Frost

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown, and we have finally been hit by freezing temperatures. It wasn't much, and it was only one night, but the vines across the road have dropped their heads signalling the end of this growing season. We got our Flu and Covid shots on Tuesday. Kali also got her vaccination updated on Tuesday. Wendy had her usual choirs, and a doctor's appointment to see about an ear problem. We hope that will clear up soon as it interferes with her singing. I have been doing a bit of work on the RV, getting it ready for winter and doing some repairs. Wendy has cleaned it inside and out; I'm hoping to put the cover on it tomorrow. The markets have continued their erratic way. Investors seem to have finally determined to disregard the Orange pronouncements and thus Oil has surged to over $100 per barrel. The World Series is underway, and I'm sticking with the Rays to win it all. In football, Riders played first place Edmonton today, but since both teams have already clinched their playoff spots, they played a lot of the non-starters. So, it's on to the playoffs now. I enjoy texting and watching hockey with Trav often. All of our teams played and won on Thursday night. They all played again tonight, but Oilers are playing the Leafs, so it's not possible for them all to win! I have been paying a bit of attention to a qualifying curling event in the Soo this week, since the winner will get to play in the Grand Slam event here in early December which I am officiating. 

Eric writes, "Another week has come and gone. Liam came up on last weekend and we have enjoyed having his visit during the school break. Liam has worked on some assignments and has work on some of his YouTube animations (he said he and Haaken have collaborated on some). Erica had a conference in Saskatoon this week so she spent some time there. Some interesting learning she has to share once she gets back. She returned Thursday night to have turkey with Liam and me (Liam cooked the turkey) before heading to Winnipeg to have a visit there with an old friend from Kenora. Erica returns sometime Sunday. Liam and I will see what we can do about the sudden influx of stuff and where to put it (meat box came with a bunch of other large items that we have no idea what to do with: picnic basket, mini table for a picnic and a picnic blanket—wrong season). I received a picture on Saturday from a colleague up north warning me what I’m flying into, I’m definitely not ready."

Meanwhile, in Stoney!

Erin writes, "No winter tires on yet for me. Kristian doesn’t have a set, so he's stuck with his all weathers. It’s super windy here right now, but no snow—just real loud. My friend and coworker for 12 years, Janson, passed away on Tuesday." Kristian adds, "I am fully employed doing tires right now, and barely doing any washes."

Travis and Joanna are very busy, but Trav and I still manage to chat through several hockey games as we follow Pens and Oilers, and pay attention to the Leafs. Tonight, it was Oilers hosting the Leafs while Pens played Predators. Things did not go so well for my Oilers, but at least the Pens won. 

And that's enough for this week. 

Curling has begun!

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The temperatures continue to drift lower but still no frost, and the vines in the school gardens across the street are still green! It has been a pretty normal week for us, except that Wendy’s barbershop practice was cancelled. I found a knife-sharpener, and got my chef’s knife reshaped and sharpened—a small piece had broken off while working on some frozen meat! The RV is now winterized and parked around back. The markets continue to roil with each new fulmination out of the Orange house. Oil has surged, and taken together with the tariffs, USA inflation is surging as well. Investors are starting to worry about the FED raising the interest rates further to fight inflation. In sports, my Oilers lost to Utah, but responded with a win over them tonight. Pens are on a western swing and finding the going tough. Leafs blew a 2 goal lead in the third period against Buffalo. The Riders lost in Montreal on Monday, but scored late to beat them today back in Regina. This clinched a playoff spot for the Riders. The World Series is shaping up as a battle of low budget teams. I picked Dodgers and Rays to contest it, but the Dodgers were swept away by the Brewers. Rays and Guardian continue their battle to join the final series. But, my big attention this week was on curling as the first Grand Slam event of the season is playing out in Victoria. It certainly was a lesson in how the world curling power has moved off shore. Only one Canadian team advanced to the playoffs on the women's side and it's my longtime favourite, Einarson. On the men's side, four of our teams made the playoffs, but my favourite, Kevin Koe, was not one of them. 

Erica writes, “We are back in PA this week. It almost didn’t happen for me. On Sunday, we had a scheduling issue that required me to stay up north for the week. But, early Monday morning, my boss called and advised that I could go home. It was a Thanksgiving Miracle! This weekend, Eric and I are heading down to help Liam bring his motorcycle back for the winter. Eric has supervision meetings this morning, so he’s playing the role of Lincoln therapist. I told him if he could make enough money doing this, I’d be happy to drive. Liam finished midterms and now he has a week break. Haaken reports everything’s great. All is well with Greg and Kiersten.”

Yummy!

Erin writes, “We had a really good Thanksgiving. We ended up doing chicken breasts with garlic, onion, paprika, parsley, broth, other seasonings, butter—tasted amazing! I had to make another batch the next day. Gravy didn’t make it into the picture. I had a good short week at work, and an old friend came into town Thursday and since I’m ahead for the month, I took the day off to hang out—extra short week for me! One of my team had a birthday so I took them out for lunch yesterday, a real nice time. Then, I got back to work and Ryan let me know another old friend we had worked with has gone into palliative care. He was diagnosed with cancer just over a year ago. So, went from super high to real low. Please pray for his family to feel comfort. I'm taking a quiet day today.” Kristian notes that he's been putting in more and more time managing the tires recently. Many folks responded to the first snowfall to get their winter tires on. 

Travis and Joanna drove down to Duluth on Monday to see the vet for Marigold. The report and the therapies all seem to be positive, now we wait to see her level of improvement. Jasmine visited over here while they were gone. Otherwise, they've continued with production on the Bucket Decal orders—good business there. 

And that's enough for this week. 

Thanksgiving!

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The temperatures continue to drift lower and we see single digits most nights, but no frost yet, and some very comfortable days. We're looking at 20° again today. Our week has been pretty standard. Wendy has her barbershop choir and related business. She is supposed to be out of the business end, but was still on the phone and on the laptop for hours and hours again this week. Thursday was our usual Silver Sound choir—lots of fun, and I got to try out my solo for the first time to an audience. I have completed the winterizing of the RV, and it's ready for moving around back at any time. I have also completed my first season of Starlink Mini usage. It ran for the first month at high speed, but I've reduced it to Stand By mode now. There's a difference between $75/month to $15/month, but there's also a monumental difference in performance as you can read in my other recent post, "My Starlink Mini Story" which is posted below. One neat thing we saw on our recent trip was a handicapped accessible picnic table in Marathon!

Very thoughtful!

The Orange turmoil continues to roil the entire world's economic story, and his new found support for Russia has intensified action against Ukraine! Terrible! The whipsawing market is not serving me well. The World Series continues to move toward the culmination. Dodgers/Brewers are engaged in a series to determine the National League champion, while Rays/Guardians series will choose the American League pennant holders. Early results in the NHL have been rewarding for the Oilers, Pens and Leafs, and they all won tonight! In football, we're closing in on the playoffs and we could get many positions clinched this Thanksgiving weekend. Riders play against first place, Montreal, on Monday. 

