Can You Say Mexican Train Marathon?

The last time I wrote, I was whining about the weather – well, it made me pay for what I said. It has been in the high 90’s (humidex of 105) and makes for difficult breathing and restless nights BUT, it is better than cold and snow!  Do you believe in karma?

An update on our teeny tiny site, all the sod is down and the watering begins. Many people watering = low water pressure so the lesson is to have our water tank filled and use our on-board system until watering is complete. Kinda inconvenient…. but one needs water to make ice cubes!

A couple of times a year, we meet up with dear RVing friends we met back in 2001. We met at The Watermark restaurant in Waterdown for a long and enjoyable lunch, catching up and of course, reliving some of our past. John & Kay have hung up their keys due to health but still very interested in the RVing lifestyle. Lunch was great and the talk was fun – what a life!

Other long time RVing buds are rolling into visit for a few days.  We play marathon rounds of Mexican Train with John & Di, pop a few beverages and generally have a great time. They arrived mid day on Thursday but it took us a few seconds to recognize them as they were pulling a new 5th wheel; John is not one to pass up a good deal! As they arrive, we chit chat some with warm hugs then they were busy setting up. Once that was done, we continued with blah blah blah until it was time for a game of train. We hosted dinner and then more train  – until the wee hours.

Friday we decide to do some touring around and be tourists. Our first stop is Spencer Gorge and Webster’s and Tew’s Falls. We had short walks from the parking spots to  the falls views and through the park. It’s amazing that such beauty and nature is so close to the big cities. Later, we drove down to the water front and hopped on the bike trail and peddled our butts out to the break water below the Burlington Skyway. The lake view back over to Burlington was very nice, the lake calm and blue. We had to get back to the truck as the beer was getting cold and we were 20 minutes back to the campground! Soon we were sitting under the awning enjoying the late afternoon with wobbly pops, RV neighbors and lively conversations. After dinner, more train and good times.

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday was Breast Cancer day with a car and bike show at the park. Through the activities and the various draws, the park raised $16,000.00 for breast cancer – good going. The weather was great and we played train out on the patio table, keeping the cheers and noise to a dull roar so not to disturb the neighbors! After dinner, more train – do you see the theme here?

Sunday was father’s day and John & Di were concerned that they were interrupting our father’s day celebration but we insisted they were not and in fact we were taking a road trip to see some sights and ending up at one our watering holes. We took the Lakeshore Road into Toronto all the way from Burlington – what a drive, through the smaller burbs of Oakville, Streetsville and Port Credit. We saw lots of magnificent homes – well out of our combined price range! Anyway, we ended up at Terri’s for dinner with our other daughter Corrie and family. Lot’s of chit chat and fun. Nate (our 7 year old grandson) was getting a little antsy but kept himself busy with Terri & Mark’s fish pond. The fish look hungry Nate, so why don’t you feed them - a couple of times! Oh well, it was a great day with friends and family. We got home in time for – yes you guessed it, another game of train!

Our visit with John & Di draws to an end and they are heading back on down the road – our train days on hold until next time. Hope all is well out there where ever you are. If you enjoy he blog, leave a comment…..

It’s June Already Where’s the Heat

This posting is not just about the weather but maybe it deserves a comment – wow, since we got back, maybe we’ve had a few days of warmth. I guess it was all used up in February and March when it was so warm here.

We started the month off with a trip to Terri and Mark’s ‘cabin’ in New York. They use it for their skiing ventures in the winter. Anyway, it rained and was cool on the way down and we got held up by a 2 car wreck with the slippery conditions. We stopped off at the local watering hole The Gin Mill in Ellicottville for dinner.

Saturday was a little bit lazy – we went shopping in Olean – OMG there is Joann’s there and you know we had to stop and see if there was an opportunity to increase Barbie’s quilting stash. Around Home Depot too and we pick up a bunch of stuff for  some electrical projects at the cabin. Barb & I spied an outdoor rug that we just couldn’t do without – after all, we have a new deck sitting area to furnish! Back to the cabin in time to find the beer cold and inviting.

