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1 to 15 September 2020   16 to 30 September 2020



Tuesday, September 1, 2020


We received a photo of Gabriel's first day going in grade 3 in Alberta.


Our time to leave Moose Jaw is coming up soon. Today, I check and add water to the batteries, if needed.


Jeremy is playing with Natasha.


Even if Natasha is cranky at times, she is still a happy little girl.
   


Some of the funny things she does, she loves to put her face right up to your face. She looks right into your eyes. It feels like she looks into your soul!
 



Wednesday, September 2, 2020


Jeremy and his friend Francis, are getting ready to go for a bike ride. Look at the dark clouds in the background...


They got caught by the rain, heavy rain...
 

Natasha loves carrots. She chews on them. It must do good to her gum where the new tooth is coming out.
 

Almost ready for bed.
 



Thursday, September 3, 2020


Kristin is going for a walk with Natasha.


Natasha came for a visit in the MH.


Natasha loves yogurt, really!


Once Natasha is in bed for the night, I started to look at our trip back to Ontario.
I know it is not the first time we do it, but I want to slow down and try to stop in places we never stopped before.




Friday, September 4, 2020


Poor girl, she still has a hard time with her tooth. The second tooth on the upper gum is almost out.


Out and about. Natasha is sleeping while holding the ribbon of her hat!


With dad.


She loves her bath time.




Saturday, September 5, 2020


Last day of warm weather for a while, the forecast is calling for 28° C.
This is the last chance to change the end caps on the slide awnings. The holes in the end caps are elongated. When it is windy, it makes a lot of noise.
 

You cannot buy end caps. You have to buy the whole slide awning for over $400 each.
Last winter, I found a second-hand place in Texas and bought two short slide awning for only $32 total.


We will change only the end caps.
Those are the old ones. Look at the elongated holes.


Hard at work.


We still have to be careful as the spring inside the roller tubes have tensions in them.


The supervisors.


Almost done.


All done!


Chinese food for supper.




Sunday, September 6, 2020


Natasha is ready to go for brunch at Humpty's.
  

The little family.


The three ladies!
   

The men, I could not find a photo without Natasha...
 

I checked the tire pressure on the MH and the car.
Before we leave on Tuesday morning, we will stop  at Fontaine Tire. They will re-torque the front wheels. It is required after 100 km of driving.


Audrey and John dropped by for a visit in the afternoon., Shoot, no photos!!!
It was good to see them before we leave.

After they left, I continued packing. This time, it is the bikes going in the car. I also have a couple of chairs and a small table in there.


Michele went for a long walk with Natasha.
 

Spaghettis for supper.


Dad decided to have fun with Natasha and noodles.


Natasha just loves the attention... But, she is still wondering what is happening to her!
 

Dad's handy work...


Grand-maman is busy with Natasha. Trying to keep her awake a little longer after supper in the hope she will sleep a little later!
 

If the weather forecast stays the same, we will be leaving on Tuesday morning for Trenton, Ontario. This time, we will take our time traveling, but still being very careful with social distancing and masks because of the COVID-19. We should be home around September 17ish.



Monday, September 7, 2020


Last day with the family.


A cold front has hit us since yesterday. Last night it dropped down to 2° C.
Jeremy, Kristin and Natasha are going for a walk. She is all bundled up.
 

Michele and I did some more packing in the MH.



Tuesday, September 8, 2020


The big day!
We are all kind of sad this morning.
Our two beautiful girls.


Ahhhh!


We will miss them!


Goodbye!


Almost ready to leave.


One last thing to do, hook up the car to the MH. Off we go!


We have two stops to make in Moose Jaw.
The first is to fill up with propane. With the cooler weather, we use more propane.


The next stop is at Fontaine Tire. They have to re-torque the two front wheels.


We have good service, James remembers the tip I gave him...


Within the hour, we were back on the road going east.


We take the "Regina Bypass." This bypass adds only 1.5 km to our trip, but we probably saved 20 to 30 minutes in time by not going into the city.


Manitoba, Here we come!


We stopped at a gas station for lunch.


We lucked-in, we have a southwest wind, it means almost in our back. Good driving and save a little on gas.


Our first of two-time change. We are spending the night at the Elkhorn Campground.
 

We like this campground. It is far enough, but not too far for the first day of driving.
 

Now those people do social distancing...


Surprise! the valve I changed last week on the gray water tank is leaking!!!
I take it apart to have a look. Without getting into the small stuff, we dropped something in the bathroom sink. The little piece ended up being stuck in the valve. It is fixed now, for sure.
So, be careful what you drop in the sinks...


This evening, we skyped with Benoit.


A short day of about 341 km. Not too bad for the first day.




Wednesday, September 9, 2020


We are back on the road by nine-thirty. The wind is much stronger than yesterday. It is coming from the south, not good. Also, it is coming sideways to us. It makes driving more tiring.
Funny train!


Manitoba is finally fixing its roads. Particularly the Trans-Canada highway.
It was the worst stretch of the Trans-Canada highway in Canada.


We stopped for lunch at the Walmart in Portage La Prairie.


Our stop for the night is at the Rock Garden campground near Richer, just east of Winnipeg. We will be here for two nights.
 

