August 1 - Sunday
Today was a long travel day from Cody to Devil's Tower as we work our way east.  We got an early start since we put the car on the tow dolly last night and there were no hookups at this campground to unhook.  We arrived at Devil's Tower National Monument in mid-afternoon.  We walked around and climbed the rocks at the base in the 95 degree heat.  They used to think the tower was the core of a volcano where the surrounding material had been eroded away over time.  The current theory is that a crack in the earth filled with magma which cooled and hardened and was left standing when the softer material around it eroded away. Near the entrance there is a large prairie dog town right beside the road.  Since the next few things we wanted to see are clustered in western South Dakota, we decided to keep moving and see if we could find a place in that area to park the RV for a few nights while we explore. The first campground we stopped at, Mt. Rushmore KOA, was full but they directed us to a nearby park, Rafter J Bar Ranch. We wound up with a large pull-though site right next to the playground. We quickly had dinner and then headed over to Mt. Rushmore for the evening lighting ceremony. The visitors center is much improved since Sandra was here over 20 years ago and saw the carvings at night during a lightening storm! We returned the RV, washed up, and slept soundly. Over 400 miles, two states, a national monument and national memorial all in one day. Whew!

August 2 - Monday
Since it appears to be another hot day today, we plan to make this cave day.  We decided to detour through Custer State Park on our way there.  It is a 73,000 acre state park in the Black Hills with interesting rock formations along a scenic highway which contained rock tunnels through the needles and 'pigtail' turns. It also has quite a bit of wildlife such as bison, pronghorn, and big horn sheep which were introduced to the park in the 1920's. The park keeps a set number of bison by conducting  a roundup and auction every fall and somehow the herds seem to reflect more of a cattle mentality than the ones in Yellowstone but perhaps it is simply the heat in the 90s. 

After lunch we took a tour through Wind Caves.  It is unique in that it has little of the traditional cave formations like stalactites and stalagmites and instead contains a large quantity of box works (a honeycomb like formation on the ceiling) which is rarely seen elsewhere.  It is also the 6th longest cave in the world at over 100 miles but that is all in a multi-level labyrinth that is mostly contained within one square mile. More portions of this complex cave are still being discovered.

We stopped in Custer for pizza and dessert and head back to Rafter Js for a relatively early night.

August 3 - Tuesday
Last night we gave the girls a choice.  We can stay one more night in this campground or move to a nearby Forest Service campground and spend two more nights in this area.  Becca has made a friend 2 RV's away from us and they like the playground here.  They voted for one more night here.  Laura wants to finish another Jr. Naturalist badge at Custer State Park so we will focus on that today. We set off in the morning to the Norbeck Visitor Center where the girls participated in a Jr. Naturalist morning program. They then made their own paper out of shredded newspaper and water. We had lunch at a nearby picnic area before returning later for a gold panning demonstration and practice. No gold, but Laura found a tiny garnet. Both girls received Jr. Naturalist patches and Laura also received a certificate and seal for the extra work she did in her book.  
We took the scenic Iron Horse Highway back to Mt. Rushmore. Laura had only a few items to complete for her badge and Becca had several pages to finish. They both managed to complete them and we got to enjoy the mountain by cloud, thunderstorm, and fog! We grabbed a bit of dinner their and Sandra told to use their best table manners as the presidents were watching! 

August 4 - Wednesday
Another long travel day, we seem to be  breaking our 4 hour limit more and more lately.  We did over 400 miles (mostly east, we crossed back into the Central Time Zone) today which needless to say took much more than four hours.  We got an early start, left the Mount Rushmore area, stopped for gas in Rapid City, ate breakfast at the famous Wall's Drug, detoured through Badlands National Park, stopped at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, and went to the De Smet area to find a place to camp.  From the mountains of the Black Hills, South Dakota turns into rolling hills and gets flatter the further you go east.  The Badlands were interesting with the colors of the different layers of rock.  Unfortunately, it was very overcast with low hanging fog so the visibility was limited. Wall Drug and the Corn Palace enable Sandra drag her family to kitschy roadside attractions that seem to proliferate in the Midwest under the excuse of "since we're going right by it"! 

