-8 C and 17 Degrees F-

I haven't been blogging lately as there isn't much to blog about other than the cold weather and I'm sure you all don't need to hear about how cold it is here.


Ossumer moved from the front driveway to the back driveway on Sunday. We have been busy, unloading winterizing and reloading him to be ready to head south. We took everything off (you know how things pile up over the summer and you never know what is truly in there)..all the clothes and linens etc. 

Ossumer resting among the foliage -ready to head out -pointed in the right direction I must add













Rick needed to find a way to keep the main power cord out of the snow-we sure don't want to have to dig it out come roll out time-so I'm down one storage bin as you can see. 

We reorganized and reloaded all the linens and clothing in preparation for the 'South', and then moved him around back to his resting place until we can finally take off. We are anticipating being on the road on Dec. 27th-and praying hard for good weather. The only things left to load are the food items, and some personal last minute things. I think we are ready. The bed is dressed in warm fuzzy fleece sheets, an electric blanket and lots of quilts. The fuel tank is full, the alignment is done, and the propane is topped off.


The furkids are ready to roll. Their medical kit is all packed and their paper work in order. We took them to the vet last Wednesday. Lilly needed a lyme shot and tucker was due for all his shots. Tuck man had a major reaction to the shots and went into anaphylaxis shock on us. Talk about scary..this is one of my main fears with shots. We've experienced this a few years back with one of our show goldens-so I am always on the look out for it to happen. Normally it happens within 15 minutes of being inoculated-we were at the vet office for almost 40 minutes after the shots waiting for the bill (ughh) and travel paperwork and we thought whew all is ok.


Upon leaving the parking lot he yelped in the backseat I turned to look and he was starting to swell. We immediately ran him right back in (talk about happening fast)..they raced him off to a back room and administered antidote needles-we stayed out in the waiting room for another hour or so to ensure he was going to be ok. Thank God those antidote needles work fast. His dear little face was all swollen and his back fur was standing up straight as hives were popping out everywhere. Thankfully he is ok, but his lips were still swollen the next day. I was very concerned about taking them across the border without lyme inoculation but I'm thinking next time we will skip that part for sure. We are so thankful we were not back at home when this reaction reared its ugly head~as I'm not sure we would have made it back to the vet office in time.

See Everyone I'm Back to Normal and doing OK

So now we prep for Christmas, the grands will be coming this weekend for a night and we will put up our little tree (no room for the big one since we've downsized), village and lights etc. They will be excited to decorate our little home and make christmas cookies I'm sure. Thankfully they both have decided to forego the Santa Clause Parade stating it is too cold and they sure don't like being cold. And frankly neither do we but we would have taken them if they wanted to go.


I am somewhat struggling to keep up with my blog reading and am finally caught up - and it seems you are all doing well and are all safe, happy to hear the estate sale went well for Paul and Marti, and hopefully they will both feel better soon. Our hearts go out to John and Peggy due to their recent troubles-but good to see they are still moving on. And happy to see that the rest of you who are already "there" are safe and sound and enjoying the weather. Karen is handling the cold very well cranking out socks on a daily basis it seems-Kevin and Ruth are having a blast-and Rick is sure enjoying his sunshine! Contessa and Colin are almost done the renos-and The Bayfield bunch are in the valley of Fires. Brenda and JB are 'horsing' around and having a blast.


Tomorrow we are forecasted to receive 15-25 cms of snow...yuck!!


Take care all, I just wanted to leave a quick update-to show we are still here and anticipating leaving in late December. But like the RV life plans are always set in Jello. Be safe out there!

Home is where you park it

"May your day be filled with blessings like the sun that lights the sky~and may you always have the courage to spread your wings and fly"

A Lesson Learned Thrust Angle

Up early this AM to take Ossumer to have the alignment done. At the door at 8:00am and right into the bay. Two guys started pulling the chrome wheel covers and attaching their equipment to each wheel. It wasn't long before the computer screen started to show some numbers that meant nothing to me at the time. The guys were really nice and started explaining the numbers to me and indicated that the biggest problem was my rear axel “Thrust Angle”  at –37deg it should be between – 6 and +6. OK sound good but what does that mean? It means that the back wheels are not at 90 deg to the frame like they are supposed to be and that the axel has to be moved back to correct the problem. My brain starts to see Big job big $ especially after they tell me they cannot see anyplace to adjust the axel. They find the ID tag on the axel unit and get the part number off it and go to the office to look up the specs and return in a couple of minutes and tell me they have the answers to adjusting it. Well about 45 minutes later they have the numbers on the screen showing +4 deg well within the limits for thrust angle. Now they have to do the front end apparently you should not even consider adjustments to the front until the back is correct. The front toe was adjusted within 20 minutes and they started cleaning up the equipment and I went to the office to pay the damages. I was very happy with the invoice for $172.00 for 2 guys for a total of 4hrs and 20min shop supplies, welding and cutting torch.

