We Have Settled In SouthWest Ontario

Sorry for taking so long to post. But honestly, I have been busy.
While away from the blog I managed to acquire my AZ drivers license. For those that do not speak Ontarian Drivers License talk, that is a Class 1 license. I am now legal to drive one of those 18-wheelers down the open road.
I got my license in late August, and landed a job soon after.  But, alas, the company turned into a family business filled with scoundrels. They didn't pay me for work performed. So, I am on the hunt once again for a paying gig. No more volunteer driving positions for me. Funny, I don't remember saying I was working for free when I started there.
Oh well, live and learn.
Let me know if you are looking for a driver. Preference is long haul. I love the open road!!

Still Lovin' It Down In Upper Canada

I know it's been a while since last I blogged, but I am busy.
What am I doing that makes me so busy? Well, maybe I will fill you in soon.
Ward and I have been spending much time in the town of Stratford and surrounding areas. Yesterday, we took a trip on the sportster to Port Huron, just over the bridge from Sarnia, in Michigan. The ride was quite nice, and the water in Lake Huron was amazingly blue.

Our trip back across the bridge was another story, though. It was mid-afternoon and the sun was blazing. We paid our toll and proceeded along the very slow left lane designated for car traffic, on our way to Canadian Customs. The lane moved at a snails pace. It took one and a half hours to cross the bridge before getting to Customs, and it wasn't even a long weekend. It was just a regular Thursday afternoon. Boy I miss the short line-ups at Pembina, ND.
But once we cleared customs, we were back on the road, with wind blowing in our helmeted hair. We checked the map, and selected a nice side road to venture back to London for the night.
We have been hanging out mostly in the county of Perth, home to such towns as Mitchell, St Marys, and Stratford. The area is quite lovely, with rolling hills, that remind you of Mother England. There are many farms with sheep, goats, horses, and yes llama. I have never seen so many llamas in a single area as I have seen here. And, as always, I never have my camera with me when I come across all these animals.
I will leave you with a few pictures I have taken in the past couple of weeks.

This is downtown St Marys, where every building seems to be made of stone.

 

Shaggy Llama at Mitchell

 

Swans in the River Thames in the town of Stratford

 

A farm in Perth County, but not showing those wonderful rolling hills that are so prevalent in the area.

Time Spent In Cambridge

Ward and I spent a couple of weeks in the town of Cambridge. We didn't do much tourist stuff while there, mostly driving around doing the customer service job to make some spare change. But I must say, driving to these various restaurants and businesses we sure got to see a fair bit of the area.

Cambridge is a fairly new town, coming together in the mid 70's when the small towns of Galt, Preston, and Hespeler were amalgamated. This has left three wonderful older downtowns for us to drive through and enjoy. Unfortunately, I rarely had my camera with me while discovering these quaint areas.

The town of Cambridge also abuts Kitchener and Waterloo and is referred to as the tri-cities. But Cambridge is our favorite of the three cities. It just seems smaller and more laid back, and holds much of the charm of times gone by.

Our stay in Cambridge has been mostly at the Walmart, visiting Churchill Park to fill up on water, and take care of removal of grey and black water. The park provides a free service for dumping of septic water, which we are much appreciative.

Here are a few pictures I did manage to take before leaving town and heading for Stratford. They are mostly of the Galt area in Cambridge.

A bridge over the Grand River in downtown Galt, the largest of the three towns that make up the City of Cambridge.

Water Street, the main street on the East side of the Grand River in downtown Galt.

A walkway along the Grand River in Galt, very popular for people walking along the river-walk on their lunch breaks.

Another picture of the walkway along the Grand River in downtown Galt with trees in bloom.

A road going through an older residential area of Galt, with stone fencing along the sides of the road.

An older building in downtown Galt showing stone construction.  There are several buildings in the downtown area with very primitive looking stone and mortar construction.

 

Here is one of the many traffic circles we came across, mostly in Kitchener and Waterloo. This particular one is on Fountain Street going from Cambridge into Kitchener.

 

This building has a tree growing up the side of it. I can't wait to see what it looks like later in the summer when leaves  and flowers appear.

