RE: travelling/crossing the border with houseplants
What if you used hydroponics? Would you still need that phyto certificate, I wonder? I was sort of thinking of transplanting some of them to that system anyway. Otherwise, I will see if I can get friends to plant sit, as we only plan one extended 3-4 month trip to the US, and then we expect to just stay here and travel across Canada anyway. We have to be sure to spend at least 6 months in Alberta to maintain our health care.
RE: travelling/crossing the border with houseplants
Thanks for the responses so far, they have been very helpful. And thanks for the link, I was looking for something like that, but did not find that site! My DH was shocked to know you had to go through an inspection to enter California!
travelling/crossing the border with houseplants
Hi, we hope to be getting our motor home and be full-timing by summer, waiting for the house to sell. This time we are just going to keep dropping the price till it sells. No more delays.
Anyway, to my question. Has anyone traveled with house plants? We have several indoor plants such as cactus, miniature rose, and tropicals as well as a herb garden, that we plan to take with us. I am wondering whether we will run into problems with restrictions not allowing us to take them across state/provincial/international borders. I have checked the border services in Canada and the US and they don't talk about growing plants, that I can find. Once we are ready to cross a border, we will contact the departments themselves, but for now I am just looking for personal experiences on traveling with potted plants.
Thanks for any replies.
RE: Road (?) to Yellow knife
When are you planning to go? The ferry stops when the river starts to freeze about this time of year then starts again mid June after breakup.You will need lots of bug wash for your face shield, the black flies and skeeters are something to be reckoned with.
Paved all the way.
Bridge over the MacKenzie River slated to be open to traffic next month. No more ferry !! :)
x2
RE: Saturday Mail Delivery
Wow! you Americans have Saturday mail delivery? I cannot remember a time when we had Saturday mail delivery in Canada! I can't say that we have ever missed it, either. What we also have are super mail boxes, where you go to the end of your street or a central location to get your mail. only old neighbourhoods still get door to door mail delivery (Monday to Friday) Of course, we have a much smaller population in a bigger country, so that may be why we never went that route.
RE: What is the big upkeep of the diesel everyone is mentioning?
Hi Robin,
Yes diesel fuel is cheaper in Canada than gas, but in USA the opposite is true.
But even in Saskatchewan with my diesel class C I had to add fuel additives to each and every tank--which more or less wiped out the difference in price between gas and diesel.
Also the vast majority of the long distance trips are to USA, partly because of the 20% savings on fuel now that I'm in a gas unit.
Price in Minot is $3.94 per gallon of gas, and $4.26 for diesel.
Price in Regina is $4.92 per US gallon for gas, and $4.54 for diesel.
Thanks, Don
RE: What is the big upkeep of the diesel everyone is mentioning?
What is the price difference between gas and diesel fuel in the US? Here in Alberta, diesel is the same or slightly cheaper than gas; and I understood that as a general rule, diesel gets better mileage. Is that correct, or did I mis-understand?
To Don (pianotuna) I understood diesel was cheaper than gas in Saskatchewan, and most other places in western Canada, also. Are you referring to US travel and prices?
I just checked fuel prices on GasBuddy.com, and the cities in the US that I checked, did show that Diesel was about $.20 per gallon more in the US. I guess that explains your comments, if that is the case throughout the US.
RE: Did you ever?
DH suggests that you also check the air cleaner intake for acorns, and that the power steering pump be checked while you are in there. It sound like you may already have finished, though.
RE: Are there any forums specificly for Canada?
Have you checked out the "RVing in Canada and Alaska" group here?
yes, I am subscribed to it. thanks
and to rockportrocket, Thanks, but we aren't interested in leaving Canada. We may visit you but don't want to live there. (We already live in the best country in the world, can't beat that.):)
Are there any forums specificly for Canada?
Hi. we will be full-timing and most of the forums I can find are US based. Are there any Canadian forums for full-timers? Most of the questions we have, the US advice just doesn't apply to us! You Americans don't have to spend a required amount of time in your home state, for example, as far as I can see, so you do not have to deal with cold weather unless that is your choice.
So I would like to also read Canadian forums, both full-time and other.
RE: Oregon dunes..in Yukon?
There is one true desert in Canada, in the interior of BC.
They do keep saying this, but actually Osoyoos isn't even the driest part of BC, Ashcroft, near Kamloops has that distinction at an average of 8" a year. I think Osoyoos is just under 10". The reason that you always hear about Osoyoos and not Ashcroft is that Osoyoos has a bigger Chamber Of Commerce!
