We Arrive in Ottawa

We left Rideau Acres at Kingston around 10:30 a.m. and arrived at Rideau Heights Campground in Ottawa around 12:30 p.m. Packing up in Kingston was done in the rain and most of the drive until just before Ottawa was also done in the rain. By the time we arrived at Rideau Heights it started a bit again but didn’t last long so although it was cold and cloudy and the ground is muddy, it quit raining.

We have nice neighbours here at Rideau Heights, Anne and Roger. They came over to see our internet satellite and chatted for a while. They are originally from the Pakenham area and have been fulltiming for 8 years. Their RV is a really big Airstream.

As you can see from the photo, Rideau Heights isn't the nicest campground, but it is in the city and convenient and is full hook-up which we won't have next month when we move to the Ottawa Municipal Campground.

After we got set up, we had a brief nap and then went out for groceries. There’s now a Food Basics at Heron Gate Mall so we started there and then stopped at Loblaws at South Keys. Then home for dinner and a relaxing evening.

Our Last Day at Kingston

View from my lawnchair

Turtle on a log

Canada Goose on his way to the island

A restful spot

This morning dawned bright and sunny but a bit windy and cool and remained that way throughout the day.

Other than my morning walk with Bib, I watched morning TV shows and napped on and off. Around lunch time I went for a long walk around the property and wound up after my walk sitting in an Adirondack chair that is on a deck by the water (picture above). After lunch I was going to go back to the Adirondack chair but Bib wanted to come out with me so we sat in our lawn chairs but I had on a sweater and covered up with a blanket. We sat out for about 45 minutes then came inside to read. Gordon put the outside stuff away and dumped the tanks in preparation for our move to Ottawa tomorrow.

I’m looking forward to seeing friends and also seeing more of my sister and her family when we get to Ottawa.

Thursday at Rideau Acres

Sunset at Rideau Acres

Can you find the Blue Heron?

Today was a ‘stay at home’ day. This morning and part of this afternoon, I got the laundry done. There were two people there ahead of me so consequently it took longer to do the laundry and because I had to stuff things into machines I had to iron too. I don’t like that! While I was doing laundry, Gordon vacuumed.

Last night I noticed a leak under the sink so had to clear out everything under there. There was something loose so just had to dry things out. I left the fan on all night and rearranged things this afternoon after I got done with the laundry.

Other than sitting outside briefly this afternoon before it clouded over and a short nap, that about sums up my day!

After dinner, we went for a walk around the park. It’s very pretty down by the water. There are RV sites there but they are 30 amp, no sewer and most probably wouldn’t work for the satellite but it sure would be pretty watching the sunset on the water.

Visiting and Grooming

Aunt Ruth and myself (taken by Gordon)

Bib after grooming

Bib before grooming

I slept on the couch for part of last night as I had such bad heartburn so I can keep my head up by using the arm of the couch. I felt better around 3:30 a.m. so went to bed but woke up with a sore lower back again. It’s not as bad as it was when I saw the chiropractor on Monday though.

Didn’t do much this morning, the usual walk with Bib then this afternoon we dropped him at KLIPS in Gananoque. He really hates to get clipped but he always feels so much better and prances around and he likes the lady at KLIPS so we try to take him there when we’re in the area. The above pictures show the before taken this morning and the after taken when we got home.

While Bib was at the doggie spa, Gordon and I headed to Brockville to visit with my mother’s younger sister, my Aunt Ruth. We had a great chat with her catching up on what’s happened over the winter and helped her with a computer problem that she had so she’s back in business. We had our usual photo taken together and that too is above. Aunt Ruth follows our travels through our web page and blog religiously so she feels that she's been with us on the trip.

Tonight, it’s dinner and LOST!

Getting Things Organized

April 2006 Expenses

Campground Fees - $617.85
Groceries - $373.90
Laundry - $25.00
Wine/Spirits-covered under groceries
Entertainment - $10.00
Fuel-Truck - $721.89
Propane - $25.72
Dog Food/Vet etc. - $0.00
Repairs RV/Truck - $59.73 (truck service)
Misc - $238.14
Insurance - $140.58 (U.S. $ but paid in CDN)
Internet - $99.85 (US $ but paid in CDN)
Phone - $97.55
Med/Dental - $15.78 (prescription obtained in US may be covered under insurance)
Gifts - $0.00

Totals $2601.95

Pretty good considering we were traveling for most of the month.

When we got home last night I stayed up until the wee hours sorting through the tons of mail that we had received. We only had one mail shipment to British Columbia and that was in October so there was LOTS of it! Thanks to Margie and John for keeping it for us.

