I met one of the organizers of ‘Art on the Rocks’ when I exhibited at the Fall Cottage Life Show in Toronto last year and he invited me to show my Georgian Bay watercolours at this July afternoon event. It was a very interesting and easygoing type of day, but I am reminded why I don’t do outdoor shows - too hard on the inventory! The weather was warm, sunny and not too windy - a perfect day for the visitors to the show. But a frame got scraped on the rocks and some of the matted paintings faded in the sun so I will have to touch them up later. My paintings framed with glass did not fade since I use UV-blocking glass.
Below you can see John in the shuttle boat that hauled the artists and our wares over to Maxwell Island, about 20 minutes out of Honey Harbour.
During the boat ride I got some good photos of Georgian Bay shoreline rocks and trees (below) for future paintings.
Below is Maxwell Island showing the dock where we landed and some of the artists setting up.
What an interesting concept to display nature related art, don’t you think? Below is one of the oil painters with his canvasses.
The attendance was good, perhaps 200 visitors during the four hour show, all arriving by boat.
Here I am in front of my display of watercolours (below). Glad I wore sunscreen!
In this last photo, John is standing by my display, looking out at the visitors’ boats anchored in the bay. It was a fun day and I sold a painting and a bunch of art cards. Several visitors were interested in commissioning a painting of their cottage or their island, and if any of those come to fruition I will be in the black…
We chose Picnic Island Campground for its proximity to the site of an art show I was invited to exhibit at, on a private island out of Honey Harbour. The plan was to leave the trailer at the campground for a few days while we drove home to pick up my paintings, frame some new ones I had painted while on vacation, then return for the one-day show and finally, move our rig back up to Temagami for another three week visit at Happy Holiday Campground.
However, since we had done all we wanted to at Picnic Island after just five days, we decided to leave early and towed our rig back home for the other five days and commute to the show in our sports ute.
Below you can see some of the new watercolours I painted while vacationing in northern Ontario.
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‘Shipwreck Island’ and ‘King of the Bay’ (above)
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‘Basking in the Sun’
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‘That Morning Glow’
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‘Face to the Wind’
We left Camerons Beach Campground near Iroquois Falls reluctantly, after a ten day stay. Definitely a place to return to in future years. The setting was gorgeous and very tidy and the owner and other campers were so friendly - lots of retirees as well as multi-generational families.
After an eight-hour drive we made a one night stopover at Screeching Pines cottage near Wilberforce for a friend’s 70th birthday party, and then hauled our rig over to Georgian Bay to stay in Picnic Island Campground for ten days.
This park was full of mostly seasonal (permanent) trailers crowded in together on the shore of Honey Harbour Bay and wasn’t the type of place we would return to or recommend. It is more suited to families who wish to dock their boat but can’t afford to buy a cottage. There were lots of young families enjoying their weekend getaway and the water traffic was very busy every day. John says he had to do a 17-point turn to back our RV into the site because there were so many vehicles parked along the roadway. Not impressed!
In these photos, John is shown kayaking in the bay near our campsite and cruising past a lovely big boat docked at the marina next door. We got out kayaking a couple of times in Honey Harbour Bay, and the kayaks handled the choppy waves (wakes from the heavy boat traffic) with confidence.
We did a fair bit of bicycling since the hamlet of Honey Harbour was only a few kilometers away and we had to use the internet access at the public library since the campground had none.
The one cool thing about the campground was the grocery store. It was on another island connected to the campground by a bridge (pictured below) and included a marine gas bar, so the store had a superb selection of delicacies for all those wealthy boaters (pate, camembert, fresh fruit and veggies, butcher counter, a wide selection of dairy items, dry and canned goods, loads of drinks and snacks, an ice cream bar and a section for summer clothing). It was a neat place to poke around a few times during our stay. There was a chip stand on this side of the bridge selling poutine, burgers, onion rings and the like so we indulged once or twice.
I did get a few good photos of typical Georgian Bay architecture (photos below) to use for painting references.
