Playa Zicatela (day 4)

Normal day…food, walk, beach, reading, backgammon, sunshine, food, walk, reading, beach, food. And we threw a trip to the dentist in there as well.

Playa Zicatela (day 3)

After breakfast, we took Whiskey for a walk along the beach. As we got to the end of the beach near the rocks, a couple of guys came out of the water with snorkelling gear…and a net full of fish!

Playa Zicatela (day 2)

Finally had another good night’s sleep. I didn’t bother going to the doctor because the ear pain had pretty much disappeared. Still a little clogged up I think, but not enough to worry about. Had a bad headache most of the day though, and I don’t get headaches! So hopefully another good night sleep will fix things up. Ruth has been fine through all of this, and Alex has his sunburn to worry about.

Playa Zicatela

The plan for today fell into place nicely. We had a quick breakfast of cheese and mushroom empenadas, then Mary and Nataly came for a drive in Sherman. First stop was a nearby “trailer park” to use their dump station.

Puerto Escondido (day 5)

We were invited in for breakfast again this morning. But my stomach can’t handle the food they eat for breakfast. Normally for us, Ruth has a bowl of porridge in the morning, and I have a bowl of Special K, or Corn Flakes or Shreddies or something like that. Anything heavier waits for the lunch hour.

Puerto Escondido (day 4)

I didn’t sleep at all last night. Turns out that the dance that we had declined to go to was not very far away and the WAY too loud music ended about 2:00am. Then my sore throat and runny nose kept me awake for the rest of the night. This ranks right up there as one of the worst colds I have ever had.

Puerto Escondido (day 3)

Definitely a better sleep last night. Still up just after 7am though along with the roosters and the dogs. Not much to report on today, other than going into town to make some Christmas phone calls back to Canada.

Puerto Escondido (day 2)

Hardly slept at all Thursday night. There was a stupid Christmas tree with lights and one of those electronic gizmos playing Christmas music all night set up near the motorhome. It would repeat itself over and over. The music played all night long and pretty much drove me nuts. Found out in the morning that all I had to do was to get up and unplug it…at least tonight should be better. However there’s also lots of other music and dogs barking. Not the most peaceful setting, but we will stay here for a few more days to be with our friends.

Puerto Escondido

We left Playa Ventura at around 8:30am. We’re going to be heading back north along this coast in another six to eight weeks, so we will be stopping in again. But at that time we’re going to try and spend a week or so there.

Playa Ventura (day 2)

A lot of Mexicans are on holiday now, so Playa Ventura is a little busier than when we were here in February 2009. There is another family tent camping at our spot, so we are sharing the private swimming pool.

Playa Ventura

We left Diamante Trailer Park at around 9:00am. We had managed to get our propane tank filled while at the park, and of course we were able to empty our holding tanks and fill our fresh water tank. So Sherman is a happy camper!

Acapulco (day 5)

I spent the morning tidying up Sherman and doing the vacuuming, while Ruth did some baking. Chocolate chip cookies made with coconut flour, and gluten free bread!

Acapulco (day 4)

Up early and we took Whiskey for a decent walk before 9:00am. Turned the air conditioning on in Sherman, and then we walked over to the entrance to the resort next door.

Acapulco (day 3)

We didn’t waste any time this morning, and headed out before 9:00am to see if there were any other parking spots for Sherman that looked decent for a couple of nights. We walked south towards the airport.

Acapulco (day 2)

Ended up sleeping fine last night. The construction noise didn’t start again until around 9:00am. At that point, we were leaving for a walk with Whiskey. At least there is lots of space here to take Whiskey for a walk.

Acapulco

Had a peaceful night in the parking lot at the caves, and left there about 7:30am. We needed gas, although not desperately. Eventually we saw a station near the entrance to the toll road to Acapulco and put in 1,000 pesos (about $84) worth of fuel. Sure enough, this station also accepted our Visa card. We’re 4 for 4 with using our Visa card for gas in Mexico now.

Las Grutas de Cacahuamilpa

Well we made it to our destination at Las Grutas de Cacahuamilpa, but not by taking the route we had planned. I think we did 180 kms (110 miles) today, and it took us almost 7 hours.

Valle de Bravo (day 8)

Well it was our last day here, and it sure was a good one. First on the agenda was a trip into town with Santiago and his children.

Valle de Bravo (day 7)

Yet another coasting day with blue sky and sunshine. At the risk of having jealous or envious readers upset with us, I have to mention that we haven’t seen any precipitation since we were in Dallas, Texas area exactly a month ago on November 13.

Valle de Bravo (day 6)

Sometime last night we got some sleep. But it was in the earlier part of the night, because we were awake well before Santiago came and knocked on our door around 5:15am. Mexicans have a thing for loud fireworks. Not the fancy, pretty kind…just the loud kind!

Valle de Bravo (day 5)

We relaxed until 10:00am or so, and then left here to take the bus into the town of Valle de Bravo. We just wanted to walk around on our own for a while and then maybe buy some groceries.

Valle de Bravo (day 4)

We had no plans today, so we just hung around with Sherman and Whiskey and Oso and enjoyed the day. Did some reading, and Ruth did another few items of hand laundry. I cleaned the carpet of some of Whiskey's dog hair!

Valle de Bravo (day 3)

It sure is getting monotonous waking up to blue sky and sunshine every day. But, that’s our lot in life just now, so we’ll just have to put up with it.

Valle de Bravo (day 2)

Did you ever get up in the morning, and then just do pretty much nothing all day? Well we haven’t done that for a long time, but we did today!

Valle de Bravo

First job of the day was to try and get Sherman out of the parking area at the Givali Hotel. The height was okay, but when we entered they had to lift up the 4 strands of barbed wire to get us in. Plus, I was sure that our back end was going to drag when we exited.

El Rosario (day 3, the butterflies)

Put the furnace on as soon as we got up this morning…3C (38F) inside the motorhome. I think we are just about ready to head to the beach where the weather is warmer. But first, we had to see some butterlies!

El Rosario (day 2)

It was a little warmer last night…temperature inside when we woke up was 7C (45F). Should have put the furnace on, but a hot coffee and tea warmed us up pretty good.

El Rosario Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary

Slept fine. Definitely chilly at 9,600 feet though. Outside temperature when we woke up was -1C (30F) and inside was only a couple of degrees better! Had to run the furnace for a half an hour or so this morning.

Somewhere in the mountains

We hadn’t heard from our contact here, so we decided to head out. We’re going to the monarch butterfly sanctuaries in the mountains just west of Mexico City. This is where all of the monarch butterflies in North America come to spend the winter.

Cuitzeo, Mexico

We seem to have a problem getting on the road early. We left Bugamville RV Park at around 10:00am, but we keep on saying to ourselves that on travel days we really want to be on the road by 8:00am.

Guanajuato (day 2)

It is definitely nice and quiet here. Not even any roosters crowing at 7:00am! So we actually slept in until almost 7:30am…that is something that does not happen very often.

November living expenses and income

Once again, we spent a little more than we expected to, but only in certain categories.

Guanajuato, Mexico

Had a nice sleep at the Botanical Gardens. We were getting caught up on internet stuff around 9am, when who drives up but our new friend Les!

El Charco del Ingenio

We had a long drive to do today, but we also had a few things we had to do this morning before we could leave.

San Miguel (day 3)

We had planned on getting a nice early 8:00am start for our hike up to the mirador (lookout) over the city of San Miguel. But, these things never seem to go quite as efficiently as we plan, and it was 9:45am by the time we left Sherman and Whiskey behind.

San Miguel (day 2)

When we woke up around 7am, it was cloudy outside...and it stayed that way for an hour or two. But then the sun broke through, and it was a beautiful day!

