Out and about today......

Our Location: Frost Ridge Campground, Le Roy, NY

(all photos taken with my phone, even the blurry ones. The phone takes great close still pics but not so crisp distance or moving pics)

Cool weather these last few days with more rain, rain, rain, and yet more....rain. The flooding has returned to about the same level as when we arrived. It seems almost like deja vu in reverse. As we will be pulling out on Monday. The nights have been much cooler than we'd like but we're toasty here in the Igloo. We turn on the propane heater thru the day as well to help push away the dampness that seems to invade after days and nights of steady rain and drizzle. The wind, did I mention that? Well it's still here, blowing constantly and at times it's strong enough to make the Igloo shudder. 

Taken Tuesday, April 18 on our way BACK to the US after a day in Ontario

It's been a lazy couple of days here with not much happening. The Custom's broker has been s-l-o-w-l-y sending me instructions for the upcoming crossing. I mean one a day for the last number of days. Print this, print this, READ this, etc. I waited until today to find a place to print all the emails and forms necessary for the crossing. However on top of that I spent some time on the phone this morning with one of my favourite cousins who is a long distance hauler and he basically told me exactly what I have to do, where I have to go and what to look for. He made it seem so simple, not at all like the custom's broker. Apparently it's a common custom's broker trait, making things sound really complicated and they can't answer a direct question no matter how many times you ask it. ~laugh~ Thanks again Craig, I do appreciate the pep talk and the help, made me breathe a lot easier!!! Looking forward to catching up with you in the next few weeks or so.

A fairly long line but it went pretty quickly

After my chat with cousin Craig, Riley and I loaded ourselves into the Dogsled and headed out to the public library in Chili, Ny, a suburb of Rochester. Now I can hear all of you out there saying Chili, but it's not, it's pronounced  CHAI - LIE. Fooled me too. ~laugh~ One of the nice librarians pointed out the pronunciation. Another very helpful librarian helped me print things out as I'm not a window's person but love my Mac. I in turn helped her to learn that they cannot print a 'Pages" document, nor can they print right from Hotmail unless one uses the library computer. She helped me to remember all the reasons I love my Mac and hate windows. Seemed like a fair trade to me. ~laugh~

This guy and his dog were checking most cars.

The town is a nice little spot about 15 miles away from the campground, not a busy place but with a local Timmies and a Wendy's as well, unlike in Ontario they aren't in the same building. We stopped at the Walmart Supercenter to grab a pizza for lunch but they didn't have any  cheese only pizzas in the little pizza heated tower. They offered to cook one for us, we agreed and waited around for about 15 minutes only to be asked by a different person what kind of pizza I had ordered, I explained Cheese, hmmmmmm....want to guess what happened next? ~laugh~ Yep, they didn't have any cheese, just pepperoni and meat. I'm still trying to figure out why the lady at the counter told me it wasn't a problem to cook us a cheese pizza and then didn't tell us they didn't have one. ~shaking my head~ Needless to say, we didn't get a pizza. 

We'll be on the other side of this fence Monday heading INTO Canada

One of the most interesting things we noticed in the town of Chai -lie, was pink trash bins. The big rolling kind that are placed at the end of the driveway for dumping. These trash bins we the exact colour of pink used to promote breast cancer awareness. We must have seen at least a dozen spread out in various places throughout the little town. Must have been special order of some kind. They didn't appear to be 'painted' such as pink over or blue or green, but appeared to be the originally colour. What an interesting idea.

Fuzzy but that's where we're heading in the next week or so.

Our drive thru the country side was interesting as the blossoms are coming out, the water is high and laying in fields everywhere, we even seen a Tulip Tree in full flower. Amazingly pretty tree, but we didn't get a picture we were flying past and couldn't get the Dogsled stopped in time to take a pic without causing an accident. We opted for an accident free day. ~laugh~

Note the water puddles, lots of rain, see the pink trash bins?

Last night's dinner was a change of pace for us, we tried a new recipe and thought it was pretty good. We had Salsa Potatoes, made like Scalloped potatoes but with salsa instead of milk. I also added some Parm Cheese during the baking and some grated cheese after the baking process. It was very good, the salsa gave it a bit of zing to the taste. We had Honey Pecan Chicken Breast along with Rosemary Mushrooms/green beans. It was pretty good. Tonight's dinner will be different as well, Ham Steaks (which we've never had), Garlic Mashed Potatoes (with chicken broth instead of milk) and Italian Steamed Veggies. I think it's safe to assume we're back into the cooking mode again. ~laugh~ 

Timmies doesn't look quite right but it's still a Timmies

I talked with middle daughter Bradey today for a few minutes. We are tentatively getting together for dinner on Tuesday night. Not sure where or exactly what time but it'll be nice to see her and David again. It's been a while!! She's looking forward to her Honey Roasted Peanut Butter. ~laugh~ 

Rear entrance to Wendy's

Dr. Dube's (the OBGYN) staff called me yesterday regarding the message I left on their machine. When I explained the nightmare we've had trying to get ultra sounds and appointments accomplished she was very sympathetic and offered to squeeze Riley in next week but Riley said no. She's not interested in seeing this doctor, she's lost confidence in the whole bunch of them, staff and doctor. The lack of professionalism and competence by the office staff speaks volumes and Riley just doesn't think it's worth the emotional upheaval to book the appointment and possibly or not possibly see the doctor and what if she needs another appointment?  So I explained the best thing the office can do for Riley is to forward ALL the findings and test result to the new OBGYN when contacted. We left it at that.

