Wednesday, August 31, 2011

More RV Maintenance…

Another splendid day in southern Ontario… lots of sunshine, moderate temperatures makes it nice being outside.

Still motivated by Ricks blog the other day, I continued some RV Maintenance today.  Judy went into Woodstock for some regular medical testing, and spent a bit of time with Gwenny, so I had the day for work.

On my hit list was our Onan 5500 Watt Quiet Diesel Generator.  I wanted to check the air filter and make sure everything else was in order!

This first picture shows the generator after you open the access door.  You can start the generator from the control panel on the left hand side, or the preferred method, is simply press the start button inside the RV on our control panel.

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After removing all the access screws, the panel comes right off exposing the guts of the generator.  The air filter is inside that square box you see in the centre of the picture.

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A couple screws later, and I had the air filter in my hand.  It is very similar to a car air filter, and I found that ours is very clean, and after knocking a bit of dust out of it, it was ready to be re-installed for more use.

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After finishing the work on the filter, I checked all wires and terminal to ensure they were clean, which they were!  All belts were also tight and all looked good!  UNTIL I decided to check the cooling radiator.  What a mess!   It was almost completely clogged up with dirt, debris, dead bugs and just about anything else you can imagine.  Don’t forget that the generator usually works while the RV is standing still so no air circulation to go through the rad.  Hence, the generator has a built in fan to force air through the rad to effect the cooling.  Check the dirt I found below in the picture…

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So how do you clean it???  I put a lot of thought into that question, and then reached for my toothbrush!  Yep, it did a fine job of cleaning all the little slots, just took about 1/2 an hour, but I have all day, so who cares!  You can see the progress I was making using my toothbrush… how am I going to brush my teeth now????

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Augh, there we go, all cleaned up and ready to roll!

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This past winter while in California, we would be using the generator and all of a sudden it would simply shut off.  The code book told us it was over heating… so maybe now it won’t!  Will have to test it out!  Took most of the afternoon to complete this task, but it was worth it!

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Around 4:00 this afternoon, I was in need of some exercise, so I went and picked up by walking partner “Cali” and we headed out to the same trail Judy and I walked the other day.  Perfect day for a good hike.  

I had to take a picture of the tree below along the trail.  It is an American Elm Tree.  Check out the weird branch that actually grew downward!  Very strange.  Still don’t know how this American Tree made it’s way up to Canada!  No passport in sight… and to think I have trouble getting a few green grapes over the border! 

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Check out the great fall display our Park owners put out on display today… they are in the mood!

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Today is your last day to get a digital convertor for you old TV set if you still have one, in order to receive the new digital HD TV signal.

We decided to upgrade our Shaw Direct package today to include the “Super Channels”.  We love the TV Series “Sons of Anarchy” and they now show the series on the Super Channels, so we signed up.  You also get a bunch of movie channels so we will check these out over the coming winter.

Till tomorrow…

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Working on that Checklist…

What a terrific day we had in southern Ontario… sunny and warm… just perfect!

A couple of days ago, Rick from  Rick & Paulette's RV Travels blogged about a checklist for getting your RV ready to travel.  Well, it got me thinking about things that I needed to do before our rubber hits the road, hopefully on November 1st this year.  Funny how someone else’s blog can get you moving!

One of the big things I wanted to do was service our house batteries.  Our RV has 2 12 volt batteries that are known as “deep cycle” batteries.  Their job in the RV is run all things that require power inside the RV when you are travelling on the road, or parked with no services at all, like when we spend a week in the middle of the desert at Borrego Springs, California. 

The picture below is one of them, after I cleaned it all up, and it also has the cell caps taken off the top.  You have to keep the water level topped up, and both the batteries required water today.  Last time I did this was 6 months ago, which is way too long! 

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This picture below is what they looked like after I took them out of their holder.   What a mess.  They pick up road grime from being under the RV. 

