Soo

As the weather starts to warm up (finally), so are the bugs! Black flies and mosquitoes are living up to their onerous reputations. Our stay in the Kabin was a good chance to get our stuff reorganized before we descend on our friends. Laundry done, car reorganized, we headed into town to get an oil change for the car, and try to find some more butane for the stove (getting scarce....maybe we should have gone for a propane or camping fuel type of stove). We did manage to find some at Canadian Tire, at triple the price of the cannisters at home.....nobody else seems to carry it anymore. Hmmmmmmm.....
We picked up some liquid refreshments to go with our friends' offerings, and descended on our friends, Anna and Hal, who have moved into a Century-old home which they are reconditioning, with beautiful grounds and a lot of history, and 19 acres of land. Hal was just off to a night shift, so we picked up a pizza for dinner and visited with Anna until 2AM.


Hal, Anna, myself and Linda at H&A's place











Next morning, it was up and off to meet our cousins Jarrell and Arlene, and daughter Marla, all of whom are researching the same family lines, and who'd offered to guide us through the various cemeteries in the outskirts of the Soo. We drove east to Leeburn, photographing many ancestral graves, then off to Bruce Mines for lunch. Marla and Jarrell have done extensive research on our McKay line, and were able to complete a great deal of our missing links, and questions. During lunch, we learned of the possibility that McKay Island and lighthouse, nearby at Bruce Mines, was likely named after our common gt-gt-grandfather, BlackJack McKay (this story has a ring of truth to it, as opposed to the Mt McKay story of Thunder Bay). We visited the light, and climbed up, viewing the reef where his ship may have foundered while entering Bruce Mines harbour. Then it was off to visit more graveyards, all to the north of Bruce Mines area, and we managed to find most of our 40-some people. We also visited a very much alive relative, Donald, grandson of the twin brother of my gt-grandmother. He was able to show us numerous old family photos and memories - priceless! We finished off with one final graveyard before returning to visit Anna and Hal.
Their 3 children were all arriving for a family meal, so we had a great chance to meet them, and visit with the whole family, had a delicious meal, all followed by a bonfire in the yard and more catching up.





Jarrell and Arlene, cousins and friends, who guided us through many cemeteries in search of roots.







Marla and Jarrell had both invited us over for dinner tomorrow, but we had made contact with even more cousins, who were driving up from Traverse City Michigan area, to visit and share genealogy. So Marla gave us a wonderful option to do a picnic in her yard, with her gazebo......and a mini-family reunion was born, with 3 branches of our roots getting a chance to meet and share information. We had a fashionably late morning next day, with a Sunday brunch (yes- it was Sunday) prepared by Hal, who has an amazing wrist action as he tosses homefries around in the skillet. Then it was time to say our farewells to our old buddies Hal and Anna, and to move over to the KOA Kampground to meet our internet genealogy cousins, Leslie and John, who'd driven up to meet us and camp with us. They managed to beat us to the campgrounds, and were assigned a site well away from the one that had been assigned to me when I'd reserved it, so we ended up waiting for each other at opposite ends of the grounds, until making phone contact, and getting together. With our camping gear out of the car, we had room for the two of them in the car, and drove over to meet the other cousins, with a fabulous barbecue, enormous salads, and new cousins who became new friends.



Family BBQ made up of newly-made friends and cousins.










We even managed to compare a few genealogical notes! Abbie, Marla and Tim's border collie, is an avid ball player, who can dribble a soccer ball around a yard with amazing dexterity. We visited until late in the evening, and made it back to our campground in time to wake up the only other tent in our campground, set up nearby. Next morning was another fine sunny day - the only clouds, in fact, were the clouds of mosquitoes and blackflies enjoying our visit. It at least added extra meat in our breakfast meal. We then decamped and headed back to Jarrell and Arlene's place, via a couple of local cemeteries, where we found nine more dead relatives waiting for their headstone photos to be completed. Arlene had managed to find a real treasure - the silver engraving from my gt-gt-grandmother's casket, which had been presented to Jarrell's grandmother. An absolutely amazing find for us, so we managed to take multiple photos of it, before piling into their van for another tour of the graveyards and historical sites east of the Sault. Leslie managed to find some more family history information at the Bruce Station Municipal office, which also collects local history. And we all visited some 5 or 6 cemeteries, searching for our "people". Finally, as evening was setting in, we said our goodbyes to Leslie and John who were off on a late 4 hour drive back to Traverse City, and we were off to find a campsite with less bugs. We found it near the Sault airport, at Point des Chenes, near where I'd first lived when I'd moved to the Sault area 35 years ago. Things are looking good......the price of gas here is back down (95.5/liter), we've found our numerous dead ancestors/relatives, we've seen some old friends, and met some new ones in our cousins.





