June Expenses

The summer months are supposed to be when we don't spend much money. But so far, it's not really working out that way! I swear, we spend less money when we're out touring in the motorhome than we do when we're sitting still.

But, it was a good month. We had fun with Lindsey and the grandkids at the beginning of the month, and we also did some shopping and paid out some expenses towards our motorhome exchange in Spain next January and February. Total was $1,428!

(Figures are all in Canadian dollars...for U.S. dollar equivalent you can subtract about 25%).

Fundraising here at the park

There is a big volunteer contingent here at the park, and some of the biggest are the people who sit on the board of directors. Many of them make a two or three (or more) year commitment to sit in on meetings, come up with ideas, voice their opinion, and have a turn at running the park along with six or eight other people.

As park managers, we are in the special position of being able to see most of what goes on behind the scenes, and these people who sit on the board don't get enough recognition for the hard work they do in benefit of the park.

Happy Canada Day!

July 1st is Canada's birthday, and this year the country celebrates 149 years as a nation.

On this day, there is no better place to be in Canada than the capital city of Ottawa. If you've never been to Ottawa, it's a beautiful city. Ruth and I both grew up in Ottawa, so we know the city well and we have spent many Canada Days downtown enjoying the festivities.

The big weekend is here!

It's a holiday weekend in both Canada and the United States. In Canada, the holiday is on the Friday and in the U.S. the holiday is on the Monday. So here, the campers will be pulling in later this afternoon.

This is the start of our six week busy season. We've still got some open sites though, so it won't be sold out for this weekend. We actually had a few cancellations called in yesterday which is too bad, but we kind of expected that with the water level being so low.

A lot of airfare deals!

Wow, there sure are a lot of great airfare deals out there. I check several times per day for our January 1st (or so) flight to Spain to come on sale, but nothing yet because our return flight is in April of next year. Still tons of time left for the right deal to come along though.

But as I watch for the right price point for that deal, I see all these other deals! Like Toronto to Warsaw, Poland for only $360 CAD return! Wow. Anytime you can fly across the pond for under $400 return, it's a fantastic deal.

Before and after

There are a lot of hedges here in the park, and most of them have never been looked after. At least not for many, many years. So over the past three years, we've been slowly cleaning them out and cutting off the dead stuff and trimming them back.

Ruth did a bunch of work on one messy looking section last week. It was a big job.

When you see a deal, you have to jump on it!

We've been wearing Merrell hiking boots for quite a few years now. And I wear mine every day, so we've learned that I can get a solid two years out of them before it's time for another pair.

And the last pair I bought was in August of 2014, so I figured I had better keep my eyes peeled for a sale online at some point over the next 3 months.

Thinking about new luggage

We've had our Heys rolling backpacks for four years now, and they've been on some fantastic trips with us. And they've served us well. But even though we think they're still ready for another trip or two, we find ourselves looking for something new and different.

The new bags are pretty high tech and of course some of the materials used to make them are much lighter than before. Our current bags weigh 7 lbs empty, and have 45 litres of carrying capacity.

A little busier here at the park

Things are getting a little busier here at the park. It's been a quiet start to the year given that our water level is abnormally low and isn't expected to get much better than it is. But, we still have lots of reservations for the next six weekends as summer gets into full swing.

And it's been a much wetter start to the year as well. It seems that every four or five days we get a decent rainstorm. I'm pretty sure the local farmers are really happy about the farming weather so far this year!

Pretty sure there was a pot of gold...

We went in to town on Wednesday and did all of our running around for new passports. I had done a little bit of research as to the price of passport photos, but I could only find one listing where they actually said the price online, and that was $18.25.

We ended up going to the photo studio that was attached to Walmart, simply assuming that they would be the cheapest.

Wrong!

The little blue car is 10 years old today!

Ten years ago today I signed the deal to buy the little blue car. I had been working at a contract position for GMAC financing at the time, and they offered us a deal for a brand new car at $500 over dealer invoice and 0% financing over four years.

We decided to go for it, and I put in our order for a brand new 2006 Pontiac Wave.

A visit to Bali, Indonesia

Bali is the most popular island for tourists who visit Indonesia. The country of Indonesia itself is actually made up of over 13,000 islands and is the fourth most populated country in the world, with over 260 million people! Only China, India, and the United States have a higher population of people.

And why do people visit Bali?

Time for a new passport!

Our current passports expire August 5th of this year. The last time we got new ones you could only get them renewed for a 5 year period, but this time we're able to go for the relatively new 10 year option.

