Being here, being there, being somewhere in-between

Our time in Calgary is always relaxing and fun. We expanded our repertoire on the ukuleles, and ended up playing as a quartet with Sam and Donna on guitars. We caught a live show by Canadian folky David Francey  , and Peggy hosted the gang over at her place for a yummy dinner, and good times.

 

 

And yes, we did a lot of yackin’ about Life, the Universe and Everything — and even some baking:

Unfortunately the time to move from here to there came upon us, so we packed up all our troubles in the old kit bag (little red car), and headed off into the great in-between. We pointed the bow eastward and began the long and boring trek across Canada’s Great Western Prairies (except I’m not sure where the “great” comes from 😛 ). We hit our now standard stop in Moose Jaw, and then went on to another regular stop in Kenora.

Our good friends Paul & Julie (and Coralie) always welcome us warmly, and with a comfy bed. So we moved in for a few days, enjoying their hospitality, while swapping stories and sharing plans for the future. We also got into cooking some great meals, just as we used to do when living at the Lakehead.

 

One glorious afternoon was spent with our friends Ben & Sherilyn, along with my favourite Olivia and now favourite Molly in the whole world! It’s so much fun hanging out with our younger* friends. They continue to host our little travel trailer full of junk, er, I mean keepsakes (;-) ) from our landlubber past. But mostly it’s a wonderful priviledge to be able to stop in and watch the family and the farm grow. Each time we visit there are more improvements to the home, and more height and words added to Olivia (and now Molly!).

(*Funny…  I used to be the younger friend to my older comrades, but somehow this is starting to change. 😕 )

After too few days we loaded up little red and headed east again, but this time only for a short hop to our friends who live right on the Lakeshore, just east of Rossport. Along the way we drove over the fancy new cable-stayed bridge near Nipigon — the same one that cracked and closed the Trans-Canada highway in 2016. Luckily, it stayed together during our drive over.

We spent a wonderful couple of days with Cathie and Joe. As always, their hospitality and their friendship is warmly felt. While there we also managed to get the motorcycles running (C&J continue to house our little bikes), and Ann put on her her Apple Genius hat to give a Mac training session.

We’ve now done this route so often we know where our next stops are going to be, so after Rossport we stopped at the little cabin motel outside of Sault Ste. Marie, and then a cheap motel in North Bay near a great pub (which we didn’t visit this time).

This Spring has been another soggy one for Ontario and areas east. The further south we got the more signs we could see of flooded lands. And this flooding included a 30 km stretch of the Trans-Canada south of Mattawa. This is our normal route, so we took an alternate smaller highway south of Algonquin Park which turned out to be a really nice drive.

But as we approached the Ottawa River the signs of flooding became all too apparent:

  

We pulled into our Ottawa “home” and moved back to our comfy “room” all warm and cosy beside the fireplace (that never runs). We were greeted by Mom and Sis (Kathy) and our/their little Hammi Cat.

Over the next few weeks we just hung out, did some repairs , worked on our Waterway Guide assignments , ate, drank (and drank, and drank 😉 ) , had some basic medical/dental appointments. Most importantly, we got to see Connor and Colleen!

   

 

As luck would have it, Mom’s 75th birthday happened while we were there. Kathy had already booked a cabin in Prince Edward Country, and we convinced Mom that Ann & I would stay in Ottawa to look after the cat. However, the REAL plan was for us to follow a few days later and surprise Mom … It worked 😀 .

We managed to sneak onto the cabin’s side deck, and catch Mom’s eye. She went from fearing for her life :shock: to surprise 😮 to happiness 😀 . It was perfect.

After that we spent the next few days relaxing, Waterway Guiding, and of course eating and drinking. It was great. We even managed to reconnect with some other Belleville friends: Marvin and Gary. We actually did this the night before surprising Mom, so it all worked out wonderfully.

Sadly the time in Southern Ontario finally came to an end. We said our goodbyes — for real this time — and headed off east towards Newfoundland, but with a stop over in Nova Scotia to visit another old friend Chet (read that both ways 😉 ), and a new friend Margie.

Chet has been a friend since our days in Marathon. He introduced us to sailing, and even got me into motorcycling. In many ways, it’s all Chet’s fault 😉 . It’s been about four years since we last got together, so it was great to be able to divert down to Sheet Harbour and spend some time together.

As it turned out, Margie had just sold her home in Truro where she’d lived for something like 50 years, AND she was recovering from a health crisis. So our timing was not the best. But Chet and Margie still took us in, gave us a place to stay, and showed us how they live their own version of the vagabond lifestyle.

We spent the week chatting and planning ( 😉 )and singing and eating and drinking and exploring part of this area known as the Eastern Shore. Chet and Margie both live in seasonal trailers in a small park right beside an arm of Sheet Harbour. It’s a beautiful and peaceful place.

 

 

Despite the upheavals in her life Margie generously vacated her own trailer to let us basically live there for the week. So we not only get to spend time with old and new friends, but we also got to experience trailer life. It was none too shabby, and compared to life on the boat, very easy and comfortable.

Finally, after a week of easy living we said our goodbyes to Chet, Margie and their neighbour and our newest new friend Shawn, and we began the final push to Newfoundland. We had booked the overnight ferry so had lots of time to get to the terminal. This allowed us to take the scenic/slow route along the way.

 

A final dinner in Canada  and we were off on the big ship headed for the Big Rock  . As the sun dawned we were greeted with a typical beautiful morning in Port aux Basques:

A short drive later we arrive in our home port of Corner Brook. A few more minutes took us down to Pachina Mia — our watery house. She survived yet another nasty Newfoundland winter with only a few new battle scars to add to her collection. Now the work begins to bring her back to life.

But for now, we’re enjoying the grand hospitality of Dukie and his sailing parents Paula & Byron. They have once again opened their home and their hearts to us homeless bums. We are so blessed with good friends nearly everywhere we wonder. Thank you all. We couldn’t do this without you 😀 .