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1 to 15 April 2014 16 to 30 April 2014

Wednesday April 16, 2014

What is this? Frost on the car!!!

We are leaving tomorrow morning so we are off to see the last thrift shops in Birmingham.

Thursday April 17, 2014

A long drive in front of us! Well, maybe not, we are only driving 188 km to the town of Athens in Alabama.
This is the road to get out of the RV park area.

We have to be on I-65 to get across Birmingham, but at this time of the day, no problems, only a slow down to 10km/h for absolutely no reason! The rest of the drive across Birmingham is at 100 km/h.

Once on the other north side of Birmingham we leave behind the I-65 and take US-31 north.
We do go through small towns, but it is so much nicer to drive without all the traffic.

Northern Alabama seems to have a good lumber industry.

So much to see on the secondary highways compare to the Interstates.

After 3 hours of driving we are in Athens.

First stop is at the local Walmart for some shopping and also to unhook the car from the motorhome.
Whenever we move to a new RV park, I always check it out in Google Earth and Street View to see what it looks like.
The RV park we are going to has a gravel driveway. To save the car from all the dust, we unhooked.

The area is called Limestones County and they do have limestone here.
Unbelievable the dust when we drive onto the RV park.
A good thing we unhooked the car!

Nice little RV park with 20 pull-through sites, full service with internet for $125.00 a week. Not bad at all.

The view from the front window...

I am out for a walk in the RV park and checking out the "wild" animals.

In the afternoon we went to some of the Thrift Shops in Athens.

Nice sunset.

A really good day, I love driving the motorhome on the secondary highways. It is a lot more relaxing.

Friday April 18, 2014

First thing we do this morning, is go to Athens information center. On our drive to get there, we see this old store, we will have to come back and check it out.

Wow! The information center is closed!!!
The door is not locked so we go in any way. The lady explains that it is closed because it is Good Friday, but she will give us all the information we need.

After we got all our info, we head south to the town of Decatur and its Thrift Shops.
Some of you have been asking why we go to so many Thrift Shops? In Alabama they are really cheap and Michele want to buy clothes for our grandson Gabriel. She gets good deals with T-shirts at $0.75, pants at $1.00 so why not?

After visiting Decatur, we are back home and Michele is watching TV and I am working on this web page.

One last look at the sun before it goes to bed!

Saturday April 19, 2014

The state of Alabama encourage all cities, towns and villages to provide free tours every Saturdays during the month of April.
Athens is a small town, yet, last year they had the second highest number of people taking the tours.

Athens has four different tour available this Saturday. We are taking the cemetery tour.
Here is one of our guides. The cemetery tour is concentration on the southern army of the civil war and the influential families at the beginning of the town of Athens. By influential I mean rich!

Every known solders graves in the town of Athens and the Limestones county has a confederate flag by the head stone.

Even if they know that a soldiers is buried here, they sometimes do not know where in the cemetery.
They created a commemorative place for those soldiers.

A circle of tombstones around a monument dedicated to the confederate soldiers.

The story goes that in the early 1900 when town was renovating the town center they did not like that the soldier was bowing his head, like in defeat. They ordered a new statue with its head held up high and this old one was sent to the cemetery.

Here is the new one in the town square with its head held high.

The guide also explained a lot about the symbolism found on many head stones.
The one on the left with its open gate represents heavens waiting for the deceased. On the right one, the finger pointing up means the person is going to heaven.

When a shroud is on a column, it tells people that the family is in deep mourning.
When a small animal, like a dog or even a dove is on the stone, it is probably where a child is buried.

Why logs? Maybe a lumberjack!

If you would like to know more about graves symbolism, check this web site, www.graveaddiction.com.

This was so interesting, it was supposed to last one hour, but we ended up with the guide for over one and half hours.

After lunch, I returned to town on my bicycle and traveled some of the back streets.

Sometimes you stumbles on a jewel like this old gas station all restored.

While I was biking, Michele was shopping at the K-Mart. She saw a rack full of kids clothing for only $1.99, every item for $1.99.
So, she bought a lot of good clothings for our Grandson Gabriel. Don't forget, this is all new.

The original price was $19.00 and she got them for $1.99.

Sunday April 20, 2014

The RV park owner told us about a big Flea Market just north of here in Tennessee.
Off we go!

Exit 1 for the Dog Day Flea Market.

Of course we had to stop for a yard sale.

This is our kind of flea market, full of old stuff just like we like them.

One hour later we are done and head back home.
Do you think they sell chicken?

The Alabama information center has a rocket with the center.

On our way north I noticed a couple of old houses so on our way back south we pulled over and took some photos.
They were old slaves quarters at one time.

Another great week!

Monday, Tuesday April 21 and 22, 2014

Not much about Monday and Tuesday, both days were busy with reading, TV and internet and even some biking.
Another view of our site.

Michele saw this on Facebook, hot dogs with uncooked spaghetti through them and cook.
We forgot to take some photos on the finished product. Next time!
It does make for a funny spaghetti.

