We are safe and sound in Ontario......

 

 Our Location: 

Valens Conservation Park, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Our morning was an early one, we were on the road at 6:50 AM, I know that because we looked. We enjoyed the Mercer County Fairgrounds and would stay again. We enjoyed it, it was a relaxing few days. Next time we would actually get out and tour Celina, but this time was strictly resting. 

We noticed this truck back at Quail Ridge Rv Park, in Huachuca City, Az.

And this one was in Fry's parking lot in Sierra Vista, AZ.

This morning's sunrise as we headed East.

We did see the sun later in the day.

The roads were pretty good over all, a few rough patches but not too bad. We had easy sailing to the border and the crossing was easy. A few questions and we were on our way. We crossed back into Ontario by 11 AM. We stopped a few times but not for long. 

Daffs in bloom at a rest area in Ohio.

We were only in the state for a short time.

We crossed the Ambassador Bridge.

The St Clair River.

There were lots of folks out on the water.

On the 401 East at MM 224, near Woodstock we had our first ever blow out of a tire on the Igloo. It was an interesting experience, no one was hurt but we do have some damage at the wheel well and along Riley's slide, one of the side markers is gone and apparently the Igloo isn't covered by CAA, who knew that? Not me. So I had to foot this bill myself. Kal Tire came after a two hour wait, and we were on the road again within about 20 minutes. Officer Stephen showed up and waited with us for about an hour before she was called away. We appreciated her assistance very much. Anyway all is well with us, we drove for another 50 minutes to reach Valens Conservation.  It's a big park and lots of trees, not someplace we would stay again. The roads are very narrow and the trees too close to the roads and the entrances to the sites. Our site is particularly odd, we had to turn around as the power receptacle is almost in the site beside us, we barely reach the post, if we hadn't turned around we couldn't have reached the outlet.

Back in Ontario, the grass is greening up and the leaves are almost visible.

The roads were pretty good. Excuse the dirty windshield.

Not our best day.

Tomorrow we are going to visit grandsons/nephews, daughter and her husband. We are looking forward to it very much. 

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you've all had a good day. 

Until next time....

Take care, stay safe, 

Deb

Travel day, we're going further north....

Our Location: Walmart, Parry Sound, Ontario

 

Our last full day at Buttercup Ridge was one of packing up, straightening up and adjusting our location. We had to back out of the circular drive as the power lines from pole to house were just not quite high enough for us. We backed straight up the driveway to hang our end over the edge of the pond. I think that may be the place we pick next time as well. We'll see.

 

To quote Willie Nelson, " We are on the road again."

 

Departure day (Monday) was sunny, warm and wonderful. Still without power to the house when we left, we could hear the cows in the barn voicing their complaints about limited water. We pulled up the feet, powered in the slides and headed straight out the lane way. We left around 10 am, an appointment at Kal Tire in Peterborough at noon was our first destination. We arrived much earlier than that but since many of the bays were empty they took us much earlier. (When I had rebooked they said they were full until noon) We backed the Igloo up onto the cement pad at the end of the building and told them to knock on the door when they were ready to start work. 

 

The hints of green in the trees, and the bright green of the grass definitely say SPRING.

 

At 11:15 am a nice young fellow knocked on the door. We went around the entire Igloo checking the pressure of all the tires even though they were up I wanted them checked to ensure we didn't have a leak of some kind. We went over which tires to change, etc and they checked the Dogsled tire pressure as well. By 12:15 pm we were on our way. Thank you Kal Tire PETERBOROUGH. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to anyone. 

 

Small town Omemee, very cute welcome sign.

 

We headed out on Trans Canada 7 North, eventually turning onto Provincial Highway 35 North, passing though towns like Omemee, Boboconk, Lindsay, etc. We took CR 48 until hooking up with Provincial Highway 12 leading us to the small city of Orillia. We bypassed down town and continued on toward Midland until we connected with Highway 400 North. Wabashene, Victoria Harbour, Honey Harbour all passed through our sights but we were aiming for the Information Stop south of Parry Sound. NEW signs indicate 1 HOUR PARKING ONLY, so overnight parking there is not allowed. Nor is there parking allowed at either of the little turn outs for future reference. There is parking allowed at the Truck Weigh Station Area BEFORE you reach the information stop. 

 

One of the many, many small inland lakes in the area.

 

Fuel prices are scary high at $1.36 per liter and with approx 4 liters per gallon you do the  math. We did fill up though as the Big Dog was about half way down the water bowl. We continued onward to the little town of Parry Sound. For all those folks that followed hockey years ago Parry Sound is the home of Number 4, Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins. It is also home of the 30,000 Island Cruise Ship. We pulled in at the Walmart, parked out near the end of the lot, scooted in to ask permission and were told with a smile that we are most welcome to park here. 

 

How can you not love the views.