This will be our base for a few days as we show the girls the area where several of Laura Ingalls Wilder's books took place.  We ended up camping at Lake Thompson State Recreation Area.  Lake Thompson is referred to as Twin Lakes in the books.  If my memory of the books is correct, Almanzo and Laura used to ride around the lake in a carriage when they were courting.  We read the books to the girls as bedtime stories before we left Florida.

August 5 - Thursday
De Smet, South Dakota is probably more well known as the Little Town on the Prairie.  The first settlers to come here, Ma and Pa Ingalls never left and are buried on the edge of town.  Laura lived in this area from the winter of 1879-1880 (that was the time they spent in the Surveyor's house as written about in "By the Shores of Silver Lake") until 1894.  It was the setting for 6 of her "Little House" books: By the Shores of Silver Lake, The Long Winter, Little Town on the Prairie, Those Happy Golden Years, the First Four Years and also On the Way Home. 

After lunch we went over to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society. It offers tours inside two historic homes, the Surveyor's house and the last house that Pa built in town (but Laura never lived in). The first stop was the surveyor's house. It was much smaller than we imagined. Our tour guide, Sara, did a wonderful job describing which artifacts were real and their origin and which were reproduced and how each related to the books. She also explained how Laura was only 4'11" and Pa only 5'2". Given that fact and that Laura had been living in dug outs, tents, wagon, and shanties, it probably was huge!  We then got to go in a replica of the school Laura taught in which gave the kids a chance to touch items. Next we drove over to Pa and Ma's house. This housed the remainder of the Ingalls family from 1887 until 1927.  It has memorabilia from the family and friends and the second floor includes Rose Wilder Lane's items as well. We returned to the area of the surveyor's house to go into the Sigurad Anderson School. It was a one room school house that a former South Dakota governor taught in and now it includes many hands on activities for children to do such dress up in pioneer clothes, make their name in braille, try to sew on an antique sewing machine and more.  

Around town we drove by many areas featured in the books such as the main street, Calument Avenue, which was the location of the Mead Hotel, Wilder Feed Store, the Fuller Store, and Pa's store location. The Loftus store is still in operation with some of the original fixtures in use.  We also drove by the school house that Carrie and Laura attended. It was turned into a home but the Society has acquired it and, according to their literature, plans to open it later this year.  There is also a church that Pa helped build. We ended our tour with a stop at the DeSmet Cemetery where Pa, Ma, Mary, Carrie and the infant son of the Wilder's are buried. There are also many of their friends such as the Boasts, Fullers, and Browns buried there.

August 6 - Friday
Based on the campsite markers around the campground, it looks like it will fill up today so we decide to continue our trek toward Minneapolis. Check out isn't until 4 p.m. and we only plan to drive a couple of hours so we head over to the "Laura's Living Prairie" attraction that is set up on the site of the original Ingalls' Homestead in the morning. It is geared toward kids and has many attractions related to the books. There is a covered wagon the same size that they would have traveled in, a reconstructed sod house in a hillside, an example claim shanty, a house built to resemble Ma's 'little house', a barn with a hay roof, and an old one room school house. In addition, they had a tower providing views of crops and prairie, a horse barn, and an old fashioned garage that they had activities set up in. The girls got to make crafts - button buzzers, rope, and corn cob dolls. The cobs came from dried corn ears that the girls stripped the kernels from using an old farm machine. They ground wheat in a coffee grinder just like Laura Ingalls. They also saw how to make straw twists which the Ingalls had burned for heat and cooking during the Long Winter. They took turns riding a pony and on pony cart. All the children enjoyed playing with kittens and a colt, Butterscotch, who was a cross between a pony and miniature horse. We all rode a covered, horse drawn wagon down to the schoolhouse for a sample lesson. The girls dressed up in calico aprons and bonnets and got to ring the bell when 'class' let out. As we were leaving, Butterscotch came galloping up the hill after us and we joked that he wanted to come traveling with us in the RV. The kids had a great time.

