Wind, rain, flat tire.......

Our Location: ONRoute, Tilbury, Ontario

A cold night outside but not too bad inside, we were tucked under our covers and only noticed the cold upon getting out of bed. We both slept in my bed, opting to keep the slides in so there would be no accumulation of ice should it happen. It was a lucky move, we had a bit of ice to be sure but it appeared to be from the cold wind, instead of the freezing rain part. 

For some reason the internet connection wasn't good last night. It showed four bars but was very slow. The pictures wouldn't up load  at all.  It took a long time to even post the blog and nothing else would load after that, so I gave up after about an hour. This morning it worked great for a while but is once again showing signs of not working so well. Oh well, it is what it is, the phones work great and that's what matters most. 

We needed to partially open one of the slides this morning to get the dry cat food which we forgot to take out yesterday morning. Since that is the side with the hose in the window I needed to go out to ensure nothing happened that shouldn't happen. I'm glad I stepped outside. A thin layer of ice was over the handle, and the steps but not the off wind side of the walls. I did however notice a flat tire just as I stepped down on the ground. The front tire on the Igloo is completely flat. So we will be here until tomorrow for certain. 

We got the cat food, pulled the slide back in and I began the process of calling the auto club at 8:30 am. I very rarely ever use it but it's nice to have when we need it right? The nice lady that I spoke with, whose name happened to be Deborah, was very pleasant and friendly. Hm.....now the problems are starting. First she can't locate the ONRoute address to send someone. That is resolved within a few minutes. Good to go right? No, another problem.  It says my contract has been cancelled. Not possible, I paid back in November. Further digging show's it's been transferred, but closed in Southern Ontario, since it was moved to Northern Ontario when I contacted them about moving. Okay, Deborah will call N. Ontario CAA to get the information to send someone to us. Some issue on that end, Deborah will continue to look into and call ME back when she has the answer. Within 5 minutes she calls me with yet another issue. They don't open until 10 am. Now I have to call back after that time. So here we sit waiting for 10 am so I can call back and get this thing moving forward before the day ends.

 I will condense this at it took most of the day to get the job accomplished. Numerous calls, discussions, and information were exchanged which still didn't seem to be correct even by the time the job was almost complete. The first fellow to arrive had trouble finding us, his jack wasn't big enough and they had completely screwed up the information. Second fellow called, laughed when I told him the weight and said he couldn't help me but he'd let dispatch know. Eventually two dispatchers were needed to complete the task and at 3:30 pm on the dot, 2 nice young fellows from Kaltire showed up and were gone within 10 minutes, everything fixed and we're ready to roll when the afternoon comes tomorrow. 

The tire had a separation issue and went flat over night instead of blowing apart on the road. How lucky is that? So the spare tire is on, the tire in need of replacement is on the back of the Igloo and when we reach Hamilton I will have a new tire put on the rim and placed on the Igloo, putting the spare back where it belongs. They were young, sweet and very helpful. I was certain to give them a nice tip for their troubles. 

Over the course of the day I discovered where the cold draft was coming from that seems to have been an issue since we arrived here. The closet slide in my bedroom is blowing cold air like there are huge holes in the wall. The entire outer edge of the slide has a cold wind coming in whenever there is a gust outside. Explains why it was so cold up stairs last night. The slide is on the wind side. I thought closing it might help but it didn't do anything at all. So I've stuffed the offending areas with some blankets and towels which seems to have fixed the issue for now. I'll have to look at that as well when the weather gets a bit nicer. For now I'll just keep tucking the things around it when we are parked. 

The weather has of course been rainy all day but it's been a bit warmer, not nice by any means but a bit warmer. Hopefully by tomorrow the wind lets up and we can move ourselves down the road to Hamilton by afternoon. I'm looking forward to getting there, getting a new tire and having things put back together. We are also looking forward to seeing daughter/sister Bradey and her other half, David while we are in the area. Dinner Tuesday night with the two of them will give us a chance to get caught up.

I chatted with my dad twice today, we discussed the weather both here and there. They are still in the midst of a storm as well. He's quite a bit further north than we are but he says they've had it all, ice pellets, snow, sleet, freezing rain, rain, and when we talked the last time it was still snowing and of course the issue is the wind. Makes it very difficult to see with all the snow blowing around. 

I also chatted with my friend Linda, who lives a bit further north than my dad. She said they had just started getting some weather and they hadn't had much of any weather even though a lot of snow had been predicted. We chatted for about an hour, catching up on a few things. I'm looking forward to seeing her and her hubby Randy within the next month. We'll be making a stop close to their home on our way to our summer location at Dad's. 

Around 6 pm daughter Courtney called to say hello and we chatted about our upcoming visit at Buttercup Ridge. I'm looking forward to seeing her so  much, it's been a while since we've actually physically spent time together.  She and her hubby Matt will be coming out to spend a couple of days with us!! I'm very excited!

