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Lillian Rose Born

Thursday, April 28, 2005 - Today our fourth grandchild entered the world. Lillian Rose, was born to my son Ian and his wife Tracy around 7:20pm EDT at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Dayton, Ohio USA.
    Other than the facts that little Lillian was 7 lbs 11 oz at birth and appears to be normal and with all the usual body parts and that her mother is also doing well, we know nothing else at this time and have no photos yet. More news to follow as it arrives.
    Grammy and I are now the proud grandparents of 3 girls (Grace, Faith, and now Lillian) and 1 boy (Caden).

We Visit Aunt Ruth

Wednesday, April 27, 2005 - This day we made the 20 mile drive over to Brockville, Ontario and paid a visit to Sandra's saintly Aunt Ruth. We'd postponed this visit until we'd gotten over the colds we'd caught in Columbus, Ohio on our way back north.
    Aunt Ruth is one of Sandra's mother's sisters and we were happy to find her in good health for her young years. While there, after getting caught up on things, we also set up her computer so my news page here is now the home page of her internet browser, so she can more easily keep up with our travels now.
    The photo on the right of Aunt Ruth, Sandra, and our camera-shy mutt, Bib (a.k.a. Vinny the killer poodle) was taken in Aunt Ruth's living room. As always, click on it to see a larger image.

Plans

We are scheduled to leave the scenic 1000 Islands on Sunday morning and move up to Ottawa where we'll be for the month of May in order to get our annual physicals and take care of any other business that comes up.

Weather

The weather continues to be cloudy, cool, and rainy, interspersed with brief periods of sun, but we've got to have these April showers if we want those May flowers. The trees are slowly starting to bud around here and it will soon look less wintry. Sure miss the palm trees (sigh).

We Visit Athens

Tuesday, April 26, 2005 - I haven't updated the News page here for a while because we haven't been doing much that's newsworthy. We have gotten over the colds we caught in Columbus, Ohio and been reading, relaxing, surfing the web, watching TV, and updating my pBase photo galleries.
    However, Tuesday, April 19, we did make the hour and a half drive up to Ottawa to get Bib groomed only to find his groomer is apparently no longer in business, and to enjoy breakfast at Ralph & Son's Diner (my old morning hangout), and to see sister-in-law Margie and go through our mail she'd been so kindly holding for us (we also saw nephew Nick who got back from classes while we were there), and finally to see our accountant to get our income tax returns started (filing deadline in Canada is April 30).
    On Thursday, April 21, we drove down to Watertown, New York to get our Verizon cellphone plans updated.
    On Saturday, April 23 (my son Ian's 30th birthday) we decided to do some serious traveling and went to Athens. Sadly, the Athens I'm referring to was not in Greece but Ontario, and is a town I'd never heard of until our accountant chose it as the place to meet us to hand over our income tax returns he'd prepared. Athens is not far from his lakeside cottage and a leisurely 40 minute drive from here and out in the middle of nowhere and was much larger than the crossroads village I'd been expecting.
    As seen in the photo above of the Athens post office, it was a cloudy day, complete with light rain and hardly springlike with temperatures reaching only 45°F/7°C.
    Considering Sandra and I certainly have nothing to complain about, having missed a typical cold, snowy, and icy northern winter, the weather here in the very scenic 1000 Islands so far has not been all that springlike and makes me yearn for the palm trees and cactus we so recently left behind but already seems like a distant memory.
    However, it could have been much worse. I hear this same weather system that's brought us days of clouds, cool weather, and on and off rain, dumped 8 or more inches of snow over in Michigan and that region, so we're counting our blessings.

Nothing Much New

Sunday, April 17, 2005 - We have done little more so far during our stay at Ivy Lea than try to nurse our colds, the first I've had since last October, I think.
    Despite both of us feeling miserable, we did manage to move yesterday to a different campsite within the campground, as pictured here (sorry, Nick, but Sandra refused to be included in the photo since she wasn't up to her best).
    The campground managers like to keep the pull-through sites open for people coming in late, so they made it worth our while to move to a back-in site, which I managed without embarrassing myself too much in front of our new neighbors who were sitting out and, of course, watched the whole procedure.
    Today, as far as I know, is to be a day of rest and attempting to recover our health.

Now Back in Canada

Friday, April 15, 2005 - Well, after spending 6 months on the roads of the USA, Sandra and I crossed the border back into Canada today around noon.
    We left Columbus, Ohio yesterday morning at 10am and drove as far as Le Roy, New York 350 miles away just west of Rochester before stopping for the day at 5pm.
    Then after a very cold night (23°F/-5°C), parked outside the office of the Lei-Ti Too Campground & Recreation Area with only electricity, we were up early this morning, drove the remaining 200 miles to the border at Ivy Lea, Ontario, arriving around noon, but not getting out of there until 1:30pm because it took Sandra that long to sort through 6 months of receipts to the satisfaction of Canadian Customs...but that's another story and I won't dwell on it here. The crossing could have been a lot worse and I'm just happy to be back so we can get some rest.
    We are currently situated by the St Lawrence River in the 1000 Islands / Ivy Lea KOA campground, the 39th camp of our odyssey, and plan to be here for two weeks while we wait for campgrounds closer to Ottawa to open for their season. One bonus of the KOA here is that it has free wi-fi internet accessible from the RV, so I'm a happy camper.
    On one hand, Sandra and I are very tired (it's been a long haul from Carlsbad, New Mexico and we both caught a cold during our stay in Columbus), while on the other hand we are sad to see the end of the first leg of our odyssey. But we also have a lot to look forward to here during our summer in Ontario.

Heading for Canada

Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - We have now done in Ohio what we came for and are leaving tomorrow morning for a two day trip back to Canada that should see us crossing the border sometime Friday. We're not ready for this, but we're out of time and have no choice.
    We aren't sure exactly how far we'll make it tomorrow, but the plan is to go through Syracuse and cross at the Ivy Lea bridge at the 1000 Islands and stay at the 1000 Islands KOA for a while.

Now Near Columbus, Ohio

Monday, April 11, 2005 - This morning we moved from just east of Springfield, Ohio to just north of Columbus, Ohio. This move was only about an hour, one of the shortest we've made, but moved us closer to my daughter Michelle's family after having spent time while near Springfield with family and friends in the greater Dayton area, like my son and his family, my younger sister and her husband, and two long-time friends.
    While the campground near Springfield, Beaver Valley Resort, was better than the one we stayed at in the area last year, Enon Beach, it was only marginally better and I never felt comfortable there. It is just a pity the campground in Lebanon didn't have room for us. Hopefully next time.
Anyway, we are now in the Cross Creek Camping Resort (campsite pictured above) which is a much higher class place and has a wi-fi internet access system that they are trying out and so far it is working well. Best of all, it is accessible from the recliners in the RV, always my favorite place to surf the web from.
    Yesterday, Sandra and I spent the afternoon and evening at my sister's place, visiting with family in the Dayton and Cincinnati area. The next couple of days here we'll see my daughter and granddaughters who live in Columbus, and then we'll be leaving Thursday morning on the last leg of our return to Ontario, expecting to take two days for that trip.
    The weather here in Ohio has been generally very nice and Springlike. Trees and flowers were in bloom closer to Cincinnati but the trees here in Columbus are still mostly bare, but I expect that to change soon and quickly.

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For Older News

To read details of our previous stops and camps, visit the News Archives.