Ready to head into Canada tomorrow for an appointment....

Our Location: Frost Ridge Campground, Le Roy, NY

A very cool night, bordering on down right cold but it's warming up quickly this morning. We started life this morning right around the freezing mark, I'm sure it was below just before dawn but I didn't get up and look at the temps but it was one degree above the freezing  mark when I did look after the sun came up. It was already up to 44F/6.6C around 9:30 am when I went outside to set up the propane heater. The high today is forecast to be about 55F/12.7C, however there is the ever present wind to contend with as well. Without the wind it would be wonderful!!

Dad called this morning around 7 am interrupting my reading but that's okay. ~laugh~ Always nice to chat with Dad. He was curious about our appointment tomorrow and it being Good Friday he thought it wouldn't be going ahead. I assured him I was pretty certain it would but that I'd check just in case. It seems everyone is off up on the Island for the 'long' weekend, which led to the call. Much appreciated is the concern!!

A short time later I heard Riley moving around and decided it was time to get up as well. We discussed Poppa's phone call, and what we needed to do today as well as dinner plans. I immediately sat down with my computer and began planning things for next week as it seems like we'll still be here for at least some of it.

View from the top row standing on the west side looking east

I placed a call to St. Joseph's Hospital Diagnostic Imaging Unit in Hamilton, Ontario to confirm Riley's appointment for tomorrow Friday, April 14, 2017. They confirmed the office is open for business tomorrow as usual. One down, many more to go. ~laugh~ 

I next called to cancel my eye appointment for next Thursday, Riley needs to have an appointment in the fall this year as well so either we'll find a new eye doctor up north and do this during the summer, or we'll rebook for the fall in Hamilton, we'll decide that later. 

Next I called the Dentist, to see about rescheduling our Wednesday appointments to the following week. MaryAnne didn't have anything available but we left it with her and hopefully she'll work her magic to get us moved around. I have changed appointments when ever asked due to someone needing to change theirs for whatever reason, and so I'm sure MaryAnne will do her best to help us out. The office staff is one of the reasons we truly like going to our dentist, we love Dr. Larry as well but since he's sold his practice to Dr. Laura it's not quite the same but it's still the staff that makes all the difference. Dr. Larry works part time and so we may get lucky and see him on our visit. 

Same location looking directly east

From there I worked on a rental car for us for today-tomorrow and Monday-Tuesday next week. Enterprise comes to pick you up and drop you off if you rent a car from them which works out fine for me. I'd rather not leave the Dogsled in a lot where it can get banged up although that may be the case on Monday as I'm not sure I can have the car back by quitting time of 6 pm. My appointment is for 2:45 pm but that's cutting it close with having a border to cross in there. So either I pay for an extra day or I drop it off and drive myself home which means I need to leave the Dogsled. They have no customer parking in Batavia and I'll have to leave the Dog on the street over night. However I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. 

A number of calls came back to me that there were no cars available at that location, I tried 2 others with the same result, and the last one said they couldn't come pick me up either and they had no where to leave my truck but she would go thru her returns to see if they had a car.  I started looking around for something different like at the Rochester Airport where I could leave the Dogsled in fenced parking at least. Just as I was settling into my work the phone rang, the girl had made an error, they will indeed pick me up at 4 pm today, they guarantee me a car as well. Next week's appointment will be fine as most of their vehicles will be returned after the weekend. The parking issue for that rental is still there but I"ll worry about it later. 

I went out about 9:30 am to hook up the propane heater and found the air to be nice, not warm enough to sit outside but it might be this afternoon if the wind dies down. If I even had someway to block the wind it would be nice but as you know a house on wheels is pretty open underneath. ~laugh~ Just the right height for a great wind to blow up your pant leg and cause you to shiver uncontrollably. ~laugh~ 

Office/lodge are housed in this building, we're parked to the left of it in the first spot.

Didn't take long for the place to warm up enough to shut off the propane heater, less than an hour in fact. Of course the electric is also going but it's just not able to keep up. I think there are too many doorways and both bathroom are tucked around walls so that they don't ever truly warm up greatly until August. The heater claims to heat up 600- 800 sq feet but I don't think it lives up to it's claim since we are less than 300 sq feet. They probably mean ONE room where as we  have few rooms. Oh well, we manage. 

Bright sunny day today, the grass is greening up as well. I might head out for a stroll in a bit just to kind of get out and move around. A pick up at 4 pm with Enterprise means I'll be back sometime around 5:30 pm I think. Tomorrow we want to be out of here around 6:15 am to make it for Riley's 9:30 am appointment in downtown Hamilton. It's about an hour to the border which will put us there around 7:15 am, even at a half hour to cross that's 7:45 am, an hour to Hamilton will around 9 am with a half hour to park and get inside. I doubt it will take us 30 minutes to cross but who knows. After that coming back won't matter we can be back anytime before 3 pm. We have a couple of things to do while in Hamilton including picking up two prescriptions for me and stopping at the storage locker. 

