Happy Monday.

Where are we today ?

Arkona Ontario

        Today is Monday, the beginning of a brand new week. And we are thinking about things to see and do this summer. Today is cold, damp and overcast, so it gives us time to research and discuss a bit more what we might want to do this summer. Yesterday was awesome, guess we can't have two good days in a row yet.

        Lotsa possibilities that we came up with, just have to decide if we want to be real busy or kinda take it as it goes. Even taking as it goes we could end up real busy anyway. We have some tentative plans laid out, but we know from experience when we plan too much, things always come up and change. We are quite comfortable just to tour around southern Ontario for the summer months, visit with our families and friends, some down time in between for ourselves too.

our two home parks

        Two home parks in Ontario about two hundred miles apart. One is Rock Glen Resort (Resorts of Distinction membership) (A) and the other Galvin Bay Resort (Coast To Coast membership) (B). In the spring and fall we can stay at Rock Glen for three weeks at a time and return after one week out. Summer months two weeks in one week out. Galvin Bay, two weeks in one week out from mid May until mid October at which time we head south somewhere warm for 6 months. These two home parks we pay no fees other than our yearly maintenance fees about one thousand dollars a year. But for his we also have us access to a few hundred membership parks too, either free or ten dollars a night, year round all over North America, good deal for us fulltimers!

        This suits us just fine. We really enjoy moving on after a week or two, going to another place. Different seasons, different weather, different scenery and different people. We have a lot of friends and acquaintances in these resorts and its kinda nice to meet up with different people all summer long. While on the road in between we usually stop to visit with friends and family along the way. Its nice to visit other people when you have your own house with you.

        Now besides computing, reading, chatting with some neighbors and few walkabouts the resort, between raindrops we were busy.

mini golf is quiet and wet

        I watched the maintenance guys attempt to fix yet another water leak just across from the front of our coach. Water turned off again, but we filled our fresh water tank while it was on. So we are fine. I am sure the problem will be resolved tomorrow.

they were working there

water leaking there for sure

done for the day

        The day just flew by and cooking inside tonight again, a good day to whip up meatloaf, a cheesy potato casserole and mixed veggies. Comfort food, in this cool, damp Ontario spring weather. But we are Canadians and have free health care as long as we spend five months in Ontario, our home province, (mind you we pay for it with high taxes on everything).

meatloaf and cheesy taters done

add some mixed veggies and we are good!

        Another awesome day, and we can relax a bit more, our books and a tv show. Let the rain do what it needs to do, we are comfy, summer will soon be here!

        Thanks once again for stopping by!

Check out the map below to see where we have been this summer

View Summer 2012 in a larger map

We have water yeah!!!

Thanks for joining us on our journey of North America 
 in our Holiday Rambler, since August 2006

Where are we today ?

Arkona Ontario

        Yesterday they turned on the water in our resort, filled the lines and bled the system of air. All looked pretty good, but we had no water pressure. So I checked a few taps around us and found a broken water line. Reported to Joe and at about 5 o'clock he turned the water off again. Will fix in the morning.

        Good thing the water was turned off because overnight the temp went down to -10c (5f). In the morning our hose was frozen solid until about 10:00 am. The leak was fixed water turned on, another leak found and fixed then all is good.

        So we are good to go, full hook ups, no more dry camping, I can have a shower in our coach instead of the clubhouse, yippee!!!

we have water

       I was gonna wash our coach this morning but our friend Larry dropped by to chat for a bit. More like a couple hours (we kinda got carried away). Buts its nice to chat with friends for a while.

        By this time we are having a very late brunch, and my ambition to wash our coach went away. So I borrowed the community lawnmower and took 5 minutes to cut our grass. Now sun shining and very warm about 20c (68f), right beside our site, no wind, shorts and t shirts again ! Got the chairs and our books out to enjoy the beginning of spring again while we can.

         A few more neighbors dropped by to chat then a bit later I casually hooked up our Weber Q 100, and threw on a cornish hen. We brought a good supply home this spring.

the beginning 

6o minutes later done to perfection

          I peeled a few potatoes, chopped up a couple carrots. Then made some creamy whipped potatoes, carrots with honey and butter, a bit of Swiss Chalet Gravy for a change and there ya go another very tasty chicken dinner.

yes I know, again,  but we love our chicken

        Just another great day with sunshine and warmer temps, lovin it.

         Want to thank Al of the Bayfield Bunch for today's tips on writing a blog. He does write an awesome blog and the number of followers, hits and comments prove it. Always an interesting read, check him out. Here.

