An interesting story...

We've been over at my mother's place pretty much every day. It sure is a pain and very time consuming doing this address change stuff, but we're making progress and can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

She's been going through her filing cabinet, and came across this interesting story...

One of the problems with an older RV...

At 31 years old, Igor can almost be considered a "vintage" motorhome. I guess that's why the Airstream B190 has a bit of a cult following. It was only made between 1988 to 1999... an 11 year period. 

The Ford E350 van chassis and much of the body was produced for a much longer period, and mechanical parts are readily available and inexpensive. But much of what is related to the "RV" portion of the vehicle has now become obsolete. 

You have to celebrate the tiny wins!

So we're out doing some grocery shopping last Thursday, and I happened to see the deodorant that I like, and it was on sale. Regular price $4.29, on sale for $2.99. Not bad. Anyhow, I picked one up.

I'd say 80% of the time, we check the prices on the bill as we walk out of the grocery store.  The other 20% of the time, we simply forget. But we're normally pretty good at checking.

Our Amazon delivery guy has been busy!

I think he's been at our doorstep every day this week! 

There's a lot of stuff you have to buy when you're outfitting an RV from scratch... as well as the stuff we are buying to get Igor fixed up the way we want.

The one thing we miss about Canada...

There isn't much that we miss from Canada when we're off traveling the world... but one thing we definitely miss is pure Canadian maple syrup! 

And the cheapest place to buy it is still Walmart, where they sell a 1 liter jug of the dark amber stuff, (which is our favorite) for $15.97 CAD ($11.71 USD).

Motorhome for sale... in Alaska!

Our friends Glen and Steve are the British couple who got us into this whole motorhoming thing back in 2007 when they stayed with us and explained how they travel and explore inexpensively by motorhome.

They have since bought and sold many times, similar to the way we are doing now. They buy in a different country, then sell when they are ready to move on. 

Getting Igor ready to go

Good thing I got the vent replaced which fixed that major water leak coming from Igor's roof. The remnants of hurricane Beryl are coming through southern Ontario today, and they are calling for heavy rain for about 4 hours starting around 10:00am.

There are still some very minor leaks coming from the windows on the side of the muffin top (that's what Airstream B-160 enthusiasts call the fiberglass roof) but I don't have a ladder. That can wait until we are at Lindsey's next month. 

Not sure why we get so ripped off here in Canada...

Spent a couple of hours yesterday with my mom going over some financial things and figuring out her change of address stuff. Of course the post office will do an address redirect for you, but it's not cheap... so the most logical thing to do is proactively change all of the addresses yourself, which of course you would have to do anyhow. But man, it sure is time consuming!

Then back to the house to finish my project.

No problem staying busy here! Especially with a motorhome project to work on...

Instead of writing a blog post first thing this morning, I was outside before 8:00am in order to take advantage of the cooler morning weather. The project today was to replace the old Fantastic Vent Van in Igor's living area.

The fan still worked, but the plastic had turned all yellow and while the previous owner had replaced the vent lid, they never did actually repair the leaks.

June Expenses... more than double what we had planned!

Well, it's time to get this mess out of the way. I've been delaying telling you about our expenses for the month of June because there have been odd circumstances involved!

Our original budget for the month of June was $3,500 CAD ($2,565 USD). Which in hindsight, was a bit ambitious as it was. And then, on June 11th, we made the somewhat last minute decision to come back to Canada which of course would put us well over budget. And finally, we decided to buy this motorhome in London, Ontario. 

Introducing you to Igor... our new motorhome!

We've been running through suitable names for our new to us motorhome, including all the suggestions made by readers on our FB page. We had narrowed it down to either Eddie or Hector. We had pretty much decided on Hector. Then, we're out doing some running around yesterday afternoon, and Ruth says "Igor. Because he has a hunchback". (Like Igor in the movie Young Frankenstein). And we both laughed. Too funny. 

Igor is not Spanish, but that doesn't matter to us. A name of Russian origin meaning warrior. Igor is short, sweet, and strong! And, we think it's funny. So, Igor it is.

Since we arrived back in Canada...

So, it's time to get you caught up on what we've been doing for the last week. I'm not going to do individual posts for the several days that we missed... otherwise I'll never be up to date, and we've just got too much to do.

So... where to start? Well, when we arrived at our son's place in Gravenhurst, Ontario on June 28th, he and his girlfriend CJ already had plans for the weekend, so they weren't home when we arrived. He did come back and spend a couple of hours with us on Saturday morning.

Our one day in Porto, Portugal

Still trying to get caught up on our blog posts, and there's still quite a lot to tell you about! We had a very hectic week between when we finished our big hike and we made it back to Canada.

I already told you the story about our flight delays, so when we arrived in Porto, Portugal on the 26th of June, we only had the one day to explore. 

Big news... we bought another motorhome!

Anybody who follows our facebook page already knows this because I posted a photo four days ago and it is probably our most "liked" facebook post ever! But, I didn't provide any details. So here is the whole story...

We had sold our European motorhome Max last August. We're not done with Europe by any means, but Europe is easy to do by motorhome, so our plan is to put that off until we're in our 70's.

