September 08 – Heading to Winnipeg

Leave at 830a, seems to be a popular time for us, 67,989k

Weather turns dreary, scenery not as scenic     

Standard reduced to one lane section     

The strangest things pass us!       

Manitoba coming up, 2km   

Made it!   Hello Manitoba!!

More better, Hello Divided Highway!!

Clouds and more clouds     

Now the dueling GPS begins.  Not one of our favourite games. Which one do we believe??

We choose to not do a u-turn!  Good choice!!

Made it!  Arrived at 235p                   

First campground we have been in that builds elevated  electric rooms.  Flooding issue?   

Allan begs to differ, beer o’clock is now.

September 09 – Explore downtown Winnipeg day. Turned into a “drive by” day, was much too peopley to walk around.

We go back to the campground which is really in the outskirts, in a town called, St. Francois Xavier We still need some steps so thought we’d walk to the town. Nope it is over 3h walk each way on the side of the highway.  There is a gravel road next to the gas station/check in building, there is a turn close to the start but we decide to give that a go.

Pleasantly surprised to find  ..

The dirt road ended up in an estate subdivision filled with large homes.  We managed to get our 10k steps today.

 

September 6th – 4th Stop

Today we head to Ignace, we never heard of it before booking, but the distance worked.  Leave at 830a, 67,454k

The normal restricted to one lane   

Red rock

A funky bridge           

Terry Fox Scenic Lookout near Thunder Bay

A little “clean the windshield” sprinkle   

Our GPS often pays tricks on us.  This time it sends us down a bumpy road and wants us to turn on a dirt road.  The dirt road has a turn we can’t see around.  I get out, walk to the corner to find another corner.  This can’t be right.  Allan calls and no it isn’t right, we should not have turned.

We get back on the road we shouldn’t have turned off, drive another 5ish minutes and here we are, arrive at 315p

Thinking we have a back in site, we decide to unhook Bob  prior to check in. Bob loves Bailey and decides he doesn’t want to get unhooked.  Suspect that bumpy road whacked something out of alignment.  Allan struggles with it, wiggles and jiggles, poof! They are unhooked.

All set up       

We won’t be able to have a fire as the pit is too close to Bailey but the weather isn’t that nice anyways.  Allan has a, much deserved

Found our golf cart!  Think it’s the park’s owners, they may object!

Walk to Davy Lake         

Walk into town   

Why oh why would they have so many charging stations in Ignace.  Never saw this many in Toronto!  These are for Teslas only!!  Not much else in town.

Weather here hasn’t been great, rain, sun, rain, partial sun.  Wonder if this is typical.

September 08:   Time to leave. First for us!  Stinky slinky leaking everywhere!!

The only other hose we have doesn’t reach, the plan is to circle around and stop closer to the sewer.  We find the communal hook ups first so use it.  Another first, we pump quicker than the sewer can handle.  Stop, stop!!  Finally we are empty.  Such an exciting morning  and it’s only  830a!

Off we go…..

September 05 – Happy Birthday Kyle

Today we explore Marathon & area, find a liquor store and Pebble Beach.  No photo of the liquor store.

Such large pebbles more like rocks       

We were nervous about sprained/broken ankles so didn’t venture out far.                                                                                  

 

Marathon exploring done!

 

 

 

We ended up the day celebrating Kyle’s birthday from afar, with, you guessed it

Again……  

Love you tons!!

09-04-2020 3rd Stop – heading to Marathon, ON Penn Lake Park

We leave at 815a, 67,051km

This photo does not show enough the potholes on the road leading into/out of the SSM KOA.  This place takes the prize of being the bumpiest!Cloudy skies…

Strange place to be walking 

Getting closer.

Rain, helps to clean the windshield 🙂

Approaching Marathon as if we would!

Bears can be dangerous????

We arrive Penn Lake Park at 123p and get set up.

That peek-a-boo hole beside the lawn chairs opens up to the sandy lake.

           Clouds reflected in the lake

We venture out for a walk and encounter yet another sign

Just passed the bear sign, we find the hiking trail that goes around the lake

Allan “Want to go?”

Me “Of course”  while thinking, they wouldn’t really put a trail where bears hang out!

Beautiful, but looks like a bear would be happy in this trail…

We forge on.  “What’s that rustling sound?”  Allan researched what to do if you encounter a bear; do not turn & run.  Stand your ground, make noise and throw stuff.  Problem we have no stuff!

It’s a very scenic trail…

The trail opens up to view the lake

Back in the wooded trail

We make it out!!         

Celebrate with, of course, a fire!         

Turns out this is one of our favourite campgrounds.

