More pics of our Great Horned Owl Family

I spent the morning getting the office back into shape and the computer system online. We start taking reservations on Tuesday May 5th, and it's nice to know that everything is ready for that day. Meanwhile, Ruth began with the cleanup of our front yard. The grass needed cutting already, and the leaf blower doesn't work as well in the longer grass. But, it had to be done.

Oh...and our Great Horned Owl does have twins!

April Expenses

April was a travel month, so we expect our expenses to be higher during a travel month. And sure enough, they were higher.

But when you consider that we started the month in Ottawa, then went to Nova Scotia, then Las Vegas, then drove 1,500 miles (2,400 kms) and saw a whole pile of things along the way, the amount we spent for the month was pretty darn reasonable!

If yesterday was any indication, then this is going to be a great summer!

We spent most of the day cleaning the cobwebs out of our house trailer as it's been shut down and unoccupied for the winter. We also got the water turned back on for our trailer and the office canteen building, and that went very smoothly. Everything happened exactly as it was supposed to, with the exception of a minor leak in one of the toilet tanks.

Oh, and our great horned owl is back, and we think she's got two little ones this year!

Terrible road, and Sherman has an injury...

We crossed the border yesterday and have arrived at our summer job at Cabri Regional Park. We even brought some beautiful weather up here with us because it's the warmest we've been since we left Las Vegas two weeks ago!

But, the trip was not the smoothest...

Overnight camping for $3.00

We're almost "home". Home for us, is Cabri Regional Park in Saskatchewan where we are the park managers for the summer season. We're only 45 miles (70 kms) from the Canadian border as I write this, and we'll cross the border this morning.

Then, a few hours more and we'll arrive at the park. We don't actually start work until Friday, so this gives us a little time to get things organized and clean up Sherman.

Just a little more Yellowstone, and then hit the road.

We decided to go back into the park yesterday morning to see the upper and lower terraces of the Mammoth Hot Springs area. It was only a few miles, so not much of a detour. Plus, we didn't have to do much of a drive towards Saskatchewan if we didn't really want to.

So we spent a couple more hours at Yellowstone National Park.

Old Faithful and Grizzly Bears!

This is our second post of the day, so before you carry on with this post, you may want to check out the first part of our one day visit to Yellowstone National park...

http://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2015/04/one-day-in-yellowstone-national-park.html

Okay. Now that you've read that, lets continue with the rest of our day.

One day in Yellowstone National Park...

We had a busy day yesterday, and took a lot of photos. So we're going to break this into two posts. That means you'll get to see more of Yellowstone later today!

There's so much to see in Yellowstone, and only part of the park is open at this time of year. Really, things don't get into full swing here until mid May. But we're only passing through and wouldn't have had enough time to see anything more anyhow.

Further north brings...more snow!

The road from Jackson, Wyoming north into Yellowstone National Park is still closed for the season, so we had to do a little detour west into Idaho and then north. Really changeable weather and scenery, even during that fairly short drive.

Some areas had fresh snow, while others were green as could be with new leaves coming out on the trees.

Usually, we win. But sometimes...

We've had three beautiful boondocking sites in a row, and so I guess we were due for a bad one.

It wasn't so much that it was bad, it was just so difficult to find a suitable overnight spot near Jackson, Wyoming...and then when we did get all settled, we almost got kicked out!

Lots of boondocking opportunities

Yesterday, we did 139 miles (222 kms) and saw lots of opportunity for free camping. Again, it's too bad that we can't take advantage of these spots, but we know now that we'll have to make it back to this area again.

1,000 miles from home

Yesterday, we did another 151 miles (242 kms) and when I sat down to calculate the remaining distance to our home at Cabri, Saskatchewan the GPS told me that it was exactly 1,000 miles (1,600 kms).

Speaking of miles, Sherman's odometer clicked over to 80,000 miles (128,000 kms) yesterday. And, he'll be 20 years old this year! He's still lookin' pretty good, isn't he?

Camping at 8,000 feet!

(This is the second blog post today because we're getting caught up from not having any internet access. You can see the earlier post here if you missed it.)

