PHEEBS & I WENT TO HAVE US A LOOK AT SOME TUG BOATS

GODERICH HARBOR AS SEEN FROM THE NORTH SIDE LOOKING SOUTH

We actually toyed with the idea of taking the Big EEE over to Cambridge for a couple days earlier this week.  Kelly has 4 of her 5 children in that area.  Well can't call them children anymore I guess because they now all have children of their own.  Kelly thought it might be easier to see everyone if we parked the Motorhome just south of Cambridge in an RV friendly county Park.  I thought that was a good idea but after thinking it over Kelly decided to just drive over herself & spend a few hours today rather than a couple days in the rig.  She rolled out at 8 a.m. this morning in the rain.  Luckily our skies were already in the process of clearing & the day turned out just fine.  Kelly saw 2 out of 4 families & was home again by 4:30. 

PHEEBS & I HEADED UP TO GODERICH TO HAVE US A LOOK AT SOME TUGBOATS

 

DONALD BERT’S WHEELHOUSE

 

TUGBOAT ALLEY

 

I stayed home with the Pheebs & ended up taking her for a drive up to Goderich again.  This time we slipped down the North side of the harbor.  Saturday we were on the South side.  Being Sunday the harbor was quiet except for a lake freighter loading some grain or something.  Spent part of the afternoon cleaning the rig's outside windows.  Seems every time it rains we get these black streaks down the glass & I do not like dirty windows.

 

MISSISSAGI…THIS GREAT LAKES FREIGHTER BUILT IN 1943 WAS TAKING ON A LOAD AT THE GRAIN ELEVATORS

Still no idea when we are leaving for the South-West or which route we will take.  We'll see how the weather shapes up along our 2 proposed routes for next week.  I'm guessing we may roll out sometime after next week-end.  Original date for the Chicago-South Dakota-Utah route was this coming Saturday but if that's the route we chose we may put it off till the following Saturday.  If we take the Lake Superior-Manitoba-Saskatchewan route I'm guessing we'll leave maybe a week from this Tuesday or so.  Either way we are getting down to 'crunch time' & I imagine we'll get a little more serious this week about our packing:))

FISHING BOATS DOT THE HARBOR

 

GODERICH’S SIFTO SALT MINE DOMINATES THE HARBOR ENTRANCE…IT’S MINE SHAFTS RUN FOR MILES OUT UNDER LAKE HURON

 

I’M GUESSING THAT IS SOME KIND OF FISH CLEANING MACHINE & NETS CAN BE SEEN IN THE PLASTIC BINS

  

I can't explain how it's done but the Bayfield Garage did some kind of smoke test on the Jeep a few days ago.  The mechanic called me in from the waiting room to show me slight puffs of smoke emanating from around the gas cap.  Said that is how they knew the gas cap was the problem.  We have full confidence in the Bayfield Garage & if that's what they said is the problem then I trust that is the problem.

AND LOOKING OUT FOR MARINERS SAFETY IS THE COAST GUARD’S ‘CAPE DISCOVERY’…SEE MY POST ABOARD A VERY LARGE LIFEBOAT…I HAD PHOTOS FROM INSIDE THIS VESSEL UNTIL GOOGLE+ TOOK OVER EVERYTHING A FEW YEARS BACK & SCATTERED ALL MY PHOTO ALBUMS TO WHO KNOWS WHERE….:((

My Son Sean had some photos of his oldest daughter (my Granddaughter:)) Erin on Facebook.  Looks like she is doing well for herself & could be well on her way to a successful modeling career.  Disregard our Bayfield Bunch watermark on the photos below.  Only one I took was a younger Erin in the purple sweater years ago.

 

HAIR & MAKE-UP BEING TWEAKED

 

SEAN ON THE LEFT & THAT’S ERIN WHEN SHE WAS AT OUR PLACE BACK IN 2002

ERIN TODAY

GROANER’S CORNER:(( Three mischievous boys went to the zoo one day for an outing, since they had been at school all week. They decided to visit the elephant cage, but soon enough, they were picked up by a police officer for causing a commotion.
The officer hauled them off to security for questioning. The supervisor in charge asked them to give their names and tell what they were doing at the elephant cage.
The first boy innocently said, "My name is Gary, and I was just trying to throw peanuts into the elephant cage."
The second added, "My name is Larry, and all I was doing was just trying to throw peanuts into the elephant cage too."
The third boy was a little shaken up and said, "Well, my name is Peter, but my friends call me Peanuts."