Erica writes, "Eric and I are up north for another week—Eric’s in Fond du Lac and I’m in Stony Rapids/Black Lake. I was just getting used to sharing my housing unit with him and he leaves! Eric has been having his own adventure looking for a blanket. Apparently, there wasn’t one in the housing he was assigned for the weekend and finding one was a challenge! Other than that, I think he had a good week. This weekend is Thanksgiving for those of us who recognize it at the proper time. Eric and I will join up and fly back home on Monday and celebrate Thanksgiving by eating out. Liam has been enjoying his bike and is making the most of the warm October weather. We plan to pick it up and store it before the end of the month. We haven’t heard much from Haaken, Greg & Kiersten, but we trust they are still out there!" 

Erin writes, "I submitted financial statements yesterday morning—a new record for me! And, I might be staying at VW. Finding someone for my position isn’t working so, they’re going to start broadening the search and looking for someone even higher up for over at Toyota. I actually felt relieved when they asked me what I thought—not as stressed." Kristian has been teasing us with the prospect of a surprise, but we're still waiting. He has been cat sitting for the neighbour in addition to his regular work. 

Travis & Joanna keep very joyfully busy with their work and their dogs. They took time to join us for Thanksgiving dinner this evening, yes, including the boys! Andrew and Rosie joined in the festivities—thankfulness fails to cover how much we enjoy everyone coming by. Wendy prepared Pepsi Ribs for the occasion and we all enjoyed that! 

And that's enough for this week. 

My Starlink Mini Story

We like to travel. We look forward to each summer’s trip, and also look to make trips during the rest of the year. I have long agonized over access to the world while we drive around North America. I am supposedly running a stock market business, so I need to check the markets at least once each day. With the purchase of an RV this concern has been accentuated. Driving in our SUV has usually been city to city with the minor annoyance of the loss of contact and missing our music, but in the RV, we’re more likely to drive off the main highways and park well off the grid! Prolonged absence from cellular data sometimes caused us to lose our map apps as well—we didn't know where we were, or what was the way forward! Surely, we can’t be expected to resort to paper maps, or to the business pages of the newspaper!

Anyway, our children noticed my laments, and generously provided funding to get a Starlink Mini. Since there are multiple listed suppliers, that seemed a straightforward transaction—it was not. It seems that Musk is undercutting his "suppliers" with various cheaper deals on-line, and with the same two to three week expected delivery date. Since we were travelling at the time, it was hard to nail down that window to a particular location, so I ordered it online to be shipped to Thunder Bay. Given the shipping window, we should be home about then. To my chagrin, I got a notification from Starlink that my delivery date was being adjusted to two to three days!! Whoa! That's a problem! Starlink has a practice of activating the dish no later than seven days after delivery! While we don't plan to be home for many weeks yet! So, I chatted in with customer support and Grok assured me that they wouldn't activate until I was home and chose to activate! Okay then... not so okay then, as I soon (too soon) received a notification that my account was activated! No, no, that's a problem, but only for me, apparently! I chatted back in with Grok, which clearly does not have access to what it promised me last time!! No, it assured me, Starlink always activates a maximum of seven days after delivery! No argument would sway Grok, but I finally got it to pass me along to a human, who confirmed that, yes, the policy is to activate only a maximum of seven days after delivery. And no, there was nothing that could be done about, the computer already had activated the account. Now, if there's anything that rouses my stubborn, it's being told that computers cannot be changed! A couple of passes up the food chain got me a person who promised me that, of course, they were the ones who told computers, not the other way around. A day later, they were back to the other story—activation dates COULD NOT be changed! And, once again, a few moves up the authority levels, got me back to the answer I wanted. Moving forward a couple of days and I got an email from the support folks telling me there had been a mistake—the activation COULD NOT be changed, sigh! Back to the phone, which concluded with me informing them, "You can either have me as a happy customer, or an ex-customer!" Two days later, I was informed that my account was no longer activated, and that I could activate it whenever I wished! VICTORY! Maybe you will decide to try satellite internet. If you do, please connect with my referral link Starlink Referral URL  as I earn a bonus credit to my account, and they say you get a better deal, too! 

So, while the story was a bit bumpy, I did activate on the date I planned for, and have enjoyed a month of service here at home and in the RV. We have a large tree in our front yard which is the natural direction for Starlink, so I set it up in the back yard facing south. We travel with it on a velcro mount in the front dash of the RV. There have been occasional signal losses due to over hanging trees, but it has performed very well. When parking, I take care to line up with some open sky, although I sometimes have to move the dish around in the windshield or out on a picnic table to get great service. To power the dish, I can plug into regular household current, or use the 12V power plugs in the RV. I bought a specialized 12V adapter that powers the dish, and offers two USB powered options as well. The dish is a bit picky about power levels, so don't be fooled by lower specification adapters that fail to up the voltage and may leave your dish powerless! In my case, I also wanted Starlink to provide data to my iPhone for Apple CarPlay, so I needed a direct connection from the dish to my phone. That came via the ethernet port on the dish, and required an adapter to bring ethernet into my phone. If you have a newer iPhone, or some other cell phone, you will need a different adapter. Maybe you don't choose to use internet data for travelling, but if you do, you'll need the ethernet data connection. 

Cost for my initial plan was $75/month, but now that I've dropped back to standby, the cost is $15/month. This reduces the satellite bandwidth to minimal, and I'll be experimenting to see just what it allows me to do. As you can see the difference in bandwidth is monumental—let's see what it can do. 

And it still performed all of what I need, and most of what I've been using. I was even able to play Netflix and Disney+ movies, but not Prime. I could play YouTube (else how could I problem-solve?). There was noticeable delay loading pages, but it did the job! 

Two caveats: 1. Starlink is renowned for changing their plans without notice—watch out for that. 

2. Other companies are jumping into the internet via satellite game. This will provide more options, and should also get Starlink to improve their offerings! 

I can't believe it's October!

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The temperatures continue to drift lower and we are seeing single digits most nights. It's October so that is expected, and we can expect our first frost any day. Wendy had plenty of busyness between the two choirs, multiple evening meetings, and a choir workshop yesterday and today. I got an unexpected honour at our Thursday choir practice as I was asked to sing a solo in one of our Christmas concert songs.

We made it!

On Wednesday, we took part in the Honouring our Children 5K event. I had a massage session on Tuesday, My back has been bothering for several months now, so I've given up on it just getting better on its own! September markets closed as another red month. Baseball has moved to the league semi-final playoffs. I'm expecting Dodgers, Padres to advance in the National League while Rays and White Sox prevail in the American. The NHL season has begun and I'm following Oilers, Pens and Leafs once again. 

