A day off?

What's that?

It's not a very good weather forecast for this weekend, so we were surprised to have a few campers show up yesterday. I think we've got 9 sites occupied.

Here's our winner...!

Congratulations go to Joe Girsch of Pennsylvania, winner of the $100 VISA gift card that we gave away here at Travel with Kevin and Ruth...here's the happy winner...

Our hands are sore!

And arms. I don't know about Ruth, but it's been 15 years since I've worked this hard doing steady physical labor! Enjoying it for the most part, but it would be nice to get a break long enough to let the muscles recover.

Okay, so what have we been up to the last couple of days? Let's see...

Why Namibia?

There are literally thousands of contests we could enter. After the Australia contest fiasco last year, we've been a little gun shy to enter ANY of them. But when I saw this giveaway with the prize being a trip to a very different destination, I felt we couldn't pass it up. I bet you don't know very much about the country of Namibia. We didn't either.

We have a winner!

Well that was fun. Our contest to give away a $100 VISA gift card was a resounding success. Or at least we had fun, we hope you did too! We're going to do other giveaways as time goes on, so we're looking forward to the next one!

Now, who won? Well, if you're a female...sorry. And if you're a regular reader...sorry.

Blogger Interview...Episode #3

A day late, but better late than never as they say.

Today, we're with another solo female traveler but this one lives and travels full time in her motorhome. She keeps a very active life volunteering at National Wildlife Refuges around the U.S., and she has a lifelong love of camping and RV'ing. She's got a popular blog, and even though she publishes almost every day, she doesn't often talk about her personal life. So we're happy to welcome Judith Bell from "Travels with Emma" so we get an inside look into how she arrived at where she is now in life...

Bear sighting!

The weekly edition of our Blogger Interview series is going to be a day late! We do have another interesting story to tell, and it's almost ready, but you'll have to bear with us until tomorrow! "Bear". Get it? Ha, ha.

Speaking of bears, we finally spotted one yesterday!

What do you think?

Do you like our new facebook header photo? It was designed and produced by someone from the fiverr.com website we told you about. I think it's pretty good for five bucks, no?

Those of you who don't "do" facebook might not have seen that we hit a milestone yesterday and that Travel with Kevin and Ruth now has over 500 facebook fans! We're pretty excited about that!

May Expenses

Well, after having a higher than expected April, we were glad to get back to a more reasonable level of expenses. Not quite as low as we hoped it would be, but not bad. We spent a total of $1,075 during the month of May. Here's how it all broke down...

Sunsets, part two!

 I know you've all been waiting patiently for part two of our sunset photos. I can't believe how many sunset photos we have, and how many are truly spectacular. We did part one a couple of weeks ago and if you missed it then, it's worth looking at. You can view it here.

Yesterday - Hour by Hour...

What's a day like here at the campground? Well currently, we don't have many campers! It's pretty quiet Monday through Thursday. We'll get a few more campers through the weekend, but it really won't get busy again until later on in June.

But the day is still very busy...here's how our time was spent yesterday, just to give you an idea.

Are you ever bored?

I think that if you are ever bored then you need to make some serious changes in your life. Not trying to be a preacher or a psychologist, but life is far too short to be spending your time being bored!

What's worse than having to put mosquito repellent on?

Well, that would be if you didn't have any mosquito repellent to put on!

Fortunately, we have lots. And we sure do need it now.

Blogger Interview...Episode #2

Welcome to the second edition of our weekly Blogger Interview series!

Today, we would like to introduce you to a single lady who has recently completed her first ever RV'ing adventure. She has also only recently began her own blog, and I think that many of our readers will be interested in following her adventures! Currently back in California, she spent the winter in Mexico and is in the process of trying to decide on a different RV...and a new destination!

What some people will do for five bucks...

Want some help making your family tree? Someone will help you, and it will only cost you $5. How about personalized business advice? Some one will help you with that too for $5. How about a picture of a pretty girl holding a sign with your message on it. Yep, only $5.

My connection to The Man Who Skied Down Everest

I'm sure some of you noticed the news item a couple of days ago that spoke of an 80 year old man who reached the summit of Mount Everest. We think it's an interesting story, not only because of the man's age, but because of the history of the story...and my connection to it!

An interesting analogy

I don't read the vast majority of  "forwarded" emails. You know, the ones you receive daily that are 99% a waste of your time. Everybody's got that one friend or relative who clutters your email inbox with everything they come across whether it's worthwhile or not. So I simply delete most of them after reading the first line or two.

