A neat product, but...

As wireless technology continues to improve, manufacturers are coming out with some innovative products. Over the last couple of years, one of the neat things is wireless tire pressure monitoring systems.

I'm a stickler for checking my tire pressure, both on the motorhome and the car. It's important to have the proper tire pressure, and I learned from my years in the automotive business that many people don't check their tire pressure often enough. With the proper pressure, your tires last longer, you get better gas mileage and ride quality, and it's safer.

April Expenses

April was a pretty expensive month for us, but mostly because of the amount of fuel we used getting from Southern California up to Canada.

We spent a total of $2,523 CAD ($1,892 USD) for the month.

How much do we spend on a winter away?

This post was going to be our April expense report. But I figured it would be much more useful to detail how much we spent, and on what...during our entire 7 months away. (I'll do a separate post about April later today.)

Our regular readers know what we did all winter, but for the benefit of anybody new here, let me refresh your memories with the highlights...

These will be great for travel in the motorhome...

Well, the muscles got their second work out of the season yesterday as we cleaned up most of the fallen branches from the day use area. It does seem to be going a little faster than last year though because there aren't as many leaves around.

Although we get a lot of leg and aerobic exercise from the hiking we do over the winter, our upper body muscles don't get much exercise at all over the winter. Before RV'ing came into our lives we both used to do a lot of gym workouts, and even had a nice home gym at our house. Ruth even worked at a gym for quite a while.

And then there were two...

Ruth mostly worked on the house yesterday. The rain gutters needed cleaning, so she actually got up on the roof and did that. There's not much of a slope, so not really dangerous...you just have to be careful. And she trimmed back some branches while up there.

And, she cleaned all of the windows. They tend to only get done once a year, so they needed it!

Another neat gadget

There is nobody around who hasn't at some point needed to have their car battery boosted. Not that long ago, it used to be that you needed a good quality set of booster cables. Then, they came out with those portable booster battery packs, but they were fairly big and heavy.

Now, with the new lithium battery technology, a very small battery packs a powerful punch.

Back at the park!

So, we're back at Cabri Regional Park. This will be our third summer here as park managers. The first year that we arrived there were no leaves on the trees. Last year, things were a little greener. But this year, spring has arrived early.

In fact, it looks like we're heading straight in to summer and might be bypassing spring completely!

The Wildlife of Wales

There are fewer things more beautiful than the British countryside on a summer’s day, when the flora and fauna is in full bloom and the natural wildlife it at its most vibrant.

If you’re planning on taking a walk on the wild side this summer, North Wales is a good place to start a staycation safari.

8,000 miles later...

We arrived back at Cabri Regional Park yesterday evening. What a long four or five days that was! But we made it, safe and sound. And, we arrived to better weather than we've seen since we left Utah.

I figured out that we drove approximately 8,000 miles (12,800 kms) since the time we left Cabri last October 5th.

Into Montana

Filled up again yesterday morning in Lovell, Wyoming, this time at $1.97 per gallon ($0.68 per litre CAD). One more fillup today, and we'll enter Canada full of cheap American gas. Stopped at the Lovell Information Center to use their free wifi and have our breakfast.

A bit of a late start today, as we didn't get on the road until just before 10:00am.

All the way through Wyoming in one day

Long driving day for us yesterday as we managed to put 356 miles (570 kms) on the odometer. We drove from the bottom of Wyoming up to the top! I think that's the most mileage Sherman has ever done in one day!

And through a wide variety of scenic vistas.

We sure do meet a lot of good people

Woke up to a dusting of snow this morning, and read the road reports for conditions north of here...which were not good! So we decided to stay put for the day.

We had heat, and food, and internet...so we were fine to sit and wait it out.

Around 11:00am, there was a knock on the door.

Hiking with Kevin and Ruth

Okay, so we had some free time today and a half decent internet connection. So I uploaded a five minute video for you from one of our recent hiking excursions.

Now, youtube has changed the way they display videos and normally you won't see it at the best quality. You may need to click the little "settings" wheel down in the bottom right corner of the video screen and change the quality to 720p so that you can see it in decent quality.

Stranded in Baggs, Wyoming!

On the road at 9:00am yesterday morning, with a plan to make it to either Craig, Colorado, or Baggs, Wyoming. Or, somewhere in between.

The first order of business was to make it through the mountain pass on Colorado highway 139 heading north. The weather was good, so no chance of problems at higher elevations. And it turned out the road was fine.

Well, that was a nice morning stroll!

