Heading out on our new adventure......

Our Location: Walmart Front Yard, Sudbury, Ontario

The last few days have been busy as we’ve been preparing to depart on Wednesday. A number of chores including propane regulator changed, laundry done, visits with various folks, and just a number of things to accomplish. 

These are the roads to and from friend Linda's Camp in the Providence Bay area, they include Blue Side Road with it's ONE LANE bridge, as well as the Manitou River on the Government Road.

Today Wednesday May 30 found our temperatures reaching 84F/29C on the first day of our newest adventure. To say it was hot would be an understatement but the humidity is what was so difficult to handle. The morning started warm at 6 am with temperatures at 57F/14C and just continued to rise. 

Welcome to the wide spot in the road that is Tehkummah. (Tack - a - ma)

We finally pulled out of our temporary spot on the green at 9:30 am after coffee time, a walk, showers and packing up, hooking up and heading down the hill. A quick stop at Dad’s house to say our see you in a month or so and we were off to the hamlet of Manitowaning to pick up my sister Jan as she’s coming with us this time. A stop at the local Information booth/used book stop to drop off some books, then on to sister’s house to load up her necessaries before pulling out around 10:15 am, leaving her partner Rick behind to mind the house, garden and cats. 

The small town of Mindemoya, we do laundry here.

The day would be a short one for us, our destination about 2 hours away. Only one stop for a top up of the Big Dog’s water bowl at $1.29 per litre (approx 4 litres to a gallon, you do the math). 

This turtle was crossing the green where we were parked. Only one we noticed.

We passed through Sheguaindah, Little Current, Birch Island, Espanola, McKerrow and past our usual turn off at Lively (Linda and Randy are at Camp) and motored to Sudbury and Mr. Walton’s front yard. We arrived before 1 pm and were unhooked and headed out to the blood lab, bank and Cosco for a quick couple of errands. We managed to have a quick lunch at Cosco before coming back home. 

The road during part of our travels today. Included as you can see are the blossoms just now showing themselves. Also the 'other' view but this one coming down Ten Mile Point hill toward the town of Sheguaindah.

The afternoon passed with us running all the fans, having all the windows and vents open seemed to keep the heat at least manageable but a shopping excursion into Walmart for some groceries and a few little things helped us cool off a bit. Sis and I  finally retreated outside to the shade of the Igloo as the heat inside wasn’t abating much but it was much cooler outside.

The town of Little Current located on the North Channel is the only gateway that allows one to drive onto Manitoulin Island. The Channel is accessible by a swing bridge that opens during the summer months, every hour on the hour for 15 minutes as needed to allow marine traffic to pass. Riley managed to snap a picture as we crossed the bridge, a picture of the North Channel that leads out to the waters of MacGregor Bay/Kilarney area. Another picture into the North Channel shows a large cruise ship docked at the down town docks of Little Current.

Here it is 7:35 pm and outside has cooled off some, hopefully the night time air cools off as well so we can sleep. As we sat outside Darren from Winnipeg, Manitoba sat with us and chatted away for an hour or so.  Darren and his wife Joan (whom we didn't meet) are parked behind us in a Class A motorhome. Around 9:30 pm we three ladies journeyed back into Walmart to just wander around and finally came home at 10 pm when the store closed for the night. The air is cooling off but it's still pretty warm. The three of us are finding it difficult to get to sleep. 

Highway 6 North, this is part of the drive between Little Current and Espanola. This particular stretch is called the Willisville Hill.

Thanks for stopping by. Today’s pictures are just some of the views out the window as travelled over the last few days including today. 

This is an extremely steep grade which finally gets us to the top of the above mentioned hill.

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

Deb

A very accomplishing kind of day....

Our Location: Quartzsite, Arizona

I woke for the first time shortly after 2 am to the sound of a half dozen coyotes yapping just outside our little Igloo. I’m willing to bet that if I’d gotten up and looked out the window I might have been able to see at least one or two of them. However I didn’t, I simply rolled over and went back to sleep, after a trip to the ladies room of course. 

The moon greeted me first thing this morning...

