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Gettysburg was a little out of our way heading to Washington, but what a GREAT choice. Barb & I took 2 hours to go through the museum which was laid out perfectly for a history lesson. We now have a better understanding of the impact the Civil War had on American politics. The evolution of the 13th amendment continues even today. This perspective will help as we visit Washington over the next 10 days and travel further south.

Well it was my birthday and we celebrated in Pennsylvania by doing some shopping at a Amish market, then off to dinner at Agape, which was a dry restaurant. Yes folks you heard that correct, no wine or alcohol of any kind. LOL Food was great and rich as we had burnt ends, BBQ ribs, a burger with pulled pork, and sides of mac and cheese and sweet potato fries. There was one pickle, which was the extent of the veggies, so we split it. We carried home over 5 pounds of leftovers, which is apparently lasting more than 1 day.

October 29th is Gettysburg and Washington DC !

We are staying at a great RV park (Florry’s) in Ronks Pennsylvania, right in the middle of an Amish Village. We wake up to the clopping of the horses as they pull the Amish buggies (closed carriage) down the road.

OK now back to the Scoot Coupe tour! We took turns driving this little car and we loved it. The countryside was beautiful with the fall colours. We also stopped at a couple of covered bridges and a Amish home to look at the barn, horses and the buggies used by the family. The lady of the house also served us Meadow Lemonade and home made blueberry donut holes. Both delish!! Check out the gallery for more pics of our trip.

The town of Hershey was founded by none other than Milton S Hershey. Having gone to school to forth grade and going bankrupt twice, he made a legacy not just making chocolate, but by building a town. The first Hershey bars where sold in 1900 and were so popular he was able to build a company town which was called, Hershey Pennsylvania. He was a philanthropist and built a boarding school for local orphans, and as of 2016 was able to accommodate 2,000 students. In WWII he developed a bar for troops that was non-melting, again something to ”give back”. In 1918 Hershey transferred the majority of his assets, including control of his company, to the Milton Hershey School Trust fund, to benefit education and advancement in science. Milton Hershey placed quality of his product and the well-being of his workers ahead of profits. He believed that providing better living conditions for his workers would result in better workers, and he was right! He built the town around the company and today it stands proud and quite beautiful in Pennsylvania. It truly is the sweetest place on earth.

In Hershey we have the Hershey Museum, Gardens, Theatre, teaching Medical Centre, Cemetery, and the School to name a few things Milton Hershey built in his lifetime and beyond. Mars (the bar company) wanted to purchase Hershey and the Governor of Pennsylvania stopped it, wanting to keep the Hershey company a Pennsylvanian treasure.

Barb and I toured the museum and a bit of the town. There is a HUGE sense of pride to all that work and live here. The street lamps are Hershey Kisses. The chocolate in the museum (some of which we had never heard of) we think are sold at cost (we looked some items up on Amazon U.S and there is a significant difference in price) we should have bought more! Here are a few pics of our first tour!

We are calling today, October 24th as Day 1 of the U.S trip, but in fact we haven’t left Burlington yet. Today we were finalizing the last minute items required to get ready. Sanitizing the fresh water tank (that is a process!), Costco, Cleaning the R.V inside and out, Costco, repacking the storage compartments underneath, Costco.

We also decided to do a little sight seeing, which is why we are calling this Day 1. About a KM from Barb’s home is a Museum called Ireland House. All these years I thought it had to do with the Country, when in fact it had to do with one of the first settlers of the area back in the 1800s, Joseph Ireland (DUH). Ireland house was built on Oakridge Farm between 1835-1837.

Joseph Ireland emigrated to Canada in 1819 from Bowes, Yorkshire England in 1819 at the age of 27 and he petitioned for the land at Oakridge Farm. Joseph and his descendants occupied Ireland House until 1985.

In 1987 the City of Burlington purchased the property from the estate of Lucie Marie Ireland Bush and established the museum, restoring the homestead to illustrate three distinct time periods that represent the generations of Irelands who lived in the house: 1850’s, 1890’s, 1920’s. (I felt like I was going through the Downton Abby years all over again…..(although Downton was filmed in later decades) 90% of the furnishings in the house are original and the light in the front hallway was the first electric light on the Guelph Line. (Guelph line is a main road in Burlington)

While the pictures below don’t do the home justice, it was a reminder of not just simpler times (and harder), but that there are historical riches in our neighbourhoods we should all take the time to visit, and to learn what and who was here before us.

We are starting to wind down all our ”to do lists” before leaving next Monday, Aug 24th. Going back and forth to appointments, Costco (of course one must go for a run or two before any trip), give Winston a bath, Costco, grocery story for the small ”stuff”, Costco.

