On the Road Again

I’m sure I have mentioned this before but it’s a little bit sad to watch some of our neighbors pull out for the season. Some are leaving for good and some are traveling. But as we get closer to our departure, we are starting to plan and get excited to move on too!

The weather is nasty here and the fruit trees are dropping their harvest fast. We had hoped to have picked some free apples but now we’ll buy them! It is apple country here in Meaford with plenty of opportunities for fresh apples. This is the weekend for the Scarecrow Invasion and Apple Feast with a parade on Friday evening with a family festival at the harbor pavilion. The town has been busy placing scarecrows everywhere - I mean everywhere! They are hanging from the street lights, in planters, on walls - everywhere!  Well, it rained all day Friday and evening so we did not venture into town to experience this fall highlight! It would have been fun.

Terri, Mark and Alex came up for the weekend. We went down to the fish ladder in Thornbury to watch salmon swim up stream to spawn. We did stop at one of the many road side apple farms to get some fresh apples and Terri picked up some maple syrup and fudge to take with her to San Palo, Brazil for her Habitat build. We found a neat little pub called Leeky Canoe for lunch and some wobbly pops and then had a casual walk around Meaford and the harbor. It was a very pleasant day and the weather held up for us. Holy, look at the time! We have to hurry before the winery closes; we’re going for wine tasting and a sit on their deck and enjoy the view of Georgian Bay with the fall colors quickly approaching. After, we hiked a short distance to the over look I mentioned in an earlier post. The colors are not quite ready yet but almost, it was still a nice view.

 

Our neighbors, Peter and Molly came over Sunday afternoon to chat and ended a great weekend! We traded contact cards and I noticed that Molly’s name is really Marlene! What? Peter calls her Marly but with his British accent, we thought he was calling her Molly! Molly said it was okay, we were the only friends that called her Molly and she said ‘I rather like it’!

On Monday, we drove over to Wellington to visit with our other daughter and pick up our mail. We had some mail arrive that we needed before heading south. On our way home, we detoured to Hastings to meet up with our RVing friends, Pat and Carolyn and had a nice dinner at their home. On our way home, we were stopped by a traffic jam for 30-45 minutes on Hwy 401 and arrived home at 1:30AM! Whew, another long day in the truck! Needless to say, we were not “up and at’em” early the next day!

Barb continues to create new projects for herself and I was busy organizing the basement storage and putting stuff away! I took the truck in for service and found other repairs had to be made before we are loaded up. We had a slashed tire on the inside side wall and in need of a tie rod and ball joint! Wow, it’s like going to the doctor for a physical and coming out having to have major surgery! Oh well, it’s only money and now we feel secure that the truck is ready for another trip!

The weather up here the last days of our stay has not been enjoyable! It has been rainy and cold; just nasty! On Sunday, the weather was more cooperative and we left under dry conditions with some blue sky! Peter & Molly came over to say farewell – they were about the only people left in the park! Traffic was light and the day was good for travel.

We arrived at Lake Huron Resort and started set up and Judy stopped by to welcome us. We are on the same site we have had before but this time we can not find the Bell satellite for our TV viewing! I moved the dish to several different spots but can not locate the bird! A neighbor with Bell TV came out to offer assistance but still no go! It’s getting cold and the rain is starting again and my frustration is rising! We never have this problem – 10 minutes tops normally to find service! Time for a break and headed over to Judy and Larry’s to warm up and have refreshments! We came back before dark and tried again but no success!

Monday brings us rain all day but we still try again to find TV service but still nothing. If we hadn’t found an American TV service satellite, I would have thought we had ‘other’ electronic problems! So, time to call Bell! Well their help was next to zero! We did the few things they suggested but still nothing! Time to go back to Judy and Larry’s, they are hosting a Thanksgiving dinner for us and Anne and Gerry. Arriving we met their neighbors Art & Lorraine who were over for Happy Hour.  They are very nice people.  It was a nice afternoon and evening with lots to eat and conversations abound!

Tuesday, we tried again to get TV service but still no go. We went off to Goderich to buy a new satellite receiver and while there, toured the devastation from the Tornado that hit on Aug 21^st. I can’t put what we saw into words. I hope these few pictures do justice to the damage and toll inflicted!

Back to the rig to see if the new receiver ‘fixes’ our problem. NO! I still can’t find the signal from the bird. Only 1 more day and we’ll be in Toronto and we’re sure we’ll have service from Terri’s driveway! Back to Judy and Larry’s where we headed down the hill to the beach and we were very happy we made it up without a lot of puffing.  Our 5K walks really helped us get into better shape.  Judy & Larry invited us to stay for supper since we are heading to Toronto in the morning and after a pleasant evening we headed home.

 Hoping all is well where ever you are…..

ps: happy now John? Sorry for the delay but the Satellite TV has been driving me more crazy!