Trip down to Ottawa

We're going to be doing this drive quite a few times between now and October 15th when we leave for Nova Scotia. We're staying at Ruth's father's house in the village of Galetta, which is about a 45 minute drive from the center of the city of Ottawa, Canada's capital.

We made it!

Despite the fact that we haven't lived here for six years and we'll probably never live here again, we still consider Ottawa our hometown. So arriving back here for the first time in almost a year is pretty exciting for us and we've been looking forward to seeing the family and friends that we have in the area.

We left here October 22nd of last year.

Elliot Lake, Ontario

Elliot Lake is an interesting town. Or at least it has an interesting history.

In the early fifties, a huge ore body of uranium was discovered in this area. So the city was designed as a planned community for the mining industry, and by the late 1950's there were 25,000 people living here.

Fastest Border Crossing Ever!

Yesterday morning, our friends Bill and Bonnie were getting up early to go get their solar installation done on their motorhome. They had a three hour drive to the appointment, so they woke us up as they were ready to go. It was only 5:40am, but we decided to stay up and get an early start.

A drive around Amish country

Bill and Bonnie took us for a drive to see the sights around the area. There is a large Amish population in this area and of course it's interesting to see this culture a little more up close. Sorry we don't have many pictures, but we didn't want to seem intrusive.

What a great day...

First, we had to get the drive over with. We tried to get an early start, and it was about 8:30am by the time we left Marquette.

Beautiful day in Marquette, Michigan!

When I had been doing some research about the places we were planning on stopping along this road trip, one of the things I found was that Marquette, Michigan was voted #1 on CNNMoney's list of the top 25 places to retire in the United States.

We went exploring yesterday, on a beautiful blue sky day, and we found out that Marquette (pop 22,000) is a nice little town!

Duluth, Minnesota to Marquette, Michigan

Hit the road yesterday morning around 8:30am. We were trying to make it to Marquette by 2:00pm, having planned a hike with our couchsurfing host Joy when we got there.

Had no problems making it out of Duluth on a Sunday morning. Hardly any traffic at all.

Toxic Tuesday

Toxic Tuesday? Well let me tell you a story about our first attempt to visit Duluth, Minnesota.

Back at the end of June 1992, Ruth and I took our young children (6 and 4 at the time) on a road trip from Ottawa to Fort Frances, Ontario. We took the American route through Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

And we never did make it to Duluth.

Paul Bunyan and Babe, the Blue Ox

We tried to leave Grand Forks fairly early, but it was still around 9:30am by the time we got on the road. Said goodbye to our couchsurfing host Jasmine, and got on our way.

Back in the U.S.A.!

We were up early yesterday morning, and on the road before 9:00am. We were only 20 kms (12 miles) from the border crossing, so it wasn't long before we pulled over at the inspection and customs building.

This border crossing is one of a series of old and underutilized road crossings between the U.S. and Canada in the Saskatchewan and Manitoba area.

Excuse me...are you Kevin and Ruth?

This has to be one of the strangest questions that we have heard in our travels. It's when someone actually recognizes us because of this blog. It's only happened to us three or four times over the years, but it's so totally strange when it does.

And yesterday we had it happen again!

That was a long drive!

But we totally enjoyed it. I know, an 800 km (500 mile) drive is not the way we usually like to travel. We love road trips, but usually a long day for us is 200 kms (120 miles)!

We were up at 6:00am Tuesday morning, and driving out of the parking lot at the campground at 7:20am.

We're the only ones here.

Everybody is gone now. The campground is empty. The store, restaurant, and registration are all closed up.

It's just us and the squirrels.

Heigh ho, heigh ho,

it's off to our last day of work we go!

We've been waiting for this day since May the 1st!

Strange places to visit

We like to find strange, different, and quirky things to see and do in our travels. Even if it means going out of our way or being slightly uncomfortable, we think that to experience these things is to live. Here are some of the strangest things we've seen and done...

T minus 4 days...

Counting down the days until we're outta here.

Our inmate work crew got a lot done yesterday. Even though they're really only here working for about 4 hours, then don't stop. When I told one guy it was quitting time, he said "What? We only just got started!".

Getting ready to shut things down.

There's not really a lot to do to shut things down around here. Besides, it turns out that they're actually keeping the campground open until the end of the month but there won't be any services. The water will be turned off and the washrooms and shower building will be closed.  Nobody will be in the office and store although someone will come around a couple of times per day to make sure anyone camping pays their fees. There will still be electricity at the campsites though.

New York City

Obviously thoughts of New York City will be crossing your mind today, the anniversary of the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers.

But we're also thinking of New York City because we'll be back there together on November 2nd for four nights!

Would we do it again?

Now that our campground manager job is coming to an end for the season, we've had quite a few readers asking if we would do it again.

But first, we have to clarify once again that we are NOT camp hosts.

Doing the happy dance!

We got the word yesterday. Our last day of work for the season will be next Sunday the 15th.

Monday the 16th we'll get the little blue car packed up, and early morning of Tuesday the 17th we're outta here!!!

Fall is in the air

You can sure tell that Labour Day long weekend signals the end of summer.

We had four campsites occupied this past week. And this weekend, we've had seven.

Would you visit the Himba people?

The country of Namibia has 11 major distinct ethnic groups of people.

One of them is the Himba, a nomadic tribe of people who appear to have been forgotten by the rest of the world. Even though they say there are between 20,000 and 50,000 of these people living in the extreme isolation of the northwest corner of Namibia, they don't receive many visitors, and because of their nomadic existence they are somewhat difficult to find in the first place.

We booked a strange flight deal...

Yesterday was a day for deals, that's for sure. And we LOVE getting a deal.

We've been looking for the cheapest way to get to New York City, and something came up yesterday that we jumped on. Kinda strange though...because the destination was to Philadelphia!

Great day visiting with friends

Spent most of the day yesterday with our friends Doug and Nancy and his brother Dwayne and wife Agnes. Another one of our seasonal campers left yesterday, and then another couple of campers showed up towards the end of the day. You can sure tell that everybody is back at work and school!

Peace and quiet

Well, until our visitors showed up anyhow. Bunch of hooligans, keeping us up with their partying! Ha...just kidding.

Yesterday morning we took a canoe out. Nice to get a break for a change and we didn't see another boat out on the lake.

It's over!

Well, it's not quite over, but certainly the worst is over.

Our busy time here at the campground is the weekend, and long weekends are the busiest. Plus of course, they last three nights instead of two! But we survived this weekend just fine...and it was the last LONG weekend of the season.

Our Namibia trip just got better!

With many thanks to our facebook fans, we're thrilled to announce that we are one of three winners of another contest!

The prize?

25 nights of accommodation and breakfast at any of the lodges that belong to the Gondwana Collection Namibia.

August Expenses

Yeehaw! It's September, and that means we can say "We're outta here this month!" Not sure when, exactly. We were told at the beginning of the season that it would be between the 15th and the 30th. We're hoping it will be around the 20th.

August expenses came in exactly where we thought they would. A month ago, I had posted our July expenses at $1,052 and I predicted our August expenses would be about the same. August came in at $1,078.