We returned to Lake Thompson and broke camp. Based on "The Little House Guidebook" by William Anderson that Sandra bought the previous day, we have chosen to go to the Ingalls' home site in  Walnut Grove, MN the setting for "On the Banks of Plum Creek" to continue our Little House adventures.  We travel down US 14 (the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Highway) for about two hours and arrive at Plum Creek Campground which has very large, pleasant sites. 

August 7 - Saturday
We spend a leisurely day taking in the main attractions in Walnut Grove related to "On the Banks of Plum Creek." Our first stop is the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum. They have several displays and buildings. A former 1890's depot building contains a quilt Laura made. Binders cover topics such as the family's genealogy (Sandra's 90 percent sure there is a connection on her side) and different displays cover topics such as what ever happened to Nellie Oleson (her real name was Nellie Owens and she wound up moving to Tillamook, OR). It also has memorabilia from the TV series based on the books. While touring the other buildings - a chapel, 1890's home containing artifacts from around that era, jail cells, a sod house, a little red school house and an early settlers home, Laura met another 9 year old girl also named Laura. Her family had been to Pepin, WI (Little House in the Big Woods) and Burr Oak (a site Laura never wrote a book about) and were then headed to DeSmet that day. 
After lunch back at the RV, we then trekked over to the dug out homesite along Plum Creek. It is located on the Gordon family's farm. They have signs pointing out different landmarks and replanted some sections with native prairie grass. The whole family went wading along Plum Creek just as the Ingalls girls must have done 130 years ago.  
We ended our day by playing a round of Frisbee golf at the Plum Creek Park at the entrance to our campground. We all had a blast. The team of Pa and Laura beat Ma and Becca. Alex played along by tossing a ball into the baskets. We tossed a few into the rough but managed not to lose a Frisbee.

August 8 - Sunday
The kids enjoyed time on the other nice playground we discovered on the other side of the campground while Sandra got the RV packed up to move. We headed out and eventually made it to a regional park in Apple Valley. It is conveniently located near the airport which is important since Bill and Laura fly to Tampa tomorrow for her checkup. It also has full hookups and on site laundry which is very helpful since we'll spend five nights here. (When Alex heard us discussing full hookups this morning, he interrupted to tell us that he had hiccups too.) Bill attacks the laundry as we prepare for their trip.  We are still debating our route to New England...over the top of Minnesota? Wisconson? Take in Chicago and Detriot?  Decisions, decisions...

August 9 - Monday
Bill and Laura flew to Tampa.  After sitting on the runway for 45 minutes in Minneapolis, they missed their connection in Atlanta.    Fortunately, there are lots of flights from Atlanta to Tampa and they got on the next one.  Sandra, Becca, and Alex explored the Minneapolis Zoo which is only a mile from the campground.

August 10 - Tuesday
This morning was Laura's quarterly evaluation of her hip at Shriners Hospital in Tampa.

Though we have seen little change on the surface, the x-rays show the progression of Perthes disease on Laura’s hip.  The femoral head is very flattened and is growing outside of the hip socket, neither of which is good.  The doctor’s comment was it was “as good as we could expect at this point”.  Her treatment will remain the same: minimize weight bearing on the hip and daily physical therapy.  We won’t know the long term results for another year or two. 

On a positive note, the physical therapy has kept her range of motion from declining.  If she loses her range of motion, we would be looking at casting, bracing, or surgery.  By comparison, the crutches and wheelchair aren’t so bad.