I LOVE SCHMOOSHY SO I ATE THE WHOLE DARN THING:))

HEADING TOWARDS DARKENING SKIES

I heard three distinctive metallic buzzing bangs.  It was high noon & our power went out.  And it stayed out.  Winds were gusting in off the lake waving tree branches around, there was thunder in the sky & I had a feeling it was probably raining somewhere nearby.  It was.  My guess at the power outage was a blown transformer.  Power company said power would be restored in about 3 hours.

Had been a nice morning on the mild side.  A few more things into the Motorhome, a few more things off the porch into storage for winter.  Kelly was over at neighbor Monica's helping with a computer problem when the power went out.  Of course that just made the problem worse when they lost all the progress they had made. 

SIGNS OF AUTUMN ON SOME OF OUR ROADSIDE TREES

 
Elections for Mayor coming up in Bayfield next month so Kelly headed into town to attend a candidates meeting at the town hall.  She was curious to hear the candidates speak.  With no power in the house & no interest in politics Pheebs & headed off to the beach in Goderich.  Besides, who wants to sit around in a stony silenced music-less house anyway.

With today's winds & stormy skies I figured Lake Huron's waves would be up & maybe I could grab a few photos while Pheebs has a romp on the beach.  And that’s what we did.  Picked up a coffee & a carrot muffin at Tim Horton's on the way & we were soon on the beach.....in the rain.  Luckily that water falling from the sky didn't last long.  Watched a couple fellas trying to launch a big wind surfing sail.  Try as they did they only got it into the air once & the fella hanging on to it immediately fell off his surfboard.  That put a damper on the day for them.  Packed up their gear & headed home.

 

TRY AS THEY DID THIS FELLA JUST COULD NOT GET AIRBORNE

PHEEBS & I WATCH FROM A DISTANCE

FINALLY ENOUGH WAS ENOUGH AS ONE FELLA HEADS INTO THE WATER TO RETRIEVE HIS SURFBOARD & THE OTHER FELLA CARRIES THE SAIL BACK UP THE BEACH
Nice to feel a warm off shore breeze rolling in.  Always nice to hear waves coming ashore as well.  Pheebs was very careful not to get her paws wet.  I was very careful not to drop my muffin crumbs all over the place.

   

Pheebs & I were home by 2 & happy to see the power back on.  Soon replaced that stone cold house silence with several sources of groovy music.  But it didn't last long.  About 4:45 our cable TV & internet went out.  Stony silence again.  Out to the Motorhome & retrieved my headphones, plugged into my laptop & soon had my ears a-rockin again.  Our internet remained out till about 6.  Luckily Kelly had just picked up a DVD at the Library Friday.  Called 'The Fault In My Stars' she finished the book a couple days ago.  I watched it for a bit but just couldn't get myself into the movie.  Back on with my headphones & cranked up some Saturday night country music.  Laptop on the top side of my lap as I tapped out tonight's post. Internet back on sometime around 6.  All is right with the world again:))

 

Kelly baked a blueberry banana bread loaf & I have had to eat the whole darn thing.  Seems it didn’t bake all the way through despite Kelly’s attempts to get it to do so.  Center part ended up all kinda schmooshy.  I love schmooshy.  It was like blueberry banana bread  pudding.  Kelly wouldn’t eat it.  It was the most best blueberry banana bread of my whole darn life.  How could I not just schmoosh it all down:)))))))))))))))))

GROANER'S CORNER:((   When asked by a young patrol officer, "Do you know you were speeding?" this 83-year-old woman talked herself out of a ticket by stating, "Yes, but I had to get there before I forgot where I was going!"

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A middle aged woman was driving through a school zone when a policeman pulled her over for speeding. As he was giving her the ticket, she said, "How come I always get a ticket and everyone else gets a warning? Is it my face?"  "No, ma'am," explained the officer, "it's your foot."

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The police officer got out of his car as the kid who was stopped for speeding rolled down his window.  "I've been waiting for you all day," the officer wisecracked.  The kid replied, "Well I got here as fast as I could."  The officer, knowing he had been outwitted sent the kid on his way without a ticket.