A quick email to Laura at Southern Chevrolet netted me the information that the paper work was approved on April 7th and has been sitting waiting for printing and mailing since then. They are closed tomorrow and probably Monday due to Easter so I have no idea what to expect next week.

Looking across Conlon Road from the park

Riley is staying home while I go with the Enterprise folks. She's informed me that she's not a child. ~laugh~ True is I was hoping she would stay home and have some time to herself. We get along well but some days it's nice to just have our own space for a while.

We took a bit of a stroll around the campground but it's too wet and too cold to go far. About 6 or 7 minutes and we were done. ~laugh~ We're such wusses when it comes to cold.

Enterprise called me at 4 pm to say the fella would be a half hour late which was fine with me. A white van pulled in about 4:20 pm and Pete the driver  was friendly and knowledgeable about the area, answering lots of my questions and telling me about the small city of Batavia.

See the buds on one of the gnarly trees in the park?

Arriving at Enterprise in Batavia I waited in line for Steven to handle my paperwork and show me the car. I left within 20 minutes of arriving at the office. A Chevy Sonic is what we're driving tomorrow, black, four door and I had him check the trunk just in case someone left luggage in there and I didn't want to find out at the border. Now there is wine in the trunk. ~laugh~ MINE, I put it there but at least the trunk holds something. I needed to move my cushion from the Dogsled to the rental as I have a hard time seeing over the dash, the seat is so LOW, I swear my ass was dragging on the ground and my knees were up around my ears. Now you know that's quite a feat for me, so you can imagine how LOW the damn seat is.

Reading until about 6:30 pm I finally realized I needed to start dinner. We had sausage patties on toasted English Muffins, steamed veggies (green beans, mushrooms, carrots, butter beans, corn, asparagus) and mashed potatoes with dill. Cooked inside of course, and even though it was good, it just wasn't as good as if we cook on the BBQ. We're both looking forward to getting somewhere out of the wind so we can BBQ again.

Finished up dinner with some peaches and even though they are canned, they are good. Of course I love peaches and so I would think they were great anyway. ~laugh~ Finished the dishes and cleaned up before my phone rang, it was Dad calling to see how things were going here. I explained everything I know about the next week and hopefully that helps to ease his stress level. I personally am not going to worry about it, it'll happen when it happens and I've done all I can do except wait.

Sign at the entrance of the park

After that we both showered so we're ready for the morning to just do our morning necessaries and hit the road. I've got our passports, Canadian money, keys to the storage unit, address of appointment, e-reader and everything else I can think of that we need. We're as ready as we're ever going to be. ~laugh~

After that we headed off in our own direction, Riley to do whatever she does and me to pen my thoughts in this blog. I hope you've enjoyed your visit, thanks for stopping by, feel free to leave a comment. Until next time...be safe, take care....

Small town USA, dreary day....

Our Location: Frost Ridge Campground, Le Roy, NY

(all pics taken with my phone while the Dogsled was running down the road)

A much cooler morning this morning, the temperature dropped to just above the freezing mark last night and today the strong wind was cold and kept temps down in the mid 40F/4 -5 C all day. No sunshine was visible at all today. 

We spent some time this morning discussing our future plans for the upcoming week. We are hoping to be able to change some appointments to make things easier for crossing next week if that's when the papers finally arrive. Hopefully we know something by the end of the week. It would be nice to make plans of some kind. 

A black & white of the nearby river here at The Ridge. The water level has gone down significantly since we've arrived but it's still pretty high and fast moving. Falling in would be very dangerous!!

We hopped into the Dogsled and headed to Batavia to do a bit of shopping. We stopped in the little town of Le Roy at the Tops market but we didn't buy much there, the prices were too high. We next went to Batavia to the Walmart where we managed to find groceries and a few odds and ends we wanted. We headed home noticing the time was just about 1 pm when we arrived here. Lunch was a hot cheese pizza from Wally's.

US19 from Le Roy to Batavia was dull, gloomy, cold, wind swept and uninspiring on such a grey day.

The small city of Batavia is interesting, and getting to be a sprawled out place with Main Street running straight for a long stretch. City Hall is a stately building but inviting at the same time, the old section of the city has joined buildings much as in any older part of an OLD city. No alley ways between the buildings but they were clean, well kept, not many were empty either. The entire city was very clean, looking very UNscruffy after a winter season. Numerous businesses were stretched out along Main Street but more big box type stores were at one end of town and bunched in the same area. Walmart, and various others were all found on Memorial Drive which I'm certain detracts from the shops and stores on Main Street. This is a 'newer build' section of town with about a dozen big stores in the location. The road from The Ridge to Batavia was dotted with a couple of small town including Le Roy and Stafford. These little places were inviting and quaint and very clean. Dull, dreary landscape on a dull dreary day didn't do the area justice I'm certain but it's still a beautiful area and I would visit again if given a chance but at a better time of year.

