Great trip to Orillia!

Wow... on the road at 8:00 a.m. this morning, heading up to Orillia, with Gwenny and Kristina in tow! Everyone was all charged up to make the trip. We also had a blast!

Of course we had our, "Welcome back to Ontario" trip across the top of Toronto on the 401... yikes, some things never change. Took us about 4 hours for the average 3 hour trip this morning... more on this later.

While Gwenny and my Mom both look like they just lost their best friends... that was not the case at all. Gwenny didn't want to sit on knees and pose for pictures today, so the best I could get was above... She was still in a great mood though... even after the long Jeep ride. Yes, my Mom turns 90 this August! She is doing very well!

 

We headed down to the Swiss Chalet in Orillia for lunch. This is by far my Mom's favourite Restaurant to go to... great chicken dinners here all the time. Gwenny was right into the crayons and colouring papers they gave her as we came in the door.

Gwenny spends a lot of time people watching in Restaurants! EVERYBODY in the Restaurant loves Gwenny of course, and most come by just to say "Hello"...

After lunch Gwenny had to blow off some stored up energy, so we stopped by the Park in Orillia... right beside Lake Couchiching. Say that three times quickly! The City of Orillia has done a fantastic job on this Park, and it is well used.

There is no slide Gwenny does not like!

Now here is 4 Generations of Family for you! Mom lives in the apartments right behind.

Had a great day!

Made it back to Woodstock in 2 hours... how did we do that! We did not fly... instead, we used the Highway 407 which is a toll highway... probably about $20.00 for a 16 minute drive on this highway... however it saved maybe 1 1/2 hours of travel time on the way home! You decide!

Till tomorrow...

 

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Clean up day...

Even though it was really overcast this morning, I decided to head outside and work on cleanup...at least it did not rain!

 

I managed to wash the MH and the Motorcycle Trailer. All clean again.

Judy was in Town babysitting Gwenny while Kristina was getting her hair cut. I went into Town to join her and make a trip to Canadian Tire. Found a job to do in at the house...a new buggy to put together.

 

We brought this double buggy home with us from Florida, and wanted to put it together...never needed even a screwdriver! Excellent quality made by Graco. All set for the new baby, and Gwenny to ride on!

Kristina approved.

So did Gwenny, after she woke up from her nap.

 

Made time to take her to the park...but as you can tell, the slide was a bit wet so we had to dry it off to meet Gwenny's approval.

I BBQ'd a few sausages tonight on our new Weber Q 200, and must say, I am still very impressed with thi grill. It cooks fantastic, and not like any other we have had... think I am now hooked on Weber!

Off to Orillia tomorrow to visit Mom!

Till tomorrow...

 

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Wet Sunday...

It started off dry this morning, but by 2:30 this afternoon, we were into cool and wet weather... looks like it will hang around for tomorrow as well. Of well, spring flowers on the way!

Early this afternoon, I did get a chance to climb up on the roof of the RV and give it a good wash job! Things get dirty when you travel about 2,000 klms. so they need to be cleaned. Hopefully, I will finish off the RV this week when the weather gets better.

Want to wish Shawn and Jenn a Happy Anniversary today! 6 years of lots of fun for them, and 2 of the nicest young girls you would ever want to meet! We had a chance to Skype with Shawn and the girls tonight, as Jenn was driving home from Toronto, where she was visiting her Dad in Hospital.

 

I managed to get some screen shots of the girls... although it is kind of hard, as they don't often stop moving!

This was a contest to make strange faces on skype!

Then we got into a dance party...

Emmie was doing gymnastics and hola houp for us on the call...

Sure is great to be able to see the kids even though they are a few hundred kilometers away!

That was the extent of our Sunday, hope you had a great one as well...

Till tomorrow...

 

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Wow... summer has arrived!

Beautiful day here in Ontario! Lots of sun, and temps pressing 20 deg. C. Kinda nice!

This morning I got outside and washed up the Jeep.... it needed it! Nice and clean now... no pics though... you know what it looks like!

 

Between yesterday and today, we did some more work on getting set up on our site, and as you can see above, we are doing good. Lots of green grass, and no leaves up in those trees yet... still waiting for spring!

Went into Town for a couple hours this afternoon doing bunch of shopping, and picking up some of my drugs at the Pharm. Set for another 90 days!

It was so nice out, we decided to have the kids out for a BBQ. Gwenny had to find some play time above...

We picked up this little lawn chair with a roof for Gwenny at Camping World in Winter Haven. She was right into it! Ready for the beach!

Great night for a BBQ!

Till tomorrow....

