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We pulled into the neighborhood around 4:30 yesterday and that meant we'd had a long day on the road - we left the campground in Moose Jaw at 8:15.


Here are some stats from our trip:

6 US States
4 Provinces
37 nights
9114 km
2230 litres of diesel
2 30 gallon bottles of propane
5 new tires
20 rolls of tp
3700 sneezes from Scott (ballpark)
A lifetime of good memories

Cheers!

chill-axing and trolley cars

It's been a low key day thus far with some organizing of the trailer and a trip on the trolley.  We did a tour of the City and learned about historic churches, schools, homes & restaurants, and learned about some of the 50+ murals.  Scott & Katie have headed off to the Western Development Museum which focuses on early transportation (trains, cars, planes and even the local snowbirds).  Emily and are I will be heading out shortly to play a round of minigolf here at the campground before coming back to prepare supper.  The play (Pirates of Penzance) begins at 8pm. 
We'll have an early morning tomorrow - we covet your prayers and offer our thanks to our God who has carried us in His hands. 

Added - Pirates of Penzance was good - three lead characters attended Briercrest, the same school I graduated from a few (long) years ago. During intermission I recognized a man whose son graduated from Caronport High School in the same class as I. It was nice to get caught up.

Tunnels, ghost stories and more

The campground we're at has it's own indoor waterslides (2 @ 200' each), a pool and hot tub which we checked out last night.  Much to our surprise when we asked Emily if she was going to go down the waterslide, she said yes, and headed for the stairs.  She's never been on a water slide other than those for smaller children - she wasn't comfortable with the idea.  For the next two hours that girl couldn't be stopped: climb the steps (with the rest of us of course,) down the slide, out of the water and back up the steps again.  More reasons to marvel.
This morning we visited the Tunnels of Moose Jaw.  There were 2 tours to select from: one about Al Capone and the prohibition and the other was about the Chinese immigrants to Canada around the late 1800's and early 1900's.  Both were good but the better was the one about the immigrants. 
When I lived in Caronport (15 minutes from here) an enjoyable location for cheesecake was Hopkins Dining Parlour.  Today I got to share that spot with the family as we had lunch.  Our timing was great in that most of the guests were gone when we finished.  That freed up the owner (since 1978) to tell us about the house and the stories about it having a ghost.  The lady whom the home was built for (by her husband) died while living in the home and her funeral was held there as well (that's just weird).  Anyways there have been stories of patrons and staff seeing apparitions and hearing footsteps.  To that I say pish-posh.  All the same, the restaurant has been featured on a television program highliting ghosts in buildings.  Our waitress showed us the 8 minute clip from the show.
The owner also told us about some of the details of the building - waffle ceilings, moved walls (to make room for a new staircase) and new subway tile in the addition added around 1986.  She showed us a very tall cabinet of sorts that dates back to the earloy 1600s, and showed off their player piano.  The kids hadn't seen anything like it before and Emily went so far as to check it for strings which may have been pulled by the unseen player of the piano.  Perhaps it was the late Mrs. Hopkins, was Katie's suggestion.  Anyways, after 24 years it was special to come back and enjoy the cheesecake again, and to share that with my family too.
We've decided to spend an additional night here which means Friday we'll be driving 6+ hours instead of coming just from Medicine Hat.  The plan is to wake earlier than usual, get dressed and out the door... to drive awhile then stop for breakfast and head for home. 
We have tickets for tomorrow night's presentation of the Pirates of Penzance, being done here in Moose Jaw, and we're really looking forward to it.  Aside from that we've not got other plans.  The weather has been cool today (17) with cloud and a breeze.  The wind overnight brought down branches off a tree a few rows from us but I don't think there was any damage.  Here's hoping it's warmer tomorrow: perhaps we'll take in the Trolley tour
Off to the pool...

