Before and after

There are a lot of hedges here in the park, and most of them have never been looked after. At least not for many, many years. So over the past three years, we've been slowly cleaning them out and cutting off the dead stuff and trimming them back.

Ruth did a bunch of work on one messy looking section last week. It was a big job.

When you see a deal, you have to jump on it!

We've been wearing Merrell hiking boots for quite a few years now. And I wear mine every day, so we've learned that I can get a solid two years out of them before it's time for another pair.

And the last pair I bought was in August of 2014, so I figured I had better keep my eyes peeled for a sale online at some point over the next 3 months.

Thinking about new luggage

We've had our Heys rolling backpacks for four years now, and they've been on some fantastic trips with us. And they've served us well. But even though we think they're still ready for another trip or two, we find ourselves looking for something new and different.

The new bags are pretty high tech and of course some of the materials used to make them are much lighter than before. Our current bags weigh 7 lbs empty, and have 45 litres of carrying capacity.

A little busier here at the park

Things are getting a little busier here at the park. It's been a quiet start to the year given that our water level is abnormally low and isn't expected to get much better than it is. But, we still have lots of reservations for the next six weekends as summer gets into full swing.

And it's been a much wetter start to the year as well. It seems that every four or five days we get a decent rainstorm. I'm pretty sure the local farmers are really happy about the farming weather so far this year!

Pretty sure there was a pot of gold...

We went in to town on Wednesday and did all of our running around for new passports. I had done a little bit of research as to the price of passport photos, but I could only find one listing where they actually said the price online, and that was $18.25.

We ended up going to the photo studio that was attached to Walmart, simply assuming that they would be the cheapest.

Wrong!

The little blue car is 10 years old today!

Ten years ago today I signed the deal to buy the little blue car. I had been working at a contract position for GMAC financing at the time, and they offered us a deal for a brand new car at $500 over dealer invoice and 0% financing over four years.

We decided to go for it, and I put in our order for a brand new 2006 Pontiac Wave.

A visit to Bali, Indonesia

Bali is the most popular island for tourists who visit Indonesia. The country of Indonesia itself is actually made up of over 13,000 islands and is the fourth most populated country in the world, with over 260 million people! Only China, India, and the United States have a higher population of people.

And why do people visit Bali?

Time for a new passport!

Our current passports expire August 5th of this year. The last time we got new ones you could only get them renewed for a 5 year period, but this time we're able to go for the relatively new 10 year option.

Of course they're also slightly more money, at $160 for the 10 year versus $120 for a 5 year one.

Six weeks of Xplornet

Well, we've used our new Xplornet satellite internet service for just over six weeks now and so we thought we should give an early review.

So far...it's not perfect, and it's not the same as having high speed internet in the city. But it's far, far better than the cellular internet that we had the last two years.

RV'ing in Spain

We aren't going to be making much in the way of plans for our two month motorhome trip to Spain next January and February. It's all going to be new to us, so we'll simply drive when we want to and stop when we want to.

Fortunately, we've had a really good website forwarded on to us that's going to help us quite a lot with finding our overnight spots.

I think we'll just avoid the U.S.

I thought about booking our flight back to Europe yesterday. A deal came up at a decent price ($584 CAD, or $460 USD) from Ottawa to Paris leaving after Christmas and returning in April.

But, it connected in Philadelphia. That causes a minor problem.

Because my current U.S. "Waiver of Inadmissability" expires in November.

Okay, now we're starting to get a little jealous...

Yes, we received another postcard from Sherman. He's in Canmore, Alberta just at the base of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, and about to enter Banff National Park. We love that part of the country, and it's been quite a few years since we last visited that area. I think it was the end of August 2006, so almost ten years.

So, we're starting to get just a little jealous!

What's the earliest thing in your life that you vividly remember?

I had to drive into town last night, and my mind wanders all over the place while I'm out for a drive.

I was thinking about our grandchildren visiting last week and what a good time we all had. Then I wondered if they would even remember the trip when they're older, and I started thinking about the earliest thing in my life that  I can remember.

It's funny what you can remember so clearly.

Postcards from Sherman!

Sherman sent us a couple of postcards from his adventure. He says he's having a great time, and enjoying nice weather. He hasn't driven very far. The people who are driving him are in no rush and are just taking their time.

He says that today, they will be going to beautiful Banff, Alberta!

Lagostina comes through again!

A couple of weeks ago, I told you  about a frying pan that we had bought that where the coating went bad within six months. I think it had a ten year guarantee, but the company wanted us to send it back to them on our dime for their "inspection". I got through to someone who would listen to my story, and they sent us a prepaid courier bill so we could send it in free. We've owned Lagostina cookwear since my parents gave us a complete set as a wedding present 32 years ago...and we still use that same set today!