Beating the HST….

This morning I decided to pack up the RV after Judy left for work, and grab Patra and put her in her cage, and then fired up the Duramax and headed to the Esso Station in Bracebridge to beat the HST.  Even though the fuel gage said the diesel was over 1/2 full, it still took $175.00 to fill the tank at .915 per ltr.  Remember folks, the gas and diesel is going up 8% on July 1st. 

Yup, it has a BIG tank…..

At least it did not rain today, and I was able to get out for a walk this afternoon, and about 23 blogs ago I promised I would post some pics of the KOA here in Gravenhurst.

The sites below are the temporary overnight sites…

What is a Kampground without a swimming pool…

And in typical KOA fashion, Kamping Kabbins…. they have 10 of them, and they are pretty well rented for the July/August period…

There is lots of room for tents, and a lot of them come, and this one is apparently ready for Canada Day!

You have to pay your money somewhere, so here is the Office, and also a general store….

They have a nice little pond that they keep well stocked with fish.  You can go and fish your heart out!

This is a view of the Reay Road, leading up to the Park.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, an overall view from the road.  You can see it was not too bad weather wise this afternoon, but it did not get overly warm, that is for sure….

Going to try and post this again with Windows Live Writer….. it worked last night so we will have to wait and see.  You might also see that I was playing around a bit with live writer also on some of the pictures…it is a bit of a cool program…. I can see why Al from the Bayfield Bunch loves it!

 

Till tomorrow…

“The Inside Scoop”

So I won’t bore you with the details of how it rained here AGAIN today!  Man, it never stops….

Today was an interesting day, in that at lunch time I attended the weekly meeting of the Gravenhurst Rotary Club.  I have been a member for about 11 years now.  The meeting consists of a good lunch down at Regattas' Restaurant on the Gravenhurst Wharf, and usually we have a guest speaker.  Today the Speaker, was our Member of Parliament, The Hon. Tony Clement, Minister of Industry.

 

No, I didn’t take the above picture of Tony today, I picked it up off the internet.  Tony did give a good speech today on all that happened at the G8 Summit that was held in Muskoka last weekend.  Tony was the one, who convinced Prime Minister Harper to select Huntsville as the location for the meeting. 

The meeting in Muskoka went off without a hitch, unlike the G20 in Toronto, and was productive from a meeting point of view.

Tony ended up with the job of being Canada’s official greeter in Huntsville. The meetings were held on the Deerhurst Resort.  The Leaders all landed in Toronto and were then put on a helicopter which landed on the 15th fairway of the golf course.  Tony greeted them all along with other officials and 4 RCMP Officers in uniform.  He was telling us about meeting President Obama and his Wife, Michelle.  He had a chance to talk to them directly, and they indicated they were really impressed with Muskoka.  President Obama told Tony he liked Muskoka so much, maybe they should move the G20 up to Huntsville….but he said maybe he was a bit late in bringing that up…

Here is a file picture of the Leaders walking on the golf course…

Tony also told us a storey of how on the Thursday night of the conference, the President of Russia, decided to jump in one of the Limos with his Aids, and head into Huntsville where they had dinner out! 

Tony also gave a great explanation on how the actual meeting were conducted.  They also have many side meetings with the delegates during the conference.  Canada ended up making a number of deals with China, down at the G20 meetings.  

Tony also talked about Prime Minister Brown from England, who got up on Friday morning bright and early, and went for a jog on the golf course, and then went down and had a dip in Peninsula Lake… I bet that was a bit cool!

On Saturday, when it was time for the Leaders to move to Toronto for the G20 meetings, the Helicopters could not land up at Deerhurst as the Golf Course was way too wet and soggy from the rain.  It is a nice course, I have golfed on it…. They put all the Leaders in limos and drove them down to our Muskoka Airport, where the helicopters were lined up to transport them to Toronto.  During that time, Judy and I were down in Mississauga, so we missed out on all the excitement at Gravenhurst.  

Tony cleared up one thing for me.  On Friday morning, the French President was the only leader who flew into our Muskoka Airport.  I knew something big was going on, as they had the RCMP plane doing circles above keeping an eye on things.  The President drove up to Deerhurst, about 1/2 hour drive in a limo.  Everyone in the KOA knew something was going on that day, as the noise from the Presidential Helicopter was big!

