Life in Woodstock, Ontario!

We have been here in Woodstock since last Saturday, and it is a great spot. One thing for sure is that it is warmer here by far than life in Gravenhurst.

One small problem we have run into is "Ladybugs".... man, there are thousands of them here... and they bite apparently... They come right through the seal on the front door of the RV...can't believe it. Judy gets made at me cause I won't kill them, I live trap them in a glass and then release them outside to live again.... :-))

We are staying at Casey's RV Park, just outside Woodstock, in a small town called Salford. It is very nice and quiet. Everyone has allready gone home I think for the season. There are signs around the park saying "Beware of Attack Ducks"... they meant it... here they are:

I was talking to the owner of the Park today, and he tells me they are a special variety of duck that live in the pond on the side of the park and in the spring, apparently they eat the mosqueto eggs before they hatch... gotta love it. They also like bread to eat, and just walk up on into the park and go from RV to RV and basically beg for food. If you feed them, they are your friends for life.

The owner had a lot of request from seasonal campers here for some storage sheds, but local bylaws did not allow it. He got around it by putting them all at the back of the camp and here is what he did with them:

He made them look like a "western town", kind of cool.

Here is a picture of the RV and our site. As mentioned, it is very quiet around this park, and very quiet at night which is great for sleeping.

Hade the RV in London this afternoon to have a couple new part installed on our Onan Generator. The problem is that they actually had to remove the generator out of the RV in order to change the parts out. Yikes. At least 8 hours of work by the dealer to do this. This is one expense we had not counted on... life in the RV....

Judy went in to Woodstock today and spent the day with Kristina.... cutting lawns, doing laundry, and shopping for groceries... a busy day.

That's it for today.

We are officially on the way! Day 1 and 2.

Friday morning saw us on the road at 8:30 a.m. As we drove out of the Gravenhurst KOA we both let go with a big "YIPEE". 2 years of dreams were finally a reality for us! We are on our way to the deep south.

Got down to Orillia and Judy went for a test at the Hospital while the Kitties and I sat in a parking lot with the big rig and trailer, and read the maintenance section of the owners manual for the Motor Home. Lots of good stuff in there.

Judy was only a few minutes and we were on our way, well, up the Orillia RBC Branch to make a deposit and get a Timmies of course. From there we headed down Hwy. 11 and ran into rain of course. Took Hwy 27 down to Cookstown to avoid some bad winds on Hwy. 11. Made it to the Morrison Farm, our first camping spot of the trip by early afternoon. Here is the only picture I really have of the first 2 days.... We have been too busy to stop and smell any roses, or take pictures.

This is the prime parking spot at the Morrison Farm, and as you can see, they are putting new barn boards up on the main barn. Always something on the go here!

We had a great visit with John and Pat. Made some plans for them to get down to Arizona this winter, and went out for a nice dinner at Crabby Joes in Allsiton. Then we went to the Alliston Hornet's Hockey Game. John is the Team President. Good game, Alliston beat Erin, lots of banging and crashing.

After we got back to the RV, we had John and Pat, and Emily in for a bit of Wii. We all had a blast bowling and playing tennis in the RV. Emily really got into Wii Fit.

Up early this morning (Saturday) and had a nice breakfast and then it was time to hit the road. We made a cross country trip to Woodstock with time for lunch in a real nice factory parking lot in Cambridge. I was busy driving the big wheels, and Judy was playing techno wiz on the cell phone with a bunch of text messages.

Made it to Casey's RV park in Ingersol around mid afternoon and had time to set up the satelite internet, and the starchoice TV.

Kristina and Chris came out and picked us up and made the 15 min. drive to thier house for a great dinner, and also checked out the new fireplace.

We all then decided the best thing to do was go back to the RV after dinner and catch the Leaf game. Well, they lost again, but, hey it is a re-building year.

Should be here for a week, and the weather does not look too bad for the next week before we cross the border.

Judy has gone to bed, and I am on my way!

Going to get up early tomorrow and go to Church with Kristina and Chris, I think Judy said Kristina is singing tomorrow at Church!

It has been a busy 2 days to start off, but we are lovin it!

Tomorrow is the BIG DAY!