After that I finished the book I was reading, Sue Grafton, R is for Ricochet. A pretty good book, not quite the same as the other letters of the alphabet but I enjoyed it anyway. I'll start a new book tomorrow some time. 

The temperatures are hovering pretty steady I think a few degrees above freezing here in Tilbury and it appears that by tomorrow afternoon all of this nasty stuff should be behind us, the ice will hopefully have melted, and all things will be good from here on out. 

Again no pictures as it's just too slow to load them. I think there are so many folks on their phones and such here at the ONRoute that it's the reason every thing is so slow. When not many folks are around it's pretty fast. Riley spent some time inside the ONRoute building today during our tire changing experience so she was out of the cold  and reported that the building was running on back up generator power. She commented the lights flickered off and on a number of times as well. I know that parts of Manitoulin Island were also without power for some hours today, but not where my dad is located. Further to the north and west from his locale. However a cousin out the road called to ask my Dad and brother to come out to remove a tree that had fallen on the house. However it hadn't actually landed on the house, it had slide down the side of the of it. So no roof damage but some scraped up siding. Parts of Toronto were having trouble with flying ice as it blew off power lines, tree branches, etc. A few downed limbs were also evident in the area in which daughter Courtney lives.  Definitely not a nice weekend here in Ontario, pretty much any area you look at had nasty wet weather and strong NE winds. Winds will calm considerably over night at last look. 

So there you have it. A real eventful day in our little neck of the woods. Glad we were sitting still for it. I hope you've all had an excellent day, that you stayed warm, dry, and unharmed where ever you may be. Tomorrow will be a better day I'm certain. Thanks for stopping by, please feel free to leave a comment, I appreciate them all. If you don't wish to leave a comment, that is also just fine, I'm still happy you dropped by for a visit. 

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

Deb




 

 

Rain, windy, back in Ontario.......

Our Location: ONroute, Tilbury, Ontario

 

(No pictures today, they just won't upload)

 

It was very warm last night when I went to bed but by morning it had dropped 30 degrees staying steady at 47F/ 8C with over cast skies. At 7 am my dad called to ask what kind of weather we were having and telling us they were having snow, high winds, and it was very cold. We chatted for a few minutes before saying goodbye. Riley and I were quick at getting everything secured and ready to roll just at the time the rain started to fall. 

 

We didn't have to go very far for our first stop, only a few hundred feet to the dump station. I will be honest with you, we made it up the first hill okay until I tried to turn to the right then we had a problem. The washed out hill, the new gravel and well you get the idea. For a few feet we were chattering sideways until I stopped, popped into 4x4 and with a little bit of a heavy foot we managed to get up the hill. I left us in 4x4 until we had arrived safely on the very top ridge at the dump station. 

 

Of course, it started to rain again as soon as my feet hit the grass outside the Dogsled door. No worries I'd donned my bright yellow rain slicker and proceeded to sweat as the temps were too warm for a none breathable coat, but the air was wet and the rain drops cold. Oh well, it's only a short time outside, then I'll head inside, change my shoes and sweater, coat, and be ready to the hit the road. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to get the water to come out of their hose. They had some kind of valve after the handle on the faucet but the valve just spewed water everywhere except out the end of the hose to rinse the sewer hoses. So I simply turned on the pump and used our own water, a quick rinse, put the hoses away, changed into dry clothes. We were heading out the driveway at 8:10 am. Of course the rain has been coming in waves at this time, now it continues but with a bit more gusto. 

 

Our RV GPS had us wandering around the back roads like two lost sheep. She was basically having us go west for a mile, go north for a mile, go west, go north, etc. I mean really? The Interstate it 12 miles that way, lets just go that way. Finally I just ignored her and off we went finding the Interstate just where I thought it would be, it hadn't moved since last fall. That added at least 30 minutes to our time. I wasn't impressed. I'm going to be chatting with Garmin in the near future, I am not happy and for the price I paid for this thing, it should damn well work properly. 

