Another sign of Fall

 

Saturday afternoon the super hosts at the KOA, Amy and Tony, held the Hots and Hams and Cornroast for just the seasonal campers here like us.

 

Hot dogs and hamburgers aplenty to be eaten with the super fresh corn just picked from down the road. The back part of the park for the over 55 group is really great and called Ceadarwood to distinguish it from the rest of the equally outstanding Barrie KOA. Super food, friendly chat with neighbors, for a really neat 80 degree afternoon.

 

On Sunday we attended the Savour Simcoe annual tasting event so this was really a full weekend. This event is held at the local Simcoe County Museum and highlights some 40 local farms and vineyards showing off their wares.

The canoe statue outside the museum commemorates the native and white cooperation n the establishment of many joint projects and their long history in this region.

Behind the museum in the woods all of the vendors were set up like the one below. We grazed all afternoon from booth to booth but I highlighted this particular one because of the menu item they were having us taste. The woman's expression was just like ours as we saw "Mexican poutine."

In spite of the seemingly impossible combination of names and cultures it was the best item we tasted.

These guys below were firing up the nan bread with various sauces and they represented the Georgian College and their culinary courses.

All in all a really great weekend of different foods and venues and nearly perfect weather. The view below continued the trend as it was taken at sunrise today and reflected off the bus bedroom.

What a Week

 

Initially we planned to get the Flying Scotsman into the garage for the repair work that was started in the winter but never finished. So we packed her up and headed the five miles to the Hitch House on Monday the 11th and logged it in for the slide roller, the shower pan, the bedroom seals, and now the busted awning.

 

Here's the navigator as we unload Bandit (if you look close you can see his tiny face in the carrier) and prepare to get all of us to our respective hotels. We figured it would take two nights for our repair friends to sort it out and do the proper diagnosis.

 

And it worked out pretty well. We had two nice nights at the Monte Carlo Inn in Barrie with some great meals and hospitality and the best Roman spa in town ... ha. The weather was pretty rough though. Tuesday night we had 40 mph winds coupled with torrential rain and 50 degrees so the fireplace in the room stayed lit. It has been the coolest, rainiest summer in a long time.

So on Wednesday in spite of the weather we retrieved Bandit (couldn't ask how his stay was), picked up the bus and brought it back to the KOA to get hooked up.

Smooth process as always but tiring and the RV repair guys promised to work up the repair order and get it to the insurance company so we can chat next week, eh.

OK. Everything done, nice but busy break with the rv ... everything over but to relax .... WRONG!

On Thursday morning we popped over to see Dad at the Waterford just to chat and see how he was doing. We arrived to find that he was having some potentially serious upper GI problems and the nurse at the home said get him to the ER NOW. Jeez.

So at 10am we packed him up and some belongings and headed to the hospital. We checked into the ER and here is Jo-Anne patiently, no pun intended, waiting for pop to have another in a long series of tests, x-rays, analysis, doctors, and other personnel poking at his poor tired body.

About 10 hours later he was admitted and we finally got him to his room. It's always the hospital decision to see if it is necessary to admit or let you go home and in this case more tests were needed to find the causes of the discomfort.

So he remained that night and had a scope test on Friday and by late Friday was given the all clear to be released on Saturday. Super. Relief for all.

Below is the shot as we got the retired Major Martin prepared to leave on Saturday morning.

By noon today we got him back to his home and we got back to our home ... after a nice pause in the continuing rain for a relaxing lunch at Appleby's ...

Yes, What A Week!

FALL is here!

 

I usually post the annual event and somehow this year it seems way too soon. When we arrived in May the maples had just filled out and a mere three months or so later they have gotten the word that the summer is over.

 

 

As it has for the northeastern part of North America this has been a very cool summer and the local weather channel reflects what has been the average since June. In fact this Wednesday the high will be about 62 degrees in rain. We haven't gone more than a couple of days without running the furnace at least a bit in the morning just to take the chill off ... nice.

Speaking of the rain and cool we have had a consistent pattern of four or five days of brilliant sun followed by a couple days of rain and cool nights hopefully making for some happy farmers as you can see below.

I can reach about eight feet and this corn is a good foot taller and the rows are particularly closely spaced ... max harvest here. Actually they haven't even begun to harvest the bulk of the corn and it will be fatter and taller in the next three weeks, especially with the predicted rain and then sun for the next few days. My adventurous mind says that this could make a cruel corn maze ... yes!

And the stuff goes on for miles ... literally hundreds if not thousands of acres locally. Farmer Brown down the road has cut his first bunch and it will be piled on the table beside the house for $6 a dozen (13 ears of course) ... we'll be the first in line.

 

 

Fall does mean making sure the Flying Scotsman is ready to move and that we start the preliminary planning of the southward migration ... like the geese eh.

Back in Barrie

 

After we got the micro and installed it in Port Huron last week, on Friday we headed back to Canada. We popped across the border at Sarnia and unlike our experience with the trucks coming into the US, Friday morning was uneventful ... "You got guns?" "Nope" "Bye" Actually the customs folks are extremely courteous and inquisitive of our lifestyle and I think they find it a relief to chat with us as a break from the line of impatient folks behind.

 

After the border we decided to go our old route 21 up the Lake Michigan coast and around to Meaford as we had for some 30 years before when Jo-Anne's parents lived there.

 

Below is the little park on an escarpment in Goderich where we had had to stop in the days of having to find a spot for Buster to do his business ... and oh by the way, a really quiet nice park with room to park the bus and car. We had lunch on a perfect 70 degree day.

 

Then up the road only a bit further for the night. We decided to check out an RV park we had not been to and which was rated a 10-10-10 in the Good Sam book ... the highest possible ... go back and look at the place we live in Barrie and it is an 8.5. Curious and adventurous minds, eh.

Below is the maximum 6.5 site in the Fisherman's Cove Tent and Trailer Park in Kincardine, Ontario. Again, we aren't sure who gets paid off to do the ratings but here is an unleveled gravel site with a bitty concrete patio, not pad under the bus, and minimal 30 amp power. A tent would have been better suited here and we were glad it didn't rain. Oh ... yeah ... about that pull-through you thought you might get ... sorry ... unhook and back er up. You learn by exploring, eh. Oh and that'll be $70!!!

The mission was to again go through Meaford where we had gone for years and that we did. We explored the town including the house where Jo-Anne's parents had lived for many years. Below is the view from the harbor up toward the town hall with the Flying Scotsman in the foreground. The bus is parked in front of the location which used to be the Harbour Moose restaurant we talked about several years ago which has now been totally scraped from the earth ... sad.

Sad too, as the whole town of Meaford, beautiful and picturesque, has fallen upon some hard times. Apparently there are no jobs and young people aren't staying around and there are a lot of closed businesses that we used to frequent ... "You can't go back," they say, and I guess it is true.

We did have lunch at the Leeky Canoe as we have in the past and it was as unique, well prepared, and served as it was then. Neat little place on the main strip with a super décor and pub atmosphere.

And I'm not sure when the banquet will start but we will be in line at the table.

... Wonder if the Flying Scotsman will run on Coors ... probably not!