We don't often comment on news items

But the recent killing of Zimbabwe's Cecil the lion by an American trophy hunter has us wanting to give our own perspective on the incident.

First of all, the research I've done shows that there are approximately 3,000 lions in Zimbabwe. The country issues between 50 and 70 trophy hunting permits per year to hunt a lion. The lions are almost all located on public and private nature preserves.

Want to know how easy it is to hunt a lion?

Just about done with forums.

I used to sign up on various discussion forums, but I simply don't have the patience for wading through the useless posts and the lack of moderation. Drives me crazy, so for the most part I just avoid them now. I have tried two facebook groups recently, but I'm pretty much done with them now too.

Some of the discussion just makes you shake your head. Check this out...

Our top 10 blog posts

I noticed that yesterday was our 2,600th blog post. Almost eight years of our life, detailed for all to see. There sure is some interesting stuff in there. When I looked back at some of the early blog posts, I almost removed some of the stuff...things that I wouldn't write about today. But, they are part of the past and they reflect what I was thinking at the time so they can remain there.

The following are our 10 favorite posts, not necessarily yours, nor necessarily the most popular.

One more busy weekend to go

And then the worst is over.

The Canadian August long weekend is the busiest weekend of the year for us here at the park. This year, it's this coming Friday July 31st through Monday August 3. For those dates we've been sold out since the end of June, however there has been the odd cancellation due to harvest coming a little early this year. But when somebody cancels, the vacancy is usually filled the same day.

Carnival in Rio de Janeiro...?

Came across an airfare this morning from Mexico City to Rio de Janeiro. Around $350 USD return for each of us. Definitely a good price, but not a great price. I think if it was a great price, and the Canadian dollar exchange rate was just a little better then we might have booked it.

But going to "Carnival in Rio" does have a certain ring to it, doesn't it?

Traveler finances

Those of you who never leave your home country don't need to worry about this as much, however for budget world travelers it totally makes sense to keep an eye on what the currency markets are doing.

And they are doing some interesting things lately.

Sculptures from our travels

First off, today is the last day to enter our current contest. For those of you who love (or want to try!) boondocking, this is for you...

http://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2015/07/for-our-rving-readers.html

Ruth mentioned the other day that we have a lot of pictures of statues and sculptures. So we thought we would show you some of the more interesting ones. Plus, I don't expect we've ever posted them here before. I tend to put up more landscape type photos here and skip over the artistic ones.

So, here are some photos you've likely never seen here before...

It was better than Christmas!

We've been doing a lot of online shopping recently and I had waited until all of the packages had been received at the local post office so that I only had to make one trip into town to pick them all up.

Man, there were a lot of packages!

Top countries in the world for RV camping

Although it's pretty much a given that the United States of America is at the top of the list as far as the easiest country in the world for RV camping, it is most certainly not the only place where RV'ing is popular and a worthwhile way to explore.

So we came up with a list of countries that we think would be the top places where you can enjoy RV travel. And why!

Tilley sold, but the quality will remain...

It was announced last week that Tilley Endurables was sold to a UK investment firm for an undisclosed sum. The founder Alex Tilley was wanting to retire and at age 77 who could blame him?!

Too bad he couldn't have found a Canadian buyer, but at least it sounds like the company and it's production will remain essentially Canadian.

Booked another flight!

We finish our contract here in Saskatchewan on September 30, and the very next day we'll be in Ottawa, Ontario!

Yes, we'll still be driving the motorhome down to Mexico City area in time for our flight to Colombia at the end of October. It'll just be a slightly more rushed drive.

Here's the plan...

For our RV'ing readers!

Our regular readers know that our style of RV'ing is different than most. If you're new here, I'll explain. We love camping with our motorhome, and we love it even more when it's free. Usually, camping for free means that you are not hooked up to any services, and you need to rely on your own self sufficiency...sometimes for days on end. And ideally, without another RV in sight.

To us, this is the definition of the term "boondocking".

Can you walk on water?

We had a busy day yesterday with a lot going on here at the park. Thankfully, the weather cooperated and it was a successful day. Two different fundraisers taking place here, one to support the park and one in aid of ovarian cancer.

Oh, and the results of our son's race yesterday!

Busy day today...

Busy day today! Up early at just after 6:00am in order to help some of the campers set up the hamster balls pool. You'll see pictures tomorrow! And that was after hardly getting any sleep last night due to a group of drunk teenagers. Didn't properly get to bed until almost 3:30am, so I'm going to have to make time for an afternoon nap...if I make it as far as the afternoon!

Rise and shine!

It's time to get up!

Do you have trouble getting up in the morning? I don't know what it is, but over the years we've gotten to the point where we can't sleep in. Even if we stay up late, we're pretty much always awake by 7:00am.

Or, are you the type who hits the snooze button on the alarm three times before dragging yourself out of bed?

Lots of empties

Here in Saskatchewan, all drink containers (cans, plastic bottles, glass bottles, and tetra paks) except milk have a deposit of between 10 and 20 cents added on when you buy them. Then, you bring the empty container back to the return depot, and get your money back.

