Sorting through our stuff...

As George Carlin once said, "a house is just a place to keep your stuff". Well when you have a small house like a motorhome, you have to keep your stuff to a minimum! So yesterday we started sorting through every drawer and cupboard looking for stuff that we don't think we need any more.

And it's amazing how much stuff you can get rid of!

Planning for Barbados

Nine days from now, we will arrive on the southeastern Caribbean island of Barbados for a nineteen day stay. We haven't really got too much planned, because this is supposed to be a relaxing "vacation".

But most of you know us better than that!

10 years ago today!

It was 10 years ago today that we left Ruth's father's place in Galetta (Ottawa) for our very first big road trip with our new to us motorhome Sherman!

Our very first blog post was also 10 years ago today! You can read it here...

http://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2007/10/were-cookin-with-gas-now.html

A huge sigh of relief!

We received a text message from Kal Tire at around 5:30pm yesterday afternoon, telling us that Sherman was ready to be picked up. But we were quite far away, and they close at 6:00pm. So we stayed with our friends Jeff and Shelley again last night, and picked up Sherman first thing this morning.

Like I mentioned yesterday, we had no idea how much the bill was going to be.

Sherman is still at the shop

We didn't plan on being without Sherman for this long. This is day number eight that he's been in the shop. Part of the problem is that we just went through a long weekend here in Canada, so he sat for three days with nothing being done.

And the other part of the problem has been waiting for parts.

Back in Ottawa...

Well, we drove back to Ruth's father's place in Galetta (Ottawa) yesterday. From Hamilton, it was 500 kms (310 miles) which is far more than we typically like to drive in a day. But, we took a bit of a different route because we had a craving for Thai food!

Proof that you can justify anything you want!

Fun afternoon at Pelee Island Winery

We had a 12:00 noon reservation for the Pelee Island Winery on Sunday. But first, Heinz and Ulli made us a delicious breakfast. And then we left a few minutes early so that we could take a drive to see some more sights we hadn't seen the day before!

You would think that an island only 12kms by 6 kms wouldn't have much to see. But there's actually quite a lot!

Finally made it to Pelee Island!

Up at 6:00am yesterday morning, and on the road for 6:30. The Pelee Island ferry leaves from Kingsville, Ontario on the north shore of Lake Erie. At this time of year there are only two sailings per day, one at 10:00am, and one at 6:00pm.

But we had a 300 km (186 mile) drive to do. I figured I had done the math okay...at 100 km/h (62 mph), we should be there in three hours, right?

Just a quick update...

I'm writing this blog post on my phone! Who would have thought?! Anyhow, we're relaxing in the backyard of Ruth's sister's house in Hamilton, Ontario just west if Toronto.

Grocery shopping tip of the day

Rainy day yesterday, so we just stayed in and got caught up on a few computer things. We're doing a travelogue presentation on October 13th at the seniors residence where my mom lives, so I spent some time putting some of that together on the computer.

We're going to talk about our trip to Moldova and Transnistria last December.

Well, what a day that was...

Monday afternoon, I had called a Kal Tire franchise near Lindsey's place. They have a full service truck mechanical bay, and I had to find someone to do some work on Sherman that I wasn't prepared to do myself.

I don't mind doing the work, but I know my limits. And when I don't have the proper tools to do the job, it's better to pay the money and hand it off to someone who does.

Help, if you want to.

As you know, Ruth and I are leading an RV caravan through Mexico this winter, and the company that is operating the caravan is spearheading a small earthquake relief campaign on their own.

On October 5th, Caravanas de Mexico will personally go to Cuernavaca to buy groceries and other Items urgently needed for people suffering the consequences of earthquakes in Morelos State. The area was at the epicenter of the Sept 19 quake and the situation is terrible in several towns such as Jojutla and its surroundings.

Picked up the car rental!

We've got wheels again!

Yesterday morning, Lindsey drove us to Dollar Rent a Car near downtown Ottawa. We had a reservation for 10am, and got there right on time. I had booked the deal back in July when they had a special price on their "whatever car we have is what you get" deal.

September Expenses... one of our cheapest months ever!

Well September was a good month! I would have to go back into the records to check and see, but it may have been a record low month for us. We only spent $515 CAD ($415 USD)!!

The main thing we were trying to do this summer was to keep our grocery budget around the $550 per month mark, and we did a lot of stocking up in May and June, sometimes buying enough of a sale item to last all summer. So if you remember, we spent a lot of money on groceries in May ($929) and June ($726).

Too many rules

First of all, I got the new solar charge controller installed and working. And then the clouds moved in and I couldn't properly test it! Too funny. Solar energy works great... but only when the sun is shining!

Today is supposed to be bright and sunny (not a cloud in the sky so far) so tomorrow I'll give you an update as to how our batteries are charging.

I didn't plan that very well...

I found us a fantastic deal on a car rental a few months ago, and I booked it for three weeks during our time here in Ottawa.