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The batteries are “tied” together, and will last quite a while.  These are the original batteries that came with the RV when we bought it 2 years ago.  The picture below is the holder for them, and you can see one of the battery cables… they were corroded very bad.  My wire brush did a good job of cleaning all the wires and terminal up for good connections.

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It took me about 1 1/2 hours to complete all the required cleaning and filling up the cells with distilled water.  Below is the batteries all installed again and ready to roll!  A clean RV is a happy RV!

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While I was working outside today, I had my camera handy and captured Judy’s little humming bird, heading in for dinner…

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Super blurry close up of our little friend…

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This picture below is the actual picture that I cropped to get the bird above… he was a happy camper today, as he drank a lot of sugar water!

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Judy spent the afternoon baby sitting little Gwenny, as Kristina had some transcription work to complete for her Boss. 

Till tomorrow…

Monday, August 29, 2011

What’s up Doc…

Very busy day today, if you call sitting in your car driving Ontario’s fine highways being busy.

Judy had to go to a follow up Dr.’s appointment for her post Nasal Surgery.  Good news is… “All is well” says the Doc.  Since her surgery, Judy has been able to give up the constant use of nasal products, which caused countless headaches for her!  Follow up appointment, 10 minutes… driving time there and back… 6 hours! (Orillia)  Yikes!

We took a couple hours and went over and spent time visiting my Mother.  She is doing very well, after our big trip to Ottawa and area.  She really enjoyed travelling in the RV.  Of course we ordered dinner in from Swiss Chalet, just because we could! 

Made it back to Woodstock by 9:00 tonight, and pretty tired so you get the very shortened version of “RVlifeonwheels” tonight!

Till tomorrow…

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Busy Sunday…

Turned out to be another beautiful day here in Woodstock, although there is a bite of fall in the air these days… kind of nice!

This morning was spent taking life a little on the easy side, as Judy slept in due to the fact she was up all night on Friday taking care of Gwenny.  The reason she did this, is due to the fact we all had a wedding to go to on Saturday, and that is why I was unable to complete a blog… just too busy!

Some necessary cleaning and laundry was completed this morning, and then came a big surprise!

Doug, from Titanium travelers dropped by to say hello out of the Blue.   Doug and his Wife, were travelling back to southern Ontario after a trip up north in their Titanium 5th Wheel Trailer and decided to check out this RV Park. Doug told us he has followed our blog for a year or so now, but is now quite a member of the “cult” just yet.  Doug has been retired for a couple years now, and is hoping his Wife will follow soon so the travels can begin!  We talked about the usual RV type stuff, and discussed future travel plans.  Great to meet you today Doug, and happy travels!

So we did attend a wedding on Saturday, it was for Kevin and Ramona.  Kevin is the brother of Kristina’s Husband, Chris.  Ramona is from Germany, her and Kevin met in Holland a couple of years ago on student exchanges… yes, anything can happen on those!

They had a Wedding Ceremony in Germany, back in March and then held this one for Canadian friends and Family.

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Kristina was asked to sing at the Ceremony, and did a fantastic job.  Here she is singing below, accompanied on the guitar by her Father in Law, David Broad. 

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A nice dinner and reception was held at the Ingersol Golf and Country Club, on a beautiful afternoon.  Below is Kevin and Ramona on the left, with Chris holding little Gwenny beside Kristina, and Kathleen, who is a sister to Kevin and Chris.

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Judy and I kept close eye over Gwenny, who was all decked out for the event. 

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Just a great wedding, and we wish the best for Kevin and Ramona. 

Judy still has one humming bird enjoying our feeder at the RV.

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This afternoon, we were looking for some exercise, so we decided to check out the trail just up the road from our Park.  It is sponsored by the local Rotary Club, and the City of Woodstock.

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Check out this warm up machine they installed… Judy is giving it a demo for us…

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She was almost worn out before we started the hike!  Great work out!

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A nice wide trail, gravelled all the way.  Good job on building it!

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You get to hike right along the Pittock River.

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All the bridges get you across the low lying areas along the way.

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This is a black maple tree below, just maybe a bit scary at night time… it needs a haunted house to go with it!