Peaks of the Balkans Day 10... Vusanje to Theth, 17 kms

The last day of our Peaks of the Balkans hike!

This day was billed as a grueling 21 km hike with 1,306 meters (4,300') of elevation gain, followed by 1,600 meters ( 5,300') of descent into the valley of Theth. That's a tough hike for anyone, but made even worse by the fact that they gave us a 4:00pm deadline to arrive back in Theth for our ride to Shkodra, with a penalty of €10 per hour for every hour you are late!

Peaks of the Balkans Day 9... Taljanka Peak Loop, 9.2 kms

Even though it was fairly short, this was probably the second toughest hike of the trip, but with spectacular views of the Gerbaja Valley, as well as stunning views of the Accursed Mountains. It's actually a detour from the classic Peaks of the Balkans trail, but it was included by the organizers of our trip since it is one of the most panoramic of the area.

We were picked up at our guest house in Babino Polje by van and arrived at the trailhead in Gerbaja Valley at 9:15am.

Peaks of the Balkans Day 8... Roshkodol to Babino Polje... 11 kms

June 21 was a relatively short hiking day as we had only 11 kms scheduled due to guesthouse allocation. That was totally okay with us though, because it still entailed a steep one hour climb at the beginning, and then a descent into the valley that seemed like it would never end.

And wildflowers... lots of beautiful wildflowers!

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We all love a little time resting and relaxing, whether that looks like chilling on your couch with a good book or spinning a few reels at an online casino. When you’re trotting around the globe, either at a breakneck pace or snail-slow, taking the odd breather is pretty crucial in making the whole journey worth it, but a lot of people think they’ve got to hit casino central to indulge in their passion for high-thrill gambling… not so!

Peaks of the Balkans Day 7... Gacaferi Pastures to Roshkodol, 14 kms

Continuing with our recent ten day hike in the mountains of Albania, Kosovo, and Montenegro.

We woke up to a wonderful breakfast at Gacaferi Guesthouse. Probably our best overnight experience of the trip. Really friendly people, and the food was great. It was going to be a hot day, and once again we wanted to get an early start.

Peaks of the Balkans Day 6... Climbing Kosovo's highest mountain, 18.5 kms

This was probably our favorite day of the whole ten day adventure. The Gjeravica Peak hike is one of the most scenic, with sweeping views over a mountainous landscape. 

We had separated from the friends we had made over the previous days. They were now one day ahead of us, and some of them had done the Gjeravica Peak hike the day before but they encountered clouds near the top, and weren't able to enjoy the great views. Not the case for us!

Peaks of the Balkans Day 5... a day off? 8.5 kms

We had done some strenuous hiking over the previous 4days, having already completed 65.7 kms (40.7 miles) since the start of our Peaks of the Balkans adventure. 

So, we had scheduled a day off to give ourselves a break. When I was speaking with Marigona at Balkan Adventure, she included a short 8.5 km "day off hike" to keep us busy during our rest day!

We interrupt this program for a special news bulletin

We have a lot more to tell you about our hiking trip to the Peaks of the Balkans. However we're going to delay that for a day or two to tell you what we've been up to since our hike ended.

What an adventure the last 36 hours have been!

Peaks of the Balkans Day 4... Cerem to Doberdol, 15 kms

A relatively easy day on Monday June 17th. Only 15 kms (9.3 miles). Still with 1,025 meters (3,363') of cumulative altitude gain, but it didn't seem as strenuous. 

A bit of a late start as we set out at 8:30am. Again a beautiful sunny day!

Peaks of the Balkans day 3... Valbone to Cerem, 16 kms

So, Sunday the 16th. Day three of hiking. Breakfast not as good as yesterday. Bread, cheese, eggs, apples and some kind of fritters. Fine, but not as good as the day before.

Set off at exactly 8:00am. The route was known to be difficult. "Only" 16 kms (10 miles), but this would prove to be the toughest day of the entire trip, with a cumulative elevation gain of 1,215 meters (3,986') over 5 kms (3 miles). And a rocky karst trail that was difficult to get your footing right.

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Peaks of the Balkans... Theth to Valbone 17 kms

We have returned from our hiking adventure, and will try to quickly get caught up in posting. If you missed day one, you can read it here... https://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2024/06/hiking-peaks-of-balkans-day-1-theth-to.html.

Day two was the popular Theth to Valbone route. This is the most popular hike in the whole region, with many people only coming to Theth to do this route.

Hiking the Peaks of the Balkans... Day 1, Theth to Blue Eye, and return, 17.7 kms

We are now finished our 10 day Peaks of the Balkans hiking trip that took us through the  Accursed Mountains (also known as The Albanian Alps) of Albania, Kosovo, and Montenegro. It's going to take us a while to get caught up on blog posts because that's the longest we've been off line since we did our Kilimanjaro trip over three years ago!

But we shall start at the beginning. On June 14th, we woke up in a hotel in Shkodra, Albania where we helped ourselves to a wonderful buffet breakfast at 7:00am.