Wednesday April 23, 2014

I am in downtown Athens to take a walk and take time to see everything.
Like all the cities in southern United States, a lot of history took place here.
The courthouse.

Like many cities, Athens also has a renewal plan for the downtown area and it seems to be working very well here.
I did not hear him play!

Thursday April 24, 2014

It is time to leave this place and travel north
One last look at our site.

Shortly after getting on the interstate we cross into Tennessee.

Soon after we leave behind the I-65 to drive on secondary roads.
It is just as nice as the interstate.

Oups! For about 20 kilometers we were on this narrow winding road with some pretty sharp curves. Not fun.

Direction are so clear and easy to follow!!!

Another few kilometers on winding roads.

What a cute mailbox.

Our first canola field!!!

We will not have time to stop and visit Kentucky.

Look at the two seats behind the driver? Just for the ride!

A nice day to travel...

We are back to nice roads and the scenery is so pretty..

Our first campsite is at the Walmart in Elizabethtown.

Like most night in Walmart or maybe because it is our first night not in and RV park, the traffic is making for not a very good night of sleep.

Friday April 25, 2014

We are back on the road and the rain is with us for a while.

As we leave Elizabethtown, the rain gets heavier and visibility is reduced.

The rain turned into a drizzle and stay with us until Ohio.

Usually we drive the secondary roads, but we have to cover a lot of ground in the next few days so we are back on the interstate.
A six flag park with an Eiffel tower.

A stop at the Flying J for a top up of propane.

Close to the Flying J, we can see this RV park. We decide to go and check it out, hummmmm!
It is still closed and not a very nice place. We are going somewhere else.

Close to Columbus, we found this nice RV park for the night.

It is nice and right now it caters mostly to snowbirds traveling north.

Going around Louisville and Cincinnati was a breeze.

Saturday April 26, 2014

Another day starting in the rain! Going around Columbus is pretty easy and the traffic is light.

As you can see? They had a lot of rain in the past few weeks.

Springtime and new life, look at the babies!

The second part of the day was under sunny sky, WOW!

The second last state before we are in Canada.

We found an RV park in Erie, right next to the lake Erie so off we go!
Brrr! Not all that warm.

Sara's Camping is part of the Passport America club. We belong to Passport America and for only $17 we get full services with internet for a night. You cannot beat that!

There is a lot of seasonal sites here.

Another good day on the road. We are getting anxious to get home.

Sunday April 27, 2014

Right next to our RV park is a nice little Diner complex. I think it is very cute so here are some photos.

Shorty after getting on I-90 we entered into New York and the I-90 is now a toll highway.
around 100 kilometers later we will pay $11.80 for the toll.

We have never seen this before, a stop area for texting, what a great idea!

There are a lot of vineyards in this area.

We are getting closer to Canada. This is Buffalo.

One last stop at the duty free store for some purchases.

We are now over Ontario.

As usual, going through custom is a breeze. Three questions later and we are on our way.

Ah. Toronto at lunchtime on a Sunday!
I rather go across Toronto than Montreal.

Once on the other side of Toronto we stop at BK for a nice burger.

A few kilometers from our home park there is the Brighton Speedway and we can see some race cars practicing on the track.

We are finally home. We cannot get to our seasonal site until May 1st so we are in the overnighter site for four nights.

Monday April 28, 2014

We got to North Shore RV Park yesterday, late afternoon and we had to take an overnight site because the seasonal is not yet open.
We should be there for 3 or 4 days.
First thing this morning is getting an oil change for the motorhome.

While the oil change is taking place, Michele stopped at our home (the UPS store in Trenton) to collect our mail.

With the oil change done, we head back home. The owner talked to us about going to our seasonal site today because the forecast is calling for a lot of rain starting tonight. He does not want the motorhome driving on the grass when it is soaked with water. It makes sense!
The onlydraw back and it is very little, is that we will have to leave the car outside the gate until the park opens. We can live with that.

Here we are on our seasonal site.

With all the rain forecast we do not really take much out of the motorhome.

Tuesday April 29, 2014

There are a lot of robins in this area...

While we were shopping in Brighton we had quite a surprise, Sean and Claudette happen to drive by. They are down here from Cold Lake to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary with family.

We had a pizza dinner and a good, long conversation. What a night.

We will see each other Friday evening for the party!

Wednesday April 30, 2014

Benoit is coming from Montreal with a friend.
We are anxiously waiting for them.
We got a text from Benoit telling us he is very close to the RV park.
Here we go to the parking lot in the rain.

Benoit!!!

Dinner is spaghetti in hot dogs.

Crazy moves!

Benoit came with a girl friend from work, Roxane.
She is a sweet heart.
A motorhome is not designed to sleep 4 easily.
Benoit and Roxane in the living room.

We are so happy to have Benoit with us for a few days and with a bonus, his good friend from work.

Until next time.

Life is good...