San Miguel de Allende

Slept okay, but it turned out there was a fair bit of truck noise, even though we were parked well off the road. Temperature in Sherman when we got up at around 7am was 8C (46F) which was a little chilly.

Villa de Reyes, San Luis Potosi, Mexico

Had a hard time leaving at a decent hour this morning. We want to get on the road early, but it seems that we’re not getting a whole lot of actual “relax” time, so it was almost 10:00am when we left Matehuala. Plus, we’ve been writing the blog the morning after, so I think we’re going to change that. Now that we have an internet stick that so far works just about anywhere, we are going to write and post the blog of that days activities at night before we go to bed. So there you have it, our blog post will be waiting for you as soon as you wake up in the morning!

Matehuala, Mexico

We left Monte Sur yesterday at about 9:30am. It was another beautiful day, and we were looking forward to the drive through the mountains. Turning onto Highway 58, we saw signs warning of single lane sections on the mountain road ahead. It was going to be a long slow drive.

Montemorelos, Mexico

We had a nice relaxing morning at the Campestre Monte Sur. Took Whiskey for a nice walk around the area where people own lots and some have built houses on them. There’s even a little petting zoo for the kids. Temperature was about 29C (84F) and sunny.

Allende, Mexico (day 2)

Chris came to collect us around 8:30am yesterday morning. The plan was to find us an internet “stick” so that we can get online when we don’t have wi-fi access. Mexico has an excellent cellular network and so when we’re not in a campground with wi-fi, we’ll be able to access the internet.

Mexico!

I was awake around 5:00am yesterday. Didn’t sleep the best, I guess because of the excitement of entering Mexico. I think Ruth was awake pretty early too, but we didn’t get up until it was starting to get light outside, about 6:30am.

Getting ready for Mexico

Saturday was our “get ready for Mexico” day. I had bought the oil and filter a week or two ago, so right after breakfast I gave Sherman an oil change. Won’t need to do that again until we leave Mexico in early March.

Laredo, Texas

Heading out of Utopia yesterday morning, there was a lot of deer. And a few antelope. I guess this part of Texas is where the deer and the antelope play. And we think we saw an elk, but it was behind the fence of one of the hunting ranches, so although it was wild, it was captive.

Utopia, Texas

Another nice drive yesterday. And, another nice day. Nothing but sunshine and blue sky all day. High around 68F (20C), which is nice, but they were calling for temperatures around the freezing mark last night.

Llano, Texas

This is a nice little town. On the outskirts of what they call "Texas Hill Country". It has several RV options. When we entered town yesterday afternoon, we saw RV's in a park by the river.

Gatesville, Texas

We went into the town of Whitney and did some laundry. Well, Ruth did some laundry. Whiskey and I kept Sherman company and found a good internet connection from the church across the road. Decided to head to the other free camping area on the opposite side of Lake Whitney.

Lake Whitney, Texas

Yesterday morning, we took Whiskey to the vet. Found a guy in Glen Rose who opened at 9:00am and so we drove over there then. Turned out he wasn’t in until 10:00am, but the receptionist said we could come back then.

Glen Rose, Texas

As we entered Glen Rose, we had pulled into a dead end street that was beside a new Comfort Inn. They had a decent internet connection, and we weren't on their property. The street didn't have anything built on it yet, and this seemed to be a good overnight parking spot.

Dallas, Texas (day 3)

Yesterday was another "do nothing" kind of day, and we were quite happy with that. Went on a walking/biking trail around another neighbourhood. That was kind of nice. And, the sun came out for much of the day, so that was nice too!

Dallas, Texas (day 2)

Just a relaxing day. The weather wasn't the best, so we did a little running around, and played cards.

Dallas, Texas

We're not actually in Dallas, we're in Plano, which is a suburb. The whole Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area pretty much all runs into one another anyhow.

Cooper Lake State Park, Texas

After sitting at the Mount Pleasant library yesterday, we tried the local Wal-Mart for booze. Didn’t see a single liquor store along the way, so we weren’t expecting much luck there.

Atlanta State Park, Texas

We made it to Texas! Only one more border to cross, and then we're in Mexico! But we will spend a week or two in Texas before heading into Mexico.

Hope, Arkansas

Travelling out of Pine Bluff yesterday, the scenery drastically improved. Between Memphis and Pine Bluff there had been a lot of farmers fields and flat terrain.

Pine Bluff, Arkansas

We had mentioned that Lana, our couchsurfing host in Memphis, is a glass blowing artist. Before we left, we were hoping that she would show us her studio and maybe a demonstration of how she makes some of the beautiful pieces that we saw on her website.

Memphis (day 3) - Downtown

Today, we took the bus and wandered around downtown Memphis. It was another bright sunny day with not a cloud in the sky, although a little cool. Temperature outside when we got up was around 37F (3C) with a high of around 55F (12C). But the bright sun was sure nice and warm.

Memphis, day 2 - Graceland

We don't do touristy things very often, but when we do, we try to do them as inexpensively as possible. Sometimes that makes things even more interesting.

Memphis, Tennessee

We arrived at our couchsurfing host in Memphis around 1:00pm yesterday afternoon. Lana lives in a beautiful neighbourhood filled with many huge oak trees. She wasn't home when we arrived, so we just parked on the street for a couple of hours.

Fort Pillow State Historic Park, Tennessee

Yesterday we woke up to rain at the Crown Winery. And seeing that we had internet we were in no rush to leave early and so we sat in the parking lot until about 10:30am and started heading west and a bit south.

Crown Winery, Humboldt, Tennessee

When we headed out of Dover yesterday, we turned into the Donelson National Battlefield to do their short scenic drive down to the river. This is a civil war site, and if you're a history buff it would be an interesting place for you to stop.

Staying at a winery tonight

We never made it to the campground we were planning on last night, so the fact that I say we're staying at a winery tonight may not come to pass. But the PLAN is to stay at a winery.

On our way to Memphis

Only 300 miles, but it'll probably take us three days to get there!

Expenses and Income

Well we started out this trip spending money, and the month of October will hopefully have been our most expensive month.

Mammoth Cave, Kentucky (Day 3)

Yesterday evening after Kevin got back from the hotel where he had used the internet to post our blog,  we headed over to John and Ellen's (one of our followers) who made contact with us as they were coming to Mammoth Caves as well and wondered if we would be able to cross paths.  We had a nice evening with them talking about each of our RV travels.  We arranged to go for a hike with them for today.

Wild Cave Tour

Had a totally peaceful sleep last night…didn’t hear a sound. But it did get chilly. We usually leave the furnace off when we go to bed, and only turn it on if one of us gets up in the night to do so. When we got up at 6:30am or so it was 41F (5.5C) in Sherman and the furnace worked for almost an hour to get things reasonably warm.

Mammoth Cave National Park

We are at Mammoth Cave National Park, and we have internet. Sort of.

Bardstown, Kentucky (day 2)

Turned out to be another beautiful blue sky day yesterday, although quite a bit cooler. High was around 58F ( 14C).

Bardstown, Kentucky

Spent yesterday looking for new hiking boots. We both needed a new pair, and the cave tour on Saturday requires that they be "above the ankle" type of boots.

Caving

One of the things we like to do is to visit caves. One of the reason we are taking the route we are is to return to Mammoth Cave National Park.

Seymour, Indiana

We made it to North Vernon, Indiana and pulled over a couple of different times in town trying to get internet. Should have headed right for the library. Oh well.

Heading for North Vernon, Indiana

That's where we're heading, but will we make it there this afternoon? Who knows...?

Van Wert, Ohio

Well we may have been heading for Celina, but we only made it to Van Wert.

Heading for Celina, Ohio

Had a good nights sleep at the Cabela's in Dundee Michigan.

Two hours at the border

It wasn't even that busy. But they decided that Sherman should undergo an x-ray inspection, so we had to wait...and wait....and wait...