As I write the beginning of this post it is 5:09 am and not a sound can be heard except the tap, tap, tap of the computer keys, and of course HRH Miss Kitty at her food bowl. She has heard me stirring up stairs and wants me to know that she expects breakfast as soon as I’m down stairs, or perhaps sooner if possible.

It's going to be a beauty....

At some point today or Monday we’ll be heading out to Blythe, California as that seems to be where the nearest blood lab is, or at least the nearest one I could find. Before we started full-timing I was required to have blood work every month, I’ve since convinced  the good doctor that once every two months is more reasonable as I have to pay for it myself down here in the USA. Of course him being the good doctor that he is, agreed to the two months. I tried for 3 months but he wouldn’t go that far. So I had my last work completed just the day before we left Ontario back in late October. I’ll have it done once more before I get back to Ontario where I don’t have to pay for it.

Look at that colour...

Outside by shortly before 7 am, the sky was still dark, the moon bright and a few stars twinkling merrily as they prepared to fade away in the upcoming daylight. Warmer this morning, 48F/8.8C with no wind of any kind. Truly a wonderful morning.

Love those changing colours...

I called my sister while I was snapping pics of the sunrise, we chatted for about an hour and in that time I had more than enough pictures of the sunrise to do for my blog. We chatted about numerous things and caught up on a few other things. 

All along the mountain top.....

While chatting with my sister Jan, and snapping pictures of the sunrise, my neighbour Jim stopped and told me that he was off to pick up his wife Karen today. Determined to be nothing more than low blood sugar they are releasing her. I’m assuming it was from Las Vegas but I don’t know that for certain. As I’m writing this post at 7 pm they still haven’t arrived back home. 

After finishing up the call to Jan, and the sun being up I headed inside to chat with Miss Riley about the up coming day. Over hot drinks we discussed a few things and decided I would go by myself to Blythe for the blood work and she would stay home. Any walking would be done on the road and not venturing any cross country, a text to me when she was leaving and when she returned was also part of the requests. 

I prepped lunch, made our salads and cleaned up the kitchen while finishing up my hot drink. Nothing like having that out of the way. I’ve also checked on the list of things we cannot bring into California and so we’ll not be grocery shopping until we cross into California during the up coming week.

So I headed off to California around 9 am MST, toting the garbage to the dumpsters on my way out. The ride was pretty, quite and uneventful, just the kind I like. I found Lab Corp with no issues. I won’t tell you all about the experience but let’s say that an hour and a half later I had finally had my two vials of blood taken, paid my bill and left. 

A new day has dawned...

I stopped at a car wash just off of E Hobson Way and gave the Dogsled a decent bath. I wasn’t too worried about getting  it spotless, more just so I could see out the windows. The Big Dog is shining like a new penny. He also has a full belly, which I topped up just before crossing into California at $2.69 per gallon. This for the Canadians that have trouble not having a zip code when paying at the pumps with a credit card, try using the 3 numerical digits from your postal code, followed by two zeros. Example: L8K 3K1 would then punched in as 83100. It’s worked at the last three pumps I’ve tried.

Can you see the two birds on the far right hand side near the top?

Leaving Blythe I headed out on  I-10 East and just let the Big Dog run along at a nice steady pace. Riley sent a text message saying she was going for a walk (I pulled into a rest stop to check the message, not while I was driving). I literally pulled back on to the Interstate and my phone rang, my friend Linda was calling. I let if go to voice message and called her when I pulled into the BLM area and chatted while I drove home from the check in cabin. I also passed Riley about 2 minutes from home just a speeding down the dusty road with little tufts of dust kicking up around her feet. Reminded me of that guy on Charlie Brown that is always walking around with dust about him.

Almost looks like normal bark from a tree....

 

Further up it split into two....

And again further up....

After having chatted with Linda for about an hour and Riley having made it home it was about 1:15 pm when I pulled my salad out of the fridge to start enjoying my lunch, as I was hungry. The salad hit the spot but left me hungry enough to enjoy my lunch about an hour later. Today I worked the Weber as it was too hot for Riley outside, even under the awning. I didn’t mind, it was nice sitting outside and soaking up some rays while reading my book. It took only occasional effort from me to turn things on the grill.

