Travel with Kevin and Ruth

Rust and corrosion

2010-09-08T07:52:00.001-04:00

I spent my day off Monday working on Sherman. The main thing I was working on was was the water leaks that occur in the wheelhouse area when driving in the rain.

The floor support beams are square tubular steel, as shown in the diagram below...

The tubular steel is unprotected in most areas, however at the seams where the floor meets the wall, they had sprayed foam insulation to protect against water. However the foam has not stuck very well over the years and so moisture has gotten under the foam and caused the steel in those areas to become quite rusty. Also, water has gotten between the seam where the wall meets the floor, and when driving in the rain there are areas where it gets wet and then takes forever to dry.

Most of the steel is still structurally strong, with just a bit of surface rust. However two areas are weak, although not in an area where it's going to cause a problem. So the key is to make sure it doesn't deteriorate further.

During some of my working life, I used to be a licenced auto body technician and painter. So thankfully, I kinda know what I'm doing. Sure is messy, dirty work though so lying under the motorhome with rust flakes dropping in my face reminded me why I won't ever do that line of work ever again!

Removing the foam to access the rusty tubular floor frame.

So the procedure is to coat the visible steel with "Must for Rust" (for some stupid reason, not available in Canada...I bought mine when I dropped our son off at school in New York a couple of weeks ago) and then paint with black Tremclad rust paint. Then, reseal those areas with more spray foam insulation.

Overall, Sherman is in pretty good shape for a 14 year old motorhome. We think that with proper regular maintenance, Sherman will be around for quite a few more years. Only 50,000 miles (80,000 kms) on the odometer, so the engine is only just broken in.

My Mum

2010-09-06T18:42:00.000-04:00

A year ago today I got the dreaded call from my Dad to say that my Mum (I spell it this way as this is how she always spelled it, she was British) had passed away. We knew it was coming and had for a couple of weeks, it was just a matter of when.

My Mum had Alzheimer's Disease and later developed Parkinsons as well. It was hard to watch her disappear from us especially over the last year. I guess we can say we were lucky that she only had it for 4 or 5 years with the last 1 to 2 years being the worst. Some families have to tend to loved ones for many more years than that. It took a toll on us all but mostly on my Dad who had looked after her at home right up until about 6 months before her death when she had a fall and badly broke her leg. My Mum then went to the hospital for surgery and was later put in the long term care at the hospital until she could either go back home if she was able to get back on her feet or to a nursing home, she never made it to either. Even then my Dad was in the hospital every day to help feed her her supper and keep her company. I am thinking of him today as it will be a hard day for him, they were married for just over 52 years.

Mum and Dad cutting their 50th Wedding Anniversary Cake

I have many fond memories of my mother and will always have them with me. She taught me how to cook even though she rarely followed a recipe. I remember being 17 and I was going away for 9 months to do volunteer work with a government program and knew that I would be living with other kids around my age and we would be taking turns cooking. I would stand by my mother as she was making some of my favourite dishes asking her what went in that dish and then about how much, she would reply "about this much" and show me how many shakes or pinches of what spice or herb, still to this day when I make those dishes I never measure and they never turn out the same way, sometimes not spicy enough and other times too spicy but always good.

I loved going for hikes with her, I would sometimes almost have to run to keep up with her and she almost always knew what each plant was, or know what bird that was just by listening to it or seeing it. She had a beautiful garden and knew what all the flowers and bushes were. A lot of those plants became cuttings for the garden I started at the house we used to have.

1995 having a picnic before going on a hike in Algonquin Park

The garden my Mum and Dad worked on behind their house

I think I got some of my adventure from her. It was my Mum's idea to move to Canada from England back in 1957 (I think). Apparently she was walking by a travel agency where she had seen a sign posted that Canada and New Zealand were looking for immigrants to move to either country to work on farms (both were part of the commonwealth) so immigration wasn't a problem at that time. My Dad was doing his time in the militia and was stationed in the Far East. She sent him a letter telling him that she wanted to move to Canada and he said fine and she looked after the arrangements. So maybe this is why I like the motorhoming adventure that we are doing.

My Mum and Dad on their wedding day, they left for Canada about 6 months later

We always went camping when we were kids and growing up, and my Mum was always a trooper and never shied away from anything. I regret that My Mum and Dad never got to doing the travelling that they wanted to do in retirement. They did do some but never got to some of the places that they wanted to go to together.

So again that just reinforces the idea to me that we should never take life for granted and that we should do what we want to do when we can because you just never know when your time will come.

I love you and miss you Mum!

My Mum

Ruth

Blog statistics

2010-09-04T07:57:00.001-04:00

Ruth mentioned that we are now up to 50 dedicated followers! We think that's a pretty neat milestone.

My sister once mentioned that she thought it was funny that people we don't even know are interested in what we do. I guess it is kind of funny, but once you start following a personal blog, it's easy to wonder what comes next. So if you stop in here regularly, consider becoming a "follower", you just have to click the "Follow" button on the right side, and read the instructions. This way, you don't miss any of our updates!