Heading for the U.S.

We all ended up having a really nice afternoon and evening yesterday. And yes, Sherman is very happy to have new boots!

New tires

So much for telling you how cheaply we can live! Just spent $930 on tires!

Dundas, Ontario (day 2)...updated 6:30pm

So we had to take Sherman for his "e-test" today, because the government of Ontario has rules that your vehicle has to have an emissions test every two years. Sherman's current plate sticker expires in February, and we will be FAR away from Ontario at that time, so it had to be done before we leave.

Made it through Toronto!

We were only a few minutes late leaving this morning. We had planned on 9:00am, so when we drove out at 9:40am, we figured "yeah, that's not bad".

Hitting the road!

The day is finally here...we will leave this morning, and start heading south on our 6 month motorhome journey to Mexico and back.

Harvest Hosts

You all know we love free camping, boondocking, and dry camping. Or any combination of those terms. We're not really "RV Park" type of people, so when we heard about Harvest Hosts we thought this was a fantastic idea.

Whiskey has a clean bill of health

Just a short update on Whiskey.

Two days to go...!

I picked up Ruth at the airport yesterday morning. She was a little tired, having gotten up at 3:00am to get to the Halifax airport in time for her flight. But she said everything went well.

Up early this morning

Just can't seem to sleep in. Of course I was in bed by 10pm last night, so I guess it was still a decent nights sleep. Although I did wake up at 12:30am or so to the thunp thump thump of the music.

Kentville, NS (Day 3)

Up this morning around 7am had a nice cup of tea and and a short time later Lindsey was up.  We had breakfast and then got going on preparing lunch and dinner for later.  Lunch was an Asian Duck Soup with the leftover duck from supper last night

Kentville, NS (Day 2)

Lindsey drove Justin to work today and I got up after just they left at about 7:30am.  Justin works in the carpentry business.  He just started working for a new business within the last month or so and they work on various jobs in

Officially unemployed

Well, today was my last day doing the blood driving job. And Ruth is pretty much finished at the campground. And I quit my other job at the RV place a week ago.

Arrived in Halifax, NS

Well that was an early morning. I was up at 4:30am, had some tea and cereal and made myself a sandwich for a snack as well as some carrots and grapes to munch on in case I get hungry. I have to think of these thing now, because it isn't so easy to just grab something now that I can't have gluten.

On my own

Ruth has headed to Halifax for a few days and has left Whiskey and I to fend for ourselves!

Had a nice long weekend.

It was Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada, so Monday was a holiday. We went to my sisters for turkey dinner, and then stayed overnight in my parents condo in Ottawa Sunday night.

You never know what the future holds

Despite all of the planning that you do, you never know what twists and turns lie in the future that might change things.

What's happening...?

Lol...well now that you have asked that question, LOTS!  First off we would like to say thank you to everyone who commented on Whiskey and expressed concern for her.  Well she is bouncing back AGAIN.

More on Whiskey and budget things

Well we have another update on Whiskey.  Yesterday I took her to the vet's to have the staples removed.  The technician removed two of the staples before noticing that something wasn't right with Whiskey.

Adsense update

Forgot to do an update on our adsense account. We had a good month in September, putting $78.42 towards our travel fund for this winter.

Driving and RVing in Mexico

Some of you mentioned yesterday that you would be scared to drive and RV in Mexico. I don't blame you, as we were also a little unsure about doing it ourselves, and so we drove with other experienced travelers for the first few weeks of each of our last two winters in that country. 

A new pot!

Exactly two weeks ago today, I wrote a slightly humorous post about a pot that was part of a set that we received as a wedding gift over 26 years ago.

Preparations, lists and butterflies

Hard to believe but our departure date is moving up quickly and we are starting to make the preparations needed to get ourselves on the road.

Minor electrical issues

One day last week, I noticed the 120v AC electrical to Sherman had cut out. Not a problem I thought, because we have lots of battery power. And I figured it was a campground issue, although there hasn't been any problem like this since we've been here.

A bit of this and that

First off, thank you for all those who passed on good wishes to Whiskey for a speedy recovery.  Would like to let everyone know that she is doing really well and almost seems back to normal.  She is pretty perky now and loves

Propane tank is full!

So yesterday morning I started up Sherman and took him for a drive.

Whiskey is doing fine (more of the story)

Just a quick update to let you all know that Whiskey has had her operation, and is doing fine. Will know more this evening.

Motorhome propane update

Well, Sherman's propane level is down to less than 1/8 of a tank. It's getting chilly now, and although we can easily survive with our little electric heater, I would like to have the propane tank filled up.

Lindsey, Justin and Flying

Yesterday our daughter, Lindsey and son in-law, Justin came to visit us. They left Nova Scotia last Sunday and came to Ottawa via the States, stopping in Bangor, Maine their first night and then stopping a second night

Pots and pans

I hate it when you get good stuff and it just falls apart.

Another Whiskey update

Well, I'm back visiting my Dad for a couple days.  On the way back to his house we made a quick stop at the vet's as it has been three weeks since Whiskey was there last.  She just finished her antibiotics today and she doesn't seem to have made much improvement over the last visit.  She

September 11th

We thought we would do a little tribute to New York City today. We were at the top of the World Trade Centre in October of 2000, only 11 months before the towers fell.

Rust and corrosion

I spent my day off Monday working on Sherman. The main thing I was working on was was the water leaks that occur in the wheelhouse area when driving in the rain.

My Mum

A year ago today I got the dreaded call from my Dad to say that my Mum (I spell it this way as this is how she always spelled it, she was British) had passed away.  We knew it was coming and had for a couple of weeks, it was just a matter of when.

Blog statistics

Ruth mentioned that we are now up to 50 dedicated followers! We think that's a pretty neat milestone.

Leaving for Mexico next month!

Now that it is September, we get to say that we are leaving for Mexico next month! I have a feeling the next few weeks leading up to that will go by very quickly.

Google Adsense update

Our Google Adsense was good to us during the month of August!

Old blog posts and new ideas

Yesterday, I was adding some more of our old travel blog posts to this site so that all our travels could be in one place.  It is a time consuming job, but I am making progress.  I have now completed March 2008.  I am working backwards so I only have 4 1/2 months to go and it will be complete.  I have already started on February 2008's posts today.

C'mon October....

Not trying to rush the summer away, but we are getting closer to getting on the road again, and we miss that so much. We've decided that we'll leave a bit earlier than November 1st.

Update on Whiskey

As I had said in a quick update on Whiskey at the end of the day on our last post, she has a bladder infection and bladder stones.  She had bladder stones once before when she was about 5 years old and she had surgery to remove them.  It would be nice to go that route again because then we know they would be gone, but because of her age it worries us.

Mushrooms and another hike

Well yesterday I was back off to my Dad's place.  Kevin dropped me off in Perth where my Dad met me and then we headed off to his place stopping along the way at one of our usual hiking spots, the Baird Trail just outside of Middleville.

A good RV'ing dinner recipe

We have a few favourite recipes that we make on a regular basis. This one is for Penne and Italian Sausage!

Wolfe Island

Time is flying by again, and we still seem to be as busy as ever.

This RV was simply not meant to be on the road...

Working at an RV dealership, you sure get to hear a lot of interesting stories.

Decisions, decisions...

Sometime over the next month or so, we will need to decide if we are coming back to Kingston next year.

I should've had the salmon...

So, just an update regarding our day off yesterday. We drove up to Ottawa, stopped at Subway and split a turkey breast sub for lunch just as we got to the outskirts of the city...and it poured with rain while we were there.

Day off...road trip!

We both managed to get the day off today! So we're headed to Ottawa (two hour drive each way) for a small family get together for my mother's 75th birthday.