 

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We are back in Canada... (with a bang!)

On Thursday morning we woke up in Washington, PA to a bit of a nip in the air... it was cool, and there was a guy behind us sleeping in a little tent!!!!! Yikes... he was cold!

How cold was it... this is what I saw when Judy was bringing in the slides...

On Wednesday night it had rained, and on Thursday morning we had ICE up on the slide toppers... you can see it above at the very top of the slide out for our bedroom.

We took off early from Washington, heading north. It seemed in no time we were just outside of Buffalo, New York. We decided that rather than stay the night in Buffalo, we could make it to Woodstock in Ontario by 5:00 p.m. Why not! ( you know... horse heading to barn syndrome...)

We crossed the Peace Bridge back into Canada with the regular, " How long you been away, how much did you spend... how much booze do you have on you... oh, and Welcome back to Canada, have a good evening!" That was as easy as any crossing.

We jumped right on the QEW heading for Hamilton, and made it half way along to Grimsby, when all of a sudden...... bang, rumble, rumble, rumble, and then nothing... I got on our radio to Judy in the Jeep behind me and said "What was that?" She reported she thought I had run over something and it came flying out the back... looked like a piece of an old truck tire.

I pulled over and soon figured out what was going on!

 

We had blown the passenger side, rear, inner tire on the MH. Oh dear... what a way to wreck a great trip home. (If you don't count the AC cover we lost...)

What to do? Well, Judy tells me to grab my CAA card and start calling. We were right on the QEW at rush hour, but I noticed an exit right ahead, so we limped off the QEW and found ourselves right downtown Grimsby. Talked to Cathy from CAA Niagara, and after all the standard questions about what we were driving, she said, "Hmmmmm... you need the Big Boys to come"

In less than 45 minutes, S & W Service Centre showed up at the CTC parking lot and immediately took control of this situation! He asked if I had a spare... yup, we do. He said then "Get out of my way!"

In not time he had the MH jacked up, and with all the big boy toys he had with him, had our two rear tires off the MH in no time! The Service Guy reported to me that we drove over a piece of old truck tire, and it got caught in the gap between the two tires which is very narrow, and it hit the valve extension from the inner tire leading out to the outer tire... and ripped it right off the rim! This instantly deflated the inner tire, and hence your problems begin! He said he saw this problem a lot on transport trucks. He should know!

I could hardly believe my eyes watching this guy work by himself, in pouring rain no less! Don't forget, this Motorhome weights in at 20,000 lbs. He got our spare out from underneath the MH and had it installed and ready for us to roll in 30 minutes! Just like a pitt stop at the NASCAR Garage! What a service.

After I thanked him about 45 times, he said, "show me your CAA card, and sign here..." No money had to change hands, as he said they would just bill CAA. I said, "I can't believe how fast you did this job!" To that he said, "Well, I do the job a lot faster when it is raining!!!" What a guy!

He pulled out, and Cathy from CAA called my cell and said, "How are things going?" She could not believe he was finished and on his way! I cannot say enough about how well, we were treated and serviced by both CAA Niagara, and S & W Service Centre out of St. Catherine's, Ontario. I had figured we would end up having to stay there the night in a motel or something. Instead, we were able to drive off to Woodstock, and make it in plenty of time to get set up, and even drive into Town to visit with the kids!

Judy and I snuck in the front door, and I spied Gwenny... she had a big grin!

Big hug right away for "Pop Pop"...

Yup, there is soon to be another baby!

Today, Judy got to go with Gwenny to the Library for some fun with a bunch of other toddlers.

Lots of playtime...

I spent most of today getting the MH put away on our site with the Motorcycle Trailer, but soon found time to head into Town and read books with Gwenny! Also had a great Mac and Cheese Dinner thanks to Chris and Kristina!

Till tomorrow...

 

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What in the heck are we doing in Washington????

Oh... wait, we are in Washington, PA. I forgot! Whew...

Another 325 miles on the odometer today.... started off fine in the sun, and ended up real wet and cold. Is it spring yet? I might be still thinking I am in Florida.

There goes our Gulf Stream Endura, climbing up a mountain again... we had 4 or 5 good climbs today through the Blue Ridge Mountains, keeps our Duramax Diesel working!

We have tied up at the Washington KOA tonight... there are not a lot of campgrounds in this area to start, and some are not open yet. We have stayed at this one numerous times in the past.

Here I am out in the wet, putting up our dish for tonight's big Leaf Game. They are back in Tampa. I have tried not to gloat too much that they are finally in the playoffs this year, after a 9 year absence!

