It is late spring and I thought I'd share some springtime photos with you. This is a huge apple growing area and the blossoms are prolific this year.




At a distance some of the orchards look like cotton fields they are so full of blossoms.




This is a little pond on the property of the RV campground where we are staying. The willow trees are just changing from the yellow seed pods to their summer green leaves ... Beautiful!

And these two little guys are another visible sign of spring ... maybe twins, eh.

Today we were putting about the countryside in the 60 degree, clear weather, and happened by a winery that is about 5 miles from the RV park we are in ... aaah sublime happenstance, eh!
This is the Coffin Ridge Winery and I'm still not too sure of the origin of the name of the ridge ... something about some guy falling out of the coffin 150 years ago on the way to the graveyard and refusing to get back in ... oh well, let's talk wine. Here are the entrance signs directing you to the place on the ridge down a long gravel road.




When the wine arrived with the awesome cheese plate there was this little coffin ... upon creaking it open, we found it held the napkins (serviettes here) and silverware ... cool!





And of course we had to have the obligatory wine toast to the wine gods with the gorgeous Georgian Bay in the far distance beyond the vinyard. A spectacular afternoon.






As we departed the vinyard we went through an old barn basement that the vinyard has maintained and added many flowers and shrubs to. Through the opening is the Georgian Bay in the distance.

This will be my theme poster as I have done the "Gray Bruce Escape" (what's left is gray) to this picturesque bit of North America.

This is a rough sheep and goat area inhabited by the Scottish about 150 years ago as it was very similar to the homeland as evidenced by the rock-lined fields. Millions of tons of stones were hauled by horse teams to clear the fields for sheep grazing and crops.

And, of course you can get haggis in any form on the menu; don't have to go to Scotland. And, yes, the haggis burger was very good; very strong lamb, but still very good and at 7.95 CDN a deal.

Then, having nothing to do with the Scots, but interesting anyway, this guy has built a small-scale Stonehenge in his front lawn. During the summer the trees obscure the thing from the road, but right now it is fairly visible and the stones are about 6 feet high, so this is about a 40 foot circle ...

A quick couple of animal shots from the animal lovers. Here's a woodchuck sitting beside one of the country roads near our park. You might have to look hard at the photo but I'm firing from a moving car folks.




And in our yard, there are anywhere from a few, to dozens of goldfinches. Sometimes it's hard to tell the goldfinches from the dandelions. This shot from our door in the RV.

And the last and best is our friend, Alvin, the chipmunk, who had so many peanuts to eat and then he decided to get a late snack at the bird feeder ... and fell asleep there. My camera was about 2 feet from him in the pic.

On Sunday morning we did brunch at Ted's Range Road Diner. Yup, that's the quonset hut there with the mold on the outside and the wrecked cars in the background. Crazy you say! Not hardly as this is one of the areas best and most renowned eateries.

Here's Jo and I with her brother Rick as we partake of a super breakfast. Yes that's particle board hooked to the tin curved roof.

There are no paper menus, so you have to get up and read the chalk board entries that line the walls. There are so many gormet dinners here that it is mind boggling.

As it was about 10 in the morning ... oh yes reservations only ... I opted for the Gastronomic Sandwich. This was constructed of a bottom layer of brown toast, a fried egg, and then a white cheese blended with a zillion veggies on top. All with hash browns and wheat toast for about $8.00.

Time for Tums!

From a couple of days ago, here is a cold rain view out of the window. The highs have varied from the 40s to 60s and the lows have been around 33 to 35 at night ... more propane for the furnace! Poor Buster has had his coat on several times and while our site is really nice we keep battling the soggy muddy ground.

I have finally mastered the computer (or lack of it) issue. While last year we had super wi-fi in the park we were in, this park has nothing. In the States I use a USB cell modem that pops into the computer and wherever there is ATT cell coverage, we also have computer. Using that thing here is out of the question as the roaming charges are in $$ per kilobyte ... one login just to check the bank account for 5 minutes is about $20.

After a couple of weeks of hunting for wi-fi or other sources, I've purchased a similar USB data internet card from the local Bell Canada telecommunications folks. The device was free and the monthly charge is $30 ... not bad and we are now on line.

