Saturday July 27, 2013 - Rice Lake

Tom's sisters Bev & Pat and their spouses had rented a cottage at Rice Lake for a week.  We headed there on Saturday to join them for dinner and have a visit.  Bev's daughers Andrea and Melissa were camping close by with their families.  Tom's brother Brian came out to join us for dinner also.
Tom hopped into Shawn's kayak as soon as we arrived to go for a paddle.  I think he is as much hooked on kayaks as I am.

The Kayak King

Melissa, Shawn and their boys Caleb and Auston

The rain showed up later in the afternoon which chased us into the cottage for dinner.  But after dinner the rain stopped and we were able to get back out doors for a camp fire.

The view from the cottage

Tom 's sister Pat and husband Dick

Scott and Andrea

The crew!!  Tom, Bev, Brian and Pat.  Not sure where Tom got all the height in the family

We sure have had a busy couple of weeks with family and friends.  It has been fun.  

Talked to Twyla this morning.  She did have a birthday party for Joe's 50th last week at the farm.  She said about 40 people were there and it turned out well.  They were heading to Lloydminster today to visit Joe's parents.  They are then headed to Waskesiu Lake (near Prince Albert) for a few days camping, Kinistino for the long weekend, Toban Lake (north east of Kinistino) for camping, fishing and quading.  Then to Pike Lake near Saskatoon to camp with her old school pal, Charlene and her family for a few days before heading home again.  They have a busy two weeks ahead of them.

Karmen goes into grade 7 in the fall and Jake into grade 6.  Karmen received Honors again this year.  This is an annual accomplishment for her. They are sure growing up and we are so proud of them both.  Need new school pictures Twyla!!!

That ends our two weeks or travels, fun, family and friends.  Can't wait to get going again.  Until next time - safe travels.

Part 3 - Almost Done

We left Woodstock on Wednesday morning and returned to Carlisle.  Upon arriving at Rodger & Terry 's  (Rodger is Tom's cousin) we discovered that Rodger's sister, also named Terry and her husband Doug R had pulled their AirStream into the yard for a visit.  We got Tara settled right next door to them and got ready to visit. I cleaned out the freezer of chicken and burgers.  Made up some shrimp and garlic bread.  The Terry's had corn and all the fixings to make up a great dinner.

Jennifer and Adam arrived for a visit also.   Jen has been home from Alberta for a month as her dental office is closed for most of the summer.  This is the first time we have seen her since she got back.

Jennifer and Adam chowing down

Terry R and Terry C

Doug R and Rodger C

On Thursday the boys had some chores to do around the place.  Lots of trees had come down in last weeks storm and they needed to be chopped up.  The Terry's and I drove into Waterdown to do some shopping.  When we returned Tom's Aunt Joyce had arrived.  She is 85 years old and quite a dynamo.  The neighbors came over and we all had a lovely dinner together.  Aunt Joyce headed for home at about 9 pm to get ready to go to her Grandson's cottage in the morning.  She is quite the lady and it was sure nice to see her again.  Doug and Terry packed up and headed off to their home near Stratford.

Friday Tom and Rodger spent some time figuring out how to build a rack on the back of the 5th to hold our kayaks.  Rodger can pretty much build anything I think.  As you can see from the pictures below we do need a rack.  The kayaks currently ride inside the trailer as you can see with Tom and John loading them up  before we left Woodstock.  

One road on the bed

The other on the couch.

At least they were comfortable.   Here is Tara parked at The Coulson's Trailer Park...:)

Friday afternoon we headed for home, leaving Tara at Rodger's again.  They have been so awesome letting us keep her at their place this summer.  

Until next time - safe travels.

Part 2

The holiday blog continues.  I did not have internet access while away.  As a result I am putting two  weeks of adventures into a few blogs.

