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1 to 15 June 2018 16 to 30 June 2018

Saturday June 16, 2018

It is not raining, so I am off for a long walk this morning. I walk along highway 17 west.
I took my time and walked 7.52 km in one hour forty-seven minutes.

The things you see when you are not traveling at 90 km/h.

Some times they have to add steel bars to hold some of the rock face in place, like this one.

Nice scenery.

There is some road construction up a head and I never paid attention on how or where the warning signs were located. Well, there is a logic behind the location after all. At a measured distance, they write on the pavement what sign goes where and which language and which direction too. So, SF stands for Speed Fines, X2 for double and in brackets, the language. It is the same for all the other signs. Totally useless information for all of us!

Ashburton Bay and the Provincial Park Neys.
Notice the fog rolling up the mountain.

The rest of the day is spent at home.

Sunday June 17, 2018

We woke up to rain and fog.

During a lull in the rain, I went out for a walk.
It looks like it is not raining, but look at the photo on the right.

I just took a short 3 km walk towards the Provincial Park.

We spent the rest of the day indoor.

Monday June 18, 2018

Just an observation, there is a lot less road construction this year then the previous years.
One more observation, there seems to be a lot less truck traffic this year!

We cross the "line" where water from streams flow in a different direction.

We also changed time zone. We are now in central time.
We stopped at the rest area for the time change and have a nice nap.

A coffee at Robin's Donuts?

As we are getting closer to Nipigon, we are also getting closer to Lake Superior.

Need I say more?

The famous Nipigon bridge. All traffic going east or west has to come through this bridge. In January 2016, the bridge was closed for 17 hours. Here is why...(Click here to find out why).

With Nipigon behind us, we are getting closer to Thunder Bay.
We stop at the Flying J before Thunder Bay for gas and have lunch.

Our first moose on this trip.

Here we are at Davy Lake Campground for the next 2 nights.
Good thing we have 50 amps. because it is still 27°C as the sun sets.

Now that we have changed time, the sun goes to bed later in the day.

Tuesday June 19, 2018

It is 10 am when we head out to town of Ignace for some geocaching.
Some photos of our hunt.

They also have a French school here in Ignace.

One cache takes us to the village beach.

Agimak Lake, what a nice lake.

Ignace has a population of 1300 souls. A nice skateboard park

Good idea!

A Beech 18 next to the main highway (Hwy 17).

We found 5 caches today. We could have found more, but with a temperature of 30°C, it is too hot to continue.
We did stop at the local LCBO for some beer and wine.

Wednesday June 20, 2018

On our way to Manitoba.
We leave Ignace at around 8:30 this morning.

As I mentioned before, very few construction site on the highways this year.

We are on our way to the village of Richer, Manitoba. We are going to the Rock Garden campground, about 400 km away.

Every time I see this truck, I just hope no paint we get on the MH.

Manitoba, here we come and it comes with terrible roads. The worsts we have seen in 8 years of full timing.

The campground is at 100 km from the border with Ontario. The people of Manitoba should be ashamed of this stretch of Trans-Canada highway.

Our site at Rock Garden campground.

What a nice way to tell the people of the campground who lives at this site.

The water is at 27°C and it is 31°C outside, the pool is some nice.

We have no winds with this heat.

Thursday June 21, 2018

We went to Steinbach this afternoon to buy beer and wine. It is a lot cheaper than Ontario or Saskatchewan.

Here are some of the different in prices.
Case of 24 Kokanee in Ontario, $47, in Manitoba, 30 cans for $46.
Peller Shiraz wine, Ontario $8.29, Manitoba $13.00.
Gin, 1750ml, Ontario $60.00, Manitoba, $47.00.
Box of 3 liters of Franzia wine, $25.99 Manitoba $31.00 Saskatchewan.

It is worth it to buy it here in Manitoba.

Friday June 22, 2018

We are on our way to our friend Robbyn's place.
But first a stop at the Flying J in Winnipeg for some gasoline.
We did 765 km with the last tank of gas. It means we did 32.44 liters per 100 km or 8.7 miles to the gallon.
Not too bad.

The ring road around Winnipeg (south side) is not very nice. Once we left Winnipeg behind us, the roads improved and became straight.

The Manitoba ministry of transport wanted to cut down this tree a few years back, but the outcry from the local people stopped it.
It is considered a local landmark because it is halfway between Brandon and Winnipeg.

After 600 km on the road, we arrived at Robbyn's place.
She now lives in a MH because her house burnt down a month ago.

Robbyn with her friends, on the left, Lloyd, Robbyn in the middle and Meg on the right.

I am cooking hamburgers for supper.

We had some rain in the evening, but we still stayed outside to shoot the breeze.

One of Robbyn's kittens decided to have a nap in the wheel of the MH.

It is always a pleasure to stop and visit Robbyn.

Saturday June 23, 2018

Our set up at Robbyn's place. The house is not suitable for occupancy because of mildew in the basement.

Robbyn, with the help of Lloyd, found this MH as a temporary dwelling until Robbyn can buy another place in the area.

We are literally in the middle of the fields.

This is happiness!
Mother is asleep and the babies have a belly full of milk and napping right there.

I am having a nap too!

Michele takes over the napping when I am done.

This area is loaded with ticks.

Mother cat is bringing a "meal" from the field.

