Time to fire up the blog again

Well I'm baaack so it must be fall and time to prepare for Snowbird 4.  After a very hot and dry summer we moved into September however no one told the weather gods.  Sept felt like Oct and Oct is moving right on into November.  We have had lots of rain and snow flurries since mid-Sept and we can hardly wait to pack up and get outta here.  Its seems like when we return we basically are in a holding pattern waiting to pack up for our next winter trip.

I have been rehabbing my ankle and it is to the point where its as good as its going to get without surgery.  It seems I tore some fascia which holds one of the tendons in place around my ankle bone.  Kind of a freak accident but it only pops once in a while now and doesn't prevent me from walking and biking.  I'm up to about 8 km, 5 days a week and the strengthening exercises for my knees are helping big time.  Pickleball is out though as I don't want to risk another winter on crutches.  Just have to accept my limitations.  Lori has been rehabbing her shoulder/arm and her range of motion is not quite what it was but doesn't limit her activities and is as good as its going to get.  Getting old sucks but beats the alternative.

We have had Lori's mother with us for most of the summer as she has had a number of medical procedures which required her to be in Winnipeg.  It seemed simpler to have her just camp out in our spare room rather than repeated 6 hour one way trips to Swan River. Some days I'm not so sure. 

When I last left off we were heading back from Vegas and closely watching the weather forecast.  The plan was to head north to Salt Lake City and through Montana to Alberta.  We were hoping to camp out for a few days in Lethbridge to visit Jeff and family however winter storms through southern Alberta and Montana made our decision for us.  Instead we decided to head east to Denver and over to York, NE; Sioux Falls, SD and then home.  Based on the forecast it looked like we could just beat the snow systems and get home in cold but dry weather.  

Well it didn't quite work out as planned. 

This was what it looked like when we made our 
decision to head east to beat the storm systems. 

Great driving weather through some beautiful Utah countryside.

Hmmm!  Just east of Vale.  Thought we could beat this stuff. 

North Pole.  Nope.  Sioux Falls, SD

We weren't the only brave souls. 

The toque (or beanie for the Yanks) says it all. 

We had to winterize the trailer in Sioux Falls.  We kept the furnace running all night hoping 

that the water lines wouldn't freeze up.  Next morning I managed to blow out all the lines 

and get anti-freeze in them however I was unable to dump the black and grey tanks as 

the valves had all frozen.  Oh Shit!

When we got home we got the trailer unloaded and put it in storage.  It was filthy on the 

outside and not so clean on the inside either.  The major downside of our move from our 

acreage to the condo is no room to park the trailer in the yard.  I had been hoping for a 

week of nice weather in Sept so we could put the trailer up at the Town & Country RV 

park however that nice week of Indian Summer never materialized (can you still call it

that?).  

We are now 1 week away from our departure date of Oct 23 so a sense of urgency is 

starting to set in.  We will put the trailer up in the RV Park on Friday and take 4 days for 

some M&R, cleaning and packing while at the same time get the house ready for its 

winter hibernation.  

Last year we spent 4 months in one place and this year we have decided to be a little bit 

more nomadic, at least for the first 2 months.  Last year was our shortest snowbird trip at 

4 1/2 months, cheapest at about $19,000 US and the least driving at 6486 miles averaging 

10.9 MPG.  Of that distance we towed the trailer for 4,315 miles and averaged 9.8 mpg

with our house in tow.   I had hoped that with the new truck the MPG would be a bit better 

but perhaps it needed a break in period or perhaps thats as good as its going to get.  

This year our plan is to be away for just shy of 6 months with more driving so costs will 

go up.  We are meeting Mark & Jan, friends from Utah, in Oklahoma on Oct 26 and from 

there we will travel in tandem through Texas for the month of November.  We have 

reservations for December in Tucson, AZ and then Jan-Mar at our home away from home 

in Gold Canyon.  Our trip home will include a week in the Sedona area and then a week 

in Moab, Ut.  Hopefully the weather through the mountains are in our favour this year and 

we will head north to Lethbridge to finally catch up with family.  

Thats the plan and I do hope to be a bit better at posting regular updates.  Be prepared for 

even more pictures, if that's possible, as I traded in my old Canon 60D for a brand spankin 

new Sony A7iii full frame mirrorless camera.  Boys and their toys.      

Later.