Happy Fourth and Canada Day!!

 

This year both holidays touch the same weekend making it even more special; hopefully everybody in both countries will be out enjoying the BBQ and families together. Speaking of the weather it has been about 90 for the last couple of days, but with last night's rain tomorrow the high should be 68; a refreshing change.

 

We did enjoy celebrating Father's Day at the Waterford with the three dads present below; Jo-Anne obviously supervising the three boys as they eat the shrimp salad. It's always a neat occasion to be served a super lunch by the staff in this very home-like setting.

Back at the KOA a really strong storm came through and as it passed to the east of us there was a complete rainbow against the black sky making for super contrast.

After the storm our pond was freshened up with the downpour and made for some pretty scenes of the Ontario tree and lake mixture. There are really some pretty good sized trout in the pond along with muskrat, turtles, and a host of fishing birds; neat place.

Cool Food and Allergies Part 2

 

Up at 0500 on the 2nd ... memories of the military! Off to Camping World in Belleville for an 8am appointment. Along the 30 mile route, we had to stop three times because the engine was overheating... another potential problem, eh.

 

 

We did get to CW on time and left the Flying Scotsman. Below you can see the tech with repair order in hand as he is about to take the bus to the garage. Oh by the way, we left Bandit at his favorite cat condo place in Barrie for the duration as we thought it would be better.

After leaving the RV we headed the 44 miles from Belleville to Mt Clemens, totally through Detroit on I-75 and arrived at the allergist to get Jo-Anne's monthly shot.

After the shot and a mediocre lunch at IHOP, no more of the favorite cheese blintzes, we went over to Selfridge Air National Guard Base to hit the Base Exchange and the Commissary. While there I shot some pictures of the now vacant base housing. There are no more permanent residents on the base as they all live off base in the local area and it is sad.

These are beautiful old homes and should be put to some housing purpose; maybe for old retirees like us. Below is the former home of the base commander and it has a gorgeous view of the St. Clair shoreline ... just needs a little TLC eh.

So after a bit of a break, off back all the way through Detroit again down I-75 to see if the RV was ready. It was and totally paid for by the extended warrantee. Finally back to the Harbortown RV park for the night at about 5pm; another long day.

On Friday we unhooked our machine, now with a very cool fridge, and began the trek back to Barrie. We departed the park at 8:30 which is a bit earlier than normal and were patting ourselves on the back ... until the bridge routine. Wow. As we came up 75 we noticed all the semis parked on the shoulder about a mile from the Canada bridge exit and assumed they were all waiting to go across the bridge.

Right on. An hour later, this picture is where I was able to finally break free from the massive line and go up the "car" lane toward customs.

Once we got on the 401 we were happy even though it was now 11:00 and we stopped at the first Onroute service center for lunch. Good thing because after about 15 miles back on the freeway we came to another halt as the three lanes converged into one.

The construction zone lasted to almost London so by 2pm we broke free and headed off on the two lane roads we prefer. Hah. Exactly 1 mile after departing the 401 I saw what appeared to be a rather low bridge ahead ... 12 FEET said the big yellow sign on the railroad bridge! Air brakes. Look around.

There was only one gravel road ahead before the obstacle so off we went into an active gravel pit with the trucks who wee filling up with rock. They were patient as we joined them and did a U-turn on the grass, below, and sought out another route north.

The rest of the trip was uneventful through beautiful Ontario and we picked up the cat and were back in the Barrie KOA by about 6pm ... very long day for the old guys! All told it was about 700 miles of driving over the three days and some stressful events, however, we have cool food and Jo-Anne won't sneeze for another month.

Cool Food and Allergies Part 1

 

On the first of June we packed up and unhooked the Flying Scotsman to go over to the Detroit area. The mission was to get the broken refrigerator fixed and get Jo-Anne's allergy shot; both on June 2nd.

 

We decided to take the southern route along the freeway system to the Windsor area, a trip of about 320 miles. Because of our recent bad experience at the RV park right near the Camping World in Belleville, we chose to land at the Harbortown RV park in Monroe, about 30 miles from the repair place.

But first. As I said we took the simple way down the 400 to Toronto and  then a right turn on the 401 toward Windsor. Ooops! Normally the traffic in Toronto is slow, but upon turning on the 401 we came to a dead halt. Apparently a semi had rolled over and burned about 2am some 10 miles to the east of our stoppage.

After about an hour of slowly creeping toward the wreck scene with 6 lanes of traffic trying to smush politely into the two available, we got to and passed the wreck site. While trying to avoid another accident, we didn't get a picture, but the offending semi was burned to a metal hulk and the hazmat folks were still frantically trying to clean up the charred wreckage; and apparently the driver was OK.

After about 5 hours we got to the border crossing and opted to take the bridge. As we were the only RV in sight the US customs officer decided that he wanted to see what an RV looked like on the inside. We consented and actually had a nice chat about our lifestyle and he then let us proceed.

The skyline of Detroit was pretty neat on a nice 85 degree day although the bridge is in pretty sad shape with much crumbling and rust.

Immediately after going through customs I saw the sign for I-75 North, waited a bit and then the road we were on turned into a city street; we were looking for I-75 South toward Monroe. After touring some of the back streets of a pretty run-down part of Detroit with the now-functioning GPS we finally got onto I-75 going in the right direction ... whew!

Finally we came to our resting spot in Monroe. This RV park is nice and we have stayed here before. The sites are long but quite narrow and the hookups are placed at the very rear of the lot, hence the 20 feet of unused concrete in front of the bus.

The next day we needed to be up at 5am to get the bus over to Camping World about 30 miles away for an 8am appointment. More to follow.