Mark and I smoke into an outdoor light moving project and what seemed like a simple task was more than that.  Anyway, besides dodging rain showers, we wired in a new outdoor outlet and installed a new light. Ok, all tied down and neat now lets test it! Bang! Holy sparks and sizzle batman, turn off the power! We have a problem Huston – we remove the wire clip and find that we had screwed right between the hot and neutral wires – what kinda luck was that! So, out with the old and in with a new piece and we did that without marking the siding! This time, no clips below the outlet and all is good. Time for a cool one and maybe a whir in the hot tub – you have to stop sometime to enjoy what’s around you.

Sunday brings a painting project for Barb & Terri and Mark & I tackle another electrical project. We were sent on an errand to buy more paint supplies but you know the story – men sent to buy and come back with less than what was asked for! The girls made do and finished the kitchen cabinets and Mark & I bungled along trying to put a motion sensor on their new light post. Finally done and the light works on test but we’ll have to wait until next time they arrive in the dark for proof that the whole idea works.

Barb started the week off not feeling 100% but pushed through anyway to work on a quilting project with 5 other quilt buds from the Plantation. They each build a row and then pass it along to the next person on their list. It sounds like they are all having fun and the work they are doing is pretty special. Everything I have seen has been beautiful. On Friday, we – yes I said we went to a local quilt show here in Ancaster. Lots of beautiful quilts were on display. Barb has a small problem with her machine so we also got a lead on a good shop for parts or repair if it’s not DIY. So Saturday, we had a ‘road trip’! Off to Hamilton for a sewing machine part or at least set up a repair time then off to my favorite electronics shop to get all the right parts to finally get our HD TV satellite working – I thought we had all the goods when we went south but could not get a good signal. I suspected the dish was the culprit and decided to wait until we arrived back to get help from these guys – they helped me on another issue and I trust them. So, first the sewing machine doctor – holy thread bare! I think I drove Barb to fabric heaven.  We ended up in what looks like Spadina St. in Toronto, the textile area of Hamilton, a fabric stop in every other store and sewing accessories in the other stores! As soon as we realized where we were, Barb’s eyes glassed over and she yelled – ‘let me at’em’! I’m kidding of course but Barb & her quilt buds would be in every store here until the sun set.

We had some strange activity here in the park this week. There has been a mass exodus of trailers from another park to here last fall and they all brought their decks with them. This was deck moving week. They would have the front end loader carry their decks to the new sites – check out the picture – it was a little funny to see them using a truck to move a shed!

I tried to fire up the HD TV dish and LNBFs but the switch (needed to spilt the signals) did not ‘see’ the LNBFs. Hummm, defective switch or bad wiring – after checking each of the 4 coax, all seemed good so it has to be the switch, now what?

We took Nate out for dinner and and to shop for a birthday gift. He is turning 7 and we did this ‘treat’ with our other grandsons. He knew what he wanted and where we needed to go to buy his ‘surprise’. Unfortunately, the store did not have exactly what he wanted so we switched to plan ‘B’ and he decided on a transformer car. It looks like a car or with a push on the rear air foil, it became a robot with weapons! Once back in the truck, we open the packaging and have a test run. There must be something wrong with the toy, neither one of us or even a 7 year old couldn’t get the weapons retracted back into the car! Uturn and back to the store but alas, that was the last one in stock so onto plan ‘C’. All shopped out and he has a new Battleship game so onto the restaurant. On our way in, I give the wait staff a heads up that we were celebrating his birthday so they could do the cake and sing thing they do. After dinner, they came out with a giant brownie and ice cream and were singing to him – the look on his face was priceless. He was smiling from ear to ear all the time he devoured his birthday dessert!

We are expecting RV friends to meet us here so stay tuned for more fun. Hope all is well where you are….

