Where the deer and the antelope play

There are lots of deer and antelope playing here!

Technically, they're not antelope. The "antelope" here are actually pronghorns or even pronghorn antelopes. But locally everyone calls them antelope, so that's what we're going to do as well.

"I'd like to make a campsite reservation please..."

Yeah, you, and everyone else!

Yesterday was the day we began taking reservations. We figured it would be busy, and we were right. The phone started ringing at 7:45am, and there was even one guy who arrived here at that time to make his booking in person!

Health update

Last October, I wrote a blog post about our health and our health care. You can read it here...

http://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2013/10/our-health-and-health-care.html

I had said I would update you a month after that, but we were pretty busy telling you about our Southern Africa trip! So here's the update now...

Getting the campground ready!

Leaves, and computers. That's pretty much how our day went yesterday. While I played computer technician for the day, Ruth did some leaves.

And yes, I did get into the computer system. I did a system restore to a date near the beginning of last season, and doing that reset the access password to whatever it was at that time. And I had found a piece of paper with a few passwords on it, and one of them worked!

Computer problems

Fortunately, it's not our computer! But it's still our problem.

We got our little office cleaned and organized yesterday and plugged in the office computer system. Fired everything up, and of course during the boot process the first screen shows the login, and asks you for the Windows access password.

The big question of the day? What's the password??!!

First day of work, and more pics of our park

Off to a good start yesterday! We met our summer student employee, and that's going to go very well. He was here last year too, so he's pretty familiar with things. Probably a few changes coming up just to do things our way, but it's going to work out fine.

I spent the day checking out the equipment and cleaning up the shop.

April Expenses

Well, April was the last of the expensive months. And again, when you consider that we traveled some of Mexico in the motorhome, spent time in Puerto Vallarta, and flew from there to Houston, Chicago, and Ottawa before driving half way across Canada... we did pretty well!

Whew. When we look back at what we did for the month of April, it was a pretty busy month!

Our home for the next five months

For those of you who don't know, we are working for the next five months as campground managers at Cabri Regional Park in Saskatchewan.

We arrived at the park yesterday!

Today's the day!

We're really excited to be arriving today at Cabri Regional Park where we're going to be spending the next five months.

We arrive in the town of Cabri at noon today where we'll be welcomed by the Chairman of the Board of the park and he's taking us out for lunch before we go to the park. The park itself is located about 20 kms (12 miles) from the town.

Four months of nice weather.

That's all you get up here in the great white north of Canada. June, July, August, and September. Sure, you might get a couple of nice days in May and October, but really there's only four months that you can sort of count on.

Arriving here in April is most certainly too early!

Four states in one day!

Yep, we left Ironwood, Michigan yesterday morning and we drove through Wisconsin and Minnesota and ended up in Grand Forks, North Dakota!

Sounds like a lot, but it was only 370 miles (600 kms). Actually, that is a lot for us! Today will be even more!

Across the top of Michigan

It was almost 10:00am when we headed out from our couchsurfing hosts in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Thanks for having us Sue and Jeff! You're welcome to come stay with us in Saskatchewan at any time!

But on the downside...we woke up to a dusting of snow!!!

$56 a night. For a campsite?

Yesterday, we drove from North Bay, Ontario to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. A fairly long day, but the drive went fine. We stopped at a couple of waterfalls along the way to take some pictures and stretch our legs.

And we were disappointed to learn that we will never be able to camp in Ontario Provincial Parks!

A good first day drive

But it didn't start off perfectly. I was driving Lindsey and the kids to the airport. We left at about 7:30am and her flight was at 9:45am. It takes about an hour to get to the airport, but after 10 minutes, Lindsey says "I forgot my phone!".

So, we turned around and went back to get it.

Road Trip!

Well, we're off.

Up early this morning and I'm taking Lindsey and the kids to the Ottawa airport for their flight back to Nova Scotia. They'll be happy to see hubby and Dad Justin again after a week away!

Getting stuff done

Yesterday, Ruth and Lindsey took the kids into Ottawa, picked up my mother, and went to the Children's Museum at the Canadian Museum of History.

This is the fancy museum on the Quebec side of the river. The one that used to be called The Museum of Man. But that wasn't politically correct, so quite a few years ago it became the Museum of Civilization. Then last year, they spend $25 million dollars re-branding themselves as the Canadian Museum of History.

Yep, $25 million dollars.

We're back on track!

How quickly things turn for the better.

One moment I'm searching for used cars, and a couple of hours later I'm driving the little blue car out of the storage building. It seems we're back on track!

In limbo...

Well, I heard from the car storage guy yesterday afternoon.

Seems we're kind of stuck for the next couple of days. Let me explain the whole story...

Still no little blue car!

Hmm. Nobodies fault but my own. Apparently I should have called in advance, but I figured a lot of other people would have made arrangements to get their cars out of storage this weekend so it would have been easy to simply add me to the list. But what's happened instead is that I'm getting answering machines at three different numbers. They're obviously out of town.