Many people who camp here leave their empty containers as a donation to the park. We try to bring as many empties as we can back to the depot every Wednesday in the little blue car, but of course the little blue car can only carry so much!

And after a busy weekend, we simply have too many empties!

Want your own blog?

The young son of one of our best friends back in Ottawa is about to set out on his own travel journey and he had asked us about how to set up a blog. I've had several people ask that over the last month or so, so I thought it would be worthwhile to share publicly.

There are many reasons to set up a blog. Most blogs, such as ours, start out for personal reasons. We simply wanted a way to keep our friends and relatives back home informed about where we are, and what we're doing.

Camping with Dogs

We had our first dog complaint this past weekend. And since we put our strict policy in place this season, I'm positive that there are less people actually bringing their dogs into the park compared to last year. Man, there were weekends last year when I thought there were more dogs than people in the park!

But the problems only start when the dog owners don't realize that not everyone loves their Fido as much as they do.

Another winner, and another contest!

We love giving stuff away here during our time at the park when we're not actually traveling. It's fun for us, and it's fun for you! Our current contest ended Saturday night, and we picked a winner. And our next contest is starting this week. Possibly even tomorrow, we'll see. This next one will definitely be of interest to our RV'ing readers, so stay tuned!

But for now, let's see who won a $200 leather jacket from MotorcycleHouse.com ...

I like when it's busy, however...

I consider the most important part of my job here at the park is to make sure that every camper is happy and enjoys their time here. That's the number one most important thing.

Yesterday evening, I spent from dinner time until 10:00pm trying to make people happy!

Another busy weekend here at the campground

We're definitely busier this year than we were last year. I guess word is getting out! The prettiest park in Saskatchewan. In our own unbiased opinion of course. :-)

Almost sold out this weekend. I think there are two or three empty sites.

Account Hacked!

But before we get to that, we have some good news too!

We occasionally have the opportunity to publish sponsored posts, where we get paid to advertise or publish outgoing links to another website. We try to keep them travel related and have often turned down opportunities that we don't think are suitable to this blog. Some of the opportunities that we turn down are in fact fairly lucrative.

Yesterday's post was what we call a "non promotional sponsored post".

Having fun outside of Vegas

We've been to Vegas twice. The first time was to experience all the glitz and glamour there is to be seen. And there is a lot of glitz and glamour to be seen!

Off to the doctor!

But before we get to that, thanks to everyone for reading yesterday's post. Not a very good response though. You know how many donations came through?

Zero.

But, I get it. Apparently things are a little tight these days. Still, I figured they might get a couple of hundred bucks. Or at least a few comments wishing the boys good luck. Oh well. You don't know unless you try and now we know not to try again. I have a plan though.

Looking for a top five finish!

Our son Alex has always been very physically active and has been involved in sports and competition of some kind since he was a little kid. Last year around this time, he entered a race of sorts with a buddy of his, Matt.

It's called CityChase, and it's really taking off here in Canada. It's now held in 5 major cities, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa, and Toronto.

You have to enter and run the race as a two person team. And there is a limit of 300 teams in each CityChase race. Alex and Matt entered as a team for the first time in last year's race...and they finished 7th, out of 300!

Bought a new GPS, and June Expenses

I've been waiting for few months and watching every day for a Garmin GPS to come on sale here in Canada that includes maps of Mexico. And today was the day! Details down below.

And I never published our June expenses, so they follow below as well. Our expenses are pretty consistent while we're here at the park, so unless we buy something extra (like a new GPS!) then there's not much to talk about. But we list them here mostly for our own records, but we know that some of you like to follow our expenses as well.

Checking in camping stories...

We were almost sold out this weekend. And so when it's this busy, there's always a couple of campground stories to tell. Thankfully, none of them are bad. Yes, I still got up at 1:30am and went for a walk around the park to make sure nobody was out there being too stupid. But fortunately, things were pretty quiet, so I don't have any drunk people stories to tell.

But I do have a feel good story...

Happy Independence Day from up here in Canada!

Today, Canada is most certainly the apartment above the house having a big party as our American friends down below celebrate their day of independence.

It was actually on July 2, 1776 that congress voted to approve a resolution declaring the United States independent from Great Britain.

On July 3rd, John Adams (later to become President) wrote this to his wife...

What's with the F word?

Is it only us? It seems to me that the use of obscenities, swearing, and expletives has become more commonplace. Almost to the point of where it has no shock value anymore.

Almost.

Sometimes, I'm still shocked. Not by the use of the word itself, but by how much people don't care if they use it.

Invited to Algeria

There are friendly people the world over. It's all in your own attitude as to whether or not you get to meet them.

We've been following a fellow travel blogger, Johnny Ward, a young man from Ireland. He's on a mission to visit every country in the world and is currently in South Sudan. Not exactly a country that many people have on their destination bucket list!

Happy Canada Day - East to West

Happy Canada Day!

Yes, today is a national holiday for those of us up here in the Great White North.

We've been all across Canada. Several times, actually. So we have lots of photos that were taken in Canada. (We've never been to the northern territories). It's tough to choose, but today we're going to show you ten of our favorite pictures of Canada...one from each of the ten Canadian provinces...