This is what we covered today.




Thursday, September 10, 2020


It is a day of rest for us. I treat myself to a breakfast at the small restaurant on the campground. I was the only client.

Here I am reading a real book and not an e-book. The campground had some really nice new books for loners. I got the newest "Jack Reacher" book. I love this series of books about him.
Michele spying on me!


Almost every day, we received some photos and videos from Kristin and Jeremy. Here is our Natasha!


We like to take a break from driving every few days. We will be back on the road tomorrow.



Friday, September 11, 2020


I was just about to go out when I looked out the front windshield. A bear is just wandering about the campground. It is bout 7:30 in the morning. I just step outside and clap my hands. He runs away. He was very skittish. He is very afraid of humans. A good thing.


We stop for gas about one kilometre outside the campground.
This is probably the last time we only pay $ 0.969 per litre for a while. In Fort Frances, our next destination, the gas is $ 1.109 $ per litre. When you take in 250 litres or more, it makes a difference.

We cross into Ontario right after that.


Northern Ontario stills has some bridge left to be repaired.


In Northwest Ontario, around Kenora, it is cottage country.


The road is really nice.


Shortly after Kenora, we turned on Highway 71 south towards Fort Frances.


We are still in lakes and cottages country.


We made a stop in a "Pulp Load Check area" for lunch. These rollers are used by truck carrying trees loaded sideways. When the truck drives between the rollers, if some logs are sticking out, the rollers push them back in.


We made it to Fort Frances!


After 380 km of driving, we arrived in Fort Frances around 2 pm.


Our campground is located on the Agency Indian Reserve No. 1. It is clean. It is part of a big park.


Fort Frances has a lot of history. The Rainy River and  Rainy Lake separates Canada from the United-States.
This monument is in honour of the Calder Clan, who came here many years ago. They were metis.


Sieur de La Vérendrye was a significant player in our history. He has lived in the general area of Fort Frances for many years.


Another significant person, Robert J.N. Pither, lived here too.


I received this photo from Jeremy. He caught this pike with a fly rod.


We will be spending two nights here.



Saturday, September 12, 2020


Fort Frances is a small city with a little over 7,000 soles.
The weather is not great. We decided to go for a drive in town to check it out.
Now the train you see in the photo is close by our MH. A train goes by every hour with over 50 cars. The other side of the bridge in the U.S. It is a very narrow part of the Rainy River, about 150 meters wide.
Even then, the train did not bother us much last night.
 

We saw some deers in the park.


This part of Northwest Ontario has many aviation outfitters to serve the fisherman and hunters.


This old one has a mouth!


We saw this big bird in the distance. It is a bald eagle.
 

This building is very big. It houses the reserve's administration and other services. It is beautiful.


Rainy Lake. This lake was an essential stop for the "coureur des bois" and the fur traders. So was the Rainy River.


The main street in Fort Frances was nothing special.



Sunday, September 13, 2020


We are going to Nipigon today. We should stay there for two nights and go pick some blueberries.
Highway 11 crosses Rainy Lake. We are going east.


It is a beautiful road with hardly any traffic.


A few more bridges being repaired.


Right outside of Thunder Bay, you have the memorial for Terry Fox and the Marathon of Hope.


If you look at the island, you can see a face. It is the Provincial Park Sleeping Giant.


One more stop for gas and lunch.
 

Surprise! The campground in Nipigon is full! What? In September and on a Monday? Where are those campers coming from?
So we keep going east.


The scenery is beautiful.
 


600 kilometres later, we found a site at Neys campground.
They used to be a member of Passport America. We would only pay $25 per night.
Not anymore, now we pay $50 for the night for only 15 amps service, water and sewer. A little expensive for what it is. The site is small.
 


Lucky us that we use extra filters before we use the water. In less than 30 seconds, the first filter looks like this. It did its job, stopping sediment going in the MH. I do not think we will be back here again, if possible.


We drove a lot more that we were supposed to.




Monday, September 14, 2020


Brrr! It was cold last night. We even had frost on the car!
 

Another bridge being repaired. This one is almost completed.


The sceneries are so beautiful.
 

We took a break in White River, the birthplace of Winnie the Pooh.


Lunch was in Wawa.


More construction, it is to widen the road this time. The orange cones are where holes were drilled int the rocks. They will place dynamite and split the big rocks into smaller ones.


One of the many beaches along  Lake Huron.


Knowing that most RV parks are probably full, we booked a site at the KOA in Sault-Saint-Marie.
Beautiful site, but  at $63, it is a little expensive for us. Oh well, it is the price...
 

Another 421 km for us today.


We will be here only for one night
On the bright side, the internet is super fast.



Tuesday, September 15, 2020


We are back on the road by eight-thirty.


One more fill up before we leave S.S.M.


More beautiful roads.


A beautiful stretch of road next to the Mississagi River.


The Spanish River.


After talking over our options, we decided to stop at the Walmart in North Bay.
We are not alone at this Walmart.


This is a quiet and safe place to spend the night.


This part of Ontario is a little more "flat" compared to the last two days.


Some photos of Natasha from Kristin and Jeremy.
 

We should be in North Shore tomorrow.

Until next time.

Life is good...




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