The camera was close up to a Teddy Bear Cactus...

Today’s lunch was of course a nice green salad (actually multicolored), followed by mixed veggies with Sweet Basil, and Parsley (fresh mushrooms, asparagus, carrots, cauliflower, spaghetti squash, celery)  We also had grilled potato wedges brushed with oil and to those I also added a little Parm cheese to the tops of the wedges. Lastly I dropped a sweet country Ham steak on the grill. I can tell you it was very good and we have no left overs. Riley finished off her meal with some peaches, I choose to have a Granny Smith apple instead. 

Interesting wood from this dead part of the cactus....

This might be a goats head sticker.....grow everywhere and are sharp little buggers...

After cleaning up inside and out, I grabbed a stool, a towel, keys and the drill. Once again I pulled everything out of the side cubbie, crawled in, removed the panel and had Riley turn on the water pump. I adjusted the check valve that Bill Richards, (On Our Way) mentioned a few days ago, and sure enough, it shut off. Thanks again Bill. Afterward I put everything back in the cubby and sat down to read my book for a while. 

Around 5 pm I was inside just getting things together so I could slip out and take sunset pictures when my Dad called from Manitoulin Island. My Dad’s name is Doug. For those that that don’t know I’ll give you a little information about the Island. Manitoulin Island is located in Northern Ontario in the Georgian Bay/La Cloche/Killarney  area of Lake Huron. There are two ways to get on or off the Island from late April to mid October, but from October to April there is only one way on and off. During the summer months one can use the ferry from South Baymouth on the south western tip of the Island to Tobermory on the mainland, which is 27 miles away. The ferry schedule is 2, 3, and 4 trips depending on time of season and day. The ferry is called the Chi-Cheemaun which means Big Canoe in Ojibway.  The other alternative is Hwy 6 which crosses a single lane swing bridge at the northwest end of the Island at the town of Little Current. The swing bridge stops traffic during the summer months usually every hour on the top of the hour to allow marine traffic to pass into/out of the North Channel at the town of Little Current.

Beginning to decline....

Among the news my dad shared was numerous accidents on various highways in the north which claimed a number of lives  over the past few days. We chatted about the weather, the temps, updates on this and that and before I knew it 20 minutes had passed. Dad had lots of news today. 

An dying cactus , love the 'head' shape...

After hanging up the phone I slipped outside and started taking pictures. I walked around and took pictures from a number of angles and locations. Wasn’t an extraordinary sunset but it was nice. I was back inside around 6:30 pm to chat with Riley for a bit before starting to write this post and I still have to edit the pictures taken today. 

Loved the sunset in the hoop of the branch...

So there you have it, our day. I managed to accomplish the three things I wanted to do today, blood work, bath the Dogsled, and check the check valve. I didn’t get out for a walk, it was just too hot when I got home but tomorrow I plan on having a good long walk. Thanks for stopping by, feel free to leave a comment. 

A different kind of 'skeleton'  in the desert....

Until next time…. take care, be safe, 

Goodnight from Quartzsite, Arizona

Deb

A busy day today....

Our Location: Walmart Front Lawn, Hamilton, Ontario

(today's pics were all taken on the Rock in Lake Huron (Manitoulin Island) a few years ago)

Coolish nights seem to be the norm here in southern Ontario. The predicted high didn't materialize or at least not anywhere I was today. It was nice with a bit of a breeze which of course cooled things off, that big yellow ball in the sky was a welcome sight and stayed with us pretty much most of the day. Things clouded over and the rain began to fall just as the evening hours struck. Around 6 pm I think I heard the first rain drops on the roof, followed by a couple of big thunder boomers, a light show of one or three flashes across the skies over the city but other than that it was mostly a rain event. The odd far off rumble of thunder could be heard later in the evening but it was minor rumbling, while the sky turned an ominous shade of slate grey but I think the bulk of the storm went around us.  Round about 8 pm the sun was lighting up the store front but the rain drops were still falling.

