A very pleasant visitor

Today is September 12,2012. We had a surprise email yesterday from a fellow blogger, Ivan, from Sundre, Alberta, Canada.
Ivan has been traveling across Canada from Alberta to Newfoundland with his cat, Hailey.  I have been following Ivan's blog "Roadtrip 2012" as he has gone from Alberta to the East coast and now is heading back home again. We had contact with Ivan earlier when he was passing around Thunder Bay and on through Ontario. We had invited the two of them to stop in on their way east if it was okay with them but that was not to be. I read all of his adventures, including a trip on the ocean with Hailey and some of his friends. I got to see the scenery of the Maritime provinces as he moved around them, also a trip on the ferry over to Newfoundland. I had heard about the ferry ride from some of our friends, who have a bus ministry across Canada and have been to Newfoundland and the Maritimes twice in the last year or two. 
   When I first found out about Ivan, I realized that he does have a cat and by chance his cat looks quite similar to our Morris even to a similarity in color. When we got Morris last December, I emailed Ivan and told him about Morris and we started up a little conversation between Morris and Hailey. We have had many chuckles as we passed comments back and forth about the two cats as though they were long lost cousins. In fact, this week when Ivan emailed us to say that he was headed our way, he said that Hailey was planning on coming our way to "hiss" at Morris and we expected Morris to "hiss" at Hailey as well. The conversation has carried on in this manner as we have enjoyed our nonsense and fun.
    Monday of this week, we noticed that Morris had developed a rather large bare spot on his throat from him either licking himself or scratching himself with his paws to the point that he has a rather bare area below his chin. We decided to remove his harness and flea collar just to be sure that they wouldn't cause more grief. We also took him to the vet for treatment of this situation. When we brought him home, he had a sore rump from an antibiotic injection and also a halo to stop him from licking his bare spot or scratching it and causing more trouble. When Ivan emailed us yesterday, we told him about Morris' problem. When he emailed back he stated that according to Hailey "Morris looks silly with the collar".
 Time passes very fast  these days as we notice that the day starts rather early and before we realize the time has flown by without even seeing it. It was time for the duo to move on and Elizabeth and I had to get ready for a supper engagement at the local restaurant to celebrate two birthdays ( mine and Joe -our oldest daughter's boyfriend).

 As we moved from the house to Ivan's truck camper, we had a chance to view the interior of his camper and compare it to one that we had many years ago but smaller. I asked Ivan if he would show us his miniature remote controlled helicopter that flies and takes pictures with a digital camera. It is a very nice machine and definitely not just a toy.














Of course no visit is complete without showing off our own new camper, which we purchased in June of this year.I had been chatting with Ivan about our new motorhome so I just had to show if off and show off we did.

I received another email from Ivan saying that he was heading towards Timmins and was staying at a Provincial Park in that area.
  Ivan has travelled into the United States for part of the winter to escape the cold winter weather. He has been as far south as Arizona, New Mexico and other states in that area. This is a man who has travelled around and has the time and opportunity to do so. Ivan worked for Parks Canada and is now retired from the work force.
  Thank you Ivan and Hailey for visiting us today and will gladly enjoy any visit that might happen again in the future. Safe travels and have a joyous future.
Wilf, Elizabeth, and Morris Blakey

Time for something new

Habits get developed, sometimes without even realizing it. Since 1987, we have been trading vehicles every ten years and this year is no exception but not the way we had expected.
We purchased our first motorhome in 2002. We bought a 1971 Ford class C motorhome made by Triple E in Winkler, Manitoba. It was quite an experience for us to own a motorhome, a motorized self contained camper with all of the necessary equipment to live in for a period of time

 We did considerable work on this unit as we replaced the engine with a new engine,rebuilt the transmission, rebuilt the radiator, rebuilt the passenger side wall on the coach as well as many other things and updates that I did on it.

  My  wife and I travelled to Southern Ontario for holidays in 2006 and also 2011. We stayed at a private campground around Lake Eugenia (near Flesherton). The campground is owned by a couple we have known quite well since about the 1970's. The gentleman ran a service station and serviced our vehicles while we lived in that area until we moved to this location in 1988.
  We have had a standing invitation to stay at their place anytime we were in the area so we have done that three times now. When we stayed there in 2006, they announced that they were planning on upgrading to a newer motorhome and would sell their present one. We have known this motorhome since 2004 when we stayed at their place for the first time. This unit is a 1976 Itasca class A , 26 ft motorhome. Itasca is a sister brand to Winnebago and is a really nice higher class motorhome than the Triple E class C that we have had for the last ten years.

As the pictures indicate, the interior is much nicer than our first unit and is much better constructed that the Triple E which has a wood  frame construction where the Itasca has a metal tubular frame with foam insulation sprayed in the metal frame. This should be a stronger frame as well as a warmer framed camper.
As I mentioned earlier, it was in 2006 that we were first told about this motorhome being up  for sale. We told the owners that we were interested in it and were going home to Kirkland Lake and would sell ours first to get some money to pay for theirs. We went home but didn't sell ours or didn't raise the money to pay for theirs so nothing happened in the mean time. When we went down for a holiday in 2011, their motorhome was still there and it was still for sale but at a lower price. We decided that the present price was a price that we should be able to handle and we went home this time with much more encouragement that we would be able to pay for it this time. We did buy it this time but took the winter to pay it off with delivery in the spring or early summer. We were a little sneaky with this deal as we didn't say a word about this purchase to any of our family or most of our friends in this area. We arranged for the previous owner to drive his motorhome up to Kirkland Lake to our home in mid June. It sure felt weird to see a large, very nice looking motorhome sitting in our yard parked next to a smaller, older not so nice unit. However we do have it now, we are still doing some unexpected repairs as well as some updates that we want to do before we actually put it on the road to go somewhere for a camping trip.
 A couple (friends of ours) blessed us with a color backup camera system as well as a GPS system for the motorhome. I have the camera installed and working well, the gps is a portable unit that just plugs into the cigarette lighter so it really doesn't need installation.
 So much for our new purchase, now you know why we are smiles when we talk about our new camper. It is a real pride and joy, besides being a source of enjoyment, it has more room for Morris to run around in while we are taking a trip.
Looking forward to our first camping trip. In the meantime other things do need our attention. See you later.
Wilf, Elizabeth, and Morris Blakey