More modern building but old style architecture. 

Riley put away the groceries while I added some more Blu Def fuel to the truck. It took another complete jug but it's full now. That means that holds about 5 gallons to the full mark. With the way the truck is parked on the hillside here I didn't even need the stool to fill it up. ~laugh~ 

In the little village of Le Roy, NY this bridge welcomes and says goodbye. The clearance is 14', we could fit under this bridge according to the sign but I'm not sure I'd take the chance. ~laugh~

The afternoon was spent pretty much just lazing around not doing much. I watched a couple of movies and Riley did whatever it is she does in her room. The afternoon passed quietly except for the wind which made the toppers rumble and shake at times.

Downtown Batavia City Hall building. Right on Main Street, it's stately but inviting as well. Love the clock!!!

Reading some more this afternoon I've almost finished the Witch Tree book. It's a decent enough read but not one I'd read again. I truly enjoy my e-reader as it's light weight and handy and with the new cover I can take it pretty much anywhere and not worry about the screen getting scratched or losing my page. I like that it's back lit for night time reading and it has a built in dictionary which is very helpful as well. Even reading outside in the sunshine there is no glare on the screen. The only thing I dislike is the page turning ability, sometimes I turn the page the wrong way. ~laugh~ I hear all those snickers but it's true, I touch the screen in the wrong place and instead of going forward it goes backward which confuses the hell out of me. ~laugh~ Oh well, I'll get used to it again but it takes time, I'm a slow learner. ~laugh~

Main Street Batavia, the buildings are joined and packed in tightly. This is obviously the old part of Main Street. Very clean, but again with the drab, dreary weather it's hard to be inspired.

Dinner for me was the last of the left over soup. Dinner for Riley was some left over pasta with mushrooms, green beans, garlic and shrimp. After which we did the dishes that had been piling up, I'm surprised we had enough dishes for dinner. ~laugh~ I don't usual leave dishes from one day to the next but lately I've been doing that simply because I'm lazy. ~laugh~ It will stop however once we get back to some sort of routine. It's too wet, windy and cold here to walk which is part of a great routine for us. Soon though, we'll be back to it.

Small town USA, this house in Batavia is very typical of the houses in town. Lots of windows, doors, turrets, covered balconies, front porches, mini additions and numerous different roof lines/pitches.

We played two games of Yahtzee tonight. I won one, Riley won one, I rolled ONE Yahtzee but only managed to win by the skin of my teeth. ~laugh~ So it was a split, we both did awful. ~laugh~

Another Batativa house, square turret type. I just love the windows.

After that it was off to our own corners to do whatever it is that strikes our fancy. No news today from the dealership but I"m going to call them tomorrow. I know we won't manage to get our ITN number before next week but it would be nice to at least know the end is in sight.

Thanks for stopping by, feel free to leave a comment. Until next time...be safe, take care.... 

Rain, wind, coolish....

Our Location: Frost Ridge Campground, Le Roy, NY

From dead calm last night with the windows open I woke up about 4:30 am to the sound of a wind rattling my window. It's a tilt window but the direction we're parked the wind catches the inside and lifts it slightly, yesterday the handle actually slide out of the little hole. ~laugh~ Anyone knowing much about RV escape windows knows what a pain it is to get the handle back inside. Removing the screen is easy but getting it back in is much more difficult or at least for me it is. I had visions of me taking the screen out yet again to get the window to close but I  managed to get it closed before that happened. So from that point on I was awake this morning even after shutting the window. 

The temps weren't cold, 62F/16.6C but with the forecast for rain, it's kind of gloomy and some what damp. We're supposed to hit 67F/19.4C today but I'm not sure if it will feel like that. As I type this right now at 8:07 am the rain drops have started I can see them on the kitchen window as the drops are coming from a westerly direction. Not hard but enough to get things wetter as they haven't dried up from the floods yet. In fact some of the flood waters are still pretty evident in one of the lowest parts of the park. 

Flood waters are almost gone in this part of the park.

We have absolutely no plans today at all. We're having left over soup for dinner and that means no cooking. Yeah ME!! ~laugh~ Looks like a reading and movies kind of day here today. I want to do some research with regards to rental cars, we may need one for Friday if the papers haven't come thru before then. I need to rent a vehicle to cross the border as Riley has an early morning appointment Friday at St Joe's ultra sound clinic. We'll go just for the appointment and come back to the Igloo. Hopefully we'll be crossing before then but if not perhaps the weekend will find us with permission to cross. We shall see how things go.

