Settled In; New Wheels and A Golden Anniversary

The time has just flown by since we’ve been home.  Busy cleaning, unpacking, opening up the rig; and lots of shopping.  Throw in a few visits with family and friends; and just like that, 2 weeks have gone by.

To some, we live in a trailer; but to us, our rig is “home sweet home” and boy does it ever feel good to back amongst our “stuff”.  You don’t realize how comfy you got it; until you leave for 6 months and then come back to it all.

We had a few decisions to make this past winter; and one of the big ones is that we’ve decided to park our RV wheels… at least for a bit.  We’re not giving it up totally… but for now we’re going to call Trout Haven in Strathroy home; and we’ll head to a tropical destination for the winter months.

Our truck needed a lot of work and money to be brought up to snuff; and we felt with it being a 2002, it just didn’t seem worth it.  Also with the price of gas rising on a daily basis (it seems), the cost of pulling our rig will only sky rocket.

We’re pretty content with where we’ve been and what we’ve seen over the past 4 ½ years.  We’ve been from PEI to Key West and from Vancouver Island to just North San Diego; and lots of points in between. 

We always said that once Molly was gone, that we would be able to travel in a different way.  Her last gift to us was the freedom to travel; and although we still really miss her; we're filled with great memories of her.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Costa Rica this past winter; but the beauty of our lives is that we’re not committed to going back.  We’ll spend some time looking at maps over the summer and figure where we want to go. 

As a result of this big decision, we traded in our truck for a brand spanking new 2011 Ford Escape.  We absolutely love it!  One of the things that I’m going to look forward to the most is no more outrageous mechanic bills.  Other than an oil change every 5000 km’s or so, there won’t be much for us to do.  Going to love that!  It was a little bittersweet trading the truck in; as it had a big role in pulling us around the continent. 

And 50 years ago on May 27, 1961, my parents Jack and Joyce got married.  Congratulations to my parents on this milestone.  My brother, sister, grandkids, Mike and I, took them out for dinner a few weekends ago.  And this weekend their celebrating in Toronto.

Not many people celebrate 50 years of marriage; in fact my Dad is the first in his family; and my Mom is second only to her older brother.  I’m sure that it wasn’t always easy; but they persevered.  And in a world where divorce happens more and more all the time; I’m proud of my parents for sticking it through the rough patches.

Have a great time in Toronto Mom and Dad… we love you and look forward to celebrating many more years together.

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The Rest of our Costa Rica Trip

We thoroughly enjoyed the rest of our stay at Arenal Lodge.  Unfortunately the rainy season had begun; and for most of Sunday and until we left on Monday afternoon, it was rainy and very foggy. 

The best view of the volcano turned out to be on Saturday afternoon; and even then we didn’t get to see all of it.  The volcano has been quiet for the past 8 months now; and we didn’t even get to feel a tremor.

The lodge itself though was beautiful; and despite the rain, we walked around the grounds Sunday afternoon.  We spent a few minutes in the butterfly garden.  Only 6 blue morphous butterflies, but apparently there weren’t any last month.

We then went on a mile hike through a rain forest, right on the lodges’ property.  It was a little hard on my foot, as we spent most of the hike climbing and the descending stairs.  It was a beautiful hike though; and we got to see lots of beautiful foliage.

Monday afternoon we were picked up at 2:30 and off to San Jose we went.  It was about to be a 3 ½ hour roller coaster ride.  The driver wasn’t near as crazy as the two previous ones, but I was still holding onto my seat in front of me a few times.

It poured rain for most of the way, and the further up the mountain we climbed, the foggier it got.  You could see very little and I was relieved when we got into San Jose, where there was no fog or rain.

We had dinner, collected our deposit money, well some of it, and headed off to bed.  We were out the door and headed to the airport by 5:00 a.m.  We passed through customs without any problems and started the long journey home.

The flight was uneventful; we arrived in Atlanta and by the time we went through customs and security… again… we had roughly an hour to grab something to eat, before the next leg.

We arrived in Toronto; cleared customs without any problems and were met by my parents a few minutes later.  It was great to see my folks again, there’s nothing like a hug from family.  We stopped for dinner at Kelsey’s and arrived in London at 10 pm.  Visited with Ken and Rosie for a bit, before hitting the hay.  It was a long day, but we were happy to be back in Canadaland.

It’s wonderful to go away, but there’s nothing better than coming home.  I’ll write a new blog in a day or two with what we’ve been up to since being home.

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We Dined with A Macaw

Our last few days in the condo found us busy packing and cleaning.  It’s hard to believe that 6 months have come and gone already.

Joey picked us up late Friday afternoon, we stopped at the cable place to return the modem, then stopped to say goodbye to our tour friend Herman.  A quick stop at Joey’s to put some of the perishables we gave them away; then off to a beautiful sunset spot we went.

