Taxes Done

I called TurboTax regarding our missing tax program and spoke to a nice semi English speaking gentleman in India who finally understood the problem and offered to send me a download link for a new copy of the program. This conversation took well over a half hour. He then had to call his supervisor to authorize sending me the code to open the program. While I was waiting on hold I looked through a pile of mail Norma had set aside as obvious junk mail and lo and behold, there was the Turbo Tax program! I waited for the gentleman in India to come back on the line and tried to explain to him that I had found the original program but he kept insisting that what I had found was the email with the download and code he had just sent. We were getting nowhere so I thanked him and hung up.

I collected all our tax related documents and started entering numbers. I then went to my Quicken program and got all our medical deductions including what we spent on travel medical insurance and the glasses I bought in Mexico. We end up paying just under $5,000 ($2,400 more than was already deducted at source) between the two of us after taking advantage of the income splitting Canada offers. Quite a bit for a couple of old pensioners.

HOME!

I got up at 5:30 Monday morning and drove Brooks to the Nanaimo Airport for his 8:00 AM flight back to Fort McMurray Alberta where he is working as an electrician on the Tar Sands.

Brooks lucked into this trade in an unusual way. The job he was doing as a carpenter was rained out one day so instead of sitting in the bunkhouse all day watching TV like the rest of his crew, he grabbed a pickup and drove to the work site where the electricians were laying conduit inside the building he had just built and asked if he could help. The boss told him he had to have his electrical apprenticeship papers to do anything to do with electrical, even laying conduit. The boss, admiring his initiative, told him if he wanted to, to take the truck into Fort McMurray and fill out the papers at the Government Office. He drove the three hours each way and when he returned he was a Government certified electrical apprentice. Since then he has been working as an electrician, first laying conduit and now installing transformers, all the while collecting his journeyman carpenters wages which are higher than electrical apprentice wages. It was a very lucky break!

We said goodbye to LindaLee and drove up to Campbell River, parked in the driveway, unloaded the car and dolly, took the necessities of life into the house and relaxed. Dave and Doris left the house spotless and with everything working so there was nothing to do. Unloading the motorhome can wait for another day.

Today we will sort mail and start the tax preparation process. One tiny glitch was our TurboTax program was not waiting for me in the mail. I prepaid for the program and they were supposed to mail it in March but it is not here. I will have to go downtown and buy one and call TurboTax to get a refund.

Safe and Sound Back In Canada

We got in line at 7:15 AM and boarded the ferry. We had reservations but may not have needed them. We rolled off the ferry in Victoria and lined up for Customs. A nice woman asked us how long were we gone, five and a half months, how much did you spend, $1602. How much liquor, two sealed bottles and six more in the liquor cabinet, partly empty. Welcome home and have a good day.

That was it. It was like we were not "Red Flagged" from the problems last year. What a difference! All that stress for nothing.

We are at Brooks and LindaLee's house. LindaLee's mom and dad are just back from visiting another daughter in China and are here as well. We had a very enjoyable evening. Brooks has a fence to finish tomorrow and then he flies back to Alberta on Monday. I will get up early and drive him to the Nanaimo airport and then we will head home. Taxes await!.

Port Angeles

We are in Port Angeles making lists and adding up purchases. We are under the allowed $1600 on purchases but over on booze (as usual). We got into trouble last year but we have WAY less this time. We will just tell them what we have and that we are willing to dump out whatever will make them happy. I do not want to pay $1 per ounce duty nor do I want to stand inside for an hour making a declaration. I hate crossing this border! It is so much easier going into the USA or Mexico.

Our friend Kris advised us to make a reservation so what is what we did for the 8:20 AM sailing.

Well, back to the list...

Woodland, WA

Drive, drive, drive! 400 miles which is a long day for us. We had breakfast at Denny's, left at 10:00 and arrived here at 5:30. Pulled into the nice new Walmart which is festooned with "No RV Parking" signs. We went and asked anyway, we had nothing to loose, and were told to ignore the signs and go ahead and park.

What the heck? Maybe the local mayor owns the RV park.

Tomorrow night will find us at or near the ferry dock in Port Angeles and we will catch one of the ferries on Saturday, either 8:20 AM or 2:00 PM. Brooks is working all day so we would not see him until later anyway.

Here is one of the fences he built on his days off. He is trying to keep the business alive so he is doing work for repeat customers or those who were sent to him by regular customers.

He is working in the Tar Sands 24 days on and then they fly him home for 10 days off. The work days in Alberta are ten hour days. It is tough going but the money is very good and the fencing on his down days helps as well. He is even making payments to "The bank Of Dad".

Ontario, Oregon

Another three State day, Nevada, Idaho and just into Oregon. We are trying to get back to the Island before Brooks flies off to the Alberta Tar Sands for another 24 days. We parked in a friendly Walmart as we had to exchange our electric heater for one that works proberly and return a HD TV flat panel antenna that did not perform as expected. No problem with either return even though I had no receipt for the heater.

It poured rain all night which kept waking us up until we finally admitted defeat at 7:00 AM. we will have a quick breakfast and take down the Starchoice which I set up in "stealth" mode, tucked in between the motorhome and car dolly where it is hard to see.

Our goal is to make it past Portland today. It will be a long day

Highway Of Tears

Somewhere between 18 and 48 aboriginal women have been murdered between 1969 and present while hitchhiking along the 500 mile stretch of British Columbia's Highway 16 between Prince Rupert and Prince George. This highway has earned the name, "Highway Of Tears". If these women were "white" something would have been done about it years ago. The fact that they are "marginalized" women has allowed the killings to continue. It is time to once again bring attention to this travesty and force the RCMP and the BC Government to take action!

Painting belonging to Hazelton Mayor Alice Maitland to honour a girl murdered on Hwy16 - shows ghosts of past victims trying to stop a young woman from hitchhiking!

Snow!

It is ten o'clock at night here in Jackpot and it is snowing like mad. The car has about an inch on it and there is no sign of it stopping. We brought the slide in so we can escape tomorrow morning if that is going to be possible.

We had a surprise visit from Carol, a long time Blog reader tonight. Carol and her husband wintered in Mazatlan and are on their way back to Port Alberni, BC. Thanks for stopping by Carol!

Jackpot, Nevada

It is freezing cold here! I would not be surprised to see snow in the morning. We are in the RV park connected to Cactus Pete's Hotel and Casino, $18 per night but the water is turned off for fear of freezing and the dump has a sign saying "Gray Water Only". What's up with that? It is good we filled the water up before we left Ely this morning.

We walked over to the casino to look at the buffet and on the way Norma donated $30 and I, $7. Nobody won. That left Norma with $20 left from her last night's winnings so that helped a little with the buffet. It was pretty good for $14 each.

We will try to get an early start tomorrow and try for Pendleton, Oregon.

Ely, NV

We are in the RV park attached to the Prospector Hotel & Casino in Ely, Nevada. It was a five hour drive from Las Vegas so it is a natural place to stop. It is pretty basic, 30 or so full hookups (50 amp) on a gravel parking lot but the price is right at $16 per night.

When we went to pay we got coupons for two free margaritas in the casino so maybe we will wander over there later and donate $5 to the penny slots. It was not a long drive today but it was a little tiring because of the gusting cross winds.

Tomorrow we will be in Jackpot, NV on the Nevada / Idaho border.

** End tally: I lost $6 but got two free margaritas, Norma won $50