Getting it in Shape

Well, now that we are on our site for the summer, we can ‘make it our own’. The laundry facilities here are not real good so we have ‘cooked’ a deal with our daughter to do our laundry at her place in exchange for a little gardening around her house. She jumped at the offer so about every 10 days or so, we’ll drive into the ‘big smoke’ of TO, do our laundry and Barb will get her gardening fix (she loves to weed etc). So, our first time, we offer to thin out some of Terri’s perennials ;) and dispose of the cuttings (grin) – can you say giant Hosta worth a few bucks?

Now we have some plants to design a little better outdoor living area here. A short stop off at Walmart and a few bags of this and a few bags of that and we’re set. Luckily (?) the terrain here is part of the Niagara Escarpment and we have ‘easy’ access to lots of rock to build garden edges etc. So, once back with our bags of landscape stuff, we’re off to pick up some rocks and build a garden! We don’t have to go far – about 50 feet for an abundance of stone. This would be so much easier if we were 20 years younger. In fact, when we  owned stix and brix, we would round up our 3 girls and find a farmer that had a rock pile that he wanted to be rid of and we would pick the pile clean to build many, many rock walled gardens around the yard. That was easy back then – we were young and we had 3 girls that just loved to pick and lift rocks with us – it was one of those memorable family outings!

Anyway, all is good here except Barb & I are a little sore from the lifting and then arranging them critters into something that looks nice. Then comes the planting and mulching. Now we have to design our ‘deck’ area – the owner will supply the landscape fabric and the crushed lime stone to put on top of the fabric but we have to get his ok to our design. Timing is everything – apparently we were lucky that he allowed us to use the rocks for our garden edging, he refused others and some didn’t get to design their deck area so I am hovering so to approach him at the right time.

Wow, he okayed our plan and since we offered to do all the work (hoping that we can get it done earlier than he would have) he will drop off the fabric and we will shovel and rake the stone into place. We wait for his schedule again. In the meantime, life goes on – Barb is in her glory with her sewing centre set up. She is busy working on different projects that are haunting her and she is looking to join a quilt guild nearby. I am finishing little tasks to upgrade the  look of the rig on the outside. Back at Chanute, we decided to modernize the exterior by use the vinyl screw covers that the factory uses today to cover the screws on the outside. Not a big job, just finicky and I am also changing out the incandescent running lights with LED types.

 

Barb & I took a couple of days off to visit with our other  daughters and grandkids. Nate and Dean had just gotten back home from a little fishing trip up to Rice Lake with a generous feed of Walleye. Apparently, Nate (7) was the real fisherman and caught all the fish. We had a great lunch and visit on their side deck under beautiful skies. As we were leaving, Dean gave us the fish Nate caught – thanks Nate they were delicious!

 

 

The next day, we wandered down the road to Wellington to visit with Dawn and her family and the 4 grandkids. It was a nice relaxing day catching up under the market umbrella on the back deck. We had dinner and Tiana had to rush out to go to her soccer game. She has a passion for soccer and wants to be in a more competitive league. Unfortunately, we were unable to go watch with a 3 hour drive ahead of us but hopefully next time.  We could not believe how much Jessica and Lilly have grown.  It is amazing the changes over the winter months.

 

 

 

 

The owner dropped off the fabric AND put it down, soon after, he delivered the lime stone for us to spread. It wasn’t much but when we were finished, Barb & I were reminded of some of the muscles we haven’t used in awhile! So, now we have a deck/sitting area and imagining the site with grass in the other areas. There is no promises of when the sod will be delivered but we wait. During one of our walks around the park, Barb noticed a wild rose growing in an area that would soon be leveled and with sod and we thought to save the fragrant wild flower – spoke with the owner and said sure so with shovel in hand, we start digging. It wasn’t without some excitement – I had uncovered a large ant hill under some of the rock. The scene was similar to the one from Indiana Jones – large red and black ants everywhere wanting to carry us off to there nest! But we survived and now have a new wild rose bush to plant.

Until next time….