Our second week at Cameron’s Beach Campground was wonderful and we really felt like we were on vacation at a resort. The biggest decision we had to make each day was what activity came first - bicycling, kayaking, ATVing, swimming or walking. The weather was mostly hot and sunny, so we swam at the beach most days to cool off.
The photos above were taken during a drive up to Cochrane. The goldenrod is in bloom now.
We did more kayaking on Big Nellie Lake and finally managed to get a photo of one of the herons - they are really shy and fly away when we are still a good distance from them.
We tried to get out for an hour of blueberry picking on several days. We drove the ATV perhaps ten minutes from our campsite to get to the good blueberry fields. We saw these fresh bear tracks on top of the fresh ATV tracks more than once, meaning the bears find the ATV trails as convenient as we do! Aren’t the berries amazing?
Here I am in front of our rig, enjoying an al fresco dinner of chicken wings and blueberries on greens. Yum! Our camp site is lovely and shady all day and we have lots of room to store all the toys outside.
We went ATVing with a ‘local’ camper to the highest point in the area and he took this photo of John and I. This region is very sandy and reminds me a lot of the Ottawa Valley where I grew up.
Our third day on Nellie Lake was showery so we did more laundry in the morning and drove two hours south to Cobalt in the afternoon, as we had tickets to see a recital of the Beatles White Album by the Classic Albums Live at the Classic Theatre in Cobalt that evening. The theatre was built in the days of the silver rush and the marquee below reads “Standing Ovations Since 1926″.
The building has had an extensive inside-and-out renovation in recent years and boasts an impressive line up of past and future performers on the live stage. We had seen Classic Albums Live perform Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon at the Regent Theatre in Oshawa so we knew we were in for a fine performance and were not disappointed. There were about 12 musicians playing guitars, drums, trumpet, sax, voilin, cello, keyboard and percussion. The recital began with ‘Back in the USSR’ and ended with ‘Number Nine’ and when they played ‘As My Guitar Gently Weeps’ I was transported with awe. Afterwards they played another 3 or 4 Beatles classics to end the evening. What a great venue. Check it out at http://www.classictheatre.net/pastseasons.php
We stayed overnight at a local motel (didn’t want to run into a moose in the dark on Hwy. 11) and drove back to Big Nellie Lake the next morning. That afternoon we went for an ATV ride on the numberous sandy trails near the campground and picked our first batch of wild blueberries. They are just starting to ripen.
That evening we attended the opening night of the 13th annual Porquis Blues Festival which is just a few miles away from our campground. That is pronounced PorKEESE by the way. The photo above shows the Porquis arena converted into an outdoor theatre with stage. It was nice to sit in the shade since the day was warm and daylight lasts until about 11 pm this time of year. We saw about four bands play and they were all quite good, especially the Mike Dewey group from Quebec city. For John the icing on the cake was the Rickers Red on tap.
The next morning I made blueberry pancakes with the berries we picked yesterday - delicious! We had a nice bicycle ride and chat around the lake with Linda and her daughter Shelley and went back to the Porquis Blues Festival for the afternoon. We came home for supper, had another bicycle ride around the lake and attended an evening of Karoke hosted by Rene at the campground pavillion. We sat with Roly until late and talked to him the whole time. John says Roly is one of those lovely folk ‘vaccinated with a grammaphone needle’ (an expression John’s grandmother always used to describe garrulous people).
The next day we slept in and had a relaxing morning in the shade of our awning. After lunch we took a ride on the ATV to go pick more blueberries. The photo above shows John picking right beside the trail. We picked about a quart of berries in a half hour.
Our first full day at Nellie Lake was showery so we got some laundry done, drove to Timmins to have a look (nothing much to recommend it!) and pick up some tourism info. In the evening enjoyed a great conversation with Rene about the inspiration for his song writing. He is a friend of Roly’s who works as a roads inspector and moonlights as a DJ / Karoke lounge singer (I kid you not). I have seldon met an artist so dedicated to and focused on his craft.
The next day was gorgeous so we carried the kayaks to the beach and explored the entire shoreline of Big Nellie Lake, which took about three hours. We chatted with several friendly cottagers and saw lots of ducks, as shown below. The area is very sandy which made for numerous sandy beaches.
