Saturday - July 14, 2007

Saturday – July 14 - We woke up to sun this morning and it stayed sunny until mid afternoon when it clouded over, but it hasn’t rained, so that is a bonus.

I did some laundry this morning then this afternoon we went into town and got some groceries, fuel, found a motel to get internet then drove down by the St. Lawrence and enjoyed the view across the river – actually it was a wonderful view of Montmorency Falls.

We are really impressed with the people here, everyone goes out of their way to try to speak English and we try to use our little bit of French. It was a riot at the grocery store with the check out clerk and I trying to get it straight that I wanted some cash back but we did get it straight. She called over a young fellow who spoke English and he had a lot of questions about where we lived etc. It is interesting here, the cost of fuel is the same at every gas station - $1.14/litre for gas and $1.039/litre for diesel, no bargains to be had anywhere!!

When we got back I went to download some pictures and lo and behold we had internet so I guess they have it working again. Hopefully I will be able to get today’s diary and a couple of pictures posted tonight. After dinner we sat out for quite a while but it finally got too damp so I had to come in and do dishes – what a bummer. They are calling for rain tomorrow so John got us all hooked up and ready to go in the morning so if it is raining it won’t be much to do to get on the road.

Friday - July 13, 2007

Today was funny weather wise, it was sunny when we got up then it rained for a bit before we left the park and rained for about the first half hour then the sun came out and it was mainly sunny all the way to Levis. We got here about 2 and within an hour it was overcast and had started to rain again and is suddenly quite windy.

We got here and found out their internet isn’t working – grrrr, she said they are trying to get it going but have been having a lot of problems with it. Hopefully they will get it going as it appears that there is no one around us with an internet dish.

Tonight we went out and had a pizza for dinner, we haven’t been out for pizza since before Christmas at Casa Grande so decided it was time. It was a very busy restaurant but we only had to wait about 10 minutes for a table and the pizza was very good. We came back and went for a walk around but had to cut it short as it started to rain.

Thursday - July 12, 2007

Today our oldest grandson is 19 – Happy Birthday Kevin! It was a nice day today, sunny with some clouds and not too hot. Taking the lesser highways is certainly slower than the 401 etc. but much nicer and more relaxing. We enjoyed the drive from Marmora and saw lots of places where we have never been before, we are now at Alfred, which is on Hwy.17, about 20 km west of Hawkesville, where we will cross over into Quebec.


We are at Evergreen Camping which is much nicer than last night and cheaper, I really think KOA’s are way over priced! (Have I mentioned that before!). All the trailers here are quite new and very nicely set up, most of the permanent ones have nice add-a-rooms and they are all very well kept. There is no wi-fi here so I won’t be able to post this until tomorrow as I know the park we are going to has internet.

Wednesday, - July 11, 2007

Well, here we are, on the road again! We got away from Green Acres about 9:30 and had good weather, some sun and some cloud but no rain, so we were happy. We called Kel on the way through Port Perry but there was no place to park and meet her for lunch so we kept going and then found a school at the turn from Hwy. 35 to 7A so pulled in there and had lunch.


We decided to stop in Marmora as the KOA advertised pull thrus that we could fit in without having to unhook. We take up the whole site and we really do dislike these old KOA’s, you pay top dollar for so so facilities and sites, but sometimes they are the only place to stop. They didn’t advertise WiFi but I did get hooked on so that is one bonus, I can at least get this posted today. If we didn’t stop here it would be about another 2 hours before we could find another park with long enough sites so decided to call it a day early. We have reservations in Levis for Friday and Saturday nights so we will have a couple of easy days to get there.

Wednesday - May 2 - We woke up to sun this morning which was nice but it was quite cool, only in the mid 40’s, but by this afternoon it got up to the mid 50’s. We got away from London about noon and arrived in Kincardine shortly before 2 so had lots of time to get situated on our site and start sorting things out. The trailer needs a super good cleaning so that will be first thing on my agenda for tomorrow.

It’s nice to be back and we are looking forward to getting settled in. This will be the end of my blog until we go on the road again, which will hopefully be mid July when we head for Newfoundland.

We traveled a total of 20,145 km from the time we left on November 17^th till we arrived back here today, a lot of kilometers but we sure saw a lot of wonderful places and things and had an absolutely great time.

Tuesday - May 1 - We had a good visit with Doug & Fran last night, it has been about a year since we have seen them so lots of catching up to do.

We woke up to a bit of rain this morning, but fortunately not a lot and then it cleared off by the time we were ready to leave. We stopped and fueled up - diesel was $2.759 so not too bad a price then stopped at the duty free as there were a couple of Estee Lauder things I wanted to pick up. We crossed the bridge and we were the only car there, so drove right up and after a few questions we were told we had been randomly picked for an inspection - great! There were a few more questions then we had to pull over and one customs gal went through the inside of the truck with a fine tooth comb and a fellow checked the trailer. John was able to go in with him and John said he checked the bedroom, under the bed and one cupboard in the hallway (John said he got dive bombed by a box of Kleenex when he opened the cupboard door!) and that was it, They were all very nice and friendly and we were out of there within about 10 minutes.