Erica writes, "Eric and I are back up north this week. It is quiet and peaceful up here and I get lots of sleep which has been good for healing. Eric flew out Friday night to go to Moira’s funeral. Liam went to the wake on Friday and said there were a lot of great stories about Moira. The ceremony was on Saturday, which I watched on line. It was a wonderful tribute to a wonderful woman. I’m sorry that she is gone and I know we will all miss her. During all this, Eric was asked to go to Fond de Lac next week, so, he will go straight there on the Monday charter. We will meet again on the 12th back in PA. We have both been continuing to heal, and reminding ourselves to not push it. That is kind of hard…" 

Erin writes, "A regular week for me, other than nursing a sore eye. We're not sure what the problem is. The doctor says there's no infection, no scratch, just inflamed. Aches in my face bones though so it’s nice to have a weekend.  I have a sore like a stye on the other eye that hasn’t gone away for a long time so I went in and also due for a regular checkup. She sold me an eye mask to do hot compresses because, apparently, I have extra oil buildup in my eyelids. The morning after I did the first eye mask treatment my good eye was red and sore! So, I went back. She couldn’t say for sure, but I’m glad it’s not infection. No pus, just sore and achy. Good news is my vision hasn’t changed enough to need new glasses yet!" Kristian adds, "Nothing new for me until tomorrow; it’ll be a surprise, I’ve also been babysitting Riggs, our neighbour's cat."

Travis and Joanna keep very busy. Bucket Decals is getting orders from all over North America as hockey ramps up for the new season. Trav took some time off and came over to watch the hockey games with me tonight. That was great! And, the Pens and Oilers both won their games, so we were happy over that! 

And that's enough for this week. 

Pebble Beach

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown, and we have been exploring more of that shoreline. With Starlink now fully installed, we left, on Wednesday, for a short camping trip. It has not been straight forward getting Starlink, and even more effort to get it to work the way I need it to, but now, I think we’re fully operational. Thank you, my children, for this thoughtful gift. Unless we are under a canopy of trees, we now find ourselves able to connect to the world wherever we are—and that includes being able to find out wherever we are! As we ventured eastward along Superior, we frequently found ourselves sans cellular signal, so it has been more than a comfort to have satellite connections. We enjoyed Wednesday and Thursday with Travis & Joanna and Andrew, including exhausting hiking, fine dining and evening fire pits with marshmallows for roasting and s’mores to eat, but they headed back to Thunder Bay on Friday. We continued eastward visiting Red Rock and Nipigon before arriving at my nighttime choice—the trailhead for Mazukama Falls. However, the description of the hike scared us away! We checked a few other possibilities, and settled for the night 33 km east along the lake. It was in a gravel pit, also along the train tracks. Wendy thinks she counted eight trains through the night! They were all loud! Finally, after the traditional Saturday morning pancake breakfast, we completed the drive to Marathon and our ultimate destination, Pebble Beach.

It was pretty amazing to think of the wave action grinding those rocks smooth and pushing them up the beach this far. I was reminded of the dunes on the west coast of Denmark, pushed up by the North Sea. But, these rocks, mostly 4 to 6 inches in diameter had only been pushed up 10-12 feet. I was thinking of staying overnight in Marathon, but it was only a mall parking lot, and Wendy opted for another try at a lakeshore setting. I found three near Rossport, but after seeing the first two, she had her choice made! Maybe we'll check out #3 as we leave tomorrow. Or maybe we'll stay there tomorrow night! Elsewhere in the world, things are not going so swimmingly and I only have three trading days left in the month, so they'll need to be good ones if I'm going to make quota. My teams are not doing swimmingly either. The Jays have been eliminated from the playoffs. The Riders lost in BC last night. And the Sooners got pounded in college football. But hey, the NHL is in presason, so hope remains! 

Erica wrote, "Eric and I have returned to PA and spent the week in bed. We were diagnosed with bronchitis which is particularly bad for Eric. We both have a round of antibiotics to help and Eric has some extra steroids. We are starting to feel more ourselves though the cough lingers. We had planned to visit Eric’s cousin Moira Koops upon our return, but with our being sick, and her immunocompromised state, we stayed away. She has been fighting cancer for the past six months. Earlier this week she moved to palliative care and on Thursday we received news of her passing. Her attitude and courage has been inspiring to us and we will miss her. We had calls with Haaken and Liam who are also mourning her loss."

Erin enjoyed another quiet and productive week at work. Kristian has begun his work on tire inventory at Toyota. He seems to have picked up the procedures well. 

Travis and Joanna are keeping very busy with BucketDecals. Even as we were out at the lake on Wednesday and Thursday, Trav was able to access business via our new Starlink, so that was helpful to see! Anyway, they got a bit of a break, and managed to walk the legs mostly off of us! Win-win! 

And that's enough for this week. 

Summer is Ending!

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake superior in my hometown, bringing with it a change in the seasons. Some nights have even dipped into single digits, so we know that summer is ending. Wendy has been busy with her landlady assignment: Eanok has left, and Amanda is moving into the basement suite. So, she has conducted a thorough cleaning down there, and now Amanda has moved in. She also keeps busy with work on her two choirs, well actually mainly busy with work on the one choir that I’m hoping she will quit.  The Silver Sound choir is mostly just fun and learning the new music. Today, I went with her to a choir presentation. It was at a local museum and we enjoyed going through the exhibits afterwards. Tonight, we had the crew over for a pizza supper— good times! The pressure of fuel and diesel prices, along with the widespread economic damage he is causing may be finally getting Trump‘s attention. Our best hope is that he will declare victory and leave the Middle East. But it could be that he will expand the war by attaching the Houthis—sigh! The Riders have the week off and the Blue Jays look to be taking the post-season off! Come on Jays it’s not too late yet, although with seven games left... Yikes! 

Glacier!

From somewhere in the north Pacific, Eric writes, "We have been at sea for a week. We enjoyed the first couple of days, even seeing a glacier up close from a smaller boat. Since day 3 or 4 we have been sick and hiding in our room. Each day, we pull into a new harbour, and each day, we look out our window to enjoy it." But they did get to watch a glacial calving!

Erin enjoyed a quiet week at work, and enjoyed celebrating Kristian's 21st birthday. Kristian enjoyed that, too. He is transitioning into a new area at work which involves moving tires for seasonal tire changes, and includes a raise in wages! Good job, man! 

Travis and Joanna have put together an itinerary for a camping outing next week, so, we're looking forward to that. This evening they came over for pizza supper and further planning on the campout. Andrew and Rosie also dropped by, and I was privileged to have Rosie give me a massage treatment on my back—thanks! I hope that gets me on the way back to normal! Jonas and Gemma got a replacement car, a 2017 VW Golf. 

And that's enough for this week. 

Settling In!

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. We have been getting back into the routines here at home all the while planning another excursion later this month. Wendy has been unpacking the RV, doing up the laundry, and catching up on rest! I have been doing a little bit of yard cleanup, and some of the upgrade projects in the RV. We started the week with Rich & Sue, Travis & Joanna also came over to make it a full party—good times! Rich & Sue headed west on Monday. On Thursday, we began our fall series of choir practice—nine new pieces of Christmas music. With the Orange war, the trade war and surging inflation the markets are doing terribly, but we did get respite on Friday. The Blue Jays have fallen out of a playoff position for now, c’mon man! The Riders won the Labour Day classic on Sunday, but fell to the Bombers in the return engagement Banjo Bowl today! 

