Good Bye TDI

Well, it has been 8.5 years since we bought our VW Golf Wagon TDI, the only brand new car I ever owned. And it has been a great 8.5 years filled with lots of adventures. We put over 250,000km on it and the engine still runs like on the first day. Well maybe it got slightly worse after they had to do the firmware upgrade to fix the emission s. But it still was the best car ever and we loved the diesel engine – torque, mileage and cost of diesel just made it worth every penny.

The car never let us down. Even when we broke the rear spring driving onto the ferry with 3 sea kayaks on the roof, 3 people inside and all the gear for 7 days of paddling. We made it up island and back. And that wasn’t the only time we likely overloaded the car. 1 single surfski and 2 doubles with 5 people probably did that too. Never mind driving into a strong headwind over the Coquihalla so that we had to retie the boats 3 times 🙂 Maybe that’s why we went through 3 sets of rear spring…

This car was fun to drive and we loved the torque. Never needed to drop a gear going up the Coquihalla. With winter tires, it was the best car to drive in the snow and we did a lot of winter traveling in sometimes nasty conditions. You could bet that Jeff would pass every single car on the road as if they would be standing still.

On our very first road trip, less than 4 weeks old, we blew the front tire and destroyed the rim – there just was not enough clearance to get over big rocks in the middle of the road. That kinda hurt but also broke in the car 🙂

But like all Volkswagen I ever owned this one also gave in to rust and it was time to either put quite a bit of time or money in to get it fixed up for the next 250,000km which I am sure the engine has in it. And since neither Jeff nor I like to spend time fixing things, we decided to look for a replacement vehicle…

Actually it started even before we discovered some of the worst rust spots that Jeff started looking for a new vehicle. Back then he wanted to replace our Tacoma with a new one or with a diesel engine truck. Something with a bid more payload to put a camper onto the back. But at the end, the right truck for us has just not been invented yet. But Jeff did not want to let go off the idea of getting a new vehicle. So he started to look into replacing the golf. Unfortunately there are no more new TDIs available or else we would have bought another one in a heart beat. So which car to get? We wanted to stick with a wagon so that we can transport our double surfski. Considered briefly some small CUV or SUV but discarded that idea pretty early. There are not that many wagons out there. We also thought a bit more clearance couldn’t hurt. And Jeff thought getting all wheel drive would help with winter driving (not that he needed any help:-)). So you may think that the only choice here would be a Subaru. But I have been a VW driver all my life.  Now there are a few other choices such as Volvo, BMW and Audi but that just seemed too much out of our league. Jeff did a ton of research online though. After-all, we had to try the VW Gold Wagon Alltrack first. What a disappointment though. That car felt slow and unresponsive and was just no fun to drive. Mind you, it probably is a perfectly fine car but it just did not compare to our TDI. I missed the torque. The sales person even joked about it before we left that the only thing we may feel to be different would be the torque but it has all those other gadget. Well we did not care about the new age gadgets but the gasoline engine would need a bit more horse power to make up for the torque for us to like the car. And here is where I made the mistake (or maybe my subconsciousness told me to go that way since I always wanted to own one!). There was an Audi dealership right next door of course. I suggested, just for the fun of it, that we should try an A4 Allroad. Now they didn’t have an Allroad to test drive but the sales person said he could put us into an A4 Quattro sedan because they would feel just the same (I had my doubts). Anyhow, we figured why not. The only A4 they had was the S line with sports seats, rims, steering wheel etc. Oh man, did that car ever feel good. People always say you have to drive an Audi to know why they cost twice as much as a VW. It was just too much fun and we were hooked. Jeff couldn’t get the grin of his face and it took all my will power to pull him out of the dealership without signing the deal on a brand new Audi A4 Allroad. I told him we need to at least test drive the actual Allroad before we could do that. Over the week we looked up used Audi’s as well and ended up test driving a 2016 Allroad (half the cost of a new one). It was not quite the same as the S-line sedan but still felt very, very nice and sure had enough horse power. Now we still needed to compare it to a brand new Allroad. Audi had changed the way the transmission works in 2017 and it was supposedly better. But test driving it, it didn’t feel like twice the amount of money worth better than the 2016 model. And even a new one doesn’t come in red (which was my childhood dream car colour – mind you in that dream I was also wearing a skirt and high heels :-)). At the end we bargained for the 2016 and traded in our beloved TDI (sniff) for a 2016 silver metallic, Audi A4 Allroad. It still feels like too fancy of a car for us but man is it fun to drive. Not so fun to fill up at a gas stations but oh well. We don’t use it to commute every day – it is a toy to support the fun stuff we do. I think we made the right choice.

