Lots of empties

Here in Saskatchewan, all drink containers (cans, plastic bottles, glass bottles, and tetra paks) except milk have a deposit of between 10 and 20 cents added on when you buy them. Then, you bring the empty container back to the return depot, and get your money back.

Many people who camp here leave their empty containers as a donation to the park. We try to bring as many empties as we can back to the depot every Wednesday in the little blue car, but of course the little blue car can only carry so much!

And after a busy weekend, we simply have too many empties!

Want your own blog?

The young son of one of our best friends back in Ottawa is about to set out on his own travel journey and he had asked us about how to set up a blog. I've had several people ask that over the last month or so, so I thought it would be worthwhile to share publicly.

There are many reasons to set up a blog. Most blogs, such as ours, start out for personal reasons. We simply wanted a way to keep our friends and relatives back home informed about where we are, and what we're doing.

Camping with Dogs

We had our first dog complaint this past weekend. And since we put our strict policy in place this season, I'm positive that there are less people actually bringing their dogs into the park compared to last year. Man, there were weekends last year when I thought there were more dogs than people in the park!

But the problems only start when the dog owners don't realize that not everyone loves their Fido as much as they do.

Another winner, and another contest!

We love giving stuff away here during our time at the park when we're not actually traveling. It's fun for us, and it's fun for you! Our current contest ended Saturday night, and we picked a winner. And our next contest is starting this week. Possibly even tomorrow, we'll see. This next one will definitely be of interest to our RV'ing readers, so stay tuned!

But for now, let's see who won a $200 leather jacket from MotorcycleHouse.com ...

I like when it's busy, however...

I consider the most important part of my job here at the park is to make sure that every camper is happy and enjoys their time here. That's the number one most important thing.

Yesterday evening, I spent from dinner time until 10:00pm trying to make people happy!

Another busy weekend here at the campground

We're definitely busier this year than we were last year. I guess word is getting out! The prettiest park in Saskatchewan. In our own unbiased opinion of course. :-)

Almost sold out this weekend. I think there are two or three empty sites.

Account Hacked!

But before we get to that, we have some good news too!

We occasionally have the opportunity to publish sponsored posts, where we get paid to advertise or publish outgoing links to another website. We try to keep them travel related and have often turned down opportunities that we don't think are suitable to this blog. Some of the opportunities that we turn down are in fact fairly lucrative.

Yesterday's post was what we call a "non promotional sponsored post".

Having fun outside of Vegas

We've been to Vegas twice. The first time was to experience all the glitz and glamour there is to be seen. And there is a lot of glitz and glamour to be seen!

Off to the doctor!

But before we get to that, thanks to everyone for reading yesterday's post. Not a very good response though. You know how many donations came through?

Zero.

But, I get it. Apparently things are a little tight these days. Still, I figured they might get a couple of hundred bucks. Or at least a few comments wishing the boys good luck. Oh well. You don't know unless you try and now we know not to try again. I have a plan though.

Looking for a top five finish!

Our son Alex has always been very physically active and has been involved in sports and competition of some kind since he was a little kid. Last year around this time, he entered a race of sorts with a buddy of his, Matt.

It's called CityChase, and it's really taking off here in Canada. It's now held in 5 major cities, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa, and Toronto.

You have to enter and run the race as a two person team. And there is a limit of 300 teams in each CityChase race. Alex and Matt entered as a team for the first time in last year's race...and they finished 7th, out of 300!

Bought a new GPS, and June Expenses

I've been waiting for few months and watching every day for a Garmin GPS to come on sale here in Canada that includes maps of Mexico. And today was the day! Details down below.

And I never published our June expenses, so they follow below as well. Our expenses are pretty consistent while we're here at the park, so unless we buy something extra (like a new GPS!) then there's not much to talk about. But we list them here mostly for our own records, but we know that some of you like to follow our expenses as well.

Checking in camping stories...

We were almost sold out this weekend. And so when it's this busy, there's always a couple of campground stories to tell. Thankfully, none of them are bad. Yes, I still got up at 1:30am and went for a walk around the park to make sure nobody was out there being too stupid. But fortunately, things were pretty quiet, so I don't have any drunk people stories to tell.

