Golf - Finally

After spending a terrific week with Ann & Bill in the Finger Lakes District of Western New York, we headed back to our camp site in Canada with a detour to Terri and Mark’s cabin. They arranged with the farmer at the end of their road that we could drop our rig in the barn yard for the weekend. When we arrived, Dan & Diane came out separately to greet us and invite the four of us to their corn roast and bonfire on Saturday. We were soon packed and on our way to the cabin (less than 2 Kms away) to wait for Terri and Mark to arrive. Barb had dinner preparing in the slow cooker and the beer was getting cold.

We had a nice laid back weekend which is different when with Terri & Mark. Usually, there is a project to be done but this time, we wandered through a antique flea market looking for more chairs for me to cane but found nothing that was not over priced. We also stopped at an estate sale. Wow, I can’t believe what we saw. There was plenty of black mold lurking in the corners of this home with lots of water damage in one corner of the house. The carpets were grimy and looked thread bare in places. It is almost a crime what conditions some seniors have to live in!

We decided on a round of golf at the course on the ski hill – Holiday Valley. We had a great time regardless of our score. Barb & I have not played since we met Jim & Lydia at Wanne Lake in Georgia in the spring of 2011 (you can catch up on those fun times here)! But, this is where our ‘expectations rule’ comes into play, if you have a lower expectation then you always have a good time! It is a challenging course and playing with Terri & Mark was fun. After, we had dinner in the club house pub – ahhh, more cold beer.

On Sunday, we had coffee and muffins out on the front patio area, the sun was warming and it was great. We had a rousing game of Bocce Ball. We left early in order to get back to our camp site and be set up and ready for friends John & Di and their cronies. All 3 couples are arriving with their rigs on Monday and we are hosting dinner. We had plans to see some sights and do some bike riding but were advised not to plan anything, easy for us.   Anyway, we had an easy border crossing again – it will catch up to us, they can’t all be this easy, it’s their job to make it uneasy. The drive was uneventful thank goodness and we got back home and set up in time to watch the end of The Open. I think every golfer out there felt sadden for Adam Scott. It was really tough luck but Ernie Els is an excellent champion too.

This is a short post to be ready for the ‘gang’ arriving tomorrow. I hope all is good out there where you are.

Another Adventure

We arrived back at our campground from our visit with Dick & Marcia by mid day on Thursday and whew, we are whooped! We had plans to get our linen cupboard doors in the bathroom completed for our trip next week but neither one if us  could move out of our easy chairs!

The doors had louvers in them and were a pain for Barb to clean so she wanted them changed to something more functional and less upkeep. We took out the louvers and routed the backs so a Plexiglas panel could be set in. We then bought the decorator bamboo printed film to cover the Plexiglas . We also had to install some trim to cover the slots that the louvers left behind so Friday we were off to shop for all the bits and pieces to finish this project for departure on Monday. So, a little stain, then some varnish, cut some miters, tack and glue and we’re ready to lay the Plexiglas . We decided that it would be easier to apply the film before we place the Plexiglas into the door opening. Now add the new hinges and voila, new linen cabinet doors!

Monday, we head on down to the Finger Lakes District in western New York to visit friends Ann & Bill. We arrived mid  afternoon on Monday and checked into our campground. The site they assigned us had a large pine tree at the back of the site that would not allow us to back in all the way – unless we use the back of the rig to push a few limbs out of the way – not an option. Anyway, we moved to an adjacent site and once set up, we try to locate the TV satellite. This is our first time since converting to HD so we’re interested on how easy or difficult to it’s going to be. Well, it seems to be more difficult, it took us an hour to set it up and get TV service, we’re hoping it will improve with more experience. Finally we’re ready to meet up with Bill and Ann and went out to dinner at the North Shore Grill on the north end of Lake Conesus. We had to wait so Bill suggested I try a new beer that is brewed locally and it was great! Finally a table is available so there we are, on the patio, overlooking the lake and watching the boating world go by. Life is good, we had good food, cold beer and great company – it can’t get any better than this.