We stopped in a quiet bay and ate our picnic lunch as the kayaks drifted in the breeze. As we approached the campground, this is the view from the water (below). What a great morning!
John suggested using the ATV to carry the kayaks back to the trailer and as you can see below, his idea worked very well.
Then we had a swim in the lake and took a nap in the air conditioned RV - heaven. We had a look on the internet to see what cottage properties cost in the area and investigated two we had seen for sale during our paddle on Big Nellie.
After a delicious chicken-and-shrimp-on-the-BarBee dinner, we took a bicycle ride with Roly and Linda on the paved road that encircles Big Nellie Lake. Linda mentioned that she and her daughter had gone to see one of the cottages for sale and the owner invited them in for a tour. So after our ride, John and I went back to that same property and wangled ourselves a full tour by the owners. The cottage had been in the family since 1947, with major additons in 1997, but the wife was in poor health and they wanted to sell so they could become full time RVers. The waterfront was gorgeous but the building needed major work and the price was high for the area so we crossed that one off our list. The other cottage for sale was in a weedy bay so did not make the cut either.
Here you can see John unloading our ATV from the garage at the back of our RV. We are setting up for an 11 day stay at Cameron’s Beach Campground near Iroquois Falls. Our campsite (below) is very roomy and shady which is wonderful. Our RV is on the right.
The campground has a white sand beach on Big Nellie Lake (shown below). Isn’t it gorgeous! The day was quite hot so after we got the campsite set up (ie. RV leveled, stabilized and hooked up to water, sewer and electricity, ATV, kayaks and bicycles unloaded) we changed into our bathing suits and walked about 3 minutes to the lake for a swim. The water seemed really cold at first but was very refreshing and we got used to the temperature. Bliss!
The campground is very clean and tidy even though most of the sites are seasonal (permanent trailers rented for the whole summer). Most sites have flower beds or planters and a few even had small raised vegetable beds. The one below is growing tomatoes, beans, carrots, onions and lettuce. Amazing what you can do in a small space. All the residents are very friendly and everyone says hello when you or they go by. We feel so welcome.
The first evening of our stay we were invited to visit a permanent site owned by Roly and Linda who were very talkative and nice people. They are both retired from the plywood production industry and their son and daughter also keep trailers in this campground, so during our stay we met the kids and grandkids too. We mentioned the unusual outdoor carpeting that many sites use as patios and driveways, as shown below.
Roly explained the fabric comes from the local papermills and is the porous vinyl screening that supports the pulp while the water drains through, in the process of paper making. These vinyl sheets are like a huge belt 30 feet wide and hundreds of feet long. When the belts break they are replaced and the damaged ones are given to the fire fighters, who cut them up and sell them as outdoor carpets, with the money benefitting the fire dept. Roly says the sheets sell for $1.50 per linear foot. What a great idea to reuse what would otherwise go into landfill. The rain goes right through them and any debris just sweeps off. We also saw the fabric being used on driveways in Iroquois Falls.
This week there were a few showery days, so we took a drive over to Quebec and circled back through Larder Lake which we remembered very well from our snowmobile trips. The landscape up here is lovely rolling hills with lots of small lakes. Fabulous ATVing opportunities abound, with many logging roads giving access to the lush forests.
As we do during all our travels in Canada, we have been looking at properties for sale from time to time - hunt camps and cottages mostly on this trip. Waterfront property is fairly affordable here in the north (under $250k) and hunting acreages are even less. Houses in the small towns are under $100k. Many country properties are off grid but with technology these days you can still have power from solar panels and gas generators, heat from wood, oil or propane, and phone, TV, radio and internet service by satellite or cell signals. We found an interesting 4-season home on an acre lot on Benson Lake just south of Larder Lake and a beautiful bush acreage with a new 2 bedroom home, oversize double garage and gazebo (studio!) on 160 acres with large pond, adjacent to thousands of acres of crown land with many lakes, just minutes east of Englhart.
Also this week I took advantage of some rainy mornings and finished my third painting of the trip, this time of a Georgian Bay island, for my show at Art on the Rocks later this month.