After about 2 years of planning, we have finally reached the evening of leaving for the deep south for the winter! We are there! Everything is packed, Cleo and Patra are ready to motor, and the big wheels are ready to turn.

We are looking forward to a nice warm winter down in Arizona and possibly California. At least we don't have to worry about what to bring on this trip, we just bring it all!

Tomorrow is the 1st leg of the trip, down to see the Morrisons in Alliston. Only a couple hours of driving down Hwy. 11 and should arrive early in the afternoon after a stop a Soldier's Memorial Hospital in Orillia for a Medical Test for Judy.

On Saturday, the second phase of the trip will take us to Waterloo. No snow in the forcast yet, so this is a good thing. Don't need to see the white stuff!

Kristina and Chris sent us a text this evening telling us they were driving home from the East Coast, and got stuck up in Riviar De Loup in norther Quebec, due to SNOW, and have to stay there overnight! Yikes, it is getting close.

Time for bed, big day tomorrow!

Cranberry Festival Bala & Students to Ottawa

We are getting closer!

Weather was beautiful today, sunny and warm for a change. Spent a busy day yesterday, driving 4 students to Ottawa to attend the Adventures Program and Conference. The Rotary Club rented a mini-van for us to takes them with all their luggage. We had quite a load. Looks like a great conference agenda for the kids. I almost wanted to stay myself and attend!

After we returned the Van to Sander's this morning, Judy and I attended the Rotary Meeting. They had a great lunch today and a very busy agenda. This will be my last Rotary Meeting for the next six months, and certainly will miss all my friends Rotary!

This afternoon Judy and I worked on getting ready to leave this weekend. I got the bikes all tied down in the trailer and sorted out a bunch of stuff in the trailer. Next I had to replace the dead bolt lock on our side door of the RV. The old one broke. Still have to do a bit of work on the new one, however that will have to wait till I get to Chris and Kristina's house, as I need some special tools that I just happen to know will be there as I used to own some of them....

We have a problem with our generator that we discovered last week, and had to order a couple small parts for it. I have made arrangements to have them installed while we are in the Woodstock area. We want this working as you never know when you need the "POWER"...

This Friday is our big "Kick Off Day" We will leave early in the morning and stop in Orillia so Judy can attend a Medical Test...(Routine...) From there we will head down to Alliston and stay with the Morrisons on Friday night. Hopefully we can make some plans with them for when they come down to Arizona. Yipee!

Saturday morning we will be leaving for Woodstock and we have a campground lined up just outside of Woodstock at Ingersol. We will spend time vising Kristina and Chris. Also going to have dinner one night with Deb and Gerard. Deb is also going to retire at this end of this month if I am not mistaken. They plan on coming to Arizona in March, looking forward to it.

Still more to do this week before we get to leave on Friday... making sure everything is stored properly is a big job.

That is it for now... just watching a bit of TV tonight and reading some blogs.

Let the games begin!!

Well, I made it. Yesterday was my last day at work! I am on a leave of absence until May 10, 2010! You can't get the grin off my face. Not that I dislike my job, but this will be way more fun, I think. At work, they were so nice. The Finance group took me out to a beautiful supper & drinks at the beautiful Regatta at the Gravenhurst wharf on Wednesday night. Thursday, at lunch my Sentence Management crew, Janet & Marilyn and a couple others, Louise & Joyce took me again to the Regatta for a yummy lunch! I felt so spoiled but enjoyed it immensely. Janet dropped me off at the RV after lunch and I dropped off John at the dentist while I went grocery shopping. Even that was fun when you feel like you have all the time in the world. When we got back to the RV, we broke out the cocktails and had a raging fire. You need a raging one this time of year as it is just above freezing even in the afternoon! See above our toasts for our plans of adventure.

Last weekend was a great Thanksgiving weekend. On Saturday, we decided to make a trip to Costco in Barrie to get a membership (they tell us Costco has cheap booze in the States!) While there we bought our Christmas present to each other, a Wii game with Wii Sports, Wii fit and Wii Play. We had played it in Toronto at Jenn's parents place and thoroughly enjoyed it. Only problem is, when I go to bed at night and close my eyes I see Mii people!