Travel to 2nd stop Sault Ste Marie

09/02/2020   leave at 902a  66,558kmThis is ours today   

What’s that coming up??                      Mennonite horse and buggy!

Oh look! A lake!!         

Man made twisty road.  Almost there!

Forgot to take my own photo. Arriveat105pThese are the owner’s dogs.  This KOA includes a puppy agility park.

Off to our site     

Also here, rocks to keep you on your  driving toes.

We normally go to town and take some photos but apparently we didn’t encounter anything photo worthy as neither Allan or I have any photos.

Just our luck the first Winter we’ll be out West.

Explore Parry Sound Day

Today is Bob’s first “take us on an adventure day”.

Spirit of the Sound lighthouse 

How do you say too f#$!ing high?  CPR Trestle Bridge  105 feet (32 m) highNotice the rail team working up there? Never is when I’d go up there!!Train in the background      Train other side of town

I’m fascinated by the height of this train structure.

Parry Sound has nice trails.  This is the first memory stone we saw.  Searched for more but none. 

Being a city girl there is much of nature I don’t know about.  There are many trees that look like this.  What is it?  

Google helps.  Turns out they may be either fall web worms or Eastern tent     caterpillars.                     Enjoying our last night here.  Next destination… Sault Ste Marie.

 

BC Bound August 31, 2020

Away we go!  Starting km 66,359 time would have been 940a but when the tree is factored in it’s 1028a

We are giving ourselves a month to get to our BC .  Most stops will be for 2 nights.  Exception are Banff, (for the sights) & Lethbridge, (visiting friends) we will be at each for 7 nights.

Our drive to Parry Sound takes us past my sister-in-law’s house in Utterson.        Allan has fun blowing the Horn.

Allan can flick on the rear view camera so we can see Bob, we watch him…

We encounter the normal construction. There will be much more to come. Arrive at the Parry Sound KOA at 120p.  We are escorted to our nice, long site. 

This is the first un-hook and it is flawless 🙂

Did it! 

 This is what the power should be..   

  First on the road fire! It go flamier     

Tomorrow we explore Parry Sound.  

On the having nothing to do with nothing….What do you see?

These are our masked cuties!!     

Hum Megan, a little upside down :))) 

 

 

 

Summer 2020 – In a Nut Shell, Exciting Times!!

Before getting back to Ontario, and after much discussion we decide to put our home up for sale.  These are crazy, unsettled times – hard to imagine what lies ahead.

May 22, 2020  We contact our Ontario realtor, the very sweet Natalie Bonnell.   A good thing during this pandemic, listing agreement was all done electronically – thank you DocuSign.

Sign on the door while selling   

When we get back we begin to sell some minor stuff on kijiji.

Will the house actually sell?  There is little available on the market, fingers crossed.

June 08, 2020 We are not held in suspense too long.  SOLD

Deal closes…. August 04, 2020                 

Now the serious selling begins.  We’ve been living in Bailey since December, she’s self sufficient so sell everything is on!

Amazing what you find when liquidating,  Allan’s cub cap, so very cute. Almost perfect fit  🙂

I sold the kitchen table and chairs out from under Allan.  Working away using the “MacGyver” method.

Allan brings me to the nicest places.  Georgina dump!

Suspect we will have several more trips here.

Look what else we found       

Online listed items are selling well, but so much stuff, we have the dreaded “garage sale”.

June 24Allan has been negotiating  for a Jeep as we now need a toad.  We started off wanting a 2 door but quickly determined there is no room in the back.  4 door it is.  Allan loves negotiating – I strongly dislike it = Allan flying solo at the dealer while I continue the packing and garage sale organization.   After many hours, Newmarket Chrysler agrees to Allan’s purchase price and the deal is written up.  The Jeep isn’t on their lot, they have to bring it in from another dealer so we have to wait for it to arrive.

June 27:  Garage Sale Day  We practice social distancing guide lines.  Allan measures out the 6 foot stand here lines.  We allow only one person in the garage at a time.

We have aisles, in one way-down the other and out.

We had more people come by then we thought would.  People just want to get back to “normal”, many said they missed garage sales. We were glad Allan had the 6 foot line markers in the driveway.

We give them each a spritz of hand sanitizer and in they go, wearing masks. There was, at times, a wait to get in – everyone was good with that.

Sales taper off about noon.  Grrr, still lots of stuff.  Another garage sale is in our future.

 

    July 03Pick up Jeep Day!     

September 2016, in Victoria we rented a Jeep.  Allan was not a fan, saying it was just a bucket of bolts!               

On our drive home I ask Allan “Well is this one a Bucket of Bolts?”

          “Yes, it is” he chuckles.  Meet Bob!             Yep it’s an engine!