Back on the road tomorrow...

Till tomorrow...

 

 

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The Blue Mountains in Virginia...

On the road at 9:00 this morning... no rain! Lots of sunshine and warm temperatures was all we got!

It is very nice driving through South and North Carolina... lots of trees and green... spring has sprung around here...

We are driving up Highway 77 and for most of the time you have about 20 feet of trees on either side of the highway, so they sure do a good of knocking down the wind. Today we did 275 miles of travel, and I used exactly 29 gallons of diesel fuel to complete that, which gives you 9.5 MPG. That includes pulling our motorcycle trailer that is totally loaded to the gills... so not so bad. Judy uses 1/2 that amount of fuel in the Jeep which attains 20 MPG which is normal for that type of vehicle. So, it works out, that we use about $150.00 a day for fuel, to drive around 300 miles in both our vehicles.

Tonight we are in Hillsville, Virginia. The name is perfect, as we are in the Mountains and lots of hills. Our overall mileage might have been better today, if we did not have to climb a 10 mile mountain just beffore we pulled in to camp for the night.

Yes, spring has sprung...

Once again we have our own pond that is fully stocked with fish... catch and release only.

We are in a full sized RV Resort with a couple hundred sites in the mountains, and 4 water slides! Big ones! Check it out above.

Lots of the sites are in the bush... we are in the open in a nice pull through site. Thankfully, no mishaps on the road today! We managed to hold on to all our pieces.

Kristina reported a beautiful day up in Woodstock today, so her and Gwenny went out for a walk around Town... check out her sunglasses and leggings... right in fashion that girl!

Back on the road tomorrow...

Till tomorrow...

 

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"We are on the road again..."

Florida got the last kick in today, as rain continued most of the night, and into this morning... however it was still nice and warm, so not so bad.

We were on the road at 9:00 after getting ready, dumping tanks etc. so all was good, well for the first 5 miles! We had no sooner settled into our travels along the Hwy. 95 North, when Judy came whizzing by me and motioned me to pull over. Normally we would have used our hand radios, but there are some technical issues there! After I got over, she jumped out and told me I had lost the rear AC Unit cover! Yikes. She said it blew off the top of the RV and landed somewhere way off to the right of the highway, probably in a bunch of pieces. Oh man... always something.

We decided to carry on and about 3 miles up the road, was the St. Augustine Branch of Camping World! What would the odds be I asked myself! Might as well try and find out.

At least it stopped raining when we pulled into Camping World. We went in and talked to the Parts Dept. and they soon brought out a cover, which we quickly discounted, as it was too small. Judy found a paper in our manual folder indicating the model number of our Duel Therm Units, so with that in hand they were able to quickly find us a new cover for about $80.00! Perfect.

Here I am checking out the new cover, getting ready to climb up the ladder... What do you mean the Fountain of Youth is not working for me... Don't I look like Tom Cruise?

Careful now... don't fall! In 10 minutes I was able to secure the new cover with the four screws and we were all set to go. I wanted to get the new cover, as our AC motor was exposed without the cover, and would have been ruined with all the rain we had to drive through today. Thanks Camping World!

As best I can tell, our old one must have gotten cracked, and a gust of wind grabbed it and peeled it off the roof... no other reason I could figure out. Welcome to life in the RV.

In no time we were out of Florida, and into Georgia and climbing this monster bridge over a river...

Tonight we are in the Jolly Acres RV Park, at St. George's in South Carolina. What a real nice RV Park this one is... very new, but only about 35 total sites. It is a gorgeous night, and we pulled out the Weber and put a couple burgers on for dinner.

 

We were able to get a nice drive through site, and had room enough for the Jeep as well... all services and only $17.00 tonight with our Passport America Membership.

There is a nice little fenced in pond on the grounds, with 3 ducks inside... Judy was checking it out.

This picture above is for Rene. Check it out. It is a 3500 series truck, with dual wheels on back, pulling a monster 40 foot 5th wheel, and also has a brand new Suzuki Burgman 650 on the FRONT!!!!! That Burgman has to weigh at least 650 to 700 lbs. I wonder how that truck drives! They were on their way home to Quebec.

Our Grandaughter Emmie called us today... All excited about losing her first tooth. Shawn took an iPhone pic and sent it to us. Hope the Tooth Fairy makes it tonight!

So, the answer to yesterday's question was "C" Grimms Law, and of course Kristina got it right! Problem was, I got it wrong... and I owe Kristina an apology, as she has her Masters in Linguistics, not a BA as I had mentioned. Sorry Kristina!

Till tomorrow...

 

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