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1 to 15 May 2015 16 to 31 May 2015

Friday May 1st, 2015

Happy Birthday to me! Happy Birthday to me!
I just hit the number 55. After Michele wished me a Happy Birthday, she told me that now we can get the stores special for 55 year and older! Now, this is love!

Michele takes me out to Garden Buffet for lunch and this time, I have a nice glass of red wine.

After lunch, we head to the Chrysler Greenway trail to look for more caches.
WOW! What a nice car!

We start with the cache we did not find yesterday.
Still no luck for us.

We walked about 6 km and found 13 caches for a total of 14 caches today.
Later in the day, I call Rush Truck Center in Nashville for an up-date on the repair on the motorhome.
They fixed the problem on the engine. As for the transmission, they found a wire bundle corroded and the connector for the "Transmission Control Unit" (TCU) also corroded at the connector point. They are looking for the parts right now. It is moving along.

Saturday May 2, 2015

I am in a suburb of Windsor, LaSalle. I am looking for cache by myself. Michele stayed home.
All my caches are located near a sports center. I saw this old police car!

There are 15 soccer fields here and they are all busy this morning.

I only found 3 caches and 3 other I could not find.

In the afternoon, Michele and I go back to the Chrysler Trail to look for more caches.
This one was very difficult to find. Michel did find it eventually. It is in/under the stump. On the right, the arrow point to the actual cache in the stump.

We even found a Robin's nest with three little eggs.

We found 9 caches today. This one was the last one, cute isn't it?

Another nice day with a 6 km walk.

Sunday May 3, 2015

We are on our way to Point Pelee National Park.
We take the long way by driving close to the Detroit River.

A blue Walmart? With a Tim Horton and not a MacDonald?

Our destination.

Our first stop is at the March Boardwalk. It is a 1 kilometres loop.

The entire trail is on floating boardwalk.

Spring seems to be a little late here. This is because the park has the Erie Lake on both sides and the lake is still cold.
Life is slowly waking up for the resident of the marsh. Some are even sun bathing!

Every now and then, you have small canals like this one. They are not man-made, just natural occurrence.
A red-winged blackbird protecting his home.

The next trail we walk is the "DeLaurier Homestead Trail. This is the farm of Mr. DeLaurier. There is an exhibit relating the life of this national park and the human impact it had on the local residents.

One of the many canals dug by the farmers to help drain the fields. Us near the canal.

We saw this monster snake! OK, a small monster snake...

At the Visitor Centre, we take the shuttle to get us to within 500 meters of the "tip".

We will at the most southern point in Canada.

Stuff I did not know!

On our way to the tip of Canada.

After a short walk, we arrive at the tip.

Here we are touching the southern most tip of Canada.

If we were to walk straight north for about 100 kilometres we would end up in the United States.

We decided not to take the shuttle and walk back to the visitor centre.

We finally found the name of this plant. It is called "may-apple".

This is the only road in the park.

At less than 100 meters from the entrance of the park, a small restaurant offers ice cream cones for a dollar.
Have to have one!

We enjoyed our time in Point Pelee National Park.

Now we cannot wait to hear from the garage and the motorhome.
Maybe this week!

Monday May 4, 2015

Once again, I am out looking for caches this morning. Looking for caches keeps me occupied while we wait for the motorhome.
Most of the caches I am looking for this morning have not been found in a while. My chances to finding those are not very good, but still worth a try. Michele and I sometime find those caches that have not been found in a while. It is good because it keeps them active.
Therefore, this morning I am out looking for 5 caches and only find 2 of them. I have to stop looking for caches because a front is coming fast and the rain started to drop pretty fast too.

During the afternoon, we are doing a little grocery shopping. We only buy enough food for two to three days at the time. This way, when we have to get the motorhome, we will not too much food on our hands.

We still got no news about the motorhome. I will call them Wednesday evening for an update.

Tuesday May 5, 2015

I am out looking for more caches before the rain comes. This time my preparation time for the caches I will be looking for is much better. I found 11 out of 11 caches. Sometimes, caches are not really hidden, like this one. It is out in the open yet who would take it?
It is only a small plastic bag with magnets and a log.

The street I am on is called Huron Church Road. It is the main road from the 401 to the Ambassador Bridge and cross to the United States. All transport must drive on this road to get to the US. It is always busy.

Some of the caches are in the shadow of the Ambassador Bridge. A view of Detroit.

We sort of deviate from our plan and do more caches along the river. One of the caches is on/under the sculpture.

Sometime you do want to guess what a sculpture actually represented.

