Travelling in Ontario then to Florida

In August we took a wee tour up around Peterborough and dropped in on their famous locks.

Top of lock

Bottom of lock

Also, the St. Marys Cement factory had an open house complete with tours and hot dogs and contests. I won a gift certificate to the bookstore in town by guessing how much cement they make in one day. Most interesting was the experimental building which housed large vats of algae that were being fed by the waste products of the plant. A successful model of making bio fuel.

September 28

We (Chris, Gerry and I) left Ontario on Wednesday and have arrived in St. Augustine FL today, Friday. One must assume that I'm the better driver because I got all the best bits: driving through the pouring rain, up, down and around mountains, and when the highway was a hundred lanes wide, through cities with a million cars on the road. I hear no dissension so it must be true (mind you they're both asleep as I write this).  One of the few times I was in the back seat I decided to replace the too-short straps of my sundress, while wearing it. I cut off the useless back ties, cut off the original straps and attached the longer ones. One went on without a hitch but I soon discovered I had stitched the 2nd one around my seatbelt!!  I either had to cut it or the seatbelt - I chose the strap. I guess I'm the better driver and the comic relief.

We had one interesting stop -  the New River Gorge, West Virginia. On Bridge Day in October they close the bridge to all traffic and do base jumping. This year they're going to catapult a few people off it - silly creatures.

New River Gorge

New River Bridge

Scenery taken by Gerry from the opposite side of the back seat.

Paid a short visit to historic St. Augustine - quite an interesting town.  Had dinner out a very long pier where they had little doors you were supposed to throw food out to the fish but Gerry stuck his hand out and fed the stupid pigeons.

Catfish, and plenty of them.

Seagulls

Bridge over intra-coastal waterway

Instead of going back to a dull motel room we took a Ghost Tour. Was pretty mediocre until we got to the jail. The actor playing an inmate (dead of course) was really entertaining.

"The Bird Cage"

the stocks

Jail bird

Tomorrow we look at a boat Chris is interested in.
Update: boat was too small, on to Disney World!

August 18, 2012 - Best Wedding of the Century

We've flown out to Saskatoon to attend what turned out to be the best wedding we've ever been to. Sally and McKenzie outdid themselves in planning and executing the best day of their lives. The wedding was held in an old movie theatre, the Roxy, not a stuffy, pomp and circumstance affair - there was even popcorn and a'hottin' and a'hollerin'! The minister was serious and funny, the music was awesome, the brides beautiful and of course the kids were cute.

Check out the billboard

and of course there's a movie poster

Inside the Roxy

McKenzie's 93 year old Grandmother did a reading and brother Sam was the best man, hmm he seems to be the only man.

Ring bearer and Abby the flower girl

The reception was at Agar's farm just outside of town - the weather was perfect.

Head table

Cake pops seem to be the latest rage and they were yummy!

Dancing the night away.

The extremely happy couple!

'tis the season (for sailing)

June 16 - Race Day

First race of the season and we didn't do too well - must have been the unreliable wind, couldn't have been the captain or crew!

Maybe we should change the name of the boat from Blazing Matilda to Not-so-Blazing Matilda. Perhaps we should officially christen her, although the on-board party would be considerably smaller than on Dirty Girl.

Rounding the first buoy

 

Was a fairly good wind for a change

Captain Gerry

Why am I always hauling in the sheets and jumping from one side of the boat to the other?
At least I remembered to wear my gloves whichmade tacking easier and being ballast is something
I'm used to.

July in Wildwood

Once again didn't place in the Rum Runner race in July and missed the Wildwood Cup all together - went camping, what's that all about? Of course after a sweltering July (I spent more time than usual with the A/C) the one weekend we choose to sleep outside it's freezing and rainy. Sailing season has finally started.

Wildwood and Trailer - May 2012

Finally got the trailer all done up real pretty inside and outside, while Gerry sweated to death in the Bahamas.

a few special touches

dug in edging

power-washed deck

stained

temporary fix for awning leg

dug giant hole to plant this post for the awning

May 20 Back to Wildwood Lake

Step 1, clean the boat - yes, that is Gerry doing 98% of the work.

Step 2, launch said boat

Step 3, sail

Shenanigans have started again - no one admits to placing this on our dock.

What the H E double hockey sticks is with the weather?

I've been back in Ontario for a few weeks and of course the weather has been less than desirable. I think the good weather was used up this past winter with unseasonable warmness -  the water froze the other night out at Wildwood.  Speaking of Wildwood we're now the proud owners of a new trailer. Yes, back to a 5th wheel.

Was not an easy job getting the old one out of there - the tongue was practically buried, the trailer sat very close to the deck and there was the danger of taking the deck along and of course it started to rain.

She was firmly planted

Part of the railing had to go

Adios

Depressing but not for long

The new one is longer and with slide outs definitely wider. The old one and deck were not positioned properly - you're supposed to be 2 feet from the water and power lines so it had to be moved up. Fortunately the park is not making us move the deck - yet. Warning - if I invite a bunch of you out for the afternoon it might be to move the deck - but I will feed you and there could be beer and/or rum involved.

Pretty nice for an older trailer

Took a few tries but got her nice and close to the deck.

Just enough room

Almost perfect, deck needs tweaking.

There will be photos of the inside once I'm done fru fru'ing it up, (as Gerry likes to say).

Gerry has returned to the sunny south and it's been raining there for 3 days. I can't muster up any sympathy for him. He enjoys the hot sultry weather there in May, I don't so he's on his own patiently waiting for the mechanic to show up and fix both boats. Even more so than with cars, a good boat mechanic is hard to find and worth the wait. I'm really surprised that more boats aren't called "The Money Pit," Gerry would be up to "The Money Pit XIV" in larger boats and if you counted every boat of any size, shape and type it would be "The Money Pit XXII." The smart people are those who don't own any boats, but have a number of close friends that do. 

and life goes on......

March 11 More Projects

Time is flying by, and boat projects are slowing getting done, but they will never be finished. As soon as you get one or 2 done others pop up, a never-ending cycle, but such is boat life.

Gerry installed solar panels which run all the 12 volt stuff in the boat. Earlier he took a gazebo canopy, attached snaps to it and the boat, installed tent poles and voila a perfectly fitting sun cover to protect the flybridge seats.

A good idea - but needs work. We bought Loran antennas and put "horns" on them, from which to hang dock lines so we can dock the boat easier. The weight of the PVC piping bends them over - back to the drawing board!

After 6 weeks of hooking I finished the 3 x 5 rug which incorporates the boats name.

and speaking of names, we finally got her name on the stern (and sides)

I hope they can fix bridges better than they can hang signs. We found this floating in our bay. They were very grateful when we returned it.

Scraping Ramblynn's old letters off. A much harder job than Dirty Girl as they've been roasting in the hot Bahamian sun for years.










Besides day-to-day living and boat projects we've been:

Driving on the beach at low tide.

Lobster hunting with Bill and Sylvan (a failed mission).

Snorkelling with Joseph. Also a failure since we couldn't find a mask that fit him.

and found they've taken a bulldozer to some of the Old Freetown Road which means more people will have access to "our" beaches. Horrors!