The Gypsy Life

Hi there all!

Writing to you from the top of the rockies, we are now in Jasper and i can tell you that the scenery is absolutely awesome! For the last three weeks we have been driving past mountains and wondering can they get any better than this, simply the answer is yes! We have been camping in this campsite for the last three nights which is in the middle of the forest and it is such a blessing to wake up/go to sleep in such beautiful surroundings. Today we are going for a trail ride up into the mountains (after i promised my bruised backside that i would never put it through such a terrifying ordeal again, but love makes you do strange/stupid things) and as it is a cracking day hopefully we should get perfect views of the surrounding mountains and down into the lakes.
It struck us the other day that we have been living in a tent for the guts of 5 months, i never thought it would be so easy to turn into a gypsie! But the life of a gyppo isn't so bad and for any of you wanting to make the change here is a little insight of what you can expect. The main bonus of life on the road is that you can decide to live where ever you want and for how long. Normally at night times we decide where we will go the next day, here is a picture of my lovely wife out with the maps looking for the next site.



Unfortunately with this style of living you have to sacrifice the comforts in life, however you learn to make do. Most place we stay at are ensuite but you have to use a little imagination. Here is my Bathroom. The only problem is that there is no door and sometimes you get the feeling that others are watching, which makes bath times a little awkward (plus my rubber duck keeps on swimming away).



Jess now has the lovely big kitchen that she has always wanted.........



Now and again we have guests round for dinner, but to be honest it their table manners can be disgraceful!



After dinner we like to go for a walk in our back garden, we have some lovely views but to be honest it is a nightmare to keep on top of the lawns!



We also have lots of pets, we like to call this one yogi (or sir, depends what mood he is in!).



So that gives you all a little taster of what the day to day life for the McKinley's is like these days. Anyone tempted to give the gypsie life a go?



Oh aye i almost forgot to tell you that our last couple of days on Vancouver island were very eventful! On Wednesday 21st May Jess and i went to see the champions league final between Man Utd and Chelsea. What a day! Brilliant match and brilliant atmosphere! There were about 50 Man Utd fans and 4 Chelsea fans in the pub we went to watch it. I got a little bit carried away with the shouting and singing and i think Jess got a little bit of an insight into a side of her husband that she had never seen before. To cut a long story short we won the game after extra time and penalties and it took me until Sunday before i could speak again. I shouted a little bit too much.........
The game had robbed both of us of a lot of energy and we were looking forward to a good nights sleep. After dinner we read a little of our books and played cards then decided to go and get ready for bed. On our way back to the tent we were remarking at how cold it was and infact this might have been the coldest night since arriving in Canada. When we got back to the car we both asked each other if we had the keys. You know that sickening feeling you get when you know something has gone really wrong (probably the feeling the Chelsea fans still have). We shone the torch through the car window and surely enough there were the car keys. All nice and safe behind the locked door! What makes it all worse is that the previous night we had torrential rain and therefore decided to keep all our sleeping bags ect in the car incase they got wet. We had nothing and even no money in our pockets! We were totally helpless!
I started thinking about this documentary i had seen on TV a few years ago when they got ex car thieves to break into cars to show how easy it was and i had a brief glimmer of hope that i could remember how they did it. Jess sadly hadn't saw this programme as when i turned round there she was trying to pick the lock with nail clippers and then a TRAVEL ADAPTER! Seeing that we weren't going to pick the lock, i had decided that this was the chance to fulfill the desire in life to break a car window (it's a bloke thing) however after two laps of the car deciding which window to break Jess talked me out of it.
Thankfully the owner of the campsite was still up when we banged on his door at 10.30pm and he was so helpful and called a tow truck guy that said it would be no problem to break into our car. What made it so much better is that when the tow truck guy arrived the couple camping near us turned up and said that they had a breakdown card that allowed us to have the service for free! What started off as a nightmare turned into a miracle! What a good God we have! If anyone knows me well they will know that i have an obsessive compulsive disorder about locking doors/fridges ect! I fear this has put me back years in my recovery. Now Jess and i are constantly asking each other if we have keys.
Well time has escaped me, i have to go and get punished by that horse. I am sure Jess will write soon to tell you how great it was!
Oh a brief note to say that our bear sighting tally is now up to 9!

Catch you all soon

Gav and Jess (the gyppos)