 

So we finally climbed onto the interstate near exit 103 north, and pushed the Big Dog toward Lima, only 21 miles/ 33 km away. For the entire morning we rolled along at 55 mph/ 88.5 km through the nearly flat state of Ohio. The wind wasn't bad at all when we started out, the rain kind of came and went, never very hard though, I think I only had the wipers on full once due to spray from the truck ahead and beside that seemed to be just sitting on my front bumper and my side door. Not sure why they do that but oh well. I will say the roads were pretty good until we reached the upper edges of Ohio and in to Michigan. It was here that the winds started to be noticeable as well. Michigan is always a nightmare for that stretch around Monroe. I thought for certain I drove over another 5'er that was lost in the hole with just his A/C sticking out. Turns out I didn't, it was just my imagination, but a couple holes were deep enough to get lost in and I was lucky to avoid those ones. I will be driving the middle lane in that stretch from now on though, they'll have to pull me over to give me a ticket before I start driving in the slow lane again until they fix that particular piece of roadway. It's insane. We pulled off at Luna Station for a fuel stop as the prices seemed to be steadily rising, we were seeing only numbers right at or above the $3 per gallon mark. We filled the Big Dog's bowl for $3.09 a gallon. The Big Fella took 22 gallons, or approx 83 liters (1 US Gallon = 3.79 CDN liters). Couldn't squeeze in $50, stopped at $49.50 USD.

 

We reached the area of construction, which of course were shut down today and motored right along. As we approached Dearborn exit the traffic suddenly came to a very fast slow down, a creep along. Within 15 seconds of the slow down I could see the problem ahead. A big rig had jack knifed in the 'fast' lane into the construction lane and just his back bumper was sticking out a bit into the next lane, he wasn't impeding traffic by more than 6" -8". The driver was out walking around but no one else was on scene so it had literally just happened. We didn't see or hear any evidence of law enforcement, medical or fire aid of any kind. We were past the end of his truck within 30 seconds and on our way. Sorry for his troubles but we didn't see it, he wasn't hurt, we couldn't help, so lets get out of the way. No need to gawk, big deal his nose is kissing his A**, he's fine, keep driving. 

 

We pulled up to the Canada Customs lines which are confusing in that they now have lots of truck lanes open but no arrows pointing you to the car lanes, nor is there an RV lane, which there is going the other way at this crossing. I checked the time, 12:15 pm. We found our way to the car lane, 4 folks ahead, we rolled along and were at the booth within probably 4 to 5 minutes. Nice lady asked us a couple of questions and told us to have a nice day. We were across in a little more than 5 minutes. Yeah us!! Welcome to Canada. Home of the Maple Leaf, Tim Horton's, and $1.25 per liter diesel. So that $49.50 fill up would have cost me $103.75 here in Ontario.

 

We immediately began seeing the overhead signs warning of freezing rain in Ontario. The temperatures by this time had reached 37F/2.7C and were staying steady. We discussed a few options and Riley checked out the local forecasts. We decided we'd pull in at the first ONRoute (rest area) in Tilbury/Chatham-Kent. Which is where we are right now. We pulled in against the grass edge, but are leaving the slides in to help keep us warmer and in case we receive some freezing precipitation overnight, it won't stretch the slider topper and we won't have to go up there and knock it off. Plus with the slides in we don't rock and roll so much in the wind. We had our heater going within a few minutes (which requires us to run a hose in the window), and the Igloo is nice an toasty. 

 

I called my dad, we chatted for a bit, he's glad we're off the road for the day and I'll let him know tomorrow what we plan on doing. I don't believe the roadways are the issues. I'm pretty certain they will be sanding, salting and doing all that good stuff over the next two days. The issue I believe will be when one is getting off and on the roadways, ramps, side streets, parking lots, etc will not be as well  maintained as the major road ways will be. So we're going to sit here until late tomorrow afternoon or Monday late morning before heading out to Hamilton. By then every thing should be cleaned up, salted or melted, as the temperatures will rise a bit in the next day. 

 

So there you have it, we are safely back in Canada, although we will be conserving our battery power a bit as there doesn't appear to be much sun in the forecast for a few days.  The temperatures are above the freezing mark and in this area there are no freezing rain warnings posted on the web. Just a bit further along there are of course lots of warnings posted. 

 

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your visit. I hope you've had a wonderfully safe and productive day. Thanks again for following along. Please feel free to leave a comment if you like, I read them all. For those don't wish to leave a comment, that's quite alright too, I'm honoured that came by to read! 

 

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

 

Deb

 

 

 

Very warm, sunny and windy on our last full day here in Oakdale Campground.......

Our Location: Oakdale Campground, Quincy, Ohio

After posting my blog last night I managed to chat with the fella who's seasonal spot I'm sitting in right now. Never did get his name but I spoke with him and the rake Lady. Very nice folks, he's bringing his trailer in today but apparently always parks it where his truck was sitting, on the other side of the Igloo. This area is apparently where the single folks congregate. 

I'll bet they enjoy this deck all summer, those stools are under the bar edge.

He also answered a few other questions as well. The water still has another foot or so to go before it's at normal levels. The area we see across the river is also a campground, although it looks very permanent. It's called Miami River Campground. They know the fellow with the boat, he apparently is a river hopper and comes over often during the summer months, parks his boat on this side somewhere and enjoys the company of those over here. 

This bright yellow racer is parked by the wood pile that is waiting to be split and bundled.