 

Dirt And Water And Sun, Oh My

I miss my garden. I have never had a great garden that would sustain me through the winter, but I like fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, etc. And I like to have flowers blooming in the yard. Usually by mid February I start my plants indoors by the window and watch them sprout. It gets me through the last legs of winter.

Well, this spring I made the decision that I am going to try and have a vegetable garden on the back of the RV. The motorcycle is off the rack, leaving a large flat surface of about 3 feet by 8 feet just sitting there waiting for something to go onto it. So, while we were getting pelted with ice and hail, and cold weather, I went into Walmart and bought the beginnings of my new garden.

The seedlings are beginning to sprout now, with the peas in the lead, followed closely by my cucumber plants. The cherry tomatoes are starting to come up, but no sign of the roma tomatoes yet. I am expecting them in the next few days.

As far as the logistics of setting them out on the back deck, I do not have any finalized plans. But that will unfold as the weather warms and the plants grow big enough to earn the right to be out there.

On a slightly different topic, I have started to build a water purifier. Since being in Ontario we have caught on that they charge a lot more for water than in the USA. We actually got used to paying $0.25 per gallon for water down there, and come up to the great white north and are getting charged 0.93 for a gallon of water. After the initial shock of the cost, I started checking out water filtering systems that we might install in the RV. I wanted one that would be able to treat the potable water we get at campgrounds, parks, and gas stations along the way. It it potable but not necessarily something we want to drink. So I want something more than just a Brita pitcher that goes in the fridge. You can get fancy osmosis systems for $500 (too expensive) or less expensive filter systems. Some have single filters, others use a double filter system, and they range in cost from $30 to $200. I started looking more closely at the basic filter systems and they are really just tubes and containers to run water through the different replacement filters available. And being cheap, I thought I could make my own filter case, and just buy the replacement filter.

Here is what I came up with:

I picked up the best filter (as far as I can see) that filters to 1 micron, and seems to take everything out of the water that these filters can. It cost me $30. Then I wanted to make sure I understood how the filter worked, so I ran water through the top, to make sure it moves slow enough through the filter. The guy at the hardware store said that was the key, the water should not be moving through the system too fast or it is not being properly filtered.

The first test worked, but I had to be very careful to not overfill the filter using the funnel. Next, I had to develop a way of pouring water into the top of the filter without having the unfiltered water pouring out the top of the filter. I had a hose adapter I picked up for a different project and never used. It was perfect for connecting to a pop bottle (using teflon tape to get a good seal), and screwing into the plastic on the top of the filter. The filter had no thread on it, so I created the thread while turning the hose adapter down into the top. It worked perfectly with just a slight leak. I need to put silicone around the edges and that should seal it up tight.

My next modification to this system is to pick up a patio pitcher with a water spout at the bottom of it. You know, like the ones people get for a lemonade stand. Then I simply have to pop the filter into the pitcher, run water through the top, and collect my clean water from the bottom spout. And I should be able to do that for free anytime I want drinkable water.

My new water filtration system has not been used yet though. I was thinking of getting the water tested, before and after, at some local company. After that, I would know for sure if the system is really working the way I think it is.

So, what do you think? Is it cabin fever or am I preparing for the apocalypse? Maybe I shouldn't tell you about the schematics I have for building my own solar panels. Oh, and my solar oven plans.

Is It Spring? Or What!

I know, it's nothing like the weather back home in Winnipeg. You have been getting snowed on non-stop this winter. And when it melts, sandbag season begins. But we are in an RV, and the outside temperatures affect us in a fairly immediate way, with our lack of insulation between us and the elements.

We entered Canada in Windsor, Ontario. It is two states down from Manitoba, and we figured it had to be warmer than Winnipeg. So, here we are, in Upper Canada. I know, the southern most part of Canada is called Upper Canada, what were they thinking when they named that! Anyway, we thought the weather would be nicer here. The weather.com website showed normal temperatures for April would be 50s F during the day, going down to freezing at night. That would be fine for a month, until temperatures warmed up. But that is not what we got, at least not every day. We did have a couple of nice days these past two weeks. But not every day. A lot of our time has been spent under blankets reading, watching tv, and surfing the internet.

Then came the past few days. The weather people started talking about freezing rain, and the possibility of snow. How bad could it be, really. We were in the quaint little town of Woodstock when we got that news, on our way to Kitchener. We had something to take care of in the small town of Drumbo overnight, so we stopped at the rest area / truck stop for the night there. That was when the ice storm hit.

