And we're off!

On the one hand, it feels like the last five months went by fairly quickly. But on the other hand, and as expected, the last few weeks dragged a little bit.

But the day is finally here! We're officially off work today, and we'll be traveling pretty much non stop for the next seven months!

Who wants to come work with us?

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post about workamping. Since that time, we've decided to try and find our own workamping couple (or single!) here at Cabri Regional Park for next season.

Workamping is typically when you receive a free full hook up RV camping site in exchange for helping out around the park for a minimal number of hours per week. But in this particular situation, we have a specific job in mind for whoever applies.

Too much stuff!

Besides getting the park ready to close down, we've also been getting the motorhome ready to use for the next five weeks or so. And because we had done the motorhome exchange, we had pretty much cleaned out all of our belongings and put them in the house.

So now, we're sorting through everything and Ruth is putting everything in it's proper place.

First class flying

Air Canada is the largest airline in Canada. It has a wholly owned subsidiary that is a "no frills" airline called Air Canada Rouge.

When I booked our January 1st flight to Spain, I knew that the carrier was Air Canada Rouge. And I knew that Air Canada Rouge does not have a good reputation regarding some things.

Out for a boat ride

Given that we've only got four days left here at the park to get things closed down, and it's supposed to pour with rain on Friday...we probably shouldn't have taken some time off to go for a boat ride.

But we did...so now we'll make up for it today!

More travel planning...

Wow, what a windy day we had yesterday. Fortunately, the wind was coming from the west so it was blowing most of the leaves from the trees by the shoreline right into the lake. A few less to clean up when we return in May!

Lots of small branches and twigs down too though. But this morning? Calm as can be.

Less than a week to go!

Well, today is the official day that all of the trailers must be out of the park. I think there are only  about 10 of them left, so the rest will be coming today to vacate the park.

Then tomorrow, I can turn the water off, store the pump, and winterize the remaining three of the five bathroom buildings. We've already got two of them done.

Windshield Crack Repair

I received the repair kit that I had ordered from CrackEraser.com.

To give you some background, our 1996 motorhome windshield comes in two pieces...a driver's side, and a passenger side. The passenger side had about a two foot long crack in it that's been there for about a year and a half. And the driver's side had about a one inch size chip in it...bigger than a quarter.

But the windshields cost over $600 per side, and we had no insurance coverage for that type of damage.

There's something you don't get to do every day!

We've been spending our summers here on the Canadian prairies for four years now. The first year up at Sturgeon Lake, and the last three summers here at Cabri Regional Park.

Saskatchewan contains 44% of all the farmland in Canada! And so, a big part of the economy here is farming. Many of our clientele here at the park are local farmers, and our economy here at the campground is directly related to the growing season. Farmers are busy with seeding and fertilizing in May and June, so not many of them come to the park. And then in mid August through September they are busy harvesting the product, so the park is quiet once again.

It finally arrived!

We've been planning our six week trip to Romania, and back at the beginning of August I had spoken to the Romania Tourism Board in New York City. They are the main contact in North America.

I had printed off a map of Romania and Ruth was doing the planning based on that. Pretty tough to do on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper! Anyhow the guy at Romania Tourism said they would send us a map, as well as some other information.

That was on August 5th!

Going to check out another park

There are around 75 parks in the Saskatchewan Regional Parks system. We like to see some of the other parks, and last year around this time we drove over to Clearwater Lake Regional Park.

This year, we're going down to Lac Pelletier Regional Park. We have to go to Swift Current today for groceries, and Lac Pelletier is only about 42 kms (26 miles) south of Swift Current. So we'll pop down there just to check it out and see how they do things.

It would have been cheaper to fly...

We're taking the motorhome to Ottawa later this month. It's about a 3,100 km (1,900 mile) journey, one way. We will use about 718 litres (190 gallons) of fuel to do so.

It would have been cheaper to fly.

Part 2 - A Different Colony

In yesterday's blog post we showed you our visit to our first Hutterite colony. We were lucky enough to tour two different colonies that day in order to show you the differences that can exist between colonies.

In general, they have the same basic structure. That is, physical goods that are for the benefit of the colony are owned by the colony. And everybody works for the colony.

But there are some glaring differences in attitude.

A visit with the Hutterites

One of the reasons that we love to travel to different countries is that we like to see how other people live. But you don't have to travel to a far off land to experience a different culture...sometimes you can find them in your own backyard as we learned yesterday when we visited two different Hutterite colonies.

But before we get to that, we should give you some background. The Hutterites arrived in North America to escape military and religious persecution in western Russia. They arrived in three separate groups from 1874 to 1879, and all groups originally settled in the North Dakota area of the United States.

The house is a little quiet this morning

Well, I got Sherman all put back together. It took me all day yesterday. That was a big job. My knees are reminding me once again that I'm not 25 years old any more! And I have sore muscles in places where I didn't know I had any muscles.

But it's done. I still think there's a very minor exhaust leak coming from that side, and it's because the manifold itself might be a little bit warped. I probably should have replaced it.