Thursday, September 30, 2010

No racing this weekend…

Received a call today from the Company that puts on the Drag Racing Day over at Grand Bend, and they indicated there was way too much rain in the forecast to go ahead with the racing tomorrow, so it has been cancelled… Sad smile

It will be re-scheduled for June of 2011… Open-mouthed smile

Ended up having a busy morning as I had to take the RV out  for a propane fill up… kinda nice to have propane for the furnace on some of these cooler mornings… while I had it out, I rode up to Huntsville and back, enough to put about 80 miles on the clock, and then was able to go back to T&A Tire in Bracebridge to have my front lug nuts re-torqued.  Now we are all set to travel!

No, I refuse to rake leaves…

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Lots of nice colour going on here…

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Our neighbour across the road from us in the KOA, have a flower garden, and you can tell the frost has not hit it yet… check these out…

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Setting up arrangements tonight to try and get together with the kids tomorrow…

Till tomorrow…

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Bits and Bites of Muskoka…

Today was run around day for the Heart and Stroke Golf Tournament that will be held this Friday at Rocky Crest Golf Club near Parry Sound.  I had to pick up signs, and gifts, and 10 cases of water all to be delivered over to the golf club, which is a little over an hour drive from Gravenhurst.  Brought my camera along to see what I could shoot today…

Lots of fall colours, that is for sure…

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Found a big CN Train heading to Toronto with another load of lumber to fuel the housing market which is still booming…  every time I head south on Hwy. 400, Toronto is getting closer to Gravenhurst!

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Next stop after the train, was Bala, which is a great tourist Town.  This is a shot of Lake Muskoka, just as the water is ready to go over the Bala Falls…

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With all the rain lately, the water was just a churning going over the falls…

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They want to harness some of this water and use it to produce some electricity.  This has become a hot election debate around Bala.  There is also a whole bunch of “NIMBY” going on… (not in my back yard)  Hard to say if they will get to build it or not at this point in time… seems we are all addicted to electricity around here, so I don’t know… the ya’s may win!

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Made my delivery at the golf club, thank goodness for a Jeep… it had a major load in it!  Real nice facilities here… I golfed here last year and it was a lot of fun.

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Stopped and took this picture of Skeleton Lake, which is a great spot along Hwy. 169, south of Parry Sound.

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Stopped in Port Carling on the way home to visit Angela at the Bank of Nova Scotia, however she was away at a meeting.  Took some pictures instead.  They have a great waterfront area…

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There is a lift lock right in the middle of Town to take boats from Lake Muskoka to Lake Rosseau.

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You don’t see one of these every day.  This is a mural on a building in downtown Port Carling of one of our Muskoka Steamships.  It is made of thousands of small pictures taken in the area over the past hundred years or so.  It is real cool.  You can walk up to the building and see all the smaller pictures – very clearly!

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It sure was nice touring through Muskoka this afternoon.  We live in a great area of Canada!

Went down to Orillia this afternoon and took Mom to Her Dr.   Went and had dinner out, compliments of Mother!  Thanks Mom!

Till tomorrow…

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

OK, enough of the rain…

 

Yes, it rained here most of the day, yuck!  This morning I did a bunch of running around and picking up stuff that has been donated by local businesses for the Heart and Stroke Golf Tournament to be held this Friday.  Just have to deliver it all tomorrow to the course. 

Still didn’t take any pictures today so found some nice sunny skies from last Jan. 24 when we visited Quartzite, AZ. and the big RV show, that had actually finished the day before… (did have a few comments on last night blog about my lost camera… didn’t lose it, that was just my excuse for not taking any pics for the day…Camera)

 

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This man and his wife were from New Mexico, and sold the fire in a can that you see them sitting around.  Yup, I bought ours right here!

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Had to tie it on the back of the Honda as we had no other vehicle last year to run around with.  It was a bit of a stretch, but it fit and we made it back to Yuma in time for Happy Hour!

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Judy was checking out some 5th wheels for sale…

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Lots of stuff for sale at Q

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And I never get tired of looking at Az. mountains…

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We have many great memories from last winter in AZ… can’t wait for this year in California!

Till tomorrow…

Monday, September 27, 2010

Clean up day…

Turned out to be not a bad day today, however it is raining a bit as I type the blog up tonight…

Monday is clean up day, including laundry, and today the Jeep had to be cleaned.  Decided to pull out the can of wax and give it a treat as well.  It is nice and shinny tonight!

Lost the camera today so never took a pic… Crying face

Took care of a bunch of business today getting ready to hit the road.  Arranged our out of country travel insurance through RBC.  They are expensive, however they have no upper limits on their coverage so it provides a nice peace of mind!

Making final arrangement with our Financial Advisor as well, as we do need some income this winter to keep the big wheels rolling! Auto

That was about it for today…

Till tomorrow…

 

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Fun times in Richmond Hill, ( or, Rich Man’s Hill as I call it!)