Check out the map below to see where we have been this summer

View Summer 2012 in a larger map

I'm not old, I 'm just crispy.!

Thanks for joining us on our journey of North America 
 in our Holiday Rambler, since August 2006

Where are we today ?

Rock Glen Resort Arkona Ontario

        Here it is below,  I woke up yeah! And decided that I am not old and this picture below proves it. Does it not look like me? That's really me without my hat, vest and before a shave...

yep that's me

        Morning coffees, computing and walkabout. The day is overcast and cool, but we have stuff to do. Suzie and I both read thru a bunch of our RV magazine subscriptions, took our address labels off and recycled them to the clubhouse and friends. I even managed to cleaned a few windows outside our coach too. Especially the old half of our windshield.

        They turned on the water in the resort so I fiddled with that for a while, but no water pressure? Why not?  I checked around a bit and found broken water pipe, oh well they need to shut it off and do a repair, maybe tomorrow we have water. But we are have enough to get by with.

a few little flowers on our lawn

          About 4 o'clock going for a walkabout again I noticed this big buy down the road chatting with Joe, looks like Mike. And sure enough its is Mike, Trish and Jordan are here, so I take a stroll and wander on down to chat for a bit, catchup and back home to whip up supper.

Jordan, Mike and Trish

        Changed menus and made up a quick meal tonight, couple chicken breasts and some leftover rice from our pork chop casserole. I was a short order cook in my restaurant after all. Quick, easy and tasty, now we are free for the night, maybe have some company later.

tasty chicken breast and rice

        Ok supper done, then Mike, Trish, Jordan and the star of the show "wee Maggie" came for a visit.  We have not chatted with these guys hardly at all since last summer (a few minutes before supper). So nice to get together again and do the big catchup. Mind you they follow our Blog and we keep in touch on Facebook, but nothing quite like getting together face to face.

"wee Maggie" 

        We flapped our gums for quite a while until it was time for them to head home, we had an awesome time, promising to get together a few times over the summer, for sure.

         Life is so wonderful in the rv community it's hard to imagine any other lifestyle.

         Thanks for stopping by.

Check out the map below to see where we have been this summer

View Summer 2012 in a larger map

We got our new Windshield today.

Thanks for joining us on our journey of North America 
 in our Holiday Rambler, since August 2006

Where are we today ?

Rock Glen Resort Arkona Ontario

        Woke up this morning and oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day! (think there was a song like that a few years ago). But hey it was wonderful ! Sun shinning but pretty cool. We are feeling great, upright and breathing, what more can we ask for?

        Coffees, computing, watch the weather reports (not that it makes a bit of difference, the weather does what it wants anyway) and walkabouts. The fresh air is wonderful.

gonna be a nice day maybe

        We had phone call yesterday from Kevin at Colorcarft Auto Glass in town that the windshield for our coach has arrived from Elkhart Indiana and it's not broken! Took a week to get here. Probably gonna come out today and install it. The total price for this including packaging, shipping, (from Elkhart Indiana), duty, taxes and installation about  $1600.00 , sure glad we have $100.00 deductible for glass replacement on our coach. The same window replaced in Benson Arizona two years ago about $950.00.

Colorcraft Auto Glass

        Not sure if they were coming today as it was pretty cold 5c (42f) but Kevin and his son showed up about 9:30 and began removing the old broken windshield.

        Now this same window had been replaced two years ago in Benson Arizona and I guess when they installed it was not meant to be removed. Supper tough sealant.

our broken windshield

        Well they began, prying and unsticking the sealant, working away at it until eventually it was removed. Glad it was them and not me!

new glass ready to go

pulling and prying it finally let go and came out in one piece too.

now to clean up the rubber gasket

        Now already to to go, gaskets cleaned up and the new glass is ready to put into place.

careful

easy does it

push , shove and pry these guys know their stuff 

the sticker says OK

wonderful so clean

        Now with a nice new clean windshield on one half I guess I need to get busy cleaning the other half !

         Now after noon the sun shone  and the skies cleared, wind died down a bit and it turned into a pretty good  day. Not great but good enough to grab our lawn chairs, set them up by the cabin walls beside us out of the wind and enjoy our books for a while.