Sunday morning seemed like a good time to bake chocolate chip cookies before heading to the pool.   Another big bus pulled in last night beside us with a young family from Fort Sask., AB.  Turns out she is from the James Smith Reserve which is just north of Kinistino, Sk (my home town).  Chantele's (nee  McLeod) father was the chief there.  Dad and Uncle George would have known him.  Her husband works in the oil fields and his name is also John.  We are surrounded with JOHNS!!!

Sunday afternoon we headed to Waterloo to visit Deb & Gerard (John & Judy's friends).  We had a drink at their house and then headed to Wild Wings for dinner.  Following was to the local park and band shelter where Deb played French Horn in the orchestra.  A lovely evening for a walk around the park, a small zoo and to listen to the music.

Some of the damage from Friday's big storm

Lots of feed for these fellows with a large tree blown down in their pen

Deb showing off her sore lip after an hour on the French horn.

Monday we got up early and headed off to the adventure that was the highlight of the trip.  We drove both vehicles to London, dropped off the kayaks at the park, staged the truck in Delaware and took to the Thames River in London.  

Judy and I waiting for the guys to return from dropping off BigMo at our take out spot

John blasting through the rapids

Tom dodging the rocks in the white water

Some spots were pretty tricky with the rocks we had to get past

Calmer water before the next batch of white water

Judy powering through the fast current

The river was quite low in places which resulted in lots of white water.  You were so busy dodging the rocks that you didn't have time to be scared.  It was a blast!!!  I am hooked for sure now.  We stopped about half way along for a picnic lunch and finished our adventure in Delaware.  It took us 4 1/2 hours to paddle the 12 miles for river.  

Back to camp for dinner and a couple games of bean bag toss or Corn Hole as John says they call it in Tennessee.  

Tues morning it was off to the pool then Judy & I did a little road trip to find some fresh local corn.  Deb and Gerard arrived at the park in the afternoon to stay for a couple of days. 

Deb & Gerard and their pooch

The fresh corn was a hit

We had a couple more games of corn hole before the boys fired up the camp fire.

 

Judy in her camp fire get up....what a fashion statement she is!!

Getting that fire going.  The Cheerios box seemed to help.

John and Sheila joined us for campfire.

Wednesday morning it was up and get packed.  Time to head back to Carlisle.  Sad to have to say goodbye to the gang.  We had a great week.  Looking forward to more good times with them soon.

Wow - Two weeks of fun and games - Part I

On July 15th we started our time away by heading to Carlisle to Tom's cousin Rodger and Terry's place where our 5th has been since the May long weekend.  We spent the night in the 5th parked on their driveway.  Their grandson calls that "Fake Camping"  Real camping is when Grandpa hooks up the truck and they leave.  Well we fake camped Monday night and on Tues morning we were up and on the road to Woodstock. We headed to the Willow Lake RV Park to visit with the Hollinger's for a week. John snapped this picture of our arrival.

It is HOT HOT!!!.  As soon as we got set up it was to the pool. Chris, Kristina and the kids arrived to join us for dinner that evening.  We got to meet the new baby Charlie for the first time.

Wednesday morning Judy and I hit the pool.    After lunch Tom drove John to London for his annual stress test for his heart,  Judy and I headed into Woodstock to shop.  After the boys returned we had happy hour under the trees in the shade.  John and Sheila who have a big Phaeton coach parked right next door joined us.  Our turn to make dinner and we just happened to have some steaks marinating, some mushrooms ready to fry and potatoes ready for the bbq.  Judy whipped up a beautiful garden salad and we ate like kings.

Our son-in-law Joe celebrated a milestone birthday today..,.50!!  Happy Birthday Joe.  I am sure Twyla has a big bash planned for you on the weekend.

Thursday turned out to be another HOT, HOT day.   We piled the 4 kayaks on the back of Big Mo and headed to Lake Pittock to give our kayaks their first taste of water.  We managed to get to the end of the lake where we stopped under the traffic bridge for a respite in the shade.  Tom headed off to see where a little channel went and found these train bridges which we had to paddle through to check out.