Tuesday, Ann & Bill had a busy day planned for us. Because we enjoy waterfalls, we went to Letchworth State Park which is known as the Grand Canyon of the East. We started out at the overlook of the dam. Poor Ann & Bill were surprised to see the very low water levels and were nervous that this trip was not going to be as they expected. The water was so low that they were digging out river silt at the bottom of the flood side of the dam and moving it up stream – not sure why since it will end up at the bottom of the dam again. The picture  here shows the dam in normal operation with water flowing over it – wow, what a difference to what we saw, there’ll be no white water rafting today!

There are 3 sets of waterfalls here so onto the Lower Falls.  To get anywhere near the falls, we had to hike down lots of uneven stone steps but the effort was well worth it.

Bill suggested we have lunch at the Glen Iris Inn. On our way there, we pulled into an overlook to view the river gorge and saw several vultures riding the thermals and soaring overhead. A couple of the birds flew over to a ledge and settled so we could take photos – wow they are big and ugly.  Then we arrived at the Middle Falls for lunch but with the heat, we decided to have lunch in the air conditioned Inn before we view the falls. Lunch was great but was that because of the food or the much needed cool air?  

 

 

After lunch we ventured back out into the heat to view the Middle and Upper Falls. The 2 falls are situated close together so we walked up to the Upper Falls and they too were stunning. All in all, we had a wonderful day prowling around the park. Even with a lower water level, all the falls were stunning. We made our way back to Ann & Bill’s for a cool beverage and more nice cool air conditioning. After, we went to the local BBQ – the Three Legged Pig – for dinner.

Wednesday we toured the High Falls in Rochester after we lunched at one of Rochester’s  local micro breweries, Rohrbach’s. The heat from yesterday has moved on and today was more comfortable so we sat out on the patio and enjoyed lunch and the company. They sell their brew in half gallon jugs so I just had to take one with me! Onto the falls in Rochester. It’s different seeing a waterfalls right in the heart of a city. Rochester has rebuilt many structures of the past in and around High Falls for businesses and tourism. It was pretty spectacular to see. The city converted an auto bridge to a foot bridge that gave you the best vantage point of High Falls.

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                 Our next stop was the George Eastman home and museum. It is beautiful, opulent and would have been wonderful to have lived in – of course the fortune that comes with it would be necessary! That evening,  Ann & Bill had us in for nice dinner. Technology (GPS) is great as we would have been lost for sure with all the twists, turns, hills and valleys we had to navigate to get back to our own rig in the dark..

 

 

Thursday, we met Jeff and Candy –  one of the girls doing the Row Robin Quilt with Barb & Ann. They are touring from     Kentucky and stopped here to visit friends and join us for lunch.  They had just finished visiting with Marsha another one theRow Robins.  Of course, the talk at lunch was mostly quilting, quilting and more quilting, for the ladies anyway.  Since it was a long drive we made a day of it and toured around that area of the finger lakes.  Back to our place for dinner and after warm farewells, we’ll see Ann & Bill again in January at the Plantation.

 

 

I think this blog is getting a little thread bare so I’ll close for now and get the next one ready.

Michigan will Never be the Same Again

Last week, we took off on an adventure to Michigan to visit our friends Dick & Marcia T in Grand Rapids. It was an adventure because we left our rig in Ontario and roomed at Dick & Marcia’s – and they still considered us friends when we left! They have a beautiful condo with an almost self contained apartment in the basement walkout. They would be waiting with breakfast ready as we made ourselves presentable first thing in the morning! Great hosts, I recommend their little B&B for a 5 star rating!

We arrived Monday after an uneventful drive over but James (our GPS) could not find their address so we called for directions and they met us nearby and guided us to their place. After some much needed catch up and chat, we went to Rush Creek golf club for a delicious dinner. Dick & Marcia toured us around their community and then back to their comfortable condo for more chit chat and a few adult beverages. Before we knew it, the sandman was calling and we said good  night to a great day.

