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I’ve always liked visiting museums and art galleries.  That’s what my boss arranged as a going away party for my retirement: a tour of the Ismaili Centre and the Aga Khan Museum (I strongly recommend).  And my travel buddy LL knows I like these so kindly goes along with me when we travel (pretty sure she enjoys them too, don’t get me wrong – but I don’t think they’d be her first choice as a rule).

But just recently I’ve had the opportunity to visit a couple of galleries with my youngest sister (Cork Ireland and Georgetown Ontario), and it’s very interesting.  She’s an artist, so she looks at art (paintings in particular) in a different way, and I’m really enjoying it.  So when both she & sibling #2 independently found and suggested the Oeno Gallery in Bloomfield I was delighted.

Wow, what an amazing venue!  We really enjoyed the spectacular outdoor sculpture garden – it’s huge, different, interactive (in places), and they even have a sister piece of metalwork wolves to the one at 13^th Street Winery (see Scout below a few years ago at 13^th St with her new friends). And the work inside the gallery was equally interesting.  I discovered a new artist whom I really admire and cannot afford: Pat Service.  In fact all the paintings were noteworthy, IMO.

Then off to Slickers in Bloomfield.  I don’t really like ice cream (I don’t dislike it – it’s just meh) or sweet foods, but nine years ago I had a Campfire ice cream here and it has stayed in my memory ever since.  And I had it again today – it tastes exactly like burnt marshmallows – so so good – well worth the re-visit; siblings agreed.  Then a few boutiques, and home to what the Brits call a picky tea, and our Mum’s favourite meal, a little bit of everything.

Wow, did my sisters need this getaway.  I didn’t know either of them could even sleep in that late!  I’m not complaining – I like my mornings to myself and thoroughly enjoyed sitting outside, reading an excellent book (The Correspondent by Virginia Evans), drinking my tea, and listening to the birdsong (grey catbird, robin, song sparrow, goldfinch, blackbird, and gulls).  But they really slept.  I’m so glad – exactly what holidays are for.

Meals are going to be interesting this week:  youngest sister skips breakfast & lunch and eats a big dinner; middle sister eats a healthy breakfast, little to no lunch, and a decent dinner, and I eat a light breakfast, big lunch, and next to no dinner.  Hmmm.

And again with the “whatever you want, I’m fine” feedback, but eventually I got commitment – yay!

OMG, I’m going to kill them. 

First:

We pulled into the Big Apple at Grafton.  I wanted a coffee (it had already been a looong day), I thought there might be something we could pick up for dinner, and it’s just a cool place to stop – if you’ve never seen it, it’s, well, it’s a giant apple on the side of the 401, with a petting zoo, a burger shack, and a country store.  Between the two of them, over the course of the 18 minutes we were there, they each said at least three times, “Why are we here?” “What are we getting?” “This is overwhelming.” And my favourite: “Whatever you want, Elaine.”

Fine, on to Sandbanks Provincial Park.  We parked, I set up, I poured myself a glass of wine, and then I said, okay, so what are some of the things you might like to do.  You know that look teenagers give you when they really can’t be bothered to contribute to a conversation?  Yeah, well, that’s what I got.

Don’t get me wrong – it’s not that they’re not easy to please – they are.  It’s not like they don’t find different places and learning new things interesting – they absolutely do.  It just that they had not put, and were uninterested in putting any thought or decision making into anything (including dinner).

I did get one piece of input: when I asked them earlier in the week to do some investigating of the area, it seems LR did ask her husband to look into things, and he did come up with one good restaurant idea.  HE came up with it.  She just repeated it.

Sororicide is a thing.

I just picked MW up with her suitcases (yes, plural) and her son & dog.  The son & dog aren’t coming on the trip, they’re just joining us as far as the Georgetown train station, then they’re walking home.

We’re waiting in the station parking lot for LR’s train.  Years (and years) ago, I took VIA from Toronto to Georgetown (it must have been after the last GO train of the day had left).  We stopped in Brampton, then, just at Norval I gathered my stuff, stood up, and moved to the door, ready to disembark.  The train seemed to still be moving quite quickly when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the conductor look over at me, jump up with a start, grab her walkie-talkie, and start running towards me.  It seems they had forgotten they had a passenger for Georgetown, and were barrelling right though town non-stop.  She managed to get the engineer to stop the train just past the station.  She walked me to the very last door of the train, apologising profusely, and I had to jump down onto the track and walk 20’ back to the very edge of the platform and climb up.  Not really VIA’s finest moment.

