Not too much on the go today, Judy spent the day in with Kristina and Princess Gwenny… she was acting a little out of sorts, so needed some extra support from her Grandmother!
I spent part of the morning, putting the Super Cub back together after it’s episode up in the tree. All is well and it is ready to fly again! Just need to replace the main battery and the sky will be the limit!
I am still in the learning phase, when it comes to flying my P-47 Thunderbolt… it is a handful. This afternoon, I took it out, and actually made four circles around the airfield, and was starting to feel a wee bit confident behind the controls, until reality set it, and had a bit of a hard landing, not to worry, nothing a bit of glue and time won’t fix!
Got a great shot of the Broad/Hollingers today at the RV, as we all had to have a nice cool swim to beat the heat!
I needed this pictures, as Judy and I are heading up to Sauble Beach this long weekend, for our annual visit to Gerard and Deb’s cottage! Weather looks great, and now we have 3 grandkids to show off, so we have to be prepared!
The blog might look a little thin for the next couple of days, as there is not internet at the cottage, so I will be down to the smart phone, however I am not sure of even the cell coverage up at Sauble. It is a great spot, right on Lake Huron! Can’t wait!
Till whenever…
After Rescue Mission #3 failed, we had to drag our butts back to to the RV with the sour taste of defeat suck in the back of our throats…
Last night however, I received an enlightening text message on our Smart Phone, from by big brother Richard, up in Orillia. (Another faithfull RVlifeonwheels Blog reader!)
His suggestion in the text, was to buy a 1/4 inch nylon rope, around 100 feet, and some kind of weight or hook on the end. Throw it up in the tree, and try to snag the branch it is on, and shake it down!
You cannot see the plane in this first pic, however it is up on the very, very top, in the centre of the picture.
One thing I have always done in life, is do as my Big Brother suggests. If you recall the pictures I posted of my previous motorcycles, when I was young, many times I either blew my engine… wrecked this or that part, always to be rescued by my brother Richard who would work tirelessly and put it back together again for me! So, off Judy and I went to Canadian Tire in search of parts.
Rope: $5.59
Hook: $2,59
Rescued Airplane: Priceless!
Here I am below, working out of the back of the Jeep, putting my hook on the end of the nylon rope…
Here I am below, playing cowboy, and twirling the rope trying to throw it up… it took me quite a few tries to find the proper “range”…
After about 10 throws, I finally did hook the branch that the plane was caught on! I started to yank on that branch to try and shake it free!
Well, I shook and shook, and then something weird happens… this guy happens along on a bicycle, probably about the same age as me, and stops, never says a word, looks at me and then at Judy, and then the stuck plane, and just starts at the tree trying to climb it! This tree is not a very good tree for climbing to begin with, and we discounted that way of rescue… this guy gets about 15 feet up, and can’t really go any further, so Judy and I ask him to please vacate our tree, as we don’t want him to hurt himself over my airplane! He decides, this is the thing to do so he gets back down, thankfully!
I throw the rope up, and hook right on the branch the plane is on… yes! I pull and pull, and the plane comes free, only to get hooked on the tree beside it! Shasbott!!!!!!!!!
I throw the line up again, and manage to hook this second branch on the other tree! I do! Finally, much to our reader’s delight, the plane glides out of the tree!
The pic below is after it got hung up on the second branch!
The plane actually glided to the ground and landed in the edge of the bush… here I am picking it up below from the bush! I say to Judy, “Wow, there is not even too much damage that I can see!”
Judy says, “Heck, you’ve smashed it up a lot worse than that and got it flying again!”… I said, “Thanks for that”…
Here I am below, rope still in the tree, plane in hand! (Why is it everywhere you go in Canada, there is always an empty Tim Horton’s cup on the ground, right behind you??)
While the plane did receive a bit of damage, it will be easily fixed. Seems the battery might be the only casualty, as it was drained to zero volts, and they don’t like that… might need to be replaced!
In the picture below, you can see the actual hook that I tied to the end of the rope! Thanks again Richard for the idea!
It is nice to have the plane back, as the electronics that run everything inside it are worth all the money… a little over $200.00 worth, so this is good! Aside from that, it was a good battle that led to “victory”! Priceless!
Thanks to all our readers for suggestions to rescue the plane over the past few days! It is good to have it back in the hanger, and all it really means, is now I have to find something else to blog about!
Never, ever give up!
Till tomorrow…
Hmmmmm… as you can tell, the rescue missions are not going well… Judy and I returned to the scene of the crime today, and tried the fishing rod thing again, however to no avail… the plane is still hung up there!
Yikes, did the picture below ever wash out in the sun… that is me with rod in hand… no luck!
