First Trip of the summer

I had a birthday celebration for Sue's sister to attend in Erieau Ontario and decided to get the rig out of its winter hibernation. Rondeau Provincial park was close by so rushed all day Friday getting things back in the rig and dewinterizing the water system. Boy it was a long day as I got up at 3:30 am (yup that's in the morning) to watch the royal wedding. Sue had some friends over and we had scones and champagne orange juice. Anyway by the time we got down to Rondeau after Sue got home from work and set up, we were both ready for a long sleep so off to bed at 9:30 .....had a great sleep. Saturday was a great day weather wise and we arrived to help the birthday girl celebrate at around 11:30 am. When we returned to the park we had time to go for a walk on the beach and had a nice fire to end the evening. Sunday morning we awoke to rain and rain and more rain. It finally stopped around noon so we hurriedly packed up hooked up and left for home. Think I'll head up to Morry's to get some "stuff" done on the trailer tomorrow.

Doug.

This and That

My father continues to improve, matter of fact he is looking better than he has since last spring. We have decided to put our house on the market this spring so to that end I rented a storage shed to put "stuff" in that we just can't seem to part with yet. We are hoping that our son will find a home to live in soon and will be able to take and/or store a lot of "stuff" for us but until that happens we will continue to "edit" and store the rest in a storage shed. At least with less "stuff" in the house it will look bigger to prospective buyers. I am hoping to "offload" some of our stuff on my daughter as well, but she is presently in Alberta, might just have to take a drive out there with a truck load if things fall in place. Sue and I are driving up to the Bayfield area on the weekend to check out a few places to retire to. One of them is a retirement community that we first saw a couple of years ago and thought this is a beautiful setting in which to live. One of the blogs I follow http://thebayfieldbunch.com/ is written by a current resident of the community. Sue has said she will probably retire herself within the next year but needs to be close to work till then. If the home sells this spring we will have to get a place near St. George in the short term, however, if something good comes up that we can afford we may get it now and just rent a room for the short term. It's all up in the air. Decisions decisions decisions Well it makes life interesting.

Doug.

Finally getting rid of snow

Well what a difference a few days make. The piles of snow are mostly history now and my father who has stopped taking most of the medications he was on before has bounced right back and is 100% better than he was a few days ago. Makes you wonder if we take too many meds. these days. Once you get into your 90's you have to balance the benefits of the drugs vs quality of life. My dad is much happier now that he is not taking the Warfarin. (blood thinner) I got outside today and did some yard cleanup, felt good to be outside. I am in the choir at my church and last Thursday I got busy helping my son repair his bed so missed the choir practise soooo what do they do but decide since I missed the practise they would have me do a solo during service (that will teach me) Anyway I was told this just before the service started oooops Luckily it was a a relatively easy song and my solo wasn't until the 4th verse so I had a chance to learn the tune during the first 3 verses. Hope it was OK. Yesterday Sue and I went to the RV show in Kitchener and met some friends, checked out the new rigs and features, and decided that I liked my rig better than the new ones (at least the ones in my price range.)

Doug.

will it ever warm up?

Yes winter hangs on and that big dump of snow last week is still around as the temps refuse to climb much above freezing. My father is doing better in the hospital and we are hoping he will be coming home again tomorrow. I have spent time on packing things up in anticipation of moving some stuff to a storage unit so we can finally get our house on the market. One good thing is the sun has been shinning brightly these last few days and that seems to raise everyone's spirits. Can't wait to get the rig out and do some camping this spring. Doug.

glad winter is over (I hope)

Sue and I enjoyed our week down in Myrtle Beach. The weather was great sunny and warm and we had a great relaxing time. Saturday morning we hit the road home about 8am and around 10 am while driving through North Carolina got a call from my sister from the hospital again. Seems my father fell early Saturday morning and hit his head, an ambulance was called and he was admitted into the hospital for the fourth time this winter. Seems his meds were way out of wack ..... he was taking too many blood thinners which if left unchecked could have killed him sooo the fall probably was a good thing. He is recovering now and we hope to have him back home again in a few days. Of course this added some urgency to our trip home and so we didn't stop as often as Sue would have liked to visit the outlet malls Oh well I guess that means I'll have to take her again. :-) I have posted a few final pics of our time in Myrtle Beach https://picasaweb.google.com/collindo99/MyrtleBeachMarchBreak##

Doug.

glowing red

yes I am glowing red (from sunburn) but so are the beautiful sunrises we have had everyday here in Myrtle Beach. We certainly lucked out on the weather. Rain was in the forecast for last night or this morning but all we got were a very few clouds and warming temps. Sue has been getting her shopping fix in at the outlet malls and I have visited camping world and best buy. We took in a show last night and today drove down to Brookgreen Gardens... what a pleasant surprise.... The gardens were some old rice plantations bought up by a wealthy New Yorker who had a wife who was a sculpture. They have changed the 9000 acres into a beautiful garden and outdoor sculpture exhibit. We will definitely return. As we missed lunch today because we stayed at the gardens so long we decided to head on out to one of the local all you can eat seafood places....well it was good and plentiful and we had our years quota of King Crab legs, shrimp, salmon etc. prepared every which way. We waddled along the beach this evening to try and work some of it off. :-)
To view pics go to https://picasaweb.google.com/collindo99/MyrtleBeachMarchBreak##

Doug.

Finally Glorious sunshine and warm weather for us

Well it is the March Break in Ontario and Sue and I took off as soon as she could get out of work on Friday. We drove through snow flurries until we got near Erie Pennsylvania then it was a snow storm almost down to Pittsburgh. Passed a few accidents and saw a SUV go off the road behind us (why don't people slow down) but we were OK and kept going all the way to Beckley West Virginia where we grabbed a room for the night. Saturday morning we were on the road again and headed southeast through the mountains still seeing snow on the mountain ridges but it was gone at the lower elevations and the temps were rising. Finally pulled into Myrtle Beach South Carolina to the Jade Tree cove resort. Older smallish 1 bedroom unit but right on the beach with a million dollar view and the temps were up to 20 celcius (high 60's low 70's F) We have started on our sunburns and are enjoying the beach sand relaxing, reading and enjoying the sites. We got a call in the afternoon from someone wanting to know if we would like a $100 gift card and other gifts..........ya right a timeshare presentation. We normally don't partake but we had our allotment of sun for the day so decided to sit through 90 minutes for the gifts. Interesting presentation and they do know how to push all the right buttons but we decided it wasn't for us and were getting ready for the hard sell that comes at the end where they sweeten the pot and presure you.........but suprise we said it wasn't for us and they said well thanks for listening take this form to the office and pick up your gifts. whew what a plesant suprise. So where to spend my $100 prepaid visa card Oh I'm sure Sue will think of something.
We both were up before dawn again (a first for Sue) to watch the sun rise I'll try to get a few photos posted soon. off to work on that sunburn :-)
doug.

On the mend again

I finally have shaken the bug that has had me congested for the last 5 weeks or so. My father is showing great progress and is on the mend. My mother has finally beat the bug as well and my wife is starting to improve. Hopefully with warmer weather all will be back to normal. Being optimistic I have even made reservations at a condo in Myrtle Beach for the march break week. Hopefully far enough south for warmer temps and yet within a hard one days ride if I need to get back home quick.
We are going to put our house up for sale this spring so have started the big job of cleaning out all the "stuff" one accumulates over the years. That is going to take quite a while to do and quite a few trips to the dump I am sure.