After a delicious breakfast and a short side trip to the hospital – Marcia works with some other gals to make hats etc for their hospital, we were off to the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids. We took the tram through the sculpture park and enjoyed the narration and antidotes of the tram driver. After, we walked through some of the other outdoor exhibits and then ventured indoors through the various gardens and displays. Soon, Dick felt that we had enough culture and deserved to go back to the condo and sit on the deck and test some of the products of their local brewery! Somehow, while sitting there gazing out into space, Dick tricked me into helping him power wash their deck boards the next morning. Oh well, a small price to pay for such a fabulous visit.

Wednesday, deck washing day! We got at it early enough that the sun didn’t beat us off the job. Once done and both the laborers were cleaned up we were off again to Grand Haven to wander and stuff. It is a cute little town, not unlike some of our lake coastal summer tourist towns. We saw several fish charters return with smiling faces on the fishermen. We walked along the board walk checking out the yachts and other people. There was scurry of activity up ahead – the local fish cleaning station with 3 guys and a gal, busy with sharp knives slicing and dicing. The young lady would be any fisherman’s dream girl because after she finished the filleting the catch, she went down to the charter boat and ‘swabbed’ the decks clean! The catch was lots of Steelheads and Rainbows, giving the fishermen lots of quality filets to take home. It was pretty interesting watching the pros filet these beauties.

 

Back in the car and on down the road to the beach. Don’t worry, I did not go out on the sand and play beached whale – Michigan is not ready for that event, in fact, neither am I! We walked out on the breakwater to the lighthouse and back. Lots of people around, kids jumping in the water, daring each other. Lots of folks like us, just wandering and enjoying the sun and fun around us. You notice I’m not mentioning the bikinis, this is a family channel! Anyway, the sand was super hot so Dick and Marcia sat under a tree while Barb & I ventured across the Sahara to the water and Barb was able to dip her feet in the waters of Lake Michigan – she has dipped her feet in all of the great lakes now. I wonder what challenges lay ahead now?

 

Our tour continues south along the Lakeshore Drive toward Holland and dinner at the  Boatwerks. We sat outside on the patio and watched the marine world go by as we had an excellent meal with great company. With the help of a crane and a few sticks of dynamite, we load back into the car and head back to the condo to renew Dick & Marcia’s skills with Mexican – opps, that should be Michigan Train. After a couple of games, we retire to the sun room for more quilting chat while Dick and I solve other serious world  issues.

All too soon, our morning of departure arrives. Dick and Marcia made sure we were completely full of breakfast before we head out. Before we got out their neighbor came over with a strawberry pie so we stayed for a breakfast dessert, oh yummy.  It’s always a sad time to leave, after hugs and gratitude's, we climb aboard the big black truck and point it toward home.

It was a wonderful visit – thank you Dick & Marcia.

Post Canada Day

We got through the Canada Day weekend with only a drop in water pressure and some rowdy noise on Friday night. Due to an accident here a few years ago, they do not host a fireworks celebration so Barb  & I planned to go into the annual rib fest in Waterdown. After we had a nice dinner, I whimped out and suggested we didn’t go into the crowds and just hang out here. I know, I’m showing my age again but as Barb said, “it’s not as if we haven’t seen any fireworks during our travels”, so with a pout she let me off the hook, again!

It is always some what entertaining to watch the ‘weekenders’ pack up after spreading out on their sites. It’s amazing how much ‘stuff’ they pack for a weekend!

It is difficult to give each other meaningful gifts  and Barb suggested we give each other a meal cooked by the other – so, I made a menu and provided the ingredients list and Barb did the same for me. Well, I’m sure you can imagine how simple mine was that Barb had to shop and cook up. I didn’t think of a theme, type of beverage or suggest an ambience. Barb cooked mine up (beef stroganoff) a few weeks ago and it was very nice.

Barb’s was much better with a theme (picnic on the beach), typed out menu and cooking instructions, complete with pictures and even a beverage recipe with appropriate glasses. She also included a jar of sand in case we didn’t get to a beach and candles. Well, Wednesday was the day I chose to prepare everything and take Barb to ‘the beach’ for a picnic. It was hot so sitting at a picnic table beside the lake was a welcome respite. We planned to get the boat wet and kayak around the lake after we had our Christmas lunch. We started off with her choice of beverage – Chocolate Covered Cherry and then served lunch. Well, the Chocolate Covered Cherry was soooo good, that we had to finish the cocktail shaker and then we didn’t feel like doing anything but kicking back and watching the lake instead of kayaking on it! So, the boat hasn’t been wet yet this summer – maybe when we meet up with Bill and Ann at the Finger Lakes in NY.