The wind was just a blowing as well, but that plane seems to be stuck up there… go figure.
Last night Gwenny decided to be a bit of a stinker, and stayed up all night on Mom and Dad… not good. Judy went in and spent the day taking care of Gwenny as Kristina needed a rest. Hopefully tonight is better!
This morning, I decided that the Jeep was due for a major cleaning, as it is all repaired and running great! Two coats of Turtle Wax had it looking brand new, and half a bottle of Armor All had all the plastic looking new again!
WARNING: Shield your eyes against the shine… taken with my LG Smart Phone…all set for the California and Arizona trails – bring em on!
Welcome to “Michael Ultra”, our newest RVlifeonwheels blog follower!
Till tomorrow…
Another great day in southern Ontario… nice and warm, lots of sun, and the humidity quit this afternoon.
This morning, I finally got work from Canadian Tire that they had located a new condenser fan for our Jeep Liberty. It took a week, as it seems to be a very specific fan that was hard to locate. Canadian Tire were not pleased that it took the supplier a week to locate the fan, that they actually reduced the price of the fan by $50.00 for us! Perfect. It only took an hour to install, and all is good again with the Jeep!
This afternoon, I headed over to the tree that is still hanging onto my airplane, with a high grade fishing line. Twice I got the line hooked onto the branch, but do you think that the plane would come down… NO… What a problem… going to have to come up with plan B… what do you think Bob???
Other than that, not a lot else went on today… all of our cameras must have been broken today, as I didn’t even get a picture…
Till tomorrow…
We took life easy today… starting off this morning with some rain overnight to help cool things off… it didn’t work!
We watch the Movie “Hereafter” on blue ray this morning. It was good, staring Matt Damon.
This afternoon we headed in to Woodstock and spent the afternoon with the kids… and watching the Canadian Open final round… It is nice being retired, I was able to watch a four rounds this year.
Chris and I launched Rescue Mission #1 this afternoon to try and rescue my airplane…
A friend of mine, Bob, made a comment saying we should use a fishing rod and try to fish it out of the tree. I thought, hey, why not!
I actually snagged the branch twice with the fishing line, but it was not strong enough to pull the branch enough, so will try again tomorrow with a stronger fishing line! Thanks Bob for the idea… it may work!
This evening we headed out to Ingersoll, to attend a concert in the park. Chris’ Mom and Dad both play in a group called “A String and a Prayer” and they were playing some Gospel Music for quite a crowd… this is a regular Sunday evening event in Ingersoll, put on by a local Church.
Gwenny got all dressed up for the occasion.
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A fair size crowd gathered, with the stage in the background.
That is Chris’ Father, David on the left. It was a great evening, and very warm… everyone enjoyed!
Till tomorrow…
Just another fantastic day here in Ontario… how many of these can we stand! Well up into the 30’s again today… just great if you own an a/c unit as the humidity is very high!
We decided to go for a bike ride this morning, as the kids were off to visit Chris’s Family to show off the Baby.
We headed out highway #2, and soon found ourselves in Paris! No, not Paris, France… Paris, Ontario! A great little Town. We carried on a bit first, up into Brantford, the home Town of Wayne Gretzky. We stopped at a great Tourist Info spot there, and got all kinds of local tourist info for future reference.
Below is a newer sports complex just finished, and named for Wayne Gretzky of course! They were playing summer hockey here today… bet the ice was a bit soft!
After we finished at Wayne’s home Town, we headed back to explore Paris. It is built right on the River and is a quaint little Town. We found parking right on the main street, and were hungry as it was lunch time, so we found a great spot called the “2 Rivers Restaurant”.
It was fairly busy downtown today in Paris… lots of tourist seemed to be hanging around…
The 2 Rivers Restaurant has a balcony right on the river… although the river is only about 2 feet deep at it’s deepest spot!
This is the main car bridge coming into Paris, and it is under full re-construction this summer.
You could rent a canoe, and just fly down the river on a one way trip! Not sure where you finished up…
Here I am, playing the tourist, and pretending to read the menu… we had a great table right on the water.
This next picture is a bit weird. It is an open area on the main street, open to the river behind the buildings, but has a fountain around that ball, and seats to sit and look at the river…
On the way home, we stopped by the park where I lost my plane, and here I am looking to see if it is still up in the trees…
and “yes”, it was still there… if you look dead centre in the below picture, you will see part of the wing, it is white… this is a zoomed in picture, I think the plane is about 100 feet up! Seems very stuck as well, as it has not moved much in 3 days…
We made it back home to find our wonderful pool and took life easy this afternoon. Caught a bit of the Canadian Open being played out in Vancouver!