Day 1 – Oct 15

Day 6 ready to roll

To break the suspense, we did not do any damage to the car on our very first road trip last weekend. Although there was excitement but that’s for another post (I promise to get back into blogging!). Just having to get back to work on Monday was even harder than usual.

 

Sicko

This is starting to annoy me. This year has been quite a line up of minor injuries/illnesses so far and I am missing out on a lot of my exercising! First I hurt my knee in early Jan, then a sore back in early Feb, then a pulled thigh muscle in late Feb and now a minor cold hit me last Thursday. We still went skiing Saturday. Had to pick up our new Manning Nordic Club uniforms. It was a beautiful day out even though a bit on the cold side with -7C at Strawberry Flats. I layered up quite well but still wasn’t sure if it will be warm enough. Well it was. It was a slow ski for me obviously, not only because I had no energy but also because I had to switch skis. One of the skins on my Rosignole skis came off. Jeff just had put them on a couple of weeks ago, just before Ottawa. I tried switching to my waxables but whatever wax was on there didn’t work – no grip whatsoever. And my wax tech Jeff was skiing! And my fingers were starting to freeze. No way I would try to put a different grip wax on. So I borrow Jeff’s Atomic skin skis. There are even longer than mine and a bit stiffer but it worked surprisingly well and whatever started off as “Gosh I rather be bed sleeping” turned it a “Great to be out here” kinda day. And the suits really look nice. Love the bear paws obviously 🙂 Never mind the hot tub and beer and flatbread afterwards. Manning is always worth the 2+hr drive (one way).

Jeff in race shirt and tights

Me in warm up jackets and tights

Sunday was supposed to be a paddling day but I felt even worse. We did a paddle last Sunday and it was great! Sunny and 6C. If Jeff would have wanted to go I probably would have followed and it would have been like Saturday a great day outdoors but he gave me an out by saying “it only feels like 3C (5C is our cutoff these days) and it is windy and you will get wet”. He made it very easy for me to say, let’s stay home. Instead we pruned the tree in front bit/lot more – well cut branches randomly is probably the better description :-). Hope my heather survived. At least we had nothing land on cars or smash through windows. Chatter wasn’t too impressed with us being on the balcony for that long. Lilly couldn’t care less and visited us a few times :-). In the afternoon we went for a nice almost 2hr walk along the Fraser. It really was a gorgeous day – barely a breeze and felt warm enough but still too cold for March :-). At least I had a look at water and we said Hi to all the hummers along the river.

“Pruning” the tree

My poor heather got crushed

River walk – signs of spring

Old Fencefull

Further along the trail

singing

and looking pretty

We finally finished the puzzle I started Christmas Friday night. Took a lot longer. I thought this one would be easier than the hummingbirds but it was not. All those fall trees took a long time! And Jeff wasn’t helping all that much…. until Friday night when we finally finished it 🙂

Everything just got worse

Weather got worse –  it snowed most of Sunday night. Probably accumulated close to 10cm. It stopped for most of Monday but it stayed cold so nothing melted away and then it snowed again Monday night. Another 5-10cm. That`s the most snow we have seen in a while and apparently it is not done yet. Another 5cm predicted for tonight. It actually does look very beautiful and I would probably like it if I could enjoy it but…

My back also got worse – I was in a lot of pain today. Took me 15min to get out of bed into the bathroom this morning. Work was done mostly standing. Not because it didn’t hurt but it hurt less than getting up from a sitting position. My legs feel like I did a marathon today (not that I know how running a marathon would feel, never will). Hopefully this gets better for the weekend so that I can ski!