Gene and Sally (the welcome home sign from yesterday's pictures) are the couple in the office, they seem to be well loved here. I mentioned a few of the washed out areas and it was explained that they fix them every year but due to the hills and the spring rains, they wash out every year, which explains all the gravel piles I see around waiting to be spread. 

Can you see the boat moving on the river?

 I woke this morning before 6 am and just listened to the birds for some time. It's so peaceful here, although I'll bet when summer comes it's a lot less peaceful. We are expecting more of yesterday's weather again today and I'm looking forward to soaking up as much as I can. It doesn't look like we'll be seeing any of these kinds of temperatures for a long time unless a miraculous warm up comes along. The temperature here right now as I start this post is 57F/13.8C at 7:14 am. Not a bad way to start the day at all. 

This is on the road into the campground across the farmers field. Those rigs closest to us are in storage, the other ones are permanently placed in seasonal spots.

The morning passed quickly with routine things such as cleaning/defrosting the fridge and freezer, dishes, dusting, vacuuming, you know the drill right? So now our little Igloo is clean and ready for the next part of our homeward trek. We didn't clean anything outside as we'll be driving in rain conditions anyway, so it would be a waste of time. 

The middle road is toward the dump station and bath house. 

Riley and I headed out to get some much needed propane as one of the small tanks was starting to seen a bit on the light side, and one of the big tanks was for sure getting close to the bottom. I wanted to fill them up before heading across the border tomorrow. I've found that the folks here actually fill the tanks but back in Ontario they don't seem to allow the air to bleed and that seems to make a huge difference in how long the tanks last.  For future reference we went to Heby Oil (N. Detroit Street) but everyone was gone for the day, they do however fill tanks. The lady in the office sent us to Grand Rental on Main Street, which is a rental company with a fenced compound, literally right across the roads from the Fairground. They filled our tanks for a grand total of less than $25 USD. (About 60 cents a pound, or $2.50 a gallon) Can't beat that for amazing. Tractor Supply Company (TSC) also on Main Street will fill tanks as well. Don't know the price though. Both are just up the street from Walmart in Bellefontaine, Ohio. Back in Ontario it costs me $43 to exchange the big tank alone, and if they fill it, it lasts less than 3 weeks where an exchange will usually last 5 weeks. The BBQ tank is about $25 to exchange and since I haven't had them fill one for a long time I can't tell you how long they last with fill vs exchange. So anyway I look at it, I'm way ahead of the game.

The Daffs are popping up everywhere.

We headed back to the Igloo enjoying the lovely country drive and were gone less than an hour. When we got back the fella next door was backing his trailer in to the spot beside us. I climbed out and helped him get it where he wanted it and then headed back home to do our own chores. Which included putting the propane tank back, getting things ready for hitching up and in fact today we did hitch up the truck which we don't usually do but we want have as little to do tomorrow as possible. Riley lifted the back feet, put away the two lawn chairs and I removed the lock, lantern, and temperature probe before hooking up. So we'll be out of here in the morning with minimal work. 

See what I mean? Just popping up everywhere.

The fella's name next door is Lou. The nice lady on the end of the rake, who's trailer also arrived today is named Jodi and the folks behind us also arrived for a bit today, some one over there is named Jr., while Dave is across the roadway. Lou is a chatter and loves to talk. He informed us if we wanted to see deer to head up to the top of hill around dusk and we'd see 20 easily as they come out into the field. He told us Gene & Sally are the managers of the park, not the owners. We learned a lot of stuff that is of no interest to anyone out there. Lou is a sweet fella, a charming aw shucks, kind of guy. He has a beautiful chocolate brown Chesapeake Retriever, Buddy who is four years old. He is a sweet fella and loves attention, water and playing fetch. 

I know I posted a picture similar to this one before but the grass is greener and it just looks warmer and more cheerful now in the fantastic weather.

  
I chatted with my dad for a bit today as well. Just checking on things and finding out all the latest weather for the area. He says they are getting nothing at this time, no snow, no sun, no wind, he also says today is a warm day at 43F/6 C, lots of yesterdays snow is melting. He can see a few patches of green here and there but figures with the weather coming tomorrow it'll be gone under more snow pretty quick. I'll talk to him again probably once a day for the next few days at least as I talk to him every day when we are travelling and with the weather not looking too good, I'm pretty certain it will ease his mind to know how things are going for us. 

A different view of the Miami River.

The high today reached 79F/26C, with wonderful blue skies. Windy of course as it caused numerous leaves to lift from their resting place and fly around in swirls, diving, dashing, flipping and just rustling everywhere. A number of folks around us are raking winter debris, repairing with hammer and nails, etc as the weather has dried things out a fair amount. Tomorrow here the rain is supposed to start around noon time. They are expecting 2 or 3 more days of rain again. They aren't happy, they've had enough and want spring to arrive so they can get down to the business of enjoying their time in the park. I will say the park across the river has some very loud folks there, we can easily hear them over here on our side of the river, we can distinguish each and every word in their conversations.