In the stacks of mail were Christmas gifts, birthday gifts and cards of all kinds. We left Ontario on my birthday last year and Gordon’s is the week after mine. Also in the mail was a questionnaire and authorizations from the insurance company that looks after our medical insurance while outside the country. I have to complete this questionnaire and fill in all the authorizations and sign them before they will pay my claim to the Cincinnati hospitals. I started filling that out but since I dropped off all the medical information that the hospital had given me to my doctor yesterday, I’ll have to think a lot about some of the questions but must do it quickly as who knows how long it will take to process. I don’t want the hospital to send the bills out on collection!

So out we went to get photocopies of everything made and get the forms mailed. On our way back we stopped and picked up some groceries. It was only when I got back that I realized that I hadn’t sent the photocopy of my OHIP card and driver’s license requested so back out to the post office. We went to the same post office hoping that the letters will arrive together. Sometimes my brain just doesn’t work!

When we got back I sorted through the receipts from the U.S. and took out the ones I wanted to save and put the rest in a bag to be shredded. Sure wish I had kept our shredder! Maybe a bonfire would work better! I still have to go through our Ontario receipts from last year but I have to be sure I keep enough to prove that we’ve lived in Ontario for five months out of the year. Then I started reading some of the RV magazines that we’ve gotten since we’ve been on the road. There are about 15 of them. Don’t people realize that a lot of RVers are full time. They should put the magazines on the internet!

My reflux disease has been acting up today so haven’t felt all that well today, hopefully tomorrow will be better.

I took the photo today in the park. These geese were coming right for me!

A Whirlwind Day

My handsome nephew and godson and soon to be groom, Nick

My beautiful niece and soon to be full time University of Ottawa student, Danica

We decided that today was the day that we were going to make our trip to Ottawa so we left Rideau Acres at about 9:00 a.m. and headed north on Hwy 15. It took about 2 hours to get there, first stop, bathroom break. I called the chiropractor and got appointments for both of us for 1:30 p.m.

Next stop, Ottawa Municipal Campground. We toured the sites, found a couple that will allow us a clear view of the southern sky. It’s $660/month though. So we went to Rideau Heights just off Prince of Wales Drive. There is major construction going on right beside the campground so the bush area that was there is gone. There is one spot where we can see the satellite so we are booked there starting this Saturday May 6th and will be there for one month leaving June 6th. The good news is that the monthly rate hasn’t changed from last year, still $472.50.

That done, we decided that we need to spend another month in Ottawa and friends, Mel and Janice are supposed to be coming to Ottawa in June so we went back to the Municipal Campground and booked June 6th to July 4th there. The other negative about the Municipal Campground is that they have no sewers so we have to move every 8 days or so to dump. Oh well!

We also got diesel fuel in Ottawa at 96.9/l which wasn’t as bad as we had been expecting.

We went to the chiropractor and my lower back feels much better and then dropped off my medical records from the hospital in Cincinnati at my doctor’s. We called my sister’s house and I spoke to my nephew, Nick. He was home and his Mom was getting home from work around 3:30 p.m. In the meantime we stopped at my dentist’s office and made an appointment to have my chipped tooth seen to, then headed to Margie & John’s.

NEWS
Our nephew, Nicholas, got engaged on April 1st and he and Becky have set a wedding date of July 28th. So congratulations to Nick and Becky!

Also, Danica has been accepted into the University of Ottawa in biomedicine this Fall, so congratulations to Danica!

Lots happening at the DeJong household this year.

While at the DeJongs we were asked to stay for dinner and chief chef, John made chicken with salsa and rice which was excellent! It was great to see the family again. We left Ottawa on September 9th so it’s been a long time! We saw Betty & Garth in B.C. in October so it hasn’t been as long and we’ll be seeing them at Danica’s graduation in June and Nick’s wedding in July.

We headed back to Ottawa shortly after 7:00 p.m. and arrived home just after 9:00 p.m. We got 24.7 mpg on the way home.

I’ll post our April expenses tomorrow, too tired to look at it now!

Our First Full Day in Ontario

Scenes from around Rideau Acres Campground

I took ¼ muscle relaxant last night for my back so I was still groggy this morning so after I walked the dog and did some interneting, I lay down on the couch with my book and within minutes was asleep waking up around 11:20 a.m.

This afternoon I sat outside for a while in my lawnchair and read but with my back the way it is the lawnchair isn’t all that comfortable. We tried watching a movie on CTV this afternoon, Murder Most Likely, Canadian, of course. Canadian TV really sucks! I hate to say it being a Canadian but that’s the truth of it!

So, Gordon got the bikes out and we went for a short ride. I came back and tried my lawn chair again and Gordon took the camera and the bike out to see if he could get some shots.

Beautiful sunny day. It was really hot sitting out in the sun. I expect it reached about 23C (75F).

Tonight we just watched TV. Not a very exciting day!