Time to Roll

It's been a lovely relaxing week at the lake but it's time to get on the road. I haven't blogged because not much to write about when our days consist of fishing, reading, swimming, and just basically hanging about. We've been out on the lake every day. Yesterday Jade even strapped on the wakeboard again. Just like riding a bicycle. She was able to pop right up out of the water and ride for longer than she ever has, even throwing in some cornering on her. She really wants to be able to jump a wake but we haven't gotten there yet. She was sore this morning! The day before we also had them out on the tube hauling them around and Jeff "cracking the whip" and trying to fling them off which he did a number of times! The surface temperature of the water is 90 degrees, slightly less than the air temperature. Perfect! Otis is now jumping in off the boat all by himself. He doesn't even wait for us now; yesterday he was the first one in - lol!

Better on the wide open water than on a road!

Today we are getting ready to roll. We've decided to attempt a visit to Nova Scotia (again - failed attempt 2 years ago). We will head north into Missouri, Illinois, Michigan and then Toronto, Canada. That's as far as we've got reservations at this point. Should spend the night in Toronto on the 21st. We are going to travel through Canada until we hit Montreal and then cross back in to the US and cross through Maine to get there. There's a place called Skowhegan, Maine that we stayed at 2 years ago. We probably will stay there again but it's all up in the air. We've got Otis's rabies vaccine paperwork. That and $30 ought to get us across the border. I swear if they turn us back this time over something stupid like last time, we will NEVER try to visit Canada again. 

Had some excitement today. Had to pull the boat to park it while we are gone for these few weeks. We are using the marina just across the lake from here to launch and pull the boat because the one here is too iffy. You'd have to back down this long rutted road and hope no dim-bulb has parked down by the lake so you have enough room to turn around, etc. The one across the lake is a real boat launch - just a longer drive. Jade came with me and I let her drive the boat. Jeff drove around in the car and met us there. We got it all loaded up and headed to Wal-Mart to stock up on provisions (Mya eats us out of house and home. She LOVES the full size refrigerator in this rig.) 

Disaster averted - thankfully.

About 3 miles from Wal-Mart Jeff says, "there's something wrong with the tire on the boat trailer". He said he could feel a wobble or something. We had about 5 miles to go to get to Wal-Mart and the wobble was getting worse. We made it to the parking lot and hopped out to look. ALL 5 lug nuts were loose and a few were close to falling off. If we had driven any more the whole dang wheel would have fallen off WITH the boat on the trailer! OMG! We had no problems at all when we launched it a week ago. Jeff said he found it hard to believe that all 5 came loose on their own. The trailer is parked on the resort property but that doesn't mean someone couldn't get to it - the ramp here is a public access ramp. I'd hate to think someone intentionally loosened them. But you never know. We are just thankful we averted a disaster. And that Wal-Mart has huge parking lots and tools like lug nut wrenches, etc. (I know Wal-Mart doesn't have the greatest record when it comes to how it treats it's employees, etc. but as an RVer, there is no better place to stop and shop. In Canada, they even let you stay overnight in their parking lots for free!) He was able to tighten everything well enough and there was a tire store less than 3 miles away that said they could fix it. I held my breath practically the whole 3 miles there. They said the wobbling also wrecked the rim so the whole thing needs to be replaced. If it's not ready tomorrow, they said we could pick it up when we get back from our trip. Nice guys!

Mya has claimed the recliner. Thought that was Dad's.

Jade and Otis just hanging out. Jade's on her phone - go figure.

We are excited to start adventuring although just hanging out here is so relaxing. Between pool time, lake time, kayak and boating time, and reading we can fill a day nicely. Otis is starting to get used to the RV and relax a bit more. He sure does sleep well after a few hours of boating/swimming. Talked to "Grandma Pat", our friend Susan's mom. She lives just outside of St. Louis so we hope to have dinner with her tomorrow night. We might try to visit the Gateway Arch in St. Louis before we leave on Sunday. I didn't realize that it is actually a part of the Jefferson Memorial Expansion Park so we can get our National Park Passports stamped. We'll also get to fill in another state on our RV map. Love that!