Our trip to the east coast of Canada....continued

I took this picture as we were going by Lake of the Woods, Ont. The scenery was beautiful on the drive down to Fort Frances. I had been to Fort Frances several years previosly but did not remember the drive as a vehicle load of us were attending a funeral there. We stopped for groceries at store & asked the young man at the gas station if there was a place nearby to camp & he gave us the directions to Pithers Point Park. What a nice little campground. We had to dump at the station as we were leaving but that was alright.

view of Sand Bay from Pither's Point

We left Fort Frances on the 8th of July with our destination of Nipigon, Ont. We stopped at the Atikokan tourist booth for lunch. We had phoned ahead & reserved a site at Stillwater Campground. We followed #11 and it was a beautiful drive. Very treed on each side & glimpses of water along the way.

Stillwater campground, Nipigon, Ont.

We arrived at Stillwater Campground later that afternoon. Along the way we drove by signs advertising Amethyst mines. We elected to stay a couple of days at the campground so we could tour the area.










We had the best ever deal while we stayed here. If you spent the night you got a discount coupon for the restaurant down the road (Becker's Restaurant) that they owned as well. Nice! Good food and reasonable prices. Unfortunately the sign out front still said Gus's so alot of people would not know that it has changed hands. We headed for the Amethyst mines the 9th of July. We turned at the first one we came to which was Blue Points Amethyst mine. What an experience! You take a pick/hammer and gloves with you (we didn't know this at the time). Then you are charged by the bucket. We vowed to return on our way back, as we really didn't want to take alot of rocks with us all the way to the east coast & back again. We toured around the region and still didn't get into Nipigon to see the "smallest Canadian Tire Store".

Agawa Bay, Lake Superior, Ont.

Our next destination for the night was Glenview Cottages & Campground, just north of Sault St. Marie, Ont.

Time flies by

Wow, has time ever gone by fast. We have called Nanaimo, BC our home now for over a year. We spent the winter at Jingle Pot CG with the idea that we would leave here in the summer of 2012 & head to the east coast of Canada. We happened to mention to a lady friend who moved in across the street from us that we were taking off in the summer for 3 months or so. She told us that she had never been to the east coast either & would love to go if she could. Sure, we said no problems. We had the room for another passenger. 
So we planned our leave date as the middle of May sometime. That worked for all concerned. Then I got a call from the doctor saying that my surgery would take place on May 15. Okay, recuperation time put the trip to the end of May. Then my husband Joe gets a really bad case of gout just after I get out of the hospital and that takes us another 2 weeks to clear that up. So the plan was the middle of June we would leave. Then we find out that his health card is somewhere in the system & no idea when he will get it. By the time we got all that sorted out it was almost the end of June. 
We finally left Jingle Pot CG the 27 of June. We took the ferry from Departure Bay, Nanaimo to Horseshoe Bay, North Vancouver and got to our friends place in Hope later that afternoon. We had phoned ahead & made reservations at the place they lived at (it was a mobile home park that had room for camping). We were directed to park in the worst place to park a rig our size. It was down in the "bowl" where they held get togethers and very unlevel. We could not put the slides out or run the fridge. We were at such an angle that we slept the opposite way in the bed. We put a big gash in the underside of the trailer from the side of the box tilting up as we were turning (more on this later). We were charged $45 for just parking there. Can we say rip off? The only reason we stayed there was it was convenient to visit our friends & we had made reservations. As we drove into Hope there was a nice little campground on the river and we decided that on the way back in 3 months time we would park there if we stayed in Hope again.
 Our lady friend Sandra was driving herself to Saskatchewan where we would pick her up & away we would go. The reason behind that was she had 2 cats that needed to be looked after and she also had family to visit. So she would drive with us till Weyburn, where she would leave her cats & car behind for when she returned. Sounds good right? She didn't get to leave Nanaimo until the last ferry out (which was running 30 minutes late all day), so by the time she arrived in Hope to spend the night with us it was almost 3 in the morning. We didn't get much sleep needless to say. 
The next day we left for Canmore, Ab where my son had moved to earlier in the spring. That made for a long day. We needed diesel fuel in Kamloops, BC and the Shell station we pulled into didn't have diesel. Of course being 53' ft long we couldn't drive out of the parking lot. The very nice attendant came out & stopped the traffic behind us so that we could reverse and carry on. We  arrived in Canmore early evening and set up in Wapiti CG. The manager Strath was happy to see us again as we had stayed there on a number of occasions in the last 2 years. Sandra had the air bed on the couch deflate during the night (new trailer & bed had never been used till then) and was not a happy camper. Didn't blame her one bit. She elected to carry on to Weyburn, Sask and we would meet her there in a few days. 

Parked at Canadian Tire while we enjoy a Tim Hortons in Weyburn

We ended up staying extra days as my Uncle came through on his way to Creston from Edmonton (his daughter (my cousin) had got married that weekend). This was the July 1 long weekend here in Canada. So we left Canmore, Ab on the 2nd of July & headed for Weyburn, Sask.