Sunday, we had a great dinner with all the Hollinger clan thanks to John's Mom. Kristina & Chris made the trip up and stayed with us on Sunday night. We also enjoyed a video conference with Shawn, Jenn & Emmie. Monday, Kristina & Chris came with us to Dorsett and we climbed the Fire Tower to see the beautiful fall colours. Quite breathtaking and we enjoyed a great lunch at the Fiery Grill.

Today, for my first day off work, I went for a pedicure, haircut and we had a great hike on the biking trails. Life is good!

Iconic pictures of Gravenhurst!

Had to go to a Heart and Stroke Golf Tournament meeting this morning, but had a hour to walk around Gravenhurst a bit and decided to play with the new camera. Wanted to get some pics of the area as we will be away for 6 months and might want to show off Gravenhurst to people that we meet along the way. What better picture to start with than our new "Arch". I really like it, however there are critics out there as there always seems to be. I think it defines Gravenhurst as the Gateway to Muskoka, and even though it cost over a couple hundred thousand, it is worth it.

There is no other way to define our Town other than by our Steamships! Here is a picture of the Wenonah and the Segwun. This picture is from the view of the Muskoka Wharf. The first boat in this picture is the Segwun.

This next shot, Kristina will reconize as a shot from "Lookout Point". A park in Gravenhurst that overlooks the Wharf area. This ship belonged to Mrs. Timothy Eaton who donated it to the Steamship Society. It has been totally rebuilt in the past couple of years. You can rent this boat to take you and your party around Lake Muskoka.

This is a picture of the boats from Lookout Point.

This is "The Barge" where they have great music concerts all summer long in "Rotary Gull Lake Park" . Our Rotary Club spent a bunch of money re-furbishing this in the past year. It is a real neat spot.

Decided to get some nice pictures of some leaves while I was out...

This picture is out on the Gravenhurst Parkway on the way to Prison.... at least the prisoneers get a nice view before they get locked up....bad boys, bad boys....

This picture is also along the parkway...

This is a picture of the Rotary Picnic shelter we installed at Rotary Gull Lake Park.Another view down at Gull Lake Park.


Last night I went to play some cards (a bit of poker...) at Jim Crooks house in the old haunt of Fairview. I had a real good night with lots of laughs. A real good bunch of guys, and I think they were all kind to me last night as I seemed to win my share! They wanted to make sure we had enough money to buy diesel fuel to get to Arizona. Thanks for a great night Jim! I enjoyed.

Went to the Dr. today for a final check up before heading out, and he said I should be good for the next 100,000 miles :-)) Good to go! He said retirement is treating me good as my blood pressure was 124 over 80! Told me not to relax too much!

I have rambled enough for today....

We saw Emmie!

Jenn's brother, Ryan, had to have surgery but he came through with flying colours. Thank the Lord! Shawn & Jenn & Emmie drove home to be with him. We took a trip to Toronto to see Ryan and had a wonderful visit at Andrea & Bill's condo in Toronto. We thoroughly enjoyed seeing everyone and of course, our grandaughter, Emmie was our star!

Saturday night we visited with our good friends, Pat (celebrated her 70th birthday) & Ron, Guy & Ruth, Tom & Cheryl. Enjoyed a wonderful meal with them and had lots of laughs. They surprised us by combining Pat's birthday with a send off for us. Thanks to all. Our barbeque & wine will certainly come in handy!

Last weekend, we took a hike and practised with John's hiking GPS.

Still Getting Ready to go....and The Leaf's Play....

Been a little negligent putting up posts on the blog lately, still getting ready to go south.

On Tuesday I was at Rocky Island Tire first thing in the morning with the rig to get a new front tire put on that finally came in. It was on order for over a month. That is all finished, and yes, a bit expensive, $500.00 out the door. This was to replace a tire we cut on the trip to Lake George, New York, earlier this summer.

Today was a busy day, with heading up to Bracebridge to rent a machine to clean the RV rugs. Man did it work good. Rugs are nice and clean, it worked so well I decided to do the car a well today. The cats did not think too much of having wet rugs when I was finished, kind of walked around funny for while. Worth it for only $35 bucks worth of rental!

Tonight of course is the first game of the year for my Leafers. 2 to 2 right now at the end of the 2nd period. Team is playing good, and has lots of new players. So does Montreal. Whoops, 3rd period just started.... gotta go.....