But I found one was interesting, and without posting it word for word, I'll explain why...

Convicts in Camp!!

Yes, we had six prison inmates in the campground yesterday. No, they hadn't escaped! They were here under a prisoner work program to help with some cleanup around the campground. What a great idea!

Our first visitors!

The campground we're managing is kind of off the beaten path. So when people who know us make a special effort to come and visit, we're really appreciative!

Late Monday afternoon, Wendy and her friend Phil showed up for a four night stay! You might remember them from when we passed through Moose Jaw on our way up here a month ago.

Blogger Interview...Episode #1

Okay, here's something new for us. Travel with Kevin and Ruth is introducing a weekly Blogger Interview series, and the first edition is today!

We're going to try and bring you some interesting and entertaining people who are out there writing travel and RV'ing blogs and perhaps introduce you to someone new. Our first attempt celebrates a couple who are moving on to a new stage in life, and we're so happy for them!

A new feature for Travel with Kevin and Ruth!

Starting tomorrow morning, and for the rest of the summer, we're going to be doing a once a week write up called the Travel with Kevin and Ruth Blogger Interview series where we choose a fellow blog writer and traveler to profile here.

The fish was "this" big...!

We're not into fishing, but it seems we're the only ones at this campground who aren't. Most people who come here, come here to fish. The lake has a good supply of pike, perch and walleye, and also the odd Sturgeon. I guess the name, Sturgeon Lake, came from somewhere!

But one guy has a fish story to tell, and I have the pictures to prove it...

Well that was a busy day!

It started at around 8:10am. Knock, knock, knock.

Okay, so I go answer the door. It's a guy from the restaurant saying they have no water. I walk over to our sink and check our faucet. Nope, no water there either! That meant the whole campground had no water.

This is not a good start to the day.

Fantastic show of the Northern Lights!

Well we had a treat last night!

I walked out to do my final check of the campground at around 11:15pm and the sky was alive with color! I wish the pictures were better, but you can get an idea of what we saw. I'm gonna have to mess with some settings on the camera to try and get some better ones, hopefully they'll be out again tonight.

Bring on the campers!

Our hands and wrists are sore, but the raking and cleanup is finally over and the campsites are ready for the long weekend. We had a couple of early bird campers show up yesterday, and so last night we had four sites with people on them.

But by this evening, we expect it will be close to full!

Anyone want to buy a ZAP?

"What is a ZAP?", you might ask.

Well, a ZAP is a little 3 wheeled electric vehicle. And given that we have a lot of readers who are RV'ers, we thought one of you might be interested in a different kind of tow vehicle, or even something a little better than a typical golf cart that some of you might use at your RV resorts down south.

And we know where there's one for sale!

Your honey may not be honey!

A couple came through the park yesterday trying to pick out a site to reserve for their summer holiday in July. We got to talking, and it turns out this couple are honey producers. In fact, they are one of about 150 commercial size honey producers in Saskatchewan.

But we found out something disturbing. It's not right and we wanted to tell you about it.

$5 for drinking water?

Strangely enough, it seems that everybody up here buys purified drinking water. We haven't quite figured it out yet, but I would have thought that well water would have been good enough. Here at the campground, it's from a well, but they've got this chlorine drip system that it goes through and even though I'm sure it's safe, it simply doesn't taste very good!

Aren't you supposed to rake leaves in the fall?

I think so. And I think it would be easier to do them in the fall. The problem here is that the camping season ends September 30th, and possibly earlier depending on the weather. Most of the leaves are still on the trees when they close things up.

Call the fire brigade!

Found out yesterday that being campground manager also means I'm on the fire brigade! Not officially of course, but a call came through the office that there was an "uncontrolled fire" burning about 3 kms (1.7 miles) from the campground.

Our first campers have arrived!

And in the last 24 hours, the ice on the lake has disappeared. It's amazing because it pretty much disappeared overnight. Thursday night it was there, and Friday morning there were only a few big sheets floating around. Later yesterday, it had gone!

How many ways can the sun set?

I was looking at some of our photos last night and realized how many different sunset photos we have! Some of them are really colorful. Interestingly some of the best photos are not taken looking towards the sunset, but just using what little light is still shining in the opposite direction!

Why Saskatchewan?