Chatter is also confused by all this snow. He could not sleep Sunday night. We saw him at the feeder at 10PM at night! And again before 6:30AM the next morning. Usually he goes to bed by 5:30PM and up again around 7:30AM these days.

Should have been in Edmonton

Well, I was not supposed to have all this time last weekend to blog. We were supposed to be in Edmonton. Saturday would have been the Canadian Birkebiner Loppet, 50km for Jeff, 31 for me. We had planned to go to Edmonton this Friday, race Saturday, check out the mall Sunday/Monday and then continue on to Ottawa for the Gatineau Loppet. But even in Vancouver we hardly saw positive temperatures all of last week. It was sunny but pretty cold, as low as -10C. Edmonton obviously was even colder and race day long term forecast was just on the edge of being raceable, above -25C, or not. Jeff and I stocked up on cold protective gear at MEC the previous weekend. Finally, the forecast for race settled on -31C and and the organizers sent out the cancellation last Wednesday. Now we had to cancel/change all our flights, rental cars and hotels. A bit of a mess and we lost a whole whack of money! Oh well, better that than suffering frostbite.

Hence we had an unexpected weekend in town. Saturday we went skiing at Callaghan. There was a strong arctic outflow going on, some areas of southern BC saw as much as 90km/hr winds. Howe Sound was white capping as far as you could see. It wasn’t that windy at WOP, maybe 40km/hr but that wind was freezing cold! The forecast for temperature with windchill was -19C but I don’t think it was quite as bad. Our car thermometer showed -9.5C when we started skiing in the morning and it was sunny. The wind was only gusting to ~40km/hr so for the most part it was bearable. Actually I was overdressed quite a bit and was too hot most of the time. What the wind did cause though was a whole lot of debris being blown onto the trails, such as pine cones, moss, needles and whatever else can blow of a tree and fill in the tracks. It was awesome for grip but really sucked for glide, especially in the tracks. So I had to ski a lot outside the tracks which is quite a bit more tiring for me. I did make it up to Madeley Lake but it wasn’t fun. And the wind was coldest up there as well. I skied for over 3hrs but hardly covered much more than 2okm. It was more walking and slipping than skiing. But hey, I got to try out my new face mask, which was too hot, the foot warmers and neoprene overboots which worked like a charm, and a double layer of gloves which also worked well to keep my hands warm but resulted in my hands slipping out of the ski pole grips. Oh well. I am ready for the cold!!! The best part of the day was sitting in the pub in Squamish while the wind howled around us drinking beer and eating Lasagne :-).

Talk about a change in weather. Sunday started out sunny and cold (-3 with windchill of -9). Again, this wasn’t a temperature that allowed us to paddle. We went for a walk instead. My back was a bit sore from Saturdays ski – hope this doesn’t get worse. Half way through the walk it started snowing and it didn’t stop all day and was still snowing when we went to bed. Snow accumulated quickly and we must have some 5-10cm on the ground. Looks pretty :-). Chatter was hiding underneath the roof out of the wind and snow. I even had to turn the feeder lamps on during the day as the sugar solution started to freeze.

Christmas

Christmas Eve morning had us drive out to Manning Park for our first ski there. They finally had enough snow and had all the trails groomed with the big machine. Condition were pretty good but at -11C a bit on the colds side. Even with the sun and hardly a clouds in the sky, the surrounding mountains kept most of the trails in the shade all day. Took my feet and hands an hour to warm up because when you start at Strawberry Flats you go down a lot first. But the climb up North Gibsons took care of it and as my feet and legs started to warm up my grip got better using my skins.