In any event, the biggest and by far the driest desert in Canada is the Arctic, with some places only getting 2-3" of precip. a year.
Osoyoos and Kamloops/Ashcroft are part of the same desert.:)
RE: 2000 Dutch Star 40'
Hi,and thanks to all that have replied to my post. Lots of good advise there. We have been emailing with the owners, and have received some pictures, the VIN, serial # and Model - it is a DSDP4093, and was built on the same Spartan chassis as the Mountain Aire MADP4093 with the same floor plan, but without all the bells and whistles. It has a diesel genset, 4 solar panels, 4 batteries, 2000 watt inverter, and apparently a Canadian package with insulation and dual pane windows, heated tanks.
We have a friend in Grande Prairie, so if we decide to go ahead, we will see if he would be willing to take a look at it for us before we go up there. Also considering asking them if they would be willing to drive it down to us to have a look. Doesn't hurt to ask, does it?
I will contact Newmar next week to see what they can tell me about it.
Robin is a retired heavy duty mechanic, so has a lot of knowledge about Freightliner chassis, but nothing about Spartan, which appears to be used mostly for motorhomes, Any problems know to frequent Spartan; and is there any difficulty in getting repairs done?
Marian
RE: RAM 1500 Towing Capacity
Sounds like Dodge is right on the money... them 1/2 tons is built for show not go..
I agree, Dodge would be right. The higher numbers you were given are for the base model reg cab,2WD, long box, etc. An equalizer hitch, etc, just distributes the weight, does not increase what you can tow.
Robin
PS, I spent 30+ years in the industry, I know whereof I speak.
RE: which vehicle combo works out cheaper for FullTimers?
For us, its looking like it will be the MH choice; though a fiver was strongly considered, but the cost was higher for us. We want/need a high end unit - ie. Triple E or Newmar motor-home 38/40' or Mobile Suites/Redwood/Excel fifth wheel as we will be full timing in Canada. We are only looking at units that are rated as full-timer, good value and handling, and good insulation. We have a purchase budget of <$60k. We can't find a fiver and the 1-ton diesel dually truck or better to pull it in that price range, but we can buy an older (2000-2003) diesel Newmar for that price, that can possibly handle Canadian winters (in the milder areas of Canada). We have the toad already, though we won't take it to start with, to see if we need it. We will be doing a lot of travelling for the first couple of years, and plan to use local transit if possible, or rent a car when not.
I don't know if this will help you or not, as everyone's needs are different. Check to see what you can get in your area for the price you want to spend. We used the RVConsumer.net ratings to get an idea of what the quality units for full-timing are, and also asked for recommendations on the forums. Then we read the brochures and whatever we can find on the internet on the units that were recommended. That was how we narrowed down our search.
We may at some point upgrade, to a newer motorhome, or possibly a newer truck and 5er, but not for a while.
RE: Couple to drive tiny house across country
I found a CBC video on the tiny home - I still think it would be cheaper to sell the flat-deck truck and buy a motorhome, but here is a video and article on them.Home made home
RE: Couple to drive tiny house across country
I think they are going to spend a lot of money that it sounds like they don't have on an idea that will probably be unsuccessful. They would probably be much farther ahead to buy a used motor-home or fifth wheel to live in. I suspect that it will end up being a very expensive lesson. Good luck to them - they will need it as I don't think they have really thought this through.
RE: Find the meow
There are likely other members of the litter near by along with a mother. Keep a close watch for small furry things for the next few weeks.
x2
RE: Calgary in Sept-any must see spots?
Calgary Zoo has a lot of dinosaurs etc as well as the usual zoo animals, Fort Calgary is an early Mounted Police base, and has an interpretive centre, Canada Olympic Park (1988 Olympics site) has mountain bike trails, Telus World of Science, Stampede grounds may be open? AeroSpace Museum of Calgary, Calgary Tower (revolving restaurant 525 feet up.) Calaway Park is a family amusement park. Glenbow Museum is both a museum and art gallery. Heritage Park Historical Village is Canada's largest living history museum with vehicles, whisky runners, a drive in movie theater, interactive with actors portraying the pioneers, steam train, and more. There is a military museum of the Canadian Forces, and Spaceport at the Calgary International Airport has Canadian Space Agency artifacts.
If you are driving outside Calgary, Banff has already been covered by others, but there is also Drumheller and their dinosaurs to the east, the Alberta-Reynolds museum (Automotive, Aircraft, mining, farming) at Wetaskiwin to the north, Edmonton has the West Edmonton Mall, and many other tourist attractions.
Hope this gives you some ideas.