Katie, Marla, me and Jarrell comparing genealogy notes.








Tomorrow is going to be a travelling day eastbound again, after a breakfast and visit with Jarrell and Arlene, Marla, and Katie (Marla's daughter) It will also be another day of reckoning, and I believe we may end up going a bit over on this week.....we shall see. Oh yes.....I almost forgot to mention today was a two-bear day. We'd seen a bear in our travels around Leeburn and Desbarats, and then again on our way to our last campsite. Bears seem to be as common here as the deer back home - several had been walking around Anna's yard earlier in the week, although we hadn't personally seen those.





It was a two-bear day (this one walked out on the road in front of us, on the way to our campsite in the Soo).

Across the Top of Superior

I had just completed uploading the latest blog when we got in telephone contact with Brian, my buddy from old days at the Coast Guard College. He lives near Thunder Bay, but had been visiting family in Southern Ontario, and just completed a drive back from just north of Toronto - in one day. He's been in contact via email, and following the blog, and we'd been planning to meet up if possible, and here he was, almost 16 hours into a driving marathon, (covering a distance in one day more than we had in the past week!) and arriving in our Kozy Kabin. We met Marla, his wife, and replayed old times in a visit into the wee hours of the morning. They invited us to stay and see a bit more of Thunder Bay, but even though we're taking it slowly, we still have places to go, friends and relatives to see (both dead and alive), and Newfoundland to see. So we had to decline, and said our goodbyes.
The following morning found us waking to a steady rain and very cool day.





Terry Fox Memorial Thunder Bay






Off we went, first to pay homage to Terry Fox, who'd run across Canada (most of the way, until Cancer got him) on one leg and a prosthetic. Then eastbound, via Red Rock and Marathon, into Pukaskwa National Park, about halfway across the north shore of Lake Superior. The entire way was steady rain, even though the radio forecast was only for a 30% chance of showers. As Lake Superior likes to stay a numbing 4C pretty much all of the time, and since the wind was blowing freshly in from the lake, we found it quite chilly......mindful of a February day in Courtenay, instead of June in Ontario! So we opted to sleep in the car, and instead of setting up the tent, we went into car-sleep mode, and set up a tarpaulin off the back of the car for cooking. The rain at least stopped, so we were able to pull out the barbecue and do up a dinner of pork chops, potatoes, carrots and onions in foil for a camp-style dinner. A short walk to the beach after dinner, and we were cold, tired, and ready for bed.
Next morning was a bit brighter, but still cold. So again we set off eastbound, past White River, the original home of Winnie the Pooh (an orphaned bear from here who ended up in London Zoo and caught the fancy of Christopher, son of A.A. Milne). We soon found ourselves in Wawa, the home of the Big Goose (Wawa in Ojibway means "wild goose"). We found a lovely waterfall to relax beside, and had our lunch at Magpie River Falls, before turning south toward Sault Ste. Marie.




Lunch at Scenic Magpie Falls, Wawa







The scenery remains quite beautiful along this stretch, but much of it was hidden today by fog blowing in off the lake. We have invites to stay with friends Anna and Hal in the Soo, and cousins Jarrell and Arlene, but as it is very late afternoon as we pull into north Sault Ste Marie, we don't want to impose on anyone, and so we've booked into another Kozy Kabin Kampsite for this evening. There are 44 dead relatives here to investigate and find, and several live ones, as well as friends still living, so we expect we may be in this area a few days.

