Kevin's Ramblings…

A lot has happened in the last week or so. I felt like absolute crap last Wednesday and didn’t work. Turned out that I had a sinus infection and also my equilibrium was out of whack. My doctor suggested that I shouldn’t fly, so, between that and some other money factors, I decided to cancel my trip back to Ontario.

As I’ve said, my trip down to Boise was far more expensive than I figured it would be. Putting the dogs into boarding was going to cost me around $850 for the week, that was going to be the most expensive part of the trip. The car rental in Ontario wasn’t going to be bad, $470 for the week, but still. Then, all of the meals out would have added up.

I think that if my Aunt and cousin hadn’t visited this past July, I still would have gone and I would have been broke for a bit. I’m glad that I got to see them. I would have loved to meet the Canadian team that I work with, I guess it just wasn’t meant to be right now.

I’m still on vacation now. I’m still not feeling 💯 yet, I’ve been catching up on my sleep. The night before last I fell while walking the dogs. I should have been wearing my ice spikes, but they were in the truck. Just twisted my back, muscular injury so I’ll be fine, but wow, painful.

I don’t have plans for my 6 days off, nothing serious anyway.

The group that I was supposed to have lunch with from with are still getting together on Saturday, I’m sure it’ll be a good time. I’m sorry that I can’t be there, but there will be other trips, I’m sure. I’m remotely thinking maybe next year around Labour Day weekend, but hey, who knows what will be going on by then. I don’t like to plan quite that far ahead. I haven’t been back to Ontario for a couple of years now, maybe it’s time for some of those people to visit me. I know my Aunt and cousin did, and that was a great visit. For now, I’ll enjoy my time off, back to work next Wednesday.

After the whole Rogers support fiasco, I moved over to Bell Mobility and saved a bit of money in the process. I didn’t really need 150gb of data a month though and also didn’t particularly like paying over $100 a month for a cell phone.

I have a requirement for US talk and text as most of the people who work for me live in the US. I only needed some data though.

I decided to look at Freedom Mobile again. I had used them prior to living in Crowsnest Pass and the only reason I left them was because I wasn’t in their “home” area. Ever since Quebecor purchased them they’ve changed how they operate and they now have National roaming.

I got a 50gb unlimited plan with calling and texting in North America and I can use it in the US as well, best part, it’s $45 a month. That’s a $60 a month saving, not bad at all.

The service has been good and I would expect it’s better now than it was 5 years ago when I left. Wish me luck.

I’ve unfortunately decided to cancel my trip to Ontario. Two reasons, I’ve been sick this week, sinus infection which has also caused an issue with my equilibrium and also, I’ve been spending way too much money of late.

Since July, I’ve spent a ton of money. My trip to Idaho was amazing and I had a great time, but I spent way too much money. I towed my trailer and I grossly over estimated my fuel economy. Then, add in the ridiculous cost of gas in Idaho and the low value of the Canadian dollar, it made for quite the expensive trip.

I was sort of shocked that everything in the US was on par, price-wise to stuff here, but then you add on 35% for exchange, everything is far more expensive. I was paying over $100 a night for camping in Boise. It was a great campground, but holy expensive…

I have some upcoming big purchase items too. I need to get new tires for the truck, and they cannot wait. I have to pay for the large propane tank that was delivered and filled, don’t want to freeze this winter. So, I guess, timing just didn’t work out.

I think if I hadn’t seen my Aunt and cousin this summer that I’d still have gone, but that was a factor as well.

I have no feelings like I’ve made a mistake, so I know it’s the right decision to make. It’ll suck not seeing friends and family, but there will be other trips.

It’s been a nice week and a bit since I’ve gotten home from Idaho. The trip ended up costing me far more than I expected, that’s for sure. Gas in Idaho was pretty well what we pay in Alberta, then add on 35% or so for exchange, it was ridiculously expensive. I totaled up my gas expenses, to and from Idaho, towing my small trailer and I spent over $1500 on fuel alone.