Parked at "Hotel Wilson" in Oak Lake

We parked in the Walmart lot for the night as it was late when we arrived. Sandra met us around 9:30 in the morning & we were off to Manitoba. We called friends of ours who lived in Oak Lake (town of) and they were home & we could park in front of their house. We visited family while we were there for a couple of days & then we headed for Winnipeg, Mb where Joe's son lives. 

enroute to Fort Francis, Ont

We left Winnipeg, Mb on the 7th of July, 2012 for the east coast. Finally we were on our trip with no more family/friends to visit. This is going to be a series of installments as it is going to take time to put it all together. Hopefully you will follow our trip as I post it. Thanks for reading & will add more at a later time as it is quite late now. Thanks, Jeannine

Nanaimo

Well here we are in Nanaimo. We left Brandon on the 15 June after I finished my last shift at 2200hrs. We only drove for an hour or so & pulled into a little rest stop just by the Mb/Sask border. We got up around 0600hrs and drove to Calgary where we parked in the back lane of a friends place for the night. We had an awesome roast chicken dinner with them & a few laughs as well. We left a little late the next morning, but called a friend in Canmore & had breakfast with him at Craigs Waystation. Very good staff & food served there as we had been there several times last year. We decided that we would stay the night at the Wapiti CG there & go for a steak supper & all the trimmings at our friends place. What a lovely evening we had. All this time my hubby had driven the rig, but he was having a hard time driving & looking at the scenery so on Sat morning I got behind the wheel & drove to Kamloops. I had only pulled the trailer on the flat prairies so it was a different experience going up & down the mtn roads. The Knutsford CG was very nice. I drove again to Savona where we had a wonderful breakfast at the roadside diner there. It was also Fathers Day and as I was driving through Hope ( we took the old #1 highway) my hubby's kids called him to wish him a Happy FD. We stopped in Cloverdale just before the ferry for diesel. Our reasoning was the price would be higher on Vancouver Island. Joe drove to the ferry at Tsawwasen and we took the Duke Pt ferry to Nanaimo. The cost at 54ft was almost $250. We won't be going back to the mainland with the trailer if we can help it as they charge $5 a foot over 20ft. We found Jingle Pot CG without any trouble. So now we have the wonderful pleasure of trying to license the units in B.C. What a gong show! Mb is not the fastest at sending pertinent documents by fax so that we can prove we had a license in Mb for more than 2yrs. Geesh. We have moved once since being in Jingle Pot, as we wanted a bigger site to accomodate the length of our truck (25ft) and trailer (37ft). With our slides & awning out we spread out 20ft. Our next door neighbour had company over the other nite & they backed into the rear passenger hip of the truck. Put a nice dent in our unit & nothing damaged on the Toyota fj cruiser, go figure! So now we have made the claim & just waiting for the appropriate insurance company to call us...geesh! The weather here has been nice, not too cool & not too hot. Alot of clouds and we have had 3 days of rain now. At least we don't have the humidity like back in MB. So it looks like we are going to be here for the winter which is okay by us. The owner of the CG is awesome & the people who stay here on a permanent basis are really nice. Gotta check on my soup so will sign off for now, Cheerio, Jeannine

On the Road Again (almost)

As I write this we are 2 days away from leaving our province of Manitoba & heading out west. We have decided to make Nanaimo our home base at least for this year/winter. We still have some stuff that needs to go into HOWie. We have ordered a new generator (EFOY) and a hard wired surge protector. This is hopefully going to be installed on Wed June 15 and that is also my last day of work. Joe will pick me up after my shift ends at 10pm on Wed & we will drive for a while & then tie up for the nite. I expect we will not get much sleep as we are both super excited about really becoming FTers. With our setup we should be able to be off the grid for a long time as we do not use alot of electricity. We also have 4 LIFELINE batteries & the 3 solar panels up top. Will sign off for now, Cheerio

A flooded city

This is sure gonna be one helluva year here in Brandon. We are under a state of emergency and flood watch. We are safe where we live on the top of the hill in Meadowlark CG. However, I still have to go to work and that means going down the hill & over the river that just keeps getting wider. Most of the businesses & alot of homes in the path of the river (Assiniboine) are evacuated. What is known as the Corral Centre here in town is a ghost town now. Lotsa businesses are sandbagged & abandoned. 3 car dealerships have moved inventory to higher ground. There are 2 roads into Brandon from the north & south. Highway #10 & #1a. Highway #1a is now closed & directed over to #10 (or 18th st). They have finished diking around the intersection of 18th st N & Grand Valley road. The sand bags are 3 feet high & 3 feet across diagonally. The bags are stacked 2 high & 4 deep now in some places to keep the river from pushing them aside. I would imagine they will try to shore up the dikes again in the morning. Alot of people have been taking pictures of the flood waters. They are saying this is the flood of the century & beats the river rising in '97 all to $h:t. So time will tell what happens here, what man proposes, God disposes. After all this was a flood plain. Cheerio

Pix of HOWie

Ok I finally got around to taking a pix of our units. Now I just gotta figure out how to download them so that we can share. Having a difficult time trying to download the pix onto the IRV2 forum. Not sure what I am doing wrong.

FT

Here it is almost the end of April & we have officially moved into the 5er. Staying at a local campground (on high ground). All the places that we would have boondocked at are under water. We are all on flood watch around these parts. I have had a nasty cough for over a week now. Taking meds for it but it seems to be hanging around...darn cold.
As I predicted my hubby has taken too much stuff with him & is finding it hard to place alot of things he thought we needed. He is off to Winnipeg tonite with a load of stuff from storage for his son & that pretty much clears out the storage. Also on this trip into the city he is getting the Linex Spray in box liner done as well as attending a retirement party for an old coworker. The hitch will get installed on next Wednesday the 27. Then we will be completely independant. Had a few water leaks & issues with the trailer that have been addressed by the dealership. When they installed the undersink water filter, they didn't do a wet test to see if the lines leaked...of course we discovered the leak when the cupboards were chock a block full of stuff...lol.  We will probably move a few spaces over in the next week or so when things dry up a little more. The reason is we are in a prime pull through site, so we can move to a more private setting.  Kinda funny how many RV's we see going down the road even though the temperatures are still cool.  Cheerio