Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
Aug 29 ~ Day #111
Budget to date
Spent today
Total to date
Daily average
Total
$11100
$27.20
$9430.97
$84.96
Miles by Road
Miles by Sea
Miles by Air
Miles by Train
Total Miles
13853
4451
000
69
18373
Current Location: Davie, Florida
Transportation: $
Accommodation: $27.20
Today’s Total Expenses: $27.20
What To Say?
The times that we spend several days in one place, particularly when we’re just relaxing and not sightseeing, are the times when we find it most difficult to do daily posts.
After all, how many ways can you say, “it was sunny” or “it was rainy”?
And, who wants to hear what you had for breakfast, lunch and dinner EVERY day?
More Liquid Sunshine
Today started very overcast which was actually kind of pleasant as the days that are really sunny can also be really hot!
Yes, I know, I’m complaining about the weather no matter what it is. Hey, I’m Canadian – it’s our job to complain about the weather.
As the day progressed, though, the rain started – quite a lot of rain. By supper time it was pouring, which meant we couldn’t get out the Coleman stove or the JetBoil. So dinner was a couple of already cooked chicken breasts and salad. Actually, it was pretty good.
Stuff Getting Wet
As the rain continued we noticed we were getting little puddles of water on the tent floor.
We started moving the important stuff into the front of the car to keep it dry and putting down towels to soak up the water.
We were too late to save the cardboard box we were keeping our canned goods in but everything else fared pretty well.
After packing up we headed off to explore downtown St. Andrews. It was easy walking distance from the campsite. There were shops, boutiques, galleries and restaurants and the downtown area was quaint and well kept.
We wandered through a few shops admiring many items but as we still have a lot of traveling to do, buying anything was simply not in the cards.
However, we did stop into the local Dollar Store (there sure seems to be a lot of dollar stores wherever we go) and we did buy a small sewing kit and a couple of luggage tags that were also Canadian flags for our backpacks.
That helped to satisfy a little of my shopping urge.
The Reversing Falls, St. John, NB
Back on the road again, we headed into St. John. Along the way we noticed a sign for the Reversing Falls and decided to take a side trip.
Apparently the Reversing Falls used to be called the Reversing Falls Rapids but the general consensus was that the name was just too long, so they went back to calling them just the Reversing Falls.
To my mind, they should actually be called the Reversing Rapids as it really isn’t much of a waterfall.
It all has to do with the tides. At low tide the rapids flow one way, at high tide they flow in the opposite direction and at slack tide they kind of fight each other and just swirl around. To see each effect you’d need to spend the entire day and we just weren’t prepared to do that.
Temperatures
It seems as soon as we crossed over into the maritimes the temperature had difficulty getting much over 70 deg F.
We much prefer high 70s or low 80s so I felt a bit chilly most of the time.
Sorry Canadian friends, I still haven’t mastered the temperatures in Celsius yet, but I’m sure you’re able to convert them.
I think the weather forecast is calling for some sunnier, warmer weather. I sure hope so.
Cape Tormentine, NB
We picked a campground near the Confederation Bridge to spend tonight.
We were able to camp right beside the ocean and had a fantastic view of the Confederation Bridge to Prince Edward Island, which we will be traveling over tomorrow.
Setting up the tent was a bit interesting as it was pretty windy. Actually, it was interesting for Geoff who does most of the tent set up.
Hey, I help a bit from time to time. I actually think I help the most when I stay out of the way. (wink!)
We had thought that we might spent tonight in Maine, but as we neared the New Brunswick border, that area of Maine seemed really sparsely populated and there didn’t seem to be a campsite or hotel that would have suited us.
So, we just continued into New Brunswick crossing at St. Stephen.
New Brunswick Tourism
We immediately stopped into a New Brunswick Tourism office that was located just over the border to ask about campgrounds in the area.
They were very helpful and called a couple of campgrounds for us.
St. Andrews-by-the-Sea
We decided that we would stop at the Kiwanis Oceanfront Campground that was located right on the ocean in St. Andrews-by-the-Sea. Isn’t that a cool name for a town?
They were more expensive than most campgrounds, but that was because of their location. We balked a little at the $30.00 price tag for an unserviced tent lot, but, hey – right by the ocean!