But I do have a feel good story...

Happy Independence Day from up here in Canada!

Today, Canada is most certainly the apartment above the house having a big party as our American friends down below celebrate their day of independence.

It was actually on July 2, 1776 that congress voted to approve a resolution declaring the United States independent from Great Britain.

On July 3rd, John Adams (later to become President) wrote this to his wife...

What's with the F word?

Is it only us? It seems to me that the use of obscenities, swearing, and expletives has become more commonplace. Almost to the point of where it has no shock value anymore.

Almost.

Sometimes, I'm still shocked. Not by the use of the word itself, but by how much people don't care if they use it.

Invited to Algeria

There are friendly people the world over. It's all in your own attitude as to whether or not you get to meet them.

We've been following a fellow travel blogger, Johnny Ward, a young man from Ireland. He's on a mission to visit every country in the world and is currently in South Sudan. Not exactly a country that many people have on their destination bucket list!

Happy Canada Day - East to West

Happy Canada Day!

Yes, today is a national holiday for those of us up here in the Great White North.

We've been all across Canada. Several times, actually. So we have lots of photos that were taken in Canada. (We've never been to the northern territories). It's tough to choose, but today we're going to show you ten of our favorite pictures of Canada...one from each of the ten Canadian provinces...

Thick with forest fire smoke!

A fairly quiet Monday yesterday as people went back to work for a day or two. Not sure what to expect for tomorrow though as it's the July 1st Canada Day holiday taking place right in the middle of the week. We do have quite a few reservations for people coming in between today and tomorrow, and the weather is supposed to be decent.

That's if  the sun can make it's way through the smoke!

Leather jacket giveaway, starting today!

We've partnered with Motorcycle House to give away a prize credit valued at up to $200. You can use this credit to buy anything on their website...even a men's or lady's leather jacket!

Motorcycle House has been online since 2007. They started out the same year that we did! They sell over 500 different styles of motorcycle jackets.

Three cheques and a gift card!

Our mail gets delivered in town, so we only pick it up once every couple of weeks. Yesterday, the girl who picks it up for us came out to the park, so she brought our mail with her. We don't normally get too much mail (remind me again why they still have mail?) but yesterday brought a windfall!

We opened things up, and ended up with three cheques and a gift card.

It's not fair to the rest of the park!

Got everybody checked in yesterday afternoon on the first of our busy summer weekends. It was a hot one. Once again, we saw the outdoor thermometer touch 34C (93F), and it's forecast to do that again today and tomorrow and Monday. Summer is here!

Glad we have air conditioning in the house when it's like this.

$10 free...from Amazon.com

I was just alerted to an oddball special that Amazon.com has going on right now.

Simply buy yourself a $50 gift card using your Amazon.com account, and Amazon will send you a $10 promo code valid until August 15th.

I just bought one for myself. Pretty hard to go wrong!

Leather Jacket Giveaway!

We're excited to bring you another contest giveaway. When we're sitting here in one place for a while, it's nice to be able to liven things up a little by giving away free stuff to our readers.

And this time, I think it's our biggest giveaway yet. We've partnered with Motorcycle House to give one of our readers a leather jacket valued up to $200!

I just about jumped out of my skin!

We have a few snakes slithering around here at the park, and especially now that things have warmed up a little bit they have come out of hiding and are enjoying the sunshine. They're just bull snakes, and they're not poisonous but they can grow up to eight feet in length.

And I don't mind snakes, but when they surprise you, it's still a bit of a shock!

You shouldn't be afraid to use the campground bathroom!

This weekend is the start of our six week busy season here at the park. We've been busy doing some improvements. Two of our newer bathrooms needed painting, so we did one last week when our son Alex was here to help, and Ruth and I have been doing the other one this week.

Our main bathroom has been under renovation for the past six weeks. How can it take that long? Because the construction guys that were hired don't put in more than about 4 hours per day, and that's when they show up to begin with!

We're hosting another giveaway!

It's been a long time since we have hosted a giveaway. Actually, we're hosting two more giveaways. It never rains, it pours! But I'm not telling you about the second one yet. I expect we'll get to that one later this week.

So first up, we're giving away two books.

