Before we left Toronto we had a 1 day visit first with Susan and Rick in Bobcaygeon and then a 1 day visit with Bern and Dale in Peterborough. This picture (if it works) is of Bern and Dale - we are about to enjoy a wonderful dinner of leftovers! Flank steak and salata Batata. Yum

Hooray, I'm finally able to blog again

Hi to any followers. My apologies for not blogging since early May. Much has happened since then, including getting this new lap top which has until today flummoxed me about getting access to update the blog. So here we are in Swift Current Saskatchewan! We left Toronto on the 30th of May and went to Bolton and then on to North Bay, well really Powassan for a visit with Tammy and Summer. Then we carried on through Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie to Wawa. Next day we skirted around the top of Lake Superior and missed Thunder Bay entirely on the bypass and carried on to Dryden. The excitement in Dryden was that the Hydro folks turned the hydro off to the entire town at 7:00 Am on the Sunday morning. Luckily we were still on Ontario time and so up an hour early to cope without power. No restaurants open for breakfast so luckily our hotel had planned ahead and had carafe's of coffee and muffins. Easy drive to Winnipeg - stopped at Falcon Lake and the mosquitos were just as bad as we remembered from 30 years ago. Great visit with Laurie's relatives. Aunty Melvie is a remarkably young 85 year old - and we really enjoyed dinner with her and the family. (Karen and Jamie, John, Max and Alice). Its amazing how much those kids have grown in 3 years! Slow start today, but we continued through Regina, Moose Jaw and now here in Swift Current. Next I will try some pictures! We are off to Oyen Alta tomorrow and then on to Okotoks for tomorrow night.

Day 6 ending in Spokane, Washington

Day 6 was a looooonnnnnggggg drive. On the road by 8:30, then 837 km luckily in perfect sunshine. Here in Spokane it is positively hot! Had to dig out my shorts at last. The drive from Billings to Butte is very pleasant. Rolling hills, perfect highway, very little traffic. The mountain passes from Butte over to Spokane were more challenging for me (Barb) as I feel less confident at the speed of curves when rocketing down hill. I think I have more curls and perhaps more gray! But it really wasn't bad, and probably kept me on my toes! Looks like this might be the last camp night as we hope to be in Vernon tomorrow night and then head down to White Rock on Wednesday or Thursday. So far we have done 3942 kilometers, probably 1 day's drive if we went to White Rock via Seattle but we will take 2 to go via Vernon to see Mum and Dad

Billings, Montana

Had a slow start today. The KOA was serving all you could eat pancakes and bacon and eggs so we stopped for that. Then we had to fuel up and pump up a tire, away by 9:30 MDT Beautiful, easy drive - no traffic and blue skies. The dry old hillsides were actually quite green and even velvety from a distance. Saw deer and lots of cattle. Lots and lots of uninhabited space. Very pleasant here at the campsite, in shirtsleeves for the first time in several days. We are alongside the Yellowstone River. Looks like we will try to do two long days tomorrow and Tuesday to end up in Vernon by Tuesday night. Down to White Rock on Thursday morning for sure. Laurie is anxious to have the pod delivered. Glad my May 4th comment made Graeme happy - perhaps he's my only follower!

May the 4th be with you!

Hi to any followers. We started out the day in pouring rain and a brutal head wind heading due north towards Sioux Falls. there was evidence of recent snow falls but there was no snow on the roads Thankfully. As we rounded the turn and headed west on I -90 the weather began to clear and ended here in Rapid City, S.D. with sunshine. Lots of people in shorts so it must have been warmer but cool now. Went out for dinner and a few groceries. Truck behaving well, Barb and Laurie not behaving at all! Played the alphabet game forwards and backwards. We drove through the S.D. Badlands as we love that territory. It's quite spectacular. Took some pictures but haven't been able to get them from Laurie's cell to this blog. So sorry to be so boring. Cribbage again tonight. We have been very fair, we switch winners every night!

Day 3 now in Iowa, between Omaha and Sioux City

Here we are at another KOA in Onawa, Iowa. The day started in pouring rain and proceeded to gallons of rain, and then finally cleared. We passed through areas that were white with recent snowfalls, so I guess we are glad that we only had to deal with rain. We bypassed Moscow and even crossed the Mississippi which looked like it was flooding it's banks. We were on the road about 8 hours, about 7 actually travelling. Did 666 kilometers. The best part was heading north from Omaha to the campsite -smooth sailing. Earlier in the day we had a lot of cross wind so the truck was like riding a bronco - all over the road. Saw lots of windmills, fertile but very wet fields. We have been enjoying a bunch of old, I mean really old, cassette tapes from our youth. Everything from Joan Baez to Bob Dylan and Abba. Good times, good vibes. All going very well. Except tonight we are out of Frozen youghurt!

Day 2 of travelling now finished. We have had a beautiful sunny day and streamed past Chicago without difficulty. Past Ottawa and now in Peru, Illinois. Just after we arrived at the campsite the thunder and rain arrived. No worries as we had picked up a rotisserie'd chicken and salads so had a great dinner. Completed another 578 km today, now a total of 1051. We are still talking to each other, played the alphabet game x3 today. 20% of the trip done - Yahoo. On to Sioux Falls tomorrow.

Happy May 1st. Here we are near Flint Michigan. Yesterday was pretty exciting. We finished emptying and cleaning the house and took piles of garbage and recyclables to the top of the driveway. Good thing it was garbage day! Then we went to get a new tire for the truck. They had ordered the wrong one on Saturday and then told us on Monday that it would take until Friday to get the right tire! We prevailed, paid more money and they had a new tire for us and installed it on Tuesday morning. We picked up our health summaries from Dr. El Khouley and wandered over to get hair cuts. Still no call from the lawyers office. Finally heard from Real Estate Agent (Leslie Price) and from new owner and from lawyers office to say that the purchasers had had a snag at their bank. Head office had not sent a letter to branch office to release the funds.... Finally at about 5:00 we got the call from the lawyer, the deal was done! Yahooo. Money now in bank and Barb and Laurie jumped in truck and headed to Leisure time - a campsite on Highway 9. Then we drove over to Orangeville, had dinner at Kelseys thanks to some generous people. Back to our campsite and we both had a realllllly good sleep. Today we drove through Sarnia to Flint, Michigan and here we are at a KOA. Saw 5 dead deer on roadside, border crossing uneventful, Barb survived driving 437 kilometers in 5 hours -beautiful weather (hot in fact), lots of traffic leaving Toronto but no problems. So far so good! PS - having issues with pictures. Cell phones not liking US systems.

testing pictures

This is a picture of the tulips that Marilyn gave us. Just trying to figure out how to move the picture to the blog.

Getting back into the blogosphere

We are packing up and moving out. Will be on the road in two weeks so wanted to try blogging and doing pix before we head out.