Different countries, different attitudes

We've been following a new blog...a couple who are on a two year trip through Central and South America in their Class C motorhome.

http://drivingthepanamerican.blogspot.com/

Just call us Grandma and Grandpa!

Yes, we are going to be grandparents next spring!

Sure miss our hikes!

It's the same old, same old going on this past week in one word...work!  We can feel the end in sight though, and the time really is flying by.  Neither one of us really minds our work, its different than working a "real" job because you know that it is only for 6-7 months and then we have five months off to travel, of course we are striving for being on the road fulltime again and I know that will happen sooner than we think, at least we sure hope so.  As I said we really don't mind doing the jobs that we do have so that makes things easier.

Our route south

We know it's still over two months until we head out, but last night we were discussing our route south.

Not much going on...

Well nothing too much has been happening in the last week and a half or so. Still busy with work though!

Mosquito control

This has been a bad year for mosquitoes at our particular campground. And if there's one thing that drives me nuts, it's mosquitoes! So I would normally be inside where it's comfortable, instead of outside with the bugs. However I think we have found a decent solution to the problem.

Day off today!

Well for me, anyhow. Ruth still has to work. The first Monday in August is a civic holiday in most parts of Canada with Quebec being the glaring exception.

Adsense update

$35.09 for the month of July.

Three months to go...

In 90 days or so, we will be heading to Mexico.

Red Pine Camp

We took the day off work yesterday! I was due for a day aff...hadn't had one since July 1st! And it was Ruth's normal day off on Tuesday anyhow.

RV Safety

There are probably 1,000 RV's that pass by the city of Kingston every hour on highway 401 that runs between Toronto and Montreal. I wonder how many of them are unsafe?

Making progress

Wow, what a busy last two weeks, hardly had time to breathe!  I was to have had two days off two weeks ago but only ended up with one and that one was spent shopping, doing up all that meat in the afternoon and regular

Somewhere you've never been before

If you could travel to somewhere on earth that you've never been before, and cost was not an issue, where would you go...and why?

Jobs

I have to say that even though I am working a lot of hours right now, I do kinda like what I'm doing.

Cars

I spent about 2 hours cleaning the interior of the car today. It's just a little car, why would it take 2 hours?! Because it was disgustingly dirty, that's why!

Hike on the K & P Trail

Well today I worked a double shift.  From 9am-1:30pm I was cleaning and from 3-9pm I was in the office.  It actually went pretty well but I am glad I don't have to do that too often.

Weather forecast

On Wednesday, the 5 day forecast said that Saturday and Sunday were going to be clear and sunny, with highs of 26C (79F) and 27C (81F) and 0% (yes, zero percent) chance of precipitation.

A bad day in the RV

is still WAY better than a good day at work!

Grocery deals

Well I was going to tell you about the K and P Trail, but after shopping today I think that can wait for another post.

Good dinner

We have no real news this week, work has been busy for both of us.

Last car payment!

Today, we make our last car payment! It's always a good feeling to make the last payment on a loan, and in this case it will be about $350 per month that we no longer have to pay!

Funny people

I get to talk to some funny people while working at the RV place. The best ones are the people who think that the warranty on their RV should cover things that break due to the owners stupidity. And the various ways they try to spin the story so that it couldn't have been the owners fault...it had to have been a defective part.

Excitement at my Dad's!

Well just like Kevin said in his post, it has been hot the last couple of days.  Luckily yesterday my shift at the campground was in the store/office so I was in air conditioning.  I was off at 1pm and headed back to Sherman to get lunch for Kevin and I and then we were off to Perth for Kevin's afternoon courier run and to drop me off with my Dad for a couple of days.

Hot, hot, hot...!

We finally have a summer heat wave going on here in Eastern Ontario! Temperature today was around 34 C (93 F) which is nice and warm.

Happy Fourth of July!

I am proudly wearing my United States of America t-shirt in support of all of our American friends who are celebrating Independence Day today!

Adsense update

We made $33.03 from our adsense in the month of June. Some days (like yesterday) nobody visits a link to our advertisers sites.

Well that was a productive day

I finally had a day off yesterday! So I made good use of it and did some more work to Sherman. At least when I'm working on Sherman, I can take my time and just putter along.

Canadian Tire

I learned something about Canadian Tire yesterday. They have a fantastic "price match" deal. Of course Americans can't take advantage of this unless they are visiting Canada, but for our Canadian readers, I hope you can benefit from our experience yesterday.

RV accidents

I saw somebody's post on the http://www.rv.net/ forum where the person had driven their motorhome somewhere they shouldn't have, and took out their roof air conditioner. We've never had any kind of serious accident with the motorhome, but we've had a few minor ones...

The housing bubble is alive and well here in Canada

We sold our house in September of 2007 for $241,000. At the time, I thought that was ridiculously high. How could a basic end unit townhouse be worth that much money? I figured we were getting out near the top of the market, but almost 3 years later I think it would sell now for close to $275,000.

Re-posting old posts

Kevin has already mentioned in the past that I am slowly (slowly being a key word) reposting our older posts from our previous trip journal site.  Well I just finished doing June of 2008.  I am working backwards so that means I still have May back to Jan. 2008 and Dec. back to Oct. 2007.  It will be nice to have all the travel posts on one blog.

Duck hunting

I'm not a hunter... not even close. I have no ambition to kill anything. Well, except for maybe the guy who was tailgating me all the way back to Kingston today. Anyhow, I saw something today that made me think about hunting. Sort of.

RV cleaning products

At the RV place where I run the parts department, we sell a line of Canadian made RV products. Actually, they're made in Quebec, so they're not really Canadian made. :-) I don't think they sell them in the U.S. yet, which is too bad because they have some fantastic products.

Visiting my sister and a long walk.

On Sunday, I finished up worked at 1pm and went back to Sherman and my Dad to get some lunch and then we were heading off to Dundas which is the other side of Toronto and very close to Hamilton.

Stick-On-States

A lot of people like those stick on maps that you attach to the side of your RV and then put the sticker of every state that you visit onto the map.

Busy 24 hours

Friday night, we were invited over to friends for dinner. It was about a 20 minute drive, and we knew we would have a beverage or two, so we arranged to sleep in their tent trailer for the night, rather than having to drive home.

Solar, batteries, and inverter...works great!

 I didn't work at the RV place today because I was asked to do the morning drive for the blood courier as well as the afternoon. I didn't mind...it was a beautiful day for driving. And it meant I had almost two hours for lunch...and because it was a bright sunny day, I decided to test Sherman's new inverter setup.

What an icky day!

The weather today is so totally different from yesterday.  Yesterday was beautiful, a little on the breezy side but none the less beautiful.  Today on the other hand started out overcast and the rain held off until lunch time then it came down in buckets.  So Whiskey and I stayed inside this afternoon and worked on pictures and made enough yummy split pea and ham soup for lunch tomorrow and the next day and probably the next.

Getting things done!

I'm finally starting to make some progress on the job list. I managed to get off work a bit early on both Saturday and Sunday, and today it was a nice day and it's still light out at 8:45PM. So I did some more work on Sherman, and had a late supper.

Ontario Sales Tax

I don't think we have many readers from Ontario, so I thought I'd tell you about what the Ontario government is doing with our retail sales tax.

Inverter installed!

I was lucky to be able to leave work at the RV place at 3:00pm this afternoon, so I came back to the KOA and went right to work on that inverter installation. Figured I had better take advantage of some unexpected free time!

Figuring out the inverter installation

When I got home from work at just before 5pm today, I spent an hour and a half trying to figure out where to install the inverter. I felt like I worked at it for a long time, and didn't get anything accomplished.

Went for a nice hike

Well, I was up at my Dad's again for a couple of days visiting.  He is doing well and working away on his garden.  There is a lot of it, so it takes up a lot of his time as he really got behind on it when my Mom was sick.  He now has it more to the way he would like it and now is looking for more plants to replace the ones that he didn't like or found to be evasive.