We got to London about 11:30 hoping to see Andy but he was busy when we got there but after a while Steve said they could look at the furnace and step if we could wait another hour. To make a long story short we got our furnace and step fixed and decided that by then it was almost 5 so we might as well stay here for the night. We finally got to talk to Andy at about 7:00 p.m., after they had closed and everyone had gone he came out to the trailer and we had a good chat. We had a lot of questions about the solar system, the back-up camera, etc which we wanted to ask him so it was worth the wait as he gave us some good hints and answered a lot of our questions.

When they said they could do the furnace and step John got us unhitched then we went to Tim’s for lunch, it has been a long time since we were there and it was good. By the time we got through with Andy it was 8 so we decided to go to Swiss Chalet for dinner, so now I am happy - I have had my Timmy’s and Swiss Chalet. Sure do wish they had them in the southern states!

After our chat with Andy there are a couple of things they are going to check out in the morning so we hope to be out of here by noon at the latest and get up to Kincardine and get set up.

Monday - April 30 - Well, we made it to Port Huron about 3, a good drive and another nice day. We started out looking for fuel this morning and ouch, it was $2.989 in northern Indiana. Lesson learned, fill up when it is cheap as it was still $2.659 until after Indianapolis where it jumped about $0.30/gallon. We just got enough to get us here and it is $2.759 here so will fill up on the way out tomorrow morning.

The weather was in the mid 60’s all the way until about 10 miles from here, all of a sudden it was 55, welcome back!! I think the blanket will go on the bed tonight!

I thought I would get this done and posted as by the time Doug & Fran leave and we clean up I probably won’t feel like it as it will be too late.

Sunday - April 29 - We are now where we began our journey, the KOA at Auburn, Indiana - we were here our first night out on November 17th. They now say they have wi-fi but we can’t log on, go figure! The young fellow checking people didn’t seem particularly friendly or helpful so I think it would be a waste of time to go over and tell him the wi-fi isn’t working, I guess I will just have to wait till tomorrow night.

Have we lucked out for driving weather, today was another beautiful, sunny day in the high 70’s. We bought diesel fuel in Horse Cave, KY at $2.659/Gal which was about $0.30/Gal cheaper than unleaded, gotta love it!

We had a lot of traffic from Cave City through Louisville, but once we got into Indiana it calmed down a bit, thankfully. We have gone from late spring in Kentucky to early spring here, the trees are just starting to bud and the blossoms are just coming out on the trees. The weather is still warm so I am not complaining as I think it is another night without having to put the electric blanket back on! Tomorrow we are heading for the KOA at Port Huron and John’s brother and sister-in-law are coming for dinner - it has been a year since we have seen them so we are looking forward to the visit.

Saturday - April 28 - Today was a travel day, we left Gadsden and drove to Cave City KY, a nice drive and a nice day. We had a bit of cloud, but it was mostly sunny and warm. Tonight we are at Cave Country RV Park, which is a nice little park which opened last year. Other than the drive a quiet day but I think that by tomorrow night we might have to put the electric blanket back on the bed - GRR!

Friday - April 27 - Today was fairly nice, sunny first thing this morning, then it clouded over for a couple of hours, then sun again with the temperature reaching the mid 70’s.

I did some cleaning and laundry this morning, I hope that will be it for laundry until we get to Green Acres. This afternoon we went back to Wal Mart as John wanted to get a Sirius radio for the truck and they were on sale real cheap there. This one is smaller than the one we have so he is going to install it in the truck then install the other one in the trailer, that way we have it wherever we are. We went to get gas and by paying cash (debit was considered cash) we got it for $2.709/gal so a really good deal.

Tonight we went out for dinner, there is a seafood restaurant down the road and it was really good. We both had seafood platters with broiled crawfish tails and I had scampi and John had boiled shrimp, we came home stuffed! When we got back we went for a walk around the park to try to shake our dinner down.

Thursday - April 26 - Well, this morning we woke up to the forecast rain, it rained all morning then cleared off in the afternoon.

There is a by-pass right here by the park so we took it today as it is one of the possible routes out of here on Saturday. It turned out to be good and shouldn’t be too much of a hassle, there was a Wal Mart on our route so we got our shopping done. Wal Mart is good for most things but the one thing that is hard to find anywhere down here is fresh, good looking veggies and Wal Mart is really bad for that. We took another way back and found a couple more grocery stores so after stopping at both of them I think I am now ready for the run home. I have stocked up on a few things that are much cheaper here than home, and then before we leave in the fall I will stock up on things from home that we can’t get down here.

We found diesel for $2.759/gal. (the normal is $2.859) so will go back and fill up the truck tomorrow so we will be good to go on Saturday.