Food at restaurants was just as expensive as here then add exchange on top of that, not a cheap night out to eat. Oh well, I’ve often heard that money spent on travelling is never money wasted and I’d tend to agree, I had a fantastic time and a great trip. I guess I just wasn’t expecting it to be quite as expensive as it was.

Work has been crazy busy this entire month with various things breaking with my client driving up phone calls and tickets coming in. We’ve had some people off, using up their PTO before the end of the year, so that strains the rest of the agents. We are keeping our heads above water, just above.

This past weekend was the first weekend since I moved that I did not have any plans at all, and it was so nice. On Saturday, I woke up at 5 or so and let Hera out and went back to bed, I didn’t wake up again until after 8am, that’s amazing for me.

We went out to the other campground that I was thinking of moving to and paid for the month, I was then told some news that I hadn’t been told about. The first person that I spoke to a few weeks ago either out and out lied to me, or did not know how to do her job. I was told that I would have full hookups all winter, ok great – that wasn’t true at all, water and sewer are turned off November 1. I wasn’t told about the fee for the dogs, $2 per dog, per day – I asked if that included them picking up the dog poop, of course not. I was also not told that I’d be connected to a power meter in the winter and I’d have to pay separately for power. So, for about $400 more than where I currently am (not including power), I’d get what, paved roads?

The washroom facilities were about the same as here. The laundry room isn’t as nice, less machines for sure, although they have front loaders, but I can go into Airdrie if I needed one. The location also isn’t as convenient as here, I’m close to everything here and there I’m not close to much.

So, I told them I’d think about it, although looking back, I’m unsure what I had to think about. Why would I want to pay upwards of $600 more a month, all-in, compared to here and basically get paved roads. Well, turns out I wouldn’t.

After the dogs and I went for a walk with friends and their dog on Sunday morning, we headed back out to the campground and I got a refund. I did make sure that I could keep my spot here first and yes, no problem. So, we’ll be staying here this winter.

I’m looking into a water and wastewater service for the winter they’ll come and empty my tanks and fill fresh water weekly. I’ll still shower in the facilities here, that’ll save on water for sure, essentially I’ll use it for washing dishes and brushing my teeth. I’m loving it out here, camping every night. Winter will be interesting, but I’m looking forward to it.

Next week, I leave for Ontario for a week and am looking forward to the trip. It’s been 2 years since I’ve been back, so it’s definitely time for a visit.

I was late getting going on Saturday morning. I was up and about by 430 or so, had a shower, made coffee, loaded the truck up and connected the trailer, but I didn’t get on the road until just after 8am.

I headed towards Twin Falls for my second time and had breakfast at a local place, Abracadabra. I had, for the first time just, chicken fried steak. It was pretty good, there was, however, like most US restaurants, too much food. I headed out towards Great Falls Montana at around noon.

At about 2 o’clock I was dozing off and decided to stop at a rest stop and have a quick nap. The dogs obliged and we slept for just over an hour. I felt great after waking up.

We drove, almost steady until just after 1030pm. We stopped at a weigh station for the night. I was glad I had two dogs with me, it dropped down to 1C, they kept me warm. We stopped just South of Great Falls, so I made my goal. We were only just over 2 hours from the border.

We headed out Sunday morning at 440 and hit the border just before 7. No delay crossing the border which was nice. I got to Lethbridge at 8 but didn’t really feel like waiting for them to open, so I continued onto Coleman.

I dropped off the trailer at my friend’s place, I was glad to shed the weight. We headed home and ended our trip, I slept like the dead last night.

I haven’t calculated how much I spent on gas, but I’m estimating $1200 and I’m thinking it was more, I’m sort of afraid to look.

Back to the normal routine today, and I’m happy to be home. It was an awesome trip.

This has been a whirlwind of a week in Idaho, that’s for sure.

I arrived around 9am on Sunday to my friend and co-workers place in Twin Falls where I was staying until Wednesday. As I said, I brought my trailer down with me – good and bad. The good is I have somewhere comfortable to sleep and the dogs feel “at home”, the bad, the amount of extra fuel it costs me to drag that thing around. As some know, I have two trailers, who doesn’t need two, right? So, I brought the smaller trailer down here, a 1983 20 foot trailer that’s built like a tank. It will probably outlive all of us – they knew how to build things back then.