Erica writes, "We finished up another stint in Black Lake/Stony Rapids. We flew back early—on a Friday—as we are leaving for our cruise on Sunday morning. Yay! This is our first cruise experience and we hope it is fun. We got the news that we are upgraded to a cabin with a balcony, so that is awesome! There will be much more to report on this next week. Liam has been experiencing his new classes. The business classes require using a different part of his brain and so he is adjusting to that. He’s enjoying the motorcycle and gets out for rides often. He caught up with his cousins, Victoria, Moira and Arwen for a few visits. We haven’t heard much yet from the others, but a few snippets here and there confirm they are alive! :)"

I sent Erin & Kristian on a wild goose chase to find some tools I have misplaced somewhere! No luck so far! Otherwise, Erin reports, "We had a pile of rain so I decided to unhook the backyard irrigation. I won’t turn it back on since we’re not getting much more production anyway. It’s getting colder out—the end of summer, sad! Even though I was born and bred in the north, I don’t like the cold. Other than that, it was a good week. I worked extra hours to finish month end and submitted financial statements early Friday, so I took the rest of that day off. Kristian’s turning 21 this week." Kristian noted that, "I went for the drive today to burn the soot out of my diesel. I also started my first week by myself going to the gym."

Bouquet!

Travis & Joanna presented Wendy with a lovely bouquet, and also increased her joy by coming by for some visits. Then, Joanna and Wendy went for a pedicure on Tuesday, and a bike ride on Wednesday!

2013 Honda, sigh!

On the alarming news front, Jonas & Gemma were in a car accident in Osoyoos. The other vehicle ran a red light, and totalled Jonas's car. They've been checked out, deemed healthy, and have now returned to Vancouver to search for a replacement vehicle! We are relieved that they're mostly unscathed by the incident. 

And that's enough for this week! 

To Yellowknife and Return!

 

Plans meet Reality! We bought an RV: a 2004 Ford E-350 Airstream BT Cruiser in November 2025. I began planning trips! I planned several trips around Thunder Bay in preparation for a big trip to Yellowknife in the summer of 2026. However, Wendy was very busy with her choir work, and none of those little trips happened! Using ioverlander.com, I mapped out a course to Yellowknife with potential stops along the journey. I adopted the mantra of, We have an agenda, but no schedule! which proved mostly prophetic. I also chose to follow the Three Rule for RV travel: 300 clicks, Arrive by 3pm, Stay up to three days. I intended to leave on Monday, June 29th, so we left on Thursday, July 2nd!

We're off! We drove out through Atikokan to a truck stop near highway 11. We enjoyed the sights, and a tour of the museum in Atikokan. On Friday, we toured along through Fort Frances and Rainy River and up highway 71 to Kenora where we visited our grandson, Greg, and his wife Kiersten—thanks guys! Then, we drove into Winnipeg where we found out that Costco only allows you to put $200 worth of fuel into your vehicle! (After restarting the credit card, we topped up to $239—I never knew a vehicle could hold that much fuel) Thanks to driving an RV and to the Orange war with Iran, we managed that ignoble feat! We enjoyed a visit and lunch with Tom & Mariette—thanks! Then, we drove out to Carman to spend the night with Glen & Kim—more thanks! I was experimenting with different driving speeds and seeing how that effects fuel usage and comfort in the journey. While we tried 80, 90, 95 and 100 speeds, we did not find an appreciable variability in fuel consumption, that seemed to be more dependent on wind direction! We finally chose to drive at 90. 

56 years!

After celebrating our anniversary on July 4th, we enjoyed a fine breakfast with the Knutsons and an uplifting assembly with the local congregation. Then, we resumed our journey west. We stopped in Brandon for coffee with Charlie and Bonnie, a nice time for sure. Then, we continued to Elkhorn to visit with Bill and Angie, that was also an encouraging time. We accepted their invitation to spend the night, and enjoyed a wonderful breakfast of oatmeal porridge prepared by Bill. We continued West on July 6th, driving through my childhood haunts of Fairlight and Wawota and stopping in to see the new camp buildings at Clearview. We found where Bernard and Alicia were camping and enjoyed some wonderful coffee that Alicia had prepared and which matched her description! Then, we drove up to Kennedy where we visited with Ray and Ellen along with Heather and Sydney. And finally, we caught up with Dave and Heather out at their camp and enjoyed a good time of conversation, games, and supper. We retired to the RV for the night and woke in time to have a sumptuous breakfast. Fatefully, that was our last good decision of the day. Wendy was determined that the road to Regina passed through Weyburn. I explained that the path to Weyburn passed through Kisbey. We were both wrong! The road to Kisbey was blocked and led to many kilometres of orienteering, through the back roads, through the MUDDY back roads! Several U-turns later and a many a mud holes later, we found another grid road heading down to Forget that allowed us to get to the highway and then onto Weyburn. We lunched with Kresten and Star and their kids and enjoyed a tour of their new house. Then, we were finally able to complete the trip to Regina. we have spent the rest of this week parked in Erin‘s parking lot and enjoying the comfort of her air-conditioned home. They always host us so well, and I continued to suffer with my cough/cold, so, we delayed our departure another day, and finally took off on Tuesday, July 7th. We drove through our old hometown of Earl Grey after lunching with Garnet & Debbie in Southey—thanks! We planned to spend the night at the Lions' Campground in Lanigan. But, it was full, full of water, full of mosquitos, and full of campers—surprising! We drove on to a previous point I had seen near Plunkett to boon-dock; it was lovely! On the 8th, we continued up #2 to Prince Albert where we plugged in for the night at Eric & Erica’s place. They were both up at Stony Rapids, so we did not visit much! On the 9th, we continued to Lloydminster where we boon-docked at the Gold Horse casino. They were very welcoming, and even let Wendy win some money from the VLTs. We toured the Lloyd Museum, and Wendy delighted to find an important artifact of civilization—she believes it's an early Kirby!

Granny and the Vac!

On July 10th, we moved on to Athabasca, and on the 11th, on to Peace River—just flyin’ I'm telling ya! There was a time when Wendy drove Dauphin-YK in one run—crazier times for sure! July 12th found us in Manning after we enjoyed the sights around Peace River and, after a short drive, the museum in Manning. It was a voluminous display including the almost mythical 15 30 tractor. 

The 15 30

On to the NWT! We drove up to High Level and checked out the museum there. We stayed on the parking lot of the visitor centre. On July 14th, we finally reached the Northwest Territories. They offered showers at the information centre and I found the seven minutes for a loonie was plenty. We parked for the night in a gravel pit just short of the two waterfalls on the Hay River, that is Alexandra and Louise Falls. The gorge has been eroding around those falls, so most of the walkways were closed. The next day featured the short drive into Hay River, I think it was the first trip there for Wendy, although she remembers going in briefly when we were on our way to Fort Smith one summer. Anyway, we got the full dose of it this time. She did laundry, then we toured around looking for a nice spot for the evening/night and we found a beauty right on the big lake, on a nice sandy beach. Some of the sand away from the water gets soft—that’s where I got stuck! Fortunately, I have a small hydraulic jack and I was able to get some relief so we could close the steps, then a generous neighbour came by with his truck and a tow rope and pulled us free—yay! On the 16th, we continued the tour including Lady Evelyn Falls, the crossing of the Mackenzie, and settled for the night on the shore of the river in Providence.