We have also tried to do a little pausing to ”smell the roses”. We stopped in Limehouse the other day and hopped on the Bruce Trail (800 km long and more than 400 km of side trails) which runs from Niagara river to the tip of Tobermoury Ontario. It was beautiful with the autumn leaves and fresh breeze. We saw the old Kilns (they made the limestone in these back in the day). Quite educational really. And after an arduous 15 min we were heading back to the car onto the next appointment, and Costco.

Clearly having technical difficulties with my pictures, so just shift your head into a nice stretch touching your left shoulder to view. And with any proper stretching exercises don’t forget to do the other side…….

We will continue to update you on our ”pre journey” !

October 24th we are OFF to the U.S ! Travelling through Buffalo towards Washington DC, then shifting south. We have yet to plot the specific details, but we are both excited to get back on the road. While living in the RV in Milton Ontario has been nice it is time to move on! I have had my car, which was imperative, as becoming an Ontarian once again is a bit of work with drivers license/health card/registration of car/new plates. Found a Dr/Dentist/Vet and have had all the necessary appointments prior to leaving Canada. I have to say buying medication for months vs per month is a little daunting. Winston alone has a bag full of pills which was a $2,000 ticket but he is worth it 🙂 Not sure how the border police are going to react to what looks like a pharmacy in here, and Barb’s stuff isn’t here yet! Not that we look like drug lords, but honestly the amount of drugs is ridiculous and we are NOT that old. (keep your age comments to yourself!)

December Barb will be flying home for Christmas and a very important baby shower so I will be hanging in Savanna Georgia with the fur kids while Barb is back home in Burlington.

This weekend though is Thanksgiving, so Barb is hosting her and JLs family at her home, and I am with my sister hosting our family at her home in Scarborough.

Monday Barb and I will start booking our stays on the way to Savannah. We have confirmed 3 girlfriends of
Barb’s will join us in Washington the weekend of Nov 4th. There is a ton to see there, and along the way through Buffalo to Washington. We can’t wait to share with you all.

In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy the weekend with family/friends and take a moment like we are, to be thankful for everything in your lives.

As I start typing this, I am wondering how we are going to explain to you all where we are at with our brake rotor issue. It has turned out to be shocking? confusing? a miracle?

We are going to go with a miracle………

To refresh everyone’s memory. On July 17th we went down Salmo Hill 13% grade and had a significant incident with our brakes. Over the course of the following days we got the brakes checked to find out what happened. We were told all 4 brake rotors were warped, with the front having significant overheating. We saw the pictures of the brake rotors (called disks in Canada, Rotors in the U.S. I guess the mechanic has a U.S background???) they were the color blue, which is a clear sign of overheating. After Barb made NUMEROUS and I do mean NUMEROUS calls to Ford Canada/Ford Roadside Assistance, we had case #s logged and Ford in Trail ordered replacement parts under warranty on the recommendation of the mechanic.

We sat in Trail from July 18-Aug 24 waiting for said parts. No one could tell us when they were going to get shipped from the manufacturer in the U.S so no date on when they would arrive in Trail. After discussing this with Ford Canada/Ford Trail/Mechanic and between Barb & I (and the fact Barb’s daughter was getting married mid Sept.) we decided to make our way back to Ontario carefully to start the process all over again in Hamilton at the Ford there.

We made it back without incident. We learned how to effectively use manual shifting on large and small hills, slowing down for traffic/red lights etc. We are much better drivers today than we were on June 27th when we first started our journey. We were also proud of ourselves for having zero issues on the way home.

Sept 6th: We arrived at Ford in Hamilton. Dropped off the RV and headed back to Barb’s. We received a call from the service dept. on the 7th stating they couldn’t find anything wrong with the motorhome. I replied that was impossible. Barb & I were stunned and decided to drive over to Hamilton to speak to the mechanic ourselves. When we arrived we spoke to K who was the most senior mechanic there. Another mechanic had checked the brake rotors and told K there was no evidence of warping at all. You can imagine how we wanted to believe, but couldn’t quite believe what we were hearing. We asked if K could take a look himself, being the most senior mechanic there, to make us comfortable with what we were now hearing. We informed him of the blue coloring (we had called Trail that day to confirm what they had seen and taken pictures of) and that he should be able to see this when he took everything apart again. K said he would get it back in the bay and take a look himself.