 

Thursday we headed off to London to attend the Escapee chapter luncheon and met up with John & Dianne, Ray & Donna and a lot of Escapees we have not seen for a long time. We had fun and then visited with my older brother Doug and his wife Heather. We haven’t seen them since we left last year so a lot of catch up was done.

 

 

I have regaled you with my journey to upgrade our TV satellite to HD and I finally got frustrated enough that I finally called BellTV for help. They sent a tech out – last fall, they told me they would not come into a campground but now they do – and within an hour, we were up and running with HD. Wow what a pain this has been – I hope it’s worth it! Then we were off to Terri’s to do laundry before we head off to Grand Rapids Michigan to visit with Dick and Marcia. It was too hot to do any gardening but I did manage to get the truck washed for the trip. We stayed for dinner and arrived back late again – what’s this about burning the candle at both ends….

 

We are modifying our cabinets doors in the bathroom and had ordered Plexiglas cut at our local Home Hardware shop here and were to pick it up Saturday morning. We arrived about 11ish to find that no one could find our order or the information that we had called in so we left empty handed. Great customer service there! After calling them back on Sunday, they ‘found’ our order and had the Plexiglas cut and waiting for us.  Wasted our weekend project so it will have to wait until we get back home

We’re already for our trip to visit with our friends Dick & Marcia in Michigan, stay tuned for more fun in the sun….

Ahhhh, It’s Summer Time

After John & Di left, it didn’t take us long to get back to normal – not sure I can even define that but it is definitely quieter. Barb is back to her quilting projects and I started building the aluminum wind spinners again – keeps me out of trouble. I have been drinking Moosehead and the green and gold cans make nice looking spinners. I also washed the truck and trailer over 2 days.

I still have not been able to convert our TV satellite to HD. All the cabling proves to be fine but the multi switch does not recognize the LNBFs on the dish. We are going to Terri’s to do laundry so I’ll take the switch with us to install on their HD system and see if it works. It did but then we couldn’t get their system back working. Bell was of no help and I turned to the web for assistance. There is a process that you have to follow to ensure the devices are reset so they will work again – who knew – I sure didn’t! Anyway all is good but still no signal so trying to get Bell out to install proper dish & LNBFs. They agreed so now we wait to see if they will really come to the campground – they refused last fall!

Our neighbors, Bev & John invited us to their campfire so we said why not, it’s Monday and the campground is quiet and it’s always good to meet new people. The next day we were to have our doctors appointments and blood tests so no booze at the campfire – isn’t that wrong somehow? Anyway, a good time was had and we were surprised at how late is was when we turned in so we must have had fun.

On Tuesday we left the campground early as we would be travelling during rush hour in Toronto and did not want to miss our appointments. Would you believe it, we were almost an hour early! Coming home was a different matter – 3+ hours where it only took us 90 minutes going! After the docs, we stopped off at Larry’s to visit and all is good there.

Wednesday is our ‘tour day’ so we ventured out to Tiffany Falls, between Ancaster and Dundas. It was a short walk on a good path to the look out below the veiled falls. It was not too busy, we  took a few pictures and headed home. On Friday we decided to beat the heat and get out early to the Hamilton Brantford Rail Trail. The trail is almost perfect – needs to be down hill both ways and the wind at my back – but we had a nice ride anyway. We did 11 Kms in total and when done, knew we did it!

This weekend is Canada’s 145 birthday and the park will be jammed with  weekenders and will be noisy! The Canadian flags are everywhere – why aren’t we this patriotic all the time? The campground folks have been working hard to get the pool open for this weekend and to our surprise, he made it! Friday night, some of the ‘weekenders’ were letting off some steam and did not settle down until after 1:00AM – wow, they were noisy. Saturday night was much different so someone must have spoken to the rabble rousers.

To all our Canadian readers and friends, we hope you had a nice Canada Day and to our American neighbors, happy 4th of July.