Bionic Woman Returns

It is over and I am home.  New hip has been put into place and now it is just into recovery mode. 

If you have never seen what the parts look like that they install see below.  Pretty cool.

 
If I keep this up I will be worth more in spare parts than I am now...I hear titanium is pretty expensive. 

But I am glad it is over.  I have both a daily nurse to change the dressing and eight physio therapist visits all under OHIP.  Love Canada!! 

Thanks to everyone who called, emailed and posted on facebook for sending all your warm wishes.  Nice to know that there are so many out there that care.  Love you all.

Until next time - safe travels.

Hot Hot Hot

What do you do when the temperature is in the 30's on a beautiful September day?  You hop in the vette, put the top down and go for a cruise.  And that is what we did yesterday.  We headed up to Orillia to visit with our friends Ron and Pat MacKenzie.

 What a beautiful day for a drive.  We took the back roads as far as Barrie to enjoy the sunshine and the scenery.  As we got into the outskirts of Barrie it started to rain a bit.  In a convertible if you drive fast enough the rain never gets inside the car.  But we had to stop at a light and a police car pulled up beside us.  He lowered his window and said " I can't even counsel you to drive fast enough to keep under the rain.  But if you really want to speed up go into OPP territory".  He laughed and said "have a nice day".  He was a Barrie officer.  But rain stopped and the sun came out again and made for a great tour.  Pat and Ron invited us to stay for dinner with them.  We had a nice visit, a nice dinner and even though it was dark when we headed for home we drove down the 400 with the top down and it was quite warm. 

A birthday shout out yesterday to our friend John Hollinger who celebrated his 61st big one.  And a shout out to your friend John Taylor who will be 62 tomorrow.  Boy we are all getting up there!!  We will all be ready for the mail box money soon.

Yesterday was also the anniversary of the horrendous acts of terrorism in the USA.   I remember how terrified we all were at work.  Our office was on the 35th floor of an office tower with a direct view of Lake Ontario, downtown Toronto.  They kept playing the scenes over and over on the tv in the lunch room.  One plane was missing and they keep reporting that they did not know where it was headed.  We all kept watching to see if it was going to come across that lake right at us as we were in the heart of the financial district.  I sent all my staff home early that morning as they were all traumatized.  Tom was in Turkey on vacation when this all happened.  I was so afraid that he would not make it home safely.  We just kept watching the horror on the news.  So many lost, so sad, so senseless.  We will not forget!!!



Today I am busy getting the house cleaned and the laundry done.  Have to be at the hospital at 6 am tomorrow for my 8 am surgery.  A new hip this time.  Friday the 13th is supposed to be lucky I have been told.  Looking forward to having this one done and over with so I can get on with life.  Tom did such a good job being Florence Nightingale last time I figured I would hire him again this time.  But he refuses to shave his legs!!! 

Will catch up to you on the flip side.  Until next time  - safe travels.

 

Grundy Provincial Park

Thursday Aug 29th we arrived at Grundy Provincial Park after leaving Restoule.  It was 102 km from one park to the next and it was over a highway that resembled a roller coaster.  But we arrived to find that our site was a very large pull through and it was a perfect spot.  We got set up and walked around the area to see the sites.  We are walking distance to Gurd Lake so we can just carry the kayaks down to the beach.

  There are several small lakes within the park.  Three of which surround the area in which we are camped.  The Gurd, The Gut and The Grundy. The lakes here are not that large but they are beautiful with all the Pre-Cambrian Shield Rock.

Friday we headed out on to Gurd Lake for a paddle.  We saw a pair of swan with a baby across the lake. We were able to get quite close before they swam into the reeds to hide.  Normally they have several babies but this pair only had the one. Of course I didn't have my camera so had to borrow this picture off the internet.  But they loved just like this.

Friday evening our son Stuart and his wife Heajin arrived and got set up.  They are camped at an area where there is a dog beach and exercise area.  They have brought their two labs with them.  When they got set up they came over and had dinner with us and a camp fire.

Saturday we headed over to Grundy Lake for a paddle.

Stu, Heajin and the two dogs heading out on the lake.

I have never seen a baby Loon before.  Another first.

We stopped for lunch at a pretty spot.

When we finished paddling Grundy Lake Stu & Heajin headed back to their site.  Tom and I decided to try to navigate a small river that ran between Grundy and Gut Lakes.  We had one carry over and a couple of spots that we had to get out and drag our kayaks through but we made it.  Gut Lake is very pretty.  We saw some cliff jumpers plus at the end of the lake a natural rock dam.  It was a nice day on the water.  Later we headed over to Stu's camp site for some bocci ball.   Heajin is Korean and Stu lived in Korea for several years.  So we enjoyed a Korean theme dinner followed by camp fire.

Sunday was a day for hiking.  The Gut Lake Trail is 2.5 km rated moderate to difficult through the rugged rock of the Pre-Cambrian Sheild.  Another great hike.

We stopped on this rock for lunch part way through the hike.

Stu & Heajin came to our site for more bocci ball and dinner in the evening.

Stu and Heajin were leaving on Monday but figured they would stay and enjoy most of the day before heading home.  The morning turned out bright and sunny but by the time they got their stuff packed up it was 2 pm and the sky was clouded over.  They decided not to delay their departure and headed off.  Tom and I headed out to do another hike on the Swan Lake Trail.  It is only 1.5 km but considered moderate to difficult.

They are building a new look out here.  The trail traversed the huge rock in the background.

Swan Lake.  No fishing or canoeing allowed on these little lakes.