Time Zone Change
We had been expecting a time zone change but weren’t sure where it would happen. I had thought that it might happened while we were still in Maine, but we discovered, at the New Brunswick Tourism office, that it changed as soon as we crossed into New Brunswick.
So, we lost an hour as we entered Canada.
St. Andrews-by-the-Sea
As we drove through downtown St. Andrews, we thought it was lovely and decided, since it was already getting late, that we would check out the downtown area before we leave tomorrow.
So, we set up our tent, spent some time walking by the ocean and settled in for the night.
We have started noticing the presence of a lot of Tim Horton’s Doughnut Shops in the northern US states. Tim Horton’s is a Canadian chain started many, many years ago by the hockey player – you guessed it – Tim Horton!
You just can’t beat the doughnuts and coffee at Tim Horton’s.
Go Timmy’s!!!
It’s Summer and Hotels are EXPENSIVE!
During today’s drive we thought we might want to stay at a hotel if we could find a reasonable one.
We used Madge (our Magellan GPS) to show us the hotels that were along the way.
Not only were the prices high but most of the hotels we called were fully booked.
Yep, it must be summer.
St. Regis Campground
We had Madge (our Magellan GPS) find us a campground along the route as we figured that would be the only reasonably priced option for us for tonight.
We stopped at St. Regis Campground in Northern New York and it was reasonable – $20.00 – and gave us a chance to dry out our tent as we had had to pack it up wet.
Dinner was a bit of a challenge because, even though this campground had water and electricity available, there were no picnic tables.
So, Geoff set up the Coleman stove on the ground and we did the best we could.
Canned Chinese Food
Apparently I still haven’t learned about buying canned Chinese food. It always looks so good on the can and sounds delicious, but I’ve done this often enough to know that the results are not good.
However, we had bought two cans of Chinese food and I decided to cook one of them tonight. The results were predictable – disappointing.
Note to self: NEVER, NEVER buy canned Chinese food again.
Watching Movies on our Mac
Along the way, when there is nothing else to do in the evenings, we have started to watch movies on our Mac and that’s what we did tonight before drifting off to sleep.
In this post we are combining six days in one post while staying with my Dad and visiting my two sons and their families.
Enjoying Time with Dad
We arrived around 6pm last night so Wednesday was the first full day we had to spend with Dad.
It’s great to see him and to spend some time with him. The last time we saw him was when he visited us in the Bahamas for a month last November.
Bodies – The Exhibition – Niagara Falls
On Thursday we planned a trip to see “Bodies – The Exhibition – The Science Inside of You” in Niagara Falls.
This is a display of actual human bodies and organs in various types of dissections to show such things as muscles, internal organs, blood vessels and much, much more.
At first we thought we might have difficulty with this type of display. We were afraid it might be a bit gruesome. But, Dad had seen the exhibit before in Vancouver and said it was fascinating.
So, off we sent and we did find the exhibit interesting, educational and fascinating. The human body is truly amazing.
Actually, the only things that we thought were in poor taste were the photo they took of each group, photoshopped in one of the bodies and then offered the photos for sale and the gift shop had such things as a stuffed “Flesh Eating Disease” toy and leg bone swizzle sticks. Sorry, but that kind of thing is just gross!
Discount Shopping
Just around the corner from the exhibit was a discount outlet, so we also stopped in there.
Dad found a lovely bird feeder for his backyard and we got some small propane cylinders for our Coleman stove. The prices were not only good but they also included the taxes in the price. In my opinion, that’s a great way to price things.
Niagara Falls
Then we drove around Niagara Falls for a bit. We have all been to The Falls many, many times so we didn’t stay long as it was, as usual, quite crowded.
Unexpected Dental Work
After getting back it was time for Geoff to head off to the dentist. He had chipped his tooth the day before.
We just picked a dentist from a sign we drove by. I think, perhaps, we should have shopped around a bit.
For just 5 minutes to fix the chip – with no freezing – he was charged $140.44! And, they said they gave him a significant discount. This was just another one of those unexpected expenses that you can’t possibly plan for but have to find some way, on such a long to trip, to allow for such things in your budget.
