Near Barrie, Ontario Canada

70 degrees with a light rain here at a KOA Kampground near Barrie, Ontario.  Left Blenheim, Ontario this morning.  Drove in really hard rain before getting to Kitchener, ON.  Just north of there at St. Jacob, ON there is a huge Farmers Market.  We spent a couple hours there and no rain.  Had no more than left, stopped at a gas station ($1.189 per litre) and it started raining again.  Hard rain as we headed north and east.  Quit before we got here and unhooked, set up and it is raining lightly again.  There are a lot of tents around us, glad we aren't in them.

Our trailer sitting beside house of Ed & Brenda Wood near Blenheim, Ontario.  We are about 20 feet from being IN Lake Erie.

Got there about 5 pm on Sunday afternoon.





We had driven from Bill & Darlene Winslow's place near West Branch, Michigan; stopping at Frenkmuth, Michigan to walk about the town and then spend nearly an hour at Bronner's CHRISTtmas Wonderland - a store covering nearly 7 acres and all about Christmas.

Check them out at BRONNERS - Frankenmuth

We spent almost an hour walking the downtown area of Frankenmuth -- the Christmas Store didn't open until 12 Noon, it being a Sunday.

All kinds of shops

 Even some quilt shops

All of the downtown area had loads of flowers.

A unique water fountain - kids running around a Maypole.

Some British references about town.

More flowers.

Story of the founding of Frankenmuth

And more flowers

Santa Claus was casual that day -- and these kids were excited.

We left the store about 1 pm and headed south and east, crossing in to Canada at

Port Huron, Michigan into Sarnia, Ontario.



After presenting passports we answered a few questions about where we were from, where we were going and why and affirming that we had no fire arms or ammunition and were not carrying anything we were going to leave in Canada.

At some intersections in Ontario they really want you to Stop!

In Ed and Brenda Wood's home.

This is looking through living room window.  Lake Erie is less than 50 feet from that window.

 Front of Wood's home.

Sunday evening's sunset, taken from driveway at Ed & Brenda's.

Putting their boat into Lake Erie

Captain Ed at the wheel

Phyllis & Brenda

Ed & Brenda's house, from the lake.  Our trailer on left.

Ed and Brenda Wood -  Posed for us as we were getting ready to leave.

We had played a new (to us) game of Skip Bo Monday evening, which we enjoyed.

Monday afternoon they had driven us around the area, showing us the areas where Ed had done work and where he had lived as a boy and where Brenda went to school.  We then spent some time in Chatham-Kent at  RM Classic Car Exhibit.

 It was most interesting - The display constantly changes, as these cars are either to be worked on, were just worked on, were detailed and ready to ship to an auction, or were returned by the owner after some "Car Run" and were to be cleaned up and returned to original shape.  They do excellent work, which they charge highly for.  He explained why they get as much as $40,000 for some paint jobs, with all the parts being removed before painting -- no masking tape -- as many as 5 layers of paint and 3 layers of clear-coat with a lot of wet sanding in between.  After all applied

 they sand many more times, getting down to 4000 grit sandpaper and then buffing.

Many of the cars on display were in the millions as to value.  Some owned by RM and most were of customers.

The guide gave us complete history on all the vehicles (except a few that had come in just that day and he didn't know the history on them).




After that tour we went to a Chinese Buffet before heading back to Ed & Brenda's and playing some cards.

The lake was really rough this morning, with wind blowing directly onto our shore and some of the waves were splashing against the back of our travel trailer.  We went to sleep the two nights while there to the gentle sound slapping waves.

The neighbor's wall was straight up and down and really caused splashing of the waves.

Ed & Brenda had rocks and cement anchored with steel ahead of their wall and it broke the waves up before hitting the wall.  However, some, like this one, came right over the wall.

The huge radishes Phyllis bought at the Farmer's Market.  These were 2" to 3" in size and tasted great, along with the peas and potatoes she got, and tomatoes, cucumber.

We are unhooked, and will drive the pickup west of here to explore the Blue Mountain area.

Later, Lynn

Near Erieau, Ontario, Canada

77º at 11 am EDT

Went out this morning on Lake Erie on boat with Ed & Brenda Wood  =  Brenda and Phyllis is at back of boat.  We went around the local area.  This afternoon they drove us around much of the area on land.  Will head out north-east tomorrow and see some more of Ontario.
More later.  Lynn

Takin' it Easy

 West Branch, MI  73 degrees, predicted high 80 degrees.  See that Clarinda, IA is forecast to be 90 there today with much higher humidity.

Bill and granddaughter Courtney fishing on lake right behind their house.  Although they each snagged one fish, they didn't get any into the boat.

 Have had no bugs, mosquitoes, bothering us at all.  Amazing.  At right - Phyllis & Darlene picking Red Raspberry - picture of the pie below.

Ducks on the lake behind Winslow's house

Fresh Red Raspberry pie.

Yesterday we went a few miles north to a Maple Syrup Farm.

Their son actually owns the operation and his parents, who showed us around, help out.  They live at the site of the operation.  I think he said they had 111,000 maple trees at that site and another 110,000 maple trees at another site that they bring the sap by small tank wagons to work it here.

They use wood to fire the boiler and also use an osmosis process that cuts down quite a bit on the amount of water that they boil off.  Picture of that osmosis apparatus is next.

Even though the trees are all tapped to a piping system and it is vacuumed in, there still requires a lot of labor in the process of getting the 100 gallon of sap, in some cases, down to one gallon of syrup.

At entrance to their "Sugar House"

Some of the hose used to vacuum the sap from the trees to the Sugar House.

Some of Bill's flowers.





We are leaving here tomorrow morning, driving to Frankenmuth, MI to visit the Christmas store and then on to Ed & Brenda Wood's place in Bienheim, Ontario, right on the edge of Lake Erie.  Hope to spend a few days there and then head north and east to some more Kenwood RV Park friend's places.

Later, Lynn

Near West Branch, Michigan

55 degrees - near West  Branch, MI at Winslow's place

We set up, for the fourth year in a row, in driveway of Bill and Darlene, arriving here about 2 pm yesterday (Tuesday)

We had visited with Karen Hamann at her house in Alpena, MI.  I didn't get a better picture of her.  For some reason I am sometimes forgetting to take pictures--hard to believe, eh?

We visited the Shipwreck Museum in Alpena Click Here  Quite an interesting place.

The Great Lakes is graveyard to lots of ships, especially in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  They offer a glass-bottom boat tour that goes over the sites of many wrecks, but due to high winds that day the tours were cancelled.

On Tuesday it had been raining so we didn't get the trikes out, but Wednesday morning we rode the 6 miles of really good bike trails around the Thunder Bay River area in Alpena.  We then hooked up the trailer and headed south.  We stopped near Oscoda, MI at Ray and Nancy Koss's place. 

They have a nice place on 11 acres that they build back in the early 1970's.  Both are retired schoolteachers and avid squaredancers who spend their winters in Kenwood RV Park in Texas.






Last night we played cards with the Winslow's and their granddaughter Courtney.  The "girls" are all off to something up town now.  We will be here probably until  Saturday or Sunday and then head to Ed and Brenda Woods in
Blenheim, Ontario.

More later, Lynn