Wpg Beach to Saskatchewan

We are here in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan - we pulled in about 30 minutes ago.
Last night we were in a community campground in Redvers Saskatchewan and the cost was the best deal yet at $20 for power and water.  The community has about 1000 people yet behind our campsite there were 3 baseball diamonds and next door, a full recreation complex for curling, skating and an outdoor pool.  The family rate for swimming was only $10.25.  Money well spent.  The kids, well you've heard it before, they're amazing Scott & I every time we head to the pool.  They're both swimming to a depth of about 4 1/2' to retrieve items from the floor (with their eyes open - another new thing). 
Emily wasn't feeling well last night so we let her sleep in but Katie and I headed out to one of the ball diamonds where she and I took turns whacking the ball as far as we could.  She's a natural.
The 2 nights prior were spent in Sandy Hook Manitoba, just north of Winnipeg Beach.  The campground was, well, let's just say we won't be returning.  The site itself was large enough but the smell of septic at all hours of the day, no washrooms, no showers, no laundry and the fact that the pool only goes to 1.19metres...  Oh and the kids would also complain that the office was only that - no store items, no candy etc.  Course, the kids made friends within about 30 minutes of our arrival and thankfully those kids were there for the days we were as well. 
We did enjoy the beach at Winnipeg Beach though.  We had picked up some food and ate in the truck before entering a large park that bordered the water.  There was a very talented live band  playing to a crown of a few hundred - initially they came out as Elvis and his band then after a break they came back as the Beatles.  It was very enjoyable.
Through the course of this trip Scott & I have once again dreamed what it would be like to build and own our own campground.  It's something that would mean a move to another Province, likely BC.  I don't think that I could do that to the girls despite how much they say they'd love to be part of that.  We think we've got lots of experience and know what people like and certainly the things that we look for.  The little extra's like offering pie and ice cream.  And certainly not forgetting things like info about current goings on in the area (we fluked upon the live band by the beach - that was less than 10 minutes from the campground).  There are so many things but unless I take up home schooling and/or the girls do distance learning and/or we transfer them, it's going to remain a dream, at least for now. 
As for next year we're again considering renting an RV spot for the summer.  Now the question is where.
Tomorrow we plan on checking out the Tunnels of Moose Jaw, we're really looking forward to it.  They have a website if you want to check them out on line.  We're also considering another live band in a park - they're called "Desperate for Haggis", and may take a walk along the rive in the Wakamow Valley.  When I lived in Caronport (while in High School & Bible School) I used to come into Moose Jaw with my friends for cheesecake at Hopkins restaurant.  We're aiming on eating there tomorrow night.  We'd planned on spending just 2 nights here but there's talk of adding one (instead of spending our last night in Medicine Hat) as we heard about a play here on Thursday (Pirates of Penzance). If it's family friendly, like the version I was in while in junior high, then we'll consider staying the extra day to see it.
Tonights supper: beef shishkabobs with potatoes, peppers, mushrooms, onion and zucchini.  Yummmmm.  Perhaps Katie and I will have to offer up the next dessert surprise tonight too. 

Dryden Ontario - last stop in Ontario

As promised we got to dip our toes into the icy waters of Lake Superior yesterday on our way to our Provincial park campground at Kakabeka Falls Ontario yesterday.  Aside from the temperature (inside and out of the water) we weren't let down.  It felt like we were on a coastal beach. 
The campground last night was beautiful - clean, spacious, large, well treed sites, plus laundry facilities very close to our site.  And as the name suggests, a spectacular water fall.  Last night Katie and I surprised Scott & Emily with fresh baked apple turnovers and a fruit salad.  Mmmmmmmm.
We are currently in Dryden Ontario where we'll spend our last night in Ontario during this trip.  We're in a smallish campground which is very well kept - nice flower beds and water features and the lawn is immaculate.  Katie and I grabbed the badminton raquets and headed for the net which was up and ready for use.  A good time was had.  The girls both learned how to play a couple card games tonight as well - I think I taught Katie too well though; she beat me in war twice!
Tonight it was Scott & Emily's turn to create a dessert for us all and they baked chocolate chip cookies and even provided milk in cups for dipping cookies into.  Yum.  We better not let this sort of thing turn into a habit. 
Tomorrow we head out to Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba for a two night stay.  The forecast there is 27 and sun tomorrow but 24 and showers on Sunday so we're hoping to arrive early enough to enjoy some of that heat and the water before Sundays rain.
Usually when I decide to head west I can hardly wait - it means a trip to BC.  Knowing now that we're heading west doesn't carry quite the same amount of excitement cuz it means we're going back to regular life which includes the structure of work.  We'll be home in one week.