Canadian Tire
When we were leaving the US we started having a little trouble with the transmission. It was having difficult changing from second to third gear. Having to fix a transmission could easily be a trip ending problem.
As the car needed another oil change, we took it to Canadian Tire and also had them do a road test on the car to evaluate the transmission.
When we picked it up they let us know they couldn’t find anything wrong with the transmission. Good news. Now let’s hope the car behaves. Perhaps it was just a little quirk. Here’s hoping.
Work Day
We decided that Friday needed to be a work day so we did our best to catch up on our posts and other stuff that just goes along with keeping up with life.
Mexican Train Dominos
During this week my Dad also introduced me to a game called Mexican Train Dominos. It’s really a lot of fun.
Try as I might, I have yet to beat him, but I did come close – once!
Visit to My Eldest Son and Family
Saturday we were off to visit my eldest son and his family which includes my grandson, my granddaughter and his lovely fiancé and their new home.
This was the first time we met his fiancé and what a lovely lady she is. She has three children – two boys and girl – who we’ll get to meet tomorrow at a bbq given by my other son and his family. More about that next.
Visit to My Second Son and Family
This son and his fiancé have just purchased a lovely house and are busy making it their home.
I was happy to see them both again as well as my grandchildren. Together they have five kids and only one of them was missing as he was working.
We were also able to meet my eldest’s son’s fiancé’s children and that was a pleasure, too.
All the kids played together amazingly well and enjoyed themselves immensely in the pool at T & F’s new house.
Our Last Day Here
On our last day here we had to take our car back to Canadian Tire because the “check engine” light was on.
They simply wanted too much to check for the reason and we’re sure there really isn’t anything wrong. It has probably just registered a miss-fire like the last time when we had the distributor cap replaced.
We did some more running around and topped off the evening with a lovely spaghetti dinner cooked by my Dad. He’s a wonderful cook and the spaghetti sauce was amazing.
It will be sad to leave tomorrow, but it’s time to get back on the road.
Thanks, Dad! Love you!
Thanks also to T&F and family and T&E and family for welcoming us into their homes. We love you all.
It was tough saying goodbye to my daughter and granddaughters. It was so wonderful spending time with them.
Thanks so much for letting us stay with you. We love you!
Time Zone Change
As we crossed the border from Ontario into Minnesota we went back a time zone to Central Daylight Time, gaining an hour.
The Shores of Lake Superior
This is the first time we’ve traveled the along the US shores of Lake Superior. It was lovely but certainly more populated than Canada.
I do believe, that the Canadian scenery along the shores of Lake Superior is more spectacular – more rugged – more rocks.
The US shores of Lake Superior may have more beaches, though, as we were able to see lots of beaches from the highway.
Gooseberry Falls State Park
One thing the United States does very well is to make their natural areas available to everyone, and, frequently at no charge.
We made what was meant to be a short stop at Gooseberry Falls State Park and ended up spending over an hour exploring and taking pictures.
It was a hot day and there were lots of people there enjoying the water and the hiking trails.
There were also facilities housed in a modern building and lots of information about the state park. There were even nature walks hosted by rangers – also at no charge.
Bravo to the State of Minnesota for making such a lovely spot available to all.
Groceries and Hotel
After a lovely, and not-too-long drive, we stopped to get groceries for the next few days and spent the night in a clean but reasonably priced hotel.
Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
July 1 ~ Day #52
Budget to date
Spent today
Total to date
Daily average
Total
$5200
$24.00
$6092
$117.15
Miles by Road
Nautical Miles
Miles by Air
Miles by Train
Total Statute Miles
6924+00
3826
000
69
11,427
Current Location: Green Haven Sun Club, Balgonie, Saskatchewan
Good Nights Sleep
Thankfully we got a good nights sleep last night. The mosquitos are still around but at least there aren’t hundreds of them trying to sleep with us.
More New Friends
Today is Canada Day so many camp residents took the opportunity to come out and relax in the sun. We were introduced all round and we struck up some interesting conversations. Today is Thursday and many Canadians will have to return to work tomorrow so we won’t get to meet a lot of the members until the weekend.