Bought an new inverter

We have a little 400 watt inverter that we've been using to power the laptops when we're traveling. But it's meant for temporary power and there's no way to mount it permanently. So it's always kind of in the way by the entrance steps because it has to be hooked up close to the batteries.

New GPS unit

Back on May the 5th, I had mentioned that we were thinking about getting a new GPS unit. Our old one was acting funny, and the maps were getting fairly outdated.

Used batteries...SOLD

Well that was a worthwhile day, and tomorrow promises to be productive as well!

Selling used batteries

Late last night I put an advertisement on kijiji to sell our used batteries. Maybe I asked too cheap of a price...I think they'll be gone by the end of the day!

Trying to get things done

This working 7 days a week is great for the finances, but it doesn't leave much time to get things done.

Two months down, five months to go!

Wow the time goes fast.  We have already been back at the campground two months so we now have five to go until we leave for Mexico!  Our last couple of weeks have been pretty busy and I am only now getting back to a regular routine and have most things caught up.

Rambling

So it turns out that our daughters "kidney stone" was actually an enlarged appendix. She went back to Nova Scotia on Monday, in as much pain as what she was in when we took her to the hospital last Thursday.

Adsense update

The month of May produced $37.60 worth of adsense income for us from our blog, but only $4.65 of that was in the last 7 days. That compares to $33 or so in the month of April.

Our "great" Canadian health care system...part 3

As I said in the previous post, we have been very lucky (and smart) that as a family we haven't needed to use our "free" Canadian health care system very much during our lifetimes.

Our "great" Canadian health care system...part 2

The last experience I had with our health care was in November of last year...I was doing a pickup at one doctor's office, and they were doing renovations on the building. It was an older building, and the stairway wasn't made for taller people. I was bounding up the stairs two at a time and crack....I smacked my head on the landing above.

Our "great" Canadian health care system...part 1

Well, I had some first hand experience with our "free" health care system today. It's not very often that I do, because I don't have any health problems...but I was with our daughter today and she had a problem.

Bought a new wi-fi antenna

I finally saw a deal on a new antenna for wi-fi when we're traveling. We had been using a Hawking HWU8DD that we bought almost three years ago. It was the best $75 we ever spent. Had lots of use out of it, and it still works but it's got a loose connection inside and sometimes acts funny.

Late spring heat wave

I love it! Last year, we didn't have a summer. I think the high for last year in this area was 27C (81F), and it rained all last July...but not this year!

Another beautiful day!

And they're calling for sunny and warm for the rest of the week! Highs around 27C (81F).

Long Weekend is upon us

Well the first long weekend of the camping season is upon us.  The campground is full.  Every RV spot is taken and then some.  Most of the unserviced tenting sites are even taken, some with RV's and travel trailers.  It looks like a parking lot here.  Everyone is enjoying themselves though.

Live your life

Because you have no idea when it will end...

Almost summer

Today almost felt like summer! I wore shorts to work at the RV place, and we even had the overhead door open for the first time this year. It's a lot brighter working in there when the big door is open.

And then it was a nice drive for my afternoon job. I finally stopped along the way to take a picture of something that I've been wanting a picture of for a while.

Our son is back in Ottawa

Well I am back from my Dad's now.  I went up Monday afternoon and yesterday we took a road trip to Plattsburg, NY to pick up our son Alex, who is now finished school for the year.

Just another day

Yesterday, Ruth went up to visit her father, and they went together on a roadtrip to New York State to pick up our son from school and bring him back to Ottawa where he's spending the summer.

So I'm all alone.

Baseball. The end.

I didn't know exactly how to title this, but the way I wrote the title is the way I feel. We have watched our son playing baseball every year since he was 8 years old, and now it's over.

Genealogy and ancestry

I find this stuff fascinating. There is so much information available online now that you can dig up your family history right back into the mid 1800's with not much problem at all.

Busy, busy, busy

Well just like the title says, I've been busy.  The campground is pretty much all ready now.  We are having some issues with the swimming pool.  Hans the owner wanted it open this weekend for the KOA Kare Kamp weekend.  Unfortunately I don't think that will happen.

The entertainment is about to begin

Tomorrow is the first busy weekend of the summer here at the KOA. They have a special deal where you pay for Friday night, and then get Saturday for free. It's a good deal, and they collect donations and hold fundraising events for the KOA Care Camps, which is a registered charity that funds camping for kids with cancer.

It's usually close to sold out, so our peace and quiet is about to end...

Happy Anniversary, to us!

26 years ago today, Ruth and I were married. And now, even after living together full time for 2 1/2 years in a 280 square foot motorhome, we're still married. And we're still talking to each other!

Today, we will give you a little history of the start of our life together...

New format

Rather than writing a blog post today, I am going to experiment with a new format of blog.

Beginner RV'ers

We made our share of silly mistakes when we first bought Sherman. The best one was constantly emptying the toilet holding tank because the sensor showed it to be full after only a day or two. We learned that those sensors are rarely accurate, and that we can go well over a week without having to empty. There are a lot of mistakes that beginners can make, and I had a couple of funny questions at work yesterday.

Canada, United States, or Mexico?

Which country is "better"? I've heard people here say that Canada is the greatest country in the world.

But I've got it figured that the people who say this probably haven't traveled very much.

Old television shows

We really enjoy our account with http://www.zip.ca/

We've been renting all of our DVD material through zip.ca for exactly one year now. We're on the $12.00 per month plan, and have rented 93 DVD's during that time period. And that includes putting our account on hold during the month of March. So, we've rented an average of 2 DVD's per week for $12.00 per month. I think that's a great deal!

The vet's and dinner with friends

Well I am back at my dad's, actually getting ready to head back to Kingston in just a short while.

Yesterday my dad had arranged appointments for both his dog KC and for Whiskey to visit with the vet.  Our appointment was for 12 noon.  Neither dog was happy about this.

Need a new GPS

Just before our drive to New York on Saturday, our GPS conked out! We had just got on the highway, and I pushed the button to turn it on. Nothing happened.

More useless RV accessories

I know I wrote about this before, but I had to shake my head again today at what people spend their money on. I know our society gave up on buying only what's necessary a LONG time ago, but two people who came in today take the cake.

Drive

So on Saturday we went for a drive to watch some more baseball.

Adsense income

Here is a breakdown of our Google Adsense income since we started.

The past week working at the KOA

Well the past week has been an a productive one.  The week before, I really only worked two mornings and the Friday and during that time Lynn and I took all the storage stuff out of the cabins, like the patio furniture for the super sites, playground stuff, the pedal go carts, some BBQ's for seasonal campers, the lawn chess set.  On the Friday we gave the washrooms a good thorough cleaning from top to bottom.

RV sewer dump valve replacement

Well this is one of those jobs that you put off as long as you can, but you just know that it has to be done!

More U.S. dollar thoughts

Yesterday, the fiscal situation in Greece worsened. And Portugal became news as well as it's debt rating was downgraded.

Miserable weather

How can it go from beautiful one day, to horrible the next? I think it was my father who once told me that the only thing you can change about the weather is your attitude towards it!

Busy couple of days!

So you obviously noticed that we never updated yesterday like we said we were going to. Here's the story of the last two days...

Road trip!

Well, for today anyhow. We're going down to Oswego, NY to watch our son's college baseball. It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive each way. The weather forecast isn't great...50% chance of rain, but this is the closest game they play to where we are, and I think the showers will probably hold off enough that they'll be able to get some ball in.

Free Trip!

This post is going back in time to 1999

Have you ever entered a contest and then won a prize?  We did, one that actually counted for something!

We have it made!