South Baymouth Lighthouse

We started off this morning by making plans for the day. If you've been following this blog at all you'll know we always make plans but often we don't seem to have the energy, the time or the need to do some of them and they get pushed off until another day. Today was NOT like that at all. First we headed back to the wonderful folks at Dr Yaksich/Dr Adams dental office, Riley was getting fitted for a mouth guard to help her clicking jaw issue. Of course the ladies on the desk were spectacular as always, helpful, knowledgeable, and quick to smile. Dr. Larry graced us with his presence once again today and even did a quick job of reattaching Riley's wire retainer as it had come loose. MaryAnne and Lisa were excited when I told them I'd mentioned them in yesterday's blog, I hope they don't think that makes them stars now 'cause NOT that many people read this little blurb. ~laugh~ I assured them that I said only bad things, I'm almost certain they might have believed me. ~laugh~ So if you are reading Ladies, Hello and welcome!!!!

South Baymouth Marina

From the dentist office we made our way down the hill to Life Labs where Riley needed to have the blood work which Dr. Dube requested yesterday. While she was having her vampire procedure I was on the phone making a few calls that needed to be addressed with regards to doctors, Dogsled appointments and such. The Dogsled needs to have a check up to ensure that he's fit for use in Ontario, I think he also needs to have his breathing checked with an emissions test, all of which must be done before he can be plated and insured here in the wonderful province of Ontario. Hopefully the breathing experts can fit him in tomorrow and the check up with Dr Ozlo's crew is scheduled for Monday morning. I have no worried the big boy will pass with flying colours. 

After the blood work we headed back to the Igloo, grabbed a Timmies, changed back into some dirty clothes before making our way back to the storage locker place (it's some dirty work I'll tell ya). Today we managed to finish cleaning out the unheated outside small locker (5x5) and stuff everything into the indoor heated much bigger unit. That will relieve us of a sizeable payment every month. We had to pretty much pull out about 1/4 of the things in the locker to get to the usable but unused space near the back half of the locker. It was suitable for light boxes such as linens, clothes, etc to be piled upon firm wooden pieces of furniture. We then managed to stuff ALL of the other boxes into the space with a bit of room to spare. I was extremely happy to do that. The front desk returned the month's storage they had just taken out about an hour before I told them I no longer needed the unit. Good timing, huh? ~laugh~ 

View over the islands in the North East waters off the shores near Little Current

After that it was home to clean up and a quick jaunt across the way to Great Clips for a hair cut. We were both due for one as it's been a while for both of us. I was starting to feel like a long haired sheep dog with stuff hanging in my eyes all the time. ~laugh~  I had a wash and trim while Riley had a wash and cut. It's much shorter now and she seems pleased with it. I like it very much. 

After that it was home again and for the rest of the day we just kind of rested. Enough work today already!! We were too tired to load up the laundry and head out so that's on the list for tomorrow's chores. We can't wait too many more days or we'll be starting to "look for our cleanest dirty shirt" ( a line from a Kris Kristopherson song - Sunday Morning Coming Down). Therefore tomorrow WILL be laundry day. ~laugh~ 

Swing Bridge/ Hwy 6, the only all year round route on/off the Island

Since we had a late lunch today dinner time wasn't of any interest to me and Riley decided to manage for herself, which she did just fine. Afterward my hunger pains were satisfied with a nice big juicy Granny Smith apple.  

Sailboat waiting to pass thru at the Swing Bridge.

So ended our day. Not life altering or news worthy but it worked for us. We're looking forward to an easier day tomorrow and we'll take the weekend off except for a visit to the old neighbourhood. Monday we'll do our morning appointment and I hope then we'll be heading out along the QEW toward the big city of Toronto and points further north!! Depending on our departure time and traffic we will stay somewhere between Toronto and Barrie, or we'll reach Parry Sound for an over night on Monday. We should be in Lively, Ontario a suburb of Sudbury on Tuesday, an overnight there to visit with my best friend Linda and her hubby Randy.  Wednesday we will be off to the Rock and our summer location. So a few short travel days next week will net us a mid week arrival time which should be just in time for the warm up trend to start rolling in.  We'd really like that as it will mean we can once again get out and start walking which we haven't been dong lately. 