 

A quick call to dad, left a message, some late lunch or early dinner I guess, as it was about 4 pm. Dishes cleaned up, and back inside for some quick groceries. After that we just enjoyed the rest. I found the place very quiet and had no issues falling asleep, but Riley said it was noisy. I was awake around 5:30 am too early to get up as I have no where to go at this time parked in the lot, but the quiet was amazing. Hardly any noise of any kind. The store is open from 8 am to 9 pm. Also nearby Marks Work Wearhouse, Dollarama, and Home Depot. In fact I'm using HD's wifi to do this post. 

 

I imagine that was quite the landing.

 

Today we'll be heading to Lively, Ontario about 3- 3 1/2 hours travel time. Not sure how far in distance. I'm used to this part of the route so I don't really calculate the mileage. I've travelled this part of our route for over 30 years going back to the Island to visit. We will be pulling in at the old Husky Garage for the night, hopefully getting in a visit with my best friend Linda and hubby Randy before we pull up stakes to head to our summer location on Wednesday morning. We won't be staying all summer as we usually do but at least we'll get a couple of weeks visiting in before we head out.

 

 

Our final destination for the day. We took the Bowes Street Exit.

A quick text from Alma, the power is back on at Buttercup Ridge, a day earlier than expected. Thanks for the hard workers at Hydro One for their efforts. Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed the visit. 

 

Until next time.... take care, be safe, 

 

Deb 

A maybe connection...

Our Location: Buttercup Ridge, Roseneath, Ontario

 

(no pictures, they just won't upload)

 

I think I'm going to crawl in a hole and wait for Murphy to go away or at least mail him elsewhere. I'm tired of Mr. Murphy and his wily, sneaking ways. 

  

Thanks to Patsy for giving everyone an update. I am currently using my JET PACK but it has a faulty on/off button. So it works on occasion and not on other occasions. A new one is in the mail in the US to a friend who will then forward it on to me, since Verizon doesn't ship to Canada. Thanks Ron & Sharon. So for now I will try to use this on again, off again connection. So if it's off again, no concerns. 

 

Let me catch you up on our doings. We enjoyed our visit with Courtney & Matt, the weekend went by pretty fast.

 

Since then we visited the little city of Peterborough where we visited Kal Tire to do two things. First was to return the chocks Jake had forgotten, and second was to make an appointment to replace the two tires in question. I'll have them look at the third tire at the same time.Since we are heading through Peterborough on our way north we will stop at Kal Tire for the new tires. It's about 60 km/35 miles to their location so it only make sense to do it on our way through their little city. Our tentative appointment is May 3.

 

We also managed to do a major grocery shop while there and now we're pretty much set for the rest of our time here. We had a day and a half of rain which cooled us off a fair amount but the snow is now all gone, not even a hint anywhere that we can see. We can't however see into the forest very far, so there may still be snow there. The open grounds are muddy and soft but hopefully it'll clear up soon and dry out. Although I think it will take some time to dry out the corn fields here as they are extremely soft even to the step. 

 

I have managed to complete our laundry in the days this week as well as any from the house that needed to be washed also. I'm going to give the house a bit of a shine before we leave as well. Even though the cleaning lady will be coming before Janet and Dennis arrive home I don't want to leave any messes behind for anyone else to clean. 

 

I spoke with Janet a day or so ago as she called to chat for a bit. If any of you out there own a Mandeloin slicer please either get the mesh glove or get rid of the slicer. Janet is now hoping the glued on finger tips of two fingers will heal and not be lost. Not to mention the deep cut on a third finger. It is her right hand, which is her dominant hand of course. Daughter Courtney has had a few nicks and cuts from her own slicer which she still won't part with. Both Riley and I had cuts from ours before I threw it in the garbage when we lived in our Stix 'n Brix. Riley's was a minor cut while the stupid thing was in the cupboard and she moved it. Mine was a cut to the bone while washing the thing. Makes me shudder just to remember. 

 

The sun is out today and hopefully the temperatures warm up enough to dry out some of the mud and grass. It's too muddy even to walk on the drive way as it's pretty soft and it tries to suck the shoes off of a person. 

 

A quick note from my Buddy Ian way out in Nelson, BC had us chatting for a bit today. It was nice to hear from him again, it's been a while. Ian and I met while he lived in St. Thomas, Ont, a few years ago. He's an English fellow who has always managed to make me smile. He's also a helicopter pilot. Nice chap as they say!! Good luck Ian. 

 

The past few days we've managed to watch a bit of Hawaii 5-0, and read a few books, do some house keeping and even managed to cook a bit. We've been keeping out of trouble. 

 

So there you have it, we are all caught up now. Nothing exciting, just more of the same stuff. Hopefully we'll have some nice weather now and we can do a bit of yard work to keep us busy and perhaps even manage a hike if the trails dry up in time. 

 

A couple of quick notes to add.

 Belated Happy Birthday to my nephew Allan, who's birthday was April 21. 

Happy Birthday to another nephew Jesse who's birthday is tomorrow, April 28. Jesse shares the same birth date as his great grandmother Katie (his father's grandmother). Happy Birthday fellas!!!

Again, a thank you to Patsy!!!! I appreciate it very much.

 

So thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your visit. 

 

Until next time.... take care, be safe, 

 

Deb