Anyway… We parked in front of the Hornbacher residence and connected to his power. It tripped his breaker. We eventually ran an extension cord to the trailer so I would have power for lights and a fan. Turns out we think it may be a faulty extension cord. It rained a lot of the day on Sunday but we were able to get out for a few hours with the dogs and go for a walk and some sightseeing.

There is an amazing canyon in Twin Falls and a pretty cool arch bridge going over the canyon. We were able to watch a group of base jumpers do their thing and jump off of the bridge, not something I would do.

Sunday for dinner, I had brought Alberta beef with me, New York Strips and some Texas Twinkies as well (jalapeno stuffed with cream cheese inside a chicken breast and all of that wrapped in thick cut bacon) and I made my World Famous potatoes. Dinner was great.

Monday, I took my hosts out for dinner, it was their one-month anniversary. We went to a place called Elevation 486, pretty good food indeed. They need to work on the Caesar salad though.

Tuesday, DH smoked a tri-tip that he wasn’t impressed with, but I loved it. My Mom used to cook roasts until they were extra-well done, so this was juicy by comparison. Wednesday was a travel day and I stopped at the house of one of the people who works for me to ensure I saw her and her husband in person. I was supposed to have dinner with them, but timing just didn’t work out unfortunately. They were kind enough to get me a take-away bag of food though so that was awesome of them.

Wednesday night, I checked into the Meridian (just outside of Boise Idaho) KOA – Campgrounds of America, or Kampgrounds, perhaps. Really nice campground, that’s for sure, one of the nicest I have ever seen. Thursday, I worked in the Boise IBM office and commandeered my Director’s former office. Thursday night a bunch of fellow IBMers went out for dinner to Kona Grill. I had an amazing stir fry and a double brownie dessert.

Today is my last day in Idaho. The dogs and I will camp again this evening and will head out at first light tomorrow. We will stop again in Twin Falls and will have breakfast with the Hornbachers and then hopefully stop further along the line and meet another co-worker for a coffee.

I plan on making it to Great Falls Montana by Saturday evening and I will find somewhere to park the trailer and spend the night – quite likely a Walmart parking lot. Sunday morning, I will get to Lethbridge Alberta and will stop at Costco for a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving dessert on Sunday night. After dinner, we will make the final 2.5 hour drive north to home and then back to work Monday morning.

What a week it has been…

The dogs and I left Balzac right on time, which is sort of a surprise. I had to head into downtown Calgary to test out my ID bady to ensure it was programmed properly. I must admit that I’m not used to Calgary traffic any more.

I found the office easily enough and my badge let me into the office, no one was at reception… I replied via email to let the security people know I was in and returned to the truck.

I paused at Wendy’s for a bite to eat and then took the dogs for a quick walk near the vets office. Got the all clear on their health and Kevin was very happy with their weight, both dogs are in great shape.

I picked up Blondie’s urn and a paw print that was made. Sad to get that, for sure, but brings up tons of memories of an awesome dog.

We headed South towards The Pass and got in right around 830. Had a great night sleep in the trailer and woke up to rain. I was planning on leaving before first light, but with temperatures near freezing and fairly heavy rain, I decided to wait until first light to head out.

My neighbour was nice enough to make breakfast, bacon and eggs plus toast. I headed to the US with a full stomach.

We had one of the friendliest border agents, and it was quite obvious that she was a dog lover. At about 20 minutes into Montana, there was snow on the ground, I was thinking this is a bit early, it’s only September still. We only had to drive though that for about a half hour.

We got to about 20km North of somewhere called Browning Montana and one of the trailer tires decided to blow up on me. What fun…

A driver stopped and told me there was a tire shop in the next town, I wasn’t too optimistic that a small town tire shop would have what I needed. Another Albertan headed South stopped and helped me get the blown tire and rim off, very nice of him.

I got into town and the tire shop was only open until noon, it was 1130. He had the tire size I needed and we were on our way within an hour, so not much of a delay at all. All in, it cost me $113 USD, not bad at all, I’m sure it would have been well over $200 in Canada.