Our number counter (at 33,760 as of this writing) keeps track of unique daily visitors. If you visit the site more than once a day, it will only count your visit once. Over the last month, we averaged about 85 unique visitors per day, with a high of 121 and a low of 54. This number goes up when we are traveling. Last March when we were on the road to Florida and back, we averaged almost 200 unique visitors per day. We are really looking forward to updating our blog when we hit the road again in 7 weeks!

Google also keeps track of where our visitors come from. Of course Canadian and American visitors are almost tied for first and second, with United Kingdon coming in a distant third. After that comes Japan (isn't that odd?) and then Mexico. Followed by Germany and Russia! I think these statistics are very interesting!

Leaving for Mexico next month!

2010-09-02T20:20:00.000-04:00

Now that it is September, we get to say that we are leaving for Mexico next month! I have a feeling the next few weeks leading up to that will go by very quickly.

The RV place is still very busy, although it should start to slow down after this upcoming long weekend. I actually have Monday off! And I'm just going to hang around here and do some work on Sherman. I enjoy that anyhow, so I'm looking forward to not having to drive to Perth! Ruth has to work here at the KOA that day though, but hopefully she'll finish early enough to enjoy some of the day with me.

I am hoping to get a few more days off this month to continue getting Sherman ready for the trip south. I expect the Sundays at the RV place will stop sometime towards the end of September and as well the 7pm closing hours should be set back to 5:30pm or so during the week. I am so looking forward to changing Sherman's carpet in the living area...it needed changing last year, but now it's getting downright nasty! Definitely doing that job before we leave.

And I have found out that the RV place wants to send me to Jayco head office in Middlebury, Indiana for a training session in mid-October. I don't mind going, but it will be a 10 hour drive each way. I would go with our service advisor and would take the new 2011 company truck, and bring a trailer or 5th wheel back at the end of the 3 day training course. This is all dependant on me accepting their employment offer for next year. Yet another reason why we have to make a decision sometime within the next couple of weeks.

Either way, we only have about 7 weeks to go before we're outta here. I guess I'll have to change the countdown clock on the right side....we will be leaving BEFORE November 1st!

Google Adsense update

2010-09-01T07:45:00.000-04:00

Our Google Adsense was good to us during the month of August!

We made $45.86 from our Google Adsense account last month. Maybe when we actually start travelling NEXT MONTH we will make $600 or $700 a month like Tioga George does! (yeah, right).

So thanks for visiting our advertisers. Don't forget that all Google ads are prescreened and virus free so don't hesitate to visit one if you see something that might interest you.

Old blog posts and new ideas

2010-08-31T21:11:00.004-04:00

Yesterday, I was adding some more of our old travel blog posts to this site so that all our travels could be in one place. It is a time consuming job, but I am making progress. I have now completed March 2008. I am working backwards so I only have 4 1/2 months to go and it will be complete. I have already started on February 2008's posts today.

Anyway yesterday in my haste I forgot to back date (March 7, 2008) one post so it posted under yesterday's date. I have since gone in and changed the date. It was on our site for the whole morning and Wild Blue Yonder posted a comment on it, saying how she like the way we put our major budget items at the end of the post. We would put the number of sleeps in Sherman, total cost of groceries, fuel and overnight costs as a tally each day up to the end of the month and then start fresh for the next month going day by day. We got to doing that partly for our own use, we could see at a glance how we are doing budget wise in each of the major spending catagories and partly to show everyone that you don't have to be well off to to afford this kind of life style. You may have to make some changes to the way you do some things, ie not eating out as much, not staying in expensive campgrounds, traveling a shorter distance over a longer period of time. Everyone has their own way of doing things and if that fits for them then great, we just want to show that anyone can do it.

Having said that, I was wondering if there is any additional info that we could add that any one of our readers would think would be helpful. We always try to tell what did and where we went each day, usually mentioning the route we took. I thought that maybe putting the miles travelled would be nice as well as the weather for the day. We also now have a GPS unit that has the GPS co-ordinates in it so we could always put in the location of where we stayed each night. That might be helpful to someone that will be travelling through that area and would like to stop for the night without having to look around for somewhere. This helped Derek and Lesley when they stayed at Vermillion Bay Airport in northern Ontario this year. We didn't have the GPS co-ordinates but we were able to tell them where it was by email.

So if you think of anything more we should add let us know. Thank you at the same time for following along with us and with our future travels. As of tomorrow we can say we are leaving next month : )

C'mon October....

2010-08-30T07:28:00.001-04:00

Not trying to rush the summer away, but we are getting closer to getting on the road again, and we miss that so much. We've decided that we'll leave a bit earlier than November 1st.

And actually, November 1st was the latest we would have left anyhow. Now, we are aiming for October 17 which is a little less than 7 weeks away.