The rental car research went well except it appears that Enterprise won't come to pick me up which means I need to leave the Dogsled at their place of business for the night. Not sure if I like that but oh well, have to do what we have to do. I'll need the rental from some time on Thursday afternoon until some time Friday afternoon, we can drop it off on our way back to the Igloo. I'm a little nervous about this as crossing the border can be iffy at best and we have to leave the cat behind on Friday. We can't take her with us as we have no where to leave her except in the car for the appointment in downtown Hamilton. She's fine for the day by herself but I'm a bit concerned if we have trouble getting back across the border what will happen to her. Oh well, we'll deal with it if and when it happens.

These are wicked looking trees, huh?

I'm sure these kids in the park are home schooled, at least two of them anyway. The loud boy seems to be here most of the time, easily noticed because he's so loud. ~laugh~ I think he would get on my nerves if I stayed here too long. I don't think he has a 'normal' tone of voice or a less than 3/4 volume button at any time. To say he's never stealthy would be an understatement. ~laugh~

They have a little blue tractor here in the park, I think it's a Holland. They've been doing some work here the past couple of days which requires the use of the little blue toy. They keep it in a garage which of course reminds me of Richard's John Deere tractor which lived in our garage. They don't appear to baby it the same way but they keep it inside and out of the weather for the most part. Today they used it today in the rain, Richard would have dried his off IF he had used it in the rain. ~laugh~  We had the big door open for a bit today and each time the tractor went by the cat ran to the door to watch it. She seems to attracted by the noise each time. It's kind of funny to watch her. As soon as it goes by she leaves the door. ~laugh~ Since we didn't have her when Richard was living it's not something she associates with us.

This part of the park is still under water, those are sites in that water trough.

Windy here at The Ridge, the rain blew in and out and in again before seeming to move on past but there is still a possibility of rain tonight. The temps managed to reach the projection of 67F/19.4C but with the wind it didn't feel that warm, in fact everyone had on jackets, long pants and a few folks had something on their heads, either a toque or a hoodie. Almost everyone is wearing rubber boots too or some form of ducky boots. The ground is so saturated with water that it's almost impossible to get off the gravel driveways even just walking.

I managed to drop off for a nap today, I was tired for some reason. Maybe because I'm not doing anything. Haven't walked for a long time but looking forward to getting back to it once we have a place to walk. I spent most of the day reading today, but not The Bleachers by Grisham, I went back to my e-reader and pulled up a book called The Profiler, a book written by Chris Taylor based in Sydney, Australia. It was pretty good and I'd read another by him if I found one but I don't think I'd go out of my way to look for one. It wasn't a very long book and I finished it about an hour ago. I pulled up something called The Witch Tree by Karin Kaufman but I'm not sure if I'll read it or not. Seems to have to link the Wiccan/witchcraft/druids type of stuff which isn't my thing.

Nice in-ground pool, closed but nice.

I think we'll head out to Batavia tomorrow to do some groceries. It's about a half hour from here and they have a Walmart, I looked it up. I want to pick up a few things such as more Blue Def, a spare tire cover for the Igloo, and some groceries of course. We eat a lot veggies and fruit and you can't keep those on hand very long so we seem to shop often, or maybe we just eat a lot. I'm not sure. ~laugh~  We also need to find a Dollar Tree to pick up a couple of items as well although that might wait until we are back in Ontario as it might be cheaper. The Dollar Tree is the only store that is truly a dollar store, everything is $1,(In Ontario I believe everything is $1.25) unlike the others, Dollar General, Family Dollar, Dollarama, etc, which have more prices over a dollar than just a dollar.

I've been hoping to get the Weber Q out to do some BBQ'ing but with this wind I doubt we'll pull it out. I am going to have the propane tanks all topped up before we leave the US though. It's much cheaper down here than back in Ontario. To exchange a small tank here is about $12-15 but in Ontario it's $20-25. When I exchange my bigger 30 lb tank in Ontario it's at the $40 range, down here I can have it filled with between $20-30.  Down here they bleed the tanks so they truly are FULL when we take them away. We've used the small tank a lot with the BBQ and a few times with propane heater and it's getting pretty low. I think we last exchanged it in Robertsdale, Alabama at the local Walmart. We left that area Feb 20 so I'm expecting it to run dry any day now. Of course we have to use it for it to run dry. ~laugh~ We had the big tank filled at Montgomery, Alabama when we stayed at Gunter Hill Park, it was about $22 plus tax which put it about $25. We left there January 16 and haven't touched the big tanks since. We've run the furnace a few times, travelled so the fridge would revert to propane, our hot water is propane, and we've used the inside stovetop/oven a number of times. I think it must be running low as well. So I think I'll have them both topped up before we pull out.