Little River Canyon

Our Site at River Country Campground

Wednesday -April 25 - Today was another nice day with temperatures in the low 80’s, it was partly cloudy but mostly sunny. We decided to do some touring today as it is supposed to rain tomorrow so that will be a good shopping day.

The Lookout Mountain Parkway is a parkway that runs from Gadsden to Chatanooga so we decided to drive a portion of it today, it is 100 miles long so we weren’t about to do the whole thing but wanted to do some of it. We got into back country Alabama and it was real hillbilly country - decrepit houses with rotting vehicles sitting all over the place and some houses well on the way to falling down. Then we hit a scenic loop to Little River Canyon and what a beautiful drive. We were on the canyon side of the road and it was a verrrry long way down, sure wouldn’t want to do that drive in a RV or towing an RV as the road was very hilly and twisty and turny. There were a number of lookouts and it was beautiful looking down into the canyon, there was a river running through the base of the canyon which you could hear - very nice. At a couple of the lookouts there were absolutely gorgeous homes at the top of the canyon on the other side, quite a difference from what we had seen on the way there.

After the canyon we went further along and all of a sudden we were running along the rim of the mountain and there were some fabulous homes sitting right on the top looking down into a valley - quite a view they had - I don’t think this is where the poor folks live.

We got back to Gadsden and came home for a while then went out for dinner and after dinner we stopped at a mall for a bit. The mall looked quite new but was totally dead, hardly anyone there. I checked out Sears and a couple of other stores but didn’t buy anything.

Tuesday - April 24 - Today was a good driving day, it was sunny but also partly cloudy so not too hot in the truck. We took Highway 431 from Eufaula to Gadsden, a good drive and not too busy except in a couple of the cities we went through. John doesn’t particularly like driving on the back roads as they don’t have much in the line of a shoulder, but they do have better scenery than the interstate.

We arrived at River Country Campground in Gadsden around 2:45 and picked out a site and got set up. The park is located on the Coosa River and we can sit in the trailer and look out at the river - very pretty, and, we have wi-fi here, hallelujah!! We got set up and went for a walk down by the river, other than that we haven’t started to explore this area - tomorrow hopefully! While John was setting up I did some cleaning and washed the floors - badly needed but I don’t like to do them before we travel as somehow they seem to get really dirty on the road. Now that that is out of the way so I can spend the next few days enjoying the area and not worrying about getting the cleaning done.

Monday - April 23 - We decided to stay here another day so went down to the office this morning to pay for another day and hopefully do laundry. The laundry was busy so we decided to go into town and do it there, so that was a couple of hours gone. We stopped at the grocery store and got some catfish for dinner, filled up with fuel and then came home. John got us hooked up to leave tomorrow and I read, another lazy day!

Sunday - April 22 - Today was another nice day, sure do like this weather. We didn’t do an awful lot, talked to family and friends on the phone, read and went into town late this afternoon and bought a deli cooked chicken for dinner.

Our Site at Lakepoint State Park

House That Was for Sale

Saturday - April 21 - Sure do like this weather, today was another gorgeous day. This afternoon we went back into Eufaula and drove around a bit looking at all the gorgeous old homes, then parked and walked up and down Randolph Street which has many of these old mansions on it so it was a good way to get a look at them. Eufaula has 62 buildings registered with historic designations and about 55 of these are homes, which I think is quite amazing for a town this size! One of the historic homes is for sale so we picked up a brochure, it is over 3000 square feet and is listed for $350,000 and the taxes are $634.45/year (can you believe that!).

We then went to Fendall Hall which is the only home owned by the state and open year round to the public, all the other buildings, except the Shorter home, are still private homes and only open to the public during Pilgrimage. We got there about 3:00 and the woman who works there said we had lots of time to tour it before she closed at 4 then asked if we wanted a guided tour which we said would be nice. It was very interesting and reminded us a bit of Castle Kilbride with all the murals painted on the walls. There was also a little stove like the one that mom had, only this one was black and about twice as high with a stove pipe coming up, and there were all the little pots and pans sitting on it. She said that she hadn’t had time yet to research the stove but thought perhaps it was a salesman’s demo. We told her about mom’s and that we had seen one just like it at the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit and that is exactly what it was, a salesman’s demo.

We had a chance to ask lots of questions so of course we asked about property taxes as we couldn’t believe the taxes on the house we had seen for sale, apparently they are trying to instigate market value assessment but not having much luck - sound familiar? All of a sudden I looked at my watch and it was 4:30, so we apologized profusely for keeping her late but she said she it wasn’t a problem as she is usually there till 5 and there was a dinner there tonight so she would be there till that was over. The informal dining room had been set up for the dinner, apparently it was high school graduation night and some parents had arranged for a dinner for their kids at the home prior to the graduation ceremony. Both the Fendell and Shorter mansions are available to rent for special occasions, she said they mainly do showers, small family dinners etc. at Fendell and most of the weddings are at the Shorter Mansion as they can accommodate larger groups.

All in all another nice day.