On another note, we are getting low on propane. We've been sitting here since around the end of April, and I didn't think the propane would last that long. But it's an 80 lb tank and we only use it for cooking. Propane refill trucks aren't allowed into the campground to service RV's so we have not much choice but to take Sherman for a drive.

But there is a problem. In May, Ontario brought in the most stringent propane regulations in North America. Every RV that has an onboard ASME propane tank (almost all motorhomes) has to have that tank inspected and tagged every five years. Sherman is a 1996, and I doubt the tank has ever been inspected. However based on the standards, I know that he will pass with flying colors. The problem is that when Ontario enacted the law, they informed all of the propane refill stations, but they didn't put in any system to get the technicians licenced to do the inspections. A typical government boondoggle. As you know, I work at an RV dealer so you would think it would be easy for me to get the inspection certificate. Wrong...our technicians are not licenced to do that. There is a course being held in October that our guys will be sent to. In the meantime there is only one guy that I know of that can do it, and he's the instructor for the area. He's also a mobile RV service technician. He's obviously very busy. I've called his office 3 times to arrange for an appointment and haven't had any luck yet. I'll be calling him this morning because I now have 3 motorhomes for him to inspect all here at the KOA so it will be worth his while to come and do the job.

We've still got just under 1/4 tank. But come October we may need to use the furnace here and there and that sucks up a lot of propane.

Update on Whiskey

2010-08-27T21:33:00.001-04:00

As I had said in a quick update on Whiskey at the end of the day on our last post, she has a bladder infection and bladder stones. She had bladder stones once before when she was about 5 years old and she had surgery to remove them. It would be nice to go that route again because then we know they would be gone, but because of her age it worries us.

The vet wants us to work on the bladder infection with antibiotics and then to switch her diet over to a special food that is made specially to dissolve bladder stones. This is a bit of a double edged sword though as our two options are surgery or diet. I already mentioned the issue of the surgery and the complications with the anesthesia in older dogs, but the food that she wants to give Whiskey is quite high in salt which could cause issues with high blood pressure in her and to top that off she has a small heart murmur, so we will have to keep a close eye on her.

There are two kinds of bladder stones, one is struvite crystals which build upon each other to create the stone and the other kind is more typical in older dogs and is call calcium oxalate which is the core of the stone and then the struvite crystals build on that. The diet that we are putting Whiskey on will only dissolve the struvite crystals, but not the calcium oxalate. So the diet will hopefully made the stones smaller and in about 4 or 5 weeks we have to take her back and have another x-ray taken to see if any progress has been made. There is no way to know which kind it is until they start to dissolve and it they completely dissolve then they were the struvite kind, if they only get to a certain point and no small then they are obviously the calcium oxalate kind and then there is no other choice except surgery by the look of things.

We had a bad night that first night (Tuesday night), I gave Whiskey the antibiotic and a few hours later she kept whining and wouldn't settle down, and she kept wanting to go outside. This went on all night until the antibiotic started to wear off around 6am. Needless to say I didn't get much sleep that night and neither did Whiskey, poor thing! I called the vet that morning and asked if there was another antibiotic she could have and they said this is what she needed. They suggested that I stop by and pick up another pill that I would give to her about a half hour before her antibiotic. This pill will put a coating on her stomach to hopefully help her accepted it better, as well as some probiotic that I am to sprinkle on her food once a day.

Whiskey seems to be doing better with this now and I got a can of the new food which I am slowing introducing to her so that won't upset her system either. Everything seems to be working OK now, although she got us up twice last night to go out and do her thing. Much better than having an accident.

Kevin has headed up to Ottawa tonight and staying overnight at his parents and then early in the morning he will pick up our son, Alex and take him back to school for his last year. He is really looking forward to getting back to Plattsburg and to university. Alex said that only thing he will miss is not being able to play baseball this year, but he is hoping to play more tennis and maybe even some golf. He has a hard year ahead with lots of math courses. but is pretty confident he can do this.

Mushrooms and another hike

2010-08-24T17:24:00.002-04:00

Well yesterday I was back off to my Dad's place. Kevin dropped me off in Perth where my Dad met me and then we headed off to his place stopping along the way at one of our usual hiking spots, the Baird Trail just outside of Middleville.

It's a nice little trail through a variety of different trees and some swampland. Didn't see any wildlife but saw a large number of really pretty mushrooms, so I thought I would take a few pictures to show you.

A nice glazed yellow one

Little red ones

This one had the nice gills from underneath curling up on the sides which made it different looking

I have no idea what kind they are, just that they caught my eye.

This morning my Dad and I took the dogs to Morris Island Conservation Area and took a different hike from the one a a month or two back. This one was called the Chats Falls Trail and it was a bit longer than the last one, but really pretty and you get a really good view of the big dam just down river. Of course on the way there I mentioned that I forgot the camera and we all know Murphy's Law! Well sure enough I saw many things that I wished I could have had a picture of. The dogs were ahead of us when I caught something out of the corner of my eye and it was dark so I thought it was Whiskey, but I was sure she was ahead of us. I was a huge porcupine, quickly got the dogs on their leashes, don't need them chasing one of those! The porcupine just slowly plodded on and climbed a tree to safety. Again saw lots of interesting mushrooms, some similiar to yesterday and others that were just as neat. Saw a grass snake, then quickly saw two more in the same little area, must be a nest of them. Later saw a turtle sunning itself and then saw a rather large water snake curled up on a rock sunning himself, while we were watching it we made a bit of noise and it was off quickly into the water. Boy was it fast! Guess that will teach me in the future to remember the camera.

