Month: June 2025

To Ontario and beyond.

From Chicago it really is only a short hop to our little secret spot outside Paris, Ontario and our ever patient and generous hosts who allow us to tuck in behind their barn when we visit.

Ontario treated us to some impressive stormy weather ………

…… a gentle introduction to the summer heat….a catch up with a dance at AIM dance studio…..

….a little bit of tree surgery to make space for us to pull out without sacrificing anything on the roof …..

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a trip to Buffalo,NY for the Allentown Arts Festival…..

No pictures of any of the art work cos this is a juried art festival with many unique artisans. Definitely worth the visit as art festivals go..!!

…and of course, the opportunity to drop in and visit with some people. If we missed you on this visit we will catch you next time.

A long time friend moved house to a little place just south of Windsor, Ontario allowing us to break our journey as we headed south. Boy oh boy its humid in that area…but beautiful and lush.

First morning we woke to the plague of fish flies that are apparently a local phenomenon…..the whole sde of the trailer, truck and every house in the neighbourhood was covered….

We stayed a couple of nights to admire her new place and the landscape around Amherstberg, Leamington area, then headed on down across the Ambassador Bridge for a return visit to one of our favourite Boondockers Welcome hosts just north of Columbus, Ohio. Thanks Din…great to see you.

It was a little warm in Ohio…..the cat has begun his summer shed..(he much prefers travelling in the truck on days like this)

One little creepy chap stowed away and made it to Ohio without the AC…!!

But he is not coming with us to Kentucky…!!!

Extra Pix

Deja vu….all over again.

Starting the process of planning our route east for this years’ travel it became apparent we would be in the US over Memorial day weekend…so threw an inquiry out there to see if an invite could be arranged back to the party we accidentally found ourselves at last year. Cathy and Russ, our Boondockers Welcome hosts in Crete, Illinois responded positively..so the end date of the journey was set…I just had to fill in the dates in between.

This spot was the perfect jump off for us last year as we tackled Route 66.….and explored some of the tourist features of lakefront Chicago. Scott was soooo disappointed last year when ‘the Bean’ was shrouded in construction tarps and fences ( for maintenance and repairs to the walkways)….so here was a chance to go back and actually see it this time.

So…a year on from the epic journey of 2024…..we found ourselves back in Chicago’s Millennium Park on Memorial Day.

……and able to walk, unimpeded, right up to the Bean. (The ultimate selfie spot…!!!)

Last year, after walking over to the sign at the official beginning of Route 66 to take the picture, we had booked the tour at the Frank Lloyd Wright House and Studio, only to find that our path was completely blocked as State Street along with all its’ immediate side streets had been closed for the Memorial Day Parade.

This year with time to spare, we walked up to watch the parade itself….stopping, of course, to take that picture of the sign again…..and for some arty shots of the ‘L’ tracks. (with a few shuddering memories of being jammed in traffic there last year)

The side streets were all blocked off using the city snow plough fleet….!!!

….and could not miss the opportunity to take some pictures of the main street in downtown Chicago at noon on a Saturday…!!!

Yes…me in the turquoise shirt…!!!

We were not quite sure what to expect of the parade……but it turned out to be a very impressive display of marching bands and junior ROTCs

…….there were many groups from neighbouring states….

….and an overwhelming sense of respect from the onlooking crowd…..

….it seemed like each individual youth group were wearing identical, highly polished, black patent leather shoes……that’s a lot of shoes….!!!

And of course…the highlight of this stop….the Drunkin’ Seagull. A really terrific group of people…and more than a few laughs were had. Scott was appointed to hoist the sign for this years’ official season opening…..

Many thanks again Russ and Cathy….we will see you again soon…!!! 😊

EXTRA PIX

Answering the call of highway once more.

With warmer weather and the snow melted off the driveway, the time was approaching to pull that big silver beast forward and load her up for another summer of fun and frolics.

A little wiser after the problems and ‘on the fly’ fixes at the beginning of last year we had been on a little shakedown trip to Aspen Crossing again. A fun weekend with some folks we met last year ….and the check that all systems were go and nothing was leaking (last year it seemed like everything was leaking…LOL)

I can’t believe that we completely failed take any pictures …!!!

So back to pulling the trailer forward to load up….

..as we pulled forward one of the tires deflated a bit more with every revolution……

A four inch nail was sunk deep into the tire…..bear in mind this was at 4pm on the Friday of a long weekend. We quickly called the local tire shop and they (fortunately) were still open…we just had to get the wheel off and get it to them.

A chance to try out the ‘lego block’ levellers instead of jacking……it worked a treat…crisis averted.

I had booked us a couple of sites with Harvest Hosts/Boondockers Welcome so at the top of the driveway we turned right and headed for Sasketchewan ….almost immediately we left the Southern Alberta warmth and sunshine and entered the driving rainstorm that would accompany us for the next 4 days straight.