Tony did talk about the violence in Toronto, and how the Police were prepared for just about anything.   The Government knew in advance there was going to be problems, hence the big display of security. 

Anyways, I have rambled on long enough tonight.  It sure was something to see all the security in place, even around Gravenhurst during the Summit. 

Tonight I have tried posting this blog in Windows Live Writer.  Al from the Bayfield Bunch did a big time rant about the problems he is experiencing with this program… so I thought I would try it out…. hopefully it works…

Till tomorrow…..

If you see Noah.... tell him to send the Ark!

Still raining here in Gravenhurst.... seems like that is all we get lately... :-((

We slept in this morning with the pitter patter of rain on the RV roof.... one of those days you do not want to move.... when we did get up, we had coffee and spent a bit of time on the computers and had some breakfast... pretty slow day. Judy did some inside cleaning of the RV and I sorted some of my tools. Bought a new tool box, and tried to consolidate some of my tools, but had a problem... seems I think I need them all.

Last night, after Judy and I made it back to Gravenhurst and had dinner, I got a crazy idea in my head to drive back to Orillia and go the the Galaxy Theatre and watch the movie "Grown Ups". What a blast... It has Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, and a few other good comedians, including David Spade. It was funny. We knew something was up, as when we got to the multi-plex theatre, the whole parking lot of full and we had to park across the street. There were no seats left in the theatre we were in! What recession????? Anyways, if you get a chance, and want to see something funny, go to this one!

That's it for today, no pics to wow you with... sorry!

Till tomorrow...

A day with the Kids!

Ya, it was still raining again today.... ALL DAY!

We were up bright and early heading for Orillia to pick up my Mom and then head south for Mississauga. Our Son and his Wife are staying there, and we went down to visit.

All the pics in the blog today are from the visit. We started up in Jenn's Mom and Dad's Condo, then headed over to Boston Pizza in Oakville for lunch, and then a visit to Kidtopia, right across from BP. This is the Dr. along with little princess Paige.

Here is Paige again, being amused by Dr. Hollinger...

This is a neat little seat they have for Paige to sit in, she is just over 3 mths. old now...


Here is a shot taken up at the Condo before we headed out....


This is a pic of Judy and Emmie busy at work in "Kidtopia"....




Emmie has one thing on her mind when she gets into these places.... the slide!



She convinced Her Gramma to join her on the first trip up to the top of the slide...







Gramma and Emmie shooting down the slide together...


While they were sliding, Gramma Hollinger had Paige under control....

We had a blast today, enjoyed every minute!

Congratulations go out to Jenn's Brother Ryan, who recently passed his Police Cadet Training, and has been working on G20 security this week. I would tell you what he was doing, but then I would have to shoot you!

When we got back to the KOA this afternoon, we were relaxing just before dinner, and all of a sudden Judy says "Look at that..." a big Black Bear just wandered through our Camp, like he was out on a Sunday stroll.... yikes...

Watched a bit of the action going on in Toronto at the G20 summit.... too bad a bunch of criminals can ruin it for everyone....

Till tomorrow...

Hitchin a ride....

I headed into Gravenhurst this morning on a shopping spree, as we needed a couple of things. I wanted to get a new tool box, as I am now needing 2 tool boxes in the RV and want to downsize to one box.

As I was looking up the tool box in my favorite store, (Canadian Tire) I came across the section with the bike racks for cars. We need one. Last winter we carried our 2 bicycles inside the motorcycle trailer. Next winter, we plan on taking our new Jeep, so we required a rack to carry the bikes behind the Jeep. I found one today. This is a view of the rack just after I installed it on the Jeep. It fits right onto the spare tire! I decided to go with this type, as you can still open the back gate of the Jeep with the bikes still mounted.


It only took about 10 to 15 minutes to install the rack. As you can see below, it has clamps to hold 2 bikes. It will actually hold 3 bikes, but I took one set of the clamps off.


As you can see below, I had the bikes mounted on the rack. It is a very good quality bike rack, and I highly recommend it. It is sturdy, and the bikes do not even move as you drive over rough ground even. Very impressive.


I made adjustments to the rack after I took the picture below, as I finally figured out how to mount the Ladies bike on the rack, accommodating the curve in the cross bar. We are all set now to haul on down to AZ and CA.