It was our son's 22nd birthday yesterday. Ruth and I got married when we were 22. That sounds awfully young now, but we're glad we did what we did.

Sometimes you just shouldn't go back!

I am up visiting my Dad for a couple of days and yesterday we decided to go visit the woodlot that he and my mom used to own to take the dogs for a nice walk.

The economy

I like to follow what the economy and financial markets are doing. Yesterday, the Bank of Canada said that their record low interest rate policy is about to end.

Our advertisers

I was doing some research into these Google ads that you see beside these posts. Our best month since we started in December was in January...and earnings have gone down every month since then.

Back to Work

Well it was back to work for me.  My life of leisure is over.  I started back to work at the KOA where I will be workcamping again this year.  The campground doesn't open until May 1st, so we have to get things up and running by then.

RV Batteries

On Friday evening, we unplugged, emptied our holding tanks, and moved to our regular spot for the season. We had been parked in the front row here at the Kingston KOA, in order to be close to a water supply because the water isn't turned on yet. But now we know we can make it on our 38 gallon holding tank until they turn the water on later this week.

Happy Birthday, Whiskey

Whiskey is 14 years old today! We've had Whiskey since she was a 7 week old puppy. The dumb dog really is part of the family, and she's had a very lucky life, from a dogs point of view.

Buying used

We love to buy things used. Normally, we use http://www.kijiji.com/ or http://www.craigslist.com/ to find what we need so that we can buy good used products without having to pay sales tax.

Gros Morne National Park

Today we are into Day 7 of our two week Newfoundland holiday in 1994.  We got up had breakfast and got all our gear packed up and we were on the road again.  Drove to Corner Brook where we stopped for more groceries and then headed on to Gros Morne National Park.  We have heard that you can't

Newfoundland

So back in February I did a post on National Parks in Canada along with some pictures. One of the parks that I mentioned was Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland, I didn't have pictures at the time. Well now I do and I thought I would tell you about our adventure there.

Not much travel for the next few months

This blog is about traveling with Kevin and Ruth which for the summer isn't going to be happening for us.  We will be staying at the Kingston KOA until November 1st, when we are looking forward to heading back on the road for the winter, leaving here and going throught the States and then into Mexico and back again in the spring.

Safety in Mexico

The news media loves to pick up on stories about violence in Mexico. The following story finally hit the news in Canada...

Getting back to a routine

Well it has now been more than a week since getting back to Kingston and things are starting to get back to a routine, not that I'm happy about routine.

I thought the job market was supposed to be tough these days

I run the parts department at an RV dealer. It's only April, so it's still pretty quiet, but things are starting to pick up and we've had an early spring. So we're thinking it's going to be a much better year than last year was.

Reflecting on camping in Florida

Right away when you think of camping in Florida you think cha-ching ($$$).  We found that it doesn't necessarily have to be that way, but you have to spend some time on the internet to look for some good spots.

We're a little different...

One thing we've learned in 2 1/2 years of living in a motorhome is that we're quite a bit different than most RV'ers.

Some of our best days in the motorhome

Many new readers perhaps don't realize that we didn't know anything about the RV world until we dove into it head first back in October 2007 . We started an online journal back then, but it was hosted at another site and Ruth has been hard at work transferring all those posts and pictures to this blog.

Lets get everybody on drugs

I heard on the radio that the U.S. food and drug administration has approved the cholesterol lowering drug "Crestor" for use in people without cholesterol problems.

Overpriced RV'ing accessories

I run the parts department at an RV dealership during the season. While I was away for the month of March, my last minute replacement (who didn't last 3 weeks) did some shopping.

New boondocking opportunity

You all know that we don't like to pay to park our motorhome overnight when we're travelling, and that we're not "RV park" people. And although we're getting pretty good at finding places other than Walmart to spend the night, it's always good to come across other options.

Adsense advertisements

I thought I would publish a little comment about the ads surrounding our blog posts every day.

Ottawa for the day

Happy Easter Sunday everyone! As if we haven't done enough driving, we're doing the 2 hours each way to Ottawa today to have supper with my family. Not only is it Easter Sunday dinner, but it's my nephew Marshal's 10th birthday.

College baseball

For those of you who followed us during our recent trip to Myrtle Beach and Fort Myers...our sons baseball team continues to do very well...

Another Beautiful Day!

Well things are shaping up to be another gorgeous day, maybe a little breezier than yesterday.  Kevin went off to work today at the RV place, rode his bike today as it was so nice.

Well that was a fairly productive day

Got the new summer tires and rims put on the little car. Took it for a test drive, and everything is perfect. I love getting a great deal on buying something used! The tires are still a little noisy, but they've got a fairly agressive tread pattern for an all season. Way quieter than the snow tires though. But they handle really well so I'm sure they'll do fine.

Motorhome maintenance

Today is looking like a beautiful day, and I have lots of work to do to Sherman the motorhome. And, I'm going to take those noisy winter tires off the little car and put the new summer tires on. But we do have a job list for the motorhome that will have to be completed before we head to Mexico in the fall...

Trip expenses...updated 10:30pm

Just totalling everything up from our month away.

We spent a total of $1,080.50 CAN on fuel. We bought 375 gallons of gas at an average of $2.77 US per gallon. That's about 76 cents per litre Canadian, so fuel is still much cheaper in the US than it is here in Canada. I notice this morning it's 98 cents per litre in Kingston. We drove almost 3,700 miles, so there's that 10 mpg figure that always seems to come up with a motorhome.

Back in Canada

Welcome back to the land of high taxes.

Snow

Got up at 7:00am, and hit the road right away. Already done 100 miles today, and sitting out the rush hour traffic in Scranton, Pennsylvania. They had a few inches of heavy wet snow through the mountains between Harrisburg and Wilkes-Barre, but the roads were cleared so it was no problem. Glad we didn't keep driving last night though.

Heading north

Slept great...total peace and quiet. Got up at 7am, and hit the road right away. We did another 20 miles or so on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Very scenic and we didn't see another car the whole 20 miles!

Race day!

10:00am
It totally poured with rain all yesterday evening. It wasn’t very cold though, which is a good thing because the last time we went to put the furnace on at about 9:30pm, there was no hot air! The fan was blowing, but you could hear that the flame wasn’t lighting. Not much that you can do about it in the dark and the pouring rain, so we just went to bed.

Rain

8:30am


Slept great, and it didn’t get as cold last night. Even made it through the night without the furnace on. Our sunshine has disappeared though, and it’s totally overcast now. It was supposed to rain overnight, but it never did, so maybe we’ll get lucky and the race won’t get rained out.

Sunny race day

8:15am
Well we’re waking up to clear skies and sunshine, but yesterday started off that way too. It got pretty cold last night though…there was ice on the inside of the bottom of the windshield, and frost covering most of the vehicles and grass outside. We had left the furnace on its lowest setting at about 50F (10C) and it cycled on and off several times last night.

Busy around the racetrack

Lots of activity around the track today. It's amazing watching the RV's come in and get parked up for the weekend. Seems we might be paying more for our parking spot than we thought. Looks like things have gone up to $150 for the 4 nights. I'll admit that we're in a pretty good spot, but even the bad spots where it gets muddy go for $100.

Martinsville Virginia

Just updated yesterdays activities, so read it first!

Got up early, and hit the road. Headed for Martinsville Virginia, and the NASCAR race this weekend!

Driving day

We're going to try and make it back to Cross, South Carolina...but we slept in a little bit. As you can see from the above pic, it's starting out to be a nice day. We'll check in with y'all later!

Cedar Key

Sorry for the lack of updates yesterday...just couldn't seem to get online! We did make it to Cedar Key though...

Heading for Cedar Key

We're going to drive about 120 miles to Cedar Key. It seems to be an often overlooked part of Florida that might be to our liking. It's a little out of our way, but looks like it might be worth the extra bit of driving.

