I didn't plan that very well...

I found us a fantastic deal on a car rental a few months ago, and I booked it for three weeks during our time here in Ottawa.

Only problem is, I have it starting this coming Monday, October 2nd. I figured that Lindsey and Justin have two cars and that one should be available for us to use occasionally for a few days our first week here. But, it turns out that the one older car needs a major brake job now and it's not safe to drive the way it is.

So we've been without transportation these first few days.

Getting Sherman ready for his adventure

Had a great sleep Wednesday night back in the motorhome. Seems like it only took the one night to get caught up on the lack of sleep from our travels the night before. So that's good. We got our bags unpacked and everything sorted out to live in Sherman on and off for the next three and a half weeks or so.

I say "on and off" because we're headed down to Ruth's sister's for a night, and then Pelee Island next weekend. And then of course we'll be up at Ruth's dad's for a few nights along the way and I've got my guys weekend away on the 20th of October.

Arrived in Ottawa!

When we left off yesterday, we had been at Toronto airport waiting for our flight to Ottawa. The gate agent had offered us $200 cash each to take the next flight at 9:15am, but had said that she had to wait until boarding was complete to confirm that was going to happen.

Everybody was on the plane, and she called our names.

Well that was a busy 24 hours!

Writing this from our daughter's home in Osgoode, just south of Ottawa, Ontario. Arrived here at about 9:30am this morning after our four flight marathon from Regina.

Our friend Wendy drove us to Regina airport from Moose Jaw yesterday afternoon. (Thanks again Wendy!) About a 45 minute ride, and we purposely arrived at the airport a couple of hours early, because it's better to be early than late. :-)

First day of pretirement, and it's going to be a travel day!

We said goodbye to the park yesterday, but it wasn't until almost three o'clock in the afternoon by the time we finally pulled out. Just lots of last minute stuff to do, and all of it had to happen on the last day. So, a couple of hours later than we were planning for, but it didn't really matter.

Then, we had a 258 km (160 mile) drive to Moose Jaw. Uneventful, and we've done this route before a few times, so not much exciting to see along the way.

Today is the day!

And what a beautiful start to the day it is. A little bit crisp out there, but the sun is shining and it will warm up nicely. Supposed to be a high of around 17C (63F), so just a nice fall day.

I went out and took some early pics of our last morning at the park...

Almost finished up

One more sleep here in the park. Still some work to do tomorrow morning, but then the adventure begins!

Pretty much right on schedule. This is our fourth year closing the park up, so we've got it down to a science now. The bathrooms are all winterized and locked up, and today I'll get the oil changed on the equipment.

Campground Manager Couple Wanted - Canada

While we are not coming back next year as managers, we still care about the park and the effort that we've put into it over the past four years.  And so we want to help the park find the right people to carry on where we left off.

Also, we will be coming back through this area next May on our way up to Canada's northern Territories and Alaska, and we have offered to spend some time with the new manager(s) to get them off on the right foot. Whether or not the park board takes us up on that offer will depend somewhat on who gets hired for the job.

Four more sleeps!

Well, we're into the final stretch. Only four more sleeps and it's on to new adventures. But there's still a lot to do here over the next four days. I've got four of the five washrooms winterized, and I'll do the final one today. I've got part of the beaver fencing up, and I'm trying to do a little every day rather than doing it all at once like I've done in the past. Much better this way! And I have to change the oil in the machinery and get it all cleaned up.

Monday morning we'll shut off the water and I've already made the appointment to get the big compressor down here so we can blow the lines out... and then we're gone.

More Saskatchewan scenery...

Well, the park is pretty much empty. I think the last two nights we were the only ones sleeping here overnight, although there are still two trailers here that need to be picked up. Still a few boats kicking around too, but I guess people are hoping for one last boat trip of the season, although the weather for the immediate future doesn't look very promising for that.

But, we did take advantage of yesterday's nice weather!

Damn rabbits!

Remember last month when I had a problem with chewed wires on the little blue car? Well I've learned since then that it was not mice that caused that problem... it was rabbits!

Who would have thought? But we've got lots of little bunny rabbits here at the park this year. They sure are cute, but they sure are a nuisance.

Pelee Island visit?

We've been wanting to visit Pelee Island for a long time. But Pelee Island is located in the most southern part of Lake Erie, and the access point to the ferry is located in Ontario, just southeast of Detroit.

And we don't make it down that way very often.

We are now carless, for the first time ever!

So now that the little blue car is gone, we have to get by with being carless. It's a little strange saying that we don't own a car. No car, no television, no microwave. I guess we are strange!

Being carless means that when we want that type of transportation, we will have to rent, borrow, or taxi!

The little blue car is gone!

We had not had any response to the advertisements I had been doing. It seemed that everybody around here wants a pickup truck or SUV or some kind of large vehicle. You just don't see many small cars on the road out here in the countryside in Saskatchewan.

But I knew the price was fair, and that someone would come along eventually.

Cancelled our campground reservation!

