It was an odd weekend...

The weekend went pretty smoothly actually. But what made it odd was a bit of lack of people. Our daily campsites were pretty much sold out, and those people were camping and having fun. But a lot of the regular campers from our seasonal sites weren't there!

And the weekend is not really over yet because today is a sort of a holiday. Actually, the holiday (Canada Day) is tomorrow...July 1st. But because it takes place on a Tuesday, many people across the country will have taken today off work as well as tomorrow.

My Photo of the Loch Ness Monster!

I saw some photos the other day that made me want to return to Scotland. We were there once, for a week way back in May of 1987. Holy cow, that's more than 25 years ago!

A lot of the photos I was looking at were from Scotland's Isle of Skye. I have some history there, and it's always been on our list of places we want to see. Can't really remember why we didn't go there back in 1987, but we had an 8 month old daughter at the time, so maybe that had something to do with it.

And so it begins...

A pretty good start to our busy summer season here at the campground. We had everything ready to go, or at least we thought we did. Turns out that we missed a couple of things.

Nothing serious, but it did cause a little bit of aggravation.

Enough visitors for a dinner party!

And we didn't even have to cook!

So... a nice little class B unit pulled in yesterday, and I'm outside talking to Sharon, the lady who runs our canteen. The couple in the class B park, and start wandering over towards us. He's got a bottle of wine in his hand. "Are you Kevin?" the guy asks.

Even more visitors!

Apparently being only 45 minutes off the Trans Canada highway means that we're a lot more accessible to travelers.

We've been here less than two months and we have already received our seventh set of visitors!

Two more days of peace and quiet

And then the fun begins.

It's going to be very busy here between June 27th and August 4th. Actually, we're sort of looking forward to it. The campground is pretty much ready for the hoards of people, and the water level has risen to the point where the boaters will be able to use  the lake.

How to explore Etosha National Park

For some of you, this will be a look at some of the many pictures we didn't get to show you while we were there in November of 2013. For others, wanting to go to Namibia themselves, this will be primer on how best to explore the park, and the things we learned that we could have done better.

First of all, Namibia's Etosha National Park is huge.

Have you got a gun?!

So the water is definitely rising. But not as much as they said it might. Actually, I think they were just a day or two off. It really only started coming up fast yesterday morning, and it did rise about a foot yesterday. It also came up quite a bit overnight.

I took a couple of photos on Saturday morning and again just now.

It wasn't meant to be...

I came across another fantastic airfare yesterday morning. It meant changing our (very loose) plans again, so we hummed and hawed about it for over an hour, despite knowing that it was a great deal.

Eventually, we decided to book it.

Very strange!

Man it is a small world sometimes, isn't it? Do you remember the strange coincidence we told you about when we were in South Africa? That was just simply weird. It still leaves us shaking our heads.

Well we learned of another strange coincidence yesterday.

All we need is a rocking chair...

Despite the fact that we have very few campers at the park, there's still a lot to do to keep us busy. Fortunately, I think we're now at the point where we're doing things that we want to do rather than things that we have to do.

Oh. Scratch that. I just remembered that I've got a loose toilet to fix. Don't really want to do that, but I have to!

Long day yesterday

Was up at 4:30am yesterday morning to take Lindsey and the kids to Regina airport for their flight back to Nova Scotia.

We've been getting a lot of rain the last few days and the hill leading out of the campground gets pretty muddy. I was a little worried about the ability of the little blue car and it's driver to get us up the hill!

What motivates you to travel?

We want to know what motivates you to travel and how do you like to travel?

Everyone has a different reason to travel and enjoys traveling in a different way. No way is the wrong way if it is the right way for you.

Starting to turn people away

We had quite a few phone calls and emails yesterday from people wanting a campsite for the long weekend. But most of them want a full hookups campsite and we're pretty much sold out. There are a few tenting sites remaining, and a couple of 15 amp electric and water sites with no sewer hookups.

The Canadian July long weekend is a little goofy this year.

San Francisco on our agenda?

Boy, it was a miserable weekend weatherwise, so we spent much of it indoors. That meant that I was on the internet more than normal. And when on the internet, my usage tends to be towards travel related things.

So I was once again exploring the options for how we're going to get from Seattle down to Mexico in early November when we return from South Korea. And I came up with an interesting plan!