A memorial to the Canadian and American soldiers who died during the Vietnam War. A teacher's bell.

One of the caches we are looking for has not been found since December 2, 2014. We find it, but it is on the ground and empty. Why do people do this? We clean it up, put in a new log, place it where we think it should be hidden.

This is a first like this one for us. A simple plastic number/letter with magnets and a log under it.

We had very light rain all afternoon, but by 4 pm, the rain really started to come down.

We had a good afternoon caching. We found 13 caches in the afternoon and with the one from this morning, we are at 24 for the day. While looking for caches, we visited the "Olde Sandwich Town". This is part of Windsor.

No news of the motorhome...

Wednesday May 6, 2015

We had some heavy rain last night. When I woke up the rain had stopped. Off I go for more caches.
If you wonder why I look for caches all the time, it is to visit and fill in some time while waiting for the motorhome. It is not fun to live in a basement with very little of your stuff for a few weeks. Therefore, I go out looking for caches.
One of this morning caches is located near this monument.

I found 10 more caches this morning.

Michele and I continue on the "Chrysler Greenway" this afternoon.
It is something to see how people hide their caches here. Everywhere you go, people have a slightly different approach on hiding caches. This one needs a new coat of camouflage paint.

With the heavy rains we got in the last few days, the small streams have overflowed their bed.

Can you see me? And the cache (red)?

This is the last cache of the day. Neat isn't it?

We have walked 8.2 km this afternoon and found 20 caches.
With the 10 from this morning, we have 30 caches for one day. A record for us.

I call the garage in Nashville and I am told everything was repaired, but when they went on a text drive, a light came on. Now they have ordered a sensor for the injection pump. Everything should be done by tomorrow evening.

Thursday May 7, 2015

Today we are taking a walk on the Riverwalk by the Detroit River in Windsor. A part of the Riverwalk has the "Odette Sculpture Park". We will also look for some caches.
A view to the south-west with the Ambassador Bridge and a view to the northeast and the city of Detroit.

Some of the sculptures in the park.

Another part of the Riverwalk had the "Dieppe Garden". It also includes many memorials to the people who sacrificed their lives so other can live free.

In a garden, you have to have flowers!

Most of the caches on the Riverwalk have been placed by the same person. This series is not one of my favourite for personal reasons. Here is one that was hard to find.

We did not find this one, it was guarded by this goose. We did find a grass snake sunbathing.

Another view of Detroit.

We got 9 caches while on the Riverwalk.

Friday May 8, 2015

The forecast for today is 28°C and that is without the humidex.
My IPod tells me it will be 10,000°C! WOW! This day is going to be some hot!

I am out looking for more caches before the heat comes in this afternoon.
It is becoming hot very quickly. Detroit in the distance.

Michele joins me this afternoon. Here is one of the caches we found after a little looking around. A bird has built a nest on top of the cache! No, we did not move the nest or the cache.

We had a good day caching with 15 caches found.

I call Rush Truck Center in Nashville to get an update on the motorhome.
Good and bad news. Everything is fixed, but while on the test-drive, the "Check Engine" light comes on when you press the gas pedal.
The wrong sensor came in! Funny how they make no mistake on a $2000 part, but screw up on a $200 part!?!?!?

I am a little discouraged even when they tell me the part will be in on Monday and repaired Monday!!!
Therefore, to keep my morale up, I now say to myself "It should be fixed by Friday or next Monday! This way, if it is fixed before I will be happy...

Saturday May 9, 2015

Another hot day today. Forecast for this afternoon is calling for thunderstorms. I am out caching this morning again. Got to keep busy while waiting for the motorhome.
A cache under/in the rock! WOW, a first for me.

Can you see it?

I got 10 caches this morning.
We go out looking for a few yard sales this afternoon. We also stop for some more groceries since we will be here a few more days...
I still think the motorhome will be ready Friday.........

Sunday May 10, 2015

It turns out we got no thunderstorm at all.
One of the caches I did this morning was a multi-cache. A multi-cache is a two-stage cache where you must find the first location to get the coordinates to the second part of the cache.
Here I am at the first stage looking for the hidden coordinates for the second stage.
At the base of the sign is a piece of wood that does not look "right". I move it some and realize it is the "new" coordinates. I found the cache with the new coordinates.

I found 8 caches this morning.

Michele and I drive 30 kilometres to look for more caches. It is a loop series around the town of Comber. On our way there, we saw lots of blooming cherry trees.

The loop has over 100 caches along the route. We would like to find at least 12 or more of them.
On the right photo, one of the cache on a telephone pole.