Bison

The 17th saw us driving through herds of bison to the newly developed Territorial campgrounds on the North Arm of Great Slave. This was our first time paying for a campsite, but we did enjoy having electricity without running the generator.

Camping on Great Slave!

Finally on the 18th, after the usual pancake breakfast, we drove into Yellowknife and enjoyed the reunion with cousin Cindy, who is hosting us to conclude the trip north—thanks Cindy! And so we find ourselves on the shore of the deepest lake in North America, Great Slave Lake. While we have spent many years here before, this visit was not mundane. On the 19th, we enjoyed a gathering with our longtime congregation here, but there were few people who we recognized—still, a precious time. Then, we began a visit with our long time friends, Simon & Lenore. Simon began some repairs on the RV. The biggest challenge was the bed and after a spate of problem-solving and a lot of adjustments, we came up with a successful solution. The next morning, after another lovely breakfast, courtesy of Cindy—thanks, we began our River Lake excursion with Simon & Lenore. It began with a tour of Robertson‘s wonderful taxidermy—must be seen to be believed.

Then, we headed out to the cabin on River Lake. Our week there involved daily excursions, organized by the cruise director (Lenore), a wide variety of games, and excellent dining experiences! it was an amazing week all around: amazing setting, amazing experiences, amazing people! On Friday afternoon, the 24th, we returned to the city and began preparations for our next experience—the Big Lake! But not before Simon helped me with two more repairs to the RV: the backup camera, and the stairs. On the 18th, we took it easy with a tour of the museum at Giant Mine and of the Diamond Centre. That evening, we visited with Randy & Leslie, and Dave & Lee. 

We spent the next week on Great Slave Lake, yeah, actually on the lake, on a boat. Eating, sleeping, fishing, sight-seeing all accomplished from the boat—nice! The Big Lake was calling our names and thanks to Dave & Tram, we were able to head out toward the East Arm on Monday morning, July 27th. It was all new experiences for us and we enjoyed it immensely. They had packed enough food to feed an army, and we ate too much of it! We feasted morning, noon and night, and feasted our eyes and experiences each day! The Big Lake is immense and this was just another part of it with beauty all its own.

The cliffs were expected, but also beyond expectation. The fishing was expected, but also surprising as we had never caught nor tasted grayling—delicious! The species of fish that we caught was also a surprise, people who come north fishing, expect to catch trout, and usually catch jackfish (Great Northern Pike, slough shark)! Our guys started off catching grayling and what a great supper they made. Then, they moved on to trout—delicious! And it wasn’t until the final day that Tram managed to catch a 15.1 pound jackfish, so that was also a surprise—albeit a delicious surprise!

Musk Ox

The most surprising thing was the arrival and presence of musk oxen! Two of them showed up at our anchor north of Utsingi Point and they stuck with us until it was time for us to leave the next day! I had never seen a musk ox in the wild and I did not expect to ever see a musk ox in the wild. It was a wonderful surprise for my birthday! Thus ended our trip to Yellowknife and our delicious reunions! 

Thanks! As we began the trip home, our main thoughts are of thankfulness to the friends in Yellowknife who have made the central aspect of our trip so memorable. In the final analysis, there are other important aspects of this first RV trip, but the central theme remains a trip to YK to celebrate friendships and experience the nature of the area that was our home for eighteen years! It has been 31 years since we left, and ten since our last visit. You cannot know when a trip will be the last, but you have to recognize as you celebrate a 76th birthday, that such opportunities are becoming rare.

Cindy & Sage

The central person in the comfortable operation and success of the trip is our cousin, Cindy. She took us in, housed, showered and fed us as needed throughout our time in the north. Thank you, Cindy, we owe you, we love you! Then, there are Simon & Lenore, a lifelong friendship formed during our time living there, and especially over our collaboration in developing, building and enjoying the cabin at River Lake. This summer, we refreshed all of those in an active week out at the cabin with them. We are so thankful for the relationship, and for sharing the cabin and River Lake experiences with us once again. And finally, last week there were Dave & Tram who opened new venues for us on the East Arm of Great Slave Lake. We enjoyed a great week on your boat, exploring new vistas, fishing and eating, sightseeing the beauty of another part of the North. Tram is another daughter for us, and we delighted to see her thriving in her home life. We are thankful to Dave and for Dave as he contributes to her happiness. 

Heading Home! We left Yellowknife on Tuesday morning, August 4th, with a plan to stop the first night at Dory Point just across the McKenzie, but the signs there said No Overnight Camping, so we carried on to Lady Evelyn Falls, and got a site for the night. Then, we completed our exit from the Northwest Territories, stopping for fuel at Meander River and planning to spend the night there. Once again, my plans proved unsatisfactory to the management—too muddy, poor cell signal... so we continued down the road to High Level where we spent the night. On 6th, we continued south stopping for the night just past Peace River. My plans, continuing to work perfectly on Friday, saw us stop just north of Fox Creek. A lack of cellular coverage, and a plethora of mosquitoes caused this site to be rejected. We checked out another site near Fox Creek, but this was also rejected due to bugs. So we drove down to White Court where Wendy picked a spot at Walmart. This time it was I who found the better site at the Flying J truck stop. Finally, on August 8th, after our traditional pancake breakfast, we packed up and drove down to Sherwood Park AB to stay with Scott & Margaret. But first, we dropped by Canadian Tire to pick up some supplies and to dump our tanks. Upon our arrival in Sherwood Park, Scott, very generously, changed the oil in the RV—thank you! We enjoyed a prolonged stay with Scott, Margaret and Tori, and then turned east on August10th. We broke the trip to Prince Albert into two segments, enjoying another stop at the Gold Horse Casino in Lloydminster. Once again, as we took the secondary route from Lloyd, we were troubled by the lack of cellular signal to drive our navigation and our music. The children and grandchildren have taken notice of this complaint, and generously provided for a Starlink Mini as my Birthday and Father's Day present—thanks! However, getting it has proven much more difficult than expected. A preliminary search revealed a variety of suppliers including Costco, Home Depot, Walmart... but, it turned out none of them had one is stock—they can order one for me, but it will take some weeks to arrive! Quelle surprise! It took very little additional investigation to reveal the cause—Musk is undercutting his own suppliers! (Not so much of a surprise!) So, I bought one from Starlink dot com for about $50 less, but it will take those same weeks to get delivery. Maybe someone out there has a better solution. After a full week of work (one day) on the renovations in PA, we took up an offer to fly north!

the town is named for these!