Well, the train seemed to be coming very quickly into the station, but it did indeed stop this time, and eventually LR arrived on board the Reid Sisters’ Sunseeker Express.

Let the fun begin!

My very first RV trip nine years ago:

One week until we leave.  I’ve taken on a lot of the prep for this trip because (a) it’s my RV; (b) they’re both still working; and (c) that’s how we’ve always rolled.

But we’re getting down to the wire now, and I have to admit – ladies, I’d like a little input, please. But why would they bother, when they can get me to do it? Not helpful!

I’ve suggested to them that maybe it wouldn’t hurt for them to look up things to do in each of: PEC, Kingston, and eastern Ontario.  We’ll see what comes out of that.

Now that everyone has confirmed dates with me (see previous post), it’s time to lock in exact dates and locations.  But that’s not as easy as it sounds.  As I mentioned, Terego won’t let me book until 30 days prior.  And while I do like KOA, it ain’t cheap, so it tends to be my fallback rather than first choice.  But navigating provincial park websites is not easy.  I miss the book.  Remember the book?  It had all the Ontario Provincial Parks laid out in a table with amenities, site maps, etc.. all updated annually.  Now?  Now online I have to click 5 or 6 times on a variety of dropdowns, then open at least three different tabs, and click back and forth between two windows.  I know, I know, whine, whine, whine.

But I have booked the most important reservations: the ferries to and from Nfld, and the campsites at either end of each of those trips.

Oh, yes, and the Kiwanis campground in Saint Andrew by the Sea, where we’ll be meeting up with my American travellers.

Okay – I’ve lined up my who-I-am-travelling-with-and-where-and-when (everyone has finally committed – sort of). 

Two weeks in early July with BN in the Bruce Peninsula, Manitoulin, and Muskoka

One week solo in eastern Ontario and attending a conference in Montreal

Ten days in Charlevoix & Lac Saint Jean with LL

Two weeks solo in eastern NB and northern NS

One week in PEI with MB

Two weeks solo in Cape Breton and Newfoundland

One week solo in Halifax and southern NS

One week in southern NB and Bay of Fundy with LL & my American friends

One week in the Saint John river valley with LL, then boot it home in 3 days, back in time for Thanksgiving.

I’ve mentioned before the drawbacks of buying an RV from a dealership 90+ minutes away from home.  I could have had the motorhome winterized in October at a dealership in the Hamilton or Guelph area, but I had repairs that needed done under warranty.  I could have had it ‘de-winterized’ – made ready for this year’s trips – closer to home, but I am still finding things that need repairs, so yet again, off I go to Barrie.  It’s a 10 minute walk to the GO station, a 1 hour trip into Union, a 40-minute wait, then a 2-hour GO up to Barrie, followed by a $38 Uber to Heidi’s.  I do like the GO, so a nice ride with a good book is not the worst thing in the world.  But it is a full day’s journey.

I noticed last year that HH does not have much representation in Quebec, and also in the rest of Eastern Canada.  But there is another association: Terego.  Terego is a Canadian firm out of Quebec that does exactly the same thing as HH: for a fee of about $100 per annum, I have access to places to stay at farms, wineries, museums, etc…  In fact, some venues have registered with both HH & Terego.  Registering with both does mean I’m paying twice as much for this service as normal, but for this year at least, while I’m headed east, I think the added cost is worth it.  Only hitch: Terego doesn’t start accepting reservations until 1 month prior to a given date.  So right now, I’m having trouble booking my east coast trip, as I can’t get any venue to commit. And everyone online says you must book early, particularly in Newfoundland and PEI.  The stress, dammit.  (Please don’t let me be destined to spend most nights in Walmart parking lots in Gander & Summerside.) Sigh.

My sisters & I are going for a week to Prince Edward County (did you know it’s technically an island, but the name ‘PEI’ was already taken), Kingston, and Gananoque in June.  I’m trying to make this a trip they both will enjoy, as well as showing them some of what my life on the road will be like.  So I’ve booked three nights at a provincial park, two nights dry camping (boondocking) in a winery, and three nights at a very nice KOA near Kingston.

This has been the easiest trip to plan: I know the area, I know my sisters, and after 60+ years with me as their big sisters, they know to just do what they’re told.