Overnight trip to Gravenhurst

We went up to Gravenhurst on Friday October 14th to spend the night with dear friends of ours. Michael, Trixie and I went to the Bala Cranberry Festival, but it was pouring rain and was not very pleasant. We went back home and had a lovely roast dinner with our friends.

Early Saturday morning I got up and went out to catch the early morning sun on the fall foliage. It was spectacular. We then went to breakfast at a local lodge at the water's edge. Great breakfast with dear friends. The following pictures are from the area around Pine Ridge Retirement Community and then around Patterson-Kaye Lodge.

Storm Clouds give this picture a very dramatic backdrop.

This would have been such a great photo if it wasn't for the rotten pumpkin on the porch!

At Patterson-Kaye Lodge

Moving the shed

We have been given a new site, which is bigger and cooler than our present site. We realize that it is going to be a big job to move everything, but we had the assurance of several people in the park that we would be able to get help with the move. This morning as the weather was really good and as it was the final day of the Thanksgiving weekend, I went around and found some able bodied men to help. We arranged for them to come over at 1 pm. We had some webbed straps which were inserted under the shed and 6 brawny men simply lifted the shed up and carried it over to the new site. Here are the pictures of the move.

Setting off down the road

and onto the site

All the stuff on the left hand side is what came out of the shed!

Easing it into place. The previous occupant's trailer is still on the site.

And in place on the concrete blocks.

We also called on 3 ladies to help me move the gazebo. Once the present occupant has moved his trailer off the site, we can go ahead and get the deck modules over. The Motorhome will stay on our old site until we leave, as I still have my internet connection over there. When we get back in the Spring, we will go directly to our new site.

The summer that was.

My good intentions of updating this blog more frequently seem to have come to naught! It's like a diet. You are gung ho for a while and then the resolve weakens, oh well. However, I do promise to update more frequently as we leave for our trip across the US.
It's not as if I am so busy every day, but we are now starting to think about what we will be taking with us to California.
We are now in fall. my favourite season. The weather at the moment is just like Durban in the winter. Cool nights and sunny days. We are seeing some of the leaves starting to change colour and I am always reminded of the Keats poem, Ode to Autumn:


Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'erbrimmed their clammy cells.

Casa Seneca

From the other side

 The summer was really fantastic. We based ourselves at Cedar Beach Resort in Stouffville. We found this resort last year when our friends, Tom and Sunita, very generously allowed us to use their seasonal site. It is fantastic as it is only a 45 minute drive to see our kids in downtown Toronto and also a 30 minute drive to our doctors and dentists in Pickering. We have 2 swimming pools, a hot tub, a splash pad, tennis, volleyball and acres of lovely parkland. So we were back here in the Spring, having reserved a seasonal site for ourselves for 2011. The site we ended up with is in the Adult Only area up in a section called Hilltop. It is a small site, facing directly onto another site which is very noisy. We are squeezed onto the site and have our gazebo half under the awning, which does not really work, so at the end of this season we are moving to a bigger site on the same loop, which has come open. We are very happy about that. We have so many great new friends here, that I am happy we are staying on the same road.
I have enjoyed pottering around in our "garden" and even grew some tomatoes and peppers. Michael has a tiny patch of grass to cut too. 

My first crop of tomatoes

The visits with our children and grandchildren, of course, were the highlight of the season. 

Noah watering the herbs

Owen loves anything with wheels.

We did a few trips away, dry camping at Valens in the Spring, Lake Huron Resort and Galvin Bay Resort. Lake Huron and Galvin Bay are Coast to Coast resorts and as we are members of the organization, those stays only cost us $10 a night. We have already covered the cost of the membership in 3 weeks of camping.

The beach at Lake Huron resort

Our first campsite at Lake Huron

Bear carving at Galvin Bay

Entrance to Galvin Bay

We stopped over at Nith River on the way to Lake Huron, thereby missing the tornado that hit Goderich on this day

Sunset over Lake Huron

Lake Huron

Our second site at Lake Huron

Beach at Kincardine

Point Farms Provincial Park beach

Now we are planning our trip across to California, We are going via my sister's house in Keedysville, Maryland. Then we will probably take the I 81 to the I 40 and go straight across, dipping down at Phoenix. We hope to stop at free and low cost places on the way. We recently joined Harvest Hosts. This is an organization where we can stop at wineries, orchards and farms overnight, parking in their parking lots. Beats Walmart! Take a look at the web site and if you decide to join, please put our names (Michael and Daryl White) onto the form and we will get a month added to our annual membership.  We are looking forward to the trip across and I promise to blog as we go, depending on the availability of internet access.

Twelve days of bliss

We had our daughter and grandchildren with us for 12 days! What started out to be a 4 day visit, turned out to be a lovely long visit. We spent as much time as possible swimming and Noah, the older of our two grandsons allowed me to give him some swimming lessons. He was amazing and learned the basics in just a few days. What fun we had.

Noah tries out Papa's recliner

Suzanne and Owen looking out of the Motorhome window

Owen in the small paddling pool. 

Golfing at Atherton Golf

Yesterday we spent the day with friends up at Atherton Golf, near Clinton. It is a real duffers course, which is just as well, because we were all duffers. It was great fun and reinforced the knowledge that I am no golfer. We had a BBQ lunch, birthday cake for Yvonne's Dad's 70th. The weather was perfect. We had a good time.

Today is our last at Lake Huron Resort. We have not been able to get into Goderich, so tomorrow we head back to Cedar Beach. No more trips planned until we head down to California at the end of October or beginning of November.