Riley took most of the pictures today and enjoyed this sign.

So the day has found us enjoying the heat, sun and folks around us. We have found them warm, inviting and friendly. It has been enjoyable to spend this time in Oakdale Campground and I think it's safe to assume we may return in the future if our plans find us in the area. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you've enjoyed your day as much as we have here. I hope you found peace, warmth, and joy in all the expected but also the unexpected places and people around you. Please feel free to drop a comment, I appreciate them all very much. 

Look west along the Miami River at the Miami River Campground.

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

Deb

Very warm, sunny but with some pretty high winds....

Our Location: Oakdale Campground, Quincy, Ohio

A much warmer night with temperatures reading 51F/10.5C at 7:30 AM when I came downstairs. Now that is more like it and although we are under a wind advisory the temperatures today promise to be warm as well. Although the sky doesn't look like it will be a totally sunny day we will enjoy whatever we get and not complain. 

Ohio 235 North is at the end of the driveway, and that flag is showing there is a lot of wind today. In fact we have a wind advisory.

 Like other fellow Canadians we all know the risk of coming home at this time of the year and it looks like we didn't get lucky this time with temperatures about 10 degrees below seasonal norms. A freezing rain warning will be in effect pretty much all weekend for parts of the more northerly and eastern reaches of Southern Ontario. Hopefully the accumulation is minor and the roads remain ice free. We will however be taking our time and staying as far out of that area as we can. 

This farm house is between the road and the campground.

While reading blogs I noted a few more blogger friends have also arrived safely in the frozen north over the past few days. Ivan ( Road Trip 2018), along with Dave & Cheryl (Our View from Here) have also returned home. Both seem to have landed softly in the snow that is still covering the ground, with Ivan coming out the winner in having the most snow to contend with. I wish them all warmer days ahead and hopefully spring will appear rapidly.

The park is the right of the picture, the road to the left.

In yesterday's pictures I noted the white Chevy parked beside us. It's a relatively new thing in the last couple of days. Two fellows arrived in work trucks one evening around 5:30 pm, left one truck and off they went in the other. In the morning at 5:47 am they returned, but with two vehicles, leaving the big white Chevy behind and taking off in the two work trucks. They didn't return that night but they did last night, this time leaving the two work trucks and taking only the big Chevy. This morning they arrived about mid way between 5:30 and 6:00 am to take the two and leave the one. They don't go to any of the trailers or cabins, they just leave the different trucks. I will say they are pretty quiet over all not saying much but they do bang a lot of doors. I wonder if we're parked in front of their seasonal spots as they seem pretty comfortable here. Oh well, we'll be leaving in a couple of days. 

Definite signs of spring in the small forest near the driveway.

We've also noted that there are train tracks nearby, not close enough to be a bother but we do hear the far off rumbling of the trains. They go constantly day and night, I know this because I'm not the best sleeper and often awake at various hours throughout the night and I can hear them rumbling way off in the distance. Some times it takes a minute or so to figure out what the noise is, as it almost sounds like thunder off in the distance.

Welcome to Oakdale Campground. 

The sun shone off and on until about lunch time and then came out in full force and it was absolutely fantastic. Our high temperatures are almost embarrassing to tell our fellow Canadians stuck in the deep freeze and cold but we reached 76F/24.4C this afternoon. By 4:50 pm we were starting to cool down to 74F/ 23.3C. The wind has been blowing hard all day. 

Can you see the new leaves coming out?

I walked our garbage all the way to the dumpsters out by the farmhouse near the road. The weather was warm enough to go in long pants and a shirt but would have been too cool for me in shorts or without a cover up on my arms and shoulders. The wind however caused some dust devils to dance around me and make it difficult to see with my hair flying across my face. The trees were creaking and the wind through the branches was quite loud. We managed to walk around the park a bit today as well. We were back at the office for a few minutes to see if the water was on. The spigot near us was open and no water was forth coming, the fella assured me that the water on the OTHER side of the Igloo was on, but not the water nearest the river. So we managed to fill our fresh water tank today in the nice sunny afternoon. 

I'm not sure the purple flowers are real but the others are daffs, and they are real, they are all over the park.

We grabbed our books/tablets and sat outside for an hour today, managing to get mostly out of the wind where it became almost hot in the sun. NO COMPLAINTS, just saying it was a bit extreme from below freezing to above room temperature in the span of 2 days. Kind of a jolt to the system. I have no doubt we'll have a jolt on Saturday when we head to Ontario and it won't be a good jolt like this one. 

Looking down one of the roads here in the park.