Playground for the wee folks.

The unit beside us is empty but the fella was there today de-winterizing by the looks and sounds of things. He was busy doing a lot of banging and stuff over there. I guess the season starts here pretty soon as the weather is getting nicer and American's are big on camping even just for the weekend. There are a few PERMANENT sites here which appear to be more 'house' with siding and a roof, etc to help with the cold weather, but there are also a number of seasonal sites that have units on them, closed up for the season. I haven't walked the park as it's too wet and muddy for that but I think they have about 50 sites. The spot we're parked in is very close to the lodge/office and so we only have a neighbour on one side, this side of the park looks more compact than the other side. I don't think I'd like to stay here long everything is on a hill unless you build a deck nothing is level for tables, chairs, etc. I think that would get old pretty fast.

Two little girls just knocked on the door to see if we wanted to buy some lemonade. Too cute. I heard one of the owners yell at them and they soon disappeared so I'm assuming he sent them on their way with a lecture about bothering the campers. I think one may be the daughters of one of the owners, and the loud boy also seems to be connected to the girls in some way. Today I heard some yelling and drama crying going on, looked out and noticed one of the owners was tossing things in the dumpster to which the two little girls were crying and yelling but it appeared to be dad giving orders and the girls arguing. Finally I heard him tell them to get up to the house, so I think my assumptions might have been right. ~laugh~

I believe this is the start/end of the ski lift operation drowning in the flood

It's already 5 pm and the day has slipped past faster than I can believe. Funny how some times when you are waiting time rushes by but other times it drags, ever notice that? I'm hoping for it to pass slowly so they can get the papers in order but it's speeding ahead, waiting for no one. ~laugh~ Oh well, this can't last forever, can it? ~laugh~

Riley opted for left over pasta tonight which means more soup for me, I'm good with that. ~laugh~  It's almost 7:30 pm and I'm going to post this early as I think I'll watch a movie tonight and it won't be over for a while so I'll be too tired to post.

That's us down there, see the Dogsled?

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your visit. Until next time...be safe, take care....

Very windy, warm day here at The Ridge......

Our Location: Frost Ridge Campground, Le Roy, NY

Morning for me started about 4 am when I suddenly woke up wide awake and all hopes of sleep were gone. The Igloo was warm and the night was just as warm as it used to be in Mississippi. It was a nice one!! Morning temps started in the mid 50's/ 12-13C and promised to go up from there, just not sure how high today. Long range looks like a couple of coolish-cold night time temps but oh well, it is what it is. 

It's a sign of spring..isn't it?

Monday ...so you know what that means right? Cleaning day. I knew you'd get it, it's almost habit now, isn't it? ~laugh~ So we did the usual deeds and chores with a few extras tossed in just because we could. ~laugh~ Didn't take long, as it never usually does. I'm still thinking about breakfast and it's pushing 10 o'clock. I should probably get on that. ~laugh~ 

Another garden and more signs

Finished my book this morning, Dead Even by Brad Metzer, excellent read. I enjoyed every page of it. I'm looking forward to finding some more books from this guy, he's got a style that I like. My next venture into fiction is The Bleachers by John Grisham. Riley recently finished it. No book exchange here at the Ridge, or at least I haven't seen any, I'll have to ask one of the fellas. 

Pretty aren't they?

The campground has been fairly busy for an early weekend in April. Lots of kids around, their voices could be  heard quite easily with the big door open yesterday. We've even seen a few of them hanging around today. Must be home schoolers or something. They didn't look ill, and I know of no holiday from school. Oh well.

There are a number of these trees around and they all about the same, warty. ~laugh~ 

 I spent my morning (after cleaning) doing some work on the computer, figuring out the amount of CAD I spent on the Dogsled, putting my bank statements in a format that I can print out to have with me if necessary. I also spent some time doing a few other business things as well. Waiting is hard work. ~laugh~  I did a few catch up posts on Facebook, and started today's blog post, finally gave up on breakfast and just settled for lunch. ~laugh~

View from the entry drive back toward the south part of Conlon Road

With lunch I watched a movie, Riley wasn't interested but that was okay I enjoyed it all the same. Viggo Mortenson and Ed Harris in The History of Violence. It was quite good, and I truly do enjoy both of these actors, they always seem to nail their parts just right.  After that one I flipped the disc over and watched Edward Norton in American History X, it was very excellent as well. Tells the story of a white supremacist that goes to prison for murder but has a change of heart or an education behind bars, try's to change when he gets out. It's a very good movie as well. Avery Brooks was also in this movie, he's such a cool actor. ~laugh~

Looks like some kind of small tree farm across Conlon Road from here.

