House sitting

We are currently house sitting here in Kingston, Ontario for 4 months while the owners are away. They wanted somebody to live here and look after things until they get back. So we shovel the snow, and bring in the mail, and generally make the place look "lived in"...because it is being lived in!

Driving to Nova Scotia...the trip plan

Well, 2 more days until we head for Nova Scotia!

The plan is that we'll leave here at 5:00am Wednesday and head for Plattsburgh NY to pick up our son Alex. We should arrive in Plattsburgh about 8:30am. Then we drive through Vermont and New Hampshire and the White Mountain National Forest, into Maine and to our overnight stop in Bangor where we are staying with a couchsurfing family.

Bought a new camera

I love getting a deal, which is why we always try and buy used instead of new. By buying used, you know you're going to save at least the 13% tax here in Ontario.

But I had been looking for a good used digital camera for a couple of months and hadn't been able to find what I wanted.

Ferry service to Nova Scotia

I see that they have discontinued the ferry service from Maine to Nova Scotia.

Ferry service cancelled

This particular route ran from Portland or Bar Harbor Maine, to Yarmouth NS.

Bay Ferries operates several other routes, including one from St. John, New Brunswick to Digby, NS.

Internet and wi-fi security...or lack thereof

We've been going over two years without any "anti virus" program running on our laptop. I've decided that there is very little possibility of having a virus problem, provided you use a little bit of common sense. I would certainly never pay for one, and I find that the free ones slow down my system.

First of all, never open an email attachment if you're not positive as to what that attachment contains.

Dreaming of Mexico

Today is the coldest day we have experienced in over two and a half years! I'm guessing that the last time we felt this kind of cold was in March of 2007.

This morning, the temperature here in Kingston Ontario is -16C (3F). Fortunately, Kingston is on the shores of Lake Ontario, and it doesn't get quite as cold here as it does in other nearby areas. Ruth is visting her Dad today, and she tells me it's -21C (-6F) there, and that's only a two hour drive away.

Free wi-fi internet access

Good news for motorhome travellers!

There are 14,000 McDonalds restaurants in the U.S., and 11,000 of them offer wi-fi internet access.

Starting in mid-January, internet access will be FREE. Canada is following the American's lead, however the rollout to Canadian locations will be sporadic, apparently starting with Metro Vancouver.

Buying an RV in the United States and bringing it back to Canada

We bought Sherman (our motorhome...he drives like a tank!) in New York State.

When we started shopping, I quickly noticed that prices in the U.S. were much lower than prices in Canada. How much lower? Well it depends somewhat on how much money you're planning on spending, but I'll use our experience with Sherman to give you a real life example.

How did we become motorhomers?!

In July 2007, we had never been in a motorhome. By October 2007 we were living and travelling in one!

How did all that happen? Here's the story...

Restaurant food

We don't eat out very often. The main reason for that is that I can't justify the cost, however we also happen to like our own cooking. Far too often, we have had a restaurant meal out, have paid the bill, and said to each other, "well, that was just okay...".

If we're in the mood for something different, or it's a special occasion, we would much rather buy something we don't usually buy in the grocery store, and cook it ourselves. Usually, this would be a good rib steak on the barbeque!

I smell a rat!

The house that we are sitting does have a clothes dryer in the basement, but Ruth prefers to hang the clothes to dry. We never had a dryer at home, and they are expensive to operate. Anyhow, one day a couple of weeks back, Ruth noticed that a sock had disappeared from the lower drying rack. She found it around the corner behind some boxes. She kind of shook her head, but didn't think anything more of it.

Canada - Part 2

Despite the fact that I don't want to live here, I do agree that Canada does have some fantastic natural scenery, and for that reason it would be a nice destination to come on vacation. Here are some of our favourite places, coast to coast...

Canada

I've got it figured that Canada is NOT such a great country. And it's possible that I'm thinking this way because of the rotten weather the last two days...but in general comparison to most other countries, they are better. And please don't bring up our "free" health care...that is a subject better left to other forums.

We have terrible weather for 5 months of the year, and no where in Canada to go to avoid it. Don't talk to me about Victoria...their winter weather sucks too! Canadians have nowhere to go but south...and of course many do.

Snow

Well, there's a big snowstorm happening in Eastern Ontario today, so we are missing the warmth of Mexico and we were reminiscing a bit. Last year at this time, we were parked in a farmers field among the palm trees.

We don't watch TV

At least not much. Occasionally we do tune in to Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!

However we do watch a lot of movies. When we settled the motorhome into the Kingston KOA last May, we signed up at http://www.zip.ca/

This is an online movie rental service available anywhere there is mail delivery in Canada. We find it so convenient! You make a list of movies you'd like to see from their 74,000 online titles.