Family Mysteries Unveiled

Happyland was our choice over the Provincial Park nearby at Kakabeka Falls, partly due to cost (a bit cheaper than the Provincial Park) and the services.....wifi (turned out to be weak and intermittent, but ok for email), hot showers. It is interesting that Provincial parks in Manitoba cost 15.75, and Ontario Provincial parks almost double that, at 27.50, which seems a bit much for a tent site without a lot of amenities. I guess they don't want to be competetive with the private parks like KOA and Good Sam, etc. We spent an uneventful night at Happyland, again finding it quite cool. With rain in the forecast for this afternoon and tonight, we may try something new and exciting......a Kamping Kabin. But first, into Thunder Bay proper, to look around, and do some family research. The historical museum is closed on Mondays, so we had to miss that, and went on to the public library, who have a wonderful research area with lots of archives and microfiche of local newspapers. We were able to find obituaries of over 20 family members, and glean more information about them. By then it was late afternoon, and raining.....so off to the KOA east of town, to set up camp. No gas today, and we have the food already, so we can afford to splurge, and go for a little Kozy KOA Kamping Kabin (1 room with bed, electric light, heat, and WiFi). So we took it, and got warm and stayed dry. In our almost three weeks of travelling so far, we've had very little rain, and that only while driving. The cold temps have been bugging us a bit, though, following us for over a week now. It was very nice to have a bit more room than a 7x3 ft. tent, 3 ft. high! We managed to get caught up on a bit of laundry, to get rid of the smoky smell from some of our campfires.







Linda as a Kozy Kamper at our Kabin











Armed with all this new information from the obituaries, we decided to stick around Thunder Bay another day, and find the graves. This we managed, for the most part, in two cemeteries.....Riverside, and Mountainview. Mountainview looks over Mt. McKay, which family legend says is named after my gt-gt-grandfather. We have confirmed that this is a story/legend only, and that it was named after another McKay about 50 yrs before my ancestor could have been here. Other family legends, though, came to life from the obituaries and the gravestones, and we discovered several more relatives and their stories. We tried to drive up Mt. McKay for a view of the area from the higher ground, but an admission fee stopped us.....we were going over budget on the day......and it's hard to convince someone from BC to pay to go up a hill! So we went to the museum instead, and had a good look around, and then met with the curator who was able to search his archives and come up with more information on my gt-aunt, who'd been a high profile citizen of Ft. William in her day. We also stocked up on a few provisions in town, and got some gas at the native gas station, which is a bit cheaper than the rest of town. At 103.9/liter, it is the least expensive gas around here....averaging 105.9 and as much as 107.9/liter......shades of home prices! I had earlier mused about the windshield bugs of Alberta and Saskatchewan. It seems there have been even more, even stickier bugs in Northwestern Ontario, and almost none in Manitoba. I don't believe temperature has a lot to do with it, as we've been having cooler weather in NW Ontario, and that should be keeping them down a bit. There may be government money for a study in this. We are, however, starting to get a "taste" of the biting bugs here, with black flies and mosquitoes encouraging us to apply the Deet, as they attempt to feast on us. I dread to think what we're in for when summer temperatures finally arrive.
Back to the Kozy Kabin for another night, although with that, we are definitely over budget for the day - lucky we've saved a bit on the last few days. Our reckoning for this, the third week: Gas - $223.40 Food - $141.47 Accommodation - $231.91 Other - $52.75 for a grand total of $649.43 for this week......still under by just over $50.00. We travelled 1920.4 Kilometres this last week.

From Richer to HappyLand

It is not far from Richer to the Ontario border to the east, so next morning, after nicely surviving the big frost (at least we didn't get the snow that apparently fell in SW Alberta and Saskatchewan), we headed out and crossed into Ontario, and Canadian Shield country. Definitely a change in scenery as we approached the provincial border, with lots more rocks and trees and lakes evident. And beavers. Lots of beavers. From BC through the other three provinces, we'd seen occasional beaver dams and lodges. Now we were seeing them everywhere we drove. We entered Kenora, and stopped for a bit of shopping/stocking up. Then, we decided to take the road less travelled, so headed south along Lake of the Woods, finally stopping at a Provincial Park at Caliper Lake. This turned out to be a fine choice, with a very beautiful campsite on the lake, near a sand beach, with flush toilets, hot showers, and a very friendly chipmunk (we called him the park Ranger, as he was ranging around the campsite).




"Ranger" the chimpmunk, ranging around my feet.