Well the G8 was in full swing today. Most of the Leaders came into Huntsville last night, and at about 10:00 the Muskoka Airport right beside our KOA was going crazy.... We had numerous airplanes coming and going, and many helicopters. You can tell they are military vehicles as they are all very loud. The activity went on last night for well over 1 hour.

At about 11:00 a.m. this morning, a large military helicopter landed at the airport, and hovered for a while. It had it's own RCMP spotter aircraft flying above it to make sure the way was clear. Not sure who they were transporting but they must have been important!

I drove up to Bracebridge this afternoon on a test drive with the Jeep and bicycles attached, and worked up the nerve to take a quick picture at the airport of the military command centre that has been constructed. It has it's own radar atop the tower. Judy mentioned when she went to work this morning, the RCMP and Police had the road to the airport shut down.... you could not even get near it! You can see the actual runway behind the command centre in the picture....


I was talking with our Son this afternoon, and he is currently on route from Johnson City, Tn. to visit us in Ontario. We hope to meet him and Jenn and the girls tomorrow for lunch in Oakville. Hopefully the G20 does not screw up all the traffic.

And just think, all this G8 and G20 stuff is over on Sunday afternoon, and the the Queen comes to Canada on Monday!

Till tomorrow....

It's raining again....

More rain this morning... lots of it. This summer is starting to smell a lot like last summer at this point..... oh no...

The World Leaders are going to find out just how wet it can get in Muskoka over the next day or so... they are all coming to visit.

Security has ramped up even more.... we have security at our local airport all the time now. The Army is camped out on the property and in the bush across the road. Yesterday, I was picking Judy up after work at 4:00 and about 150 Army Soldiers were in formation with full back packs and were heading into the bush around the airport for the night. About an hour later it poured rain for over an hour... I think they would have got a bit wet!

Yesterday I was out for a ride on my Honda in the afternoon, returning to the KOA after a trip up into Bracebridge. When I crossed the overpass on Highway 11, a 7 car procession pulled right in behind me. In the lead was 2 OPP Cruisers, followed by 3 big black Limos, and 2 more OPP bringing up the rear. After we all crossed the overpass, I turned right on Gravenhurst Parkway, heading back home, and of course they turned with me.... they were heading to the airport! I felt very important leading this procession the 4 klms. up to the airport... had to make sure I did not exceed the speed limit, and they stayed right on my butt the whole way...yikes!

I took the picture below this morning after all the rain finally stopped. Here we are, now camped at the lakefront property of the Gravenhurst KOA...

Tomorrow is the actually G8 Summit Meetings, and then they all move to Toronto for the G20. It is going to be busy around here!

Good news today, I got notification in the mail of my first Pension Payments to be deposited to the bank account! :-))

Till tomorrow...

Good News SHAKES the Earth!

We received great news today, and it shook the Earth.

As many of you readers are aware, our Son, Shawn, is a in his 3rd year now of his residency in pediatrics. He is doing this in Johnson City, Tennessee. This is after he completed 4 years of medical school, which he attended on the Island of Saba, in the Caribbean. Today we found out that he has been accepted into a Fellowship, with the University of Ottawa, and will be returning to CANADA!
In July of 2011 Shawn and Jenn and of course Emmie and Paige will all return to Canada to reside in Ottawa where Shawn's fellowship will lead him to be a Neonatoligist. Congratulations Shawn, we are all proud of you!

Over the years, Judy and I have travelled to visit Shawn and Jenn in many places while he studied to become a Dr. They have included the Island of Saba, Rochester, NY., New York City, NY., Chicago, Ill., Johnson City, Tn. Now we will have to head to OTTAWA!

Shawn called me with the good news around lunch time today, and about an hour later the EARTH shookkkkkkkkk........ Yes, an earth quake in Canada, centered out of Ottawa! Wow....

Meanwhile, back here in Gravenhurst, during dinner tonight we had some major rain! Again, Wow! This shot is looking out our side door of the motorhome, towards our road, that is now a river!


The water was just pouring off our canapy...



It was raining too hard for me to even go out our door to take a picture....



This is looking out towards our Jeep, good thing I remembered to close the windows.... :-))


I did a bit of work around the RV this afternoon, re-caulking some of the seams on our bedroom slide.... should find out real soon if they leak or not!!!!