Now you might ask why did I have it in for alignment? When we picked the rig up back in June in Ontario and started back for NB I wasn't totally happy with the handling but hey I had been driving a Workhorse Chassis for the last 3 years and they are no sports car when it comes to handling and this felt real good compared to that and maybe I just needed to spend a few miles getting familiar with Ossumer. Well since June we put about 4000 miles on and was not 100% happy with handling especially in grooved pavement so decided we should have the alignment verified. I waited almost 2 years with the previous rig and ruined 2 tires by doing so and put up with a lot of white knuckle driving. I only had about 6 miles driving back home today and none of that highway and no crosswind but I could feel a real difference in the handling.

Since we were out and about with the rig we made a stop at CTC ( Canadian tire Store for our American friends) and had the propane tank topped off not bad at $31.00 since June. The only thing left was the diesel tank was showing below 1/4 full so a stop was made at Petro Can and that tank was filled up for only $358.00  ( $1.37 a litre) hopefully the next fill will be stateside and be a little better price. Ossumer is back home in the driveway and ready to roll if his owners will get their stuff loaded and their butts in the seats.

Time moves along one day at a time

Its been 2 weeks today since I had my procedure done to fix my hernia and I have been under the watchful eye of my dear wife to not do anything to damage the wonderful work that was performed. Well that pretty well limits one to what they can do to pass the time.
Does anybody have any idea how many RV type blogs there are ? I am still finding new ones. Google Maps has provided me the mileage to various locations south of the “medicine line” ( JB) and street views of all major intersections and entrances to RV parks. Have no idea now where to go they all look like good destinations. It will be South to start with but then do we head west (Arizona maybe) or stay with the East coast (Florida) has still to be determined.
RV Park Reviews goes hand in hand with Google maps just by searching for campgrounds in maps you can get all the names of campgrounds in a area and then you can check them out in RV Park reviews and in there if you have lots of time ( I do) you can look at older reviews as well.
When the blogs have been read the map has been checked and the campground selected what is left? Well there are the forums like RVNet, IRV2, and each of those alone have various sections that have to be browsed on a daily basis, never know when someone will need to know how to dump their black tanks or what kind of toilet paper they should use.
Now when the brain goes into information overload there is always walking of which we have been trying to do every day and we have been having beautiful weather for getting outside 15C and sunny today.
Sunday was a wonderful sunny day so Elaine and I decided it was time to get out and see something different for a change. There has been a major project about 30km south of us to build a wind farm and we have tried before to find it but failed. We loaded the furkids in the car and took off on an adventure into the backwoods and hills of Albert Co in search of the big windmills.  

Kent Hills Wind Farm

We found them along with some left over snow from the storm that went up the east coast a week ago. We ended up driving about 130km and seeing some of the beautiful countryside right here in our own backyard. Having worked for the telephone company for many years I had built pole lines and ran cable on most of these back roads but that was a few years ago and had a little trouble navigating the area but we made it back home.
Tomorrow for excitement we are taking Ossumer to have his front end alignment done that should take up a couple of hours and when that is finished on our way home we will have the propane and diesel tanks topped off, then he will be all ready to hit the road. Hopefully we will make it back home by 4:00PM so we can watch Dr. Phil. Sound like a fun filled day?

Sunning our BUNS !!! Important Reminder Folks!

Yup some of us are 'sunning' our buns at our stix and bricks and its not me!!!

Its Master "Tucker"...hanging over the back of the sofa having a snooze and sunning his buns!!! 

I have been chatting with other RV friends, some are heading south, some are already there, and some are anticipating travel within the next few weeks (us included I hope).


Please everyone- I want to take this opportunity to remind you all to check your detectors and make SURE they are in working order. It can be chilly this time of year-we have the furnaces and propane fireplaces etc running in our rigs. And generators -if we are in extreme cold or heat and are boondocking.  I've recently spoken to a few folks who have unplugged and unhooked their detectors because they were beeping etc. Repair, replace if necessary and above all test your detectors. It is not worth the risk being without them. They are 'lifesavers' to say the least.


Remember the five bikers at a rally last year that didn't wake up in the morning. They were running a generator and the carbon monoxide leaked and sadly I don't think there was a working detector on board. It is a silent killer. 


Your propane and Co2 detectors need to be high on the top of your priority list for maintenance. They all have an expiry date so check that out also.


Propane is one of the most convenient, energy efficient, portable fuels available. Spring a leak and its also one of the most harzardous problems you'll have to deal with in your RV. Same goes for carbon monoxide folks. 




So please everyone take five minutes to test, repair and be sure to replace your detectors if necessary-personally I wouldn't be caught dead without them.