Penn Lake Park - beautiful!

We had a good day of driving and arrived at the campground after picking up some groceries, late afternoon.  The campground is small - 16 RV sites plus 8 tent spots and is on Penn Lake park - it's quiet & no where near full. 
We're not far from the north end of Lake Superior - WOW is it ever beatiful!  I remember crossing the international bridge from Michigan into Southern Ontario and how amazed I was at the color of Lake Huron.  The same can be said for Lake Superior - the blues are so unexpected.  Scott has promised that tomorrow we'll be able to 'dip our toes' but it's always tough as we don't know what sort of adequate road side pull outs we'll find but here's hoping. 
Tomorrow we move on to Kakabeka Falls, just past Thunder Bay.  These falls are Canada's 2nd largest according to a webpage but I don't know if that means in width, height or volume but I'm sure we'll enjoy them no matter what.  One more one night stay follows, this time in Dryden Ontario, and that will wrap up the Ontario portion of our trip after having spent 19 nights here.
Depending on wifi this may be our last comminuque until we're at Winnipeg Beach in Manitoba on Saturday and Sunday night.
Counting our blessings...

Ratter Lake & Sault Ste. Marie onward

On Monday morning we left the Hunstville area relieved that we were heading north and not south.  Traffic southbound was all but stopped as the long weekend came to a close and folks headed home perhaps in preparation of returning to work the following day.
We spent the night in a campground at Ratter Lake, at Hagar Ontario.  The lake looked so pretty with the smooth rocky edges sloping into it as we checked it out from the sandy beach.  It reminded me of Ellison Provincial Park on Okanagan Lake, in the Vernon BC area.  It was at this campground that we had our first campfire of the whole trip!  Out came the chocolate swirl marshmallows and the rest of the 'makings of a s'more'.  The stars were super bright and we had a good night out by the fire.
We're currently in a KOA just outside of the Soo.  We pulled in mid afternoon yesterday, prepared the trailer for the night (plugging stuff in and opening the slide etc), and then headed back into town (3-5 minute drive) as we wanted to check out the Locks.  Sadly no boats came through while we were there but it was good to see them up close anyways.
Today we're on to Marathon Ontario - Penn Lake Park.  Our hope had been to wake around 9am and to leave by about 10 but we had a noisy group camping across the path in front of us that were loud with their music and conversation until past midnight.  I complained about them to the camp host and was very happy with his prompt follow up. All that to say that I'm the only one up and while 10 is still achievable, sleep is more important right now.
I hope you're taking time to rest.  Thanks for your continued prayers.

Day 4: campsite & a fire lookout climb

The dog seems to have some allergy problems again as she wakes during the night to chew and/or lick herself and/or to shake her head (ears).  All of this disturbs the sleep of Scott & I so again today we slept in until 9:30.  We had breakfast then gathered up our 4 loads of laundry for the non-enjoyable portion of life on the road.  Actually at the last campground (Milton, Ontario) washes and dry's were $1.50 each and the whole process was complete in an hour (4 washers/dryers available).  Here, not so good with a wash cost of $2.75 and the dryer runs for 5 minutes on a quarter.  The process here was about 2.5 hours... ick. 

The blessing in this is that not only do we have clean clothes and towels etc, we also made it back to the trailer with our clean and folded stuff about 15 minutes before the skies opened and the downpour began. 
After lunch we chilled for oh, about 4 minutes before Scott was convinced to take the girls to the pool.  I followed a bit later (trying to talk some reason into a migraine held me back).  The swim was nice and again, the kids amaze us as they gain more confidence in the water.

