21 Apr No Vegetating Allowed
Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things can not be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” Mark Twain
We love to live life, and we are thrilled that our daughters and sons-in-law allow us to share our lifestyle with our grandchildren! Last week was spent travelling from Southern Ontario to Quebec and the Eastern Townships… Fern had acquired a job near Montreal, so we opened up our trip to the rest of the family, and one of our daughters jumped at the fun! Three grandsons (aged 2 – 5 years) came as a package deal 🙂 (We, too, jump at the idea of visiting our youngest daughter and son-in-law living in that direction!)
It may have taken us twelve hours instead of eight, but they definitely weren’t boring hours! Gramma (that’s me) keeps Lego, binoculars, dominos, and some books with our games, in a container under the couch. Their Mommy brought markers and colouring books as well as busy books – made to stump adults… We also had loads of snacks… Then, there is the added awesomeness of being able to be either at the table, or on the couch, or on Gramma and Grampa’s big bed, and always surrounded by windows… I’m just as excited about those facts as the children 🙂
Not quite as exciting, was the price at the gas pump for our first fill up for a long trip. But my husband can even make boring, adult stuff look fun 😉 And by the way, that was a lot less than the fill up we had to make in Quebec…
I know I wrote about some of our wondrous engine mishaps in my last blog (yes, only some!), but I saved a mega one just for this post! Step into my memory for a moment: Our daughter, my grandchildren and I are playing games at the table while going down the highway, when Fern suddenly yells “what is splashing all over my legs and feet?” The two women rush to the front, to see pink liquid spraying Fern’s legs and start pouring out from under the floor and down the front stairs… Obviously, we pull over and stop, and Fern gets cleaned up, we clean up the mess, he adds liquid wherever it is supposed to go, using up our supply of water… We finally take off to our destination again, when suddenly it started to smell quite raunchy, and I mean, worse than when the dog lets wind… I look at my daughter, and she then asks me where one of her boys is…there’s only so much acreage in our moving-down-the-highway bus… Yep, you probably guessed it – he was in the powder room… but unfortunately, the abrupt take-off made him fall off the toilet mid-dump, making an unmentionable mess, and us with no water and having run out of disinfecting wipes… Thank God for paper towels, and garbage bags, and rest stops with outdoor taps.
Other than the dramatic mishaps that seem to almost be the everyday for us, this road trip was filled with beautiful moments – and memories 🙂 We found almost every green space available between Southern Ontario and the Eastern Townships of Quebec, and enjoyed a gorgeous park beside a lake in Magog, as well as a fun overnight stop at the KOA Montreal-West.
We took in a couple days with our youngest daughter, expecting our sixth grandchild in two weeks. It sure was fun to camp out in her back yard, instead of living inside her house (we did that for the month of February!). As much as our daughter and son-in-law are most gracious hosts, it certainly feels wonderful to be independent and be at home while able to visit those who do not live so close anymore. I am pretty sure we RV`rs have the best of two worlds!!
If you haven`t yet taken in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, you definitely should! Previously, I wrote about this very area..
The other treat we had never experienced, was stopping at a KOA. Fern was so impressed that we could get into the grounds, (seeing that our bus isn’t painted yet…), he purchased a membership! There was a lovely swimming pool, a great park, walking trails, and that awesome jumping pillow!! Now, there is one small bit of info that I never shared about our Quebec experience – the mosquitos… Oh, there are mosquitos! And they are hungry and aggressive! The photo of us above, the reason that it is blurry is that we were in a rush because of the hungry mosquitos!! But alas, the beauty of the north eastern forests is almost unsurpassed, regardless.
All in all, we all more than survived our adventure of trekking across the province to another land, Quebec – all seven of us in 216 square feet on top of four wheels! And we will tell our stories for years to come, hopefully adding to them, because in our family, there is no vegetating allowed!
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