Our RV got covered, head to foot, in ice. There were icicles hanging off every edge available. And the wind was howling. They said the winds would get up to 60 km. Well, after being in Corpus Christi a few months ago with 63 mph wind gusts, that would be a piece of cake. It didn't scare us. We simply parked into the wind and tucked in beside some of the semi trucks that lined the truck stop parking lot.

The next day was more of the same; more wind, more rain, and more ice. So Drumbo was were we spent another day. Then finally today temperatures warmed up to around 5 degrees celcius, and the ice began sliding off the RV.

We drove in to Kitchener, taking the more scenic roads cross country. The fields were beautiful, with hoarfrost covering everything. The signs along the side of the road all had 2-3 inches of icicles dripping off them as well. But the roads were wet and free of ice.

When we pulled into Kitchener some of the trees still had ice coating them, but by late afternoon that was a thing of the past.

We turned on the evening news, and found out we got away pretty lucky. The town of Waterloo, just down the road from us, seemed to get hit a little harder with the ice. Several trees had suffered from the heavy ice, loosing branches everywhere. Power was out in several areas as well, due to the ice build up on the power lines. I don't know how we manage to drive around these weather issues, but I am just glad we did.

We are finding Canada to be a bit of a strange country, and are having trouble adapting to it's strange ways. I still have to watch myself with the kilometers and not miles per hour for speed limit signs, and it doesn't help that the RV speedo is in miles. We are also getting lost a lot in these towns. I find road signs are not marked as well as they are in the States. The business route I was following in Chatham stopped advertising it's route number and the street changed it's name 4 times in 4 blocks downtown, as it turned corners (no exageration on that). In London, the street I was looking for had a different street name on google than it did in real life. And county roads have their county names on them. I was looking for Oxford Rd in one small town, googled it, and found two different roads called Oxford. It took me a while to figure out it was because Oxford was the name of the county, so every road was called Oxford Rd, along with the county road number. And when you follow a road that has an actual name, you have to watch out, because it changes it's name if it leaves the county. Google doesn't show the road numbers that correspond with the county road numbers, and the roads may or may not display the route or name you are looking for. So, now when I google directions somewhere, I make really good notes, and watch for all signs I can find. We are not getting lost as much now as when we first got here. What a strange country this Canada land is.

Oh, and we are having difficulty finding RV sewage dumps. I know it it's a gross topic, but the RV needs this service every week or so. The last dump we found was at the Flying J in London. But that was a week ago. The next closest Flying J is in Mississauga, and we are not going there. We could dump at a campground, but they are not open yet. And we could dump at the park in Cambridge, but it isn't open yet either. So far, Ontario is not very user friendly. I am sure I will come up with a solution to this latest issue we seem to find ourselves with.

But tomorrow will be nicer, going up to 9 degrees celcius, with 18 degrees on Monday.

Guess what, the bike is coming off the rack!!! And Ward could not be happier. I think tourist Rae is going to show up again as well. We'll be touring Kitchener in no time.

Welcome To Canada, Eh!

Well, we did it. We're in Canada now. After a final hour on the interstate going through Toledo, Ohio and Detroit, Michigan, I saw the sign for the route to Canada.

I drove us across the Ambassador Bridge, paid a hefty toll, and got us through customs, landing us in Windsor, Ontario.

As we were driving along the interstate today, Ward and I were recallling the 6 months we just spent in the States. Ward said his two best memories were Sunday Pickers Night in Luckenbach, and camping on the beach at Corpus Christi. I had to agree. Those were the best of times. In turning it into a top ten, here is my list:

1. Sunday pickers night in Luckenbach

2. camping on the beach at Corpus Christi

3. slowing down and relaxing in hill country around Menard and Junction

4. spending time with fellow travellors around Corpus Christi

5. meeting so many interesting characters throughout the jouney

6. getting to ride the motorcycle all winter

7. bird watching and seeing the whooping cranes at Goose Island State Park

8. history tour through Mississippi

9. tasting new foods in Louisiana, especially boudan

10. visiting the Texas state parks, especially riding the motorcycle through Palo Duro Canyon, swimming at Balmorhea, and climbing Enchanted Rock

Now to start a new chapter in the adventure, summer 2013 in Canada. It's back to work for me, starting my customer service gig in Ontario. And Ward is itching to get the motorcycle off the rack and back on the road after seeing so many Ontario motorcycles riding by today.