The kids have set into some crafts for about an hour or so before I convinced the masses to get out the badminton rackets and football.  This led into a hike of sorts and once again I'm fairly confident we had a moose not far from us - I heard what sounded like a cow and did indeed see a hoof print along the trail.  We're sitting down to supper now (steak, mashed spuds and edamame beans followed by apple turnovers ala Katie and her mom) then hope to climb the Dorset fire tower yet tonight.  I'd hoped to enjoy the sunset from up there but the tower closes at 8pm.  Oh well, it offers a 360 degree view and edges Lake of the Bays, the lake we played on all day yesterday. 

Tomorrow we move on to Sturgeon Falls, Ontario, a 2.5 hour drive.
Best run if we're going to make it in time. 
Hope it's sunny where you are!

Day 2 hike / day 3 boat

Yesterday we headed east to check Oxtongue Rapids.  At the base of the trail there was a sign which identified the 'hike' as difficult with a steep incline/decline.  Since we had the dog with us we opted to skip the hike as she doesn't hike well while on a leash and she's in confined areas.  Next we went to Ragged Rock Falls which were quite something.  The girls and I hiked down along the side of the falls to get a better look - unlike when we were at Wells Gray Provincial Park with Auntie Mel, we weren't able to walk behind these falls. 
Next we were on to Algonquin Provincial Park to take in more splendor.  We stopped at Canoe Lake where we ate lunch lakeside.  It wasn't long before we understood the meaning of the lakes' name - in the 45-60 minutes we were there we watched about 30 canoes get dropped into the lake and groups begin their paddle.  Some spoke of multi-day trips so the girls and I schemed that in maybe 4 years we'd come back so we could do a 2-3 day canoe trip, camping along the shore.
When we paid for our lunch the gal took the money but excused herself with one of our $10 bills for a moment.  Upon her return she explained that it was a counterfeit bill.  Interesting thing though is that we got the bill as change when we paid for our park pass.  Another memory from the trip. 
Next we were off to Peck Lake for what was thought to be a 1.5 hour moderate hike but it was closer to 45 minutes, including all the time the girls spent screaming at the sight of snakes.  We saw 2 of them but we don't know what type they were.  We also saw frogs and salamanders and I'm pretty confident the animal sounds we heard along the lake just ahead of us where those of a moose.  According to the Park literature chances of seeing a moose were pretty good and that there are so many black bears that on average they'll be 1 in every 3 km squared.  Apparently they're more evasive though - no evidence of those along our walk yesterday.  (I went for a walk on Wednesday night here in the campground and found a pile of berry filled skat which apparently was left by a black bear the night before.  His hiking route doesn't happen to pass by our campsite which is very good news.)
Today we rented a 15' boat with a 90 horsepower motor, good enough to pull the tube.  Get this - for those of you who knows what people in Shuswap or Kalamalka Lake charge for a boat rental, we had the boat for the whole day (until 6:30) and paid a mere $200.  We had barely pulled away from the shore and, you're not going to believe this, we got stopped by Ontario's finest, the OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) with blue lights a-flashing on their decked out boat.  There were a couple nice guys just making sure that we had the right safety equipment and that Scott had his boat licence.  All was good and we headed off into the 32 degrees heat.  We had an excellent day with many opportunities seized for jumping into the water.  We went to Dorset, a very small but thriving town at least along the water, where we pulled the boat up to the dock and had lunch on a patio.  We thought we were pretty cool until a float plane landed, pulled in to the dock, and got ice cream.  Trumped us I guess but we've got no regrets.
We are amazed at how great the kids are doing when the swim now.  Emily is completely free without the use of anything to hold her up and Katie is almost there.  Sometimes especially in deeper water (100' plus in spots,) it's just more comforting to have something to help you stay above the water.  Even I took a life jacket in with me and sat on it - we were calling them a close relative of the adironack or muskoka chair but actually the "Lake of the Bays" chair, since that's the lake we were in.
Tomorrow the forecast calls for showers so we're contemplating checking out Bracebridge, a town about 50 minutes away.  Not sure yet though.  We should find time to do laundry tomorrow too as on Monday we're into a series of 1 night camp stays x 5 nights.
Hope you're enjoying the summertime wherever you are!
Enjoy today - it's the only one you get until tomorrow is here.
Oh - here's a quote that Emily found: "I don't need a Prince, I just need a guy who thinks I'm his Princess."  I thought that was sweet.