We left Kodachrome Basin State Park yesterday (Tuesday) at around 9:00am, but without any idea as to where to stop for the night. We're trying to do minimum 120 miles (200 kms) per day, but there's so much to see along the way.

A great day in Kodachrome Basin State Park

(Written Tuesday April 21st)

We thought we were meeting for a 9:00am group hike yesterday morning, and we were there on time. But I guess some people thought it was 10:00am, and so it was after 9:30am by the time everyone was ready. That's the problem with doing group activities! Anyway, we finally got out on the trails.

There are a lot of hiking trails here at Kodachrome Basin State Park, and not very many people.

Arrived at Kodachrome Basin State Park

(Written Monday April 20, 8:00am).

We left Zion National Park on Sunday at just before 8:00am, heading for Kodachrome Basin State Park. We had to go through a 1.1 mile (1.8 km) long tunnel, and because we are wider than 7'6", we had to buy a tunnel pass for $15 USD (19 CAD) and they close the tunnel to opposing traffic so that we drive right through the middle. The tunnel only opens at 8:00am.

There was surprisingly little traffic.

Fantastic 8 mile (13 km) hike in Zion National Park

Up at 6:00am yesterday (Saturday) morning. This was a special free entrance weekend at National Parks in the United States, so we expected things to be a lot busier than normal. The first shuttle bus leaves the visitor's center at 7:00am, so we wanted to be as close to that as possible.

We ended up on the 7:30am shuttle, and we were at the trailhead for 8:00am.

More fantastic scenery in Utah's Zion National Park

We've got a nice campsite, and we don't have to be in Kodachrome State Park until tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon, so we've decided to stay here a third night. Not really much to tell other than we've been enjoying perfect weather and fantastic scenery.

So, let's let the photos tell most of the story...

Campground Full? Not quite...

Lots of fantastic scenery yesterday. Too many pictures to sort through, but you are lucky...you get to see only the best of the bunch!

The plan almost didn't come together though. Let me explain...

My Amazon system works!

Last month, I wrote about a way to "trick" Amazon.com into sending your packages by USPS (U.S. Postal Service) rather than by a courier such as Fedex or UPS. You can read that post here...

http://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2015/03/how-to-collect-your-amazon-packages.html

Yesterday, we drove to Mesquite, Nevada where I had purposely had a package sent to the post office there.

Happy to report that the system works perfectly!

Back with our motorhome!

It was a bit of a long travel day, but it's over with now and we're totally happy to be back with our motorhome here in Las Vegas. Again, we're only in Las Vegas for the convenience of using the airport...so we're leaving today.

We'll be heading northeast up to Mesquite, Nevada where we've got some packages waiting for us at the post office, and then into Utah. Looking forward to seeing some of Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks, and we'll also be staying at Kodachrome Basin State Park for a couple of nights.

Up at 4:00am...

But it's not bad getting up at that hour when you know you're going on a trip! Still, that's a little early. But, the hour long drive to Halifax airport went by quickly, and then we didn't have long to wait for our flight  to Philadelphia.

We're doing the milk run today...Halifax - Philadelphia, Philadelphia - Dallas, and Dallas - Las Vegas.

Three flights, plus a four hour time change makes for a bit of a long day. But, before we know it, we'll be back in the motorhome this evening and we'll be out exploring again on Wednesday!

Life is a funny proposition

Finally, a beautiful spring day up here in Nova Scotia and we took advantage of it by spending some outdoors time at the Ross Farm Museum.

We actually had overnighted with the motorhome at the Ross Farm Museum back in May of 2011. Things were a little greener back then!

A week is just about right...

It's fun being a grandparent, but a week alone with the grandkids is just about enough. I think that we forget the amount of work involved with looking after little ones. Man, it takes an extra half hour or so just to get out the door to take them somewhere.

Thankfully, our daughter and her husband return from Cuba this evening, and they can take over once again!

Dreaming of Fiji

It's another dreary day here in Nova Scotia, so when we were give the opportunity to write about a far away tropical destination we figured it would be a great diversion! So we did some research into visiting the South Pacific island nation of Fiji, and after looking at all of the options, Fiji is definitely on our list of places to spend a month or so!

Today's header picture alone is enough to brighten up my day.

