We said our goodbyes to Fifth Depot Lake and Sandy (Ellen had left for Ottawa the night before). Ira and Ann intended to drive off in the direction of Toronto as they do each summer, while we headed east to work on our storage issues. So it was goodbye for a while to those two also.
Before heading to the storage compound we dropped in on Richard and Sarah in Prospect for a couple of nights.
Thursday 19th August to Saturday 29th August
It’s back to sorting our belongings in an attempt to rid ourselves of stuff we don’t need anymore and reduce our storage costs.
South of Ottawa, every Sunday there’s a flea market (Mc Haffie’s) where you can rent tables to put your stuff on. So our goal was to find as much stuff as possible to put up for sale.
Sunday 30th August
6 a.m. and we’re up and at it to finish loading the roof of the car with furniture and head down the highway to the flea market. It costs 25 bucks to rent a spot and 2 bucks a table which we easily covered with all our junk, especially after making a second trip to get more.
We were parked next to Fran DesLoges, a very nice lady who was selling dolls and things that fetched amazingly high prices.
The weather co-operated for the first part of the day but deteriorated in the late afternoon when we got a total downpour and were completely soaked for the ride home.At the end of the day we’d made a grand total of $53 profit (excluding travel costs) but we did get rid of a lot of excess things.
Monday 31st August
A day of recovery and unloading all the things we didn’t sell.
Tuesday 1st September
At least once a week, it’s necessary to dump our waste products and fill up with fresh water. Rather than pay $15 just for that privilege of pumping out, for a few dollars more we prefer to stay in the camp site for the night. So we headed over there for a night of luxuries like heating and showers.
We also had our friends Richard Felicity over for an extended lunch.
Wednesday 2nd September
Instead of heading back to the storage, we are headed off to Smiths Falls to take advantage of an invite to Lena and Peter Hill’s farm. Carol met Lena at Telemus where they both worked when we moved to Ottawa from Montreal. They lived in Kanata all those years raising their kids, Shannon and Ryan, while dreaming of moving out to the country.
They have 50 plus acres of trees and grassy land with horses
and everything you would want in a country setting.
We parked The Big Easy next to the horse paddock and settled out on the grass for afternoon refreshment with the Hills.
Thursday 3rd September
Time to saddle-up once more and go horse riding. Carol declined the offer but Lena and I rode round the property for a couple of hours.
It's been a while sonce I rode and I paid for it over the next few days.
Peter works at GDC where I used to work many years ago. However, he's taken to the gentleman farmer role as though born to it.
To round out the day I got a ride on their ATV and also got to tear up the scenery solo.
In addition to the horses they have two beautiful cats - one of them shown below. Riley was too skittish to photograph.
They also heat the house with a wood stove. However, not like any wood stove we've seen before.
It heats the house via a boiler that circulates hot water to the house through underground pipes.
Friday 4th September
Time to move on back to the storage area, so it's goodbye to the Hills and on down the road.
Saturday 5th September
A day of sorting out what we're going to try and sell at the next flea market.
Sunday 6th September
Up early once again and down Hwy 31 to Morrisburg and McHaffie's flea market.
This time it's a holiday weekend and the weather is great.
However, at the end of the day we did about as well as the previous week.
Monday 7th September
The great sort-out continues.
Tuesday 8th September
Back to the camp-site again for the usual ablutions.
Wednesday 9th and Thursday 10th September
Time to build some shelving so we can move what's left of one of our storage lockers into one half the size.
Friday 11th September
Only a few days left now before we planned to leave to go east so we head off to Richard and Sarah's to park in their driveway, collect our mail and say goodbye.
Saturday 12th September
Back to the storage (by car) one last time to finish moving things into our new condensed space.
Sunday 13th September
Finally time to leave Ontario and head to Carol's sister's place in New Brunswick so with The Big Easy in the lead and Carol following on with the Subaru we lumber on down the road to Montreal and our first stop at Ken and Cheryl's.
When Ken checked with the city about parking the RV in the road he was told that was not permitted. We would never have fitted The Big Easy on their half of the driveway but fortunately they have a good relationship with their neighbours and once they'd moved their car on to the street we had room.
Monday 14th September
Onward again to Quebec City where we have an invite from John and Rejeanne who we met while sailing down south last winter.
However, things were not to go that smoothly. When we were about fifty kilometres from Quebec City on the north side of the St. Laurence we pulled off the autoroute to a gas station and rest stop. Carol said she thought there was something wrong with the car and when I checked it out sure enough there was something seriously wrong with the transmission.
What to do? Carol had the presence of mind to check our Good Sam RV roadside assistance to see if it covered our cars too. Yes it does, so we called for a tow truck which hauled it out to a local garage that confirmed that this was no minor problem.
We left the car there and continued on in the RV to John and Rejeanne and the driveway of their newly purchased home and a warm welcome.
We suspect we might be here quite a bit longer than expected.
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