After that I decided I needed to get outside for a bit and grabbed the big camera to take a few pics. So the next few days will be pics taken today. Spring is definitely in the air, the daffs are starting to bloom, the tulips are starting to fill out, the buds are coming out, and the wind is howling around here like crazy. Glad we aren't driving today, it would be a nail biter for certain!!!!

Still some water laying around but the level is going down

I was tempted to get the BBQ out to do dinner, it's certainly warm enough but it's too windy, it would never stay lit. We have the big door open and some windows, the breeze is almost warm but not quite. Temps are 75F/23.8C today but with the wind I'm guessing it's more like high 60's/about 20C. The cat is loving this weather with the big door open she sits there most of the day watching AND sniffing. ~laugh~ Must be a whole bunch of new smells for her at each new location.

Buds on the gnarly trees around here

.

Today marks the 4th year since Joe passed at the age of 95, April 10, 2013. He was a special old fella, crusty, ornery, he had a big heart when it came to immediately family and grandkids. He had a way about him that would get him called Ratfink often. ~laugh~ A devilish little grin would appear whenever he was enjoying the bickering he started but walked away leaving everyone else still bickering. ~laugh~ He was something!!!! For those that don't know who Joe is, he was my father in law.

HRH snoozing in the sunshine.

I spent the rest of the afternoon prepping dinner, and reading.We had JD Smoke House BBQ Chicken Breasts, Taco Rice, and steamed veggies, followed by some more peaches for dessert. I'm telling ya folks it was good.

Mower outside the Lodge here at The Ridge

Quick clean up, couple games of Yahtzee, ~dancing~ I won and I rolled 2 Yahtzees and it was all pure luck ~laugh~ I've won a lot lately but I know Riley is just gearing up to start winning again, I can feel it. So I have to take these wins where and when I can get 'em. ~laugh~

Dinner tonight, haven't had a food pic in a while.

Time to finish my post and then read some more. I hear some kids still out and about at this hour of 8:30 pm and they are noisy. They were absent most of the afternoon but started the noise making just about 5:30 pm or so. It's mostly a boy, he's very loud, yells all the time and literally screams at the top of his lungs. I think he needs a good kick in the ......behind. ~laugh~ Anyway, I'm not his parent and so I have nothing else to add about him. On a different note, the wind died down totally this evening, and it's very calm outside. Looks like we'll be sleeping with some windows open tonight. 

On that note, thanks for dropping by, feel free to leave a comment. Until next time...be safe, take care....

Slow, restful day...

Our Location: Frost Ridge Campground, Le Roy, NY

Woke this morning to sunny skies and 36F/2C but it's promising to be a much warmer day. The night must have been good but to be honest I didn't hear anything. I shut the light off at 8:30 pm and heard NOTHING until 6:30 am, not a sound. ~laugh~ I guess I was tired. 

I spent the next hour and a half just catching up on some emails, facebook and adding pics to the few blog posts I neglected on travel days. The outside temps are warming up steadily and it's going to be a wonderful day.

There were actually 4 but one was much further out than these three

Riley was up just about 8 am and so our day started. Not that there is anything pressing here but we're up, dressed, and looking for breakfast, discussing dinner plans and debating about a movie today. We'll see how that turns out, lately we haven't watched any.

Frost Ridge Campground from the front of our Igloo

A shout out to our good friend Steve Mitchell from Devencrest Rv Park in Albany, GA as today marks another birthday for him. He's a fantastic guy, a true gentleman in every sense of the word. He has wonderful sense of humour, a warm, generous gent, always quick to help, with a warm engaging smile. Happy Birthday Steve!!!!

This is part of our view from the front door.

The day kind of slipped away as we rested and waited. I spent a good part of the afternoon watching a movie with Sam Elliot and Tom Selleck called Shadow Riders, based on a book by famed author Louis L'Amour. I've seen it before a long time ago but it was a good watch all the same. I also broke open a boxed set called Bordertown that I picked up for next to nothing, it's also a western theme with the story line based on the 49th parallel with US and Canada having a line down the middle of the law office. The usual issues of crossing the line, law, etc. I watched a few half hour episodes with tons more to go. ~laugh~ Maybe I'll watch the rest, maybe I won't, time will tell.

This water is pretty much all gone now

Riley made dinner, Linguine with 4 kinds of cheese, it was pretty good. We topped it off with some peaches. Good stuff. After that it was more reading and then to bed. I was so involved in the book Dead Even by Brad Metzer I totally forgot about finishing my post. ~laugh~ So now you know why it's late.

Water is still coming out steady from the office area

Other than that, not one thing is new here. We are waiting and hopefully not for long.

On that note, thanks for visiting, feel free to leave a comment. Until next time...be safe, take care.... 