Today it is about 48 degrees and a pounding rainstorm. Last night it was a blinding thunderstorm which rocked the Flying Scotsman; needless to say we didn't get much sleep. However, Buster and Bandit snored through it all!

Tonight it is to be about 33 degrees and the high tomorrow will be about 42 .... brrrr .... but that is why we are here. Hopefully the rains and clouds will break as the campsite is pretty soggy.

Here's a shot from a couple of days ago of the HHR rollin' down the beach at Ipperwash ... not too many beaches left that you can do this today.

The pictures are limited because of a poor computer connection, but I think I have come to a solution and I'll explain the process later.

OH CANADA!

We arrived in Canada on Sunday and our first night was at a park near Ipperwash Beach near the little town of Forest, Ontario. It was supposed to be a 4-W rated park according to Woodalls, but was about a 1-W in our estimation. Small site, poor hookups, only 30amps, no wi-fi, etc. Here's Jo-Anne with the boys exploring that park; happy to be out of the bus for a walk and stretch the legs.

And now we are in the Roebuck Campground near Meaford and we have contracted with the park for the summer. As always the computer has become an issue and I am sitting at Bill Martin's house doing this as there is no wi-fi in the park. Hopefully I can get the RV computers up to speed with the local connections. Really nice treed lot as you can see, but not enough to interfere with the sat-TV.

And tonight we are in the Cottonwood Campground in Lansing, just off Jolly Road. It has rained off and on all day and it is about 52 degrees now. The park is pretty basic with dirt sites, some grass, and right now, mostly mud here in the early spring.

In spite of the mud and wetness, Buster's bodily needs don't stop; and he goes pretty regularly twice a day, rain or shine. So with the pretty low-slung body and high, wet grass, he gets pretty wet and sloppy ... then you have to wipe the ol boy down before coming in the house. By the expression, he enjoys the whole process as much as I do.

Tomorrow we are off to Canada. We will go east through Flint and then over the Blue Water bridge in Port Huron and hopefully make it to the little town of Forest in Ontario where we will stop for the night.

On Thursday and Friday we motored over to Lansing to see Pete and Emily Cummins, old high school friends we saw last fall for our 45th Okemos HS reunion ... 45 ... oooo. Anyhow we had a great time over dinner and drinks and then got to see Pete's passion .. the MGB he has lovingly restored. I had a series of MGs from 1963 to 1974 and share the love of this unique vehicle.

Pete and Emily also have a really neat parrot called Farfel ... not sure of the spelling or pronounciation and Pete or Emily will surely and hopefully correct me on this... and also give me the origin of the name. Anyhow Farfel is not the kind of bird that you pet easily; pretty large and very sharp beak and wary attitude ... and here is Jo-Anne not sure how to approach the fearsome beast ... she actually did get close enough to pet his head and it is apparently quite soft.

Obviously I wasn't getting anywhere near the birdy!

Tuesday and Wednesday we settled into the Sunnyside RV Resort in South Haven, Michigan. We've been there before and it is a really nice park with all the amenities. It's a condo type place where you can buy the lot and when you aren't in it you can rent it out to daily folks like Bruce and Jo-Anne. Here's Kally and Shirley Bergstrom at the RV lot. Bruce and Kal became friends shortly after they returned from Vietnam in 1968 and were stationed at Fort Knox, Kentucky together. The Bergstroms live in St. Joseph, just a few miles south of South Haven.

The weather is pretty gray and rainy off and on and about 55 degrees making for a challenge in the photo taking. Here's a shot of one of the main streets in Holland, which is also on the west coast of Michigan, about 30 miles north of South Haven. Holland, as its namesake, boasts millions of tulips and they are just starting to come out. In about three weeks, this place will be a massive bunch of color.

In spite of the gray weather the flowering trees were also beautiful.

Our timing was off by a couple of weeks as the Tulip Festival starts this weekend and runs for the month of May; here's some of the booths they were setting up for the festival.

And the main park by the waterfront which hosts a bronze Dutch couple on the top of this little mound. These grounds will be a solid mass of color in a couple of weeks.

And in Saugatuck a relaxing polar bear .... !?