Till tomorrow...

Rain day!

Yes, major rain day today here in Gravenhurst.... all day. We had some minor flooding in the park this afternoon, as it is located in deep woods. Will have to take some pics around the park to post, kind of a neat park.

Not much on the go today with all the rain. In Town for some errands this morning and then on to some RV maintenance.

Still calling for some more rain tomorrow... all those RCMP and OPP and Army guys will be wet up in the Huntsville area. It is in lock down now until the summit is over. We had a whole bunch of military aircraft of all sorts flying overhead today out of the Muskoka Airport. On the new tonight, President Obama will come to Huntsville with no fewer than 5 Marine Helicopters for his transportation. Lots going on, and the thing has not even started yet!

Till tomorrow....

Busy day today... visit the Dr. and then had to wash up the bugs off the Jeep from yesterdays long ride to Woodstock and return, then was Rotary Club meeting over lunch. This afternoon was spent finishing the wax job on the RV.... 3 days worth of wax on....wax off... looks pretty good though.

Judy had to go down to Orillia for a cat scan today to try and get some sinus relief! Hopefully they can find something out!

Was such a nice day today, we enjoyed eating dinner outside. Perfect day!

Finally got some pictures of our trip yesterday to Woodstock! Here is Chris hard at work in the garden... it is just like Noah's Ark.... it has two of everything...

What else is there for a great Daughter to do, other than give out free haircuts on Fathers Day! Here I am getting my summer buzzz.... it was sure nice having it buzzed for today, as it was big time hot here!


Next was time to cut her Husband's hair.... he got the real buzz cut...



Kristina made up my favorite dinner for me on Father's Day.... Mararoni and Cheese with a bit of lemon pie to boot...

Later in the afternoon, she was performing over at their Church in a Praise Group. We all went to watch and Judy was able to take a couple pics with here camera... There is a guy playing the drums, and to the right there were two other guys playing guitars....




Kristina played three numbers on the piano and was simply superb! She has her own piano in the house now, and is able to practice much more... we all enjoyed the concert! Well done!


This week our nice quiet Muskoka is being invaded! The G8 Meetings are being held up in Huntsville, and we are all under intense security in this area. They have blocked off the Muskoka Airport due to Military exercises going on. Tonight we had big Army Helicoptors flying around our area. This morning we actually had 2 RCMP Officers in a marked RCMP cruiser patrol through the KOA.... yikes... we are about 45 minutes away from where the meetings are being held, but we are very close to the Airport. I guess they have to be safe, and make sure everything is secure and under control! Yesterday there was a large movement of OPP going up Highway 11 heading to Huntsville from Toronto. Hey, maybe I will get to meet Obama!

Had a good chin wag on the phone tonight from my good friend Andy who lives out in Alberta! Trying to get him to come and visit us next winter in California.... here is hoping!

That wraps up today...

Till tomorrow...

Yes, i am back!

Beautiful day today all over Ontario, and Judy and I picked Mom up in Orillia today, and headed down to Woodstock to visit Kristina and Chris.

We had a great visit and Kristina treated us to a great meal of Macaroni and Cheese along with some lemon pie! Yes, it was excellent.

We headed over to their Church for an evening praise service that Kristina is involved with, and plays piano and sings... the whole thing was simply "excellent"! Yes, all those piano lessons are paying off!

It is 11:30 p.m. and I am heading for bed! Pictures tomorrow...

Till tomorrow...

Remembering the "Good Ole Days"....

HOT HOT HOT in Gravenhurst today! Spent this morning picking up Mom in Orillia to take Her to the Denturist to fix a broken plate. This afternoon I had to return and pick up the denture when it was fixed and deliver it! Was able to do this on the Honda! Great day for it!

Last nights blog had pics of Dave and Mary's bikes.... a Harley and Suzuki. Al from the Bayfield Bunch commented on loud pipes. Well Al, Mary and Dave are into loud, and even Her Suzuki 850 makes a big rumble with the custom pipes Dave put on it! Our bikes are on the quiet side, both with the stock muffler system still on them.... a little easier on the ears!

All this bikes stuff reminded me today of the past winter in the South West. Judy and I took our motorcycles last year as most of you know, and we simply loved it! I have many fond memories of our winter in the south ... like this shot.... this was taken on the road going out to Castle Dome Mine, north of Yuma... we had a great day touring the mine...