I should have known better than to make a campground reservation four months in advance. But, here I was trying to be proactive so that we weren't left without a spot. Not a big deal, because I think we only lose $10 or so... plus, I think the caravan company is going to cover our new spot.

It's a bit of a story, but here's what happened...

Day trip to Grasslands National Park

We took a day off yesterday! Nothing going on at the park, with the exception of a few more seasonal trailers pulling out, and it was looking like the last day of nice summer weather for a while. So we decided to drive down to Grasslands National Park on the border of Saskatchewan and Montana, and do some exploring!

Boy, did it ever feel good to get out on the road and see some different scenery for a change!

Two weeks today

And we're outta here. And still no bites on the little blue car. Strange. I guess everybody in this area wants a big gas guzzling pickup truck! Oh well, if it doesn't sell we'll store it for the winter and re-evaluate next May. Maybe this is a sign that we shouldn't be selling it anyhow!

A few more trailers disappeared over the weekend.

Foreign exchange transaction fees

The Canadian dollar (CAD) has been finally gaining strength versus most other world currencies. Of course this makes our travels outside of Canada cheaper, and a strong dollar is better for the country as a whole.  And, the U.S. dollar (USD) has been weakening versus most other world currencies, after an abnormally long period of strength.

For our personal situation, it pretty much evens out because our blog and Amazon income is mostly paid to us in U.S. dollars.

So far, Barbados has been spared

The last major hurricane to do any damage in Barbados was in 1995. And there have only been five major hurricane events to affect Barbados in total in the last 100 years.

Records show that in the 1600s, four hurricanes devastated Barbados, in the 1700s five systems directly affected Barbados, two causing devastation, and in the 1800s there were 17 hurricanes. Sure makes you wonder what kind of climate change was going on in the 1800's! I don't think they have all this stuff figured out yet.

Pretirement

I guess in a couple of weeks Ruth and I will be pretired. Once again. We pretired at this time 10 years ago in 2007 when we were on our first planned two year motorhome excursion.

Then, we pretired again between 2011 and 2013.

Most people retire. And I suppose we will eventually, but for now, we will be pretired.

Never heard that term before? Either had I until the other day.

We made a campground reservation!

We started RV'ing almost ten years ago. We've put 70,000 miles (112,000 kms) on our motorhome during that time. And now, for only the second time ever...we actually made a reservation at a campground!

We meet up with our Mexico caravan group at Lake Casa Blanca State Park in Laredo, Texas before crossing the border into Mexico on January 7th.

Chilly mornings and more blog reading visitors!

Woke up yesterday morning and the temperature was only 5C (41F). It was nice and bright and sunny but it was chilly, and there was a mist coming off the lake. Really pretty. But, you could sure tell that it felt like September in Canada. Funny enough, it's supposed to warm up by Friday with highs above 30C (86F) again!

It was chilly again this morning though, with some area reporting frost although we didn't see any here at the park.

Useful items to take on your travels

Travelling has become something that people do both as a hobby but also as an actual career these days, as the websites and blogs devoted to travel that have sprung up during the digital era have acted as an inspiration to many.

Of course, while most people think of exotic locations and adventure, bag packing is a necessary chore that must be completed before all that, but if you know what to pack it will make this process quicker and less stressful.

Winding things down here at the park

Well, our last long weekend of the summer is over. Labor Day weekend is normally pretty quiet around here, but it was slightly busier than normal this year. The weather was fantastic... warm and sunny all weekend. And fairly calm too, which made for great boating weather. Well, calm with the exception of a major windstorm that went through on Saturday night.

But, like any long weekend around here, it was not entirely glitch free!

Can't wait to get on the road again! But first need to fix some things...

Wow, thanks for the fantastic response to yesterday's post. It will be an adventure, won't it?? We think Sherman is up for the challenge, but he has not been used nearly enough the last couple of years. The last time we drove him was our trip from Saskatchewan to Ottawa at the end of last September. And while that was a good trip, he did have some minor mechanical issues along the way. Most of them were sorted out when I changed spark plugs and plug wires last fall. But there were some other things I noticed as well.

By the time we arrive in Ottawa, he will have been sitting for a full year!

A two year North American full time motorhome adventure!

Our motorhome Sherman, at age 21 is starting to show some signs of wear and tear. We think that he's still got lots of life left in him yet though! And with less than 100,000 miles on the chassis, we still believe that he's got enough motivation in him to take us on a two year North American motorhome adventure!

And so this is the plan...

August Expenses

Well, it was another cheap month. Exactly the way we planned it. Although, groceries were a bit higher due to the fact that we had five grocery shopping days during the month of August. And our friend Doug brought us a couple of Amazon packages up from the U.S..

But otherwise, it was a darn cheap month!

The little blue car is for sale!

As much as we don't want to sell it, we don't see the point of keeping it. We simply don't think we need a car for the foreseeable future. We will be living and traveling in the motorhome, and if we do ever need a car we will rent one as necessary.

If we didn't have to pay, we would just keep it in storage. But long term storage at $500 a year or so doesn't make sense for a $3,000 car!