The afternoon was a very pleasant one, I even managed a 30 minute nap at one point. I'm enjoying my book by Dick Wolfe, the creator of Law and Order, called The Intercept. It's pretty good so far and I think I'll be finishing it within the next day or two.
 

Looking the other way down the same road.

My dad called while I was out walking and anyone that seen me would think I was a bit odd, as I was walking backward to keep the phone mic out of the wind so he could hear me. He informed me they were currently under blizzard like conditions and at times it was difficult to see very far. Said it had just started within the last hour and didn't show any signs of letting up. He doesn't think we should come north too fast, maybe late into the first or early into the second week of May. He says it's pretty cold at night and the snow is a bit deep. No snow was falling when he headed up to the Sugar Shack to put on the fire but his quad was easily covered when he came out within a short time, so I guess it's falling fast. 
 

Looking up toward the top of the hill in the park.

We discussed the weekend weather and how it would impact us on our way home. I assured him we wouldn't take any chances and we certainly won't. Hopefully the temperatures are a few degrees above freezing and that will solve all the issues.
  

A number of nice rigs here in the park.

  
We once again sat with the door open pretty much most of the day, the wind strong but from the back didn't seem to bother us much inside and we tucked ourselves out of the wind by sitting under the front of the nose and the wind seemed to blow right past us. 

Numerous boats, sea doo's, and a couple of rigs all waiting patiently for someone to come.

 I found out the fella with the trucks is actually the fella that rents one of these spots around us. I'm not sure which spot but the office gentlemen told me that when I was chatting with him. He even sent Roger around to see if we managed to get the water working. So they are very helpful here in the park, I have to say. I also noticed the NO SMOKING sign in the window beside the door, but it's not new. The inside of the office was much cleaner, no ashtrays, no smell of any kind. So maybe my complaint did some good. Who knows. 

Sewage holding tanks here, almost every spot has one. A honey wagon comes around to pump them probably once or twice a week during the season.

We also noticed a lady this afternoon on the handle of a rake doing some mighty hard work in the seasonal spots around us. Not sure if one of them is hers or if she's been hired to do the work. She's wearing shorts and a t-shirt, and I can say she's probably dressed well for the work. I've noticed a few piles of debris that have been cleaned up in various places and are just waiting for someone to come along and haul them off. 

Cute little cabin, don't you think?

Also noted the fella across the river whose dock I showed you yesterday in the split before and after picture, now has his pontoon boat in the water and even took it for a ride down river today. The busy builder was working once again today on the reno/construction work, also across the river. They work a lot over there. I think both of them have actually been staying there while they've been working.
 

As you can see, the water is still going down.

Speaking of the Miami River it is now flowing west to east, which I think is probably the correct direction. I think with the high flood waters it was more swirling than flowing when we arrived. The wind managed to make it a bit choppy today on the river, no white caps but still a good bit of up and down on the surface.

The huge wood pile in the background suggests they split and sell the wood from the near by forest that has fallen or has been taken down. I believe this may be the 'grader blade' they use on the roads in the park. Looks heavy enough and that piece of iron goes full length under those wood pieces.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit. Please feel free to leave a comment. I love to hear from you. I hope you all managed to have a fantastic day. 

Spring is coming to Quincy, Ohio.

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

Deb

 

Much warmer today......

Our Location: Oakdale Campground, Quincy, Ohio

We woke this morning to find the temperatures once again hovering at the freezing mark both inside and outside. However the inside has warmed up much faster than the outside as the sun doesn't seem to be in evidence anywhere in the sky. I'm sure it is there but with all the cloud cover I doubt we'll see it today. 

The little town of De Graff creamery/eatery which apparently delivers to your door as well.

I don't think we'll be going ahead with our plans which was to find Possom Hollow Trail and perhaps take a hike but we both agreed only if the sun was out and warming things up. No sun, no hike, so it appears this will be a do nothing kind of day again.

Those blue skies made things feel much better yesterday.

The sun finally came out around noon but kept playing peek-a-boo with us for the rest of the day. The wind also picked up and as long as we stayed down here in the valley at the river we were good, but you could hear the wind whistling around on top of the hill. We opted to stay put today even though the sun came out off and on. A walk across the grass found the squish, squish of water even though one couldn't see it. 
 

These pictures are before and after. The first is the day after we arrived here. See all of the debris and crap there and look how high the water is, you can't see the dock boards at all. In the second picture you can see they've cleaned it up and today they pressure washed the entire dock off. The water is still slowly receding.

The sounds of building are continuing down in our little hollow but across the river. Someone is building or doing some remodeling. We can see the frame work from here but it's hard to tell what they are doing. The thump, thump, thump of a hammer is like white  noise in the background for the most part but also a reassuring sign of hope that spring will soon be here. 

