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1 to 15 April 2018 16 to 30 April 2018

Monday April 16, 2018

It was on the cool side last night!

We are back in Tupelo today, we forgot some items yesterday!

Once back home, we did not stay out as the wind made it cold.
We are very happy we got electricity at our site, our electric heaters worked all day to keep it toasty inside.

Tuesday April 17, 2018

We are back on the Natchez Trace this morning, we are on our way to the next free campground, Meriwether Lewis.
But first, we need some gasoline for the MH. The pump only allow $50 at the time and I have to restart the process 3 times.

Is this a good start? We are not even on the Trace yet!

We access the Trace in Tupelo

Towards Nashville. Notice the trees, they are full of leaves.

Gabriel's lizard keeping an eye on the road.

Still on the Trace, but in Alabama this time, but not for long.

This is the longest bridge on the Natchez Trace, the John Coffee Memorial Bridge. We are crossing the Tennessee River.

What a beautiful drive, but it is more "hilly" here.

We saw a few turkeys and a coyote, later we saw deers, but no photos.

Next state is Tennessee. We are getting closer to our destination.

Notice the leaves on the trees? Not as many as this morning. We are almost 400 miles further north since we left the city of Natchez. We are now at an altitude between 600 and 1,000 feet.

The trees are blooming.

After more than three hours of driving, we arrive at the Meriwether Lewis campground.

We found a good spot, not as level as would have loved, but it works.

Our street.

A branch is rubbing on the MH!

I take action!

All is good now. We are very lucky, our satellite dish found the right satellite through the branches. We now have our French Canadian TV.

Wednesday April 18, 2018

The small museum for Meriwether Lewis is open this afternoon. We have a look inside.

Meriwether Lewis was the one in the Lewis and Clark expedition.

After the museum, we head to town (Hohenwald) to have a look.

Thursday April 19, 2018

Darn! We are back in Hohenwald, we forgot to buy some stuff yesterday.
As we were driving into town, I noticed a travel trailer dealer near town.
I checked out their website and found that they are giving tour of the factory.
I called and book a tour for 6 persons for tomorrow morning.

Friday April 20, 2018

Here we are at the factory with two other couples from the campground. I cannot remember their names! Sorry!
This is the factory of the Oliver Travel Trailer. www.olivertraveltrailers.com
They also build walk-in bathtub.

What is an Oliver Travel Trailer?
They call the style "eggshell".
Everything is made here. They strive on a quality product.
The mold for the outer eggshell

They even build the "trailer" part of the travel trailer. All aluminum construction.
I can tell you, it is very well built.

The assembly line.

This is the lower outer shell.

This is the lower inner shell.

The lower inner shell on the trailer.

They are installing the components needed in the lower shell.
The lower inner shell will go over all those parts, but they will still be accessible.

The upper outer shell.

All assembled.

The inside. WOW!

They build about two and half travel trailer a week. The quality of the workmanship is outstanding.
They only have two travel trailer in stock and they are for RV Shows.
You have to buy it first before they built them.
How about the price? As I mentioned, the quality is phenomenal.
The "Elite I" starts at $48,000 U.S. and the "Elite II", longer, $54,000 U.S.

We loved our tour. If you ever are near Hohenwald, make time for this tour.

As we drove through Hohenwald, we saw this restaurant, the Rio Colorado. They offer a Mexican Buffet, why not?

The food was OK, nothing more.

Saturday April 21, 2018

After four nights here, it is time to move. We have to be in Toronto for Friday for my appointment for a possible laser eyes surgery.
We will also visit Michele's sister, Odette.

Let's roll.

Where we were. Michele is waiting for me, I had to stop and talk to someone before we left.

In all three free campground we were in, there was always someone in a hammock like this one. It is covered by a tarp.
I guess it works!

Hooking up the car to the MH.

Back on the Trace, traveling north.

The closer we get to Nashville, the more bikes we see on the road.

And farms.

I made a little mistake, I listen to my GPS and ended up in the city for a short while. I should know better!!!
But the things we see.

The Natchez Trace ends just before Nashville, we traveled more that 400 miles in three different States.

After we pass Nashville, we enter Kentucky.

More gasoline for the MH.

On the I-65, we drove by the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green.

Our next campground is near the small town of Cave City. It is near Mammoth Caves National Park.
There are many other attractions nearby.

Our new home for two nights. Because we are member of Passport America, it only costs us $36 for two nights.

Our home.

The chef at work.

After the 400 miles on the Natchez Trace, driving on the Interstate with lots of traffic, it was a shock. Oh well!

Sunday April 22, 2018

Today is laundry day. It rains most of the day.
Our home again.

We can even fish in the pond without a permit, but it is only catch and release.

We will continue our travel north, next stop, Columbus, Ohio.

Monday April 23, 2018

We leave Cave City behind to continue our migration north.
It rained all night, but it is over by morning. No metal treads???

We caught up to the bad and rainy weather shortly after we left Cave City. For some strange reason, it always rains harder when we go through a city, like Louisville and Cincinnati.

Has we got near Columbus, we got off the Interstate and the rain stopped. The little town of London.