I love my 750 Honda... and I can feel for Al of the Bayfield Bunch who is maybe considering trading his bike in for a Jeep.... it is a hard decision to make! He has an 1100 Honda Shadow, which is similar to mine, but has a bigger motor. You get attached to your bike when you have them.... just like Judy is with her Suzuki Burgman... I couldn't pry it away from Her....here is a picture of her in Yuma, as we were on our way to the Peanut Patch... (a store) I loved the background on this shot...



This was our Christmas Picture that we used this year, taken in the Foothills of Yuma, AZ.



Here we are on our way to visit the proving grounds of Yuma.....



We sure had a great winter with the bikes, putting on over 8,500 klms. on them. The weather was perfect over 95% of the time which made bike riding a dream.

Judy and I still talk about the day we drove the "Butterfield Express" trail, just to the west of Yuma. It was a dirt track that we followed for about 10 miles or so.... bikes were so dirty when we finished we had to stop at the car wash.... aughhhh , nothing like a trip down memory lane.

Till tomorrow....

Our KOA is invaded!

Today was a great day weather wise! Nice and sunny and warm!

This morning I attended the committee meeting for the Heart and Stroke Golf Tournament to be held Oct. 1st. Lots to do!

This afternoon Judy had to go for a Dr. appt. in Orillia so I went down with her. I toured the Park area while waiting. Went up to visit Mom when we were finished, and enjoyed a nice Swiss Chalet dinner with Her.

Then we headed home, just in time to see the KOA get invaded! About 8 p.m. tonight, two real bad bikers ripped up the park... even the geese were scared! Turn out Dave and Mary Demerling were on the lose! Dave picked up a new Harley this spring and was trying it out. Mary had her big Suzuki. Both are loud and proud!

Here is Dave suiting up to head for the hills....

Mary is warming up here Suzuki, watch out for her, she is tuff!

We did have a great visit with them and it was good to see them! Yes, they woke up everyone in the KOA when they left, but hey, everyone needs excitement in their life every now and then!

Till tomorrow....

Black on black...

Busy day today, had a weeks worth of laundry to catch up on and kept the laundry matt in business for the week! Made it to Rotary Lunch today. Busy at Rotary with a good guest speaker from the Barbados.

This afternoon I had to take Judy's Burgman up to the motorcycle dealer in Bracebridge for some service work, so I loaded it into our motorcycle trailer and hooked up the Jeep to haul it on up there.... I liked the looks so much, had to stop for a minute to snap a couple pictures of the Jeep and trailer...


It fits on real good behind the Jeep and it pulls very easy. We can pull both our motorcycles in this trailer, and the Jeep handles it with no problems!



Till tomorrow....

What a RIDE!

Yikes, what a busy weekend. Out for dinner on Friday night, out for breakfast with Dave and Angela on Saturday morning.... we are just a pair of social butterflies...

On Saturday afternoon, we had a visitor at the RV - Tom stopped by on his way home from golfing up in Huntsville area. Of course he pulled in with his fancy new Corvette. What a ride! Him and Cheryl bought it earlier this spring, and with Cheryl out west visiting her Family, Tom is racing around Ontario. We had lots of time and a couple soda pops to talk about old time, and before you knew it, the afternoon was moving on and we twisted his arm into staying for dinner with us, and well.... then we talked him into staying the night at the RV! Might as well... it was a great night on Saturday, nice and warm, and we sat out with the fire in a can until after 11 p.m.

Here is Tom getting ready to depart on Sunday morning....

Judy was giving him last minute driving tips on how to handle the 400 H.P. under the hood!

That is one cool ride Tom! Today was so nice, Patra seemed to want to come outside the RV.... she never does as she is an inside cat. I picked up a collar and leash yesterday at the pet shop, so we tried it out today.... she actually seemed to like it... and did not freak out.
She looks like she is on the prowl here.... stayed out about 10 minutes, and then she headed back into the RV to catch up on about 16 hours of sleep she does in a day!

Had a nice dinner tonight at the RV with Angela and Dave - had the BBQ working and cooked up some real nice steaks.


Busy day tomorrow.... gotta get some sleep...

Till tomorrow....