Oh well, all I can do is keep trying.

Seventeen flights in two years

I found a neat website the other day. It keeps track of how many times you've been on an airplane, and gives you a map and various statistics.

I listed all of our flights in the last two years. 17 different flights and 20 different airports!

Getting things sorted.

Well, we've got six days to visit with everyone we want to, and get things sorted out for our drive west and the next five months in Saskatchewan. First thing I'm trying to get done is to get the car out of storage, but so far I'm not getting any answer from the people who need to let me in there!

And of course I have to get it insured, but that's all done online. Then, the license sticker is expired and I need to get the (rip off!) Ontario emissions test done in order to get the new sticker.

We made it, but it wasn't a smooth trip!

We left Rancho Altarose at about 11:40am, only ten minutes later than planned. Kenny, the full time RV resident there, had agreed to drive us and our bags the couple of minutes to town.

We got there just as the bus did! Great timing. However, it was the last time that day that our timing would be great...

Busy travel day ahead of us!

Well, today is the day we leave Mexico. We'll spend the morning getting Sherman all prepared to be left behind. Then a neighbor will drive us the short distance to the nearby town of Valle de Banderas where we'll hop on the local bus to get to Puerto Vallarta airport.

And then, we'll be in three other airports!

Back at the ranch

We puttered around yesterday morning, and just had some coffee and tea and enjoyed the great views of Puerto Vallarta from the apartment. It was probably about 11:00am by the time we went for breakfast.

We didn't need any lunch, that's for sure!

A great day in Puerto Vallarta!

Yesterday morning, we had an offer of a ride in to Puerto Vallarta, so we took advantage of that. We probably wouldn't have gone at all this time around just to visit the city, but we wanted to visit a friend who we haven't seen for a while.

So we left the RV Park just before 8:30am yesterday morning.

I guess I should have clarified...

Quite the response to our post yesterday.

Besides the few people who commented on the post itself, there were ten or so emails with questions related to the idea of RVing in Mexico. I probably should have put more clarification in that blog post, but I didn't think the idea would have attracted that much attention.

Want to RV in Mexico...?

Back in 2007 when we first entertained the idea of driving our motorhome into Mexico, we were definitely nervous. We spoke zero Spanish, and the whole idea just seemed so..well.. foreign!

But we had some help, and we traveled for a while the first two winters with another couple who showed us the ropes. We're thinking now that we might like to show some people "the ropes"!

What a great afternoon!

The day was going along lazily, as most days seem to do here at Altarose Rancho RV Park. But we had mentioned to owner Garry that if he wanted to go for a hike at some point that we'd be wanting to go with him.

But this wasn't just a hike!

What's the rush...?

I read the other day that an RV'er drove from Puerto Vallarta to Vancouver in four days. That's about 4,400 kms (2,700 miles). How can that possibly be enjoyable? And why would you do it? I can't think of a good reason, but that's just us. I guess for some people it's all about the destination.

Having said that, in a couple of weeks we'll be doing our own marathon drive!

Hard to believe

We went for a hike yesterday in the Sierra de Vallejo mountains behind the RV park. We took the dogs with us. They love coming for a walk with us. And we like having them with us!

The area we went to is privately owned land, but it's protected under an umbrella of agencies. One of them is the "Alianza Jaguar" a group that exists for the protection of the jaguar in Mexico.

It's hard to believe that there are wild jaguars living in this tropical forest only 30 kms (18 miles) from Puerto Vallarta!

Market Day!

The weekly local market in the nearby town of Valle de Banderas takes place on a Monday, so that's where we headed yesterday to do our weekly fruit and veggie shopping. I brought our bigger backpack because it's about a 1.6 km (1 mile) walk each way.

That's a long way to have to carry a watermelon!

Visit to Bucerias

Just for something to do, we decided to take the local bus in to the town of Bucerias. We had never been there before, even though it's only about 14 kms (8.5 miles) away.

We figured there would be a bus from the local town here, and there is. But instead of going the direct and easy route there, it goes through all of the local communities and then you have to change to another bus on the main highway.

A walk around the block

It gets pretty warm here, so if you want to go for a walk or do anything at all strenuous, you're better off doing it as early in the morning as possible.

So yesterday morning, after coffee and breakfast, we set off on a walk around the block!

March Expenses

Once again, we had a month where our expenses were over $2,000. This has been a costly winter for us, despite having won the trip to Namibia! But, we considered that we may not have the chance to do that trip again so we didn’t scrimp on the expenses, within reason.

And as for March, if we remember that we started the month in Cape Town, South Africa, spent time in New York City and Cancun, Mexico, and ended up in our motorhome…we actually did really well in the expense department!

Total expenses for March 2014 came to $2,113.87.

Snake!