Join us for the 2015 RV and Travel Summit

The 2015 RV and Travel Summit is a free online event that takes place from May 5th to 11th. It's purpose is to promote travel and exploration and to teach you how you can do both no matter what your budget or experience.

And we're excited about our involvement in this project, so we wanted to be one of the first to tell you about it!

On the lookout for airfares

We're not in Nova Scotia to do any touring this time around, so I dug through the photo archives to come up with a nice sunny header picture from when we were in Nova Scotia with the motorhome. There are some really beautiful places in this province...you just have to get here at the right time of year!

Our daughter and her family are moving to Ottawa in June, so it'll likely be a long, long time before we're ever back here again.

Been many years since I built a snowman...

It was snowing pretty hard when we got up yesterday morning, so we didn't take the kids to daycare. But by after lunch, it had cleared up...and it had even warmed up. In fact, it turned out to be a nice afternoon.

And, it was warm enough to build a snowman!

Next time you're at the grocery store...

We dropped off the kids at daycare yesterday morning, and then had a few hours to ourselves. It's actually not called "daycare", they call this one a preschool. Not quite sure what the difference is, but it's probably something like the same way that some campgrounds call themselves a "resort". Likely, it's just a way to justify charging more money.

Why do they make things so complicated? Seems like it was a lot simpler when we brought up our kids.

They're gone!

And they've left us in charge of their kids!

Yep, our daughter Lindsey and her husband Justin have taken off on a well deserved week away from the snow and cold. They've gone to sunny Cuba, for a week of the beach. The only thing ice cold that they'll experience is the temperature of their beer and drinks.

That's okay, it's a pretty safe bet that the snow and cold will still be here waiting for them when they return.

Happy Easter!

Well, Easter is a lot more fun with little kids about hunting for their Easter eggs!

And sure enough, the Easter bunny came at some point overnight.

They never had toys like this when I was a kid!

First of all, thanks for all the tips yesterday regarding our new-to-us iPhone. As it is, I have already downloaded a hiking mapping app for $1.19 called Motion-X GPS that appears to be all we need so that we don't need to spend the $20 for the other one I was looking at.

I'll try it out this afternoon if I feel up to it.

We have an iPhone!

Not very exciting news to those of you who have been using "smart phones" for years, but it's big news for us! Our son Alex got himself a new iPhone 5, so we inherited his old iPhone 4S. Thanks Alex!

When we were in South Korea last October, our friend June lent us her old iPhone to use for the month. This gave us some experience that we could use to decide whether or not we wanted (or needed) to carry around a device like this.

Arrived in snowy Nova Scotia

Fairly uneventful flight with Air Canada. Our last choice preference of the three Canadian airlines. Given identical pricing, we prefer to fly either Westjet or Porter (free beer!) but this was an Air Miles redemption flight and the actual flight times were perfect.

Got to Ottawa airport around 11:30am for our 2:15pm flight. Lots of time, and it's a good thing because we've never seen such a long lineup going through security.

March Expenses and other news...

Not a bad month of March in the money department. We spent $1,874 CAD ($1,455 USD) which is about what we expected. This amount includes our flights from Las Vegas to Ottawa, and today's flight from Ottawa to Halifax.

Yes, today we get to see our grandkids. Yay!

The 6 best things about Canada

I have been accused in the past of being a little bit "anti" Canadian. And while it's true that I am outspokenly critical of things that I think Canada could do better, being back in our home country for a couple of weeks has reminded me that there are some distinctly Canadian things that make me think "hey...that's pretty good"!

So, in no particular order, here's my own personal list of what I believe to be the 6 best things about Canada...

Global warmists - please do not reply

Because as we sit here in the snow and cold, your rambling sounds like complete nonsense.

We've been in Ottawa less than two weeks, and I am reminded every day why our number one goal in life is never to spend another winter in Canada.

The last time the temperature here in Ottawa was above 10C (50F) was November 24. So glad we haven't been here that long!

Upcoming flights

We were on 16 different flights in 2014. And in 17 different airports! I keep track of all of our flights on a website called Flight Diary.

