Home for a Month, May 26/08

We have been home for a month now! I have done a few days of supply teaching but am being picky about where I go. I have no desire to teach grade 8 music or grade 8 anything for that matter. If I get a call to my old school I go there and have also gone a couple of days to Lucknow Public school where I taught years ago.

John and I have been biking a bit and golfed twice. Woodlands golf course had a blossoming tree with 2 colours of blossoms and families of geese wandering around. Blackhorse is in great shape but the wind was cold. We are starting to get the yard in shape. I got annuals today but am a little reluctant to plant since they are calling for more cold weather tomorrow and Wednesday. It has been tough getting used to the cold. This May has been the coldest I can remember for a long time. I know to expect some cold weather this time of year but it has been consistently cold, in the 40's and low 50's during the day, and even colder at night! Yikes. But today and yesterday warmed up a bit.

No we didn't go back to Cumberland or the Kentucky Horse Park. We came across these horses playing in the lake while walking Bruce Beach with friends, just south of Kincardine.

I am looking forward to Thursday this week since we will go to Harriston and pick up the new RV! I'll post pictures. We have a trip planned the end of June to a campground near Niagara on the Lake. We will bike lots and visit the wineries (you can bike to many). In July we are thinking of taking the RV to Ottawa during the Canadian Women's Open.

Home Sweet Homes

Yeehaw! Here we are home in Kincardine. It was a long trip from Elkhart Indiana but not worth breaking it up so we drove straight through. We got home around 5:30 pm on Saturday, April 25th. I can't believe the size of our house! I always thought we had a modest bungalow but now I think otherwise. Sometimes I can't even find John. ( Nice!) Our first meal in the kitchen was strange. He seemed miles away at the table but was only a few feet. I can't stop pumping my foot when trying to flush the toilet! Seriously, it is good to be home. Don't get me wrong, the snowbird life is great but coming home is sweet too. It has been cold however. I guess the warm weather was here before we got home but has left for a while. The hot tub was quickly filled and is used often. We have enjoyed touching base with friends and family again.

The pictures above were taken as we biked around town on May 4th. Lots of changes have taken place over the winter but the beauty of the Lake hasn't. You have to dress warmly to bike around here right now. We haven't been in shorts since we got home!

The RV lifestyle has really been fabulous. This was our first real experience being snowbirds and it is just the beginning. We met fantastic people and visited wonderful places. We did get a case of "2 foot-itis." We had been warned about this by other RV-ers. We didn't think it would happen to us but we were naive. The point is....when we got home we traded the Sundance for a bigger 5th wheel. Just a couple more feet in the living area makes a huge difference. Also, living in it for over 5 months made us realize we might want a few more comforts. At the Tampa RV show and in Indiana we toured units just a bit bigger than ours. We thought if the trade was right, if the price was right, we could do it. And we did. I will miss the Sundance and it will always have a special place in my heart but I am SO EXCITED about the new Cedar Creek (34SATS)! We pick it up at McPhails in Harriston (Ontario) on May 29th. So we will have a "new home" to travel and live in next winter.

When I told one my sisters she said we had "the best of both worlds" and I have to agree. Life is good!

Indiana Wants Me.....April 24, 25/08

I have been to Indiana twice before but only by accident. (If you miss the turn-off from the Ohio turn-pike to go to Detroit, you can do it too!) This time we were intentionally going there. It took about 7 hours to get from Kentucky Horse Park to Elkhart Indiana. We don't do drives like that all the time but have learned to enjoy them. Make sure both tanks are full with diesel so you don't have to worry if you can get in with the rig, pack a picnic in the plug-in-cooler to avoid fast food stops (we have come to hate those) and go! We stop at rest areas on the Interstates for breaks. Easy in and out among the truckers. Pretty painless and we really enjoy the countryside.

We had heard from other travellers that construction from Detroit to Port Huron was horrendous and to avoid it with your RV. So crossing into Indiana would take us up to Flint and then over to the Port Huron border crossing into Sarnia. So that is one reason we did this route. Another is that Elkhart is the RV capital of the world! 70% of all the world's RV's are manufactured there. Isn't that exciting? John was all for doing a factory tour. I wasn't interested in that and tried to deflect him from that goal. But we had the opportunity to tour the very factory where Sundance was made 2 years ago so why not? As it turned out I loved it.

I was surprised they would allow people in once I saw the place in action. It was just the 2 of us with a "sales" type person who was extremely knowledgable about the process. The workers were running around at break-neck speed and all kinds of big things were moving around with them. We did wear safety glasses but basically were ducking in and out between RV's in various stages of completion. It was very interesting and impressive. The workers were on piece work, meaning they had to hustle to get the best wage and to keep their jobs I would imagine. So I was glad I wasn't able to deflect him, as usual.

We also went to a variety of dealers looking at a variety of RV's. It was kind of like going to an RV show but you drove around the town instead of walking. Elkhart is also in the middle of Amish Country and Amish people build the cabinetry for most of the RV's in between working their farms. I think many people go to Elkhart because of Shipshewana. It is an area near Elkhart where you can tour Amish back roads for all kinds of antiques, crafts and goods they produce. We didn't go there but it might be an interesting side trip sometime. Saturday morning we decided to head for home. Next blog post will tell you about that! No pictures from Elkhart. It wasn't really photogenic but the weather was still warm. That was about to change!