Snow, grass, water........

Our Location: Frost Ridge Campground, Le Roy, NY

This morning at 7 am when I finally got out of bed the outside temp was 26F/-2C but inside the Igloo we were a balmy 50F/10C. I still turned on the propane heater even though we’re moving in a bit and it’s going to warm up to a forecast guesser’s 54F/12C at some point. The sun however is shining brightly and the outside temps had risen a degree to 27F already at 8 am here at Punderson State Park, Newbury, Ohio. 

I - 90 in Ohio. Some green, mostly the grass though.

Packing the inside of the Igloo isn’t a huge chore, it takes but a few minutes and I can have my room, bathroom, kitchen, and living room packed up in about 5 minutes. It’s a routine that comes easily these days after having been on and off the road for about 5 years now. When I travelled by myself for a couple of winters it was an easy routine to fall into and one that just hasn’t seem to change much over the past while. We don’t have a lot of ‘stuff’ out and about, everything has a place and while a few things need to be stored there is less than a dozen items to move. Now on Riley’s end of things, I think she could pack up in about the same length of time but she likes to take her time and putter around, so I usually just go outside and start the outside stuff. This morning however it’s too cold to do that and so here I sit starting my blog early. ~laugh~

We seen this pretty quickly during our early travels.

The snow will be gone by noon, there is just an inch or so on the grass, the black top and trees all seem to have been sufficiently warm enough to melt it. There doesn’t appear to be any wind either. I’’m going to head out with the Dogsled and find some fuel in the little town of Newbury before I hook up, it’s easier that way. So hopefully we’ll be on the road around 10 am.  We don’t have far to go, about 3 hours drive time.

Miss Kitty, also known as HRH (Her Royal Highness) has parked herself in front of the propane heater but watches everything with wide eyes, she knows it’s coming and doesn’t like the idea of moving again. However she’ll settle down a few minutes into the trip and be fine. 

Then this, there were actually 4 but one is much further ahead of the others.

I left the campground and headed into the little town of Newbury to find some food for the Big Dogsled and find it I did at a BP station there. Filled up but had to go across the street to the parts store to get some Blue Def fluid for the exhaust. It came in a box, well the container was in a box and it said don't take it out of the box, not sure why. Anyway, I couldn't reach the spot to pour it into without my stool and it's buried under the snow so the nice guy that owns the parts store came out and did it for me. Such a sweet heart. It took the whole box which was at least a couple of gallons (upon inspection, 2.5 gallons). I was surprised but happy that I don't have to store the box. I'll pick up some more one of these days and have it around just in case. You know that fella, Just-In Case? ~laugh~ 

Home to the Igloo I noticed that the message board was saying that the RFT and RR tires were low, so pulled out my handy dandy little air compressor and topped up all the tires on the Dogsled. I'd like to do the trailer before we pull again and hopefully it'll dry up enough to do that. 

This white showed up along the roadsides in numerous places.

So after that it was a matter of just getting things going, I called Frost Ridge Campground in NY to make sure we could have a site, and sure enough we have one. I had to take the ladder and the broom to semi clean off the slide toppers of snow as it was too heavy to push it all off. I managed to get it all off Riley's bedroom slide and the little closet slide didn't need any help but the big living room one I could only get about half off but that seemed to be enough, it finally just pushed the rest off and bingo the slides were all in. Unhooked the water and electric, backed into the hitch, and we were off. Left Punderson around 10:45 am. Sunny day for driving, nice but chilly, only made it to the about 46F/7.7C here with a wind but it's acceptable. 

The entire drive was done in about 4 hours, 225 miles, the Dogsled never grunted once on all those rolling hills. Fuel mileage wasn't as good as before but there were lots of hills and valleys along the way with a head wind as well. The toll road from the PA border to just into Buffalo was expensive at just under $12 but the toll from Buffalo to The Ridge was less than $4. We are located at Exit 47, the first of three exits for Rochester.    

 

We caught this view of Lake Erie as we came to the top of a hill.

We arrived here about 3:35 pm but only because we had to stop at the local Tim Horton's just before our exit. Not the same as Canada but it was good anyway. The cold wind was whipping across some open fields there but we managed. 

Arriving at the park we noticed the river on the way here was near to overflowing it's banks, and there is water laying in every slight depression you can see. We arrived here at the campground to find the hosts pumping water from the center area of the park. There is so much water that its coming up thru the cement in the office building. 

Followed by this view a bit further around the corner.

We managed to snag spot A22 for a week. We'll go from there. We are located about 50 miles from Buffalo and seen many Canadian plates as we drove today. Hopefully in a few days time we'll be heading there ourselves. Wish us luck. ~laugh~ 

Its hard getting used to the new time, the days are just whipping by before we know it it's already time to start dinner when it seems we've just finished lunch. ~laugh~ Oh well, you know how it goes.