Of course they're also slightly more money, at $160 for the 10 year versus $120 for a 5 year one.

Six weeks of Xplornet

Well, we've used our new Xplornet satellite internet service for just over six weeks now and so we thought we should give an early review.

So far...it's not perfect, and it's not the same as having high speed internet in the city. But it's far, far better than the cellular internet that we had the last two years.

RV'ing in Spain

We aren't going to be making much in the way of plans for our two month motorhome trip to Spain next January and February. It's all going to be new to us, so we'll simply drive when we want to and stop when we want to.

Fortunately, we've had a really good website forwarded on to us that's going to help us quite a lot with finding our overnight spots.

I think we'll just avoid the U.S.

I thought about booking our flight back to Europe yesterday. A deal came up at a decent price ($584 CAD, or $460 USD) from Ottawa to Paris leaving after Christmas and returning in April.

But, it connected in Philadelphia. That causes a minor problem.

Because my current U.S. "Waiver of Inadmissability" expires in November.

Okay, now we're starting to get a little jealous...

Yes, we received another postcard from Sherman. He's in Canmore, Alberta just at the base of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, and about to enter Banff National Park. We love that part of the country, and it's been quite a few years since we last visited that area. I think it was the end of August 2006, so almost ten years.

So, we're starting to get just a little jealous!

What's the earliest thing in your life that you vividly remember?

I had to drive into town last night, and my mind wanders all over the place while I'm out for a drive.

I was thinking about our grandchildren visiting last week and what a good time we all had. Then I wondered if they would even remember the trip when they're older, and I started thinking about the earliest thing in my life that  I can remember.

It's funny what you can remember so clearly.

Postcards from Sherman!

Sherman sent us a couple of postcards from his adventure. He says he's having a great time, and enjoying nice weather. He hasn't driven very far. The people who are driving him are in no rush and are just taking their time.

He says that today, they will be going to beautiful Banff, Alberta!

Lagostina comes through again!

A couple of weeks ago, I told you  about a frying pan that we had bought that where the coating went bad within six months. I think it had a ten year guarantee, but the company wanted us to send it back to them on our dime for their "inspection". I got through to someone who would listen to my story, and they sent us a prepaid courier bill so we could send it in free. We've owned Lagostina cookwear since my parents gave us a complete set as a wedding present 32 years ago...and we still use that same set today!

What's the best way to get rid of mice?

With a cat!

And that's what we got yesterday. Obviously we can't keep a cat full time, so the agreement was made that we've got the cat until September when we'll try and give it away. And if we can't give it away, the lady who gave it to us will take it back.

So now mice...look out!

Evergreen RV...out of business?

I spent two summer seasons running the parts department at an RV dealership. One of the brands that dealership sold was Evergreen RV's. Based on my time there, I always thought that they seemed like a well made trailer with some innovative ideas. I even think that they were one of the first ones to get away from that standard "white with stripes" color scheme that had been so common on a lot of trailers prior to their arrival on the scene in 2008.

 I read in the news this weekend that Evergreen RV has closed it's doors.

Goodbye Sherman!

See you in two months! Behave yourself, and be a good boy!

That's what I was thinking to myself as Sherman drove away with our motorhome exchange friends Graham and Tana. We had just finished doing an in depth tour of Sherman and detailed all of his different operations wth them, and they were ready to take off on their two month exploration of western Canada.

Miss them already

Boy, it sure was fun having Lindsey and the grandkids here for two weeks. They can be a handful, but we miss them already. The house seems just a little too quiet.

Had an email back from Asus, the company who made Ruth's laptop. No idea what they've done to finx the problem, but they're shipping it back to her repaired. At least we hope it's repaired. I guess we'll see whan it shows up next Wednesday.

Stupid. Forgot to put money in the meter!

Took off yesterday morning at 10:30am for the three hour drive to Regina airport with Lindsey and the kids. Uneventful drive, and not the most scenic. The Trans Canada highway is probably the most boring part of Saskatchewan.

We stopped once for lunch at a picnic rest area, and made it to the airport at about 2:15pm with lots of time to spare for their 3:15pm flight.

Off to Regina airport!

The stars were obviously aligned when our daughter was booking her flights here. She picked the exact return date that the motorhome exchange people are coming to pick up Sherman.

So I'm driving to Regina airport this morning to drop off Lindsey and the kids, and then I've got about two hours to waste before Tana and Graham's flight arrives and then I'll bring them back to the park for Sherman.

Sad that we're not going with him!