I found it strange to find large white pelicans in the lake - I had never considered pelicans as a Canadian type of bird. We have yet to come across a bear or moose, but there were lots of white-tail deer along, and crossing, the highways, throughout Manitoba and (so far) in Ontario. We watched some people out in their boats fishing, and the fishing seemed pretty good.....people were coming back with lots of Pickerel, Pike, Bass, and perch....and apparently sometimes Musky. Although it was forecast for another cold night, it seemed quite a bit warmer - in reality, it went down to 4C, but that, relative to -2C the night before, made things seem quite toasty.
This morning we availed ourselves of the fine hot showers, and set out 100 KM south, to Fort Frances, where we searched in vain for another couple of dead relatives. There are two cemeteries there that we know of, and we searched both, but were unable to find them. Being Sunday, there were no offices open to try to find out about plot listings. So instead, we continued toward the east, now parallelling the US border, and headed toward Thunder Bay. We stopped alongside a lake for a quiet lunch, and then continued on, and into a campsite about 30 KM west of Thunder Bay. It has a very positive name - HappyLand CampGround. Hopefully it will be, because the low temps are continuing. Tomorrow we will start some serious investigations into some more family history.....both Thunder Bay and Sault Ste Marie have quite a few family ties to research, and we will need several days in each.

Chasing Wild Geese

The next morning was cool. No - forget that - it was downright cold! But we're tough, so we can handle it. We managed to rustle up some breakfast on our camp stove and then set out eastbound again. I'd seen enough of Hwy#1 for awhile, so we decided on the Scenic Route......north, then east, through the Q'Apelle Valley on mostly gravel roads. Scenic it was, for Saskatchewan....l..quite lush and rolling, and reminded us a lot of the Okanagan in B.C. But eventually the road led us back onto the main road (#1), through Moosomin (it was raining by now, and cousin Maryann has done the graveyards of Moosomin), so we crossed into Manitoba. In this province, we had quite a number of ancestors and relatives to find, and most of them off the beaten track! So southbound we went, through Souris and Boissevain, in search of a much smaller and less known community, Homefield. This was home to a great-uncle McKinnon, but I'm amazed he ever found it, or stayed! But with a little perseverence, we found the village (not sure what the term is if it's smaller than a village), and asked at one of the two or three occupied homes for directions to the cemetery. There we found my gt-uncle and his wife, and then continued in rain showers back northward again, to Spruce Wood Provincial Park. On the way was a very large camel marking the edge of the Manitoba semi-desert lands, so I had to get a photo (not sure if Sara the camel is purported to be a world's largest, but checked her out anyways).

Sara










The rain stopped for setting up of camp, and we managed to take a short walk around some of the park, to the lake (actually a wide turn in the Assiniboine River), and to whip up a bit of supper. Then off to bed early, to keep warm. Temperatures dropped to zero, so next morning found us again wondering if we had the date correct - it is June, isn't it??? We had more relatives to track down, so it was off to Portage la Prairie. There are several cemeteries there, and our information was sketchy on our Collins ancestors, so we went into a pioneer museum to see if that would help. They directed us to the public library, where we spent several hours looking through microfiche files of the local newspapers, at obituaries and events, and the listings of all of the local graveyards. But we turned up nada. It is possible that they are buried in Winnipeg, so perhaps; we can find them later in the trip. But......another couple of graves should be about 100 KM SE of Portage, so back we go, into Carman Manitoba. A search of the cemetery there found no trace......either they are in another site in Carman (which no-one knows about), or they are unmarked, or our information is incorrect. This family search is turning into a wild-goose chase. And a cold one, at that! The temperature has only gone up to 7C by mid afternoon, as we cruise through Headly (my gt-grandfather died here, but now it is Winnipeg suburbia) and into Winnipeg. We were able to find the Elmwood Cemetery where many of my McKay relatives are supposed to be located. Alas....the goose chase continues, and we can find no sign of them! There are many more cemeteries here, but being Friday afternoon, the chances of getting at any records on the weekend are slim.....so Winnipeg will remain on our "to do" list, for the return trip to BC. We passed the longitudinal centre of Canada in late afternoon as we cruised eastbound out of Winnipeg, and finally called it a day in Richer, Manitoba, in a small campsite. We'd managed to do fairly well on gas the last couple of days (avg. price 97.9/litre), and on campsites and food.....so tonight we treated ourselves to the local diner for perogies for dinner - a local specialty. I now sit at a picnic table on wifi, with gloves on, as the temperature is now dropping from its high of 7C, on its way to below freezing tonight.
BRRRRRRRRR. Typing on a laptop with gloves on is not quite as easy as I'd thought, with smaller keys and larger fingers.....but the delete and backspace keys help a lot. Tomorrow we will be heading into Ontario.