Sunrise

Fraser Valley

Strawberry Flats

John G came with us

Lightning Lake

North Gibsons

Christmas Eve itself we spent at home eating Raclette. We still had cheese in the freezer from a couple years ago and to my surprise it actually was still good. No tree this year either but we still had some real candles burning. Can’t do without those :-). It looked like it should be easier than the last but nope. The rest of the evening was spend puzzling again – an early Christmas gift to ourselves :-).

Christmas Day morning, well after sleeping in and having a slow start, we headed to Mount Seymour to try out my new electric assisted mountain bike I bought a couple of weeks ago (on a rainy Sunday). Jeff had finally convinced we to get one so that he doesn’t have to wait for me any more going uphill. Well, he sure does not have to worry about waiting for me anymore, at least not as long as I have battery power. I only used the lowest setting and still flew up Old Buck and barely started breathing on the steepest sections on Powerline. But Jeff the trooper made it up all those hills on his own power. I would have walked many of them on my regular bike. At least we can stay together this way since I can easily stop and start again. Well, downhill was just as hard as before, other that the thicker tires provide more suspension which was nice. Too bad you can power backwards :-). My hands and arms were aching from the long way down on Powerline till the turn off to connect with Bridle Path. The first part, Hyannis Trail, was nice and easy but I didn’t expect Bridle Path to be that technical. It sure got bumpy and I was trying my best to not crash, walked quite a bit of it even though with the electric assist it would have been easier to get over roots and bumps and rocks but my survival instincts = fear prevailed. It was hard work, not so much cardio but balancing and pushing the much heavier bike. Nevertheless, this bike will come in handy this spring and summer! Looking forward to some longer rides.

My new mean machine

Jeff on his regular bike.

And yes, going uphill was easy on Old Buck – for once Jeff was trailing behind.

All the way up to the top of Powerline

Going down was just as scary as always

Jeff’s view for most of the ride

Hyannis Trail was nice an easy

and beautiful

Until we hit Bridle Path

Christmas deco on Bridal Path

The afternoon and evening were spent with Jeff’s parents and some relatives. Maynetta’s turkey and all the many side dishes were wonderful. The baked ham Jeff and I did in the slow cooker was barely marginal in comparison. In either case, I did not work hard enough on the electric bike to deserve all that food :-). Merry Christmas!

1000 pieces

The beginning of December was unusually sunny in Vancouver – even though I never saw the sun. It was dark when I ride into work in the morning and dark when I ride home. Saw the moon and stars and felt the below 0C temps. Off course all the nice weather disappeared in time for the weekend. Originally we had planned to go back to Okanagan for skiing but both Jeff and I had a bit of a cold, Sovereign Lake was hosting a NorAm cross-country sprint event and prone to be busy with skiers and neither Sun Peaks nor Nickel Plate posted good conditions yet. And so we stayed home. Went for a nice Indian Arm paddle on Dec 8. A typical windy, raining day on the coast. It was hard work going up to the power station but we got a pretty nice run back to Strathcona. Sunday Dec 9 though was even rainier and warmer and my plan to go snowshoeing in the local mountains got washed away. Plus I had to do some presentation for work. I know I usually do not ever do work on the weekend but this was a bit of an exception. Our company got sold to a big American Corporation and we expected some visitors that week. But I did not start on that till the early evening. Jeff suggested to finally start the puzzle I got for Christmas last year. I haven’t done a puzzle in a LONG time but this one was only 1000pcs so how hard could it be? It was hard, the hardest I remember I ever did. Too much colour and not give away shapes. It took Jeff and I almost 2 weeks to complete it even though we worked at it every evening during the week, 8 to midnight. Finally last night we finished it!!! Now I need another one. I am hooked! 🙂

Dec 8: Winter paddling…

Dec 9: Day 1 of the puzzle

Dec 16: Not even half way

Dec 21: DONE!!!

Last weekend we finally made it back to the Okanagan for skiing. And we did not have to go all the way to Vernon either but only to Kamloops since Jeff had insider information that Sun Peaks’ trails were in good shape. Cuts at least 1 hour off the drive! Saturday was a beautiful day. Blue skies, sunshine and perfectly groomed trails! I tried some new trails, Stellar Jay and En Garde, on my skin skies climbing higher up for some nice views. Temperatures were around -5C but it seemed to get much colder quick once the sun dipped below the surrounding hills. We had to get a hot drink in the village after the ski to warm up a bit.

