Out for another hike

Beautiful fall day yesterday, so we made a point of going for another hike. Only out for an hour and a half or so and 5.5 kms (3.5 miles), but enough to get the blood flowing a little bit anyhow.

We had gone through a couple of days of rain, so it was nice to see the sun shining again.

Family update

Sorry for the boring post...but sometimes we must put things up here just for ourselves!

Daughter Lindsey with her husband Justin and the two kids moved back to Ottawa in June, and they've been living at Ruth's dad's place ever since. Still a temporary situation, but it's less temporary than they expected it would be.

How to take your motorhome to Mexico

I've been refreshing my memory on the procedure because we'll be doing exactly this about a month from now. Always good to be totally prepared and to make sure you've got all the necessary paperwork in order, plus I wanted to check and see if anything has changed since the last time we completed the permit process in the fall of 2007.

Mexico motorhome permits are valid for 10 years. But when we left Mexico last spring, we weren't certain that we were going to be returning this year, and we had even tossed around the idea of selling the motorhome. Which meant that it made more sense to turn in our old permit when we left in order to have more options available to us.

RV fire alert

I was skimming through the news headlines the other day and noticed one about a fire in an RV. You hear about those every so often, but it's actually a little disturbing just how common an event it really is.

In fact, if you search for the term "RV fire" in Google news, here's the listing that you get...

Recent RV fires

Satellite internet now costs less

And it's faster, and you're allowed more data.

We're stuck in a valley here at the park, and while our cellular internet works...it doesn't work very well. And it's slow, and we're limited by how much we use because it's expensive for what you get.

So while most of you are at home with unlimited high speed data plans watching videos and using skype to talk to your grandchildren...we are here for five months with none of that.

The place is starting to empty out...

We have 80 seasonal campsites here at the park, and around 35 daily campsites. The daily campsites have been empty since September 7th.

I went around on Thursday night and there were still 43 seasonal trailers here. Yesterday evening Ruth and I took a walk around and there are now only 25 trailers here. It was a beautiful day on Saturday and many people came to pack up their things.

Good news and bad news...

Both of them to do with traveling! Actually, the good news is great news. And the bad news isn't really so bad...just an annoyance. So, since the bad news isn't really that bad, lets get that out of the way first!

Our return flight from Medellin, Colombia to Mexico City on December 15th was supposed to depart at 8:00am, and arrive Mexico City at 11:41am.

But I had an email waiting for me this morning...

Sherman's rear shocks

Well that was a little more difficult that I expected.

Changing shocks is typically a pretty easy job, provided you've got the tools to loosen the bolts. Normally, you don't even need air tools, although an impact gun is certainly handy to have. Not totally necessary though because sometimes there isn't room to fit the impact gun to where the bolt or nut is located. Otherwise, a half inch socket set and ratchet with a two foot long "cheater" pipe should do the job.

Three weeks to go!

Actually, three weeks less a day. Until we get to see our grandkids. And our kids, and my mom and Ruth's dad, and some of our friends. Really looking forward to seeing everybody, despite the fact that it's going to be a very short visit.

Our daughter Lindsey posted a picture on facebook this morning, and it sure made us realize how fast time goes by.

Yay! He passed!

I was up at 6:00am this morning because I had to have Sherman at his insurance inspection for 8:00am.

I was a little worried about a couple of things, but it turned out they were pretty minor. I had a burnt out licence plate light bulb, and piece of hose for the windshield washer was split. Other than that, Sherman is ready to get a Saskatchewan licence plate!

End of season camping special?

Gorgeous weather is forecast for this upcoming weekend. Pretty much perfect. Sunshine and blue skies, with a high on Friday of 24C (75F) and on Saturday 28C (82F). Beautiful camping weather.

And lows around 10C (50F)...a little chilly, but that's what campfires are for, right??

Getting our hiking legs in shape

We finally made it out for a hike yesterday afternoon. For the first time since we've been here this season! Only an hour and a half, but we still managed almost 6.4 kms (4 miles) and weren't at all tired.

I love having the iPhone with me and using the MotionX GPS app.

Photo editing, and how we do it

Most of you know that we change our header photo every day. When we're not traveling, we choose a photo from past travels. But when we are traveling (soon!) we strive to take a fabulous photo to display for you every single day.

But not every photo we take turns out "fabulous". In fact, more often than not, every photo we take requires some kind of editing. Here's how we try and change a not so great photo to one that is suitable for display.

If you would have told me this five years ago...

It poured with rain all Friday night, and most of Saturday. High temperature was 11C (52F).

We had 13 reservations for Friday night. Six of them called to cancel, three didn't bother to call and simply didn't show up. Four die hard campers did show up, and one more came in for the night who was passing through.

A Taste of Spanish Wine

Spanish wines have always been a favourite with people travelling around Europe, and with good reason; they produce beautiful wines that are not only tasty and easily accessible, but are also much more affordable than similar wines from more-established wine destinations, such as France.

If you want to discover and fall in love with Spanish wine, the most enjoyable way is to explore the different flavours of the country is to go on a trip to Spain. You can travel with a tour operators that specialise in taking tourists to the wine-making regions of the country. These tours can take you to the biggest and most popular vineyards, as well as smaller, more traditional vineyards. However, if you're not planning a winery tour any time soon, then you can find a lot of good quality Spanish wines for reasonable prices at retailers like Tesco.