YeeHaw!! Wheeling Fun.

Eric told a couple people at the boys school that our plans this weekend were to stay home and watch tv.  Uh?  Really? Since when?! Haha.  You all know I always have a long list of things to do.  

This morning I slept in.  Got up, took my meds, gave Rosie hers.  Cleaned dog messes. Cleaned and filled water bowls. Fed cats.  Ate breakfast. Sorted 4 laundry baskets of clean clothes.  Cleaned more animal messes.  Did Esmei's litter box, put away laundry, had a shower and did a blow out on my hair.  Ate lunch.  Eric fed the boys breakfast and lunch.  Vacumned, did some laundry. Changed our bedding, did the dishes and walked Joey.  We offered the kids an adventure afternoon, they all declined. Sigh.  So, we scored an afternoon to ourselves.  

We started at the Farmers Market where we found sugar free ice cream.  I choose cherry, so good.  She'll be in Parksville for their evening street markets and at the Red Rooster.  I'll be following her ;)  We met a lovely man selling fancy cupcakes.  He's 81 and diabetic.  He's been on an insulin pump for 40 years.  He was shocked I was still insulin free and controlling with food.  He thought I should go to a pump and then I could eat the cupcakes ;)  We also met a 14 week old Pyrenees puppy.  We went through some more shops before we left town.

I suggested going to Bright Angel to walk the path, or the Crofton walk or to Hill 60 to try Oscar out in the bush. Or to Costco to buy some Biscoff Cookie Butter. Have ya'll tried that stuff? Omg. 

Of course Eric immediately took us out to the bush.

We followed the Chemainus River.  We started out clean ;)  We found two other Jeeps out there and both of them stopped to talk to us.  How weird is that?!  I didn't know that was a thing.  One Jeep was a Tj and they were heavily mudded, they veered off after we talked up a wee hill that wasn't a road.  Haha.  The other one was a couple our age in a Grand Cherokee looking for waterfalls but we didn't know of any.  I ducked them a mini duck, their 1st ducking, he was thrilled. They thought they'd turn around and follow us but it didn't happen.  Likely a good idea, since we didn't really know where we were going. We do both have reasonable senses of direction and the cells were working out there.

We traversed a creek, or mini river.

I'll admit we stared at this lake for a good while and really discussed the possibility of a big sink hole or ditch or horrible use your imagination tragedy thing happening.  Then it got quiet and we both stared and he slammed it into gear and we yeehawed through it.  The water sprayed all the way up and over.  It was so exciting.

I mean, could he look any more thrilled?

I'm pretty sure Eric would have had more fun wheeling without me there fretting.  

I'm thinking we might be ready for the trail at Jeepapaloosa! A good chunk of today really couldn't even be called roads.

I had to use my stool to get in. The mud was pretty thick on the side step.

So gorgeous out there.  Learning to love our Cowichan Valley again. Eric is already planning the next outing.  It includes a picnic.

The mud would have been worse without all the rinse baths in the giant puddles. I'm grateful that it'll be Eric giving Oscar a bath.

Shelley "well, how did Oscar do?"

Eric "Phenomenal!"

Shelley "better than the other 4 bys we've had?"

Eric "oh ya, I'm impressed".

Hmmm.  I feel like I'm definitely sharing custody now.

On Thursday I needed to drop some paperwork in town.  Our plan was to take Jia to school and then go to town.  Jia opted to sleep instead.  Sigh.  So we were in town earlier.  There is so much online about the unhoused and addicted ruining our town. Messes and disruptions everywhere.  I avoid town in general.  However, we walked all of town.  Ate lunch, went in the antique and home shops, the thrift stores and bought bagels. Town was spotless.  Stores were fun.  People were happy.  It was a great afternoon.

So, Jeepapaloosa is coming up and I'm realizing that it's a bigger deal than I thought.  There are content creators coming and some pretty amazing Jeeps with all the additions.  I did say to Eric that it might be embarrassing to be there without a winch.  He did find this hitch shackle at the Restore for $10, so at least someone else can pull us out with their winch.  Because that wouldn't be embarrassing. 

Funny thing, the fellow working in the restore offered to sell us the shackle for $8 if he could have one of our bagels.  Deal.  Eric gave him the jalapeño one we didn't want.  Hillarious.

I thought Jeepapaloosa would be a bunch of hill billies like us out for a camping weekend.  Then I saw this poster the other day and realized we're definitely out of our depth with the Jeep and the entire weekend in general.  

We shared a dole whip.

When we came home with the boys it was such a gorgeous day.  Luk found the sun.  I ran inside to get a drink and rushed out to sit with him but the sun had gone  behind clouds and it was suddenly cold again.  Crazy weather.

May is competing in the BC Winter Games so Rosie and Joey are with us for a bit.  Joey has a devoted slave in Kai.  

Eric got the new springs installed.  It took him a couple afternoons.  He was so happy out there.  The new height is only an inch higher.  We haven't put the trailer on it yet to see if it rides straighter. The ride is cushier though.