Day 1 Muskoka country

We all slept in - it was 9:30 when we got up; I hate that when there's things to see but obviously we all needed it.  I think our transition back to Alberta time is going to be a challenge.

We headed into Huntsville late this morning to check things out, we did Main Street, the docks & ate on a patio alongside the river.  We also went to the Pioneer Village pretty much only because we have a tie to it.  Scott' paternal grandpa's grandparents have a pioneer home there in which they raised 14 kids.  This place was much smaller than Heritage Park and there weren't anywhere near the amount of visitors but that made it better in some ways.  We arrived in time for school held in the 1870s school house and the kids also made candles, did laundry and carded yarn.  We took a ride on a steam engine which went into service in 1901 (Scott used to take it to school in those days and remembers it well!  :))   It was an enjoyable day. 

No plans for tomorrow yet but we've talked of a beach, a waterfall (Ragged Falls) and a set of rapids (Oxtongue Rapids).  Roxy has had lots of exercise thanks to (at least) twice daily walks but it would be nice to have her along with us too - maybe if we head for Algonquin Provincial Park. 

Muskoka!

I gotta say everytime I think of the word Muskoka it reminds me of muskeg and I wonder why we're going.  Course, I'd seen pictures and today as we drove in I saw the real thing.  I know already why people cottage here.  While a place like Shuswap Lake may have homes on it there seem to be more shoreline here and therefore more waterfront homes.  We'll begin our touring tomorrow.

Firstly, a shout out to Milton Heights Campground.  The sites are nice with huge trees and we had full hook ups.  It's quiet at night and even until about 9am most mornings.  The owner rides her golf cart around ensuring kids are back in their own campsites by 9:30 - it's dark shortly after 9 so we were more than good with that.  Oh, I should qualify the "quiet" comment - we weren't far from the 401 so we heard that traffic but honestly I blocked it out the first day.  I went for many walks in and from the campground and the countryside is just gorgeous.  The campground laundry was excellent ($1.50 wash or dry), the pool was always warm (28-29 degrees) and the deep end is 9'.  Speaking of the swimming, the kids abilities and confidence levels continue to improve.  Katie is learning to dive now and Emily finds the deep end & swimming lengths to be no challenge.

Scott popped into Milton yesterday to order new tires for the trailer.  Turns out the tires that came with our trailer have a life of between 5-7 years and we're at 5 now.  With one tire blowing while we traveled through Saskatchewan a few weeks ago that was warning enough for us.  Also, the tire immediately beside the one that blew can't seem to hold it's pressure.  We pulled out of the campground this morning (sadly - I really wish we had more time there) and to the tire store where they put on the new tires. 

We were hungry when we left the tire place it was lunchtime but the decision was made to leave Milton and look for a lunch location roadside.  I thought I saw a good spot but as we turned off the highway it became evident that access to the location wasn't going to work so we continued driving away from the road we came in on knowing the GPS would recalculate our route.  That's when it happened.  A bell went off in the truck and alerted Scott to the fact that our engine was low on power.  We were still able to drive but on flat roads at no more than 50kmh (floored) while the uphills maxed out around 20kmh.  We weren't sure we'd make it up some but God is good and answered my prayer in the way I asked. 

Scott could tell on the GPS that we were coming into a town and that they had a Chev dealership.  Turns out the "town" was Barrie, a City of 200,000 and resources were available.  We were in and out of the dealership lickety split and were only charged for the air filter, not the labor. 

So, now we're in a very pretty campground in Dwight Ontario.  We don't have a lake but an indoor pool.  We're about to have supper (it's 8:30!  Yipes) so I'll sign off.   Wifi is great here and maybe we'll get a chance to figure out how to add photos to this new system blog.  Here's hoping!