Dec 15: John and Jeff getting ready to ski Sun Peaks

Beautiful blue skies

McGillivray Lake

Stellar Jay

En Garde

Blue Grouse

Quick visit to Sun Peak Village for a hot drink

Sunday though was a different story. It had snowed over night which could have been a good thing but they did not re-groomed the tracks. Hence there was close to 10cm of fresh snow on the tracks. And I decided to skate that day which made it even worse. It was very hard work! But I managed one loop around the loppet course on my skates before I switched to my classic skis after 1.5hrs for another loop up to Whiskey Jack. Jeff complained that if they provide back-country condition they should charge us for those, means nothing. He was supposed to do his double poling workout which in these conditions was just a hurt fest rather than a good workout.  Oh well, we did get another 3hrs of skiing under our belts.

Dec 16: Mine and Jeff’s tracks in the fresh powder

Whiskey Jack trail had the deepest snow but also some views

But also the best views of the day – overlooking the village

New Toy

Jeff talked me into it. To replace my old mountain bike which is in poor shape with skipping gears, back brake sticking and front brake almost gone. It could have all been fixed but I am also having problems switching gears even if they are working. The shifter is very stiff and my bad arthritic thumbs just don’t like it. I was only going to look today after we finished our 2hr paddle in the Cove. Most of the mountain bikes now come with only one chain ring in the front and 11 or 12 in the back. I wasn’t convinced that’s the right bike for me since I need the lowest gears possible when riding the trails around the lakes in the spring. But then I tried one…

The new bike is NICE. Light and easy to shift gears and everything works so smooth. We’ll see how long that last since I don’t really take good care of my bikes. Got it dusty already. We took it for a short spin along the river trails – no hills since I am officially still recovering from having one of my wisdom teeth pulled yesterday as well as some crown lengthening done. Wasn’t supposed to get my hard rate up!

Shhh – let the world think Canada is always cold

Well it snowed in St John’s Newfoundland on Jun 4th and now people in BC are talking about Junuary because we had a couple cloudy, cooler days and a bit of sprinkles. And we may even get a few more of those. I for once am glad to see some cooler temperatures and a bit of rain. We broke a new record in the lower mainland in May. Driest month ever recorded. And it was hot too. After a couple years of winter lasting into July we really scored big time this May. Hence I am way behind on my blog! Stay tuned. The lack of rain is concerning though – there is a reason for this area being so green. A rain forest, even a temperate one, needs its share of rain.

My wild flower garden is also doing quite well after a very slow start. Jeff insisted all of the green things would be weeds but most of them turned into some really nice flowers. All different from last year. And there is more to come. Our hummers have been around a lot too. Mostly Lily(s) but Chatter(s) and Ms and Mr Sunshine also show up regularly. This early evening I saw a raccoon walk the fence while watering my plants and said hello (sorry no picture). Love it 🙂

Spring Cleaning

Most people clean their house in the spring – we clean the truck. Unfortunately, I forgot a before and after picture. It took us over 2hrs and we are still not done. Took the canopy of for the first time ever since we could not see through the rear window any longer. The worst part is getting rid of the sticky bits that our tree drops in the spring. Nothing but hard scrubbing with isopropanol gets those off. So much for giving my arms a rest after the hard paddle yesterday 🙂

Sticky bits on the hood – before

and after

Night Skiing

Managed to finally get out night skiing more regularly now up at Cypress and conditions have been pretty decent. Few snowy nights, one icy night but overall quite nice. Even dug out my skate skis. Jeff found another race for us to do at the end of the month, the Mexico Spring Break Loppet at Nickel Plate (which happens to be in the South Okanagan and not Mexico!). It’s a skiathlon of 14km classic followed by 15km skate. And they give away a draw price for a 7 day trip to Mexico for two!