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After we finished, we went over to the paved portion of the trail system, and I took my roller blades for a spin.  Just a great day!

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Phew, just another busy day!

Till tomorrow…

Friday, August 26, 2011

Yes, it is that time of the year…

A lot of the smaller rural communities in Ontario put on annual Fall Fairs.  Today is Woodstock’s turn.

Judy and I had been so busy travelling here and there and everywhere, over the past couple months, we felt it was time to do something in Woodstock.

These fairs have a little bit of everything in them, we started at one end, and they had a small livestock presentation… here is a prize winning calf.

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They had wagon rides around the grounds for the big kids as well as the little ones… later we heard this wagon and it’s horses got loose, without the driver and caused a bit of excitement at the fair…

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They had a few mid sized tractors on display.

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Now here was something cool… for $5.00 you could climb in the back of this Chev Camino and go for a real monster truck ride!

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No, you didn’t get to jump over any cars or anything crazy like that, but all the kids seemed to really like it! 

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They had a big photo contest on, with 4 large panels of pictures, most were real good.

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It would not be a fair without the mid-way of course… kids were whipping down this slide thing…

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They had this motorcycle ride, but I held back from getting on it!

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You could get sick real easy riding this thing… it was crazy…

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The spaceship ride below spun like a wringer washer does… it was huge in size.

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And it would not be a fair without one of these…

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I hadn’t come across one of these bell ringing things for quite a while… the guy operating it had to show everyone that you could actually ring the bell and he did!

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I enjoyed watching this farrier the most.  He was making horseshoes from a straight piece of metal… he was good.

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He had this little 65,000 BTU blast furnace on the back of his truck, powered by propane.

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We found another building with more livestock that you could pet…

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If you were hungry, there was fresh eggs…

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It was not the biggest or the best fall fair we have gone to see, that is for sure, but we enjoyed going none the less on a beautiful afternoon in Woodstock. 

Till tomorrow…

Thursday, August 25, 2011

A trip to Cameron Lake…

Oooppsss… missed the blog last night… too busy to be blogging again… the storey of our life lately!

On Wednesday, we headed out first thing in the morning in the Jeep to Bracebridge, had to visit my Cardiologist again.  Remember I had to have my thyroid tested… got the results back.  All is good, other than one little spot at the top of my thyroid that they could not see properly, so now it is off for an ultra sound on my thyroid… why not.

After leaving Bracebridge, we headed to Cameron Lake, over near Lindsay, Ontario.  Our friends, Guy and Ruth invited us and a few others in a very select group for dinner and the evening. 

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The cottage is very nice, with a great location on the west shore of Lake Cameron.

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Guy was all over the steak on the BBQ thing…

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The lower level of the cottage provided somewhere to eat for us all…

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Relaxing after dinner… lake is like glass…

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The big occasion for the get together, was to help Guy and Ruth celebrate 50 years of married bliss! 

Congratulations!

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This is our select little group, at least one person from each couple, worked for Victoria and Grey Trust.  Judy and I both worked for them at one time.  So you have a bunch of bankers, and guess what we all talk about… your right!

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Great views from the cottage, and this lone duck came in looking for something to eat.

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Ruth got to feeding the ducks over the two weeks that they had the cottage rented for, and before you know it, she had the whole flock…

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Ariel view from the second floor taken by Judy… we had a big fire in the fire pit you see last night, as well as sat out for hours watching the lightening from the big storm that hit Ontario yesterday, what a light show it was!  At the peak of the storm, there was 1,000 lightening hits every 2 minutes during the peak of the storm.

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This is the only sort of view of the cottage we have, it was a nice one, with 3 bedrooms and a garage with a bunkie.

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Made it back home today to Woodstock, and had another great day enjoying the waters of Ontario.  You can take a boat from the cottage and go through what is called the Trent Waterway, (boat locks) and get to Lake Ontario, or north up to Lake Simcoe.  Simply a great location.

Till tomorrow…