We can afford to buy one, but we can't afford to keep it.

We were on grandparent duty yesterday, and it started off with a drizzly morning. So rather than hang around Lindsey's house, Ruth called her Dad and we decided to pack the kids into Lindsey's car and drive on up there for the day. We haven't seen Ruth's dad since this time last year.

It's only about 80 kms (50 miles) depending on what route you take. So we arrived there about 11:00am.

September Expenses

We were so busy driving the last couple of weeks that we never published our September expense report.

Overall, it was a pretty good month. We spent a total of $995 CAD ($755 USD) for the month. The following figures are all in Canadian dollars. For USD equivalent, you can subtract about 25%.

Stocked up on wine!

Gorgeous sunny day yesterday...possibly the last really nice day of 2016 as the temperature here in Ottawa soared to 25C (77F) with sunshine. Normal highs are around 15C (60F).

So, we tried to spend as much time as possible outside. But, we did have to go out for a drive to the nearby village of Manotick, which is now actually a suburb of Ottawa.

Feels like coming home

We got up and drove right away after a great sleep. We put in a solid two hour drive before stopping for a break. By 10:00am we had put in a normal day's drive for us!

But, we were on a bit of a mission yesterday, and still had to make it to our old hometown of Ottawa.

Ahead of schedule, and another fantastic overnight spot

We didn't leave Matheson, Ontario until about 10:00am yesterday morning, and we were planning on making it to the small city of Val d'Or, Quebec...about  250 kms (155 miles) away.

But as the day went on, we just kept driving. And, we had a message from our daughter not to forget that we had an appointment to pick up our batch of wine on Friday at noon...we had thought it was Saturday at noon!

Happy that Sherman is back to his old self!

Yesterday morning, I was going to change Sherman's spark plugs before leaving, and while the engine was still cool. I was all set to do the job, and I went to grab my spark plug socket...and it had vanished. It wasn't in it's normal spot with the other sockets. It was just gone.

No idea where. I think the last time I used it was changing the spark plugs in the little blue car in Mexico in 2013!

Canada wasn't always the "nice" country it is today!

Woke up to a foggy misty morning. Not raining really, but the kind of day where you have to turn on your windshield wipers every few minutes to get the mist off the glass.

Again, we got on the road right away and drove for an hour and a half before stopping for breakfast near the town of Hearst, Ontario.

Now *this* was a perfect boondocking spot!

First thing I did yesterday morning was to change Sherman's distributor cap and rotor. Should have been a simple half hour job from start to finish, but it didn't go that smoothly. The distributor cap is held on with two long skinny screws, about 3/4" long. One of them snapped in two taking the old cap off. That's not supposed to happen!

After pondering my choices (one of which was to wait until the world's smallest Canadian Tire opened it's doors at noon) I tried putting the new cap on with just the one screw. There's a guide on both sides of it, and it seemed to hold just fine with only the one screw. So rather than sitting and waiting for three  hours, we got on the road. I'll fix it properly in Ottawa.

Northern Ontario scenery

Slept fine at the Ignace airport, and got on the road right away. Put a few miles on early, and stopped at the village of Upsala for breakfast. Funny place names up here, huh?

Never any problem getting on the internet, despite feeling like we're in the middle of nowhere up here. Always either a cell signal or an unsecured wifi signal coming from somewhere nearby.

Sherman has been acting up

We left the Vermilion Bay airport yesterday morning first thing and headed for the big city of Dryden, Ontario (pop 7,800).

Sherman has been acting up. A little bit of hesitation when accelerating at highway speeds, and misfiring a little bit. I had a good idea what the problem was. When I had fixed the exhaust leak last month, I had the four spark plug wires off that side, and one of them didn't feel quite solid when I put it back on. I thought about changing them then, but, things seemed to run fine at the time so I didn't.

Busy day with some wildlife sightings!

Wow. Long blog post today. Nothing to do but to start at the beginning! We left the Regent Casino on the eastern side of Winnipeg as soon as we got up Thursday morning. That way, the engine heat warms things up for us and we don't need to use any propane. We did the short drive out of the city and to the small town of Ste Anne, only 43 kms (27 miles) away.

I had checked online to find a place that would top up Sherman'a propane tank, and there was a Co-op store in Ste. Anne that had a propane fill station for both tanks and automobiles.

Not our best overnight choice...but it turned out great!

A little late getting on the road yesterday morning. It was probably about 10:30am by the time we finally left Rivers Provincial Park. No worries, but we did want to try to make it to the other side of the big city of Winnipeg (pop 675,000) before rush hour traffic affected us at all.

So we said goodbye to Lorne and Sue and their dog Charlie. The RV dump station was still open, so we took advantage of that, and hit the road.

Out on the lake in the kayak

Had a good day off yesterday. Beautiful fall weather, not a cloud in the sky all day. We decided to get the kayak out and go for a boat ride on the lake.

Our friend Lorne was interested in seeing the kayak, so I brought the whole bag and showed him how easy it was to setup from start to finish.

3 Fabulous Cruise Itineraries You Should Definitely Try

If you’ve not been on a cruise before, you’re in for a treat. Cramming so many destinations into one trip has got to be up there as one of the must-dos of your travel wish list. The beauty of cruise travel, as well, is that there is so much choice. Here are three itineraries you should definitely try, if you’re having trouble making that all important decision of where to go.

Today is a day off!

We got on the road as soon as we woke up yesterday morning. It was a bit chilly, and better to use the engine heat to warm things up rather than putting the propane on. After all, we were going to be driving anyhow.

So we drove for a half an hour to the town of Whitewood, Saskatchewan where we stopped and had breakfast and a hot drink and used the internet.

Is it okay if we park here for the night?

The sunshine finally returned to Saskatchewan. Clear blue skies for our driving day yesterday, along with a really strong wind! And it was mostly a tailwind. Sherman loves being pushed along by the wind.

We had breakfast with Phil and Wendy (thanks again guys!) and then pulled into the Walmart to pick up a few things. We had bought one life jacket on clearance for $14.99 at the Walmart in Swift Current, but it was the last one they had. So we were hoping the Moose Jaw Walmart had more.

Great first day back on the road!

Spent yesterday morning doing the final lockup of the park. Shut the water off to the main house and concession building and got the last of our belongings moved in to Sherman.

Did a final check around, and at 12:30pm we pulled out. Only a half an hour behind schedule...not bad!

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!