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...