Ruth and the sunset at the island of Dhiffushi, Maldives.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Kuwait City, Kuwait on March 31st.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

We have arrived!

Well, we made it. We are now at our summer home at Sturgeon Lake Regional Park in the middle of Saskatchewan, Canada where we are the campground managers for the next five months!

First impressions? It's going to be a great summer!

The little blue car did a fantastic job on our long drive. We spent $80 getting an exhaust pipe fixed, $352 worth of fuel, and $76 in Mexican road toll fees to drive 4,500 kms (2,790 miles).

That was a long drive!

The last bit of our drive was fairly short. We only had to do 185 kms (115 miles) and we got an early start, saying goodbye to Mark and Jean just after 9:00am. Thanks for having us guys, we enjoyed finally meeting you and hope to see you this summer!

185 kms (115 miles) from Saskatoon to the campground.

Funny things we saw along the way!

The snow is melting!

We're getting close! Still 22 kms (14 miles) to go from this turn off.

I had thought this was going to be a dirt road, but happy to see it was paved!

Our first view of Sturgeon Lake!

We're here!

The road leading down to the campground.

We got there just before 12 noon. A few members of the board were at our "cabin" doing some finishing touches, so we said hello to everyone and got acquainted. There's still a little bit of work to do, but they've painted the whole interior and cleaned things up nicely. Apparently it's been a while since anyone lived here and they've done a lot of work over the past week making it livable.

Only problem right now? The water lines are still frozen! So we've got no running water. The boss had offered to let us stay at his place for a few days, but we've been living out of other peoples houses for over three weeks now and we were really looking forward to staying in a place we can call our own.

Oh, one more problem. The furnace wouldn't fire up yesterday. It's only two years old, and they've already had it running, but it stopped yesterday. They called a furnace guy who said he would be out in an hour and a half or so.

We needed to stock up. We had a look around and saw what was here. But there were still a few things we needed, as well as stocking the shelves and refrigerator with food. We had bought quite a bit of food, along with some specialty gluten free items along the way, but we needed much more. We're essentially setting up home from scratch here. So we figured out what we needed and set off for the city of Prince Albert, about a 35 minute drive from here.

53 kms (31 miles) to the city of Prince Albert (pop 35,000).

First stop was the Salvation Army thrift store. We picked up an electric kettle, a crock pot, some baking pans, a casserole dish, and a can opener. Total cost was going to be $15.50. We got to the cash and they said they were renovating and everything was 50% off! So our bill for all that stuff was $7.75. And no tax. Nice.

Then it was off to Walmart where we spent $166! Most of that was groceries, but we also needed some bedding and a nice small fry pan. I'm sure there is other stuff we'll need, but anything else will have to wait a week or so for our next trip to town.

Arriving back at "the cabin", we found that the furnace man had arrived and we had heat! So the only thing we're missing now is running water. They had left us with a fresh 5 gallon jug of drinking water, but we'll have to figure something out.

Hooked up our "MiFi" internet device and you can see by reading this blog that it worked perfectly. Actually totally impressed with the speed considering we're in the middle of nowhere!

We had a short meet and greet meeting with the board of directors here at the campground. Everyone seems very nice and I'm sure we'll get along fine. We'll tell you more about the campground and the park in another post.

Our "cabin" is actually a two bedroom house. It's quite nice and we're totally happy with it. We'll show you the interior once we get it finished and all set up.

Our first sunset at Sturgeon Lake.

33 comments:

  1. It sounds like you had a good first day. The lake and cabin look great! Hope you get running water soon. The lake looks just a wee bit too cold for bathing. :o) Have fun getting settled!

    ReplyDelete
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    1. They are working on a temporary solution for now (pumping water from the lake) until the water lines unfreeze.

      As for the lake, it is still frozen over, hopefully the ice will be gone from it by the May long weekend!

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  2. You aren't going to know how to act with all that room in your cabin. Sponge baths seem to be in your future for awhile. Hope they get that fixed quickly.

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    1. I know, we feel like we are in a mansion right now, lol.

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  3. sounds great.Looking forward 2 seeing it all through your eyes and words.

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  4. How did you guys end up getting this gig? I don't remember reading about it.

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    Replies
    1. Kevin applied to a number of campground manager jobs in January/February. After a couple of telephone interviews back at the end of February and beginning of March we were accepted for this one and it was actually the one we were hoping to get. We did a post on it when we were in Guatamala once we found out that they accepted us.

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  5. It all looks great and can only get better as the snow continues to melt. Your new home is going to be a nice change for you.

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    Replies
    1. We think it is going to be real pretty here once everything "greens" up!

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  6. Glad you made it safely! Wow,that was such a long drive! How does it feel to have traveled across the whole of North America in less than a month? I hope the snow melts fast foe you guys.

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    Replies
    1. You really put that drive of ours into perspective when you talk about driving across the whole of North America. Mind you we really need to go as far as Alaska to complete the journey.

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  7. Nice "cabin". Looks like there was a new loo that was installed as well. Nice to be getting the royal treatment. (the new throne and all)

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    Replies
    1. Actually it hasn't been installed yet, they are putting it in today.

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  8. That will be like being home all summer, wish it wasn't so far from Mo.Sam & Donna..

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  9. Ouch! snow...yuck. Thank goodness it will not last.

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  10. We love shopping at thrift stores. We have lots of things at home and in the rv. Nobody would ever know unless we told them and occasionally we do. Right now our next thrift store purchase is a bread maker, appears people buy them, don't use them, and off they go the thrift store. (crockpots are another item along with table lamps, lots of dishes and glassware). If we are in the U.S. and have forgotten something, off we go to the Goodwill.

    You guys got a great deal on your purchases.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep, we are pretty happy with our purchases. Supper is cooking away in the crockpost as I type this and it seems to be working great. I am sure that this will be a regular stop each time we head into Prince Albert. We are finding things that were stashed away underneath the cabin that we don't need so we will also drop off a number of things next time we make the trip into town.

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  11. I am glad you arrived safe and sound at your new "summer residence". I am sure your boss has in the meantime realized how lucky he was by hiring you for this job. He couldn't have found a better qualified couple. Enjoy your summer there.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Renate for your kind words, we hope that we can live up to them.

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  12. What a wonderful play to be for 5 months. Your house looks big and spacious. You'll be looking forward to warmer weather and running water.

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    Replies
    1. It really isn't very big but it is big to us, having lived in our 28' motorhome for the past 5 1/2 years. It has everything that we need so we are very pleased with it.

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  13. So, is that second bedroom for guests? Is there a bed? Will they let you have visitors? We would love to come there and see you and the place this summer.....

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    1. Yes, the second bedroom is for guests and there is a hide-a-bed for their use. We would love for you to come and visit us, just let us know when and we will have it all set up for you. We have been missing you guys and all that nice warm weather!

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  14. What are the temperatures like right now way up there?

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    1. Today was gorgeous!

      Sunny for most the day, and a high of about 18C (65F). A lot of snow melted today. Supposed to be cooler for the next couple of days though. Still going below freezing at night, but not by much.

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  15. Nice little cabin you have now!
    Enjoy.

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  16. Love the photo of the trucks sticking out of the ground. The Canadian version of Carhenge in north west Nebraska. It's great coming across weird stuff like that, always makes people smile.
    Cheers

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    Replies
    1. Yep, we like coming across those things as well and you are right, we did smile!

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