         Even nice enough to fire up our Weber Q 100 and our Fry Daddy. A couple hamburgers and some french fries, we can pretend its summer, right?

tasty burgers

         Well the burgers and fries were pretty tasty, and for desert I had picked up some fresh California Strawberries at the Arkona Market on sale only $1.95 comparted to $3.95 last week and they are pretty good too. Add them to our Banana nut muffins I baked  yesterday and we had a nice tasty desert, something we don't usually do.

juicy strawberries

        Glad you could make it today, we had fun , how about you?

Check out the map below to see where we have been this summer

View Summer 2012 in a larger map

Spring kinda took a day off !

Thanks for joining us on our journey of North America 
 in our Holiday Rambler, since August 2006

Where are we today ?

Rock Glen resort, Arkona Ontario

        With all that work I did yesterday, a couple hours getting water and filling our fresh water tank,  walkabouts, relaxing in the sun with our books, chatting with neighbor Deb, and grilling supper on our Weber I guess wore myself out. And the fact that my breathing /cold problem/allergies,  (whatever it was) is subsiding and a nice cool night for sleeping I actually slept until about 7:30 this morning, wow! Two hours longer than normal.

        But we did not have very good weather today, overcast, cool and windy, that's ok we have stuff to do right? Computing, coffees, walkabouts plan our active day and hang out. So the walkabouts were nice but windy, then decided to bake some banana nut muffins, nothing fancy just a mix but hey they are pretty tasty and fresh.

tasty banana nut muffins

         Just looking around and enjoying the sunshine whenever it appeared was great, but still a cool wind today, not really conducive to sitting outside. Just kinda putter around and enjoy the fresh air, not to shabby. Our water is not turned on yet maybe tomorrow we will see, no matter we have water in our tanks.

nice blue skies

green grass

our big back yard

        Mid afternoon I wandered over to the clubhouse to soak in the hot tub and swim a few laps of the awesome pool before it got too busy. Then at 4:30 a busload of kids come in for an hour of after school swimming lessons. Don't want to be in the pool then! Its nice that the resort makes the facilities available for the locals as well (make a few extra bucks too I am sure).

busload for swimming lessons.

        Now we were hoping to BBQ supper again but, a little too cool and windy so went to plan "B". Shake and Bake a couple pork chops in a casserole dish on top of rice, canned tomatoes, and veggies for a very tasty one dish meal that we have not had for a long time. Cool weather brings out these old recipes.

hey pretty tasty

        Now that's it for today, read compute a bit and call it a day. Not too exciting but still a lot of fun for us, everyday is different and always interesting.

        Thanks for taking the time to stop by.

Check out the map below to see where we have been this summer

View Summer 2012 in a larger map

Sunshine, warmer and a BBQ !

Thanks for joining us on our journey of North America
 in our Holiday Rambler, since August 2006

Where are we today ?

Rock Glen Resort Arkona Ontario

        Well this morning started off pretty cold, 20f (-6c). But we had clear blue skies and sunshine. Looks like its gonna be a great day.

frosty windshield on the car

ice crystals on the car roof

         Now before we know it the sky is blue and sun is shinning. I had been volunteered to help Rob turn on the water in the park today, but he decided still too cold at night, wait for a few more days. Don't want to freeze the 200 taps here.

beautiful blue cloudless skies

Robins are ready for spring

         So the water is not being turned on and we need more. I grabbed our jugs made a couple trips to the clubhouse and filled them up. I added 30 gallons of water to our holding tank today with the help of our 12 volt pump that we have.  We are almost dry camping in our resort. Have 30 amp service and sewer, just the water is not turned on yet. Can't help that its still too cold here. They do have sites with winter water but we like this area much better, we can rough it for a bit.

filling up out fresh water tank

        The weather today is "Awesome" about 22 c (70f) sunshine and no wind, yep it's good. We grabbed our lawn chairs, set them outside and got our books out, wow! Now we are campin again (well actually rving)), at least we can sit in our lawn chairs, shorts, t shirts, sandals and enjoy our books. After a bit our neighbor Debbie stopped by to chat for a while and get caught up. Then before we know its time for supper. Now its such a wonderful day I'm getting our Weber Q 100 out to fire up, throw a couple potatoes in foil with onions, some chicken legs and thighs and we are cooking outside again. Love cooking on our Weber !

chicken and taters

        Add a few frozen peas to the mix and we have an awesome supper.

love our chicken

         Now this is much better weather and its gonna get warmer over the next week, looks like our cold spell is almost gone, spring and summer are on the way YAHOO!!!

        As long as we can enjoy the sunshine and warm weather, sit outside and read, we have it made, so glad that you could join us?

Check out the map below to see where we have been this summer

View Summer 2012 in a larger map