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Full-time RV travels in the United States and Canada
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| Friday before Thanksgiving was moving day. We left our seasonal site at The Summer Place, just outside of Rondeau Provincial Park. Doug drove the coach and I drove the car. We stopped at Canadian Tire in Blenheim and had the bi-annual emissions test preformed on the coach. As usual, it passed with flying colors.
We left Blenheim going west on 40. When we got to the 401 we went west to Tilbury. We were set up in Jody and Rachael's driveway in no time. We plugged in to the 30 amp electrical box Jody had installed for us and were all set up for the next nine days. We had a great visit. Rachael made us a fantastic Thanksgiving Dinner with all the trimmings on Monday. Tuesday I made Turkey and Dumpling soup and on Wednesday it was Turkey and bowtie soup. We all enjoyed the turkey, but by Thursday we needed something different so I made cabbage rolls. Rachael and I went to Costco Wednesday night and bought about 2.5 kilos each of lean ground beef and ground pork. Thursday just before noon, I started preparing the cabbage rolls. Rachael was working, so her Mom came over to help me. There was more then we both expected. We filled two large roasting pans with cabbage rolls. Rachael will have lots to give away and freeze. We also had them for supper. There was cabbage rolls enough to feed several dozen people. We had lots of fun making them, but that is enough for this year. The days flew by. Jody, Racheal, their friends Pat and Mary, Doug and I all went out for dinner Saturday night. Jody treated us to supper once again. Soon it was moving day again. We took Jody out to breakfast at the Eighteen Wheeler before we left. We came back, packed up our Internet Satellite dish, hooked up the car and were on our way to Rock Glen in Arkona. It is a Resorts of Distinction park. We stay free at these parks. It was a beautiful sunny drive and we were there, backed in, hooked up, both satellites set up and relaxing long before 2 p.m. in the afternoon. The fall colors are beautiful. We have lots to do this week in Arkona. We are going to go and have coffee with Doug's cousin Russell in Thedford and go and meet another friend from Guelph in Woodstock. Early Monday morning we left Rock Glen to go and meet Russell for coffee. We knew his routine well enough to know what coffee shop he would be in at 8 a.m. We liked to surprise him. Sadly, this time we were the ones surprised. We had been up to see Russell in June of this year and knew that he was sick. However we didn't know how serious it was. We drove past his house and the car wasn't out in the drive so we assumed he was already at the coffee shop. We drove on up to the coffee shop and his car wasn't there. We went in and ordered coffee anyway because we thought maybe the car had been put in the garage for the night and he just hadn't backed it out for the day yet. We waited and Russell didn't appear. Finally, one of his friends came in and we asked him how Russell was doing. We were very surprised and distressed to learn that Russell had past away in July. We will miss him. He was a great guy and we will miss him. We returned to our coach and just recovered from the fact that we will not be seeing Russell again. We always enjoyed our chats and looked forward to our twice yearly visits. Today was also Dougs 64th birthday. This is one birthday he won't forget. I made him his favorite supper and he watched his Monday night TV programs. Tuesday was a quiet day, with nothing much happening. Wednesday we went to Chatham to get my tooth filled and have dinner with friends Wilf and Gail at Yack's Smokehouse in on Erie St S. in Ridgetown. Thursday we drove to Woodstock and had lunch with Harold at Williams on Dundas St. We had a great chat with him and we all enjoyed our lunch. After lunch Harold gave us a tour of the area east of Woodstock, where his family roots are. It was an interesting tour made even better with many stories of the area, which Harold shared with us. There was also lots of beautiful fall colors along the way.
We also stopped on our way home and took this photo of an old house. It is on the highway going to Arkona. The roof looks like it is sagging and I have wanted a photo of it for some time. I thought I had better take it today as there is no guarantee that it will still be standing when we return in the spring. It is standing vacant at the entrance to a turkey farm.
