We have a mounted spare tire for the RV and a fullsized spare for the Vue and we have been carrying them in the back of the Vue. In order to carry both spares, we have to have the back seat folded down and we are unable to have any passengers ride with us. With our original plans to travel to Alaska this year and have our son join us, we had to find a way to have the back seat usable and still carry the spare tires with us.
So last year we bought a cargo box with a swing-out rack to go on the back of our Saturn Vue with the idea of modifying it to carry the spares. We removed the cargo box and put it in our storage unit here. Mike and W.T., the owner of The Willows, have been looking at different ways to modify the rack. They built a platform on top of the rack for the cargo box and have secured the spare tires for the RV and the Vue on it. The spare tires are too high for us to open the back door of the Vue, but because the rack swings out from the car, we are able to open the door.
Mike bought a couple of tire covers and has secured the tires to the car, so we don't lose them should something happen to the rack. We weighed the tires (207 lbs), so we are under the weight limit for the rack (250 lbs) even with the boards Mike used for the base.
Today we drove over to Lake Seminole on the Florida-Georgia-Alabama border to check out the Corps of Engineers campground there. We drove around through the campground to get an idea of the campsites and their location to the lake and the view from the campsite.
The majority of the people staying there were on their way back north after spending the winter in Florida. After driving around for a while, we settled on site #1 in Loop A. It has a good view of the lake and a large grassy area around the site. We had thought about staying there in March, but it was still quite chilly and there was a pretty stiff wind coming off of Lake Seminole.
We looked at the showers and laundry. The showers are quite large and unisex. The laundry consists of 1 washer and 1 dryer at $1 each. Since we'll be coming here directly from Dothan, I'll just do our laundry before we leave there.
The weatherman was right! We had snow in Dothan today. Dothan only gets snow about every 10-12 years, so it is a big deal here.
We probably have about 2 inches of snow on the ground. Of course, we still had to walk Tinker outside and at first he wasn’t too sure about the snow. But by this afternoon he realized that snow can be fun and he had a great time running and playing in the snow.
We had planned on going to Alaska this year, but we have decided to wait until next year. Our son, Fletcher, is going to join us on the trip to Alaska and he said that next year would be better for him to go. Last year we traveled 15,000 miles (a lot of gas) and it was expensive camping and traveling in Canada (no regrets), so we decided to travel less and stay longer in one place.
Also, our friends Al & Symphony from Collinsville, Alabama and Mike & Gayle from Ozark, Alabama were going to join us on the trip to Alaska with their RVs, but it turns out that they can’t make it either this year.
So Mike & I decided to travel around Florida this summer and visit the state parks there. Mike and I grew up in Florida, but there is a LOT of places there that we haven’t been to. Since we are Florida residents we can stay a the state parks for 1/2 price.
Some of our plans are to visit our son in the Keys, various cousins around the state, and my brother and family in Kissimmee. We plan on staying in the Everglades park for a bit (may only be a few days - it will be summer after all!). We've never been to Busch Gardens in Tampa, there is also the Salvidor Dali Museum, Stephen Foster Folk Center, Cape Canaveral just to name a few places on our list.
Somehow I got REALLY behind in my blog and photo posting - we took about 11,000 photos last year - WAAAAY too many photos. So I've been trying to work my way through all the photos and just keep the best ones, but it takes time.
Just be patient and I WILL get the rest of 2009 posted
We all spent the day catching up on domestic chores. Mike and Al worked on the RVs and Symphony and I went to the laundromat and did laundry. After lunch Mike and I drove into town to find a car wash and then did some shopping at Canadian Tire.
We also stopped in at the Flin Flon Chamber of Commerce to pick up some visitor information. We had a pleasant visit with the young lady working there and learned that she and her family had moved to Flin Flon from South Africa. Her husband was working at the Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Co.'s #777 mine here in Flin Flon where they mine zinc, copper and gold.
We bought a Delissio frozen pizza at the Extra Foods grocery store to have for dinner tonight. Delissio is the Canadian Kraft brand version of Digiorno pizzas. Generally when I'm grocery shopping in Canada, I look for food labels that are similar to the ones in the US for food that we eat. The names may be somewhat different than the US brands, but are made by the same companies - Kraft, Pillsbury, etc.
While we were running our errands, Al and Symphony went to the Flin Flon Station Museum here a the campground. When we got back to the campground, they told us how nice the museum was and how much they enjoyed it. We'll be going there in the morning to the museum before we all go sightseeing in Flin Flon.
Al and Symphony went for a bike ride after dinner and I took a photo of them with their bikes on top of a large outcrop near our RV. While they were out bike riding, Mike and I read through the brochures we picked up at the Chamber of Commerce to see where we can go sightseeing.
Flin Flon is a unique city built on top of the Precambrian Shield which is part of the Amisk Volcanic Belt that was formed 1.9 billion years ago by underwater volcanic eruptions. This volcanic belt is the source of the minerals found here - zinc, copper, silver and gold. Flin Flon has a population of about 6200 people and is Manitoba's 9th largest community. The Hudson Bay Mining Co. is the largest employer here and tourism is second.
It was 49° F (9°C) this morning when we got up. We left Green Acres about 9:30 and drove north on Hwy 10. Once out of Swan River there were fewer and fewer houses - we would go miles before seeing a house. I started noticing the road signs and instead of names, most of them were numbered. The one below is named 247 N.
We crossed the 53rd Parallel about 60 miles north of Swan River.
A little before noon we found a place where we could pull off of the highway and have lunch. We were 116 miles north of Swan River and 20 miles south of The Pas. As you can see by the photo below, there isn't even much traffic on Hwy 10.
We drove through the town of The Pas, known as "The Gateway to the North" and one of the oldest settlements in northern Manitoba. In February they have the Trapper's Festival celebrating the town's heritage as a meeting center for fur traders.
We crossed the 54th Parallel about 15 miles north of The Pas.
We got into Flin Flon at 2:40. We're staying at the Tourist Park & Campground. The campground is operated by the City of Flin Flon.
We had some rain along the way here and it has really began to feel like summer - our high was 79° (26°C).
We traveled 228 miles today. We normally drive about 55 mph, but we averaged around 45 mph because Hwy 10 was so rough.
After settling in at our campsite (#4), Mike and I drove into downtown Flin Flon. Symphony and Al wanted to ride their bikes around the campground, so they didn't go with us. We found a Subway in town and decided to stop there to get subs to take back to the RV.