It's hard to tell what he's doing over there...

For the most part we've been staying inside due to cold but today the temperature reached 60F/15C but the wind that managed to come down into the hollow kept it from feeling that warm. Not a lot of wind, just enough to say nope, not spring yet. A few hours with the door open allowed us to air out the Igloo which has been closed up for quite some time. HRH Miss Kitty enjoyed the open door as well. She sat and watched outside for an hour or so before tiring of the squirrels and birds. 

Looking across the river. The water has receded quite a bit but still has a bit more to go. 

We've been watching the weather report for the upcoming weekend which will be a travel weekend for us. The weather reports are calling for some pretty ugly stuff in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) with possible freezing rain and accumulations of the same. So we're going to keep things in mind when we start out. Everything looks good until at least Brantford, Ontario. That seems to be where the line for the freezing rain may touch. So we'll head out Saturday even in the rain as I would like to cross even though we have another day before our insurance runs out. We then have the option of getting off for an overnight before the border if necessary with a quick run Sunday morning or we can continue and at least get into the Windsor area where they expect only rain. An overnight at the Husky truck stop is an option there. Further on it looks as if London will miss the freezing rain event and London/Tilbury/Dutton is our ORIGINAL destination for Saturday night anyway. 

I believe the river is still a bit high but coming down. 

From London our plans are to head to Hamilton on Sunday. However if there is an issue with the weather we shall sit tight and wait until Monday before heading that direction. I have an early morning Rheumatologist appointment on Tuesday in Hamilton and we both have a dentist appointment on Thursday late morning.  Everything hinges on the exact temperature over the weekend. A couple of degrees higher would mean just a steady cold rain, a couple of degrees lower could mean a serious ice event for the area from Brantford and all points further north along the 401 corridor. It looks as if the north end of Toronto and the city of Barrie will be hardest hit. It also could impact the Golden Horseshoe along Lake Ontario from Hamilton to Niagara Falls if the temperature drops a degree or two. So we shall just have to wait and see. However I feel confident we'll get to Windsor without any issues. 

The cabin directly across the Miami River from us. With so much mud the water is brown and seems to be having a hard time figuring out which direction it's supposed to flow. On our arrival it was flowing east to west, yesterday and today one side is flowing east, and the other side is flowing west. The middle seems to be a mix of currents, swirls and eddys. 

Everywhere one hears about the weather, according to the powers that predict the weather and keep the records, the temperatures are about 10 degrees below the seasonal norms and will remain so for the rest of the month of April. With another cold spell coming next week. They say it won't return to normal or above normal until INTO May. So we may be cold for while longer. For the Canadians out there, S. Ontario had 2 days in the double digits in January, 5 in February, and 1 in March. Since March 18 there hasn't been a single double digit day. For our American friends, we use the metric system in Canada so double digits would be 10C which would equate to 50F. As Southern Ontario is tempered by the Great Lakes it gets some warmer temps through the winter months as well. Nothing too balmy but warmer than the rest of the province.

When we arrived the water was making those decks on the right side of the pictures hang on for dear life instead of floating away. These river side sites are all empty and their units stored elsewhere so they aren't affected by the spring floods.  You can see the fresh gravel waiting to be spread.

So there you have it, a much nicer day but windy up the hill which forced us to stay home and not go for a hike. Tomorrow is supposed to be nicer still with temps reaching into the mid 60's/ 18C but I have a few chores I want to do outside instead of going out exploring. The closer we get to home the less we feel the urge to get out and do things. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit. Feel free to drop a comment. I appreciate them all.

You can see the edge of the deck that has been pushed by the high flood waters. The grass is starting to green up but it's very squishy under foot.

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

We are sitting high and dry on gravel. There is another Chevy like ours sitting on the other side of us, been there a few days now. As you can see it was nice enough to have the door open for a while.

Deb

Through De Graff to Bellefontaine...

Our Location: Oakdale Campground, Quincy, Ohio

You would think we would be used to the cold mornings wouldn't you? I mean we just spent the winter in the desert where the mornings are always cold and yet this cold is different. This cold is a more seeping, invading type of cold, it steals your body heat in a very different kind of way than the desert cold. This cold also affects your mind and your thought process because unlike the desert this cold isn't gone by 10 am and we know that so we feel colder somehow. This cold lingers all day, warming slightly and almost offering the promise of warmth but not quite delivering it. A teasing cold filled with damp, freezing moisture that seems to rob us of  the ability to get warm. It does something to the brain when one looks out to see the green grass frozen and stiff, the water puddles with a frozen layer on ice on top, the bare trees or just budding trees look forlorn and the slight breeze makes them appear to be shivering.  I refer to this as the pre spring blues, I get it every year and only when the warmth of the sun has started warming all of the soil, stones, trees, and things around me do I really feel as if spring has arrived. The green and the flowers are visual signs of spring but the warm is the physical sign that I crave.