And remember to turn your clocks back tonight :)

Take care all and be safe out there!! 

Home is where you park it

"May your day be filled with blessings like the sun that lights the sky~and may you always have the courage to spread your wings and fly"

Happy Halloween and Patient Update!!

Happy Halloween from Lilly and Tucker!!

I've spent most of the evening trying to catch up on all my blog reading..it is so nice to be back home. Rick is resting and recovering. I'm doing my best with the nagging to keep him laying low but I have to say its not an easy job. He is doing very well and I have to say he truly is a good patient, as long as I nag. Something of which I am not very good at - but I'm learning. 


We geared up for a lot of ghosts and goblins this evening but only had 3. I remember when we used to have 300. I miss the little ones and the cute costumes.

A visit from the 'grands' is always a pick me up

Caitlin and Hannah

I am very tired from the trip and have not slept well since we left home on the 24th, and I feel like I'm coming down with a nasty cold. Mind you the nasty rain and snow from yesterday doesn't help one feel too chipper.


The furkids were extremely happy to see me yesterday when I went to pick them up from the sitter's. I was very worried about them returning home and jumping all over Rick but it is like they knew something was up with Daddy and they were very gentle with him.


Shouldice Hospital is the place to go for hernia surgery. They definitely know what they are doing, and have all their ducks in a row. They perform 34-35 of these surgeries daily. I did feel they maybe gave Rick too many drugs..he was high for the whole day. The procedure is performed under a local which is probably a good thing. He sure doesn't remember anything. They gave him 2 atavan, 1 oxycotton, gravol and 2 percocets. No wonder he didn't remember anything. This is a man who hardly ever takes even a tylenol. He has been managing the pain level since with tylenol and hasn't taken any since Saturday. 

Hey --it worked for "Big Momma" 

Betcha they didn't do Big Momma the Olive Baboon with a local

I stayed with my cousin Alice and her husband Russ and I was treated like a queen. It was nice to be able to visit with them. I was chauffeured  daily to the hospital to visit Rick- over an hour away. Everyone should have family like mine. 


 I wrestled the doctor on Wednesday to let Rick out on Thursday-yup I turned on the charm -and it worked. So we had a couple of good days with them before we flew back home on Saturday evening. 


Now is recovery time, then we will plan to head south. We have company arriving for christmas so it will be the end of December by the time we haul out of here. 


It is nice to finally catch up on all of you-it is amazing how much you miss the blog reading during times like this. Take care all and stay safe. Time to go watch Rick eat all the left over candy.

Home is where you Park it

"May your day be filled with blessings like the sun that lights the sky~and may you always have the courage to spread your wings and fly"

We are Home !

We landed back in Moncton last evening at 11:30pm. Rick is doing very well and we are both definitely happy to be home.

Its been a long week..but now that is behind us...its onto healing and planning. My biggest problem will be keeping him 'down' during the healing time~I fear I will have to become a nag..don't do this, don't do that , don't be lifting etc etc..I think I can handle the job.

I hope to catch up on all the blog of the past week within the next few days..take care everyone

home is where you park it

"May your day be filled with blessings like the sun that lights the sky~and may you always have the courage to spread your wings and fly"

Surgical Update

Just a quick note to let you know we arrived safe and sound on Monday in Toronto, Rick was admitted to hosp early afternoon. ..his surgery was early yesterday morning..and all went well...thank you all for your emails etc..of pray and good wishes. He should be released from hospital on Friday if all goes well and we will head back to New Brunswick on Saturday..take care all and I will update again as the week goes on...

home is where you park it...

May your day be filled with blessings like the sun that lights the sky~and may you always have the courage to spread your wings and fly

A Technical Question!!

I know I should be packing and running around like a chicken with my head cut off-heavens knows there are a million things to do before we leave early Monday morning..but I am desperately trying to catch up on my blog reading. And we have accomplished a lot so far..
The MH is winterized..checked over and ready to roll out at a moments notice-Rick's suitcase is packed-the airline tickets are printed off-a big birthday supper is almost prepared for a friend and her family who will arrive in a couple of hours....the furkids are packed and ready to go to the sitter's tomorrow-aww my todo list is getting smaller..thankfully.


Now onto my technical question..I just know one of my blog friends will have the answer..I've checked the blogger help section but cannot find any reference there.


How do you put a gadget on your blog that will show you "when" and who are "new" followers. I never know when we receive a new follower and I'd love to be able to say thank you and welcome-plus I'd like to be able to follow them if they have a blog.


Thats it- thats my question..looking forward to your answers..have a super duper Saturday..


home is where you park it..

The Verdict is In !!!!

We just received notification from the Hospital in Ontario that all of Rick's pre op tests results are good and the surgery is a go on the 25th.....!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have a super day everyone!

Home is where you park it~