Where Does the Time Go!

It’s been quiet here. Barb has been working on a few quilting projects and I have fixed a couple of items that have sat long enough. All this ‘work’ and no play makes us boring so on Tuesday, we finally got the boat wet. We put in on Christi Lake, a conservation area close to our campground. We had a nice ride and left the boat inflated to make it more convenient for next time.

Wednesday was a busy day for us, Barb needed to renew her drivers license and  health card so I took the opportunity to update the sticker on the truck. Mark’s mom was in town so Mark invited us over for dinner and hey, a free meal, we’ll be there. The rest of the week was dampened by the rain but we certainly needed it. The wet weather outside encourage us to get even more accomplished indoors – Barb and her sewing and me – well, no chairs to cane so I guess I’ll take the top off the job jar.

While I was sitting contemplating the head on my beer, I can’t believe how time has passed. It seems like yesterday that we were arriving back in Ontario with plans to visit friends in Michigan and at the Finger Lakes in New York but now all that is history. We were anticipating the visit from John & Dianne and now that too is in the past. It seems like my loving bride and I  just tied the knot and we are still on our honeymoon. I can’t believe that we retired in 1996! And most of all, it is hard to believe that we have been on this ride of full timing for 12 years. Wow, where does the time go – it seems to zip by when your having fun!

We’re now becoming ‘seniors’ and I know all to soon that too will be in the past but at least with this milestone we will be eligible for our ‘seniors discount’ not to mention we are on that preverbal slipper slope!

Hope all is well where you are….

200 Years

There is a lot of ads on the TV and radio about the war between Canada and the USA back in 1812. Wow, that was 200 years ago and our borders are still fairly open. I don’t normally write about political stuff and your wondering what this blog is about – we still are in our RV, enjoying all that both our lands offer. You can read more on the war of 1812 here.

When John & Di were down, Di gave Barb a newspaper article about the ‘Patchwork of our Past’. It is a Barn Quilt Trail that was created to tell a story of the events during the War of 1812 from a woman’s point of view. Barb & I still try to set one day aside each week to tour our area in search of wondrous scenes or adventures that are in abundance around our lands. So, Barb went online and downloaded more information into her Kindle and we set off to find and tour this Barn Quilt Trail in our area.

Click here to view that  web site for this trail. Each Barn Quilt has a narrative that explains the Quilt. We decided to do this trail by area and started on the area closest to us – Brant County.

Here are some of the pictures of this art. We hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed finding them.

 

 

Thursday was the monthly Escapee Chapter 18 luncheon  held at the Manchuria Garden in London, a Chinese buffet. Lots of camaraderie and of course food. We ate with John & Di, Jack & Barb & Ray & Donna – I’m sure you remember those names. Anyway, Barb had to get a wheel barrow to get me out to the truck as everyone there held me down and forced me to eat too much! I had arranged for truck service – I could go on another tirade here and moan about the goofyness of getting an E test on our diesel engine since all they do is observe the exhaust for 5 minutes while the engine is running and then ding me $39.00 but I won’t. While we waited for the truck service, we met up with Ron & Vicki – long time friends,

Vicki was Barb’s neighbor before we married. We had an  enjoyable couple of hours visiting. Back on the road home and we decided to take the ‘scenic route’ and what do we find? More Barn Quilts! What a neat surprise.

These are not part of the war of 1812 story but interesting just the same and their story can be read here.

This weekend is the Civic Holiday here in Canada and the park will be full again. We try to keep our heads down and don’t do much as the ‘worker bees’ get out on the roads for a holiday. But there was a huge garage sale event in St George on Saturday and we had to go and try to find more rocking chairs for me to cane. I’m sure we hit almost every street in this small community in search but none were found. Garage sales are the ultimate in recycling, moving your junk to someone else so later they can put it in their garage sale!

With that pearl, I will let the dust settle on this posting. Hope all is well out there…..