Eric/A flew us up to Stony Rapids for a weekend visit. It was lovely, and they don't have any bugs up there (okay, I was lying about the bugs!!). But, hey, the internet connection was good, so life continued! In the week that followed, we have moved from the Athabasca River to the North Saskatchewan River and finally to Lake Wascana in the middle of the prairies, where we moved in with Erin and Kristian while reconciling with Kali. We flew out of Stony Rapids on August 17th, passing through Uranium City and onto Prince Albert. We put our hands to several projects in the house there. Wendy managed to get the main floor bathroom ready for painting at Eric/a’s. We have passed that assignment on to Liam. I managed to do some plumbing and electrical repairs. Both bathrooms are now fully functional and we are awaiting a flooring decision on the main floor bathroom. We drove down to Regina on the 21st. Today, we all went golfing, although Wendy did not golf, serving only as my caddie and golf cart driver! She missed no shots and lost no golf balls! We all had fun!

Erin's Birthday Golf!

Then, we continued our wandering towards home. I managed to get in a couple of golf games, so I had a good time in Regina. The first game was with Erin and Kristian, so that was special already. It was our annual birthday golf extravaganza! It featured my first time ever of putting a tee shot on the 17th green at that course!

210 yard green in regulation!
(Yes, I missed the birdie putt!)

The other game was with my old friend Dale; it was good to reconnect with him. On the 24th, I took the RV to my mechanic to get a new fuel filter. Then, we loaded up with Dave and drove down Bengough to see aunt Grace. She just celebrated her 101st birthday! We also stopped in at Ogema to see Joanne & Mac. On the 27th, we drove down to Weyburn and visited with Kresten & Star, but the main purpose of that trip was to burn the soot out of Kristian’s car. That’s an issue with diesel cars, they need some regular highway driving to clean the exhaust system. On the 28th, we drove to Dauphin by way of Binscarth where we visited with our friends of 56 years as we had lived there during my first year of teaching. On the 29th, we visited with our friends, Beth and Amber in Dauphin, our friends Bonnie and Charlie in Brandon, and finally settled in with our friends Bill and Angie in Elkhorn. Finally, in the first week of September, we have returned with our home on wheels to our home on Kensington. We enjoyed a lovely time in Winnipeg at Tom & Mariette’s complemented by a meal and visit with Angie—thanks! On the 1st, Tom and I got in a round of golf out at Quarry Oaks—always a good time, regardless the quality of the golf! Kali, Wendy and Mariette got out for long walks and greetings to other dogs and their tenders! On the 2nd, we continued our trip east, stopping for the night at a boon-docking site near Ignace. Nearby, we enjoyed a lovely waterfall.

Raleigh Falls

On September 3rd, we completed the trip. It has been a wonderful first trip of 9645 km! We left on June 26th. The RV has performed well, and we have made some improvements during the trip and listed a few more we wish to make. 

Home Again!

Another week has passed, and we have returned with our home on wheels to our home on Kensington. We enjoyed a lovely time in Winnipeg at Tom & Mariette’s complemented by a meal and visit with Angie. On Tuesday, Tom and I got in a round of golf out at Quarry Oaks—always a good time, regardless the quality of the golf! Kali, Wendy and Mariette got out for long walks and greetings to other dogs and their tenders! On Wednesday, we continued our trip home. We stopped that night at a boon-docking site near Ignace. Nearby, we enjoyed a lovely waterfall.

Raleigh Falls

On Thursday, we completed the trip home; it has been a wonderful first trip of 9645 km! We left on June 26th and returned home on Sept 3rd. The RV has performed well, and we have made some improvements during the trip and listed a few more we wish to make. Friday afternoon, Rich & Sue arrived for the weekend. We will try to have some adventures with them. Today, we did some local touring and enjoyed the hike out to the Cascades despite getting lost on the trails. We were joined by Travis & Joanna for supper. Earnings data, jobs data, the trade war, and the continuing Orange war with Iran, keep troubling the markets. We look forward to better times. In sports, the Blue Jays remain in the fight, and climbed back above the .500 level again and into a playoff position. The Riders will reprise their long-term Labour Day rivalry tomorrow evening with the Bombers—Go Riders Go! 

Erica writes, "We are back up north this week. I’m wrapping up audit request and trying to finish up the massive financial statements and all the necessary schedules for the funding agents. Funding comes from the feds as well  as the province and each little pot of money needs to be accounted for. Which is why they need an accountant! We missed the season opener for the PA Raiders, but they won without us—good job! Eric has been getting more calls and is helping more people. It takes time to build trust, but he’s pretty good at it. We will spend the long weekend up here as we are both on call. Fortunately, we have TSN so we can watch the Labour Day classic. Go Riders! Liam started back at school. He already called to discuss a math problem and we decided professor was wrong! Now, he needs to find out why." 

Erin writes, "Not much news here, I'm busy with month end—again. And back on the search for my replacement—again. And missing a puppy in the house—still." Kristian adds, "I finished my final week with the personal trainer. Work also finished off with the annual lunch yesterday. Auto body was in charge; they made taco in a bowl."

Travis and Joanna are in a very busy time of the business with Bucket Decals rolling off the printers, through the cutters, into the packages and out to the customers. Tonight, they took time off to join us for a nice supper and visit with Rich & Sue, and a wonderful reunion for us after our return home. 

Wonderful People!

And that's enough for this week. 

Wandering

Another week has passed, and we have continued our wandering towards home. I also managed to get in a couple of golf games, so I have had a good time in Regina. The first game was with Erin and Kristian, so that was special already. It was our annual birthday golf extravaganza! It featured my first time ever of putting a tee shot on the 17th green at that course!

210 yard green in regulation!
(Yes, I missed the birdie putt!)

The other game was with my old friend Dale; it was good to reconnect with him. On Monday, I took the RV to my mechanic to get a new fuel filter. Then, we loaded up with Dave and drove down Bengough to see aunt Grace. She just celebrated her 101st birthday! We also stopped in at Ogema to see Joanne and Mac. On Thursday, we drove down to Weyburn and visited with Kresten and Star. But the main purpose of that trip was to burn the soot out of Kristian’s car. That’s an issue with diesel cars, they need some regular highway driving to clean the exhaust system. On Friday, we drove to Dauphin by way of Binscarth where we visited with our friends of 56 years as we had lived there during my first year of teaching. On Saturday, we visited with our friends, Beth and Amber in Dauphin, our friends Bonnie and Charlie in Brandon, and finally settled in with our friends Bill and Angie in Elkhorn. Trump's folly continues to trouble the markets, and with only one trading day left, it appears I am heading for a red month. The Orange War continues, and now he has pushed ahead with a trade war against us! In sports, the Riders lost on Sunday in BC, but they came back with a win today against the Argos to maintain their hold on second place. The Blue Jays are playing better, but are in a tough struggle to make the playoffs. 

Eric writes, "Liam was up this week. We got another subfloor for the bathroom. We decided to not install until we were ready to paint. We are checking out some colours on the wall and picking out tile. This weekend, we are taking Liam’s bike down to him for the month. He starts school soon. On Monday, we return north."

Erin and Kristian have been taking care of us all week but finally, we have returned the home to their care. Kristian has been sharing his car with us for several days. Now, he has a plan to avoid the diesel soot issues. We enjoyed a wonderful meal on several occasions. The first was a crepe special after our golf game. The second was a Greek smorgasbord (Can Greeks do that?!), and we enjoyed those tastes as well. 