We worked into the evening yesterday getting Sherman ready to go on his adventure. Our motorhome exchange people arrive Wednesday evening. They'll spent a couple of days here familiarizing themselves with Sherman, and then they'll be off for two months of touring the Rocky Mountains west of here.

We are definitely sad that it's not us going with him!  However, we get to look forward to two months exploring Spain next January and February.

Still using a paper map

I have to admit, I love our GPS system for driving anywhere. I like knowing all the details, like how far it is to our destination, and our average speed, and how far it is to the next turn. And, I really like having the free mapping program on our iPhone that we can use even when we're offline. I also like checking things out on google maps online, and using the streetview version for details.

But really...we also love traveling with a good old fashioned paper map!

5 Jobs For People Who Love To Travel

Most of us, probably once in our lives, dreamed of how it would be nice if you could have a job that also let you travel to different parts of the world. While some dream about it, others actually make such dreams come true and leave everything behind to pursue their dreams.

If you want to belong to the last group, and you have always dreamed of traveling the world and earning money for it, below we and travel enthusiasts from Travel Ticker are going to share a list of five best jobs you can try out as well. Who knows, maybe thanks to these jobs you will never in your life hate Mondays ever again!

Do you know your family history?

My father's family lineage came to Canada from Yorkshire, England as part of the Yorkshire migration to Nova Scotia that took place between 1772 and 1775. I was lucky, in that most of that family history has been passed from generation to generation including dates and occupations.

That history has been traced all the way back to Stephen Read who was born in 1734 in Yorkshire, England. He went on to become a Colonel in the British Army prior to moving to Nova Scotia in the 1770's.

They're back...and they're hungry!

Up until Thursday I hadn't seen any mosquitos. Ruth says that she had seen one or two. But I'll tell you, by Thursday morning it seemed as if all the eggs had hatched all at once!

Remind me again...why didn't Noah squash at least one those two mosquitoes??

The spooky house...

Every time grandson Cameron drives by an old abandoned house, he calls it a "spooky" house. Well, there's an old abandoned farm house on the road towards the park and we've driven by it several times while Cameron has been here.

He said that he wanted to see the inside, so yesterday, we stopped by for a visit!

Warranty claim update...

Ruth and Lindsey took the kids in to Swift Current yesterday to do the weekly shopping. While there, Lindsey and the kids went to the local swimming pool and had some fun in the water for an hour while Ruth went and did a few errands on her own.

She stopped in at the Salvation Army thrift store to see if they had a decent used pot for the house here at the park, but couldn't find anything worthwhile. However, while she was there, she did find something worthwhile!

May Expenses

Wow, another month bites the dust. May has come and gone, just like that. And, we're already 1/5th of the way through our time here this season! Not that anybody is counting...ha ha.

Expenses wise, we spent quite a lot of money! But a big chunk of it won't get expensed right away. We bought the plane tickets for our fall flight to Romania, but they will only get included in our expenses once we take the flight. We find it gives a truer picture of how much we spend on a trip when all the bills for that trip are in the month that we actually do the trip.

(Note: The following figures are in Canadian dollars. For U.S. dollar equivalent, you can subtract about 25%.)

Warranty problems

It's no good buying a product with a warranty if it breaks and then the manufacturer makes it too difficult to make a claim.

Such is the case with my camera bag. The bag is made by a subsidiary (Ape Case) of a company called Norazza...a company with it's world headquarters and distribution center located in Buffalo, New York.

A little dirt never hurt anyone...

The lake level has begun to rise...but the long term forecast doesn't look good. It's unlikely that people will be able to use our boat launch this year, and we probably won't have a swimming area either.

But that doesn't stop kids from having fun! Our grandkids proved yesterday that mud can be as much fun as water!

Nice to have a chef in the house!

Rainy start to the day yesterday as it had rained overnight, and then it poured for an hour or so in the morning before drizzling for a few hours after that. The rain guage says we had about 3/4 of an inch.

So that translated into a really quiet day here at the park, and maybe only four or five of our seasonal campers had showed up for the weekend knowing that rain was in the forecast. Today is supposed to be sunny, but rain is forecast again for tomorrow.

Camping the road less travelled...

An appropriate title for an article written about us by RV West Magazine. You can find it at the following link...

http://www.rvwest.com/article/journeys/camping_the_road_less_travelled

It's kind of fun reading about our story from another perspective. Looking back on the fact that we've been living a "different" lifestyle compared to most people our age for the last nine years or so, we wouldn't give it up for anything.

Getting Sherman ready for another motorhome adventure!