It is a baby bird and the kittens a learning about that part of life.

Robbyn was working this morning. When she got back home, we continued our talking about everything and nothing.

Humm! It is coming our way.

Lloyd has to cook under the awning. He is cooking steaks and they were good. Michele seems to be looking for ticks!

Lloyd is a very interesting man. At one time, he was training racing horses in the United States.

Robbyn and Michele ready for the steaks.

Another great day with friends.
We are back on the road tomorrow morning.

Sunday June 24, 2018

We are leaving a little later this morning.

Goodbye Robbyn, good luck on the next chapter of your life.

We have some fog this morning.

We only have to drive 170 km today.

Our next campground is in Elkhorn, population of about 500 people.

The village campground.

It is a nice campground and at only $25 per night with full service (30 amp), it is very good.

We even got a nice sunset.

Tomorrow we should arrive at Jeremy's place in Moose Jaw.

Monday June 25, 2018

I am up early again this morning. We will be changing time again today. To make it easier I changed the clock last night to Saskatchewan time.
This morning I visited the little cemetery locate right next to the campground.
Very interesting to read some of the headstones. All of them date back to the late 1890 to the beginning of the 1900. Times were hard in those days. Many children died at en early age. As for the adults, very few lived past 50 years old. It is always interesting to visit old cemeteries.

In less than 20 km we are in Saskatchewan and the last time change.

We are still a long way from Moose Jaw (318km).

The trains are very long in the prairies.

The roads are nice and like yesterday, the wind is coming from our back. A 10 km/h tail wind.
The MH is equipped with a feature that lets us know how many kilometers left before we run out of gasoline.
Usually we can drive for about 900 km with a tank of gas. We filled up in Winnipeg. I check how many kilometers we are/can do with the full tank and I notice we can now drive for more than 1000 km before we are empty. WOW! We are driving at 90 km/h while the speed limit is 110 km/h. Do not worry, we are not slowing down the traffic. There is not very much traffic right now and it is divided highway. Other can drive around us without any problems.

Finally!

I check our km to empty one more time and we have/will be able to do 1150 km with this tank. Unbelievable.

We are getting closer and closer...

Jeremy is still flying with the Snowbirds, Gabriel is not here yet and Kristin is working.
We get set-up in the driveway. Kristin cooks us a very good spaghetti supper.
We spent the rest of the evening talking and catching up on things.

Tuesday June 26, 2018

There is a flurry of activity this morning in the MH.
We are starting the finishing touch of the ceiling in our bedroom.
Everything as to move to the living room.

First we put some plastic sheeting with tape on all the walls to protect them from the dust.

Same thing for the closet.

Now I can start sanding the ceiling to remove as much glue as possible and prepare the wood for the paint.

WOW! Not easy to get the glue off. There are probably better way to do it, but this is how we are doing it.
This is going to take much longer then expected. It is not easy to have your harms up in the air sanding for long periods of time. At the end of the day my arms hurt a lot.

Wednesday June 27, 2018

More hours sanding for us today. It is moving along nice, but my arms are still killing me.

Our home for a while.

Kristin has done improvements since she moved in with Jeremy. Like the nice patio set for the front porch..

Some flowers.

And an even nicer patio set for the backyard, including a fireplace.

It is kind of funny to see the small changes in Jeremy's place. It is now Kristin and Jeremy's place. More changes to come, specially when Kristin will sell her house in Regina. ;-)

Thursday June 28, 2018

We keep on sanding! This time it is with a finer grain sandpaper. Still hard on the arms...

Michele sanding the small spaces near the walls, the one the sander cannot get to.

I think the worst was sanding the closet.

We finally get all the sanding done this morning. We even give a coat of primer to the ceiling before lunch.

WOW! Things are moving along really good!
We paint the first coat of paint in late afternoon.

We are very happy with the results so far.

Friday June 29, 2018

Woke up with the birds, OK, maybe not with the birds because they are up at around 4:30 in the morning here.
So, at a decent hour I was up, 8 am, and we are back at work.
Last coat of paint.

All done!!!

An hour later, Michele is cleaning up the bedroom. Even with the plastics, dust made it everywhere.

We are back to sleep in our bed.

Saturday June 30, 2018

Early this morning, we are on our way to Medicine Hat to pick up Gabriel.
400 km to get there and 400 km back to Moose Jaw. It is a good thing the speed limit is 110 km/h. We move at a good clip.

We are all smile because we are picking up Gabriel!

We leave Saskatchewan to enter Alberta.

The railroad tracks are next to the highway for long periods.
Weird train!

Shannon, Gabriel and Gabriel's mom, Danielle. Got to have a crazy picture!

Gabriel has changed a lot from last year. He is 6 years old now.

I guess I changed too!

After two hours of driving, we stopped in Swift Current at the MacDonald's. Gabriel with his weird smile!!!!

Gabriel spends some time in the Play Place before the next two hours on the road.

Traveling is hard on the body!

After the hugs and kisses, we head upstairs to measure how tall is Gabriel now.
Gabriel has grown almost an inch from the last time he was here in March.

He has grown more than 3 inches since last summer.

Next? How much weight has he gained?
Gabriel now weight 43.2 pounds.

Gabriel chose to sleep in the MH tonight.
He is done, so tired...

What a day, 800 km of driving.
We are all a little tired.

Until next time.

Life is good...