Joanna writes, "Travis is ramping up for the busiest time of the year and I am happy to assist in his work. A new schedule at my yoga and Pilates centre starts on the first and I have completed the beginners' round of Pilates reformer classes all summer and I’m looking forward to level two. Gemma and Jonas are reunited in Vancouver and Gemma starts her fourth and final year of Midwifery school at UBC the week after next. Andrew is working his butt off in the adult mental health department at one of our local hospitals. Rosie arrived home from Vietnam this week and is still adjusting to the time difference, but is managing to carry on with her normal level of clientele every day." 

And that's enough for this week. 

Reconciliation!

Another week has passed, and we have moved from the Athabasca River to the North Saskatchewan River and finally to Lake Wascana in the middle of the prairies, where we moved in with Erin and Kristian while reconciling with Kali. We flew out of Stony Rapids on Monday morning, passing through Uranium City and onto Prince Albert. Wendy managed to get the main floor bathroom ready for painting at Eric/a’s. We have passed that assignment on to Liam. I managed to do some plumbing and electrical repairs. Both bathrooms are now fully functional and we are awaiting a flooring decision on the main floor bathroom. We drove down to Regina on Friday. Today, we all went golfing, although Wendy did not golf, serving only as my caddie and golf cart driver! She missed no shots and lost no golf balls! We all had fun!

Erin's Birthday Golf!

My thesis on the markets during the regime of Mango Mussolini is that he wishes the market to rise, and with the power of the USA economy, he is able to make that happen for a substantial time. HOWEVER, at some point, his foolish economic policies must inflict too much damage for the markets to overlook. Are we at that stage? The Orange War, the poor economic data, the USA debt now surpassing 40 trillion, the willingness of sycophants to step forward and lie to the USA public and to the world adds up. I really projected that he could keep things going until the midterm elections, now, I'm wondering whether it's falling apart early! I have enjoyed an excellent 7.5 months in the markets, but this week was an unmitigated disaster. Coupled with his declaration of an expanded war on Iran, Oil is surging again. The lines on my charts have not crossed, but they have turned sharply in the red direction. Today, Trump initiated new tariffs on goods from Canada—how American consumers will handle this new tax is yet to be seen. Amazingly, the author of the Art of the Deal, could not make a deal with the friendliest country in the world! The Blue Jays are close to the playoffs, but remain on the outside looking in. The Riders play tomorrow in BC.

Eric returned to Prince Albert on Monday, and got back to his other job there—it is an adjustment! Erica worked with the auditors at her AHA job in Stony Rapids with some colleagues from her prior work at MNP—this time from the other side of the desk! It went swimmingly! She returned home on Friday, and rejoiced to see progress made on several things around the house, including some cleaning and organizing. Liam is expected home today. 

Erin and Kristian had a good week at work. Erin took the first three days off, but paid for that with some very busy days to close out the week. Kristian is developing quite a program with his personal trainer at the Y. He had three training sessions with her this week. He also shows the benefits of his active work regime at Toyota. 

Our youngest grandson!

Travis writes, “Marigold got a clean bill of health as far as her thyroid or any disorders. It’s just the mysterious ‘Alopecia X’ which isn’t widely understood, although dogs have managed to regrow their fur after getting the diagnosis.”

And that's enough for this week. 

Stony Rapids

Another week has passed and we have continued the voyage home! We enjoyed a prolonged stay with Scott, Margaret and Tori, and then turned east. We broke the trip to Prince Albert into two segments, enjoying another stop at the Gold Horse Casino in Lloydminster. Once again, as we took the secondary route from Lloyd, we were troubled by the lack of cellular signal to drive our navigation and our music. The children and grandchildren have taken notice of this complaint, and generously provided for a Starlink Mini as my Birthday and Father's Day present—thanks! However, getting it has proven much more difficult than expected. A preliminary search revealed a variety of suppliers including Costco, Home Depot, Walmart... but, it turned out none of them had one is stock—they can order one for me, but it will take some weeks to arrive! Quelle surprise! It took very little additional investigation to reveal the cause—Musk is undercutting his own suppliers! (Not so much of a surprise!) So, I bought one from Starlink dot com for about $50 less, but it will take those same weeks to get delivery. Maybe someone out there has a better solution. After a full week of work (one day) on the renovations in PA, we took up an offer to fly north!

the town is named for these!

Eric/A flew us up to Stony Rapids for a weekend visit. It was lovely, and they don't have any bugs up there (okay, I was lying about the bugs!!). But, hey, the internet connection was good, so life continued! The markets continued to be troubled by the Melon Felon, but at least they're running green this month. The Blue Jays are playing a lot better, but the injury bug continues to bedevil them— they lost two more pitchers this week, but they beat both Boston and New York to move into playoff contention. The Riders played in Hamilton this evening, but they lost, so they fell out of first place. 

Erica writes, "Eric and I are both up in Stony this week and since we couldn’t make it down to PA to host Mom and Dad, we invited them up here for the weekend. We had an adventure on Saturday. We went in search of Elizabeth Falls between Black Lake and Middle Lake. We found the rapids before the falls, and discovered we should take taken a left turn to get to the falls. We drove on and reached a scary looking bridge. What we discovered is that looks can be misleading as the best option would have been to cross the bridge. Instead, I tried to turn around and got completely stuck. After several attempts, I called some contacts and waited for my rescuers to pull me out. Mom and Dad went in search of the falls while Eric and I waited. They found Middle Lake, but not the falls. We got pulled out, picked them up and returned to Stony for the Rider game. All in all, it was a fun day! Liam has been working on his teaching materials for Art Camp next week. Haaken, Greg and Kiersten continue with their regular duties." 

Erin writes, "Weather hasn’t been great lately, but today it turned around, so Kali, Elly and I hung out in our happy place.

Very Productive

My tomato plants are still dying for some reason, but are also still producing. Work is good; we’ve chosen a candidate to offer my position. She doesn’t have much experience and timing is an issue, too. If I don’t start training someone soon, I’m going to run into year end and won’t have the extra time to work with a rookie. We give three months probation, so if I don’t feel good about her I can still say no. If that happens, we won’t start looking again until after year end because that time of year is very taxing. I took Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday off—I need quiet time by myself, so I can breathe, and turn 48. ☺️" Kristian adds, "Nothing too exciting this week. We had a work bbq yesterday featuring gourmet hotdogs. Lately for walk arounds, Terry has us using a specific app where we take pictures, because some of the others were missing some damages."

Travis and Joanna are taking care of business back in Thunder Bay. Trav rescued me this week as I misplaced my pills, so he sent me my next batch. BucketDecals is getting busy. Marigold is still recovering from an ear infection, but no report back from her dermatology doctor yet. 

And that's enough for this week!

Thanks!