Trail map at Morris Island Conservation Area

This afternoon I am off to take Whiskey to the dreaded vet's. Whiskey has been showing a few signs of a possible bladder infection in the last week or so and we want to have it checked out to be certain. I'll give an update on that later.

Update on Whiskey 10:15pm

Well Whiskey does have a urinary track infection as well as bladder stones, which we had suspected that she might, as she was displaying symptoms similiar to what she had had once before years ago. Back then they did surgery on Whiskey, but the vet now says that we can do that again or try a special diet of food that we have to buy from them that is suppose to dissolve the stones. This depends on the type of bladder stones she has. So I think we will probably try this method first and see how it goes, before making the decision to do surgery, which bothers both Kevin and I because of her age and possible complications that can arise in a dog her age from the anesthesia. In the mean time I have been given an antibiotic to clear up the urinary track infection. We'll keep you updated on her as time goes on.

A good RV'ing dinner recipe

2010-08-22T07:33:00.000-04:00

We have a few favourite recipes that we make on a regular basis. This one is for Penne and Italian Sausage!

This is a simple one pot meal for cooking in the motorhome, and most ingredients you would have on hand, or are easy to come by.

Sometimes we add green peppers and/or red peppers like we did last night. And you can easily substitute cheddar or any other cheese for the mozzerella. And we use whole wheat noodles, which tend to have to cook a little longer.

This is just after adding the noodles. In 20 minutes or so, the noodles will have absorbed the liquid, leaving a nice creamy sauce behind. Yum!

Wolfe Island

2010-08-21T11:25:00.000-04:00

Time is flying by again, and we still seem to be as busy as ever.

Rather than going up to my Dad's this past week, he came to spend a few days with us in the motorhome. He came Monday around lunch time. I was still working and had about another hour or so to go, but Kevin was home for his lunch so Dad headed over to the motorhome. He and I went for a walk on the back trail of the campground and just sat outside and relaxed until it was time to get dinner.

Tuesday I had a bit of running around to do and had to pick up some groceries so we left the dogs behind and got that all done and then had some lunch. After lunch we headed out to Parrot's Bay Conservation Area, Kevin and I went there in the winter for a hike. We had a nice hike around the area, the dogs really enjoyed themselves. We took a different trail from the one Kevin and I did before, but before leaving we did go to the lookout over the swamp/pond which Kevin and I had viewed before.

A stream that we crossed over that empties into the pond

View of the swamp/pond from the lookout area

On Wednesday my Dad said he would like to go to Wolfe Island. He and my Mom had always wanted to go there but somehow never made it, so our plan was to make a lunch and head over on the 11:30am ferry from downtown Kingston. This is a free ferry and runs about every hour to hour and a half or so depending on the time of the day. Wolfe Island has a nice conservation area called Sandy Bay, so we thought we would wander the road along the edge of the island and make our way there. There is a charge to get into the conservation area and we decided that we would pay the $8 or so to go in. There is suppose to be an 1.3km trail that would take you to the beach area and dogs were allowed in the conservation area and the trail goes through welands and woodlands. So once we got to the entrance I went to go pay and the guy said that it was $16 dollars, $8 per adult if arriving by car, $6 per adult if arriving by bike or boat. I told him that was too much and to forget it. I couldn't possibly understand how it could be worth that much. So we sat at a picnic table by the entrance and had our lunch and then got back in the car to drive around the island a little more. It is quite a pretty island, but other than the conservation area and the small village at the ferry dock there really isn't anywhere to walk the dogs freely.

Downtown Kingston from the ferry

Fort Henry a National Historic Site built during the War of 1812

View of the wind generators as we approach Wolfe Island from the ferry

The island reminds me of Prince Edward Island, very good farmland, fairly flat and very laid back. There is a big wind generator farm on the island with 86 wind generators, it is the second largest wind farm in Canada.

Close up of the wind generators

One of the island roads, straight and flat

Even though the island isn't spectacular we had a nice afternoon and my Dad really enjoyed it and said how relaxing it was.

For supper he treated us to take out dinner at the El Asador, the little place we found about a month ago that serves Mexican food and Indian curries. A great finish to the day! The next day my Dad headed back home and it was back to normal for us. It was a nice couple of days because I actually got to leave the campground, which other than doing groceries I don't have the chance as Kevin needs the car.

This RV was simply not meant to be on the road...

2010-08-19T21:47:00.002-04:00

Working at an RV dealership, you sure get to hear a lot of interesting stories.

