A TIP OF THE HAT TO THE PINERY PROVINCIAL PARK

FILE PHOTO OF THE FIRST TIME WE HOOKED UP THE CAR TO THE MOTORHOME

Be sure to have a look at Gypsy's posts over the last couple of days as she writes an assessment of her first 6 months on the RV road. Her ups & downs, thoughts, feelings, & ideas come straight from the heart. http://gypsy97.blogspot.com/

On May 14th seasoned RV traveler but new blogger Rick asks the question, "is it (his blog) going to be interesting to anyone." http://rickpaulettervjournal.blogspot.com/ He receives a straight forward comment from Jerry & Suzy http://jerrysuzylifeonwheels.blogspot.com/

And I noticed The Goodelife folks http://dgoode.blogspot.com/ have just posted a decision to-day that is so relevant to a lot of RV'ers at some point in time. It's a life altering change that many have already made & many others at this moment are seriously thinking about.......including ourselves. Seems the majority of our RV friends are all fulltimers.

The weather for our holiday long week-end is not co-operating. Rain moving in to-night for the next 3 days. That will make for a lot of unhappy campers in our Pinery Provincial Park about half an hour south of us right on Lake Huron. http://www.pinerypark.on.ca/ For Kelly & I it was our favorite place to go every spring after shaking off the long doldrums of winter years ago. We would drive there in early spring & take long hikes & bicycle rides on the winding paved roads or climb up & down the huge sand dunes. We would find a sunny sheltered spot in the dunes & get an early start on our summer tans. Who ever heard of sun screen in those days. The Pinery is actually an Oak Savannah with a heavy mixture of pine & oak trees with the lazy old Ausable river channel meandering right through the middle of it. And along the whole western edge of the Pinery is the beautiful green & blue waters of shimmering Lake Huron. When we got our first RV years ago we headed straight for the Pinery to try out our new adventure & it was here that we sat by the campfire on starry nights with towering pines & oak trees overhead. With the symphony of waves gently rolling onto the beach a short distance away we began dreaming of one day traveling the highways & by-ways of North America. It all seems so long ago & yet in just a few short years we have been able to turn that dream into a reality. Thanks for the inspiration & all the great memories Pinery & I hope we get back to visit you again one day soon:))

If it's raining to-morrow I'll work on putting up a new photo album. Haven't posted one since getting back home around the end of March..............................

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT......OR WAS IT RIGHT TO LEFT

A LOT OF BOATS FOR SALE THIS YEAR

Well, our predicted rainy weather never happened to-day & we ended up with lots of sunshine & clear skies. SOMETIMES THE NAME SAYS IT ALL

Nearly embarrassed myself this morning by taking one of the mobility vans I drive to the local service station for gas when it was...........already full of gas. I don't know why auto manufacturers do this but it seems they always have to be changing things & can't seem to leave good things as they are. The vans I have been driving over the past 5 years have the same gas gauges where the needle goes from full on the left to empty on the right. This morning & had the newest company van which I had never driven before. Checked the gas gauge before leaving town & to my dismay it was nearly on the empty mark. I said a few choice words under my breath for the previous driver leaving the van with hardly any gas from the day before. This meant I was going to have to detour over to the local gas station which was probably going to make me late in picking up my wheelchair person in another town nearby. I was about 3 blocks from the gas station when I glanced at the gas gauge again & noticed something odd. The symbols seemed backwards. On closer scrutiny I realized this gas gauge was reversed from the other older vans in that the indicator needle on the gauge went from full on the right to empty on the left. Completely opposite to the other GMC vans. Hastily made a few turns & I was back on track for my morning pick-up but not before switching my ongoing choice words for the previous driver to the engineering department & GMC. Why oh why oh why would they take a perfectly acceptable & readable gas gauge of many years & reverse it's needle direction. What engineering genius at some CEO level woke up one morning & in his totally bored & overpaid lifestyle said, "oh ho-hum I think I'll make that little gas needle in the new GMC vans go the other way now & maybe some dummy will think he's nearly out of gas...ha ha ha" AMIDST THE HULLS

We in Canada have our big summer kick off week-end coming up starting to-morrow. Queen Victoria's birthday is always celebrated around May 21rst. In Canada we call it the big 2-4 week-end. A case of 24 beers is commonly referred to as a 2-4 so the beer & the week-end go hand in hand. It's early this year but that won't stop the hordes of people flocking to the beaches for the big party. The town of Grand Bend on Lake Huron is about 20 minutes south of us & has always been notorious for wild parties, thousands of teen-agers, bikers, & lots of bare flesh on the beach. My first recollections of partying there started as early as 1962. It was the place to go & the place to be on the big 2-4 week-end. It still is!! I actually got to stay in the Bend one night for free many years ago courtesy of the local Provincial Police Department. Myself & about 5 other revelers were thrown into the "drunk tank" one Saturday night. Believe me, that was not a nice place to be thrown into for the night. The following morning we were unceremoniously herded into the back of a police van (minus our belts & shoelaces) & driven about an hour south to Sarnia where we were locked up in the Sarnia County Jail for a few days. Standard procedure back then if you were picked up in Grand Bend on any alcohol related offence. That County Jail was not a nice place to be locked up in. My Dad had to drive down from Stratford Ontario 3 days later & bail me out. I think the charge was being drunk in a public place or something & a month or so later I had to return to Grand Bend & pay a hefty fine. You would think I would have been smart enough to clue into my drinking lifestyle after that but oh no not me. I had to go on banging my head on the ground for another 10 rough years before finally admitting I had a problem with alcohol. But, that's another whole story for another time:)) WASN'T ICARUS THE GUY FROM GREEK MYTHOLOGY WHO FLEW TO CLOSE TO THE SUN

