Barry and I left Cochin, Saskatchewan for an overnight at Saskatoon. It was a relatively short drive, so we could enjoy a bike ride along the Saskatoon River. We parked in a parking lot between the river trail and the public swimming pool. We hopped onto the trail right behind us.
We realized on our drive after Saskatoon that our SECOND alternator that charges our HOUSE batteries while driving was not working. Grech was amazing. Immediately we were talking directly with David from Grech. We pulled off the road for David to work with Barry to diagnose the problem. We cancelled our Harvest Host Brewery for boondocking that night, and made a reservation at Kings Acres in Regina, Saskatchewan with full hook-ups to get fully charged.
David called us back the next morning. Grech doesn’t have a dealer or a proven repair place in Canada so we selected a place in New Jersey to have our replacement/repair when we get back into the states. We are all set for October 13! When fully charged our lithium battery bank can comfortably provide for all our needs for 2-3 days. By adjusting a boondocking night here and there to an electrical hookup night we can continue our travels through Canada without changing our main itinerary.
We continued travel days into Manitoba and Ontario with simple overnight boondocking spots.
June 29 – Ontario
We are so enjoying the changing beauty of Canada as we continue our drive east. I had a treasured collection of picture books when I taught school. One of my favorites was the lovely story of the Lupine Lady in, Miss Rumphius, by Barbara Cooney. I’m now living the beauty she “shared”. The stunning shades of pinks and purples, with occasional white ones are making me smile for miles.
Lake Ontario
This cloud formation was so cool as it just appeared… Love is in the air–or at least in the clouds. 🙂 It was even more precise when I first saw it. I wish you could “freeze” them till you share it in person with someone or get that exact picture.
And into Marathon, Ontario with a SURPRISE…Once again, my dear friend, Brenda Lehman contacted me yesterday to see where we were on our trip because she was talking with Kathy Mahaney (CVR friends) and they live in…yep…MARATHON, Ontario!! I contacted Kathy and Marven. They live right down the street from Penn Lake Municipal Park where we are going to stay for the night! So we kept them updated on our ETA and went directly to their house.
We had a great visit that afternoon. Lots of laughs. It was really good to catch up with each other! Marven and I were partners two years ago in the Canada/America Friendship Games at CVR (pickleball) and Kathy and Barry were partners.
They have a beautiful home and yard. Kathy has made some great barn quilt/barn art for her yard. Love it!
Kathy and Marven invited us to go to their local golf course for dinner, so we went to the park to get set up in our site. Kathy earlier offered to let us do some laundry, so we went ahead and started a load. The washer stopped after we headed to Penn Lake Park, so she kindly transferred them to the dryer for me.
The RV site was quite interesting. We spotted the sewer hookup on the right, but where is the power pedestal??? It took a few minutes to LOCATE our power pedestal! It wasn’t just on the opposite side of the site, but clear through the trees near the next site!!
Now we had to figure out HOW to reach it. Time for creative and CAREFUL parking! Normally, we would have gone without the power, but we needed to get charged up tonight. Moving a picnic table isn’t out of the ordinary, but pulling over part of the fire pit definitely is! We JUST cleared the top of it!!
(Lots of mosquitoes were out for attack.) BUT–we got a little HGTV water view through those trees! LOL
Marven and Kathy came to pick us up shortly after we got set up.
Of course right when I mentioned getting a group shot at the golf course, it started raining! Barry was the only smart one with a hat. 🙂
After dinner Marven took us on a thorough tour of the town of Marathon and provided amazing historical info along the drive. It was pretty amazing.
The town sign made a lot more sense now with knowing about the paper mill and the various mines including the gold mine that Marven worked for. We had a great visit with Kathy and Marven. (They didn’t come to CVR last winter.)
I was impressed with the number of really nice signs welcoming people to Marathon! These were only two of them. 🙂
Exciting travel day tomorrow!!!
We know how much work it takes to Blog. Just know we are really enjoying your travels. Thanks, Jerry & Belinda
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❤️ Thank you!