Okay, enough rambling for one night! Thanks for stopping by, feel free to leave a comment, and until next time...be safe, take care....

Blood work, park pictures, and a lazy day....

Our Location: Magic River Rv Resort, Long Beach, Mississippi

(all pics taken with my phone yesterday)

Rain last night and a cooler morning today. Others seem to find it warmer than I do and I think it has something to do with the dampness here. I'm either sweating or freezing, I don't seem to have an in between. 

Some palm trees have survived better than others over the years

Up at the fire shortly after 6 a.m. this morning, listening to the BS getting deeper and deeper soon I'm going to need some chest waders, I don't think hipster will cut it. ~laugh~ Although a nice touch today, which actually happened yesterday, Butch took Mr. Budd to the Gulfport airport to see some vintage WWII planes and they ended up going for a ride in a B-24 bomber airplane. Apparently the mechanic that keeps this plane going lives where Mr. Budd was stationed during the war. Mr Budd was at one point leading the group as almost a tour guide since he seemed to know his way around the airplane pretty well.  Mr. Budd was a pilot during that war flying 160 missions. They flew over Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian, and campground as well. A good time was had by all!!!!

A shot of the campground from near the roadway.

Riley came to the fire this morning. It was nice to see her interacting with the folks. A big smile graced her pretty face as she seemed to settle in and enjoy the recognition. 

Spring is in the air, water lilies are blooming.

Home around 8:30 a.m. we had breakfast and headed off to 1110 Broad Avenue in Gulfport for my blood work, which I forgot about last week. It took a while and of course my address wouldn't fit in the little boxes on the program and it was a learning experience for everyone. ~laugh~ I did however manage to get it taken and paid for. I doubt I'll get the results but at least Dr. Bobba will get them. 

Looking toward the roadway with the campground on the right of the pond.

We decided against walking today. Truth is I just don't feel like it and I think Riley is happy to just skip it as well. We can always do a few laps around the campground if necessary. 

Some of the trees are setting their pine cones already.

Miss Jeannie and Chuck left today. I am truly sorry to see them go. I enjoyed her company a great deal. Charles and Roberta are also scheduled to leave today. So the campground will be a bit different again with the loss of these people.

Some other Canadians here at the park.

After lunch I found myself wandering up to the fire to chat with my buddy Ron who seemed to be as lost as I was. ~laugh~ We chatted for a bit but were soon joined by others and before long the ring around the fire pit (without a fire) grew to include most of the morning crowd. Riley came along a bit later as well. It was 3 pm before we left the fire pit and came back home.

This chain has been secured to the tree by the tree itself.

Reading took up the rest of the afternoon and since we still had sausage soup left over I didn't have to cook dinner tonight. I wasn't hungry and so only Riley had a bowl of soup. Only ONE bowl left and I'll have to start cooking again.

Pretty white single water lily flower.

We stayed home this evening as I've found that night time fires often leave me cold and I wonder if that might be some of the cause of my pain these days as the night air is cool, damp and invading. I'll have to give that some better attention over the next few days.

So there you have it, nothing exciting or life altering but a nice quiet day all the same. Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your visit. Until next time..be safe, take care. 

Into every life a little rain must fall......

Our Location: Devencrest Rv Park, Albany, GA

A little cooler last night, and today was a mix of various kinds of weather. No complaints though, still better than being back in Canada!! Today's high reached about 73 F/ 22 C, however the night is cooling off very quickly, it's already dropped over 20 degrees and should drop another 15 to 20 by the time it bottoms out tonight. We will definitely have the windows closed tonight. 

Today's pics are from our walk along the Riverwalk in downtown Albany. 

 After breakfast we headed into the city and drove straight to the hospital and tucked in behind is a blood lab which I was more than happy to find as I require blood work once a month, but my Rheumatologist, Dr. Bobba agreed that I could have blood work down here once every two months. December marks the two month mark since my last one late in October.  