I had started out in the previous paragraph with the intention of mentioning how the Grand Bend Beach area right now is undergoing a massive reconstruction program but somehow ended up with the Sarnia County Jail story. Amazing how the mind is so adept at misleading itself....................!! LAKE HURON'S WAVES ON DEERPARK'S BEACH

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

FROM ROYALTY TO RIFF RAFF....BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!!

AND THIS IS BASICALLY HOW YOU PULL A COTTAGE TO IT'S NEW LOCATION

Our grass is to the point where it needs it's first mowing of the year. Instead of firing up the lawnmower a few weeks ago to check & see if it was in working order after it's long winter hibernation I waited until yesterday to frustrate myself. Well, as usual I got off to a bad start by immediately breaking the cable that runs up to the handle's shut off bar & that was that. Mower wouldn't start no how. Need a new chain for the saw so figured I might as well get the mower fixed & get a new chain put on the chainsaw all at the same time. Couldn't help but notice the hourly shop rate on the wall of the place I took the saw & mower this morning. Something very close to $80 an hour. Are there not any decent business scruples left in the world. Whatever happened to the common sense fairness of the 1950's. ALL JACKED UP & READY TO RUMBLE

Retired Rod http://retiredrod.blogspot.com/ had an interesting statement in his blog a couple of days ago about the repair shop he took his motor scooter too..........
"I stopped by the shop on Saturday and asked about it (the Scooter) but they didn't seem too concerned. Bring it by next week. They think I am an old duffer that doesn't know enough to even start the bike, let alone ride the thing. I have no business bothering them, because I am so stupid. But they seem to be able to take my money all right. They were friendly before they sold me the bike."
It was the line, "they were friendly before they sold me the bike" that really caught my attention. This is something I have run into many times & have really noticed it more these past few years. Probably has something to do with my old duffer status too. We've had occasion to buy some vehicles lately & how we went from Royalty to Riff Raff in the stroke of a pen is truly amazing. Two years ago we went through the process of buying a used vehicle & the sales staff at the dealership was all over us with schmoozy niceties. You would have thought the young fellow we inked the deal with was going to be our best friend for life. That obviously came to an abrupt end the moment we drove off the lot because I met that same fellow a year later in another business & he could barely give me the time of day. I said, "Hi there, we bought a great little car from you last year." He didn't even acknowledge I was a fellow human being & went about his non talkative business of fixing a bicycle tire I had brought in. So much for schmoozy niceties!! Yesireeeee, royalty to riff raff.....boom, boom, boom,:((

And while I'm on a roll with schmoozy niceties, here is another mystery of life I've never understood. How is that whenever you walk onto a car lot & pick out a vehicle to buy, that vehicle is priced as high as pure gold. Let's say you paid $12,000 for the car, drove it around the block twice, had a Tim Horton's coffee & drove it back onto the parking lot. You tell a salesman you would like to trade your car in on a new one. He would tell you that your vehicle, which incidentally was priced as pure gold 30 minutes before is now worth the price of dirt at $1,200 tops.......according to his blue book of course, or red book, or whatever color his wingy auto book is.
Yes, I have exaggerated this little scenario but I think you get my drift!!!!

ONE OF OUR LOCAL BOYS OUT SPREADING A LITTLE GOOD CHEER ON HIS FIELDS

Rainy day coming up to-morrow so maybe I can get to work putting another photo album to-gether from a bunch of pics I've taken over the past 6 or 7 weeks. I will try to find out the names of flowers that I have previously used in the blogs too. My Picasa Photo editing program has been giving me trouble lately so maybe I'll try re-installing it. If you never hear from me again you will know the re-installation did not go well & I have been mortally Picasarized. NOPE, I DON'T KNOW WHAT THIS LITTLE CUTIE IS EITHER BUT IT'S IN ONE OF OUR FLOWERBEDS

And someone in responding to yesterday's blog wondered what a scruffle was & if it could be something harmful to the dogs. I like to think of a scruffle as a couple of big warm huggy snuzzles with some lovingly slurpy smooches thrown in between. The furry guys love em............and so do I:))

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/