So a couple of months ago, this young couple with two small children buy a travel trailer. Brand new 2010 model. They have nothing but problems. Not appliance type of problems, but stuff related to the structure of the trailer. There is no real point in going into details, just that there were so many items that they would have never been happy, and our general manager at the dealership agreed that there was only one real solution to the problem.

Get them a new trailer.

And so the manufacturer agreed. I don't think it's fair to mention the manufacturer's name because 1) this specific trailer was NOT of up to par, and 2) the manufacturer stepped up to the plate and fixed the problem. I feel the two kind of cancel each other out. Plus, under the circumstances, I think any manufacturer would have done the same thing.

So the new trailer showed up at the lot, and it was a 2011 model, with a few extra features that the previous model lacked. This young couple were obviously impressed that the dealership stood behind them, and then the manufacturer did as well. They came right out and said that they didn't expect this kind of treatment and will tell the story to whoever will listen.

The unacceptable trailer was picked up by one of the drivers that was heading back to Indiana. Just after crossing back into the U.S., this trailer was involved in an accident and written off. Just like that. Now, the manufacturer will receive full payment for the value of that trailer from the insurance company.

I dunno, but I kind of like it when everybody involved does the right thing, and then everybody involved comes out ahead of the game.

Decisions, decisions...

2010-08-18T21:44:00.000-04:00

Sometime over the next month or so, we will need to decide if we are coming back to Kingston next year.

We hate to try and plan things that much in advance, but we have a few things to consider. Our first thought is of our daughter and son in law, and our future grandchild due to be born towards the end of March 2011. They are in Nova Scotia, and we would like to be there around the birth. This leads to the possibility of spending the entire summer in Nova Scotia, and being closer to them. We think it would be easy to find jobs that would keep us going for the summer, and allow us to head south again the following winter.

If we do that, I will need to give notice to the blood driving contract that they will need a replacement for around the time we head out of here for Mexico. That could be as soon as only 60 days away.

The other choice is to return here to Kingston next year. We could easily spend a few weeks out in Nova Scotia at the end of March and early April for the big event, and then return there several times throughout 2011. I am enjoying working here at the RV place, and I know that there is monetary incentive to return next year. And provided that we can hire a competent driver to do the run over the winter, we would be able to keep the blood driving contract so that we could continue that next spring as well.

Ultimately, it would be quite a bit more profitable for us to come back to Kingston.

We will do some pondering on this over the next few weeks...

I should've had the salmon...

2010-08-16T22:29:00.000-04:00

So, just an update regarding our day off yesterday. We drove up to Ottawa, stopped at Subway and split a turkey breast sub for lunch just as we got to the outskirts of the city...and it poured with rain while we were there.

Then we visited with our son and my parents at their 19th floor condo overlooking the city. It's normally a gorgeous view looking towards downtown, but not that day.

We had made arrangements to meet my sisters and nephew at a fairly new, upscale Italian restaurant for dinner. They had been before, and really liked it, and our son Alex had raved about the salmon he had there.

I have a friend who is Italian, and have had his mothers lasagna before and it was the best. I was looking forward to a similar meal, but it wasn't to be. We've said before that we don't eat in restaurants very often because we don't think you get very much value for your money. And sure enough, this place lived up to that expectation, at least for me.

Ruth said she liked her smoked salmon canneloni, but my lasagna was below par. The noodles were pasty and tasteless, and I would call the sauce mediocre at best. And I had a bowl of roasted garlic and onion soup for $6 that was no better than just okay.

Sorry, but this was NOT worth $17

And they did actually have the salmon on special, the same one that Alex had previously. Nobody in our party had it though, so we didn't get to see what it was like. All I know, is that I should've had the salmon.

Day off...road trip!

2010-08-15T09:16:00.000-04:00

We both managed to get the day off today! So we're headed to Ottawa (two hour drive each way) for a small family get together for my mother's 75th birthday.

We'll stop and take Whiskey for a walk along the way, and then find somewhere to wander around in Ottawa before heading to a nice Italian restaurant for dinner. We'll try and remember to take some pictures and post them here later on!

Different countries, different attitudes

2010-08-13T20:59:00.000-04:00

We've been following a new blog...a couple who are on a two year trip through Central and South America in their Class C motorhome.

http://drivingthepanamerican.blogspot.com/

I wanted to comment on their recent post where they asked a park ranger at a National Park in Nicaragua if they could park overnight, and of course they were allowed to.

"...another ranger points out a beautiful grassy area for us to park. We have amazing views over the valley and can see Lake Managua and Lake Nicaragua from our vantage point. As the rangers begin to leave, three armed military vigilantes arrive, they will be the guards for the night. Pretty soon, we have the park to ourselves and we feel completely safe. It is so peaceful."