It's free, and it gives you all sorts of fun statistics. Like the fact that we sat in airplanes for a total of 64 hours during the year!

Off to the sugar bush

There isn't much more that is Canadian than hockey and maple syrup. We're not big hockey fans, but we sure are big maple syrup fans!

However, going to the maple sugar bush now is not the same experience that I remember as a kid. Back then, you went for a walk in the bush and had fun checking for and tasting the sweet sap in the buckets that were hanging from the trees.

Gotta get outside!

Been spending far too much time sitting and staring at the computer. At least we're getting caught up on a few things, and it's nice to have a consistent supply of internet, instead of being limited by our expensive cellular internet when we're on the road with the motorhome.

So when Ruth's dad said that he needed to go in to the nearby town of Carleton Place for an appointment, we didn't hesitate to go along for the ride.

How to collect your Amazon packages while on the road

A lot of people buy through Amazon.com, but when you're living and traveling in your RV it's not always that easy to order and be able to list a delivery address.

Sure, a lot of campgrounds will allow you to have packages delivered...but what do you do when you don't stay at very many campgrounds?

A day at the beach? Not quite...

In fact, pretty much the opposite. Late March in the Ottawa area can be a mixed bag, so we knew we might experience pretty much anything during our two week visit. However while we were hoping for at least March or possibly even April type of weather, instead we are getting what is typically January weather.

But, we have to bear with it, so we still went out for a 5 km (3 mile) walk.

Tilley - 6 month clothing update

It was about six months ago that we received our order of Tilley clothing in the mail. We were about to embark on a one month trip to South Korea, and we like to travel light. We only take a wheeled carry on bag, and just about everything that was in our bag came from Tilley.

Hats, socks, underwear, shirts, jackets, and pants!

Family and friends

Two weeks seems to go by pretty quickly, so we're trying to make the most of it by spending as much time as possible with family and friends. After all, we didn't come here to enjoy the cold and snow, although I have to say that it's not bothering me as much as I thought it would.

It's almost a refreshing change, especially knowing that we don't have to put up with six months of it!

The Great White North

Welcome to Canada, the great white north! That title is sure living up to it's name for our visit. Snowing this morning, on the first full day of spring! Daytime temperature not bad, hovering around the freezing mark. But, still unseasonably cold at night. Supposed to go down to -17C (2F) tonight. Brrr!

Took a blog break yesterday, so here's what we've been up to...

Surprise!

We said that we were in Las Vegas for one reason, and one reason only. What was that reason?

To use the Las Vegas airport!

Ruth's great quiche recipe!

The other day when we went for a hike in Sedona, Ruth had made a quiche the the night before. And she used corn tortillas instead of a pastry pie crust...and it was delicious! Many of you were asking about the recipe she uses.

So here it is...!

A look back at Arizona

We made it to Las Vegas. And so of course now we are in the state of Nevada.

We spent almost two months touring Arizona. I think that's the longest amount of time that we've ever been in one state...and we still haven't seen it all! Our original plan was to take in parts of Southern California too, but there was too much to see in Arizona.

Oh, of course we did spend some time at Imperial Dam and Pilot Knob which are both technically in California, but right on the border.

Our new RV washing machine!

Just puttered around most of the day yesterday.

I had bought a gallon of distilled water at Walmart the other day and topped up the batteries. I check them once a month, and they were due for some water and a clean up.

Almost felt like Christmas!

Yesterday, we drove about 129 miles (206 kms) to just north of Kingman, Arizona. We've dropped back down into the desert now, and temps are warmer. It's just me, but I really do like the forest and the trees better than the desert. Even if it comes with slightly cooler temperatures.

Before we left, I had taken apart that switch that was affecting our transmission torque converter. I cleaned the contacts, and that seems to have done the trick. So our gas mileage is back to where it should be and Sherman's transmission is acting the way it was designed.

Arizona is full of fantastic boondocking spots

We left Flagstaff yesterday morning around 10:00am. Stopped to get some gas, but only a little because it's cheaper in Kingman and we're headed there today.

Can't believe the wide variance in gas prices in Flagstaff. From $2.30 to $2.70! I don't understand why anybody would pay $2.70, when it's $2.30 across the street.