Till tomorrow…
When I used to work at the good old Bank, I used to get all excited about Fridays! We always worked till 6 at night, but that was alright, it was the weekend! It was time to cut loose…
Now, I find I don’t get too excited anymore… seems every day could be Friday!
Judy stayed with the kids last night in Town, and was private caretaker for Gwenny. She stayed until lunch time today, when I joined them. Chris’ Mom, Diane came and spent the afternoon. Why is there so much work over 1 itsy bitsy baby??? It seems they should be so easy to take care of, but they are a major load of work! Diapers, feedings, changing cloths, house work, it seems endless!
Judy spent the afternoon relaxing at the RV, while I enjoyed a ride over to London to visit a Hobby Shop.
It is official, Gwenny’s birth announcement made it into the Woodstock Newspaper today! Hope you can read it, it is a picture from the paper.
Kristina too the picture below, and had these birth announcements made up at a Photo-Machine. Only .29 cents each! These will go out to Family and Friends.
I was holding Gwen for a while over lunch today, and snapped this photo of a sleeping beauty with my smart phone… she is doing very well, eating real good, sleeping lots, and doing other things that babies do!
So I might have forgot to mention that a couple days ago I went out flying my Super Cub, and decided to go to a park in Woodstock. It was early, 7:30 in the morning, and when I took off, I had to climb and head out over the park… seemed easy, problem was, some wind came up when I got above tree level, and a little bit of pilot error, and before I knew it, my plane flew into the top of a big, big, tree. It hung up there, and is still up there. I estimate about 100 feet up anyways! Not a small tree… It has taken two days for me to build up the courage to type about it…
I am hoping a big wind will come along and blow it down, but there was some wind yesterday, and it stayed up! Might need a big wind!
Well, that about it for today, still real hot here! Will be all weekend!
I would like to send out a big welcome to “Wild Blue Yonder” out latest blog follower!
Till tomorrow…
Hope everyone stayed cool today… it was crazy hot here in Ontario… about 38 Deg. C., however the dreaded humidity made it feel like 43 Deg.
It was nice receiving a bunch of nice comments on last night blog about previous owned automobiles…
I did not have pictures of all of them that I could lay my curser on now… My very first car, I remember well, a 1963 Chev Chevelle that I paid $100.00 for including all the rust that came with it. I drove it for over a year and it ran well! Looks kinda like this…
Mine was a light blue, and had a big six cylinder motor in it. I actually met Judy while I had this car… it was a boat!
In the early 1980’s, we lived in Alliston, Ontario, and we needed a cheap second car, so I bought a 1977 Pontiac Pariesenne off one of the Staff Members… another boat with a big V8. Looked just like the one below… took it to Florida on vacation with the kids one year.
There were a few other cars along the way as well, now do you know why Judy and I live in a big Truck and drive around the Country all the time?
Also had a few motorcycles along the way, and found a few pictures of some of them…
I started riding motorcycles when I was 16 and my first ride was a Honda 175… like the one just below… I could not find a picture of mine, but it look just like this…
Check out the Honda 90 below… I had it for just a fun bike to run around on at the time… there were lots of these on the roads in the 70’s…
The picture below is a 1966 Honda 450. I had a nice blue one. Drove this for a couple of years when I was young. Had it when we got married, and put it in the basement just before Shawn was born. When I turned 40, it was time to get it back out, and it started right up again… obout 20 years later.
I bought a Yamaha Virago after the Honda packed it in. Only had it for 1 season, not quite as good looking as this one below, but it gives you an idea.
I wanted a big bike to tour on so my neighbour wanted a small bike to kick around on, so I traded him straight up for his 1977 Honda Goldwing that you see below… Judy and I toured out east, and all over on this bike for many years.
We wore the Goldwing out, and then we bought a brand new 2002 Yamaha Venture. Judy and I wanted to do more long range touring, so bought a trailer to pull all our stuff… we had many a great trip on this bike.
After I had my heart surgery, I found it very difficult to hold up the 875 lbs. that the Venture weighted, and Judy had bought her own motorcycle, so I took my Yamaha to a Honda Dealer in Huntsville, and traded him even for a new 2007 Honda Shadow. This is the bike I still have, and simply love it! It is pictured below, on a trip down into Tennessee, on the Blue Ridge Parkway… very classic looks to this bike, that is what I love about it!
Here is my Honda pictured beside Judy’s Suzuki Burgman also on the same Blue Ridge Parkway. We trailer both these bike behind the Motorhome when we need to!
Phew… enough already of cars and bikes…
Till tomorrow…