 John had his GPS along and reported that we paddled about 3.8 miles that afternoon.

Judy cruising along

John and Tom not working too hard

When we arrived back we had a tail gate lunch before heading back to the park.

Friday was another very hot day.  We were into the pool bright and early again.  Tom & John washed down Tara.  I baked up a batch of muffins and did some house cleaning.  Tried out the combo washer/dryer for the first time.  I love it!!!  Judy and I chilled out this afternoon with our feet in Gwenny's blow up pool for a while.

 As the afternoon wore on it was time for happy hour.  John and Sheila joined us again and were great at giving travel tips.  They have been full timers for a number of years now and love their life style.  As we were chatting the park staff came around to report that they had received storm warnings.  High winds, possible tornadoes, hail and rain coming our way.  Well the wind came up.  We battened down the hatches.  Then the rain hit.  We folded up camp and headed to the Phaeton where refreshments were served.  The coach is beautiful.   John and Sheila joined us for a spaghetti dinner at Tara as the storm blew over.  We got lots of rain and a light show but nothing too serious.

We gave our son Stuart a call after dinner to wish him a Happy 33rd Birthday.  Happy Birthday Stu.!!

Saturday was another day for adventure.  This time we packed up the kayaks and headed to Wildwood Conservation Area near St. Mary's.  A large, man-made lake with lots of boaters on it.  We paddled out about 1 1/2 miles when Judy and I called it quits.  We started to make our way back.

  John and Tom continued on.  John reported that they had paddled 5.5 miles in total.  What a workout paddling against wind and current on the way back.  The boys got the kayaks back on Big Mo and we headed off for burgers at the Hollinger's and an early to bed as we were all pretty beat.

That is it for this part of the blog.  Thanks to John for a couple of the pictures shown here that I borrowed from him.  Part 2 to follow.

My Rehab

I tossed the walker after two weeks, the cane after three and was back into the vette after four.  My staples were lovely but had to be removed.

Isn't that fat and ugly...yuk.  But the swelling is now mostly gone and the scar is very fine and I think it will almost disappear.  John is still the champion of the zipper club!!!

Since I started to get more mobile we have been down to visit Tom's cousin Rodger and Terry.  We are storing our 5th at their place so we took them down a cooler containing a steak dinner and all the trimmings as a thank you.

John and Judy were up for a visit and we did a tour checking out kayaks for future reference.  Ever since we kayaked in Florida last winter we have been talking about buying a couple.  John and Judy were thinking about trading in their blow up kayaks for real ones.  Especially after encountering alligators up close and personal last winter.

We had looked at some at Costco.  Judy did a bunch of research after they headed home and decided that these were the best buy.  They called to see if we would head over and check them out.  We picked up 4 at a great price.  John toured up and collected theirs a few days later.  

Last weekend we headed up to Grangeway's RV Park where we had our 5th last summer.  Friends Dave and Helen have their 5th in the park this summer.  Had a lovely dinner with them and stayed overnight.  Lots of parties happening in the park and one was right next door.  But at the stroke of midnight everyone quiets down.  A nice park for sure.

John and Judy have decals on their RV - Maverick and Eagle, respectively.  They had extras to put on their new kayaks.  Since they are all the same they wanted to make sure no one messed with theirs.   Not to be outdone by the Hollinger's I made up decals for our kayaks.

 
 Tom wants those alligators to take note this winter....Do Not Bite Me...!!

I expect that kayaking will make my aches and pains vanish!!  If I can get in and out that is. 

Can't wait to try them out.  My knee is not able to bend enough for me to use mine yet but hope not to have to wait too long.

Granddaughter, Taylor, sent me this picture.  Had to share.
She is working as a medic at the local rodeo this weekend.  She says "should be easy...no one will get hurt riding psycho bulls...lol"  She reports not too many injuries to attend to on Saturday and hopes today will be the same.

Until next time - safe travels.