July 1 dawned a lovely sunny day and not too hot. There was lots to see in New Liskeard that day, so we parked near downtown and checked out the street festival. Lots of stores had sidewalk sales so we both got some bargains and listened to the outdoor live music.
There was a very good gallery of original work by about 50 northern artists on the main street called Canvas and Clay Etc (http://www.canvasandclay.ca/), run by a local watercolour artist named Laura Landers. Several artists were doing painting or carving demonstrations in the street, and from them I learned there is an active group of artists who get together to paint each week all year except for July and August. Good to know if ever we come up here outside of the summer.
This Canada Day weekend the town is hopping due to the annual Bikers Reunion motorcycle rally. About 5,000 motorcyclists attended the rally and they helped to raise $95,000 for the cancer hospital in New Liskeard. The heat wave came in with temperatures around 30 degrees and humid. Not nice! We saw some interesting bikes including this Spyder custom painted like the General Lee and ran into our old friends Sam Galea and Judy & Ron Davidson when we attended the free Red Green comedic performance on the Saturday night (photos below).
New Liskeard has a movie theatre with $4 Tuesdays so we saw ‘Sex in the City 2′ (good) and ‘Grownups’ (silly comedy) while we were there.
Another day we did the ‘Rock Walk’, which is an outdoor geological garden of unusual northern Ontario ore and rocks at the Haileybury School of Mines. (photos below).
Our campground had a brochure about a farm-based woolen mill a few miles away so we drove over there for a tour. The first photo above shows a few ’shearing demonstration’ sheep in the wool storage barn. Most have been sheared but not the brown one. We enjoyed an insightful conversation about the history of the area with the owner - Farmer Dave - shown in the second photo starting to clean and sort the sheared wool by colour and quality. Some of the wool is used in the mill to make blankets and yarn, and the excess is sold abroad (mostly to China).
This is the bin in which the raw wool is washed by hand using a big paddle. They use the electric washer to spin the last bit of water from the washed wool. Then it is dried to preshrink it before carding, which straightens and aligns the fibres. The wool is spun into yarn using 90 year old equipment, twisted into multiple plies, skeined and then washed and dried again. Some of the wool is dyed into different colours and some is left the natural colour (which can be white, beige, gray or black).
The photo above shows the yarn being set up for the loom. This fibre will become a white-based series of about a dozen blankets. I believe these lengthwise fibres are called the warp, and they are wound around a huge roller, which is then used to feed into the loom itself (shown below).
Here is Dave the Farmer, who is also Dave the Weaver, supervising the electric loom, which is making Hudson Bay style striped blankets by adding the sideways yarns (the weft) in white, red, green and black to the white warp yarns. It was very interesting to watch.
This photo of their retail show room shows some of the red-based tartan blankets the woolen mill sells. We liked their product so much we decided to come back in a couple of weeks when the white-based blankets will be ready and hopefully buy one to take home.
Belle Vallee Wools is the only complete farm-based woolen mill in Eastern Canada and you can check out their products at http://www.bellvalleewools.ca/.
Our campsite is just steps from Lake Temiskaming in Sutton Bay Park campground. The lake is very large and the bay at our end of the lake is windy and muddy, so we are not inclined to do any kayaking. Some days the bay looks like chocolate milk.
Below is a vew of our campground, taken from the top of the solid rock hill adjacent to the park. Our trailer is just to the right of the trailers you can see here. The campground is very quiet and clean but we miss having lots of trees for shade and privacy. There are no black flies but some mosquitoes.
The campsite next door is a seasonal (permanent) one with a garden shed and I took this photo of the resident ground hog.
One day John and I went picking wild strawberries by a roadside and brought home enough for our supper salad (show below).
One of the neighbours offered to take a photo of John and I ‘dining out’. We usually have a glass of red wine with our dinner, purely for health reasons of course. You can see our ATV, kayaks and trailer behind us.
One day we hiked for a couple of hours in Pete’s Dam Park and had a picnic lunch. The photos below show some nice water action in the park.