Friday we returned to Chatham to have my tooth which I had just had a root canal on, removed. :-( It broke below the gum line making it unsuitable for further repair. I am just happy that it broke now so that Dr. Johnson could deal with it, rather then after we left. Dr. Johnson has been looking after my teeth for over 30 years now and I have no desire to let anyone else mess with them unless it is an emergency. We returned to Arkona and started preparing for leaving tomorrow. There wasn't much to prepare as we hadn't taken anything out, accept for our little door mat, water hose, sewer hose and electrical cable. I have also cleaned our pantry removing anything beef related and today I cleaned our refrigerator and freezer also removing any food items that we are banned from taking into the United States. We don't want anything in our cupboards that we should not have with us. There wasn't much to remove so that job was completed quite quickly. Saturday we were up at our usual time of 6 a.m. and had a very leisurely morning. Finally around 1 p.m we started preparing to leave. Doug pulled out, we hooked the car up, put the brake buddy in, went through the procedure to flat tow our car and we were away. Next stop was at the Casino in Sarnia. We were meeting friends Bob and Deb there. Bob and Deb are going to Lakeshore in Davison, MI with us for three days. We arrived at the Casino about 3 p.m. and they were already waiting for us. We chatted for awhile, then went into the Casino restaurant for a nice dinner at quite reasonable prices. The service was excellent. Bob and I were the only two gamblers of the bunch. Bob played $20 and I played $10.00. Neither one of us walked away with any change left. I had a couple of small wins on the quarter slots and so did Bob, but neither one of us quit when we should have. I was interested to see that they had numerous 2 cent slots. I guess it goes back to the old saying look after the pennies and the dollars will look after themselves. I guess the Casino is quite happy to look after everyone's pennies. We all called it an early evening by returning to our coaches as the sun was going down. It will be an early crossing tomorrow morning. Sunday morning we started the genny, which in turn woke Deb and Bob. I had prepared the coffee machine last night so I just had to flip the switch after the generator was started and the aroma of fresh perked coffee was soon filling the air. We all had coffee and toast for a quick start to our morning. Six a.m. is the perfect time to cross the Bluewater Bridge in Sarnia on a Sunday morning. There was no lines of traffic or waiting. The customs officer on the United States side asked where we were going and for how long. We told him first Davison, then Texas for the winter. He asked if we had enough medication for six months and if we had any over the counter 222 pain pills (they contain codene I believe). We didn't have anything that we shouldn't have so he told us to have a good winter. Bob and Deb, who were behind us, crossed equally as easy. We were in Lakeshore on Irish Road in Davison, by breakfast time. After getting our sites, hooking up and registering we went for breakfast. The first restaurant we went to was closed for a week because they were away at a family wedding. Then we decided to take them to another one and it had totally disappeared so we ended up at a Bob Evans. The breakfast was excellent. There was a quick stop at Wal*Mart Super Center in Burton on way home. The rest of the day we enjoyed the most beautiful fall day possible. This has been an awesome October as far as the weather is concerned. We still have not had a frost in Southern Ontario. Unbelievable!
Monday was another get up and get going morning. We had promised to take Deb and Bob to some of the RV Surplus stores in Elkhart, Indiana. We were up and out the door by 7 a.m. The drive went fast and well. The traffic wasn't heavy and the conversation was entertaining. I drove and mostly listened to the chatter. They had all grown up in the same geographic area and knew many of the same people. I heard many amusing stories as they took a long walk down memory lane. Lots of laughs. We all found something to buy at the surplus stores. We came back along US12 in Michigan and found a couple more along that route. We stopped in Coldwater at a Ponderosa for dinner and then found our way back to I-69 North and home. It was a long, fun day, but now we were all tired from about 10 hours driving in the car. I know by the time we reached the coach, I was very happy to park the car for the day. I had drove the whole day. The worst part was the rain we had run into around Lancing on the way home. It rained hard enough to make it difficult to see the road for a short while. We were all happy to call it an early evening. Tuesday we relaxed. Deb and I went shopping but found very little we wanted to buy. I had taken some photos of them, uploaded them to my account at Wal*Mart and sent them to the Burton Photo Lab. We picked them up there, already processed. I don't know how we all lived without internet. Life is so much easier with all the benefits available because of internet and our Satellite dish. Bob was amazed that I could take photos, send them to the nearest Wal*Mart and have them all printed within an hour for so little and such good quality. They were very happy with the photos. Bob and Deb made us a very tasty dinner of New York steak, baked potatoes, mushroom and onions. The rest of the evening we showed them a few more wonders on the internet, including Google Earth and Sky. We also looked up some of Bob's ancestors in the 1910 USA census on Ancestry.com. They had little previous experience of the Internet so it was an enjoyable evening of showing them the wonders of the Internet. Bob said he just couldn't believe it all. He was completely amazed with it all. Soon it was time to call it a night. Doug was starting to doze off because Deb and Bob was watching the computer 8-) Wednesday morning was time to say goodbye to Deb and Bob for this year. We had a complimentary voucher for a free week of camping at our American Campgrounds home park in Kalamazoo, Michigan and we had given it to Bob and Deb to use. They decided to go on there, without returning to Ontario first. After we had made them a send off breakfast of bacon and eggs, they were on their way to new adventures. We hope you enjoy your week in Kalamazoo Bob and Deb and we will see you in the spring. We only have a couple more days here, then we start south. We are going to visit Doug's cousin Pat tomorrow and Jody and Rachael are coming to stay with us Saturday night. Then we are southern bound, looking for warmer weather. Today we could feel the cool fingers of winter reaching to claim this area of the country. There is even a frost warning for tonight. See you next time. Hopefully I can post more often now that we are on the move with no appointments, jobs and other obligations to consume my time. Happy Birthday to my sister Connie. She is the big 55 today (Oct. 24)
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