Saskatchewan gets a bum rap

Most people who tour Canada don't put the province of Saskatchewan anywhere on their list of "things I want to see". Even Canadians! I think that's because people envision flat prairie land and they think that all you'll see is fields of crops growing.

Don't get me wrong...you will definitely see fields of crops growing! But there are pockets of beauty in Saskatchewan, such as our very own Cabri Regional Park.

Stuck in the mud

We finally had a beautiful and fairly calm day yesterday. The wind had been really bad for at least a week, and it was sure making our clean up operations difficult. And frustrating! It'll be nice when we're done all of this cleanup and we can concentrate on other projects that are on the agenda.

The forecast for the next week looks gorgeous though. Highs of around 24C (75F) and sunny!

Frozen

We had an abnormally cold night, and woke up to -4C (25F) yesterday morning. Almost a record low for this area. Some of the campers had frozen water lines, and a copper line that runs on the outside of our office building had split. Things warmed up quickly though, and soon that split line was pouring out water. Easy to turn the water off to that line, and I fixed it later in the morning.

And, I had purposely left a few of the water sprinklers on because things have been so dry. Didn't plan on things getting that cold though. No harm done, but the picture is kind of funny...

"Which country is your favorite?"

One of the most common questions we are asked is... "Of the countries you've visited, which one is your favorite?"

And it's a tough question to answer.

First of all, we've only been to somewhere around 23 countries. So considering there are around 195 countries in the world, we really don't have that many to choose from. However, it's still a valid question.

Slightly busier this year

Last year we had a total of 20 RV's for the May log weekend. This year, we have 28. Part of the reason it's busier is that spring is a little early here this year and many of the local farmers have finished seeding operations.

It's certainly not busier because of our long weekend weather. We've never seen it so windy here as it was yesterday afternoon and evening.

External battery packs for your smartphone

We have joined the 21st century and now have a new to us iPhone. We don't really need it for day to day use, although I did take it with me when we did shopping the other day. The only reason we decided we need to have an iPhone is to make our travels better. We like to use it mostly for mapping, so that we know where we're going in new areas, and so that we can track some of the walks and hikes that we do.

But the one thing we noticed while testing it is that the battery life is not as good as we would like it to be. So we started looking at solutions to this problem.

It's payday!

The neat thing about working is that you actually get paid every couple of weeks. What a concept! And working is what we have been doing. Every day for the last two weeks. But, the time has flown by and we're getting lots of exercise. And without having to pay for a gym membership.

The Canadian May long weekend is here. The park isn't as ready as we would like it to be. Still too many leaves around from that two days of high winds. Nothing we can do but keep picking away at it.

Our iPhone is now unlocked!

We had used a borrowed iPhone during our trip to South Korea last October, and we realized how handy it is to have a portable smartphone type of device when you're traveling to a new country.

So when our son got a new iPhone a few months ago, we were thrilled that he gave his old iPhone 4s to us! (Thanks again Alex!).

But the iPhone 4s was "locked" to the Telus network here in Canada. We wanted to have our iPhone unlocked so that it could be used with any SIM card with any cellular carrier in the world.

Here's how we did it...

Two steps forward, one step back!

We've been working really hard to get the campground ready, but we sure do notice the difference with May long weekend being so early this year. We had been pretty much on schedule for this coming Friday, but two days of strong winds really put us behind.

That made leaf cleanup very difficult, and it actually made some of the leaves blow back onto areas that we had already cleaned!

All I'm doing lately is trying not to get ripped off!

And if you don't stand up for yourself, they'll walk all over you.

First, it was our Canadian Tire story last week where they tried to rip us off for $22.77. Had I not went to the manager, we would have paid $22.77 more than we were supposed to. And I'm not done with them yet. I still think we paid $35 plus tax too much.

Then, Bell Mobility had charged us a $15 plus tax connection fee to activate our mi-fi internet. I saw later that they had a special on that the guy didn't know about and the activation fee was supposed to be waived. One phone call was all it took to fix that.

Mountain driving in an RV

We did a lot of mountain driving in our motorhome this past winter. I've heard that many people don't like mountain driving, however I don't have a problem with it at all. I wonder if a lot of people don't like it partly because they're unsure of how to do it properly. And therefore it makes them nervous that they're going to end up going too fast to make the next curve, or that their brakes are going to overheat or something like that.

Of course you want to have brakes that are in good condition, however the most important part of mountain driving is the correct use of your transmission.

Listen to our hour long interview...

Today is the day that our interview is available at the 2015 RV and Travel Summit. If you haven't done so already, you'll have to register first, and then you'll get an email that gives the link to today's interviews.

Actually, now that I check, it's only 43 minutes. We haven't listened to it ourselves yet. There's not a lot of editing that was done so I hope we didn't say anything too stupid! It's too bad, but the day that we did this, Ruth had a really raspy voice because she had a cold. So she doesn't say very much, which is rare for her. And I said a lot, which may not be a good thing. Anyhow, it should be interesting, and we're curious about your feedback.

Carefree RV Summer Camping in Ontario

There are 15 Carefree RV Resorts in Ontario. They're all located in the southwestern part of the province, and most are within a two hour drive of Toronto. Some of them are huge, and have a lot of amenities. We think they're mostly geared for families who want an "all in one" resort experience.

The first resort we're going to tell you about is called Sherkston Shores. It's located 90 minutes from the city of Toronto, and only a few minutes from the U.S. border at Buffalo, New York.

One week to go

Including today, we have one week to get the campground ready for opening day. We've already put in a solid eight days straight, and looking around, we think we're about half way there. So we should be okay.

It's feeling a little rushed because last year there were three of us. This year, we couldn't find a suitable replacement for our one full time summer student, and he has agreed to come back part time but he can't start until the 25th. So it's just Ruth and I, and the fact that the May long weekend here in Canada starts a week early this year.

Oh well...you do what you gotta do!

Canadian Tire Automotive - Never Again

Before we get to our story, I'll first give a little background because many of our American readers may not know about Canadian Tire. If you're from Canada, then obviously you do. Essentially, they're a big box store that sells everything...but mostly related to hardware, automotive, and sporting goods. Some of them even tried to get into groceries, but I don't know if that went over very well.

Canadian Tire stores have a weekly sales flier, very often with some great discounts. I've always said that if you buy something at Canadian Tire at regular price, you're crazy...because whatever it is it will come on sale at some point in the next month. So the stores themselves are great for getting some good deals.

But, each store also operates an automotive service center. This is where things go downhill.