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.