On Saturday we drove down to Richmond Hill, which is just north of Toronto, to visit Tom and Cheryl.  We brought Ron and Pat MacKenzie with us who were celebrating their 50th anniversary… yes, 50!  Guy and Ruth Kelly joined us.  We all have some thing in common, and that is most of us worked for Victoria and Grey Trust as some point in time!   (Many years ago…)

Tom and Cheryl put on a great dinner for us all on Saturday night…

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Here is Ron and Pat, as we all sing to them… and then enjoyed that fine cake!

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We made it back to Gravenhurst this afternoon, and low and behold Judy’s brother Howard and his Wife, Teri dropped by for a visit…  It was great to see them, as we have not seen them in a year!  Had a great visit…

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They showed up in a new to them Grand Cherokee that they recently bought.

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Yes, it is fall… check out the pine trees that are shedding their needles on our Endura!

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The park looks great now that it is decorated for fall!

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Judy is back to work tomorrow, and I have a lot of business things to take care of all in getting ready to leave… which should be Oct. 14th at this point in time!  Starting to get excited!

Till tomorrow…

Friday, September 24, 2010

Just another day closer to retirement!

Judy has all of about 9 1/2 days to put in for the Federal Government before she retires, and is in the final countdown!  When I pick her up in the afternoon, our mantra is “just another day closer to retirement!”…

Spent some time planning our trip this afternoon.  We have booked 2 weeks for next March at a nice campground in Lake Havasu, Az. , where we will meet up with Dave and Angela. 

Judy was pouring over the Passport America Book tonight, scouting out some RV Parks.

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Patra was out on the prowl this afternoon, chasing down some leaves…

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We sat out for quite a while around our fire in a can this afternoon…

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The trees are starting to get bare spots as the leaves are falling… fall seems quite advanced this year to me anyways…

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Will be going down to Richmond Hill tomorrow for 2 days to celebrate with some friends who are celebrating a 50th Anniversary… yikes…

Probably will not get a chance to blog, so we will see you Sunday…

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Our plans are a changing…

This morning I received a phone call from Dr. Robinson’s office, who is our Dentist.  I had a dental appointment set for Oct. 18, and we planned on leaving right after the appointment.  They wanted me to come in this morning instead, so I said “Sure, why not”.  They only gave me 1/2 an hour notice, but my agenda  is a lot cleaner now that I am retired, so I made the adjustments and made it to the Dentist!  Open-mouthed smile

This now allows us to advance our getaway day, possibly up to Oct. 14, when our Daughter will graduate with her Masters from York University.  We may end up going down to the Morrison Farm that day… we will see.

This morning was time for work.  A couple weeks ago, Al from the Bayfield Bunch was up cleaning the roof of his Motorhome, and this inspired me to do the same.  When I got up there this morning to survey the situation, I quickly figured out it needed cleaning.  We actually had some mould forming on the exterior of the roof, thanks to the wonderful pine trees at our KOA.

You can sort of see the soapy mess I have going here, and a bunch of black dirt…

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This is the finished product.  We have a one piece fibre glass roof, which is kind of nice and is very sturdy.  You can walk on it with ease and the roof is very durable. 

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So, while you are up on the roof, you have to take a couple of ariel pictures… yes, the leaves are a changing…

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There are a lot of empty campsites in our KOA at this point in time…

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Even most of the seasonal campers have packed it in for the season…

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Toured down to Orillia tonight to visit Mom… lots of rain on the way down there…

Till tomorrow…

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Ever been to Torrence?

OK, so you can turn off the tap, we have enough rain!  Man, did it rain last night!   I can’t remember hearing it rain any harder than that.  For about 5 minutes it came down real hard!  Lot of lightening bolts flying through the air as well, and poor old Patra had trouble with all the thunder going on… at least it turned into a nice day today.

Here is a big RVlifeonwheels welcome to Margie and Roger, our latest additions to our followers list!

It was so nice this afternoon, I decided to head out for a spin on my Honda Shadow, as those type of days are coming to an end here soon!  I headed out the 169 towards Bala, and ended up in Torrence.  It is just a small community, and is known for the “Torrence Barrens”.  The first pic tonight is of Lake Muskoka just south of Gravenhurst.

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This maple tree was along the Southwood Road, which head south to the Barrens… no, I did NOT alter the colour in this photo…

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The Torrence Barrens are pretty well as advertised… barren…   There is nothing out here except a lot of rock, it is like a plateau.  It is well known as a “dark sky” area, and people come out to use telescopes to make sure the stars come out at night.  

 

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The barrens are over 1,900 Hectares in size, what ever that means… sounds big! 

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The Barrens are located in Muskoka Lakes Township.  There are lots of trails you can hike on, however for some reason, Judy and I have never hiked them yet… don’t know why…

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Some more trees on fire… I figure the colours have to be about 60 % which is quite advanced… it is still Sept.

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Meanwhile, back at RVlifeonwheels, Judy is enjoying “happy hour” talking to our Daughter, Kristina on the cell phone.  It was beautiful sitting outside tonight in the bright sun shine!  Yes, I had the fire in a can going tonight to keep her feet warm!

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Till tomorrow…