Colombia's Lost City

Doing some research for our six weeks in Colombia this coming November, and I came across a hiking trip that we've decided we want to do. Only problem is...it's not cheap.

But I think it's one of those things that is worth it.

Happy Ruth!

She had been totally missing her Tilley hat and we hadn't heard back from them as to whether or not her old hat was repairable. So we were surprised when a package arrived yesterday. Apparently, the day they received her old hat, they inspected it right away and immediately sent out a new one.

Now that's good customer service!

The world's fastest RV

I happened upon an article the other day that described the world's fastest RV...they call it a motorhome, but that's a bit of a stretch. More like a campervan of sorts. But, it does have a toilet, sink, and stove and there is a sleeping area.

And, it's for sale...

The most interesting places we have ever camped

After seven years of RV'ing, we've overnighted in a lot of interesting places. The best and most interesting of them have not been in campgrounds. Isn't there a saying..? The best things in life area free?

Well not all of them have been free, but certainly a lot of them were.

Important Tips for Your USA Holiday!

When people travel to a destination like the USA, it’s rare that they worry about cultural differences, or even culture shock, as most of the world has been exposed to so much American culture through the media. However, despite all this exposure, there are plenty of quirks individual to the USA that you might not be aware of, so here’s a list of things to get you prepared for your holiday to the USA.

That went by fast...

We did our weekly run into town yesterday instead of today. Our son Alex has to leave tomorrow (that week went by quickly, didn't it??) and he's got a 3 hour drive back to Regina for his flight tomorrow so we figured it would give him today to relax before having to head back to Ottawa.

We're going to do some painting today. Two of our newer washrooms were built a few years ago, but they were never completely finished on the inside. So we've taken it upon ourselves to finish them. Plus, we have a helper (our son!) with us so it'll get done fairly quickly.

Saskatchewan's Regional Parks

In a comment on yesterday's post, reader Lori Gunter asked about our job here at the park and I think my post wasn't very clear regarding expenses and just how things are run. So I'll provide some clarification here.

We're all familiar with National Parks and Provincial parks...but Saskatchewan is unique in that we also have a Regional Park system.

Another weekend gone

Not a bad weekend here at the park. A little cooler than it should be...highs of only around 18C (65F), but there were still quite a few people around. A few more campers than last year, and I think we're ahead of where we were last year at this time with regards to revenue as well.

I do a tally of campsite, entrance pass, and firewood revenue twice per month and submit the receipts to our treasurer. So I get a good idea of how the park is doing. Today's the 15th, so I'll add things up this morning, but I have a feeling we're going to be higher than we were last year at this time.

Summer RV parking at schools?

Here's an interesting thing I came across. And if more school boards opened their minds to the idea, it might really take off.

Apparently, with schools being closed in the summer, that's the time of year when vandalism occurs. So the Anchorage School District started a camper host program so that there would be a presence at the schools, figuring that would discourage the vandals...

Can't win.

Yes, I know...we've been wanting rain. Haven't had any rain to speak of since May 2nd. Well, we  finally had a storm go through yesterday around dinner time. It gave us a solid half hour of fairly heavy rain so the ground got a much needed soaking.

But, along with the rain came very high winds!

Big time surprise!

A couple of months ago, we pulled off a nice surprise for Ruth's dad's 80th birthday. Our son Alex was instrumental in helping us with that at the time, and I guess he really enjoyed the final moment.

Because he just pulled off another big surprise. On us!

Cellular data use

Because of our lifestyle, we're almost always on cellular internet. And because cellular data is expensive, we've grown accustomed to being careful with our usage.

I mentioned a while ago that I thought our iPhone was using a lot of data. And, the internet in general has become more geared towards high data use. All you have to do is look at the amount of video and HD graphics that  are used on a lot of websites now and you'll understand. All of that data adds up quickly.

RV storage ideas

One of the problems most RVs have is a lack of storage. With a very small kitchen area, and not many cupboards, where do you put all your kitchen stuff? Especially for someone who likes to cook. Ruth uses our oven a lot as well, so we don't use the oven for storage...we use it for cooking!

And, you don't want stuff rattling around. So Ruth has come up with some great ideas to fix that problem too...