Heading into Bellefontaine, Ohio today.

Can you tell it was cold again this morning? The outside temperature read 25F/-3C and the inside temperature was in the mid 30'sF/1.6C but with the combination of our heater and the furnace it was warmed up to 50F/10C within a short time. The difference today is we have sun, a small yellow ball but at least we can see it unlike yesterday when it was hidden behind a blanket of clouds all day. The weather forecasters say we'll get warmer today than yesterday and the days ahead are looking wonderful with the nights also getting in on the warm up act. Let's hope that is indeed the case. We know that the warmth will follow us north shortly but we would prefer it beat us there.

The country side on our drive today.

We know when we return to Ontario on Saturday that the weather will once again be cold and there appears to be rain in the forecast as well. We are hopeful that the days will continue to warm quickly and the nights will stop dipping into the freezing temperatures at least.  The long range forecast does not look good for us getting back to our summer location by May 1 but we shall see how it goes.

I thought this was kind of cute on the side of building, it's not a mural.

We enjoyed our hot drinks and catching up with friends before bundling up and heading off in the Dogsled. We needed a drink for the Big Dog, and some grub for ourselves, along with a post office to drop a few things in the mail. So we headed off to the little town of Bellefontaine, Ohio. According to the GPS/Google it's less than 10 miles away. 

I think this may have been on a school or daycare but I'm not sure.

The back roads here are very quiet with few vehicles and even fewer people out and about. I don't think we noticed any more than maybe 5 or 6 people out side until we reached the village. Still too cold for folks to be out strolling I guess. I know it's too cold for me to be out strolling. 

Welcome to Bellefontaine, Ohio. 

We reached the little town of Bellefontaine without any issues after a quick stop at the dumpsters to rid us of our accumulated garbage. We topped up the fuel tank at $2.79 per gallon, taking around 28 gallons to fill the tank. We of course noticed diesel for 3 cents a gallon cheaper just down the road. Isn't that always the way. Oh well, it was needed, still cheaper than Ontario and now we're full once again. We made note that Bellefontaine has pretty much all the fast food places you could want, except I didn't see a Tim Horton's. I'm not saying there wasn't one, just that I didn't see one. We even made note of a grocery store called Aldi's that I recall seeing mentioned in other blogs. We didn't go in this time but perhaps another one. 

Lots of fast food spots.

Next we headed off to Walmart for some groceries and drinking water. We're still looking to replace the 2.5 gallon jug that some how developed a leak a few weeks ago. We found everything we wanted at Walmart and I  picked up another Blue Def since I just added one to the truck this morning. This stuff is so cheap here at less than $8 a jug. I think three will keep me for a while, not all summer but for a while. From Walmart we headed to the Dollar Tree as we wanted to get some Damp Rid for the Igloo. Once again we notice we are having a bit of condensation inside so hopefully we catch it quickly. 

Looking down Main Street, Bellefontaine, Ohio. 

 We next headed off to find the Post Office. I've noticed there are no mail boxes in which to drop out going mail, one needs to go to the post office to do that. I know back in Hamilton we're tripping over them, they seem to be on every 4th street corner. So while looking for the Post Office we toured a bit of the town. Cute little place, bright and cheery for the most part. 

Our park is very close to this little hamlet of De Graff, Ohio.

Today we used our RV GPS to find the town of Bellefontaine and I made note that twice we were taken on roads we can't travel with the Igloo. Two bridges both under 12'  would have made it impossible for us to travel the road and we would have been wedged under the bridge. Also  the GPS told me to turn left on to a one way street, except it was one way going the opposite way and I would have been going the wrong way if I hadn't quickly turned around. Now I'm not sure that I trust the RV GPS to get us anywhere, I think it's time to get in touch with the company and see what they think I should do other than an update. 

Not sure I like the colour but I love the house. On the corner in the little hamlet of De Graff. 

Back home once more we enjoyed a quiet afternoon, I did a few chores, had a 30 minute nap and just enjoyed the peace. Today new noises aroused my curiousity and I noted that across the Miami River someone is building either a small cottage/shed or some structure over there. So we can tell spring is coming, folks are building in anticipation of better warmer days. 

Another beautiful home in De Graff, Ohio.

Today's temperature were a bit warmer than yesterday, we reached 41F/ 5C this afternoon before the sun vanished. However the weather forecasters are calling for the next number of days to be very nice and much warmer. I believe Spring will arrive here at Oakdale Campground as we pull out on Saturday. 

A church in De Graff, Ohio. 

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your visit. Please feel free to leave a comment, I appreciate them all. 

Riley found this very funny as we past by the above church.

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

Deb