Our adventure up north is off to a good start already with temperatures going up to 12 degrees Celcius today (for all you Americans, that's about 54 degrees - double it and add 30). I must say I am having a bit of trouble myself with transitioning into the metric system. My first experience with it was a speed limit sign saying '60' as I entered Windsor. I started to accelerate when Ward pointed out that it was kilometers. Oops. I may have been speeding.

Gotta go, eh!

Springing Into Winter

After spending our first winter down south we are making our way back to Canada. We have already had our first snowfall while in Leitchfield, Kentucky. The nights go down below freezing and some days are not much better.

As we pick up the pace to make it back to Canada, we are travelling along the interstate. Our preference has always been to take the back roads and enjoy the slower pace and small town views. But we are on a mission and just want to get through this snow belt between Kentucky and Ontario. So, interstate it is.

I managed to make it through Cincinnati travelling on I-75. The highway is four lanes across and full of traffic. But as you make your way over the Ohio River, the interstate narrows, and I swear the lanes narrowed themselves. The road curved as it went under other freeways above. It felt like going through a tunnel. A very fast moving tunnel. But the road soon widened out again, expanding back to four lanes, but never slowed it's pace. It is not the slow, relaxing drive that I am used to.

We drove through Cincinnati and stopped at the Walmart in Dayton, right along the highway. My Rand McNally Road Atlas said the Walmart was at exit 60, so I passed by exit 59 excitedly awaiting the next exit a mile down the road. Well, it never happened. But there was an exit at mile 61, so I took it, even though it said it was headed west to the airport or east to Columbus. I went west. It was another freeway, not an exit to the Walmart. No problem, I will take the first exit up the road and go back south. Well that didn't happen. The next exit was another highway going to the airport. Geez. I went a couple miles down the road to find another highway. Ok, I took it and went east. Are you lost yet? I was pretty sure I was. But I ended up back on the original interstate I-75 and headed back south to take exit 59. I was never so happy to pull into the Walmart parking lot as I was last night. That was a bit hair raising. Oh, and check out the piles of snow we found in the parking lot.

Along with the piles of snow in the parking lots in Dayton, we found our migratory friends, the Canada Geese. I guess we are not the only ones feeling it is time to head north.

This morning we headed north again, and soon found snow lying in the fields. The area is definitely colder than it had been the day before. The snowy fields and colder temperatures did not stay for long, probably only 10-20 miles. By the time we got outside Bowling Green, Ohio there was no snow to be seen.

Tomorrow we head for Detroit and on to Windsor. I must say I am not looking forward to the drive through another large eastern city on the interstate, but it can't be helped. I'll have a look at the maps before heading out, so I will know what to expect. And I'll be prepared for any and all toll roads that Detroit throws at me. But most of all, tomorrow this time we will be in Canada. Then we can start our next 6 month journey in our own country.

We're Having A Snow Day

That's right, it's snowing. We are in the middle of Kentuky, in Leitchfield at the Walmart. I had a look at the weather before heading out from Clarksville, TN yesterday and Leitchfield had no weather advisories posted. Clarksville would be experiencing high winds from thunderstorms coming up from the Gulf of Mexico, and Louisville and Elizabethtown Kentuky both had advisories for the winter storm to the north. But Leitchfield was advisory free.

It was raining yesterday for part of our drive, and we made it to town incident free, then got ready for some overnight snow. We were expecting 1-3" of snow and woke up to a light covering on the ground and on top of vehicles. Nothing we can't handle. Of course the furnace went on yesterday evening, and a thick layering of blankets were on the bed.

It started snowing again this morning, melting as it hit the ground, and any snow that had fallen over the night has since disappeared. Temperatures for the day are expected to go up to a whopping 38 degrees, so we have staying put and having a snow day.

Our day is filled with pumpkin pie and hot chocolate, reading a good book and staying under the covers. The rugs are back on the floor, and the furnace has been running non-stop since we turned it on again this morning. It's been a long time coming, this is our first snowfall of the winter season.