Because you haven’t seen one in a while!   Fire time! Fire retardant gloves courtesy of Kyle and Megan for Father’s Day.

July 09, 2020 The hottest, most humid day of the year, 35c with humidity 42!  Not only are our summer long electric problems continuing, Elm Grove Trailer Park just can’t supply us power.  No, no discount as a result. Notice the indoor temps, 97, 103.  We need at least 112/115 volts to run the ac.  I have almost as many thermostat photos as Allan has camp fires photos.

We do occasionally, when our freezer is in jeopardy, start our generator but the asshat neighbours, Gary & Vickie, who are able to run their ac and could very well go in when we start the generator instead complain to the park’s owner.  This couple is truly the ugliest we’ve ever encountered, ugly through and through.

Vickie never leaves their trailer, the furthest she goes is their side lawn.  They sit under our windows and smoke non-stop.  We can’t run our ac nor open the windows as then the smoke billows inside.  Being that inconsiderate speaks volumes to who they are.

Gary is tasked with, every morning, rain or shine, driving to Sutton’s Tim Horton, he returns with 2 XL coffees.  Gary also does the grocery shopping and pick up of dinners when they order in.  No DoorDash for them, it’s GaryDash! Worth repeating! Vickie never leaves.  They sit on their deck and just smoke and   Vickie wearing her John Lennon glasses and pink baseball cap.

I know they are crappy photos but you get the idea.  They have a yappy dog named, Baby Girl. You hear “oh Baby” a lot when she barks from Gary.  Vickie doesn’t try to correct at all.  Poor Baby never gets walked.  Gary just brings her down the steps to the grass. Then you hear “hurry up”.  Guess he’s anxious to get back to the deck.

We are counting down the days till we leave Elm Grove.

July 10th –  Kyle has news and wants us to call.  We tried yesterday but the service at the park is so shitty we couldn’t connect.  We call, while driving to Newmarket.

Kyle’s news??  He has been selected to be deployed to the Ukraine!!!  This news comes a day after we decide to head to BC for the Winter.  Happy Face for Kyle being one of the few selected, Sad Face for us not spending the Winter with them.

July 11th  #2

Sold more stuff then entirely fed up donated the rest to Mission Thrift Store.

July 15th – We learned Kyle will be going to Petawawa on July 26 for Ukraine briefing.  Kyle will be a 4h drive away, he does have a rental vehicle.  Fingers crossed he has time to visit.

July 27th -Today is moving vault pick up day using AMJ Campbell #MakeYourBestMove.  We didn’t know what to expect – turns out the vault is in the 5 ton truck and gets loaded while in the truck.  They arrived at 921a and leave with loaded vault 1135a.

July 28th  – Off to the lawyer’s to sign the house selling documents.  We wanted to do the signing using DocuSign, this was not an option. We were so glad this wasn’t our first sale as it was anything but informative.  We have used this firm for all our legal requirements.

Dealings under the direction of the father were professional and somewhat fun.  The son and his wife recently took over when the father retired and it hasn’t been the same. Using Covid as an excuse, they have a table set up in the back corner of the parking lot, like WTF??  What do they do if it rains? The assistant comes out, places the paperwork on the table and says to sign & initial each page. No review or explanation of any of the docs.  Have no idea what we are signing, yep bad on us.       

We will not be using Allan Law again.

July 31st – Allan’s birthday!!  What do you get someone who has everything and recently sold most of it?  Throw in Covid!

Correct!! Personalized masks!

Allan showing off his IndyCar mask 

There is a  under that mask.  Other mask is checkered flags.

Birthday dinner ordered in using DoorDash from Riveredge Restaurant

Absolutely delicious!!

Kyle wanted to come visit for Allan’s birthday but  there was a wicked storm a brewing.  It ended up being, the worst storm of the summer.  Torrential rain, stupidly high winds.  We could barely see out the windows.  I’m happy he didn’t attempt the drive.

August 06th – Bob gets to be a TT (true toad).  Off to Hitch City We have the day to wander around Barrie while Bob is being outfitted.

First, Cora’s for a delicious breakfast.

Next our first pedicure since February!     Allan and I were the only clients.         

Wander, wander! Where do we find ourselves?? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 07th – Kyle makes it to the park to Allan.

Friday night was also karaoke at our neighbour’s, Charlene & Rod’s. Charlene belting out the tunes and then accompanied by her brother 🙂

August 15th – Sobey’s in Sutton spreading the love and the day our Blue Ox cover arrived!

 

August 26th – Last purchase of Kim wood. 

 

August 27th  – So hyped to be leaving. We are counting down the sleeps while still enjoying our Elm Grove friends.  They will be missed.

The continues!  Wonder what they will stare at when we are gone.  Feel so bad for the unsuspecting new renters of our site.