We had a quiet Friday, lounging around the motorhome. It wasn't without a little bit of excitement to break things up though!

I got up on Sherman's roof to give the solar panels a quick cleaning. On my way back down, I noticed a tear in the rubber roof!

We LOVE being back in the motorhome!

Just getting caught up from our two days without internet. So this is the second post today. If you missed it, here's the other one...  http://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2014/04/relaxing-by-lake.html 

We were up yesterday morning at a decent hour, but we had to wait for the restaurant people to come so that we could pay them for the great parking spot. Sure enough, they showed up around 9:00am as they had the day before, and we were soon on our way.

Relaxing by the Lake

(Written April 3, 8:00am)

We didn’t relax for the whole day though. We had to get out and get some exercise, so around 10:00am we headed out for a hike.

Not sure where we were heading or  where we would end up, but we had seen a dirt road on the other side of the lake and figured we would head over that way.

Tough drive, but worth it!

(Written April 2, 8:00am)

We didn’t really want to leave Delia’s Trailer Park in Etzatlan. But Sherman wanted to test out his new engine battery, so eventually we got things packed up and said goodbye to Bonnie.

Of course Sherman fired right up, and it was just after 10:00am when we pulled out.

Birthday, Battery, and Moving on...

First on the agenda...Happy Birthday to our grandson Cameron!

Yes, Cameron is an April Fool's birthday boy. Many of our regular readers will remember when we made the long cold drive up to Nova Scotia in order to be there for the big event exactly 3 years ago today.

El Amparo mine and ghost town

Our host here at Delia's Trailer Park is Bonnie. We're the only ones here just now, so she offered to take us in her Jeep up into the mountains south of Etzatlan to an old mining town. The El Amparo mine was one of the most successful silver mines in the state of Jalisco. The mine was originally started up in 1904, but had it's heyday between in the 1920's.

It's difficult to find all the information online, but it seems that the still productive mine was shut down around 1940 because of a combination of poor management and the unreasonable demands of the unionized miners.

All that remains are the ruins.

Exploring Etzatlan and a rare night out at a show!

We've been pretty much relaxing during our week here. We enjoyed our winter in Southern Africa, but we found that we didn't allow much time for simply doing nothing! So we're trying to make up for that here.

But we did feel the need to go for a hike.

No pictures to prove it!

I got ambitious yesterday and cleaned Sherman's roof. I was up there for a couple of hours, and Ruth never got a picture to prove it.

All RV'ers know that an RV rubber roof should be cleaned every three months. But I've stood on Sherman's roof in an RV park and it's pretty easy to tell that most rubber roofs hardly ever get cleaned.

Shopping for Sherman's new battery

Yesterday, we wandered in to the town of Etzatlan. Had to pick up a few things, as well as do some shopping for Sherman's new engine battery.

Last time we were here, two and a half years ago, you had to walk into town alongside the highway. Now, they have a foot and bicycle path!

Blue sky and sunshine

And warm temperatures too. It's been fantastic weather here in Jalisco farm country. They could probably use some rain, but that wouldn't be normal for this part of Mexico at this time of year. Highs of 30C (86F) and lows of 13C (56F).

Perfect.

A few glitches along the way!

Yesterday was a travel day for us. In fact, it was our first travel day with our motorhome Sherman in over two years! And we were pretty excited.

I was a little concerned about Sherman's engine battery though. I had a feeling it needs to be replaced.

"Something doesn't smell right!"

We wasted the morning away yesterday. Had a couple of coffees and teas, then Ruth made bacon and eggs for a bit of a late breakfast. Spent some time on the internet, and read our books a little bit.

We had been planning on going into the nearby town of Mazamitla, but that would entail taking a bus that goes by infrequently, or a taxi.

Manhattan Vacation Rental

We recently spent three nights in Manhattan's Lower East Side district of New York City. It's a great area to stay in if you're looking for everything that New York City has to offer. Walking distance to some of the most vibrant parts of the city.

Chinatown. Little Italy. And of course the world famous Brooklyn Bridge.

Down time

Although we enjoyed our four months in southern Africa, we never felt like we got a lot of relax time in. We wanted to experience as much as possible because you never know when we'll get back there. Here in Mexico however, we don't feel the need to rush about.

So yesterday, we took advantage of that.

New RV Park in Jalisco, Mexico

Yesterday morning we were up bright and early. Sherman was going to stay at a new RV Park. Quite a change for him, as he's been parked at the same place since March 16, 2012! We had taken him for a drive a couple of times over the past two years, but he hasn't been to a new RV Park in that time. Hard to believe.

Yesterday, he got a change of scenery. Except it's only a kilometer (less than a mile) down the road!

A fiesta in town!

There was to be a parade in town yesterday morning, but it was supposed to start at 9:00am. We were a little late getting going, so we missed the parade but we still saw most of the participants in the central plaza of Valle de Juarez.

I should tell you a little more about this little town.