Tomorrow we will be headed north again, destination Elizabethtown or Louisville, weather depending of course. And if temperatures rise high enough we may do a little more touristy stuff. We just have to make sure to cross the winter snowfall path before the next storm comes our way. We are hoping to enter Canada via Windsor by April 1.

Wish us luck.

More Food In Memphis

We are on a roll. After getting the catfish, fried green tomatos and peach cobbler in Clarksdale, we had to hit Memphis and pick up some more great southern food.

Our first stop was on Elvis Presley Blvd at a gas station we stumbled upon a few years back. They had the best fried chicken I have ever had. So, I managed to locate the place again. When I googled it, I found it was known for it's food. The place was called Dodge's Chicken Store and had quite a selection of good old southern fried foods. While Ward was filling the RV with gas I was inside selecting our treats. I got a chicken breast and a smoked turkey leg. Then I asked the woman at the counter about an odd item in the deli case. She said it was deep fried corn on the cob. Well ya! I got one of those as well.

We pulled over down the road at the information center and had the chicken and corn. The corn was cooked perfectly with a fried batter that was a bit spicy but very tasty. And the chicken was as great as I remember. It was cooked properly, not like KFC, with great crispy batter, and was huge. Then we had to take a few bites of the smoked turkey leg. That was about all we could manage for our lunch, and the turkey leg went into the fridge.

The next stop was Beale Street. I found a great parking spot about a block off Beale Street and we did a quick walk down the street. Then off we went in search of our very favorite BBQ joint ever, Le Rendevous.

Le Rendevous, which is located on General Washburn Escape Alley in Memphis, across from the Peabody Hotel, is a must stop when in town. They have the best BBQ ever. But we had already eaten and would not have room for the BBQ. Instead, we dropped in to get a bit of takeout food. We got an order of red beans and rice and a pint of coleslaw. They have the best coleslaw I have ever had. It has a bit of a bite to it, with an orange tinge to the dressing.

Then we were on our way out of town. Except, as we were passing Beale Street on the way to the RV we heard a marching band on the street. How could we leave now. Back we went onto Beale to take in the free show on the street.









That was a nice surprise. I'm glad I was able to capture it on video. Ward and I are going to enjoy all the videos I have taken since Corpus Christi when we dug the video recorder out.

We stayed in Bartlett, TN just east of Memphis for the night, then headed north-east along hwy 76. Tonight we are in Clarksville, TN, about 5 miles from the Kentuky border. We will be moving north as the weather allows.

All Historied Out, Time For Some Catfish And Blues

Since we hit the Brazosport Area in Texas we have been taking in the history of each area we have visited. But I am now all historied out. I don't want to read another plaque or visit another museum. Today, I just want music and food. So, we are off to Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale Mississippi.

Ground Zero is a blues bar in downtown Clarksdale dedicated to keeping Delta Blues alive. It is partially owned by Morgan Freeman, and we chose this joint to relax for an evening of blues and some good food. They have music every Wednesday thru Saturday, so we made sure we came through town on a night when there would be live music.

When we got to town we dropped by the club to ensure there was music playing that night and find out what time the band started. We were told 8pm, and Steve Kolbus and the Clarksdale Blues Revue would be playing. They are a local group and we were told they were very good. So, we went for a walk around the downtown, had a bit of a rest, then headed to Ground Zero for dinner and an evening of entertainment.

After looking at the menu we found there were a few things we wanted, but did not want to order too much food. Our waitress Tina was great. She helped us put together a couple of plates of food with exactly what we wanted to try. We shared an order of catfish, and had fried green tomatoes along with it, and shared a small coleslaw. It was great, and the portions were exactly enough for the two of us.

 

We met another couple who were travelling in a camper van during the day, and they joined us after we had finished eating. They were actually in the joint for dinner a little earlier in the evening. They arrived back just in time for the music to start.















Our waitress, Tina, talked us into a peach cobbler. Again, a great choice. What a great night. Great music, wonderful food, and good company. We stayed until quite late listening to the band. The joint was filled with tourists, most staying for the entire evening.