A picture is worth a thousand words

Not sure I could write a thousand words about how cold and rainy it was yesterday. If felt like April, not June! Still, we didn't want to be stuck in the house all day, so we went out for a walk a couple of times just to get some fresh air.

Keeping busy when it rains

We're in the middle of our first real rainy spell. It poured buckets all afternoon yesterday, and still raining this morning. And it's abnormally cold too. The high expected today is only 13C (55F)!

But even with the inclement weather, there's still lots going on here at the park!

Surprise visitors!

Apparently being a little further south in Saskatchewan means that more people are more inclined to stop in and say hello. Last year we were just a little too far north. This year, we're only about 45 minutes from the Trans Canada highway.

It was kind of funny when Robert and Karen showed up!

Push Button for Service

Most of these regional parks in Saskatchewan (there are around 90 of them) started out back in the 1960's or 1970's. Many began as just a place for a group of guys to go camping and fishing.

As time went on they grew to include other services. Some of them now have swimming pools or even golf courses. Each one seems to have a specific attraction. Last year, our park was known for it's fantastic fishing. The main attraction here at Cabri Regional Park seems to be recreational boating.

Not the most glamorous part of the job...

For us, the worst part of managing a campground is dealing with the bathrooms. Unfortunately, keeping them spotless is a big part of Ruth's job...but I also have some crappy responsibilities when the plumbing needs work!

We spent most of the day yesterday on one bathroom!

Malealea Lodge in the tiny country of Lesotho

We saved a few posts for you from our Southern Africa trip. Today we're going to look at the place we stayed in Lesotho, the tiny country surrounded by South Africa.

The family owned Malealea Lodge in the remote village of Malealea is located in a fertile valley and is surrounded by beautiful mountains. It is a hiking and horseback riding paradise, and was one of our top five experiences during our four month visit!

We feasted like kings!

The day began with Chris and Juan making a common Mexican breakfast for everyone. Huevos rancheros! Eggs served on tortillas with refried beans and potatoes and salsa.

What a great start to the day!

Some assembly required...

Great day yesterday. It's funny how quickly the weather changes though. Yesterday morning was totally beautiful, and then a cold front passed through and the temperature dropped like a rock and it got windy and rainy. That lasted for two hours or so and then the sun came out and it was beautiful blue sky and sunshine again!

Ruth and I had a little campground work to do, and everyone else kept busy too...

Visitors from Mexico!

Average day here at the park yesterday. It's a little cool, and so we still don't have that many people coming in. Besides the people who hold seasonal sites, I think we had three reservations for the weekend.

One of them was a couple of RVers who drove here all the way from Mexico!

A nest full of baby birds

Yesterday was hedge trimming day for me, while Ruth and Lindsey and the kids went into Cabri to pick up some plants and flowers. Hedge trimming is a big job, and one that I've never done before.

But I caught on pretty quick and I think the finished product looks great!

I'd rather stay at the park!

Going in to town to do our weekly grocery shop is a pain in the butt! We left at around 11:00am and didn't get back until 5:15pm.

It's a 45 minute drive each way, and we have to make a lot of different stops in town. It doesn't help when the lineups at the checkouts are so long!

They Have Arrived!

Ruth did the three hour drive each way to Saskatoon airport yesterday to pick up our daughter Lindsey and grandkids Cameron and Sadie. Apparently she parked and walked to the terminal and as she entered the terminal, there they were! Perfect timing.

Photo of the Month!

You'll notice that today's header photo dates back to October of 2007. That was the month that we officially vacated our home in Ottawa and took off in our motorhome, Sherman!

For the next several weeks we're going to be featuring our choice of photo of the month as our header photo. We'll be going month by month since the October 2007, so this should continue with a different header photo each day.

Camping Slobs

Pretty uneventful weekend. We met some more of the seasonals who dropped their trailers and fifth wheels off for the summer. And we had two sets of young people show up and do some tenting.

After they left on Sunday morning, I went to tidy up their sites. One was not bad, and just required the normal cleanup. However the other was a mess.

May Expenses

A little higher than we expected, but not by much.

Really, our only expenses for the summer are food and internet. Oh, and of course insurance and a bit of fuel for the little blue car. But we arrived here to empty cupboards so we had some stocking up to do!