At this point, I sort of doubted that I’d make it to Twin Falls on Saturday and sure enough, I didn’t. The dogs and I stopped about 45 minutes north of Idaho Falls at a rest stop and spent the night. We headed out early, around 5am with 3 hours ahead of us.

It was an uneventful drive the rest of the way. Sunday was rainy and cool. I met with a bunch of coworkers for brunch, had a great time. I stopped at Costco and got some food for the dogs and a bottle of wine for Sunday dinner. DH and I, along with the dogs, off course, toured the canyon in Twin Falls and watched some base jumpers jump off of the bridge. Insanity, if you ask me.

So, that was the whirlwind weekend. It’s back to work this morning. It should be a good week, I’m looking forward to it. We are going out for dinner tonight to a restaurant overlooking the canyon, I hear the food is great.

Tomorrow after work, I am heading to Calgary to take the dogs to their annual vet appointments. Both Hera and Twix are doing well, no health issues. One of them needs a rabies shot and both get the kennel cough vaccine and distemper, so they’ll be good to go when I have to put them in boarding at the end of October when I head to Ontario for a week.

After the vet appointment, we will head South to Crowsnest Pass. I am hoping to get out of the vet’s office by 530 (I will need to try to not talk so much) and then we will get to the Pass by about 8pm. I discovered that taking Highway 2 all the way to Highway 3 and then heading West only adds about 11 minutes to the trip. It also means that I will have cell coverage the entire way and there are towns that we pass through in case I want a beverage, or something.

I was planning on hooking up to the trailer right away and heading to Kalispell for the night. I had looked at camping in Kalispell and for $65 for the night, I found a place that offered only a power hook-up. $65 eh? And I would use, maybe $2 in power? The campsite also had NO FACILITIES at all, nothing… Yeah, don’t think so. The updated plan was to park in the Wal-Mart parking lot and then pull out early on Saturday morning. Now, I have reconsidered and I think I will “camp” in front of the old house for the night and head out early Saturday morning. It’s about an 11 hour drive from Coleman to Twin Falls Idaho, so, a bit longer of a drive than I like in one day, but that’s what I am going to do.

So, I will be pulling my small trailer and the dogs will be joining me. This’ll be, by far, the longest road trip they’ve taken. I will need to ensure I stop more often, for them – I drive through and only stop when I need to use the washroom or I am starving.

I should get to Twin Falls before dark, likely around 6pm or so, presuming I leave at first light, which is the plan. We will be in Twin Falls, “Camping” in my co-workers driveway or on the street in front of his house. I will be there Saturday and will head to Boise on Wednesday after work. I’ve been invited to one of the agents who works for me for dinner on Wednesday evening. She is on the way from Twin Falls to Boise so it will work perfectly.

We are actually camping in Boise at KOA until Saturday morning. Thursday night, a group of co-workers and I will go for dinner in Meridian and Friday morning a bunch of us are going for breakfast. Saturday morning, the dogs and I will head North back to Canada and will stop “Somewhere” along the way for the night. I am guessing somewhere in Kalispell Montana, and quite likely the Wal-Mart parking lot. We will continue through to Coleman on Sunday and will have Thanksgiving dinner with my neighbour and then will head back to Balzac either late Sunday or Monday.

So, it will be a quick trip but I am looking forward to it. It will be nice meeting people that I have worked with for the last year and a half and seeing some co-workers again that I met back in May when I did this previously. Will be a good time for sure.

It’s been a busy few weeks since I last posted a week ago.

I’ve completed my move to Balzac. The dogs and I headed to Crowsnest Pass on Friday afternoon after work. I picked up my small trailer from my friends property and towed it to my house in Coleman, there was no way I was going to try sleeping on that air mattress again. I went out for dinner and then went to bed around 930pm. The mattress in that trailer is pretty darn good, very comfortable. Although I made up a bed on the floor of the trailer for Hera (I forgot the dog bed in Balzac), she was the first to jump on the bed.

