Sorry if this is a repeat of the past blogs... my PC has taken forever to load office so I can actually create documents .
Friday June 12
Thursday was not so bad...no rain and it
wasn’t too hot. We walked around the
yard checking out stuff…lots of cats…more of those old ones to be restored. We
had a look at some of the stainless and aluminum work that “Joe” has done, and
we are thinking he might be able to help us. He came buy the boat and rick
explained what we needed for dinghy davits and a wind generator pole. He said
he would try to come up with something that would work.
I didn’t get much work done, except for
packing and cleaning the fridge and washing the floor in the galley. We’ll have
some major organizing to do before the kids can sleep there!
We had to turn off the freezer on Wed. when
we got hauled. It won’ work out of the water, but last night the stuff was still frozen, so we picked up
an ice block yesterday and the stuff should stay frozen for another day or two.
I put a big towel in there to hold the cold down and fill up some the space.
The solar panels will keep the fridge running while we are gone.
We had arranged for me to get a car to
drive to the airport in Orlando. Joseph
was originally going to drive us, but 3 of us stuffed in the cab of a Nissan
truck was not feasible. And he had to
drive 3 hours the other way to get his inverter charger fixed. There is no
pu8blic transportation to the airport from Fort Pierce. So I rented a car. The
car cost more than the airline ticket. I love West Jet! Unfortunately when Rick
come4s out on the 24th he will have to take a bus the day before.
There is a shuttle that can be reserved but you need 24 hours notice. It cost us $119.00 each to fly to Toronto.
Of course the flight left at 6:55 am so I
had to be here at 4:55 and it was a 2-hour drive-- not really. I left at about
1:45 by the time I got up and dressed.
Then I misread the driving instructions… didn’t read the distances right
so I panicked when I couldn’t find my turn, so I went back tot the starting
point [only about 2 miles] and started again. This time I set the trip meter so
I wouldn’t guess. No Sweat! There was minimal traffic. The highways are 4 lanes
and separated. I got here at 3:45 am and
since I already had my ticket and boarding pass, it was easy! Of course at 4-5
am there ar4ean’t a lot of people at the airport last group to board and when I
got to my seat, there were two little boys and a father in my spot. The mother
with a baby in a cuddly bag attached to her and a little girl were I the row
ahead. Great!! So Dad and Mom were going to leave the boys together and let me
sit in my seat. Not going to happen. I
think the three kids were triplets...they were all the same size. I don’t think
so!!!! The steward let me pick another seat. Which was difficult since the
place was half empty!!! Which one to choose?? Unfortunately I sat in the
emergency exit row, where the seats don’t recline. Luckily I had the foresight
to get Rick to load up a flash drive with music so I could listen to it on the
laptop. It helped to keep me awake enough to type up this blog entry. This was
anew plane but with no TV.
I must say I am not a fan of flying any
more. This was a “winglet” plane…no idea what that is except it has the cute
little wing tips turned up alike a paper airplane. Twice a plane passed us in the air at about a
mile away. I know we were going fast {600 miles and hour?] and so was he, but
boy, there is no time to change your mind if there is a problem. I really LIKE
slow boats!!! And this was a bare bones flight. You’d think they offer more
than peanuts and pretzels or breakfast! Because who wants a tuna fish sandwich [you
pay for it] at this hour?
It was pretty cool flying up the
Appalachian mountain chain though. It looked a giant had scraped his fingers up
the whole continent
The reason you are hearing about this after
the fact is because I wanted to surprise Liz and the kids at the Navy League
annual inspection. I know how important this one is for her and I wanted to see
it. She has done an outstanding job promoting and developing the corps and I am
so proud of what she has accomplished.
Geoff knew I was coming because I wanted to
know if they had a sitter for the kids for the weekend. I figured if was going
to be here anyway… they had to go to SSM on Friday for Geoff’s Annual
Inspection. He joined the NL corps up there while he was working i
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| pulling out the junipers |
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| planting sunflower seeds |
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| Finding the maple |
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| Loading the trailer |
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| Finished product |
Rick arrived 10 ten days later and we have
spent the last month doing what we set out to do: remove the kids as much as
possible so Mom and Dad have some space, or look after them so Mom and Dad can
do other things....like go to Saskatchewan for a week for their
anniversary/birthdays.
So we are getting stuff ready to head back
to the boat. We have NOT managed to get to Thunder Bay or Kenora yet so we are
taking the "Scenic route" through the west and heading down across
the Prairies or I-75 to Florida's west coast then across to the boat. We will
keep the kids until school starts and then return them home, pick up Quentin
and go back to Florida. He will be coming with us for the year.
We have been doing gardening as well, to
keep in shape and try to maintain our tans... but its FREEZING up here! Also been visiting friends and catching up. Now it's time to sort out all the stuff we thought
we'd need and didn't take, or all the stuff we didn't need but saved anyway.
So, not going to be posting for a while,
but we are here in Ontario for another couple of weeks then moving out. I know this sounds scattered but ... ttyl
