Lovin' Maine

We are enjoying our time here in Maine. It is so nice to have a local as a tour guide. We had a big lobster boil the first night we were here, it was sooooo good! We have been here before, about 3 years ago, so we knew what to look forward to. The rain this past week-end was a real gully washer. Jane and I thought we would do a little shopping, but only hit one store and decided that between all the tourists out doing the same thing and the rain we would call it a day.

Been playing cards most nights. We have been getting a bridge fix, as we all play, love it. Hard to find people who play, so when we do can't waste the chance!

The beach

Today the guys are off playing golf, which is great. Jane and I resumed our shopping outing, but that didn't last too long, neither one of us are big shoppers. Tomorrow we are taking the train into Boston for the day, looking forward to that. Will have my camera charged up, the other day it was totally dead, which never happens. It has a huge rechargeable battery that never seems to go dead, but then it could be like me....getting old.
Love Blooms

Leaving Chuck in the Dust

Today was a great day, played golf for the first time in months and on the scorecard actually beat Chuck scratch. May have been a little fudging on my part but it came out that way. Had beaten him before in 9 holes but never 18. Wonderful day for anything outside as the weather was perfect. Th golf course was an interesting one with a lot of character and challenge.
Am now back home celebrating with a margarita or two. Last night we celebrated our arrival here with a lobster dinner, and it was wonderful. Tonight my friend Jane is cooking, which is great, being as the margaritas are beginning to take effect. Life is good. life is great.....lalalalalala

Making Lemonde

Here we were just as happy as could be, going down the road, when one of those hateful warning lights came on. Throttle light, if not blinking safe to drive.....okay, twenty miles, and all the warning lights are on, we are now desperately looking for a place to pull over. All options are over, engine dies. Thankfully we are in a small town, right across from the American Legion, and they are having a Friday night fish-fry. Call Good Sam, eat dinner, tow to a campground, and all is well. Nothing could be done with the truck till Monday, and there was not a rental car to be had in the area, but there was a playhouse theater a block away, plus the river boat tours, so we managed to enjoy the down time.

Now Tuesday, we have the truck back, very minor considering all the inconvenience it caused. So we will be back on the road tomorrow once again heading to Maine. Should be a short drive as it is only 200 or so miles.

THOUSAND ISLANDS

We are in one of the prettiest areas! The views of the islands are truly awesome. And yes, there is a castle, and it was built for a woman who died, and was never lived in

because of the great love that was lost. Hmmmmmm....

Seems there was never a castle built that has a

happy story.

We did the tour and it is being restored, and what has been finished is a work of art. Only the first floor has been completed, so there is the basement, "playhouse", and three upper floors.

The boat house is also finished, across the way on another island. There is an exhibit

of antique boats that are all hand crafted. And a few of the racing

boats that the "rich" used and how they tried to keep an honest

competition, which proved impossible.

Just your average bungalow

Power plant for the Castle

We reboarded our paddle boat and off we went on the island tour.

There were some fabulous houses, what a place to summer.....but then the bad news,

we were told the property taxes for water front were, 1000.oo per foot!
Think that means all the way around this house?
There are over 1800 islands here, to qualify as an island it must be above the water 365 days a year, and have at least 1 tree.

Some were lovely

We sure were envious on this nice warm day, watching all the people jumping in the water, it sure would have really felt good.

I was just loving it, think in another life

I must have crawled up out of the water.

Loved this one

Think this was the smallest one we seen. It did have it's tree!

It was a great few days that we spent in the area, met a very nice couple, who also

were traveling with 2 cats. They (cats) were so content, outside most of the time

on their leases. Two Bits was giving them the evil eye, I'm

sure wondering how come I can't go out?

We are off again tomorrow, hopefully with the wind

at our back, but with hurricane Bill coming in, we will probably have

rain in our face.

Canada

Canadian Geese

Here I am trying to catch this blog up and we are fixing to get back on the road tomorrow, yikes, better get busy. We crossed into Canada at Port Huron, and had a easy drive to Grafton. Well, let me add, with the exception of Toronto. Holy Moly, there are a lot of cars there.....seven lane freeway, bumper to bumper, 100+k per hour.

That was the only bit of drama for which I was so thankful.

Tried to put the "Damneara House" in the yard of our friend, but it was just a little too

much of a slope. There was a campground close by, so it was an easy choice, as we

were only staying there for 3 days.

He has his house up for sale, and the lookers have been giving him a run

for his money. Almost 30 showings in just 2 weeks, and 2 offers came in while

we were there. With all that was going on with that we still managed to have a nice

visit, and did see some of the area. Had one of the worst thunderstorms while there though. Thunder that just went on and on, rolling thunder, that you could actually feel it. Lost "hydro" and with it water, as it was powered by a pump from a well. Just polped a hat on and

went out for breakfast. We had bought a new GPS before leaving the states, wanting to make

sure we could find our way in Canada. Well when I put the address in it would not come

up, so for the heck of it tried the 5 year old one.......and it mapped us right there! His house was way out in the country with a lot of road changes and all, so to say I was surprised is putting it mildly.