I figured she wouldn’t stay when Twix got up, but she did. When I joined, she was in the way of my feet and I thought for sure she’d jump down. Now, keep in mind, she’s always welcome on the bed. She simply moved over and the 3 of us slept through the night. That was the first time Hera’s slept on the bed in a long time, probably 2 years or so.

I joined my neighbour at 5am for coffee, very thankful to have a cup of food, strong coffee. My housekeeper arrived at 7am to help me with garbage and recycling removal, packing the last of my stuff into the truck and a thorough move-out clean.

The town was doing a community garbage day where you could take your junk and dispose it at the arena, that saved me an hour driving to the dump and back. We got rid of a ton of recycling as well, although oddly, they don’t accept glass recycling. We loaded the truck and it was full, but, we got everything loaded.

I went to my neighbours granddaughters 7th birthday at the park while my housekeeper cleaned the house. By the time I got back just over an hour later, the house looked great. The basement was cleaner than I had ever seen it and the entire house looked and smelled great.

I went for a Chinese food buffet for dinner, it was good, I’d go again. Not a huge selection, but all the food was fresh and hot. The dogs and I headed back to Balzac and made great time. I slept like the dead, it was a long day.

Sunday, I umpired what was likely the two worst baseball games I’ve ever done before. The first was completely lopsided, but the stronger team made a mockery of it, not trying at all, switch hitting and looking like idiots and generally not caring about the game at all. It ended somewhere around 23-1 in about 2 hours. The second game was marginally better, but not a lot better. Fall Ball this year is definitely a joke of a league. I’m strongly considering just dropping my last 2 games. It would be nice not having to rush back from Idaho to umpire a likely crappy game on the Sunday before going back to work. Fall Ball has been a disappointment, for sure.

I didn’t do much last night after getting home, although I did have good intentions. I need to unload the truck and organize stuff that I have no idea where I’m going to organize it to. That’ll be a challenge.

This week should be pretty low-key. Friday after work, the dogs and I are going to their vet for their annual checkup and then heading back to the Pass. I’ll pickup the trailer and then the 3 of us are heading to Idaho for a week. I’m looking forward to the trip.

It’s a new week, ensure that you enjoy yours.

I am in the third week of living in my 5th wheel trailer and thus far, I am loving it. Getting a place for everything and everything in its place has taken a bit more time than I thought it would, but I am getting there. I also think that coming from a 2-bedroom home into a 30 foot trailer is a HUGE transition and I didn’t realize how much stuff I actually have. Turns out, I have (had?) a TON of stuff.

The house still isn’t empty, although it will be next weekend. I am heading back to the Pass on Friday evening and my house cleaner is meeting me on Saturday morning to do the move-out clean and help me load for a dump run and then whatever else I am bringing back to the trailer with me. It has to be done Friday/Saturday as the following week, I am heading to Idaho for a week, more on that, shortly.

I have been umpiring again for a few weeks and have enjoyed it. The quality of ball has not been the greatest, but it’s been fun. Sometimes, Fall Ball is really good and other times, it’s not so good. Well, this Fall season, it’s not so good. However, it’s still fun. Only a handful of games left until I am done for the Fall since I will miss 2 weekends due to my trip.

So, next Friday I head to Idaho for a week. I have decided that I am going to bring my small trailer with me, and the dogs as well. There was an incident where they were supposed to board and I am not comfortable leaving them there now. So, I will drag the trailer with me. My gas expenses will double but then I will save boarding fees and hotel fees, so it should be a wash, approximately. I am looking forward to the trip, I am hoping the weather will be great.

At the end of October, I am heading to Ontario for 6 days and am really looking forward to that. It will be a quick trip, but it will be nice to see friends and family and I will be able to meet a number of co-workers as well, we are going to the Mandarin for lunch – gotta love a Chinese food buffet. The whole trip revolves around food, big surprise.

The dogs will be boarding in a “new to me” facility near where I am living. It’s not cheap, $100 per day for 2 dogs, but the suites that the dogs are in look nice and they have a large private run for each suite. Hopefully the dogs will enjoy it as well.

Well, wish me luck on getting everything to the trailer and organized, I will need it. 🙂