Canada and the U.S. have some pretty stringent attitudes about parking. In Mexico, and obviously Central America, there are some rules about where you can or cannot park on busy streets in cities, but otherwise you can park just about anywhere and nobody will bother you. I don't understand why we get so upset up here about where you can or can't park. So long as you're not bothering someone, who cares? In Mexico, we always ask if we can park where ever, and only once we were turned down. Usually we get a funny look that says "why would you even ask...?"

It's the same thing with dogs. The city of Ottawa (the capital of Canada) has the most ridiculous rules about where you can or can't walk your dog. It is not a very dog friendly city. The people in the blog above are traveling with their dog Winston.

"We are going to try to find a hotel for the night but if not, we will come back. Everyone assures us Winston will not be a problem. In fact, whenever we asked if he was allowed, in the restaurants, on the ferry or as it turned out, in a hotel, we were looked at quizzically as though they didn't understand our worries. The dog is fine. No problemo."

In Mexico, we've had the same experience with Whiskey. We had her in the bar with us, on the beach with us, took her on the city bus in Merida, and took her on the boat with us to go whale watching. Nobody seems to care...and everbody looks at her and smiles.

Whiskey and friends on Bonanza Beach at Xpu-ha

Whiskey and Ruth on the whale watching boat. "Can Whiskey come?"

"Of course, why wouldn't she be able to come?"

Just call us Grandma and Grandpa!

2010-08-11T22:30:00.001-04:00

Yes, we are going to be grandparents next spring!

Our daughter and son in law were married last October. As expected, they haven't wasted much time, and are due to become a Mom and a Dad towards the end of next March. Of course that makes us Grandma and Grandpa! And of course Whiskey will be "Auntie Whiskey"!

This is very exciting, and will likely cause us to change some travel plans towards the end of winter 2010-2011. We may have to leave Mexico a couple of weeks early and travel up the east coast towards Nova Scotia. Will we stay in Nova Scotia next spring? Who knows??!! That is still a long ways away and a lot can change between now and then.

But either way, we are very excited about this new development and we look forward to whatever changes it brings to our plans!

Sure miss our hikes!

2010-08-10T17:41:00.002-04:00

It's the same old, same old going on this past week in one word...work! We can feel the end in sight though, and the time really is flying by. Neither one of us really minds our work, its different than working a "real" job because you know that it is only for 6-7 months and then we have five months off to travel, of course we are striving for being on the road fulltime again and I know that will happen sooner than we think, at least we sure hope so. As I said we really don't mind doing the jobs that we do have so that makes things easier.

Our only problem with this is, that there is no time for the two of us to go for a nice hike. I have been hiking with my Dad when I go visit with him and I really enjoy those hikes but since coming back from Florida I think Kevin and I, have only been on one hike together and that was on our way to Ottawa back in April and I can't really call that a hike. I haven't even gotten my bike out. Sunday is really the only day that we could possibly do something together because Kevin is off work at 4pm that day, but I am usually pretty tired by then because Sunday is generally the busiest day for housekeeping. Maybe once September comes we'll get a chance to go somewhere!

In the meantime I will reflect on a few of our past hikes. I think that our favourite areas for hiking have been Arizona, Newfoundland and British Columbia. That's not to say that we haven't enjoyed other places because we certainly have, I just think these places have been some of the best that we have been on.

Of course our hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon on the South Kaibab Trail was definitely our #1 hike

Kevin on the South Kaibab Trail. Grand Canyon National Park, Grand Canyon, Arizona

More of the trail. Can you see the path of the trail in the centre way down there? Also behind that you can see more of the trail with the switchbacks.

We also hiked on Superstition Mountain at Lost Dutchmen State Park, but we didn't find the lost lode of gold.

View of Superstition Mountain at Lost Dutchman State Park, Apache Junction, Arizona

We also really liked the Sedona area. The town itself is too touristy for us lots of artsy kind of places which we really aren't into, but they sure do have quite the trail system there.

Ruth on the Broken Arrow Trail, Sedona, Arizona

View from the Broken Arrow Trail, Sedona, Arizona

Out in Alberta and British Columbia we were in the some real mountains.

View of Banff Springs Hotel from the lookout at the top of the Tunnel Mountain Trail, Banff Nat'l Park, Banff, Alberta

Ruth and the view of the valley around Dunster from a lookoff on the Dunster Recreational Trail, Dunster, B.C.

View of Lower Joffre Lake and the glacier in the distance, taken from the Joffre Lakes Trail, Joffre Lakes Provincial Rec. Area near Pemberton, B.C.

View of Upper Joffre Lake and the glacier, taken from the Joffre Lakes Trail, Joffre Lakes Provincial Rec. Area near Pemberton, B.C.

View of the valley and of the town of Hope, part way up Mount Hope on our way to the lookout, Hope, B.C.

Last but not least I had to add this hike from Baja California, Mexico

View of our beach, Los Cocos and the surrounding area, from top of mountain across the road, Los Cocos, Bahia Concepcion, Baja California, Mexico

Ahhh...I sure do miss hikes like these. Soon!

Our route south

2010-08-08T09:46:00.000-04:00

We know it's still over two months until we head out, but last night we were discussing our route south.