This was a nice sign to see.

Around 6:30 pm I started making dinner inside, too cold outside and I"m too tired to set the BBQ up anyway. We had mashed potatoes, steamed veggies and sausage patties with English Muffins. It was good and I even managed to have chocolate pudding with oranges after dinner. Yum....sorry no pics I was too hungry and too tired. ~laugh~ 

A quick clean up inside, into my jammies and pretty soon I'm heading to bed. I'm tired for some reason, not sure why at 8:10 pm I'm this tired but that's the way it is. 

That's us all set up here at The Ridge.

Thanks for stopping by, feel free to leave a comment. Until next time...be safe, take care...

Snow covered day, then drip, drip, drip....

Our Location: Punderson State Park, Newbury, Ohio

A cold night with temps dipping below the freeze mark, snow mixed with rain then turning back to snow fell off and on most of the night. The wind was also present. We’re parked closed to a small lake type body of water and the wind is just whipping across there. Not the nicest of places in this weather but it’s only for two nights then I’m hopeful we’ll move on further north, closer to the border and a bit more out away from the lake. I’m hoping to move to a park with FULL hook ups, not just water and electric.

We woke up to this, and it snowed and blew most of the morning

The temps today will be cold and tonight as well but tomorrow should warm up nicely and the next two days after that even better, so this is just a short term thing. It’s one of the reasons I don’t come this direction as the wind and water off Lake Erie can cause late snows and cold temps. However I thought we had a clear track but with everything happening, it’s just not so. So we’ll just suck it up Buttercup and wait it out. ~laugh~

Not the best nights sleep I’ve ever had, waking up at 4 am and not being able to go back to sleep. I tried all the usual fixes but none of them worked. I finally fell back asleep but at what time I don't know. I woke up to Miss Riley standing at the foot of my bed rummaging in the closet. It was almost 8 am. I heard the snow plow going by, not the big road plow but a contractor with a truck and blade snow plow at least twice. Looking outside makes me want to point southward again. Fresh snow and it's really coming down still. Supposed to taper off by around 1 pm. I won't tell you my thoughts on this white stuff as this is a public posting. ~laugh~ MAYBE I'll go outside later and take some pictures when I go out to hook up the propane heater. I'll have to do my best Buttercup (suck it up Buttercup) impression when I go do that. ~laugh~ 

A good few inches of snow, look at the accumulation on the arms of the mirror and window of the truck.

No travel today, the roads will be ugly and I'm not going to chance this hilly country that I don't know well with even just the Dogsled unless it's necessary. I'm part chicken, didn't ya know? Don't ask about my feathers. ~laugh~

I ventured outside in the cold weather to get the propane heater set up outside, the tank from the truck, the hose hooked up and feed thru the window, the heater from the basement, inside and connected to the hose, connections checked and fired it up. While outside I can tell you the wind, and snow were cold and my mittens were soaked quickly. I managed to snap some pics with the big camera before hurrying back inside to warm up.

You can't see the snow coming down but it's there, but about an hour or so after this pic was taken it started to melt and drip off of everything, you could hear chunks sliding and falling off the Igloo.

It was almost 11 before I realized I hadn't had breakfast. ~laugh~ I immediately fixed the issue with two large Shredded Wheat. I just love that stuff, add some milk, pop it in the microwave for a minute and it's excellent. Being so close to lunch I then didn't need any lunch. However we made home made veggie soup today and it was ready around 5 pm and I had my dinner early for the same reason I had breakfast late. ~laugh~ Riley opted to eat later than I did. We both had two bowls, it was that good. And no I didn't take a picture but there's enough left for tomorrow for one bowl each. It was good stuff. I added a few ingredients I don't normally add to veggie soup, I added fresh asparagus and canned butter beans. I must say I liked both of them.

It was wet and heavy, full of water and finally started melting shortly after this pic.

By afternoon the temp was up to a balmy 43F/6.5C and things were melting quickly. As I write this blog at 10 pm there is still snow on the ground but it's going quickly. Tomorrow will be a warmer day still and the snow will be gone quickly. We will be pulling out tomorrow heading further north but a bit more east, further east than I would like but it can't be helped, I can't find any open campgrounds in the immediate area so we will be staying about 50 miles from the Peace Bridge in Buffalo.

We spent the day resting, chatting, doing a few odd things, reading and just staying warm. With both the electric heater and the propane heater going the Igloo was toasty warm all day.

Looking southward toward the warm weather we just left....

So that was our day, nothing exciting but we managed to put the time in easily. Thanks for stopping by, feel free to leave a comment. Until next time...be safe, take care...