Meanwhile, back in Minneapolis, Sandra, Becca, and Alex checked out the science museum in Minneapolis

August 11 - Wednesday
The flights back to Minneapolis from Tampa were on time and uneventful.  From the airport, we went to the gigantic Mall of America where the girls rode the flume and the rollercoaster at Camp Snoopy.

August 12 - Thursday
In the morning, we did some laundry, grocery shopping, and extended our stay here through Saturday. Then we went back to the zoo so Bill and Laura could see it too.  We saw a dolphin show, a tiger, a moose, and some wolves.

Later in the afternoon, we returned to the Mall of America to meet up with Sharon, Sandra's former coworker.

Sandra commented on what a hard day it was to be a kid when you get to go to the zoo for half a day and a mall with an amusement park in it for the other half.

August 13 - Friday
Today we wrapped up our Laura Ingalls Wilder tour with a day trip to Pepin, Wisconsin, the setting for the book "Little House in the Big Woods". About 7 miles north of Pepin, the historical society set up a recreated log house at a wayside on the same property that Laura was born on and lived in for several years. There is a small history museum in town with the requisite Little House books and souvenirs. On the way back, we stopped at a farmhouse and picked blueberries. The girls also gathered some gooseberries and red currents. That evening, we enjoyed watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics on TV.

August 14 - Saturday
The day was an uneventful travel day as we left Minneapolis and we drove to Oconto, Wisconsin. There we stayed overnight in a city run campground on a river.

August 15 - Sunday
Once again we tried to go to church today, and failed.  We had problems twice in Oregon so we thought it was an Oregon phenomenon.  This time, we found the church, read the service times on the sign, showed up at 10:00 am on Sunday morning, and there was nobody there.  Perhaps there was a pre-season Green Bay Packers game? We drove to the end of town and took in the Green Bay vista. Then we packed up the RV and headed for Michigan's Upper Peninsula.  Many stretches of the road offered lovely views of Lake Michigan on a glorious summer day. We also spotted two bald eagles. Somewhere along the way we crossed into the Eastern Time Zone. We stopped in St. Ignace at Straits State Park. We spent most of the evening watching the Olympics and eating pie made from our fresh picked blueberries.

August 16 - Monday
Today we rode our bikes from the campground to the ferry terminal and headed for Mackinac (pronounced Mackinaw) Island.  We did have to pay an additional $6.50 per bike to bring them over but that way we don't have to pay $4 an hour to rent them on the island. No motor vehicles are allowed on the island so the only way to get around is horse, bike, or foot.  Sandra overheard one of the carriage drivers on the island say that in the summer there are over 500 draft horses here, the largest concentration working in any one place in the world. We rode our bikes up hill from the terminal to the famous Grand Hotel. We were very disappointed that we could not go on the 'world's longest front porch' without paying $10 per person to tour the hotel since we weren't registered hotel guests. $50 seemed a bit too much to spend for the privilege of putting our feet up and sitting for a few moments on the porch!

We continued to bike uphill and rolled past historic Fort Mackinac and checked out the arched rock (hmm, is that some concrete keeping it together on the top?) and the skull cave. The kids enjoyed a playground break at  Great Turtle Park. We then cruised back to the 'city' for a bite of lunch at the Village Inn. Bill tried a pastie (rhymes with nasty), a meat pie that Cornish miners introduced to the region and now an upper peninsula signature food. After lunch Sandra bought some fudge at one of the many candy shops for the 'girls'. This provided some fuel for the 8 mile circle around the island. It was a very interesting and enjoyable experience. It would be the ultimate family biking paradise if not for the crowds and challenges dodging horses, carts, and their effects as well as pedestrians in the more crowded areas around the ferry terminals. 

August 17 - Tuesday
Last night we talked about possibly getting an early start today but we stayed up late again watching the Olympics and we're still adjusting to going from mountain to central to the eastern time zone in less than 10 days.  We didn't leave the campground in St. Ignace until after 1:00.  At the border town of Sault St. Marie we stopped  to watch the boats go through the Soo locks between Lake Superior and Lake Huron.  Sault is pronounced 'Soo' and the name means 'falling waters of St. Mary'. Lake Superior is 21 feet higher the Lake Huron and they are connected by the St. Mary river.  These locks are among the world's busiest and we saw one boat that was over 1000 feet long pass through. 