BRRRRRRRRR









We are hoping to eventually meet up with a buddy from Thunder Bay, but we seem to be moving a bit too fast, and he may not yet be home when we get there.....but he is heading that way, so perhaps we can camp; in Wawa or someplace nice on the north shore of Superior (Wawa has a big Goose!).

A Ghost Story to Relate?

We had our supper in the campsite, and then called Laura's mom, Helen, to set up a visit.......she insisted we come over immediately - so we did. There we met with her daughter Connie, and Connie's husband Leon, and their dog Taffy, as well as Helen, of course. It was a good visit, with treats and chatting, playing with Taffy, and my favourite fruit - cherries. Several hours passed quickly, and although they offered to put us up, we were already camped in at the campground - so they insisted we go to breakfast with them next morning, Helen's treat.











Leon, Connie and Helen treated us to breakfast at Big Al's in Regina.



How could we refuse???? So this morning, they picked us up at 0900 at the camp, and we followed to Big Al's Diner for a huge breakfast. (Al Capone reference again....he was big here - even bigger than that moose!). I got in a short call to our financial adviser, Keith, in Victoria, who told us we are still in OK shape, so I guess we can continue to afford our $50.00/day habit.
We said our farewells at the diner, and drove east again, this time in search of a relative of Linda's who'd been buried in the village of Pense, SK. It's a whistlestop place on the main line of the CPR, but we managed to find several graves with the proper names, and those were at the Anglican Cemetery in town. We then discovered the other cemetery just north of town, with the two plots we were initially looking for. That's when the spirit of Linda's relative showed up. The camera stopped working, as the batteries died. Hmmmmmm........ So Linda went back to the car for the spare batteries, and heard a low hissing noise. Hmmmmmm.....
The source turned out to be the right rear tire slowly leaking. We managed to stop it with a can of "Stop Leak", a liquid for just such an occasion. With pictures of the plots taken, we had to find a service station to take care of our temporary solution, so returned to the highway and continued another 50 Km to Regina. We found an exit which led to a Kal Tire, who opened up an extra bay to take care of our problem, rather than make us wait - and when all was done, they gave us the bill. This was, of course, a worry due to our budgetary constraints. But no need for worry - they took care of it, with a safety check thrown in, and clean windshields and tires - for no charge. I'm starting to like the friendly ways of Saskatchewan. Speaking of windshields, there is another thing I've been noticing. Either there are a lot more bugs in Alberta, or they're a lot stickier and gooier. Our windscreen would almost instantly smear itself with suicidal bugs all through Alberta, but now we seem to be getting only a few. Not sure if they are happier here, and less suicidal, or what. But.....back to Kal Tire. The repair was all done in about 40 minutes, so we flashed up the GPS on the computer to find out how to get to the Riverview Cemetery from there, to find more of our spirit's ( and Linda's) kin. Maybe it was fate, or the spirit was still with us, because we had inadvertently chosen the road which led to the cemetery, and were there in another 10 minutes. We discovered most of who we were looking for there (one of them has an unmarked grave, but we confirmed his burial there). Then back to the road.

By 1500 we were well east of Regina, and decided to call it a day, pulling into a KOA campground in Indian Head. Here they have wireless internet, and laundry, and again, no other tents and only a few RV's .....suits us fine. While Linda started the laundry, I drove into town and got a couple of used books at a second-hand store, run by a woman from Powell River - small world! A few groceries, and beers, in hand (we'd managed to stay under budget enough to buy a few), it was back to the campsite and settle in for some email and blogging catch-up, dinner, and a bit of a read. I don't know if it really was a friendly ghost who had warned us about the tire in time to get the temporary repair, but it's a known fact that spirits can cause electrical fields, and battery failures.....and we wouldn't have caught it otherwise. More to follow.

Drumheller - Then Beyond to the Heartland

Linda on a bad hair day











Don before first coffee in the morning







We woke up to a cloudy, windy, cold day (almost freezing). So following our showers and breakfast, we waited in the car for awhile, planning where in Saskatchewan we needed to find our buried relatives - much warmer in the car than outside, and the museum didn't open until 0900. Then into town for a photo opportunity with a very large dinosaur, as Drumheller has the world's largest T. Rex just outside the tourist bureau. Sometimes I think we should be seeing how many of the " World's Largest " whatevers we can find, as I see that there is a town in Saskatchewan with the world's largest coffee pot - hmmmmmmm. At any rate, we made it into the museum about 0930. Many of the exhibited fossils/bones/dinosaurs all came from Dinosaur Park area, where we were yesterday, so it was quite rewarding to see the completed works, along with an overview of the world since life began. Actually that sounds a bit facetious, but it really was an extremely good exhibit! We spent over 3 hours there, and then set out to find Saskatchewan.