Only problem is, I have it starting this coming Monday, October 2nd. I figured that Lindsey and Justin have two cars and that one should be available for us to use occasionally for a few days our first week here. But, it turns out that the one older car needs a major brake job now and it's not safe to drive the way it is.

So we've been without transportation these first few days.

Getting Sherman ready for his adventure

Had a great sleep Wednesday night back in the motorhome. Seems like it only took the one night to get caught up on the lack of sleep from our travels the night before. So that's good. We got our bags unpacked and everything sorted out to live in Sherman on and off for the next three and a half weeks or so.

I say "on and off" because we're headed down to Ruth's sister's for a night, and then Pelee Island next weekend. And then of course we'll be up at Ruth's dad's for a few nights along the way and I've got my guys weekend away on the 20th of October.

Arrived in Ottawa!

When we left off yesterday, we had been at Toronto airport waiting for our flight to Ottawa. The gate agent had offered us $200 cash each to take the next flight at 9:15am, but had said that she had to wait until boarding was complete to confirm that was going to happen.

Everybody was on the plane, and she called our names.

Well that was a busy 24 hours!

Writing this from our daughter's home in Osgoode, just south of Ottawa, Ontario. Arrived here at about 9:30am this morning after our four flight marathon from Regina.

Our friend Wendy drove us to Regina airport from Moose Jaw yesterday afternoon. (Thanks again Wendy!) About a 45 minute ride, and we purposely arrived at the airport a couple of hours early, because it's better to be early than late. :-)

First day of pretirement, and it's going to be a travel day!

We said goodbye to the park yesterday, but it wasn't until almost three o'clock in the afternoon by the time we finally pulled out. Just lots of last minute stuff to do, and all of it had to happen on the last day. So, a couple of hours later than we were planning for, but it didn't really matter.

Then, we had a 258 km (160 mile) drive to Moose Jaw. Uneventful, and we've done this route before a few times, so not much exciting to see along the way.

Today is the day!

And what a beautiful start to the day it is. A little bit crisp out there, but the sun is shining and it will warm up nicely. Supposed to be a high of around 17C (63F), so just a nice fall day.

I went out and took some early pics of our last morning at the park...

Almost finished up

One more sleep here in the park. Still some work to do tomorrow morning, but then the adventure begins!

Pretty much right on schedule. This is our fourth year closing the park up, so we've got it down to a science now. The bathrooms are all winterized and locked up, and today I'll get the oil changed on the equipment.

Campground Manager Couple Wanted - Canada

While we are not coming back next year as managers, we still care about the park and the effort that we've put into it over the past four years.  And so we want to help the park find the right people to carry on where we left off.

Also, we will be coming back through this area next May on our way up to Canada's northern Territories and Alaska, and we have offered to spend some time with the new manager(s) to get them off on the right foot. Whether or not the park board takes us up on that offer will depend somewhat on who gets hired for the job.

Four more sleeps!

Well, we're into the final stretch. Only four more sleeps and it's on to new adventures. But there's still a lot to do here over the next four days. I've got four of the five washrooms winterized, and I'll do the final one today. I've got part of the beaver fencing up, and I'm trying to do a little every day rather than doing it all at once like I've done in the past. Much better this way! And I have to change the oil in the machinery and get it all cleaned up.

Monday morning we'll shut off the water and I've already made the appointment to get the big compressor down here so we can blow the lines out... and then we're gone.

More Saskatchewan scenery...

Well, the park is pretty much empty. I think the last two nights we were the only ones sleeping here overnight, although there are still two trailers here that need to be picked up. Still a few boats kicking around too, but I guess people are hoping for one last boat trip of the season, although the weather for the immediate future doesn't look very promising for that.

But, we did take advantage of yesterday's nice weather!

Damn rabbits!

Remember last month when I had a problem with chewed wires on the little blue car? Well I've learned since then that it was not mice that caused that problem... it was rabbits!

Who would have thought? But we've got lots of little bunny rabbits here at the park this year. They sure are cute, but they sure are a nuisance.

Pelee Island visit?

We've been wanting to visit Pelee Island for a long time. But Pelee Island is located in the most southern part of Lake Erie, and the access point to the ferry is located in Ontario, just southeast of Detroit.

And we don't make it down that way very often.

We are now carless, for the first time ever!

So now that the little blue car is gone, we have to get by with being carless. It's a little strange saying that we don't own a car. No car, no television, no microwave. I guess we are strange!

Being carless means that when we want that type of transportation, we will have to rent, borrow, or taxi!

The little blue car is gone!

We had not had any response to the advertisements I had been doing. It seemed that everybody around here wants a pickup truck or SUV or some kind of large vehicle. You just don't see many small cars on the road out here in the countryside in Saskatchewan.

But I knew the price was fair, and that someone would come along eventually.

Cancelled our campground reservation!

I should have known better than to make a campground reservation four months in advance. But, here I was trying to be proactive so that we weren't left without a spot. Not a big deal, because I think we only lose $10 or so... plus, I think the caravan company is going to cover our new spot.

It's a bit of a story, but here's what happened...