Pretty nice back here

Dinner was fantastic, we both enjoyed the ham steak but found it to be salty. I think I would soak it next time, maybe change the water a couple of times as well to try to get rid of at least some of the salt. It's one of the reasons we don't eat a lot of ham, we find the salt is overwhelming in taste.

Water laying or in this case running in the fields

We have a few errands tomorrow and we're both looking forward to getting the last of the shopping handled before we start packing up things. The freezer is full of a number of items that are much cheaper here than back home. We can buy a big bag (8 cups) of grated cheese blend for about $9 here and back in Ontario it's $14 for the same bag. We bought a number of extra pounds of butter as well, along with some sauces we can't get back home. We like the ground turkey here as well so we've added a few of those too.

See the water around the trees

When we finally get across the border we need to go thru all of the goodies we've purchased and sort them out. We bought some things for both Bradey (David) and Courtney (Matt) that I know they like and can't get in Ontario. Bradey will pick hers up but Courtney is in Switzerland so I think I'll have to leave it with Matt's sister Amy. However Courtney will give me an answer I'm certain. ~laugh~

Well tended grass and gardens in Chili

After dinner did a quick clean up then pulled out the Yatzee game. About half way thru the game I forfeited to Riley. ~laugh~ I couldn't roll anything, barely getting doubles on any roll. ~laugh~ She was rolling huge numbers and big scores. I folded, I admit it. ~laugh~ She laughed and laughed. Of course I did too!!! I told her another night my mojo will be better. So we'll have to wait for another night to find out.

Tonight's dinner.

She's off doing her thing and I'm busy doing this so the place is pretty quiet now. The tick tock of the clock is the loudest noise in the Igloo. We're looking forward to more of these nights in the near future as well. With a zillion stars overhead and perhaps a campfire with some wood smoke in the air. Hmmmm...it is looking promising, isn't it?

Some blossoms on the trees

A birthday wish goes out today to my oldest nephew Allan, who's birthday falls on this day. Allan is my sister's only son and lives in North Bay, Ontario. Happy Birthday Allan, may this day bring only good things your way!!

Thanks for stopping by, feel free to 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...

Not a pleasant evening.....

We are currently in Foley, Alabama but we didn't have internet connection for a couple of weeks. I am posting the blog posts in order and I have a few more post to catch up on yet. Maybe tonight. ~laugh~

Our Location: Bluegrass Rv, Foley, Alabama

(Jan 21, 2017 Post)

A very warm wet night last night and this morning dawned with water laying pretty much everywhere around us. I’m glad we’re parked already and not driving in this stuff.

We decided on a lazy day today for a couple of reasons, first because it’s the weekend and we don’t want to go to any attractions with crowds bigger than necessary. Second because of the weather, no fun when you’re dodging rain drops, and third, we’re just tired.

We spent the day doing pretty much nothing, reading, napping, and kind of winding down a bit.

Two hail stones in the palm of my hand. Not a great pic, taken with my phone with few lights.

Tonight just about dinner time the rain picked up again as it had off and on all day but then the tap, tap, tap started getting heavier and heavier and heavier. Hail, first little ones, then bigger ones and harder. It didn’t last long, about 10 minutes but it scared the crap out of the cat and I think it upset Riley a bit. The Igloo is loud when it comes to things like that and unlike a house there is not much between you and the sky, no buffer zone like an attic so the noise can be pretty loud.

Tornado warnings are here again for tonight and were posted at the time of our hail storm. According to the weather forecasters, a severe storm rolled thru here at 7:15 pm tonight bringing damaging winds, hail stones, and intense activity around us, the cell was moving at 65 mph/104 km, so it rolled thru pretty quick.

Pretty big huh? Imagine that hammering down on your roof.

We had just finished the dinner dishes when the hail was falling and so as soon as it stopped I grabbed a flashlight and went outside to check on the Dogsled as a number of other folks were out and about as well, checking on their own vehicles and checking on their neighbours to ensure everyone was alright. We grabbed the garbage and headed up to the dumpster and stopped at the clubhouse. Lots of folks hiding out in the building. Karaoke night today. I didn’t participate since ‘I no speaked Inglish” ~laugh~ Introduced Riley to a few more folks here, then off home for the evening. 

Dinner was excellent and very filling.

Dinner was inside tonight of course, rice, steamed veggies and sausages. Pretty good. We enjoyed it.

That’s it for today, hope you enjoyed your day!!! Thanks for visiting, feel free to leave a message. Until next time…be safe, take care….