31 Days with No Home

Location Independent for 31 Days
We have now been location independent for 31 days. Our adventure started on July 31st and during the month of August we have stayed in 8 different locations. We have honed our packing and unpacking skills considerably from that first day and left some un-needed items behind along the way. The cleaning staff at the hotels have probably wondered about the items they have found. Who leaves…a stapler, a juice jug, a power cord, tin foil pans…behind? And why did we think we needed these items in the first place?! 

Jeff has become a master at Tetris which is the skill set required to get all of our belongings in the back of the SUV (while still being able to see out the rear view mirror) and to pack it all onto one luggage cart to get it all in and out of hotels. In nine load ins and outs we have used the valet service one time – at the River Rock in Richmond. This was mid-month and it was a welcome service worth the tip to both bellman who ended up helping with all of our stuff. We plan to refine the packing even further (and ditch more stuff) along the way.

Where We’ve Been
We have spent time in several places that we have been before as well as a few new ones. The biggest surprise to both of us is that we actually enjoyed the two trips to Courtney, BC (7 nights at the beginning of the month and 6 nights at the end). While we seemed to be the only people in the community using the sidewalks (everyone drives everywhere, we find this weird after 9 years in downtown Vancouver) we also found some good restaurants and pubs, visited all three local breweries, enjoyed the riverwalk and found some places to work with really good wifi. While we also really enjoyed our three nights in Osoyoos Wine Country with family, seven nights in North Van with friends and the three nights at the River Rock Resort, Courtenay was the most relaxing and productive at the same time.

August Locations: Courtenay, Nanaimo, Langley, North Vancouver, Osoyoos, Nanaimo, Richmond, Courtenay.

A big thanks to our friends who recently moved into their new apartment in North Vancover right on the Quay and have provided us with our own keys and a place to store a few things we may or may not ever need. We come bearing gifts of wine for this weekend!

What We Saw
So for those of you playing our ‘how many’ game on Facebook we visited 5 breweries and 6 wineries in the month of August.

Breweries – White Sails Brewing – Nanaimo, Cumberland Brewing Company – Cumberland, Forbidden Brewing Co. and Gladstone Brewing Co. – Courtenay, Firehall Brewery – Oliver

Wineries – Maverick Estate Winery, Church and State Wines, Hester Creek Estate Winery, Black Hills Estate Winery, Kismet Estate Winery, Bartier Bros – All in Oliver, BC

Our favourite beers came from Forbidden Brewing Co. in Courtenay which we visited once on each trip to the area. But our favorite brewery experience came at the Firehall Brewery in Oliver. We also like the beer here but the building/atmosphere and staff made the experience great. The young guy who was labeling beer came out a played same amazing jazz on the piano before resuming his next batch of labels. 

Our best wine experience was at Black Hills. The winery does not do the traditional stand up and taste as fast as you can program, but rather a paid, sit down tasting with proper glass wear and the chance to enjoy the view (and the misters since it was 38 degrees). While Jeff really did want to purchase a bottle of Nota Bene we decided to wait until our return trip in April or May as the back of a car is not the best place to store a good bottle of wine. Since we are already travelling with 3 cases of wine we only purchased eight bottles (mostly white) from the six wineries we visited and have already finished two them of them. 

Watch for separate blogs about some of these beer and wine experiences.

Where We are Going
During the month of September we will be gradually making our way to Winnipeg with stops along the way. We plan to spend a few weeks in Winnipeg before flying back to Vancouver a couple times to do some in person meetings and attend the PGA Buying Show in October. 

We, Jeff and Tara Ciecko of CK Golf write two blogs, one is our 19th Hole Blog where we share personal experiences and the other an Industry Blog where we comment on general business and internet marketing best practices, sales strategies and give golf industry related opinions. We have owned CK Golf  for 9 years and provide marketing, social media and business services to the golf and other industries. As of August 2016 our life and our business will be ‘location independent’. Our 19th Hole Blog is about the places we visit and the things we do. You can also follow our road trip at foodwinetravel.ca/roadtrip. If you have any questions or comments, or happen to be in the same location as us please reach out and contact us anytime.