Earlier in the day when we were wandering through downtown, we were approached by Steve Kolbus, the lead singer of the band. He gave us a handbill and invited us to Ground Zero. He was going all over town rounding up everyone on the streets and getting them to come to the club for an evening of music. The results were that the place was filled with people from all over the world. We had tourists from New Jersey, Colorado, Florida, Canada, Australia, Holland, Norway, England, and France. Clarksdale is the birth place of Delta Blues, bringing people from all over the world there to enjoy real homegrown blues.

We finished our visit to Clarksdale with a picture of  'The Crossroads' at the corner of Hwy 61 and 49. One of the locals said The Crossroads was more of an idea than a true story. He also said it was not actually Robert Johnson who started the legend of The Crossroads, but his brother.

Murals of Vicksburg

It's spring, or at least it will be on Thursday. Anyway, what I was getting at is that we are travelling north through Mississippi and along the infamous 'tornado alley'. That means we have to keep an eye on the weather in case things go terribly awry. We have been watching the news each day and making sure we check the weather. Well, every day except Sunday night / Monday morning. We were in Natchez and didn't get any real TV stations to watch the news. We did get some weather channel that showed local temperatures, but no real weather forcasts or national overviews. I didn't think it was that big of a deal, and we got on with our lives, doing the tourist thing and travelling north to Vicksburg.

All was well until we were about half an hour from Vicksburg. The clouds started rolling in. Not just any clouds, but the dark ominous ones. And the wind was picking up a bit with wind gusts. Then the skies got dark. The clouds were not too bad directly over us, but I could see something developing ahead of us. We tried to get a radio station to get an update on the weather so we could make a decison whether we were stopping in Vicksburg or going further north to aviod bad weather. No luck.

We pulled into Vicksburg and stopped in the Walmart parking lot. The lot was wet with puddles left from a recent rainfall. And the nasty clouds were moving east. Ward turned the TV on and we were able to get a decent TV station right away. As soon as we tuned in the station we heard the weather alerts. There were serious thunderstorms threatening in the area until 9pm, with chance of large hail and possibility of tornados. Soon after we got coverage of egg sized hail in Jackson, Mississippi, which is about 50 miles east of Vicksburg.

I got the computer out and checked the weather.com website to get a better idea of weather on it's way. The doplar radar showed the worst of it had already passed Vicksburg. For the next few hours I kept an eye on the doplar radar to ensure nothing bad was developing, as the weather alert was still in place until 9pm. We were lucky to have totally missed the weather system that came through the area, and I was seriously irritated with the stupid weather station we were watching that morning and the previous night. You would think they would give a little warning on serious weather coming through. But no, not a word.

Since having that close call with the weather I have started paying more attention to the doplar radar, wind directions, temperature fronts and changes. I am becoming my own weather analyst as we make our way up tornado alley. And we have been given a bit of a heads up that there may be some bad weather coming through the area on Thursday or Friday this week. I will be watching as it developes to try and direct our travels around it.

In the meantime we took in a bit of tourist stuff in Vicksburg today before leaving for Greenville. I had a look at the tourist information we had on hand and decided to check out the historic murals on display on the seawall down by the Mississippi River in downtown Vicksburg.



When we got downtown I found a parking spot on Washington St where I could see the murals down by the waterfront. As I got out of the RV I saw one of the Mississippi Blues plaques. It was the '61 Highway' plaque. Highway 61, the one we travelled on from Natchez to Vicksburg is famous for blues music.

Then as we started walking toward the murals I noticed some hitching posts along the side of the road on Washington Street.

Beside a couple of these hitching posts there were fancy water troughs. Have a look. There is not just one trough on each of these posts, they are at varying heights all around the posts.

 





We finally made it down to the waterfront and saw the long line of murals painted along the seawall. There were a total of 35 murals. For an idea of the scale of these murals, have a look at the edge of the seawall gate here. It must be eight or ten feet tall.

Here is a sample of the many murals painted on the seawall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After leaving Vicksburg we went back down Highway 61 up to a town called Rolling Fork. We turned off Highway 61 to hook up with the Old River Road, Highway 1, for a slower and more scenic drive into Greenville. But before we could get onto the Old River Road we had to stop in the town of Rolling Fork for another one of those Mississippi Blues plaques. This time it was Muddy Waters.

 

 

Well, that's it for now folks.