We got up early yesterday morning and drove the 13 miles to the Little Wild Horse Canyon trailhead. Had some breakfast, and then hit the trail right at 9:00am. This is a busy hike, and it was a Sunday so we wanted to be among the first on the trail.

Kevin, in Little Wild Horse Canyon.

We had planned on leaving early anyhow...

I have an aunt and uncle who have spent a lot of time camping and hiking in Utah, and they offered some suggestions about some hikes in the area. So yesterday, we first stopped at a short hike in Capitol Reef National Park, but then we drove through the park and out the eastern side of it.

Ruth, out for a short hike in Capitol Reef National Park Saturday morning.

Another fun hike, with great views.

Drove into the town of Torrey first thing yesterday morning. That's the closest free internet to Capitol Reef National Park, at the visitor info center run by the county. No Verizon cell signal up here, so we can't get on the internet that way.

With that done, we drove into the park.

Sherman, in Capitol Reef National Park.

Utah...possibly our favorite state?

We think that Utah is well on it's way to becoming our favorite state. The number of stunning hiking opportunities is amazing. That said, we wouldn't want to be here in busy season. April is definitely the perfect time of year.

And they have some pretty birds here too!

Bryce Canyon Viewpoints

We got on the road at 9:00am yesterday, specifically to do the 36 mile (58 km) round trip drive through Bryce Canyon National Park. This drive has several viewpoints along the way, and we wanted to stop at each one. We were hopeful that our start was early enough to beat the traffic!

This road takes you up to 9,000 ft, and there is still some snow in places.

Prepare to be wowed!

We did an 8 mile (13 km) hike in Bryce Canyon National Park yesterday. There's no way to describe the landscape without showing you lots of photos...and maybe a video or two. So, for those of you who will never see below the rim of the canyon, this is what you're missing...

A neat little gadget

We had quite a few requests from various companies this winter to "advertise" their products for them. We turn most of them down, either because we're simply not interested in the product, or we actually try it and it's not worthy of a decent review.

But we've got a few good ones coming your way over the next couple of weeks. Here's the first one...

Wow...what a place!

Nice short drive of only 58 miles (93 kms) yesterday morning as we made our way from the eastern outskirts of Zion National Park up in altitude to Bryce Canyon National Park at 7,500 ft.

Yesterday's drive, 58 miles (93 kms).

Now *this* is a great campsite!

It was 10:30am yesterday by the time we got on the road out of Las Vegas. Not sure why it's taking us so long to get going because we were up by 7:00am.

The late start was probably better in the long run though because we drove through Zion National Park and it was a Sunday, and it is free entrance week in all of the national parks. So going through the park later in the day might mean less traffic.

Apparently Sherman is too old!

We left the Home Depot in Barstow at about 9:30am...a little later than we wanted to. Then, we put in some gas...enough to get us to Las Vegas where it's quite a bit cheaper, and then we'll put in just enough to get us to Utah where it is cheaper still. We'll try and arrive there close to empty, and then fill it right up.

Then, we stopped at a Food 4 Less grocery store and bought a few things. The food is not that much for less, but still, the prices were not bad.

But after doing all of this, it was close to 10:30am by the time we hit the road!

Back to our normal RV'ing lifestyle

We really enjoyed our time in southern California. Especially San Diego and area. I can see us returning there some day.

Yesterday morning, we dropped off our rental Beetle. What a great deal, at $205 USD ($266 CAD) for two full weeks. Taxes included. Then, it was time to get on the road.

Starting a two week holiday.

Yesterday was our last day with Helen and Tony. Two weeks sure goes by quickly when you're having fun.

We had to leave to take them to LAX airport at 3:00pm, so we decided to just hang around the campground in the morning. Went for a short walk on one of the trails.

Here's what $3,000,000 can buy you...

We decided to take a drive on the coast, with no real plans other than to stop where we felt like it along the way, and try and avoid traffic. We are only about 20 miles from the coast, so we left at about 10:00am, with plans to get back home around 4:00pm.

We started off at Dana Point, where I had found free parking near the big marina there. We had fun looking at all of the boats and seeing how the rich people live!

Beverly Hills. Movie stars, and fancy cars...

It's about 60 miles (100 kms) from where we are camped at O'Neill Regional Park to get to downtown Los Angeles. We could have got a closer spot in an "RV Park", but this place offers some green space and large sites with no close neighbours. And, it's only $20 USD ($26 CAD) per night.

We figured this would be close enough to go into downtown LA and explore, and commute back here for two days. But we learned yesterday that Los Angeles traffic makes that somewhat difficult to do.