We then crossed over the locks via the international bridge into Canada where we will spend the next few weeks as we continue east toward New England.   We stopped for the night  in the small town of Spragge, Ontario.  Tomorrow we will drive part of the way toward Ottawa.  

We have day tripped into both Canada and Mexico on our trip but this is the first time we will spend the night in the RV in another country.  It is interesting to watch the Olympics from another country's point of view. Many Canadians are pleased if their athletes achieve personal bests versus coming home with any medals although an interview with the Canadian's men's relay swim team revealed the athletes' frustration when they don't achieve a medal. It was also enjoyable to watch the Canadian women's softball win over Japan. In general the commentary on CBC feels slightly less bland and canned than that of NBC. 

August 18 - Wednesday
Today we (actually Bill) did manage to get an early start today. We spent most of the day driving in order to reach Ottawa. The road across Ontario was very bumpy so we listened to our dishes rattling for hours.  We stopped a couple of times for treats - donuts in the morning and ice cream in the afternoon. Then we set up camp at a provincial park a short distance away from the capital. Somehow Sandra has managed to curb her urge to detour to see odd roadside attractions and we did NOT stop at Sudbury to see the world's largest nickel. (That's an appropriate symbol for Sudbury which produces about 85% of the worlds nickel.) 

In the evening we drove into Ottawa to watch the "lights and sound" on Parliament Hill.  Using lights, projectors, and an outdoor sound system they present a 35 minute show at the Parliament Building.  We watched the 
French version to give the kids more of a sense of being in a country with two national languages.

We began August in Cody, Wyoming so we have driven more miles in the RV in August than probably any other month.  Today's 9 hour drive is likely our last day driving that far since our stops for the remainder of the trip are spaced closer together.

August 19 - Thursday
The rainy weather made it a perfect day to check out Ottawa's museums.  We started off with the Canada Museum of Nature.  From there we went back over to the area near Parliament Hill since we wanted take the tour of the Parliament Building. The rain stopped and the weather was very pleasant for the rest of the afternoon. We walked down to the Byward market and got some lunch.  We then got our tickets for the 4:20 tour.  We learned a lot about Canadian history and government.  The country began in 1867 when the British Parliament voted it into existence and Queen Victoria made Ottawa its capitol (Montreal and Toronto had both been competing for that honor and instead she selected the small lumber town of Ottawa). We also saw the military bands preparing to do a dress rehearsal tonight for the shows they are doing the next two nights.

August 20 - Friday
We started off with the Museum of Science and Technology.  Before we even went into the museum we saw a museum employee wheeling a cart out to the front lawn with some kids and parents following.  We didn't know what she would be doing but curiosity got the best of us so we followed her.  It turned out that she was letting kids launch rockets made from water bottles .  The kids had a great time pumping up the rockets with a bicycle pump and watching them shoot into the air.  Inside the museum, there were many displays about Canadian inventors and scientists as well as a large section devoted to Canadian efforts in space technology, the most well known of which is the large robotic arm with the big red maple leaf on it on all of the space shuttles know as the Canadarm. The girls also enjoyed a section that covered how housework has changed over the last 150 years.

Both girls participated in a demonstration of electricity where a museum staffer made their hair stand on end with static electricity.  They also took part in the "chain of pain" where about 30 people held hands as an electric current went through them.

In the evening, we went back to Parliament Hill for the military band concert which included the US Marine Corps Band as well as three Canadian military bands and a bagpipe and drum band.  They did the 1812 Overture using four large artillery pieces for the cannon fire and included the carillon tower in the Parliament building as well.  After they lowered the Canadian flag they played the Star Spangled Banner and O Canada.

