The Parties Over

In our last posting, we were just ending the surprise party in Ellicottville, John, Di, Ray & Donna left early on Monday while Terri, Barb & I hung out a little longer with a plan to play some golf. It started to rain and didn’t let up so we decided to go into Ellicottville for lunch and we tried a place – the Kabob Kafe and it was very good and worth a repeat some day. We were on the road back to Ontario by 6PM. The border was not busy and we crossed easily with the usual questions. It rained the whole way and our golf clubs got soaked – with Terri, Kasey and our luggage in the back seat, the clubs were relegated to the truck bed to face the inclement weather. Tuesday, we had to dry out, dry the clubs out and rest up – we were whipped! What a weekend. Thanks to Terri & Mark for pulling this together and to all who joined us in making our entry into the 10% club memorable.
We have a number of cordless power tools but the 2 battery packs have finally given up and cannot be replaced. If we throw  the packs away, we waste a drill, circular saw, jig saw, brad nailer and a work light. I was commiserating with friend Barry (from Winnipeg) while they were at the Plantation this past winter and he suggested I rebuild them. He said there are several sites online where one can order the replacement batteries from. So, goggling I go, and behold I find a site that sells with links to other sites that explain step by step on DIY. To give you the ‘reader’s digest’ version, I paid $66 and a few hours of my time to bring new life to the power tools and keep them out of the landfill sites.
Wednesday was a road trip to Oshawa, I found another rocking chair to cane and we drove out there to pick it up. On the way, we stopped off at Larry’s for a short visit. After picking up the chair, we met Larry at one of our favorite fish and chip restaurants in Pickering.
The weekend was quiet except we went to the theatre on Sunday and saw War Horse. It was in the theatre district in Toronto and it has been awhile since Barb & I have driven in downtown! We left the rig at a time that we thought would get us there, pick up the tickets and go have some lunch. Well, our plan was a little off – we didn’t know that the Blue Jays were at Home, the Toronto International Film Festival was starting up, the waterfront was busy so we were really pressing for time. We had 30 minutes before show time and we were still on the QEW, parked waiting to exit the freeway! To cut this panicky story short, we were lucky to find parking and got our tickets with only 10 minutes to spare so no lunch! What a spectacular show. After a few minutes, the puppeteers that worked the horses disappeared – it was an amazing play.
We left the play just dazzled by the show. Did I say that it was really a good show? Since  it was a birthday celebration, why not have dinner out so we went to one of fav’s – Royal Coachman. We sat on the patio and had a pleasant dinner with the sun setting – it was a great way to end the perfect day.
Monday, we had Terri & Mark in for my birthday dinner and end the great 65th  birthday celebration.  We would like to thank Terri and Mark for making this such a wonderful event.  You guys really gave us some wonderful memories and showed how much we are loved, thank you.
Well now we will get things back to normal –  Barb sewing etc and I can get another chair caned. Wednesday, we climb back on our  bikes to rid ourselves of all the extra  pounds we put on during our respite and got another 5KMs done – small steps right? The park manager came around late in the day to congratulate us for winning second place for the Outstanding Site Award! Wow, our teeny tiny site was second best and we didn’t even know  there was a contest.


 








Thursday brought us heading toward London to join John, Di, Ray, Donna & Jack at the Escapees monthly luncheon. On the way we toured a few more barn quilts in  Oxford County. It is an interesting trail that took us through the SW Ontario country side, along roads that the average traveler would not have taken unless they were sight seeing. After lunch we visited with our cousins, Gerry & Anne and sat on their deck until the yellow jackets and flies drove us indoors. On the way home, we toured through more of SW  Ontario’s fabulous country side and finished the barn quilts of Oxford County.

Friday was a quiet day, Barb – you guessed it was sewing and I was working on my new rocker. Saturday was not a good day. We left our awning out and the umbrella up when the very quick storm went through the campground before breakfast. The umbrella lifted like Mary Poppins and shattered our glass table top. I jumped up to get the awning put away before it was damaged but I was too late. We need to replace a couple of arms and the front bracket was pulled out of the trailer wall – good thing we were going to Chanute this fall to get that area repaired but how will we travel with the front awning arm loose?
While we ponder ways to ‘MacGyver’ temporary repairs we hope all is well out there where ever you are.