Albertasaurus running from Dinosaur Park








We had dawdled a bit in Alberta with north/south/north/south/north trips, but by 1400 we were eastbound on Highway #1. We stopped in Medicine Hat, Alberta to get those pesky hard-to-find butane cylinders, and finally got a few, as well as some more groceries. That now puts our daily total to over our allowed limit, but we've managed to save a bit the past few days, so hopefully on our day of reckoning (tomorrow) we can still be on or under budget.



This is a common sign in Alberta (put in just for you, Janet!)







This was our last chance to get some cheap (relatively) gas from Alberta, so we filled up. Alberta seems to be much more Capitalistic and competetive, at least with gas stations. BC prices tend to be very uniform in price in any given area, with no-one bucking the trend to competetive pricing. Alberta, however, was all over with prices. The cheapest we saw was at 82.9/liter, the highest at 98.9, and average around Calgary and the highways was around 93.4, but still lots of diversity.....stilll a lot less than BC, and likely most of the rest of the country - we shall see!
We finally crossed into Saskatchewan around 1700 (by my watch, on Mountain Daylight Time) which might have been 1800 Central Time, if Sask. is on daylight time - I'm not sure.....maybe it's still 1700 CST. I'll find out tomorrow. There is a lovely little campsite just into the province, called Eagle Valley, which we pulled into for the evening. There is only one RV here, and we are the only tent - room for about 100 more. They have wifi, but it's too weak and erratic to do much with. Free showers, though.....that's gotta be a bonus. As I sit typing this at the picnic table, Linda is shivering off to bed - it hasn't warmed up much, and looks like we're headed for another cold night. So off to warm things up, and do some more exploring and blogging tomorrow.
Sure enough, it turned out cold and frosty overnight - but we managed to remain comfortable in our little tent. We had a warm-up breakfast with porridge and hot coffee, and then set off toward the Heartland of North America, and mid-Saskatchewan. We left at 1030 (which, I have found, is Central Standard Time - no Daylight Savings here), and cruised along Hwy#1, stopping at various historic points of interest along the way. At one of them, lined with windmills, we had a bit of lunch, and then continued, keeping the speed down to below 90 kph (even though the speed limit is 110). Swift Current is named for the relatively fast flow of the only big river around, the South Saskatchewan River, but we didn't find anything worth staying here for, so contined eastbound. Linda has a cousin from the village/hamlet of Herbert, so we stopped for a photo of the place, and then continued, until we'd reached Moose Jaw. They lay claim to the largest moose in the world, so we had to stop to look at that. Our good friends, Dan and Laura, live in our backyard, and their mom lives in Moose Jaw, so we will have to look her up for a visit. Dan had previously told me about a tour of the "Tunnels of Moose Jaw", which has a theatrical representation of the old days of prohibition, when Al Capone and his boys had set up shop here to provide whiskey for back-home Chicago. We were led into an old saloon by Fanny, the saloon-keeper, and then by Gus, one of Mr. Capone's boys, through the tunnels, with a somewhat comical but seemingly realistic representation of the good old days. Very enjoyable - thanks, Dan! (We can see how these two neighbours have developed an affinity to murder mysteries!). After a short walk around the town, we drove into the south end of town to a campground by the river, and set up camp. Too late to spring ourselves on Helen, Dan & Laura's mom, so close to suppertime - but we'll connect this evening, and maybe get in a visit tomorrow.


Nice Moose! Big Moose!









Today is another day of reckoning - two weeks on the road. How did we do with the budget? We travelled 1774 km this last week, spent 169.52 on gas, 245.63 on food, 73.00 on accommodation, and 117.98 on "other" stuff, for a total of 606.13, almost 94.00 under budget!!!! We will need that extra cash later, though.....the price of gas has now jumped almost 10 cents, to 104.9/liter......and I doubt we will find many bargains in the rest of the country.