Churches sure have neat messages to get you in.

Our home for the night. We have been here a few times over the years.

The view from our front window! The rain is back as we are getting setup.

We are following the same weather system we had in Cave City or is it following us?
We got a small leak in our roof and it rains all the time... Not good.

Tuesday April 24, 2018

We leave Columbus under a rainy sky. It rains pretty much the whole day.
Rain is not fun in a city with construction zones.

We stop for gas for the second last time. Gas is cheaper here in the States compare to Canada, even with the exchange rate.
After we filled up, I got myself a good coffee and Michele a nice apple fritter. When we tried to get back in the MH, the door would not open!

The door is not looked, but still would not open.
I could use our ladder to get in through the drive side, but our ladder is looked and the key is inside!
I borrowed a ladder from the gas station and got in through the drive side window.
I start to dismantle the door handle. Not easy because it is supposed to be dismantled when the door is open!
After 10 or 15 minutes, I finally got the door open and completely broke the hardware.
The arrow point to the part that is broken and keeps the handle from pulling the latch.

The door is now open, but now when we close the door, we need pliers to open it from the inside. Not good.
I ask around and was told there is a RV dealer nearby. Sure enough, they do have the part, but cannot change it until the end of May!

200$ later I got the whole door handle/lock in my hands. The arrows point to the latch that no longer move and the second to the broken part inside the mechanism. Only five screws hold the assembly to the door.

I change it myself and everything works fine now.
We are only an hour and half behind.
My coffee is cold, but Michele's apple fritter is still good.

Back on the road and the rain. We got off the interstate near Erie, Pennsylvania.

We are spending the night at the local Walmart.

What a day!

Wednesday April 25, 2018

Canada, here we come!
What a surprise, it is raining!

Our last state to go through, New York. A few hours later, Buffalo.

Love the sign.

The popular exit # 9. On our way to Ft. Erie, Canada.

Peace bridge is still under repair, but this time the lanes are quite a bit wider compare to last year.

The Canadian Custom were a breeze to go through again this year.

We are now on the QEW and the rain starts again.
With all the rain, plus transport trucks, the water is picked up and thrown in the air. It makes it hard to see at time.
Not fun to drive in this.

Once in Toronto, we stop at a Walmart located near the highway 427/QEW. We did ask permissions to "park" for the night. No problems, we got permission. Never ask to "camp", ask to "park" for the night as in "Is overnight parking allowed".

We leave the MH at the Walmart. We take our car and visit Odette, Michele's sister and her kids Alix and Onyx.

We spend the rest of the afternoon with them. We had a great meal at the local Chinese Buffet.
It is always fun to visit them.

Thursday April 26, 2018

No picture today.
I spent the morning at the ServiceOntario office to renew my car and MH plate stickers. We are now good for another year.

My appointment at TLC Laser Eye Centers is tomorrow at 10 am. I hope I will be a good candidate for the operation.
We will be spending one more night at this Walmart. We try not to stay at the same Walmart two night in a row, but sometimes...
We spend the afternoon with Onyx and Odette.

Friday April 27, 2018

The TLC office is located at the corner of Eglinton and Yonge Street in Toronto. It was not too hard to get here.
We take a photo of where our car is parked in the underground garage. This way we can find it more easily.
Here we are at TLC.

After my eye exam, they told me I was a good candidate for the laser surgery. They ask me if I want to get the operation? Yes! Next question is when? As soon as possible. The date for the operation is set to May 11 at 1 PM.

Back at the MH, we hook up the car to the MH and head back on the road. Back to Highway 427 and 401 toward Trenton.
It is Friday afternoon, 3 pm. Traffic is heavy, but it is moving.

We are only "one hour late" when we got to our new home. We will be here for the next 5 or 6 weeks.

We went to the office to register, Jannie and Jan invited us for a beer.
They said, why don't you stay and we will order pizza for supper? Sure. We just setup the MH and were back with Jannie and Jan for supper and the evening.
It is always a pleasure to see them again. We spent many hours talking about our winter trips.

Saturday April 28, 2018

First thing I did this morning was to go and buy some sealant for the roof of the MH.
Back at the MH, I got on the roof and fixed as many "holes" as I could before the rain started again!

After lunch, we dropped by our "house" to pick up the mail.

Next stop was to drop off our prescriptions.

And a little grocery shopping.

When we got back home, we continued to set up our stuff slowly.

Sunday April 29, 2018

We bought a software program to do our own income tax this year.
I started this morning and an hour later I was done. It was sent via internet. Now we wait and see if I have made many mistakes when filling our taxes. So far, we get money back.

After lunch, we headed back to town to pick up our prescriptions plus a quick stop at Walmart.

The month of May is a busy month for us. We have a lot of bills to pay, car and MH insurance, liability insurance, appointments at doctors, dentist, etc. Many little things need our attention.

We are setting up nice and slow.

Monday April 30, 2018

We are in Belleville to pick-up our blood work requests.
With our request in our hands, we stop by a few Thrift Shops.

A nice and quiet day, I work on the next update for our blog.

Until next time.

Life is good...