Canada Day Celebration
Canadians aren’t normally big flag wavers but on Canada Day they all come out for one big patriotic blow out. The folks at Green Haven decided to have a parade and decorated all the golf carts and riding lawn mowers with red and white bunting and Canadian flags. Even the dogs were sporting red and white rosettes and maple leafs.
We are the crowd
Everyone got it involved with the parade to the point that there was no one left to be the cheering crowd. That’s where we and another visiting couple came in. We did our best to make as much noise as possible and I guess we did a good job because the parade did a second pass. Yeah it was silly but everyone had a good time.
Perfect Evening
After the sun went down we all gathered around the campfire and occasionally spent some time in the sauna. All in all a good day and a good night’s mosquitos free sleep.
Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
June 23 ~Day #44
Budget to date
Spent today
Total to date
Daily average
Total
$4400
$142.48
$5511.21
$125.25
Miles by Road
Nautical Miles
Miles by Air
Miles by Train
Total Statute Miles
5853+317=6170
3826
000
69
10673.4
Current Location: Cochrane, AB
Road Miles: 000
Today’s Total Expenses: $142.48
Transportation: $50 gas
Accommodation: $86.11 hotel
Food: $6.37 McDonalds
It was raining when we woke this morning so we had to time coffee and showers (us) between showers (rain). We ended up packing the tent away wet which I really don’t like to do but didn’t really have any choice.
Jasper, Alberta
Vicky had been to Jasper once before many years ago and was always talking about how beautiful it was but I think her memory of it had improved over time. It’s a nice little tourist town but nothing that special.
What I particularly don’t like is that you have to buy a park pass in order to visit. Vicky covered the charges yesterday so I won’t restate them but I certainly think they are too high. It’s not like the Canadian government had to build the mountains, they just stole them from the Indians – excuse me, First Nations or whatever the current politically correct term is.
Icefields Parkway (Hwy 93)
Anyhow there is no question as to how spectacular the scenery is, in fact there are no words to adequately describe the beauty of the drive from Jasper to Banff, Alberta down the Icefields Parkway (Hwy 93). Every inch of the 142 mile drive provides another postcard perfect view you want to photograph.
Not far outside of town we noticed a bunch of cars stopped on the highway and a few people wandering around with cameras. So we naturally stopped too and got to add another wildlife encounter to yesterday’s elk. This time it was a family of Big Horn sheep grazing a few feet of the side of the highway. Eat your heart out Alaska!
We had to stop every few miles to get another photo of mountains, rivers or lakes. We really wasted a lot of money on the Alaska cruise when the scenery is so much better in our own backyard.
Athabasca Glacier
About half way between Jasper and Banff is the Athabasca Glacier. This one is melting pretty fast so if you want to see it you need to plan your trip soon. Vicky was here in 1980 and the ice was close to the road, now it is a fair hike to reach the ice face.
You can take a big wheel bus right on to the glacier but at $49 each plus tax we decided to pass. Are you seeing a pattern with all these attractions?
Lake Louise
Lake Louise is a popular destination within the park and the facilities are well developed. The scenery just couldn’t get any better. Snow capped mountains, treed slopes and a lake that is an incredible light blue – it’s breathtaking.
We would have liked to have rented a canoe but at $35 for half an hour, you guessed it – we passed. Maybe if all these overpriced attractions vendors would lower their prices to something reasonable they might be a little busier.
Banff, Alberta
Unlike Jasper you can visit Banff without buying a park pass and it is certainly the nicer of the two towns.
We were also treated to yet another up close wild life encounter – this time deer grazing on the side of the road.
Cochrane, AB
We had planned to stay at the Sunny Chinooks campground tonight but all the stops for photographs had put us way behind schedule.
Cochrane appears to be a bedroom community for Calgary. Lots of new housing at reasonable prices.
There are half a dozen hotels in town and they were all pretty much full. The best we could do was $86 for the night. That blew the budget but we will be camping in one spot for the next few days so that will bring down our average.
Today was my daughter’s birthday and I was afraid we might not have an Internet connection so that I could use Skype to call her and wish her a Happy Birthday.
There was supposed to be a WiFi connection at the campground we stayed in last night, but no matter what we did we just couldn’t get it to work.