August 21 - Saturday
More Ottawa museums today.  There are so many that we will not be able to do them all.  We decided to do one of the most popular, the Museum of Civilization.  We were pleasantly surprised to find that they give a discount to anyone in a wheelchair. They also have a children's museum, which all the kids loved.  After a late lunch we enjoyed a re-enactment of firing exercises typical of those done in a French Military encampment from the era of the French and Indian wars. Then we did the First Peoples section which included the largest collection of totem poles in the world and a lot of aborigine Canadian art and cultural artifacts.  The kids then insisted that we return to the children's museum where they finalized their collection of passport stamps from the exhibits. 

August 22 - Sunday
Today we headed for Montreal.  

Not far outside Ottawa, we saw a sign for the St. Albert cheese factory.  With time for a detour, we got off the highway to check it out.  As luck would have it, today was the final day of the Curd Festival in St. Albert.  The kids enjoyed a giant inflatable slide, combination bounce house ball pit, and other fun inflatables.  We had ice creams and Bill ventured into the factory store to stock the RV's cheese supply.

We continued on to a nice RV park just outside Montreal.  Sandra visited here many years ago but Montreal is new to the rest of us.  Tomorrow, we will head into the city.

August 23 - Monday
Montreal is a city of over 3 million.  That means lots of traffic.  Once we got through the traffic we enjoyed a wonderful city with lots of history, architecture, museums, and restaurants.  It also feels we're in Europe since all the signs, menus, and most of the conversations around you are in French. Hopefully, this exposure will give the kids a motivation to learn foreign language that we regrettably lacked when were taking high school courses.  In spite of the French language all around, we have not run into a single situation where someone we had to speak with to register at a campground, buy museum tickets, or take our order at a restaurant didn't speak English.  It is fun to try to recall years ago French classes and read signs or talk to people in another language.  

Today we went to the Montreal Museum of Science.  It was a very nice museum with many well done exhibits.  Even the section set up for the smaller kids was demonstrating principles of leverage, pendulums, and gravity.  A favorite feature was the Immersion Theatre which pits a roomful of people against each other in an Atlantic Ocean eat or be eaten food chain game.  If you ate an opponent your name was displayed on movie screen in the front of the room.  At another science museum we visited there was a demonstration of electricity where they made peoples hair stand on end.  They did the same demonstration here but less focus on the theatrics and with several minutes leading up to it explaining the surplus electrons creating the negative charge in you hair that causes it to stand up. The girls also learned about how your brain fools you with optical illusions all the time at another demonstration.

After leaving the museum we got stuck in rush hour traffic and decided to try and find Little Italy. We succeeded and also found an acclaimed pizzeria and grabbed one to go since Becca had fallen asleep and couldn't be roused. We then trekked over to Mount Royal where we enjoyed munching on our slices with a sunset view overlooking the city.  We then journeyed back to Old Montreal to take in the dramatic lighting that has been added fairly recently to illuminate the architectural features of many buildings. Finally we returned to the RV.

 August 24 - Tuesday
We took advantage of clear weather and the option at this park to wash and wax the RV . Many campgrounds don't allow RV washing. Some (like the one we are in) allow it for a price.   Some car washes have RV bays but its much nicer to take a more leisurely pace and be more thorough at your campsite. 

August 25 - Wednesday
We took in more of Montreal today.  We arrived at the Museum of Fine Art just before it opened.  We took in the Canadian section of the permanent collection before the 2 year old limit of art museums was reached. (In other words, we left before Alex got us thrown out)  They had a really interesting modern piece that was a slide projector displaying a series of photos of outer space projected onto a screen made hundreds of butterflies. The artists description of the work seemed bizarre but that did not detract from it.  

After lunch in Lafontaine Park, we headed over to the Botanical Garden and Insectarium.  The Insectarium is based on the massive personal bug collection of Georges Brossard.  It currently has over 160,000 live and mounted specimens.  The girls learned that a silk tie requires 25,000 silkworm cocoons.  They also learned how to make an ant farm which they have been forbidden to do in the RV.  