Just cause I love flowers

Then we were off to Oswaha, which was back towards Toronto. We were visiting Lois, who we became great friends with in Texas. She has had a few problems, but is starting to have the time of her life once again. Almost made me out of breath when she was telling me all the activities that she is involved in. Met her daughter and lovely family, who were the greatest. Thank you, Valerie and Henry, for a wonderful time, you helped make my birthday a very special

time. And Chuck thanks you for the golf fixes he got in, he needed them badly.

We stayed at the provincial park which was lovely, pricey, but then it is Canada. And GAS...wow, 90 some cents a liter, or is it a shot glass full? The tequila we were buying for 8 dollars in Mexico, was 43 there. Luckily we had a few bottles to leave behind, was sort of afraid of getting stopped going in, but we just coasted through. And that about does it for Canada, we did not see all that much, but the people we came to visit were our reason for being there.

We had planned to come back into the states near Niagara Falls, but that meant we would be taking our life in our hands and going through Toronto again. The Thousand Islands area was one we wanted to see, and it was a wonderfully easy drive. So there was no

problem choosing. And that is where we ended up, on Wellsley Island. We are about 300 feet in the good ole USA.

Mackinac Island

We were up early and headed out to the ferry terminal, at least we thought we were early. Seems we had gone through a time change, which meant we were an hour behind. Only been here two days! We boarded the boat and it was a quick twenty minute ride, gorgeous!

There are two boats going opposite directions

On the island there are no cars allowed, the only options are horse drawn carriages and bikes. I about dropped my teeth when I seen the price they were renting the bikes for. Eight to ten dollars an hour, and there were a lot of families doing the renting. They have a name for the tourists here, "Fudgies", there are 19 candy stores in the 3 block area of downtown, and they all have homemade fudge, and most everyone will indulge.

This is early, by the afternoon it was full

Bed and Breakfast

We decided that a horse driven carriage ride was a great idea, and it was an easy way to see the entire island. We had a smaller buggy in the town area and then were switched over to a three horse wagon in the hilly region.

Our view!

The weather was totally perfect in the early part of the day, we could not have asked for anything better. The flowers, some of the prettiest we have seen.

The Arch

The water below and there was a road that you could bike on.

After lunch at a pub we caught the rapid ferry back to the main land. Clouds were moving in.

Anyone of these houses will do for a summer getaway cabin

The Grand Hotel

With the weather being so warm we sat up top......bad idea. Once the boat picked up speed, the wind was blowing, the water was rough, and we were bouncing all over. Could not even attempt the stairs to go down, afraid that I might go flying, so just cuddled up close and enjoyed the ride.

Tomorrrow is a travel day, heading for Canada.

LOCKS AND LOAD

We are staying in the town of St. Ignace, Michigan. Today we drove up to Sault Ste Marie, as we had heard that the locks were very interesting. I'm ashamed to admit that there seems to be a lot of info that I do not know about our great country. One of which is that Lake Superior is twenty feet higher than Lake Heron. There fore the need for the locks.

We boarded the boat an took a seat on the open top deck, but as soon as the boat started moving we moved down, it was cold. It was a very informative tour, and we really enjoyed it.

Entering the lock

Boat that made the trp with us

Now the gates will open and out we go. All this take place in less than twenty minutes. Don't know if this adventure knocks the Suez canal off my bucket list or not..... On the way home we had to check out the Castle Rock. There was also another statue of Paul Bunyon. He sure covered a lot of territtory, you see him all over this part of the country.

Back in St. Ignace we got information on Mackinac Island as we are taking turbo ferry over for the day tomorrow.

The flowers are absolutely beautiful here.

WISCONSIN IN THE REAR VIEW MIRROR

Yes, we are on the road again. Had a little trouble getting going again. Seems the truck had a bad bearing or something or other in its rear end. Decided that Wausau would be a good place to have it fixed as there was a nice campground in town. Unfortunately after we made the arrangements we discovered that the park would be closed after the 3rd for the state fair which bordered the campground. And we had taken the truck in on Wednesday but they didn't get to look at it till late Thursday, of course had to order the part, which would not make it till Monday. And they did not work Saturdays, so it didn't make that much difference. So it was a rush to get it fixed and it went right down to the wire, we had till 3 this afternoon and we were pulling out of there with about 2 minutes to spare.

The time spent in Wisconsin was mostly reconnecting with long lost relatives, which was great. Love visiting when we have our own home to return to. I have a second cousin that is doing a magnificent job on our family tree. Bless her heart, it has totally gone out of control. By now she has found out that everyone in 4 counties is related somehow. Just don't want to find out that I'm my own grandma!

We are headed to Canada via the upper part of Michigan. Planning on taking in some of the sights on the way, probably never come this way again. They are saying that the weather should warm up, it certainly has been cool, at times down right cold. Actually had the heat on a few nights.

Hopefully the next few posts will have some pictures. Let the wind be at our back.