BC Road Trip
and time with friends We left the beach and headed back to portland for a few quick days. Celebrated my birthday with a small group of friends, half celebrating and half trying to recuperate from a fun filled week at the coast. The following day we headed over to a client's to help lower the structure that we raised a few weeks ago.
The new concrete footing and retaining wall had been poured and was ready to take the weight of the structure so we lowered the jacks and watched the building slowly settle back down into its new slightly higher location. For a while it looked like we might not get this project off the ground, and so now see the pieces fit back together and instantly transform the garage into a home was not only fun but a huge adrenaline rush.
That project complete, we hit a perfect window to head north for a BC road trip we've been planning for a while. Seems all we can do at home in portland is wait, and we're sleeping on the floor of our construction zone or in the bus anyway, so why not do it in VAN around friends and with easy access to the beach and volleyball!
Our trip timed out perfectly with our friends' weekend away in whistler and we got in with just enough time to catchup and help load the vehicles for the journey north. The bus is driving like a champ and despite the fact that we were loaded up with food and gear it handled the mountain roads far better than we can recall in our last drive to whistler (and it didn't hurt that this time we weren't driving the sea to sky highway in the snow and ice).
The weekend was epic fun amidst a breathtakingly beautiful landscape, and we somehow always have the ability to pickup with this group and have it seem like we never left. A few decadent meals, some football and golf and volleyball... all in a perfect weekend in whistler.
We slept in the bus outside one of the condos the group had rented and i couldn't help drool over the large posts that were being replaced in the condo building we parked next to.
Sadly it was the weekend and i couldn't get any answer about whether they were headed for the landfill or whether i could salvage them, but on the last morning i opened the debris bin assuming i would find nothing and found several lengths of post that were literally already thrown away and headed somewhere to rot. No question i was going dumpster diving to salvage them and give them a new fate.
We loaded every section of wood I could grab onto the roof rack, made sure we weren't riding "too" low, and headed back to VAN. We were a bit top heavy for a winding mountain road but the bus continues to make its transition from campervan to utility vehicle (or in the case of this weekend, both) like a champ.
I'm excited to get these back to portland and see what i can turn them into. I'm almost certain the border wont be too excited to see me roll up with a dozen posts on top of the vehicle and may or may not believe that they were all free and salvaged from the dumpster en route to the landfill...so i may need to find a place to store and come back for them later.
Weekend at an end, our friends have to return to work, so its back to VAN and as much beach volleyball as we can squeeze in!