Sentimental Journey

 The Ridge

It was 6:15 when we all stirred on Sunday, Oct. 18th. Today was not the day to be dangling. There was excitement and the normal nervous anxiety we always feel when leaving a long term location. 

Good morning!

Looks like a lovely send off!

All went perfectly and we were hooked up and pulling out at 8 am. 

It was a beautiful sunny sky yet a bitter wind had me tucking my chin in my coat while checking lights and taking last pictures. Brr.

And then we roll!

We took a bit of a different route, through Listowel, Atwood and Mitchell. It was nice for a change. Gibbs was a pretty good traveler but each turn was cause for concern. 🤷‍♀️ Does Daddy know where he's going?

Yes, we put up with a bit of
whimpering and panting
but he's a pretty good traveler.

We made a brief nature stop at South Huron, following Hwy 23 to #7. Elginfield and Ailsa Craig were on our route. Seeing signs for Lucan, Granton, Denfield and Clandeboye brings back good memories of my teenage years. 🥰

We don't come this way 
all the time but today,
it was the route we chose.

From Hwy 7 we caught the 402 to Sarnia and soon came upon the slow moving lanes at the Blue Water Bridge. We got in line at 11:30 and after waiting 45 min. got up to the border guard. Very pleasant but asked us over to secondary for our I-94 documentation. 

The Blue Water bridge and view is always
picture worthy.

Easy from there. Picture, fingerprints and since their computer was acting up, we didn't have to pay the $35/each fee. Bill got teased that I was his daughter and that made up for the long delay. 🤭 (for me anyway!)We actually only spent 15 personal minutes with them before wished a great winter.

Some views along the way.
Little at that cute water tower.

We ate our sandwiches on the road, it was 12:45, and we stopped at a rest stop for a nature call. At Imlay City, MI we fueled up at $6.14/gal, saving $8.74 with Mudflap. The I-69w was pretty good so far. We knew we'd be late getting to our HH destination so messaged for approval to still go. 🤷‍♀️

What a nice place!
Too bad we arrived after hours but I 
could still tour the grounds with the
windmills.

Of course! was the reply so we carried on to the Mid-America Windmill Museum, arriving at 5:05, the only overnighters. That's nice! 

Gibbs and I walked the grounds

Bill was obviously very tired, as were Gibbs and I, but after setting up, Gibbs and I walked to peruse the old windmills on the property. Some running quite well. In case you're interested, here are some 

of them.

For supper, we just had weenies and mack & cheese with the last 2 pieces of carrot cake. Finally it's gone! Melodie, your muffins were wonderful for our lunch! 

So, now on to a bit of an explanation for the title of our blog. Bill and I made the decision during the summer that this is our last year of traveling to the United States for our winter. With his diagnosis of a heart murmur 2 1/2 years ago, his travel/health insurance rises each year. Age is only a small increase.

Supper was a no-brainer.
A switch up tomorrow though.

This year, we each took $5000 deductible just to bring it to a reachable cost. We figure, as sad as it is, 10 years living in an rv fulltime, traveling south for 9 of those years, it's time to stop while we are both still in good health and in full control of our future. What will we do?

Well, Robin, our bnb friend, has offered us the Carriage House to be our permanent 'full time' sticks and bricks home. That really helped to make the decision easier. It will be a bnb until August 1st when we will take possession. 

Don't worry! The Suite will still be on The Ridge and our summer 'cottage'. We're very settled with it all, after running through various scenarios. Living right in town will be nice and we have a number of friends there already. 

This winter will also be different. In the theme of saving some funds, we canceled our reservation in Park Place RV Park with Sue and will be boondocking at Roadrunner blm with Ken and Kim for as long as they are there. It's how we started out in 2016 and it's how we'll finish.

It was a long day but a good one. Tomorrow will be much the same, Bill just checked, so come back and see where we end up! We had sunny skies all day and evening, with around 64F/17.78C for a high. Here and at home.

Here's where we are.
Good night!

Thank you for coming along with us. 

Things Falling Into Place

The Ridge

On Saturday, Oct. 17th it was around 7 when I got up and Bill and I sorted the dirty clothes into 2 loads. I wanted to wash the chair quilts too so that made 3. It was going to be weird not cleaning on the same day, weird but great! 

Good morning!
A pretty sky in the west.

Bill drove me in, dropped me at the Mat for 7:30 and he carried on to give Black Beauty her bath, get propane and fill a water bottle. Once the loads were transferred into the dryers, I bundled against the ch-ch-chilly, frosty -1C/31F and walked to the bank to deposit my cash from Sandy.

The ice on the steps was not nice.
It stayed there a lot of the morning
until the day warmed up a bit and
the sun came around that side. 

When I returned, Bill was in the Mat waiting for me and helped fold. We were back home by 9 with more things taken care of. 

It was a matter of time before
the clouds moved off as
forecasted.

I swapped out the sheets that were on the bed, we think they are for a queen size, just barely covering so now the flannelette sheets are king and will be great to crawl into tonight. Then I had my shower.

I enjoyed the short walk from
the Mat to the bank.
Brisk but good.

Gord messaged at 10:30 that he would be over shortly to install our table and Gibbs greeted him traditional 'Gibbs' style. Aside from the Suite being out of 'kilter' for one reason or another, he made the table installation look easy. I guess he knows what he's doing!! 😉

If I didn't know any better,
it looks like he has a supervisor.
🤭

He left before noon to get the cube van with the table top so we had our lunch and before he returned, Bill had his shower and a brief snooze.

The top picture here makes me chuckle.
He is an Ace working with wood but
give them a hanging file frame and
it puzzled them both.
'Are you okay under there Gord?'

Gord was back around 2:30 and made short work of finishing the job. Oh my! We can't say enough about how pleased we are.

A little time for some chit chat
and a drink together before he left.

We had an hour after he left at 3 to get ready for a steak dinner at the Community Centre for the Durham Hospital Foundation, assisted by some Lion's Club members. We didn't volunteer, well, for obvious reasons. The food was awesome but we weren't sitting with anyone we knew so it wasn't very stimulating. 

I knew it would be awesome
and we weren't disappointed.
Thank you Gord!

It was bright and warmer when
we left for town.

Black Beauty is cleaner and ready.
We stopped in town to pick up my
Durham Fair cheque. Finally. LOL

The first entertainment, a single young man, played through dinner for 2 hours and I only knew a couple of his songs and barely understood what he said in between. When he was done, I wasn't hopeful with the 5 piece band finding how young they were. 

This fellow was talented but not my
type of music. I didn't catch his full
name either time he said it because
his speaking words were not clear.

Too bad but their music was too loud and tunes (?) meant for a much younger generation than us. We left at 8 pm rather than stay and get some dancing in. 🤷‍♀️ 

Dinner was really good!
I ate the whole meal and that
was a big steak, perfectly done.

Hugs from Melodie with a nice treat for our morning travel and a hug from Roz made me realize I'l miss them.

Melodie gave us some muffins
for the road and we'll think of
her with each one!
Yum!

I was disappointed with the entertainment part of the night but just as happy to get home early tonight and enjoy our last evening here with Gibbs. We have just a couple, literally, a couple of things to do in the morning and we're On Our Way. 

The moon looking spooky
tonight as we head up the lane.
Good night!

I hope you've had a great day in the sunshine, it didn't turn out badly at all!

Thank you for your visit. See you down the road!