Day trip to Grasslands National Park

We took a day off yesterday! Nothing going on at the park, with the exception of a few more seasonal trailers pulling out, and it was looking like the last day of nice summer weather for a while. So we decided to drive down to Grasslands National Park on the border of Saskatchewan and Montana, and do some exploring!

Boy, did it ever feel good to get out on the road and see some different scenery for a change!

Two weeks today

And we're outta here. And still no bites on the little blue car. Strange. I guess everybody in this area wants a big gas guzzling pickup truck! Oh well, if it doesn't sell we'll store it for the winter and re-evaluate next May. Maybe this is a sign that we shouldn't be selling it anyhow!

A few more trailers disappeared over the weekend.

Foreign exchange transaction fees

The Canadian dollar (CAD) has been finally gaining strength versus most other world currencies. Of course this makes our travels outside of Canada cheaper, and a strong dollar is better for the country as a whole.  And, the U.S. dollar (USD) has been weakening versus most other world currencies, after an abnormally long period of strength.

For our personal situation, it pretty much evens out because our blog and Amazon income is mostly paid to us in U.S. dollars.

So far, Barbados has been spared

The last major hurricane to do any damage in Barbados was in 1995. And there have only been five major hurricane events to affect Barbados in total in the last 100 years.

Records show that in the 1600s, four hurricanes devastated Barbados, in the 1700s five systems directly affected Barbados, two causing devastation, and in the 1800s there were 17 hurricanes. Sure makes you wonder what kind of climate change was going on in the 1800's! I don't think they have all this stuff figured out yet.

Pretirement

I guess in a couple of weeks Ruth and I will be pretired. Once again. We pretired at this time 10 years ago in 2007 when we were on our first planned two year motorhome excursion.

Then, we pretired again between 2011 and 2013.

Most people retire. And I suppose we will eventually, but for now, we will be pretired.

Never heard that term before? Either had I until the other day.

We made a campground reservation!

We started RV'ing almost ten years ago. We've put 70,000 miles (112,000 kms) on our motorhome during that time. And now, for only the second time ever...we actually made a reservation at a campground!

We meet up with our Mexico caravan group at Lake Casa Blanca State Park in Laredo, Texas before crossing the border into Mexico on January 7th.

Chilly mornings and more blog reading visitors!

Woke up yesterday morning and the temperature was only 5C (41F). It was nice and bright and sunny but it was chilly, and there was a mist coming off the lake. Really pretty. But, you could sure tell that it felt like September in Canada. Funny enough, it's supposed to warm up by Friday with highs above 30C (86F) again!

It was chilly again this morning though, with some area reporting frost although we didn't see any here at the park.

Useful items to take on your travels

Travelling has become something that people do both as a hobby but also as an actual career these days, as the websites and blogs devoted to travel that have sprung up during the digital era have acted as an inspiration to many.

Of course, while most people think of exotic locations and adventure, bag packing is a necessary chore that must be completed before all that, but if you know what to pack it will make this process quicker and less stressful.

Winding things down here at the park

Well, our last long weekend of the summer is over. Labor Day weekend is normally pretty quiet around here, but it was slightly busier than normal this year. The weather was fantastic... warm and sunny all weekend. And fairly calm too, which made for great boating weather. Well, calm with the exception of a major windstorm that went through on Saturday night.

But, like any long weekend around here, it was not entirely glitch free!

Can't wait to get on the road again! But first need to fix some things...

Wow, thanks for the fantastic response to yesterday's post. It will be an adventure, won't it?? We think Sherman is up for the challenge, but he has not been used nearly enough the last couple of years. The last time we drove him was our trip from Saskatchewan to Ottawa at the end of last September. And while that was a good trip, he did have some minor mechanical issues along the way. Most of them were sorted out when I changed spark plugs and plug wires last fall. But there were some other things I noticed as well.

By the time we arrive in Ottawa, he will have been sitting for a full year!

A two year North American full time motorhome adventure!

Our motorhome Sherman, at age 21 is starting to show some signs of wear and tear. We think that he's still got lots of life left in him yet though! And with less than 100,000 miles on the chassis, we still believe that he's got enough motivation in him to take us on a two year North American motorhome adventure!

And so this is the plan...

August Expenses

Well, it was another cheap month. Exactly the way we planned it. Although, groceries were a bit higher due to the fact that we had five grocery shopping days during the month of August. And our friend Doug brought us a couple of Amazon packages up from the U.S..

But otherwise, it was a darn cheap month!

The little blue car is for sale!

As much as we don't want to sell it, we don't see the point of keeping it. We simply don't think we need a car for the foreseeable future. We will be living and traveling in the motorhome, and if we do ever need a car we will rent one as necessary.

If we didn't have to pay, we would just keep it in storage. But long term storage at $500 a year or so doesn't make sense for a $3,000 car!

A tough decision to make...

This was our fourth summer in a row managing the park. And we spent the summer of 2013 managing Sturgeon Lake Regional Park in northern Saskatchewan. So we haven't had a summer off since 2012.

We've decided we need a summer off, so we're taking a break.