Withlacoochee River Park

We're still waffling back and forth about leaving here today. I think we'll let the weather decide for us. We had some scattered showers this morning, but managed a nice walk in the forest. Now the sun is breaking through a bit, but it's becoming windy. I guess we'll decide for sure after lunch.

What a great game!

Just finished watching one of the best baseball games I've ever seen! The lead went back and forth all game, and we ended up pulling ahead by two runs in the top of the seventh. One of their guys got a home run in the bottom of the seventh, and we ended up winning 5-4.

Motorhome batteries

Thought I'd give a little more detail about the motorhome batteries that I wanted to get.

Baseball and batteries

7:30am
Well another day starts!  So far it is sunny and not a cloud in the sky and no wind.  The first game today is at 10am so we are going to have our coffee/tea and a shower before heading out.  Once at the park we will have our breakfast.  The boys are playing University of Minnesota (Morris).

Rookie League Baseball

Our son Alex's college team played against the Minnesota Twins Single-A rookie team today.

Fort Myers Beach

We headed to the beach this morning. Fort Myers Beach was supposed to be one of the best beaches in Florida, so we wanted to make an effort to see it. It was a little bit difficult finding a parking spot for Sherman.

Spring training baseball...updated 7:45pm

Maybe. 8:15am, and we're parked in the big lot at City of Palms Park where the Boston Red Sox do their spring training.

Riding our bikes downtown

We're headed downtown on our bicycles. Fort Myers has quite a few cycling lanes, and Google Maps has a new program for directions for people riding bikes.

Double header today

Slept great in the Best Western parking lot. Looks like another beautiful day!

Fort Myers

We were up at sunrise, and took Whiskey for a short walk. We wanted to get on the trails before they got busy.

Nice campground!

What a nice campground we stayed at last night. It wasn't very busy, so we were lucky to be able to get a waterfront site. In fact, there were enough sites for probably 25 RV's, yet our nearest neighbour was probably 150 feet away!

Florida

Got up at 7am. Temperature inside Sherman was 66F (19C). Gotta love it! Made a coffee and tea, and drove into Bryceville only about 2 miles away. Parked up at the public library using their free internet, and having some breakfast.

Made it to Florida

Whiskey let us sleep in this morning! We didn`t get up until 7:40am. But it`s raining, and so I guess she just didn`t see the need to get outside. We`re headed for the Florida border today, which is about 120 miles away. If the rain keeps up, we`ll probably just keep driving.

Headed for Georgia

Well, we were up at 7am this morning and got things ready to hit the road again. We sure enjoyed our time at Pete and Pam's lake house, and wish we could have stayed longer. But we've still got some miles to do before getting to Fort Myers on Sunday.

Relaxing

We are relaxing today! Well, not really. Ruth did some laundry, and I washed and polished one side of Sherman. And we did make it out for a walk with Whiskey on an old logging road not far from here.

Charleston, South Carolina

7:30am
We were up at about 6:45am, just in time to see the sunrise. I went to take a picture, and then realized we had left the camera inside the cottage. Pete and Pam have each gone to work, but they left us a key. It is starting out to be a beautiful sunny day, and we’ll head off to Charleston in Pete’s car after we have some breakfast.

Heading further south

We have about 700 miles (1,100 kms) to go to get to Fort Myers, and we have to be there for next Sunday. So about 100 miles (160 kms) a day on average, and that's about the speed we like to travel! We're going to do this entire distance without getting on the interstate highway.

A sunny day of baseball

Had a great sleep last night. Whiskey even let us sleep in to just after 7am! Another blue sky sunny day, perfect for another couple of winning baseball games. Hopefully not too windy though.

Off to do a timeshare tour

Up before 7am, and at 8am we'll head over to the timeshare place. Our appointment is at 9am, but we'll show up a bit early and eat some of their food!

Myrtle Beach by lunchtime!

Well, that's the plan anyhow. Had a good night sleep behind the church. Up early this morning, and it's sunny! In fact, the forecast is for sunshine and warmer temperatures for the next 5 days!

North Carolina

6:30am
Didn’t have a great sleep. It sounded like something was on the roof. I know I had parked under a tree, but the branches were well above the roof. I looked out the back window, and the branches were covered in heavy wet snow! Every time the wind blew, a branch would knock against the roof making it sound like something was running around up there.

Just outside Maryland

I just posted the update to yesterdays blog, so you can read that first! We got up just after 6am this morning, and hit the road early to get out of Harrisburg traffic before it started getting busy. So we drove for an hour or so and are posting this from a Staples wi-fi hotspot just outside of Gettysburg. Temperature on a sign we saw leaving Harrisburg was 37F (3C).

We're on our way!

Ok so we are finally on the road! But before getting to today a quick run down on yesterday. Wow what a busy day it was. Lots of packing and cleanning. Luckily the weather was better than they forceast, nice bright sunny skies. Kevin got the furnance turned on in Sherman with no problem and loaded the bikes onto the back, then we went to install the water pump and one of the fittings broke off.

Getting ready to go

We are going to sleep in the motorhome tonight!

Starting to move into Sherman

It's snowing again!  Hard to believe that only a few days ago there was no snow on the ground.  Conditions were great for us to get things moved into Sherman.  That has changed.  Since Thursday we have had snow every day and it is wet, heavy and sloppy snow.  I keep shovelling because I don't want it to freeze up on us and make a total mess.  It is wet and very slushy, even Whiskey isn't enjoying her walks much. 

Google gave us some money!

Well, we received our first payment from Google Adsense!

Portugal

We have always loved to travel, even before RVing.  Lots of the time it was tent camping, or quick cheap one week trips down south to all inclusive resorts and trips to England to see relatives.

Miserable weather

Well the weather around here has turned miserable and slushy. It's not cold out...the temperature is hovering around the freezing mark. But we had about 5 cm's (2 inches) of wet snow overnight, and it drizzled with rain most of the day, and now it's coming down as wet snow again.

Sorting out Sherman

I am trying to work on organizing our stuff better in Sherman, but I don't want it to cost us money with additional storage containers.  If anyone has any cheap tricks they use for organizing things please let us know. 

What I do on Bus Tours

On Saturday I had been thinking about what I needed to do this week in preparation for leaving on March 1st.  I was going to do a bit each day, but that quickly got put to the back burner as I had an email requesting me to do a bus tour for Sunday, the next day and this coming Wednesday. So I now had some work to do for this.

One week until we sleep in Sherman again!

We will spend much of this week getting ready for our month in the motorhome!

Beautiful Churches

When Kevin and I travel around, especially in small towns, we love to look at the different types of achitecture.

GPS

So we almost bought a new GPS unit the other day. They sure have come down in price, just like everything else electronic!

Jumping Deer

Well sorry the blog is late today.  Kevin drove me up to Perth yesterday to meet up with my dad to go to his place again, and he thought I was going to do the blog and I thought he was.  So now I am doing the blog. 

Mostly Mexican

The other day I talked about cooking food in Sherman and mentioned that we don't eat out very often.  Normally we don't even eat out once a month.  The main reasons are that we really like our own cooking, and it is generally expensive and not worth the price.

Outdoors

Yesterday, when we drove down to pick up the rims and tires, we also took Whiskey for a walk at the Heber Down Conservation Area near Whitby, Ontario.

We love getting a deal

Yesterday was a good day for getting a bargain, and we do love getting a bargain!

Campground etiquette, part 2

When we workcamped at the KOA in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island in the summer of 2008, part of our job was a once a week garbage detail. This also entailed tidying up the firepits at the various vacated sites that day.

