A Lot Got Accomplished Today

After I posted yesterday since the sun was still shining, I went outside to sit in my chair. It was pretty windy though. I had my new radio and my book and sat and read for a while. I saw a motorhome from Oregon pull in so I walked around the loop just to be nosy and on the way back my neighbour motioned me over so I sat and talked to John and Jan again for an hour or so. They are lovely people. They're going to leave their 5er here and go home to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario on Thursday for a week or so.

Today was a beautiful day weatherwise. The cold front went through last night and took away the humidity so even though it was 26C (79F) and the sun was bright, there was a nice breeze so you didn't feel the temperature at all.

I started out this morning with my walk and since there was no threat of rain I walked through the industrial park.

After breakfast we went to the Fletcher Wildlife Garden. Gordon had been there yesterday. There is a garden, lots of trails and it's right next to the Arboretum so you can walk there as well as walk to Hartwells Locks so we had a nice 1 1/2 hours walking around the area.

Flowers in the Backyard Garden


Monarch Butterfly


A field of lupins

Amphibian pond with the barn in the background

Bee on a lupin

Path (this is all right in the middle of Ottawa). You think you're in the middle of a forest.

Hartwells Locks with one of the buildings at Carleton University in the background.

We had heard that Ontario had brought out a new license for RVers which is effective June 16th. This is a Class A license with an R restriction which means you can't double tow or drive a vehicle with air brakes so we decided to go to the MTO (Ministry of Transportation Ontario) to find out about it. All along we should apparently have had an A Class license however it wasn't really enforced but now they're getting down to enforcing it. We talked to one of the examiners and he said that it's a very strict test. You also have to get a medical first and do a written test.

So, we're debating what to do now. Our options appear to be:
1. Get the Class A license
2. Park the 5er here in Ottawa and drive south in the winter and rent. Sell the truck and buy a car.
3. Look for a smaller RV that is under the pounds required for the Class A license
4. Buy a condo or something and forget the whole thing

Right now, we're considering our options and we're stuck where we are unless Gordon decides to get the Class A license. Right now he's more worried about getting his health back.

After that we went to the Dodge dealer that's closest to us. The truck was due for service and we've had an annoying chirp when turning corners since we were in Ajo. Also the air conditioning on my side hasn't worked well for quite a while. We arrived about noon and they said they could do the service right away (which meant after their lunch). When we found that out we walked to the shopping mall across the street and had lunch at Denny's. Then we walked back. They said that we needed a U joint and brakes. They could do it all today if we wanted to wait and it would be ready around 5. At first we were only going to have the brakes done and come back but decided to get it all over with.

We had the shuttle bus drop us back at the mall where we walked around looking for another external hard drive among other things but mainly just putting in time. We stopped and Gordon had a coffee and I saw this cute dog so asked the owner if I could take a photo of her. Isn't she cute!



It was nearly 6 p.m. when we got home and I didn't get anything accomplished today that I had planned but I did finish my book!