But, as luck would have it, we stopped at a little market (Jim’s Food Market) in Clearwater, BC and were able to get a good enough signal so that we could call. The connection wasn’t great but we could at least hear each other most of the time even though it was a very short call.
Happy Birthday, sweetie! Love you. Hope you had a great day.
Mount Robson
Along the route to Jasper we stopped at Mount Robson. Mount Robson is 12,972 ft tall.
Note to BC Provincial Parks: I understand that Canada uses the metric system, but for most visitors 12,972 ft would seem way more impressive than the same height in meters (3954 m). All I’m suggesting is that you put BOTH measurements on the signs so people who are not familiar with the metric system don’t confuse it with feet or don’t need to do the conversion (which most of us would get wrong anyway).
Jasper National Park
We were a little taken aback at the cost to enter the park and the cost for camping, which I will cover a little later.
I will leave the rant to Geoff, who is much better at such things, but it seems to me that, being Canadian, we shouldn’t have to pay quite so much. We had planned to stay in the park longer, but not at these prices.
A senior’s day pass (good for 24 hours) into the Park was $16.60 for both of us. There is no discount for extra days and if you plan to stay a week or more, you might as well get the annual pass that is about $140, but at least it covers most Federal Parks.
Now, this does’t include the cost of camping. For a tent site with no electricity or water the cost was $27.40/night. Although there were toilets and showers, the toilets were a fair distance away – particularly for someone like me who generally needs to get up at least once a night – and the showers were way over by the entrance to the campground.
For the same amount of money, or even less, we’ve been able to stay at a reasonably nice hotel in the States.
I don’t want to sound negative but we are Canadian and pay Canadian taxes. Shouldn’t there be a different rate for taxpayers?
At the Grand Canyon, if you were a senior and a US resident or citizen, you received a significant discount for park entry fees and camping. And, although the park entry fee was $25.00, it was good for an entire week.
Wildlife Encounter
Okay, time to get more positive.
After popping into the Town of Jasper for a quick look we headed back to our campsite and actually passed three elk along the way, just grazing at the side of highway.
They didn’t seem to mind when we pulled over to video them. I guess they’re used to seeing humans around.
They are actually quite large. At first glance I thought the one I saw might actually be a moose.
So far we have seen more wildlife in the few days we’ve been in British Columbia than we saw during our two-week cruise in Alaska.
We got in pretty late last night so everybody slept in a little.
After breakfast I decided we had better take the opportunity to clean out the car a little before we set out on the next leg of our journey. So I pulled everything out of the car and piled it in the driveway. Then it was off to Canadian Tire for an oil change.
Canadian Tire is a uniquely Canadian institution. They sell an eclectic mix of products for a mostly male clientele but with enough household items to keep the wives busy while us men can do some real shopping for the important stuff.
For you Americans think of it like a combination of Autozone, Outdoor World, Best Buy and Home Depot. Canadian Tire stores of various sizes are in pretty much in every decent sized community in Canada.
Since they also have a service department I checked the Jeep in for a much needed oil change. They do a thorough job of checking for potential problems while the car is on the hoist and the mechanic found a rusty universal axle joint on the front drive axle. We still have six thousand miles to drive so it was not something I could ignore. $250 + $35 for the oil change and we are good to go.
We have not included the $250 in our expense report total as we are trying to
I’m a little bummed that the Hollywood Chrysler Jeep in Florida that changed the oil and checked out the car before we started didn’t find the problem. They charged $150 to tell us about $3000 worth of work we didn’t need but didn’t find the rusty joint.
Sushi
It’s never a good idea to impose yourself on family without contributing something to the household budget in some way or taking our hosts out to supper. TA and S love sushi so we decided to take them out for supper to thank them for their hospitality.
We have never had sushi so this was an opportunity to try something new. This was an all you could eat Japanese food restaurant and they had other stuff besides sushi in case we didn’t like it.
I know sushi is very popular and there are people that really like it – hey Japanese kids are brought up on it. But I can’t help thinking that for a lot of people it is like the story of the emperor’s new clothes. Just because it’s trendy they say they like it but secretly they are hoping for the next trend to take over.
For what it’s worth we think sushi is awful and would likely starve to death if that is all there was to eat.
What do you think? Are you willing to admit you don’t like it?