While we were looking for caches, we found this nest on the side of the road!

While we were looking for a cache, people from a house next to it came to us and we started talking about caching. It turns out they are cachers too. We must have chatted a good 30 minutes. Nice people!
Not long after leaving them, the rain started and decided to head home. After a few kilometres, the rain let up some and we looked for one more. The name of the cache is "Tile Holder".
I search, but I am at the wrong place. Finally, Michele calls and points me to the right area...
What? A cobra?

After a hard fight, I won by the way, we found the cache.

We got 18 caches today.

I keep my fingers crossed for the motorhome...
But still aim for Friday....

Monday May 11, 2015

I am out on the Chrysler Greenway once again. I am looking for more caches. You can see many houses with solar panels in the yard in Ontario. You do not see this too often in the rest of Canada. I wonder why?

I found 9 caches and walked 7.9 km.

Michele and I are in Comber for a second time to continue the Comber Mini Loop.
Here are some of the caches that we taught were well done or funny.
One cache was guarded by a mean looking spider. A cache made with an old flashlight.

Humm! A mushroom! Ah, the cache is in the underside of the mushroom.

Some caches are not that easy to spot!

The weather forecast called for thunderstorms in the afternoon with possible tornadoes.

We can see the rain coming behind us. We rush to find a few more caches before the rain hits us.
What a funny cache, a coconut up in a tree. You have to pull and release a string to drop the coconut.

On the last cache, we stepped out of the cache and stepped right back in the car!

We found 31 caches this afternoon.

Still no news about the motorhome.

Tuesday May 12, 2015

Good morning!
It is a cool +11°C this morning, brrrr!

I am not looking for caches this morning. I just do not feel like it. I am having a nice coffee at the local McDonald and read the news on my tablet. We spend the afternoon just window-shopping.

Still no news about the motorhome.

Wednesday May 13, 2015

It is a nice day and we are going back to finish the Comber Mini Loop.

After a few caches, Michele goes up a low concrete wall to look for a cache and I am right behind her. Suddenly she backs up and makes little sound!!! She saw this BIG snake in the grass next to the wall.
Of course, it is not a real snake, but Michele rally had a good scare and me, a good laugh. The snake was guarding the cache.

Another neat cache. The cache is glued to the Ford logo.

One more neat cache, this one is a PVC pipe driven in the ground with a cap and the cache glued on the cap.

This one was a little harder to find because it looked like it "belongs" there. The log is inside the mini pipe.

This one cache made us smile! An arrow stuck at the end of a cut off branch. You pull the arrow, the branch comes with the arrow and the cache is inside the branch!

We have found 48 caches today. We also have completed the Comber Mini Loop. The loop had 95 caches and we found 84 of them. We did not find eleven of them.

I call the garage, with no expectation, about the motorhome. SURPRISE! They just finished and everything is working. Yes!

Time to get ready for our departure tomorrow morning. One happy Denis!!!

We bid farewell to the family where we rented the room.
We cannot wait to leave and get back in our "home".

Thursday May 14, 2015

This is the time we hit the road.

A few minutes later, we are in sight of the Ambassador Bridge.

The American border crossing. They have a device that keeps you from taking photos in focus. It is called a bump on the road!!!

The sun is coming up and warming up our backs.

You really have to be into religion to write "Jesus" on your barn roof.

From Ohio to Kentucky.

A few seconds before this photo was taken, the aircraft filled the whole window next to Michele. WOW!

Nashville, here we come...

After we paid the very costly bill, even with a reduction from $129 to $95 per hours, it still cost us a little over $9000.00 in Canadian dollars. It may seem very high, but this is our home. With a regular house, you have to spend a lot of money to maintain it too.

Now all we have to do is put back the bedroom together.

Are we happy with the fix? We will see tomorrow when we hit the road. How about the quality of the workmanship? This garage is a "truck" garage and not an RV garage. Therefore , we had a few "tracks" in the motorhome, nothing too big.
We just drove outside the garage and parked for the night.

Friday May 15, 2015

We leave Nashville by 8 am. We are on the south side of Nashville and like any big city, lots of traffic.

Tennessee to Kentucky

Nice Corvette!

The Interstate is very nice, but they too, have some construction along the way.

Our first night is at the Walmart in Carrollton, Kentucky.

This view is to show you the car behind the motorhome. An older woman lives in this car with two dogs. Life is not good for everybody. The United States social net is not the same as in Canada.

Of course, we did look for a few caches around the Walmart.

A good day on the road. The stress from the past weeks are catching up with me and I am tired.

Until next time.

Life is good...