A international financial dilemma now confronts us.  If an American 7 year old girl loses a tooth in Montreal,  does the tooth fairy pay up in greenbacks (US dollars) or loonies (Canadian dollars)?  Stay tuned.

August 26 - Thursday
The tooth fairy found us yet again and left Becca a 'loonie'.

Moving on, today we went to the Eastern Townships, an area of small towns east of Montreal.  We will spend several days here.  In a sense, we have roots here.  Sandra has a cemetery full of ancestors here and we own the remnant 3 acres of the old family homestead.  Since we pay the taxes, we like to come stand on it every once in a while. 

We stood on the land. We visited the cemetery and adjacent church.  We picked blueberries at a local farm.

After dinner we went to the Ayer's Cliff Fair. This annual event is celebrating its 159th year.  The kids did lots of rides and we watched the draft horse pulling competition.  We checked out the poultry barn, got ice cream, and called it a day.

Unfortunately, the campground where we intended to spend the next 4 nights is booked solid for Saturday night so we will have to move after 2 nights.

August 27 - Friday
Today was supposed to be Sandra's day to do genealogy research.  Unforunately, the town hall is closed and the library doesn't open until 2.  We decide to see try and find out what it would cost to make our property "RV accessible".  There is a ditch that will need a culvert installed and the lower field is chest high with brush so we need to find somebody with a brushhog to mow it down.

An inquiry at the local hardware store got us the name of a farmer with a brushhog.  We found him at home on our second attempt and arranged for him to mow part of the property.  We also discovered a cheese factory the makes "raw milk" cheese which you can't get in the U.S.  The U.S. requires all cheese sold there to be made of pasteurized milk which may be theoretically good for food safety but is bad for the flavor of the cheese. The ladies at the cheese factory spoke very little English but the cheese spoke for itself and Bill bought some of all three varieties they make.

After lunch, we went to Stanstead so Sandra could poke around the Historical Society and the Registry of Deeds for genealogy information.  The kids played at a city park with a playground.  From the I-55 overpass in Stanstead you can see the U.S. border and customs buildings.  We headed the other way and went apple picking, bean picking, pea picking, and carrot picking on our way back towards the RV.  The late summer bounty on the farms in this area is wonderful. 

August 28 - Saturday
We had to move this morning, but it was to a different site in the same campground.  This site is more level, has a lake view, and is steps to the beach so that compensates for the hassle of moving the RV.

The farmer mowed the field and filled the ditch this morning.  When we stopped by his farm to pay him, he caught a chicken for the kids to pet. Now we have to decide whether to spend more money to put in a driveway and pad for the RV.  We met with a excavation contractor this afternoon and got some ballpark prices.  It is more involved and costly than we had originally thought since to have a 4 season reliable driveway a foot of topsoil has to be removed and replaced with gravel.

While we were still at the property the next door neighbor and her granddaughter showed up to see what we were doing.  When they found out we were the owners the property and not some squatting vandals, they were very pleasant and seemed pleased to have the overgrown field mowed again.

August 29 - Sunday
Today was our day trip to Quebec City, the only walled city in North America.  When we lived in New England, we visited here a couple times and always enjoyed it.  Today however, the weather did not allow us to make the most of the city.  The ride to Quebec was overcast.  When we arrived and got out of the car, a cold wind chilled us. We walked into the Old City and had lunch on the well enclosed patio of an Italian restaurant. The usually pleasant walk on the boardwalk overlooking the river was reduced to a quick shivering peek over the edge of the cliff.  After lunch it rained so the scheduled military band parade was cancelled. We ducked into a creperie to get out of the rain and enjoyed crepes and coffee. After that, Sandra retrieved the car and we drove around the city in the rain, showing the kids what we could from the car.