We drove up the highway for a bit, before heading up the mountain.  When we reached the top, we parked and hiked a short distance to a spectacular view of the Pacific, Jaco, Hermossa and surrounding area below.  It was beautiful.  Unfortunately the sunset wasn’t very spectacular; so after a few pictures we headed back to Jaco.

We had dinner at the Taco Bar and then stopped in at Joey and Eida’s to say goodbye.  A very nice couple and we thoroughly enjoyed our time with them.  Only wish that we had met them sooner. 

This morning, we headed downtown to catch our bus that would take us to Arenal volcano.  I got to sit in the front passenger seat; and the driver pointed out a pineapple orchard, and a dinosaur (okay, it wasn’t a live dinosaur); unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a shot of either. 

The surroundings were beautiful and we got to see a little more of Costa Rica.  We stopped after a couple of hours; at a restaurant and had a half hour break.  We had a piece of banana bread; and then headed around back to see what was there. 

We were not expecting to see a half dozen or more red macaws.  All hanging around, squawking and posing for the many cameras.  Also a couple of peacocks and some other birds.  It was pretty cool.  We transferred our luggage to a second bus; and off to Arenal we went.

More beautiful country side all around.  Lush green foliage.  I was really glad not to be driving.  The road was filled with lots of twists and turns and more than once I was grabbing the seat in front of me to keep from being tossed out of my seat!  Both of today’s drivers were crazy drivers; but fortunately we arrived safely and there was lots to see along the way.

We even had to stop for 3 wild horses to cross the road.  If it wasn’t for the jeep behind us, that passed us and broke us the little soiree; we would have also watched some “afternoon delight” between 2 of them.

After almost 2 hours of a roller coaster ride, we arrived at the Arenal Lodge.  And boy is it ever nice!  We didn’t have too much of a chance to wander around yet; but what we have seen is pretty nice.

We did find time to relax in the hot tub with Arenal Volcano right there.  How cool is that!  Then late afternoon we headed over to the restaurant.  The black cloud had lifted and more of the volcano was exposed.

As we were ordering dinner a blue and yellow macaw came and landed on the patio.  Sweet!!!  When our smoothies arrived, she landed on the chair right beside me and then on the table.  She was heading for Mike’s smoothie when the waiter scared her off.  Her name is Stephania and she just lost her partner a few months ago; and she’s a regular here.

While we ate, she sat in front of us squawking.  Mike then hand fed her a strawberry and orange.  When the waiter took our plates, she flew away, squawking the whole time.  Like she was upset that the food was gone.  It was the first time that either of us had a macaw join us for dinner; and it was quite an experience.

The last hour mother nature again has entertained us with an amazing lightning show right off our patio.  Plus there is an orchestra of frogs, crickets, etc. all around us.  As I finish writing this blog, the storm has moved on; hopefully we’ll be able to see some lava running down the volcano; or at least feel a decent tremor.

All in all it’s been a pretty amazing day. 

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A Drive Through the Mountains

Early Tuesday morning, Joey and Eida picked us up; and we headed for the mountains.  We’ve been looking at these mountains for the past 5 ½ months, and finally we were going to drive through them and see what was over there.

The day was beautiful, hardly a cloud in the sky; and soon we were driving through the dense, lush foliage of the country side of Costa Rica.  It was beautiful. 

It didn’t matter which direction you looked, there was beauty to be seen.  The road was narrow and gouged with pot holes, but there was very little traffic.

About an hour or so into the drive, we stopped at the top of the mountain, and found a local soda to have breakfast.  A typical Tico breakfast is rice, beans and an egg mixed together. 

The food was good; but the views were breathtaking.  360 degree of beautiful, lush, green mountains.  Nice way to enjoy a meal.

We then continued on and eventually drove right across the ridge.  Jaco was spread out below; and it was a great way to see the town that we’ve been living in.  We could even see our condo; but not our balcony, cause there‘s so much foliage in front of it. 

And it was pretty cool to see the Pacific from this great vantage point.  Along with a lot of the many buildings and businesses that we’ve been too.  All in all it was a great way to spend the morning; and we all enjoyed it.

We then stopped in to stay good bye to our favourite doctor Brenda; we wish we could bring her home with us.  Then we continued downtown, picked up a few more souvenirs stopped in at the pharmacist; but the rest of our pills still weren’t in yet; so we headed home.

We ended up having to go back downtown later that night; and thankfully the pills were in.  We’re both starting to feel better; but it’s important that we get all of our meds in us.  Also turns out that we both picked up a different kind of parasite.  Both amoeba family, but different.  Hopefully by the time we arrive home on Tuesday, we’ll both be rid of it; and feeling 100% again.

Including tonight; it’s 6 sleeps til home and 7 til our own bed.  Looking forward to it. 

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