We drove out to Pakeshkag Lake.  It is a narrow road that runs through the bush and rock to this lake.  There is no exit, just to the lake and then back again.  Nothing there but this remote lake.  We looked around and drove back to the camp site.  

Tuesday we got up early and carried the kayaks down to Gurd Lake for one more paddle before we packed up to head home.  The swans where out again for our viewing.  They are so beautiful. 

A painted turtle sat on his log and let me float to within a foot of him.  He never moved.

Our camping is over.  We packed up and headed to Carlisle to Terry & Rodger's.  They had just returned from the Milton Steam Engine Show.  Rodger has several antique steam engines that he loves to display.  One that he has is a Rumely similar to the one below

We received a couple of items of sad news.   Our friends John and Alice Taylor let us know that Alice's Mom passed last Sunday.  We will be heading to Peterborough on Saturday for her memorial.  And our friend Pat McKenzie let us know that her sister Bev had passed away last week.  Pat lost her brother Peter just last year.  It has been a pretty rough time for her.   We send our condolences to both families.  Our thoughts and prayers are with you at this sad time.

We are home now.  Time to get ready for my next surgery on the 13th.  Can't wait to get it over with.  We have had a great summer.  Purchased our kayaks which we made good use of.  Had some great hikes.  Had a chance to spend some quality time in the 5er to give us a taste of what it will be like to be a full timer.  All in all it was a good time.  Sad that summer is over so quickly.

Until next time - safe travels.

Restoule Provincial Park

On August 23rd we headed north to Restoule.  From home to the park is 322 km.  We arrived at the park to find that the big rig friendly site we had booked was not big enough to hold our 5er.  We dragged poor Tara back to a spot where we could park and walked around looking for a site that would accommodate our rig.  Even the one we found was not easy for us to get into but we managed.

Restoule is a really beautiful park.  There are two lakes that we could access, the Restoule Lake and the
Stormy Lake.  And we paddled them both.  There are also four hiking trails within the park.  We hiked the three longest ones.

Saturday we paddled the Restoule Lake.  It is big!!  We worked our way west for over two hours before heading to the north shore where we chatted to a lady in a kayak.  She told us that for the past couple of days the rollers were so high on the water that she had been unable to paddle. Glad our day had turned out to be pretty calm.   On the way back we stopped in the lee of an island and had lunch in the kayaks.   Another two hours back made for a great day on the water.

Tom is taking a break before we finish our trip back to the park.  

On Sunday we hiked two of the trails.  A lot of birch trees were down in this area.

A pretty spot along the trail.

Sunday night it started to rain and rained most of the day on Monday.  So we took a drive into North Bay for something to do.  Not much to see there.  If you have never been to North Bay you are not missing much.  Couldn't wait to get back to the park. We stopped to buy fire wood from a 90 year old fellow near the village of Restoule.  He is a war veteran and had some stories to tell.  We had a nice chat with him before heading back into the park.  

Bambi and his Mom were waiting at the park gate for us.

Tues we headed up the Fire Tower Trail.  It is a 7 km hike up some pretty rough territory. 

This first little board-walk over a lovely marsh area looked like it was going to be easy.  But from there on it was much more difficult.  We got to the spot where you could go on up to the tower or take the trail down.  We met a couple at this point and they told us the last part up was very steep.  The lady kept looking at the scar on my knee and repeating how difficult it was.  I don't think she figured us old farts would make it.

A rest stop with a view looking down on Stormy Lake 

We made it to the tower.  

Tom is checking for cell service....still none.

Amber Lake - a spot along the trail on the way down

What a beautiful hike.   I am 3 months with my new knee.  I am so happy to be able to do this again.  I am busy wearing out the new parts but quality of life for me includes hiking.  Love to hike.

The next day we paddled the Stormy Lake.

Check out the fire tower at the top of the hills.  That is where we hiked!!  A long way up.

Still looking for cell service!!

The cliffs on Stormy Lake.  Beautiful.

It was a great week, even with a day of rain.  We packed up on Thursday Aug 29th and headed west to our next stop Grundy Provincial Park.  Details to follow.

Emily Park Part 2

It seems like it has taken quite awhile to get those last few pictures of Emily Park posted.  Been awfully busy and without internet or cell phone service for a good portion of the past two weeks.  But we are home and I will get our adventures updated for all my fans out there.

I had mentioned that Tom and I had paddled up the Pigeon River out of Emily Park.  The river was quite wide in its time but now the river bed is over grown with marsh grasses of all kinds leaving a channel weaving back and forth.  In places it was quite shallow which made for hard slugging along.  But it was a really nice day and an adventure.

Here Tom is ploughing through a patch of water lilies and reeds.  We had been told by a couple of fishermen at the mouth of the river to watch for the 100 steps.

Looking down - this is half the steps to the trees, the other half is below down to the river

Tom is standing at the top.  I am half way down.

The old farm house at the top of the hill

The river access to the steps

We had our lunch here at the edge of the river before paddling on for awhile longer.   We finally turned around and headed back to the lake and the park.

t

It was fun having John & Judy's granddaughter Gwenny visiting during the time we were at the park.   She is at the age that she picks up and repeats everything.  Tom is learning the play "Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone" on the guitar.  One spot in the song you just rap on the side of the guitar and sing "I know, I know, I know".  Before the weekend was over every time Tom would sing "Ain't no sunshine when she's gone"  Gwenny would say "I know, I know, I know".  It was too cute.  They made quite a team.

Our time at Emily Park was over far too quickly.  After a couple of days at home we headed off to our next stop - Restoule Provincial Park near North Bay.  Details to follow.