On our return to the campground, we forsook the highway and took the back roads.  This took us through the town of Thetford Mines.  The piles of mine tailings from the asbestos mines there form small mountains and the open pit mines are enormous.  Sandra asked at the Visitors Center who still buys asbestos.  The man there told her that some is used in Quebec and the rest goes to Asian countries.

The RV next to us was a "weekender" who left today so now our lake view at the campground is even better.  I'm looking out the window at a flock of ducks paddling about as I'm typing this.

August 30 - Monday 
Today the town hall was open so we stopped by to ask them many questions.  We got a burning permit and headed over to burn some brush.  The wood was wet from last nights rain but we figured if we could get a good fire started then it would be a very safe day to burn.  As it turns out, there was little danger of a runaway brushfire.  It started to pour before we got any wood to burn.

The people at the town office also poured water on our thoughts of maybe building here someday.  We had been told by several people that we probably had inherited building rights since there used to be a house on the property.  The lady at the town office said that it is possibly to lose the building rights since there had not been a house there for several decades.

In the afternoon, Sandra went to nearby Magog to meet with the assessor's office to learn more about our property rights in relation to a relocated road.  Back at the RV, Bill and the kids exercised the VCR.  When the rain broke, the kids went swimming even though it was still very overcast.  

After much deliberation, we have decided to put in a minimal driveway/RV pad that will allow us to camp on our property without fear of getting stuck in the mud.  This doesn't give us the lake view, but it keeps the cost down and can be extended later if we find ourselves spending enough time here to justify it.  Unfortunately, the building inspector who needs to approve it is on vacation which will delay our progress.

Since the weather is supposed to be better tomorrow, we booked another night here.

August 31 - Tuesday
It rained most of the night and our lakefront view continues to improve.  This morning the lake is 20 feet closer to us and has now covered the road next to our RV.  If it keeps raining, we may have a 360 degree lake view. The river also overflowed into a couple of sites near the lake so those campers had to move to drier sites. There is an RV on a lakefront spot with no sign of the owners.

Mid-morning, Sandra went to the town hall to check on the status of the old road in front of her property. According to the town, it is still considered a public road so that is why she has nothing in her deed or plan regarding it. Then she drove to Sherbrooke to talk to an "urban planner" about what it would take to get permission to build on our property.  Our land is in a "green zone" and zoned agricultural.  The province of Quebec has created the green zones to try and preserve farmland from development.  In the case of our property, which is not currently farmed, is small, and is mostly forest, we may get approval to build, or not.  If they deny us, we can argue with the assessor for a lower assessment to reduce our taxes, so we sort of win either way.

We had hoped to burn brush today.  The sun came out and we were able to get a brush fire going.  Then while gathering brush, Becca got into a yellow jackets nest.  Since she was stung several times around her face and neck, Sandra took her to a local hospital to be checked out.  The hospitals in Canada don't take American insurance but they do take VISA cards. Fortunately, Becca is OK.  

Since the fire couldn't be put out quickly, Bill stayed behind and fed it more brush for several hours.  That's a drop in the bucket for the amount of brush and dead branches that have accumulated over the 60 years that have elapsed since the family used to summer here.

It didn't keep raining but the accumulated rainfall feeding into the lake from several rivers kept the water level rising and when we returned the RV was completely surrounded by 2-4 inches of water.   That was a little more lakefront camping than we were comfortable with.  On the way home, we drove past  one of the rivers that empties into the lake.  It was still at a flood level and seeing how high it was, we did not want to risk what might confront us in the morning if we stayed in our current campsite.  Unfortunately, the only way out of our site was to drive forward into deeper water and then back up 100 yards on a narrow road between trees, cars, boats, RV's and around corners in the dark.  Not fun, especially in the dark!

As we pulled into our new campsite, the campground employee who was helping us gave us some more good news. The highway that we planned to take tomorrow from here to the U.S. has washed away and is closed.