Thought we might tell you a little about the province of Saskatchewan. Many of our readers outside of Canada (and probably some inside Canada!) may not know very much about this province or why we chose to come here. We think it's actually fairly interesting, so read on...

Week one, complete.

Our first week of work was a resounding success, even if I do say so myself! There are still no campers booked to arrive until Thursday the 16th, and that's the latest that we want to have everything ready anyhow in time for the onslaught of May long weekend campers who will arrive on the 17th. We'll have no problem accomplishing that goal.

Three hours? For grocery shopping??

If you really want to know how to plan your time and be efficient, just come grocery shopping with us!!

We had to go in to Prince Albert to pick up our camera. Oh! First, let me explain why we had to go to Prince Albert when the address on the shipping label was marked Shellbrook. This is a good one...

Every job has it's perks!

It looks like we're going to go straight from winter to summer, and we're okay with that! We had a great weekend in the weather department, and they're calling for a high of 26C (79F) today with sunny skies.

There was quite a bit of snow on the ground when we arrived here, and it's almost all gone. In fact, it could be totally gone by the end of the day today. There's still ice on the lake though. I can't wait for our camera to arrive so I can show you some pictures!

Twenty One!

That's how many large bags of leaves Ruth raked up yesterday! We brought a whole pickup truck load of them up to the dump on the other side of the main road. She says her hands are a bit sore, but that's about it. She uses this new high tech looking ergonomically correct rake. What did we do in the old days?!

The news is out!

In full support of our right to bare arms, we were working in short sleeved shirts yesterday! Yes, it was a beautiful afternoon with a nice springtime high of 18C (65F). Ruth says she loves having her office outdoors!

I wish we could show you photos.

A little stiff and sore today

But that's okay, the muscles are getting used to working. I'm enjoying the feeling of getting some physical exercise for a change. And I eat a lot more, and sleep like a rock!

First day of work!

Wow, that's something we haven't said for a while!

But you know what? It was a totally enjoyable day. Essentially, we make our own schedule and decide what the priorities are. Sometimes we work together, and sometimes we have different things to do. Here's what we accomplished yesterday...

No more pictures!

For the time being, anyhow. Yesterday morning, we drove the 35 kms (22 miles) down to the town of Shellbrook (pop 1,433) and shipped our camera back to Olympus. They agreed to send us a new one as soon as I supplied them with a tracking number, so hopefully our new camera will arrive Friday. I'm not counting on it, but I'm hopeful. I don't like being without a camera!

April Expenses

Well, it was an expensive one, so we're going to get April out of the way quickly so that we can concentrate on May!

We knew April would be higher than normal. Travel months always are. But we didn't really expect it to add up to this much.

A better look at our "cabin"...

Okay, I think we've got the interior of our cabin in good enough shape that we can show it to you! Spent much of the day yesterday cleaning windows, vacuuming and washing the floor, and Ruth gave the bathroom a spotless once over.

When the snow melts, it causes erosion!

We had a great weekend, and a lot of snow has disappeared compared to when we arrived here on Friday.

The only problem is that they had a lot of snow here, and when it all melts at once it causes problems!

We have water...sort of.

The water lines here at the campground are still frozen. Despite the fact that we had a gorgeous sunny day yesterday with a high of 18C (65F). But even with weather like that, we're expecting it will be at least another week before the lines are thawed out.

But, we need to be able to flush the toilet!

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!

Well, today is finally the day!

Only 183 kms (114 miles) to go and we will be at our home for the next five months. So we're heading out of here around 9:00am and we'll be at Sturgeon Lake Regional Park before noon. Our long drive will be over!

We're pretty excited!

We're not in Mexico anymore!

And we proved it yesterday when we bought a package of 50 corn tortilla for $6.95!! We actually had gone to a Mexican grocery store here in Saskatoon and they even have fresh corn tortillas. But those are 6 for $2.95! You can't afford to eat like a Mexican while in Canada.

Attention Walmart Shoppers!

We headed over to the nearby Walmart Superstore to do some grocery shopping. We were prepared to be shocked by the prices up here in Canada, but it wasn't as bad as we expected.

A meeting with the boss!

The original plan was that we would be going up to the campground where we're working for the summer on Wednesday. So yesterday morning I phoned the guy who is on the board of directors that we've been dealing with. Turns out he was on his way in to Saskatoon for the day on other business, and he suggested we meet for lunch.