Another week has passed. We have begun the trip home. Our main thoughts are of thankfulness to the friends in Yellowknife who have made the central aspect of our trip so memorable. In the final analysis, there are other important aspects of this first RV trip, but the central theme remains a trip to YK to celebrate friendships and experience the nature of the area that was our home for eighteen years! It has been 31 years since we left, and ten since our last visit. You cannot know when a trip will be the last, but you have to recognize as you celebrate a 76th birthday, that such opportunities are becoming rare.

Cindy & Sage

The central person in the comfortable operation and success of the trip is our cousin, Cindy. She took us in, housed, showered and fed us as needed throughout our time in the north. Thank you, Cindy, we owe you, we love you! Then, there are Simon & Lenore, a lifelong friendship formed during our time living there, and especially over our collaboration in developing, building and enjoying the cabin at River Lake. This summer, we refreshed all of those in an active week out at the cabin with them. We are so thankful for the relationship, and for sharing the cabin and River Lake experiences with us once again. And finally, last week there were Dave & Tram who opened new venues for us on the East Arm of Great Slave Lake. We enjoyed a great week on your boat, exploring new vistas, fishing and eating, sightseeing the beauty of another part of the North. Tram is another daughter for us, and we delighted to see her thriving in her home life. We are thankful to Dave and for Dave as he contributes to her happiness. 

We left on Tuesday morning with a plan to stop the first night at Dory Point just across the McKenzie, but the signs there said No Overnight Camping, so we carried on to Lady Evelyn Falls, and got a site for the night. Then, we completed our exit from the Northwest Territories, stopping for fuel at Meander River and planning to spend the night there. Once again, my plans proved unsatisfactory to the management—too muddy, poor cell signal... so we continued down the road to High Level where we spent the night. On Thursday continued south stopping for the night just past Peace River. My plans, continuing to work perfectly on Friday, saw us stop just north of Fox Creek. A lack of cellular coverage, and a plethora of mosquitoes caused this site to be rejected. We checked out another site near Fox Creek, but this was also rejected due to bugs. So we drove down to White Court where Wendy picked a spot at Walmart. This time it was I who found the better site at the Flying J truck stop. Finally, today, after our traditional pancake breakfast, we packed up to head down to Sherwood Park AB to stay with Scott & Margaret. But first, we dropped by Canadian Tire to pick up some supplies and to dump our tanks. After arriving here, Scott, very generously changed the oil in the RV—thank you! Our hoped for train trip to BC has been put off for another time, so we’ll spend a few days here (thank you) before heading to Prince Albert. The Riders won their game last night over Ottawa and combined with Edmonton‘s loss today, they are alone in first place. The Blue Jays traded away three of their starters, but their gameplay has not changed, although they did win today! 

Erica writes, "We are back up north in Stony Rapids/Black Lake. I’m getting ready for the auditors, so I’ve been working on the evenings. Interesting being back on this side of the audit. Liam is back in PA working on the house. He pulled up the layers of old flooring in the bathroom and found some good hardwood. Our plan is to salvage as much as we can as we expect it might be needed for patching when we get to the living room. Then, we will put down plywood in the bathroom and some other flooring yet to be determined. Liam has also been enjoying our new Yamaha 250 motorcycle. We picked it up last weekend. He recently got his license and the Vulcan’s are a bit too big for him to learn on. We still have our Honda 250 Rebel, but it’s going to need some work as it has been sitting idle for a decade." Liam has been working on renovations to the main floor bathroom in PA. He has removed fixtures, lino and salvaged some good hardwood. 

Salvage!

Erin writes, "I’m just so tired: extra long days, month end and short staffed! One of my tomato plants is dying, and I'm not 100% sure why.

Sick Tomato

One of the tomatoes on the other plant had blossom-end rot like we had before, so I added calcium. I decided to add calcium to the other plant, too, even though it didn’t have the problem. Now that’s the one that’s dying—is too much calcium a thing?! Could be the change in weather, as a couple nights got pretty chilly. It’s the plant at the end of the fence, so it doesn’t have as much protection." Kristian added, "I now have a personal trainer. We’ll be starting on the 17th." Erin has scheduled Kali for a haircut on the 25th. 

Joanna has returned from Burlington. Her mom seems to be well accommodated, and now has an ejection chair to help her get up and about. Travis took Marigold to visit a vet in Duluth who specialized in dermatology of dogs! No fresh results there yet. Rosie is off on her visit home to Vietnam. 

And that's enough for this week. 

Surprise!

We have spent the week on Great Slave Lake, yeah, actually on the lake, on a boat. Eating, sleeping, fishing, sight-seeing all accomplished from the boat—nice! The Big Lake was calling our names and thanks to Dave & Tram, we were able to head out toward the East Arm on Monday morning. It was all new experiences for us and we enjoyed it immensely. They had packed enough food to feed an army, and we ate too much of it! We feasted morning, noon and night, and feasted our eyes and experiences each day! The Big Lake is immense and this was just another part of it with beauty all its own.

The cliffs were expected, but also beyond expectation. The fishing was expected, but also surprising as we had never caught nor tasted grayling—delicious! The species of fish that we caught was also a surprise, people who come north fishing, expect to catch trout, and usually catch jackfish (Great Northern Pike, slough shark)! Our guys started off catching grayling and what a great supper they made. Then, they moved on to trout—delicious! And it wasn’t until the final day that Tram managed to catch a 15.1 pound jackfish, so that was also a surprise—albeit a delicious surprise!

Musk Ox

The most surprising thing was the arrival and presence of musk oxen! Two of them showed up at our anchor north of Utsingi Point and they stuck with us until it was time for us to leave the next day! I had never seen a musk ox in the wild and I did not expect to ever see a musk ox in the wild. It was a wonderful surprise for my birthday! The markets were also surprising as I had a good month despite the USA markets being red and the TSX only up 1.2%. The Orange War continues to rage in the Middle East and in many ways is even worse. In the world of sports, the Blue Jays seem to be on the verge of giving up on the season and are expected to be selling players here at the deadline. The Riders played the second game of the home-n-home with Edmonton and fared better this time, so each team won in the others home stadium. 

Erica wrote, "Andrew and Aura arrived Wednesday for Marina’s wedding. The festivities included a shower on Thursday, BBQ on Friday and the wedding today. They have been wonderful guests, putting up with the renovation and general craziness of the house with much grace! Liam finished his work on the vanity—he sanded it down, stained, sealed it and fixed the tap so the water flows. On Friday, he and Eric got one of the motorcycles out and Liam drove it for a bit. He has started work on the little 250 Rebel to try to get it running again after a decade of storage." 

Erin wrote, "The garden is producing!

Salad and meat and buns for supper—Kristian’s getting healthy! He went to the gym a few times, an orientation day and a couple of days on his own. He’s also setting up a meeting with a personal trainer. Kristian also got another one of those fancy meals with his workmates—appetizer, filet main course, dessert—yowsah!" 

Travis wrote, "Joanna is in Burlington assisting her mother. On Thursday, they enjoyed a luncheon cruise on the west end of Lake Ontario. Marigold’s dermatology appointment got moved up to Monday AND it is at their Duluth office, so it’ll just be a day trip for her and me. Rosie is heading to Vietnam for about 45 days."

And that's enough for this week!