members in the Mount Shasta Brewing Company. As I mentioned, they very kindly bought our meal for us. We only had a short encounter with them. We were both having our meals. We talked a little bit about our pets. We shared with them our concern about Boogie and Squeaky and how we had taken them to a vet and how it was still a mystery as to what had happened. And we didn't have that much of an encounter than that. But, you know, their kindness and caring extended beyond buying us a meal, which, by the way, included that flat of beer that you saw in the earlier picture. What they did do is they left us a note the morning that we left, opening up the possibility of carbon monoxide poisoning. As soon as we read their words, we thought, wow, we hadn't thought of that. We researched it, and to this day, we believe that that may have been what Boogie and Squeaky were suffering from. It all made sense. Since leaving Victoria, we had our vents closed quite tight, much more so than we normally do because of the bad weather. The furnace was on a lot. The propane stove was on a lot. Unknowingly, we were likely killing our cats. And we were at risk as well. So we owe a great deal to our friends, who we don't even know. As for the carbon monoxide monitors, I checked them. They were both well out of date. Monty's an old coach, and these were old. The green light was on, indicating they had power, but that's no assurance that they're working. So we immediately replaced both the carbon monoxide and the propane monitors, hardwired them into Monty, and we're good to go for another five years. So the lesson in all of this, even if you think you're vented enough, you may not be. Please be careful. Oh, for heaven's sakes, let's get on with the happy part of this trip. Okay, we have our cats back, and we have a theory about what may have happened to them. Monty is drying out. We arrived safely in Glen, California at our friend's 33-acre walnut farm. We had a glorious couple of days drying out Monty even more, drinking wine, talking about life. Our friends were just what we needed.