We're slowly getting all of the little things done to Sherman to get him ready for our motorhome exchange. Tana and Graham have arrived in Canada, but they've gone to Vancouver first and they're taking an Alaska cruise prior to coming here to pick up the motorhome on June 8th.

We got the new tires last week, and I made a new cutting board to fit the sink properly.

Grandkids for two weeks!

That's a bit of a long drive doing all the way to Regina and back in one day. From here to the airport was 309 kms (192 miles) one way.

I filled up with gas in Swift Current, and then filled up again at the same station on the way back. Figured out that the little blue car got 38 mpg keeping the cruise control right at 100 km/h (62 mph).

Off to the airport!

I love going to the airport. One way or the other, it means that somebody is traveling! Either we're going on another trip, or in this case...we're picking somebody up!

Our daughter Lindsey and grandchildren Cameron (5) and Sadie (2 1/2) arrive today for a two week visit. So I'm heading to Regina airport fairly early this morning, and it's a three hour drive each way.

Boondocking across Canada

One of our facebook fans asked about the possibilities of boondocking in Canada. Well, we've been all the way from coast to coast in our motorhome, and have never had a problem finding somewhere free to overnight.

Although Canada doesn't have the same type of BLM (Bureau of Land Management) opportunities that the U.S. does, Canada really does have much more open land available for similar use than the U.S.. The problem is that so much of it is further north.

C'mon up to Canada!

I was reading on a facebook RV forum the other day, and somebody was asking questions about driving from the U.S. to Alaska. Of course to do that, you have to cross the Canadian border. You should have seen some of the answers and comments. Yikes! These people had obviously never been out of their own country. And it occurred to me that a lot more Canadians cross into the U.S. than the other way around.

More than 75 % of the total Canadian population lives within 100 miles of the U.S. border.

Special visitors coming this week!

Late start to the blog post this morning. Woke up, and noticed right away that the water wasn't running, so had to go out and fix that up first! Not an easy fix, and I had to recruit one of the young fellas around here to go out into the muddy water and straighten out the intake pipe that had been blown around by the storm last night.

Pretty sure we've got it anchored securely enough now!

I always wanted one of these!

Sherman got some new tires the other day, and I'm a bit of a stickler for tire pressure, so when we're traveling with the motorhome I check the tire pressure at least once a week. When we first set out with the motorhome eight and a half years ago, I had bought a good quality foot pump at a decent price.

And occasionally, I used it on the motorhome tires.

I hate the sight of blood. Especially my own!

At our campground, the water comes directly from the lake to supply the individual campsites and the washroom buildings. Normally, we've got it all hooked up and running by now. But this year the water level is so low, and last week when it rained, it turned the shoreline to thick mud. So we had to wait for it to dry up again before we could get close enough to the water to put the intake in.

And, we were waiting for a rebuilt pump to be ready. Well, yesterday was the day.

New boots for Sherman

The last time Sherman had four new rear tires installed was in October, 2010...so about five and a half years ago. Those four rear Goodyear tires have never come off since. Never had a flat, or any problems with them. Except now, they had 56,000 kms (35,000 miles) on them.

If it were just me driving it, I probably would have waited until next year to replace them. But, we want the other party of our motorhome exchange agreement to have worry free motoring, so we are making sure that Sherman is in tip top shape for them!

An interesting visitor to the park!

Around noon yesterday, a couple of ladies came into the park and explained that they were waiting for someone who was canoeing from upriver. They thought that maybe he was only an hour or two away.

And, the canoeist had a GPS tracking unit with him, so we got them on line and figured out where he was on the river. It didn't look like he was too far away.

Does anybody make their own salad dressing??

Perfect weather we're having here at the park. High of 20C (68F) yesterday and no wind. This makes leaf blowing, raking, and cleanup a lot easier. In fact, we were enjoying being outside so much that we worked until just after 6:30pm!

And, we had our first two seasonal trailers show up. A little early, but they had both called in advance and asked. One of them was a huge fifth wheel, so they wanted to get in ahead of everyone else so that they had some maneuvering room, and it was a good thing they did.

That's a lot of RVs!

I see in the news that the North American RV industry is on track to produce a record 400,000 RVs this year. Wow...that's a lot of RV's!

I would guess that this high demand is a direct result of the baby boom generation retiring. That demographic group of people (now aged 52 to 70) making it's way through time creates great opportunity for economic impact to the sector that lies in it's path. But, the industry itself also says that younger families are also affecting sales, as is the RV rental industry.