We will likely head for Kentucky first. It will be starting to get chilly in Canada by mid October, and because there isn't a lot we want to see between here and Kentucky, we may even do some of the drive on four lane highways just to make good travel time so that we can spend more of it seeing Kentucky. Last time we were there, we said that we'd like to see more of it, so that's on the agenda for this upcoming trip.

Then, for some reason, I want to go to Little Rock, Arkansas. We haven't really been to Arkansas, so we want to explore that state.

And from there, to visit friends just outside of Dallas, Texas. And then we hope to meet up with other friends we had worked with in Cavendish PEI. They also own a motorhome, and hopefully they will be able to meet us somewhere in Texas, maybe even Big Bend National Park.

Then, across the border to Monterrey, Mexico, and further south through San Miguel de Allende and then Toluca area for a few days in Mexico City. From there, we hope to pick up our son Alex at Acapulco airport so he can enjoy a couple of weeks with us during his school winter break.

We want to spend Christmas and maybe a month or so at Puerto Escondido which will likely be as far south as we will go this winter.

Our approximate route south, although nothing is written in stone!

Not much going on...

2010-08-06T08:01:00.001-04:00

Well nothing too much has been happening in the last week and a half or so. Still busy with work though!

We had a nice visit with Kevin’s Dad while he was here and when he left the next day Alex arrived and stayed with us until the Wednesday. He works at a tennis summer day camp in Ottawa and is basically in charge of the camp. That particular week was only a half day camp each day and only had about 10 children in the camp so he took the week off and his boss took over so that Alex could spend the time studying for his first actuarial exam that he would be doing the following week (actually it was yesterday, and unfortunately he didn’t pass it, but he said he will be ready for the next one now that he knows what to expect. The actuarial exams are so tough that over 40% of people who take them do not pass the first exam on the first try). This was also when we went up to Red Pine Camp for the day, Alex said he would stay and watch Whiskey for us, as dogs are not allowed there and he could study in peace and quiet. As Kevin had posted we did have a great day and the drive was beautiful.

On Sunday Kevin had a few extra hours to work on Sherman as Sunday is his shortest day at work, 11am-4pm and then he was able to have another day off on Monday because it was a holiday. He enjoyed the time and it was a much better day weather wise than they had forecast. I had to work the full day because it was too busy to leave and Kevin wasn’t doing his afternoon run to Perth so I wasn’t able to go to my Dad’s, instead I would work Tuesday morning (we are short two staff members at the moment) and finish at 1pm have lunch and then head off with Kevin and meet my sister in Perth as she is up visiting with her son Marshall and come back on Thursday and finish off with my evening shift then from 6-9pm instead of 3-9pm.

After my sister picked me up we headed back to our Dad’s and hit a pretty good thunderstorm that dumped a pile of rain. Later in the evening my Dad checked his rain metre and we had had 2 ½” of rain in about a half hour or so. Apparently Ottawa got hit pretty hard and Kevin said they got nothing in Kingston only 2 hours away. Had a nice visit with my Dad, my sister Lesley (she’s the one I went and visited with in June that lives near Hamilton, Ontario) and her son, Marshall. I also saw my other nephew, Matthew who lives next door to my Dad.

Lesley and I went for a walk along one of the side roads out of the village and saw the Mississippi River where we used to swim as teenagers, you couldn’t swim here until you could swim fairly well because it was deep and pretty much a drop off once you stepped down off the rocks, also there could be a strong current there because we were only about a quarter of a mile or less from the head of the water falls. We used to jump in off the bridge all the time. Some brave souls even went over to the railroad trestle and jumped in from there, I never got the nerve to do that. For many of years now a pair of osprey have taken up residence on the trestle and have a beautiful big nest up there.

Anyways as I said not too much has been happening. Kevin and I were starting to discuss possible routes to take down to Texas, but it will depend on if we are meeting up or not with Geoff and Fran (work campers that we met in PEI our first summer travelling) and also places that we would like to see this winter, so it feels like it is getting closer now! We can’t wait to be on the open road again.

Mosquito control

2010-08-03T07:53:00.000-04:00

This has been a bad year for mosquitoes at our particular campground. And if there's one thing that drives me nuts, it's mosquitoes! So I would normally be inside where it's comfortable, instead of outside with the bugs. However I think we have found a decent solution to the problem.

Thanks to our blogging friends Karen and Steve we bought a Thermacell mosquito repellant lantern a month or so ago. We've now used it a few times so it's time for a user report from someone who can't stand moquitoes.

So you open the box, and screw a little butane cartridge into the unit. Then, you open another packet that contains the repellant pad. You light the tiny flame that heats the pad, releasing the poison. Yes, it is a pesticide, and it does actually kill the little buggers within about a 15 sq foot area.

I sat out with the neighbour the first time I used it, and the mosquitoes were BAD. You're supposed to light this thing a half hour in advance of sitting outside to let it take effect, but this time we didn't. However, on an evening where I would normally have been driven indoors, I think I only got three bites the whole time. I was impressed!