The wonderful staff were mystified by having a Canadian to deal with and no insurance company or US Dr to enter into any of those wonderful little boxes that require such stuff. It was easier by far to just give them the address here at the park as my home address. I had to chuckle to  myself when the lady told me she wasn't used to working at the front desk and that's why it was so difficult for her to input all the data, she spread her hands and said,"this is what I usually do" meaning draw blood. She's good at it I'll tell you. Although I felt nothing when she put the needle into my arm, I've felt it more and more as the day went by and it's starting to get quite the little bruise there now. ~laugh~  She thanked me for my patience while she was entering all the information and for helping her to figure out a bit more about the front desk work, and I thanked her for all her effort, her wonderful sense of humour and her expertise. I think we both learned a bit today and I think we both appreciated the patience and the effort on both sides of the desk.

 Looks like a typical fall day, cold and blustery with a chilly wind, but the truth is it was a bit cloudy but warm, very warm and humid. We had on short pants and short sleeve shirts/ t shirts. We walked out to the underpass bridge at US 19, and then took the nature loop as we've done before.

Right Pic: beginning of the nature loop.

Left Pic: the field before the nature loop starts, all dead grasses and cloudy skies.

 We enjoyed the nature loop, it is very green with massive vines growing everywhere. They appear to be the size of young trees but are vines that spring up from the ground and wrap themselves around other trees, and often times the vines have vines growing on them as well.

The clouds gave way to sunshine during this part of our walk making it seem even warmer, we were starting to take off cover shirts and just wear t shirts. While walking you would truly think you were deep in the woods but for the noises that echo around, vehicles, construction sounds, city sounds, train whistles. This part of the path is very noisy but the beginning of the walk is more park like with much less noise and again very few people. 

right, center, left pics: all vines growing/invading the trees. 

 

 

As we turned the corner heading back towards the beginning of the trail we noticed it getting a little darker and the wind picked up quite a bit. The clouds continued to roll by and we found it a bit less humid with the wind. We were about the .5 mile marker when the skies opened and we were drenched within 10 steps. ~laugh~ I mean it just started to rain, not a pitter, patter, but a splash, crash and no use making a dash kind of rain. By about 20 steps my feet were wet and I was squishing with each step. Rain was running down my face as if I were in the shower. ~laugh~ There was no place to take shelter and it was too late anyway, we were both soaked to the skin. I didn't take any pictures, I was afraid my phone would get wet and I truly didn't want to stop to take any. ~laugh~ 

 Pics are both of the Flint River at the picnic area of the nature loop.

 

To say that we were surprised by the rain would be an understatement, as it didn't look threatening at all when we left the truck. To say that we were amazed how much rain fell in such a short period of time would also be an understatement. The rain stopped and started numerous times before we managed to get back to the Dogsled. Wrapped in blankets to keep from getting everything wet, we drove home. We were fortunate that it wasn't a cold wind blowing. ~laugh~

Home to the Igloo, a change of clothes, a good laugh, and lunch were the next orders of the day. (Clothes are still hanging in the shower as we can't put them in the baskets wet).  We watched the movie Three Kings with George Clooney, Mark Wahlburg, and Ice Cube while we had lunch. After that it was time to settle in to some reading. I truly love a good book!!!

Dinner was excellent, Riley cooked again. Such a wonderful break it is for me and I truly appreciate it. Riley made up some turkey burgers, and a huge packet of veggies for the BBQ. She added some toasted English muffins (toasted on the BBQ) instead of hamburger buns. I enjoyed a couple of oatmeal raisin cookies and she enjoyed an orange to finish off our meal. 

Clean up and then we had a game of Yahtzee. I won by 7 points. ~laugh~ 

Left pic: thru the trees if you look carefully you can see the bridge over pass on US 19. The RiverWalk goes under that overpass.

I chatted with my dad for a few minutes on Skype tonight. He didn't seem able to stay on line, whether he was playing with buttons or just had a bad connection, it's hard to know. ~laugh~ I also managed to chat with my sister in the early part of our walk this morning. It's always nice to hear from folks back home and see how they are managing in the cold weather. 

On that note, I'm going to sign off. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have enjoyed your visit. Please feel free to leave a comment. Until next time....be safe....take care....