Company’s Coming

Quick, hide, they’re coming! Ahhh, we can’t. They have come to join us here for some chit chat, a few brewskies and maybe some laughs. That is John & Di, Ray & Donna (aka crusty) and Jack & Barb, fellow RVers that enjoy getting together. John managed to reserve 3 sites side by each and after they roll in, we all exchange grand hellos and hugs. Barb & I leave them to set up and await under the awning. When John & Di pulled in, we could see something hanging down below the trailer that didn’t look normal – we’ll get to that later.

 

All set up and the catch up begins – we haven’t  seen Jack & Barb since the Escapee Escapade at Goshen in 2010 and Ray & Donna last fall. You can review last years antics here. So we had a lot to talk about, a lot to laugh at and good times all around. Conversations were carried on through dinner and soon the dominos were broken out for an evening of Mexican Train for 8! Playing 8, the game can move quickly but the scores can get high quickly but the fun and laughs are often.

We all have our own ‘normal’ morning routines  but we soon collect at Jack & Barb’s – they have a ‘Patty O Room’ enclosure which helps to keep the bugs away – for a coffee enhanced with Baily’s! After a couple of cups, that kinda reduces your desire to do to much else but we get the bikes down and load everyone up for a tour around the campground. It’s not too big a ride, maybe 3 Kms if you do all the  roads but we get back to our camp sites all ready for another beverage.

 

It’s time to investigate what is hanging down on John & Di’s trailer – holy crap John, it’s nothing too serious, it’s just half a leaf spring – the helper springs have completely disappeared! The front axle only has the spring set attached to the front shackle, the rear half is gone so not too much holding that axle in place – one good bump and….. So a plan is set – we’ll take off the broken parts tomorrow and the guys will head off and get a new leaf spring and replace it. It should be an easy job once we get the old set off – what’s that saying? ‘It’s never easy’!

It was Mexican Train each night after a dinner. Thanks to Jack & Barb for setting up their screen room so we could play out doors at night.

 

 

Today is fix it day. The first challenge is to get the old hardware off the trailer. We had blocks of wood everywhere, several jacks and a little guy to go under the trailer – yea Jack! The going was a little slow getting the old nuts loose and pounding the bolt plate off etc. Jack & John did all the heavy lifting while the ladies, Ray & I sat in the shade keeping an eye on the hard workers. By 10:30, all the old stuff was off and we were in the truck heading to the local RV shop to find a new leaf spring. No luck there except they did tell us where there was a parts distributor that does retail. We tried Princess Auto first but no luck again so off to the other guy. By now we have been out a couple of hours but John & Di didn’t want to stay for the rest of the summer so we had to carry on and get the parts.   

Back at the site now and it shouldn’t take long to put the new spring in. There I go again, nothing is easy right? We had to take the rear tire off to equalize the rear spring and give us more room to get the new spring in. All bolted into the shackles but we can’t get the ‘U’ bolts to line up – oops, we were trying to use the wrong bolt holes – now it should be easy! Damn, we still can’t get the spring to set correctly on the axle! Holy shackle batman, we mounted it upside down! The shackle bracket has to be up, not down. Off comes the stuff again so we can flip the shackle bracket up and now it all fits together almost like we knew what the hell we were doing! Wow, put all this stuff away and bring on some beers!

We had our dinners together and tonight Jack & Barb hosted a fish fry after we completed repairs on John & Di’s trailer. They brought approx. 130 perch filets that they caught over a couple of days of fishing last week. They tasted great and we all had a big feed. Wow, thanks Jack & Barb.

 

The visit ends all too soon – I’m sure we could have found other problems on our other trailers to work on! Oh, we did. Donna was telling us her hot water had a terrible smell. Dianne came up with some bleach so, using the pump and the winterizing hose, we pumped bleach into the hot water tank to sanitize it. Now, I think next visit, we’ll have a list of items that we need done!

So, Friday morning our buds are hitching up and heading home. Barb & I host a ‘hitch up’ breakfast, not because we are nice, we just wanted to be sure they didn’t have a delay in leaving LOL :0)! Kidding of course. Our life is back to normal once again, Barb’s sewing centre set up and I get to get at some of our own trailer projects.

Wishing you well out there….