Canadian Tire...the final chapter!

I had put in a formal complaint with Canadian Tire's head office because I felt that I was overcharged on the little blue car's inspection and wheel alignment a month or so ago. Yesterday, I was able to register a partial victory, and put the whole episode behind us.

I received a phone message from the local store yesterday morning. Strange, because I wasn't expecting a call from the store...I was expecting a call from the head office.

Turning up the heat

Hottest day of the year so far. At 8:00am this morning, the temperature is already 26C (79F) and they're calling for a record high 34C (93F) today.

It's gonna be a hot one!

Clothing, footwear, and eyeglasses

The three things that are not always easy to buy online. We've done all three, and we've been reasonably successful at it. And, we're happy enough with our purchases that we feel it's worth it to continue, especially when you're dealing with companies who really want to make you happy with your purchase.

Our most recent experience was with Firmoo Optical.

Hey Mister...wanna buy some hot sauce?

Sometimes there are funny things that happen during our travels that we never get a chance to tell you about at the time. Maybe because other things happened that particular day that took up the entire blog post and so the blog post gets too long with all of the photos and narration.

I looked in our fridge the other day and saw an unmarked bottle of hot sauce. This reminded me of a funny story that I had to tell you.

It's all in the numbers

Before we carry on, I wanted to bring up a very relevant comment from yesterday's discussion that was made late in the evening so you may not have read it. And I bring it up because all of this discussion about travel "safety" is relative.

And this comment gets across exactly what I was trying to. Although those who think we are "innocent travelers who have the blinders on" will probably never get it...

Colombia - More negative than Mexico?

As you may know, we are going to spend 6 weeks touring Colombia this fall.

When we announced this, the first thing my mother says is along the lines of "Can't you pick a friendly country?"

Well, I think one of the reasons that we want to visit Colombia is to dispel myths like this that are still floating around.

Ruth's famous gluten free pizza recipe

We had pizza the other night, and Ruth thought she'd like to share the recipe. This is exactly the same pizza that she makes when we're traveling in the motorhome.  Usually, she'll make it with lots of chicken chunks and peppers. Yummy!

Oh, no!

Ruth did a load of laundry last night, and tossed in her Tilley hat. She's been wearing it quite a lot while she's been working up a sweat out there cleaning up leaves and doing her gardening. They recommend that you wash your hat regularly.

This morning, she went to unload the washing machine, and I heard a shriek.

One month down

...four to go. I notice that I posted the exact same phrase last year on this day!

Well, the first month went just "okay". We're ahead of the game because we didn't have the water leak problems to deal with that we did last year. But we're behind on the leaf cleanup because it's been so windy. Most areas are actually done, but there's still more to do whereas last year at this time we were finished.

May Expenses

Not a bad month, all things considered. More than we'd like, but we had to get the little blue car registered in Saskatchewan, and with the rip off government mandated vehicle inspection it's not cheap to do that. But, we had no choice.

We spent a total of $1,143. (Note: These are all Canadian prices. Subtract 20% to get the approximate American equivalent.)

Go west, young man...

This phrase was first used in 1851 concerning westward expansion. The fertile farmland of the west was considered an ideal place for people willing to work hard for the opportunity to succeed. The phrase came to symbolize the idea that agriculture could solve many of the nation's problems of poverty and unemployment that plagued the big cities of the East.

My grandfather was born in Nova Scotia. When his older brothers became of age, every summer they hopped on a train to Saskatchewan to work the harvest. Eventually, it was my grandfather's turn, and he headed to Saskatchewan as well.

What's it like to visit a Middle Eastern country?

I had a note yesterday from our traveling friends Heather and Volkan. We had met them in March of 2014 in New York City after communicating several times by email. We only met for a quick hour and a half lunch at the time, but I know we'll see them again some day.

Heather and Volkan don't have a blog, but they send out regular emails to their family and friends and they've given us permission to share their last email with you. I think it's really interesting. They're in Paris now, after having spent three weeks in United Arab Emirates. We love visiting different places, and middle eastern countries are certainly different. UAE is very  different, and Heather's email details their visit to this world of indoor ski hills and Lamborghinis. So, without further ado, here is Heather...