Later that day K called us, confirming that there was nothing wrong. There was no evidence of anything that had gone wrong. We drove back to Hamilton, talked to K ourselves. I asked if the blue could have been worn off driving home from BC. Answer was no, that wouldn’t have happened. All parts look like new. (I’m still shaking my head)

So off we went with our motorhome. Parked now at the Milton Campground where myself, Winston and Safiya are living while Barb get’s to be involved in all pre wedding events and spends quality time with her family.

To conclude: We continue to believe all parties involved. Trail individuals who didn’t need our business. Bent over backwards to try and help us and eventually told us to leave for home driving carefully. In fact the Ford in Trail was taking a huge risk ordering the parts under warranty, again putting faith in the folks who were involved. The mechanic in Trail took photos of our rotors which had turned blue. We saw the photos ourselves. We believe K in Hamilton, he also took pictures, no blue/no evidence of overheating/warping. He had taken the Motorhome out on the road doing his best to overheat the brakes, and couldn’t. (I can attest to this fact as the cupboards were a mess, all clothes off their hangers in the closets)

So a miracle is what we are chalking this up to. We will be stationary for about a month or so, then head to Prince Edward County/Quebec, then down into the U.S. Stay tuned for the continued adventures of B&L

A little out of order here, but above is our second stop which was in Thunder Bay Ontario This campground was the City Campground called Trowbridge Falls. What a nice surprise to have this in our backyard.

Wabigoon Ontario was our first stop after Winnipeg Manitoba. Which is just east of Dryden. Drive was uneventful and we had a large pond in the back. We stopped at the Beaver Post, but nothing extraordinary to write home about :).

Then off to Marathon where we stayed at Penn Lake Campground. Great 2 k hike around the lake. The only confusion was sharing of the electrical/water poles with the neighbours. We had to hunt for them never having had to share before. Winston enjoyed the cool water in the lake and then off we went on the hike!.

Next day off to Harmony Bay which was just awesome as a location. We were packed in like sardines though! The lake was beautiful, the sunset fabulous. Even Winston was mesmerized.

Our Last night of this journey was in Sudbury, Carol’s RV and Campground . Not a bad place to stay, right on a lake just on the outskirts of Sudbury. (no pics at the moment) We also had a chance to go to my Niece’s new Vintage store in downtown Sudbury, and spend some quality time with my family!

Finally took our last leg from Sudbury to Burlington on Monday Sept 5th. Yes, the Monday of a long weekend driving through Muskoka’s and Barrie. THAT WAS BRILLIANT! The pictures really don’t capture the gong show….at one point we were going 20km. But we made it !!! Back at Barb’s place now. We will see how long we are here and will continue to provide updates on the Brake Rotor situation.

We decided to stay an extra day in Winnipeg after seeing the family to go to the Human Rights Museum and The Fort. If you have never been to Winnipeg, which is in the centre of Canada, you really should take some time to stop and stay for a while. Winnipeg has the Prairie sunsets & sun rises that our glorious, there is the museums, zoo, Fort Gary, the Fort and now the Human Rights Museum. It is also a foodie town!

Case in point, Winnipeg is the Slurpee capital of Canada and apparently the World according to our Uber driver! Old Dutch chips are also made in Winnipeg since 1954 and are sold in a box, not just bags. Frankly the box is the cats meow, as no chip is broken when you open the bags (2) inside!.

Barb having had neither, and to the horror of my Winnipeg family called the chips Dutch and the Slurpee a slushee………after I had settled everyone down, we decided to make sure Barb didn’t leave without having tried both. (no she has never had Old Dutch Chips).

Happy to report, and no surprise to me, she loved both. I will also note, that while you can purchase a Slurpee across Canada in any 7-11 stores, Winnipeg has the best tasting. Having gone across Canada a few times with my family I can attest to this fact.

Now onto the Human Rights Museum. It has 8 floors. Each floor is impressive and I can’t say enough about how much we loved our tour. We took about 3 hours (it didn’t feel that long at all) and we think we saw about 85%. Here are some photos to give you a taste of what to expect if you ever get a chance to see it.

The displays are so well done that you are pulled into the experience to learn and reflect. Stats of racism, red dresses that depict all the indigenous women who have disappeared, beautiful quotes and people who have made a difference in our world both negative and positive. What was really nice was a floor that had a dedicated spot for a reflection garden. Made from Basalt rock, this was inspired by the Giant’s Causeway of Northern Ireland. It is a place where you can pause and reflect on what you had learned so far in your journey through the museum.

Here are some pics of the Alabaster ramps that take you to each floor. Glowing with LED lights, it is 800 meters of light through the darkness, as the ramps are against chalkboard black concrete walls.

After seeing all these pics, how can you pass this museum by.