Caves

Do you like caves?  Kevin and I sure do!  We have seen caves now in four different countries, Canada, United States, Mexico and England.  I think the two caves that are our favourites, are Kartchner Caverns in Arizona and Grutas de Garcia (Garcia Caves) in Mexico.

Apparently I have a twin

Ruth asked me to pick up a couple of things on the way home from work. So, I'm in the grocery store, and get to the checkout line. There's only one person in front of me, and she's busy paying her bill.

Cooking in the motorhome

Well we are late with the blog today.  Sorry about that readers.  It got late last night and we realized that the post wasn't done and by that time we were both too tired.

Campground etiquette, part 1

Some of you who read our blog may not be familiar with RV Parks, and the unwritten rules that you should follow when occupying an RV campsite.

Only 3 weeks until we leave for Florida

Yep, only 3 weeks to go. All that snow in Baltimore area had better be melted by then! We hope to be in that area for our first night on the road. I guess I better make sure the furnace in the motorhome is working properly!

Going to visit my father

I went to visit my father this past week. Kevin drove me to Perth on his driving route that he does every afternoon during the week and Dad met me there.

Cell phones and communication

Readers Trent and Teresa asked about what we do for cell phone when we're on the road. Well, there's a bit of a story to that...

This blog

The main reason we started writing online was to be able to have friends and family be informed as to where we are and what we're doing when we're travelling. And for the first 18 months, we used a trip journal site that we had to pay about $80 per year for. This worked just fine.

National Parks

We in Canada are very lucky to have a country that has such beautiful National Parks.  Having said that the United States and Mexico also have fantastic parks and that is what is so nice about the world, because each country is so unique.

Free...or included?

This discussion has come up between Ruth and I on a few different road trips, and in a few different circumstances. Is something free, or is it included in the price you have already paid for another service?

Become a follower

You'll notice in the column to the right if you scroll down below the ads, you'll see the section that says "Followers". There, you can see the little pictures of everyone who has signed up to follow our blog entries every day.

Woman's Point of View

Thank you to everyone who is sending in comments, it is great to hear from you, and see the way you look at things, so please keep them coming.  Also if you ever have a topic you would like us to discuss don't hestitate to post a comment or send us an email.

A house sitting mishap

Well January went by pretty quick. Considering January is usually the worst month of the year for people living in this terrible climate!

We don't own a house

And we don't plan on owning one again. Yes, we own Sherman, but he's not a house. He's our home!

Solar Panels

I'm working part time in an RV dealership. Besides the obvious benefit of getting a big discount on parts that I might need to buy for Sherman, I also get to talk to people at work all day about Rv'ing . It's a pretty good job, and if I have to do something, at least I kind of enjoy it.

Sunsets

When people are travelling they usually have time to see things that they don't normally notice or never took the time to notice.  Sunsets are something that most working people just don't take the time to look at.

Whiskey

Even though our children are out in the world doing their own thing, we still have a major family responsibility. That is our dog, Whiskey.

We don't have a toad

Those of you who own motorhomes will know what I'm talking about. Those of you who don't own a motorhome probably need an explanation. You're probably thinking "well, I don't have any reptiles either"!

The Grand Canyon

I saw the picture Kevin put up yesterday and it got me thinking! Do you have a "Bucket List" or a list of places that you must see before you die? Well the Grand Canyon was one of those places that we HAD to see.

The snow is almost gone here!

We went for a nice walk today along part of the Rideau Trail system here in Ontario.

Do you know what an actuary is?

Our son has decided he'd like to be an actuary.

When he brought this up, I didn't know what to think because although I had heard the term before, I didn't really know what an actuary is. Or how you become one. Or what an actuary does.

Where to park up!

A lot of people have asked us in our travels, where do you find somewhere free to park overnight and feel safe.  We don't seem to have much trouble with this, because we always find somewhere, it may not always be our ideal spot and sometimes it isn't for free.

Blog journal updates now in the evening

I think from now on we're going to go back to our old habit of making new blog journal posts in the late evening. It's much easier to remember all of the days activities while it's still fresh in your mind.

Personalized laptop case

Some of the deals you can find on the internet are totally amazing.

Thank you for following our blog every day!

Writing a post when you are not travelling is much harder than it seems. You want to keep things interesting which is much easier when you are travelling each day…you have a different thing to talk about as each day is different.

Wildlife

Here we are living in the city of Kingston and what do we see outside the kitchen window two nights ago? A raccoon...he sure looked pretty cute! Kevin took Whiskey out for a walk last night and saw another one peeking his head out from a culvert and found out from talking to another dog walker that there is a whole family of them living in this culvert under the driveway of the house across the street.

I Have a Cold

Yesterday I started getting the sniffles and sneezing a little bit.

NASCAR racing

I used to be a big Nascar race fan, back in the late 90's when Rusty Wallace and Dale Earnhardt Sr. were racing. The guys I worked with

Changing the oil

Well, it's warmed up outside, so I think I'll get out there and change the oil in our little car today. Supposed to go up to 2C (36F) so that's not bad for mid January. I already bought the oil on sale at Walmart a

Ecuador

We're thinking we might like to spend a winter in Ecuador.

Boondocking near cities

Why don’t cities make several areas throughout their municipality for boondocking? Instead they actually make it difficult in some cities with restrictions to overnight parking.

Travel to different places

In Canada, most people want to take a vacation south at some point during the winter. The cheapest places to go, from just about anywhere in Canada are Cuba, Mexico, and Dominican Republic. In fact, we have been to all three of these places as warmer destinations to get away from cold Canadian winters.

Our old website versus our new blog

We kept track of our first 18 months on the road at www.mytripjournal.com/kevin_ruth

But that website cost us money...I think it was around $80 per year.

Went for a hike

Well, even in the cold, you still have to live. So, we looked up some hiking trails in the nearby area and we took Whiskey for a nice walk yesterday. We ended up at the Parrot's Bay Conservation area about 18 km's (11 miles) west of here.

Looking forward to Florida

Well, we saw that our son Alex's college baseball schedule is up, so we know that we will be in Myrtle Beach, SC from March 4-7, and Fort Myers, Florida area from March 14-20. And, we've got tickets to the Martinsville, Virginia NASCAR race on March 28!

24/7 in the motorhome

When we started out on this RV lifestyle, some of the questions people asked us were "what are you going to do all the time?" and "won't you get bored?"

Budget stuff

We don't make very much money, so we have to be cautious about how we spend it. In fact, the poverty industry in Canada would have you believe that we live below the poverty line! Poor us!

We like Mexico

Well you have heard us talk about Mexico and show lots of pictures of Mexico, so I guess you can easily figure out that we like Mexico. If you told us four or five years ago that you could drive a motorhome into and around Mexico we would have thought you were crazy. Well I think now that other people think we are crazy because now we have done it twice and love it!!!!

Camping out in the boondocks

US and Canadian slang

1. wild, desolate, or uninhabitable country

2. a remote rural or provincial area Sometimes shortened to the Boonies

New batteries for the motorhome?

I sure do like looking at the days counting down. Essentially, we have less than 2 months of winter left!

Edit*** Went for brunch today...

We don't do Christmas gifts with the family anymore, so instead we like to get together for an expensive restaurant meal.

Unforgettable Places

Ruth's Dad gave us two books for Christmas.

One is called "Unforgettable Places", and is a pictorial description of 80 unique sights and experiences around the world...from adventure filled walks and breath taking hikes to secluded beaches and ruins that have been around for thousands of years.

Another great deal...! Toronto to Panama City, Panama for $95

$95 plus $220 tax, leaving Jan 9, returning Jan 16.

www.sunwing.ca

One piece of furniture

When we set out to simplify our lifestyle towards the goal of full time RV'ing in September of 2007, we sold virtually everything in our 4 bedroom house. We now own about ten full rubbermaid storage bins, and one piece of furniture. These items are stored at my sister's house.