August 30th – Last sleep! We are a little anxious never having hooked up Bob before.  We book a RV site in Parry Sound a 3-1/2 hour drive, thinking if we have hook up issues, I’ll drive Bob, we’ll stop in Barrie at Hitch City to have them help out.

This year’s park rental agreement stated occupancy was September 01 2019 to September 01 2020.  Normally, OK always, parks are from the Victoria Day weekend till at least Thanksgiving.  All the rules of this lackluster contract are stated on the back of this page, it is totally blank.  We decide there is tom-foolery at play.  We hear Kim is renting a site for $950.  for a month.  No way would we pay that for this park.  We opt to abide by the contract hence leave August 31 one day earlier then the end of the contract.

Oh no, birds, birds and more birds.     

Scariest movie from my childhood is The Birds.  Still cringe and cover my neck when I see a flock.

Hooking up Bob went well.  Allan is very good at researching and following steps.  Allan, smartly, checked the hooks up a few times ensuring all was correctly attached.

All set to go!

Kim had stopped by earlier in the morning to say he was getting our final hydro bill.  We were leery to see it, last year our bill was less than the $350 deposit.  The full timers were between $900 and $1300, Kim has the hydro meters under lock and key.  You are required to just trust him.

As we are hooking up Bob, Kim drives by and gives us our bill.

Kim “You are going to e-transfer the money”

Allan “Of course!”

OMG! the bill is less than $265.  We are happy to pay that.  He increased the admin free to $50 from $45 and removed the delivery fee which was almost equal to the usage on last year bill.  Maybe he took pity on us for not having hydro for most of the season.

Freedom!! We start our drive out of the park…

Not so fast!!             

Are you freakin’ kidding me??  Kim chopped down a tree to block our exit.

Kim “You are going to pay the electric?”

Allan “Of course”.

Kim “Sorry about the tree, the tractor ran out of fuel.  Someone is off fetching some”

Kim “Are you e-transferring?”

Me “We will as soon as we get to our next camp”

Kim You have to pay before you leave.”

Any doubt on why the tree is down??

We hook up to the internet and e-transfer.

Transfer complete!

Without further ado, and NO fuel added, Kim jumps in the tractor and moves the tree!

Farewell Kim and Elm Grove Trailer Park!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 05, We did it!

We spent the 14 days, eating well, exercising, playing crib & cards, and of course-having fires!

Many thanks to our friends, Doris & Kevin for driving us home to pick up a vehicle.   We know “Gran” will need a boost.  Allan gets to use his hand held super booster for the first time.  Success Gran starts!  Allan heads out to Home Depot while I clean things up.   A few minutes later I hear…

The right rear wheel is locked.   Grrrr, we didn’t anticipate this problem.

Allan rocks it back and forth, forth and back.  Still locked.  Even cure all WD40 doesn’t help.  Need to move it as we can’t get Allan’s vehicle out of the garage.  Call the tow 🙁

What do you do while waiting?  Go through 5 months of mail!!

Everything we could, we changed to online and still this pile!

Yahoo, the tow is here!!

Load it up!!

Impressive skid mark!

Bye, bye Gran.  Not looking forward to this bill.Bonus, Allan loaded the summer tires for the swap out!

At least “Snowball”  didn’t let us down, needed a boost but here we are.

To celebrate our freedom we get Italian food, of course using Door Dash.

Saturday & Sunday, May 30/31, 2020

It’s been a crazy weather week! Beginning of the week we were under a heat wave with extreme humidity.  End of the week, fierce thunder storms.                             Saturday, aka              was an exciting, dreary weather, very windy day.

Excitement 1) Allan had our first, virtual notary signing docs experience using   Appointment was set for 1030a. All you require is 2 devices, computer & cell.  Allan signed, the notary signed all done by 1050a!

Excitement 2)  Kelvin, our friend, brought Allan a case of Rickard’s Red.  Is  he going to like it as much as before?  Chill the beer, chill the glass. 

Humm, likes it but???  Maybe should have had it on a clean, no beer palate?  Tomorrow the first beer, in a chilled glass will tell the tale.  

Got a fire in after dinner.  Then on the recommendations of a RV group, we watched RV with Robin Williams.  We got many chuckles, it’s worth watching. 

May 31st

Made it to double digits           

Today’s weather much like yesterday’s.  Very windy and chilly.  This should be shorts weather not jeans!  

Allan’s first beer of the day, Rickard’s in a chilled glass!    Now that his palate was not spoiled by other ambers….The love affair is back!  Gone too quick for a photo.To cap off the day, Kelvin who’s wanted a golf cart since we’ve known him, bought one today!   Drive safely!!