Our first stop in Saskatchewan was a Boondockers host. Unfortunately not much chance for socialising here with the continued howling wind and relentless downpour. We were highly amused when the lady opened up the shop to show us the power outlet and there was a pickleball court right there…..LOL…

Day 2…still in Saskatchewan….still in the driving rain (our gas consumption driving into an easterly headwind was frightening…!!)

Next stop the Ireland Bison Farm. There would be no walks around the bison paddock for us (lots and lots of mud…!!) but the spot for us to stop overnight was high and dry and level (level is important ‘cos it means less fussing around with the aforementioned ‘lego blocks’ to get us to where we are not doing a drunken stagger uphill to get to bed…!!)

In the paddock across the driveway was Tulip……the bison calf. Apparently when they have twins one is abandoned….she was the short straw twin and so was being hand reared…..very friendly…very cute.

The rain stopped briefly as we crossed the border into North Dakota at Elmore…yes it is as remote as it sounds. Not another vehicle in sight…easy crossing.

Our next destination was just east of Fargo, North Dakota….across the state line into Minnesota….. Junkyard Brewing in Moorhead MN.

They have a lovely big flat parking area…unfortunately after the many days of rain it was mostly mud.

The beer was good, the service friendly and this brew pub has a fabulous little Asian fusion/street food style restaurant next door called Sol Street….hands down the best chicken sandwich I have ever eaten.

Next day was another brew pub (sensing a theme….!!!😁) Sand Creek Brewing in Black River Falls, Wisconsin. A great little brewery in a great little town. The lovely old brick building actually started its life as a brewery but due to prohibition and many other changes in the area, it transitioned through many identities before being restored to its original function. We were hosted by the brew master for a very friendly private tasting good fun.

When we left the bar with our now full growlers for consumption later….the rain had stopped again so we took the opportunity to wander downtown in this charming little place.

We happened on a Scottish pub, the Stag and Lion, on the main street…..and it was open…so of course we had to go in.

This resulted in a very pleasant evening with the owner/bartender Rod McGillvray…a man of Scottish heritage from Chicago who supplied us with hints and tips of places to eat and things to see in Chicago…..because Chicago is the next stop……..

….and so the travel season kicks off for us..I can’t promise the kind of crazieness we found last year…but who knows what we will find along the road….don’t touch that dial…. 😊

Spring is in the air…Winter review

The saga of the giant pit continues, if it were on Netflix we would be signed up for multiple seasons. So after a fall season of filling the pit (who needs a gym membership!!!) with winter closing in and snow on the ground it was time for another burn ….

With less snowfall than previous years it took a bit of extra effort to get the truck stuck in the snow (Editor, I’m always willing to make the extra effort). This necessitated us abandoning it near the top of the driveway and trekking home…..( and missing pickleball….😮 !!!)

…..to be pulled out the next morning by our very kind neighbour, Andrew, with his tractor that is much bigger than ours ( and it has a heated cab….which ours does not..!!)

We tore out the wood burning, smoke churning fireplace……

…….and replaced it with a very pretty and much more efficient propane stove on its own thermostat.

…..and Scott set to his creative task of using the lovely grain washed lumber from the unholy pile at the bottom of the garden…..to build a little masterpiece behind it.

It turned out that our horrific smoke issue was an incorrectly installed chimney….but you could not tell that without pulling the whole thing apart. It was still satisfying to find this out…especially since we also discovered absolutely no insulation in the walls in that section of the house ( which is a real problem at -46 Celsius). Another good thing to have solved, especially since the next drama was the boiler failing (house is heated with in-floor heating) …in December……!!! Big drama as the CO monitor screaming was our first indication of the problem.

The short version of that story being that the new propane stove served us well (kept us from freezing in December) and two weeks later we had a nice new modern boiler installed and operational.

Ever Mr Reno…Scott also spent the winter tearing apart our master bedroom with a bit of whacky design in every corner……well nobody would expect it to just look ‘regular’

I am given to understand that the attic part of the insulation job was most enjoyable…(….NOT…!!!…LOL)…it certainly was not mood enhancing….!!!!

Remember the burn pit?…..well it has its own story this year….the short version being that the crew who demolished the old High School in the town of Milk River rented our burn pit to dispose of the lumber from that demo job. It saved them time, diesel and manpower NOT having to truck it to Lethbridge. They were superb to deal with….and at the end of it all….filled our original pit in, beautifully graded the land around it, and dug us a nice new pit over by the next section of the woodpile.

Google earth very conveniently posted an updated satellite image this year…..so the first image is from 2021…before us. The second image is the new one, with the woodpile circled in red….and the burn pit in blue.(the green line is our property boundary.)

Ironically….less than two weeks after the image was posted…that old pit was filled in and graded and we now have a new (but similarly gigantic..!!) pit to the left of the blue ring…!!!

With all that done…now all we need to do is pack up and get on the road….so lets get to it……😁