The bugs have since gone away a little bit, and now when I light this thing and use it, there are no mosquitoes to be had. Very impressed, and you don't have to spray on bug stuff. Also, when using it at night, the flame gives off a little bit of useful light.

The only downside is that you have to buy replacement pads and cartridges, but so far they seem to both last a long time. We will be taking extras to Mexico with us, although there aren't normally too many problems with bugs down there.

Day off today!

2010-08-02T09:37:00.000-04:00

Well for me, anyhow. Ruth still has to work. The first Monday in August is a civic holiday in most parts of Canada with Quebec being the glaring exception.

And so I am going to relax and putter around doing some work to Sherman. Not the greatest weather forecast though...cloudy with a 40% chance of rain. But if it rains, I have interior stuff I can do too.

Speaking of doing work to the motorhome, I was fixing the housing that supports the fuel filler neck. It was starting to get a little rusty, and it wasn't fastened to the sidewall properly. And somebody over the years had tried to reseal it with bathroom silicon caulking. and it didn't look nice. Yes, I forgot to get pics so I can't show you what it looked like.

So anyway, I took the housing off and got some Tremclad rust paint and I sanded and painted it. Looked like new. But I also saw why there was a problem to begin with. When Sherman was built, they made the cutout for the housing too big. So the screws that hold it on don't have very much to dig in to and when you attach the fuel filler neck to the housing, there is downward pressure that causes the bottom of the housing to separate from the sidewall of the motorhome. It's not really a problem, it just doesn't look right.

Yes, it looks okay here. But if I tighten those two screws on either side of the filler cap it causes the pressure that pushes out the bottom of the housing.

Three ways that I can see to fix it properly. Shorten the hose that attaches to the filler neck on the inside. Bend the filler neck itself, whcih may not be easy. And/or drill four more holes through the housing and hope that the two new lower ones would be strong enough to hold the bottom in.

I'll ponder on this for a day or two.

In the meantime, I am going to clean out one of the wheel houses where the water gets in when driving in the rain. It's nice and dry under there now, so just have to clean it out and spray some foam sealant in there. That should fix the problem, but it's going to be a messy job. Have to get under there and scrape all the old stuff off while looking up with all the crap falling down. Going to have wear safety goggles so the stuff doesn't get in my eyes.

Adsense update

2010-08-01T07:12:00.000-04:00

$35.09 for the month of July.

And we got another Google Adsense payment! $108.21 was deposited to my account on July 28. Adsense only pays you when your account balance reaches $100 in any given month, and then they deposit it to your account towards the end of the following month. We have now earned $356 since starting the Adsense program in January! This will pay for enough gas to get us almost halfway to Mexico!

So thanks for reading our blog. You can visit one of our advertisers if you see something that interests you. All Google ads are prescreened for viruses and safe to visit.

Three months to go...

2010-07-29T20:34:00.000-04:00

In 90 days or so, we will be heading to Mexico.

And we can't wait! I have a feeling the next 3 months will go by quickly though. August will still be very busy, with very little time off work. September and October though, we will have time to take a few more days off to ready Sherman for the trip.

We put our Add-a-Room up for sale. Have it listed on http://www.kijiji.ca/ for $350 firm, and have had one response. They sell new for $1,000 so it's a good deal for anybody who wants one.

Here's a pic of Sherman with his Add-a-Room installed...

Red Pine Camp

2010-07-28T07:39:00.003-04:00

We took the day off work yesterday! I was due for a day aff...hadn't had one since July 1st! And it was Ruth's normal day off on Tuesday anyhow.

So we drove up to Red Pine Camp on beautiful Golden Lake near Eganville, Ontario. It was about a two and a half hour drive each way, and we left here at 7am.

Red Pine is a family camp...sort of a very rustic Club Med...all of your meals and activities are included in one price. You stay in basic cabins, and you bring your own bedding.

My parents brought my two sisters and I up to Red Pine for quite a few family vacations when we were children. The first time was in 1966, and then quite a few years in a row during the '70's. My mother loved it because she didn't have to cook, and there are a lot of childrens programs so she had a lot of time to relax.

I worked on Red Pine for the summer of 1978, and a core group of guys that I worked with that year are still my best friends. A couple of them are up there this week with their own families, so it was nice to see them. I first brought Ruth up there in 1983, the year we met. And we spent a few family vacations of our own there during the '90's. Our daughter Lindsey worked there for the summers of 2003 and 2004.

Kevin, with our friends Shelley and Jeff on the porch of the tuck shop.

Have to go to work...will add more pictures this evening!

10:00pm....here's some more pics. By the way, my sister sent me an email to remind me that it was 1964 that was the first year we went to Red Pine...not 1966.

At the waterfront for Water Regatta Games

Lunchtime!

The main dock

Looking back towards the shore

War canoe races!

Goats crossing the road on the way home. Felt like we were back in Mexico!