We were told not to miss the view from Devil’s Rock just south of Haileybury, so we hiked for about 45 minutes through the bush up to the granite escarpment above Lake Temiskaming. In the photo below I’m standing about 300 feet above the water, and the water is 300 feet deep here. We heard a young fellow died here a few months ago when he fell part way down the cliff. Yikes!
We had our first taste of some early-ripe wild blueberries a few steps from where this photo was taken. Looking forward to blueberry season so we can go pickin’!
We were near Cobalt again another day and stopped to view the Glory Hole (abandoned surface mine) partly filled with water. Notice the tunnel entrance above water level in the photo below. The parking lot had beautiful wildflowers growing nearby.
The weather has gotten very warm now that June is almost over, so our hikes are not generally very long. We walked for an hour or two through the Hilliardton Marsh, which was reclaimed from abandoned farm land in a project sponsored by Ducks Unlimited. We saw some beaver lodges (see the shoreline below) and some ducks (go figure!).
The area around New Liskeard is interesting and scenic to drive around and we were surprised to see so many lush farm fields this far north. Many of the rivers and lakes are brown here since this is a clay belt region. We preferred the Temagami region with its clear lakes and easy kayaking opportunities. We decided to book another three weeks in August at Happy Holiday campground in Temagami.
There is a shallow creek that feeds into the lake at our campground, so one day we paddled the kayaks upstream until it got too shallow (meaning less than six inches deep). Then we walked up the creek for quite a ways until we reached a small waterfall. In the photos above you can see how clear and shallow the water is.
Another day we returned to Theiving Bear Lake to try some fishing from the kayaks for a couple of hours. These photos above and below show the clear water and the massive rock formations on the shoreline. We ate our picnic lunch while drifting in a quiet bay.
I was lucky on my first day of kayak fishing and caught a nice little bass. John took it off the hook for me and held it up for the photo op. Unfortunately we had to release it since bass season didn’t start until a week later, so we couldn’t bring it home for dinner. But it was exciting all the same. Next time I catch a fish I’ll get John to take the photo so I can hold my trophy. (Ew - does that mean I have to remove the hook?) 
After three weeks in Temagami we moved our travelling road show a half hour up Hwy 11 to Sutton Bay Park outside of New Liskeard.
One day while we were checking our emails at the Temagami library (our campground does not have internet access), we heard a funeral procession for a fallen soldier would be going by on Hwy. 11 shortly. So we walked out to the highway and stood with the people and emergency vehicles to wait. Someone handed out paper Canadian flags so when the police escort and hearse drove by about a half hour later, we all held up the flags in honour of the soldier who died in Afghanistan and whose remains were being returned to his home in northern Ontario. A very moving moment - so sad for the family’s loss.
Another day was very special. I finished my second painting in the morning (islands in the morning mist of a northern lake) and after lunch we drove out to Red Squirrel Road to kayak in Theiving Bear Lake. It is surrounded by crown land so there was no one else there - heaven! The photo above shows John starting to unload the kayaks at the public boat launch and below you can see him kayaking past a big boulder on the shoreline. We kayaked for about three hours and I got dozens of photos of magnificent rocky cliffs that day. Fabulous!
One evening when we were out for a stroll we saw two black bears eating vegetation along the railway beside the campground. I was able to do the hundred yard dash to the trailer and back to get my camera and take this good shot of one of them as they ambled away from us.
During our three weeks in Temagami we had to return home twice due to some appointments we had, so we left the trailer in Temagami and made the 780 km round trip…twice! The second time we were home I was contacted by a person looking to buy my large ‘Simply Amaizing’ painting (shown below), so I delivered it to the Framers Gallery in Port Perry for the customer to pick up. That made my day I can tell you!
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This early morning photo shows the lake just a few steps from our trailer in Happy Holiday campground near Temagami. What a pretty, clean campground. Shawn, the owner, is a former bush pilot so he keeps a small float plane at the dock on the left. When he found out I am an artist, he said he would take me for a flight some time so I could photograph the landscape from the air.
The people at this campground are particularly friendly. Unless it is raining, each evening there is a community campfire either at one of the seasonal sites (trailers are there for the whole summer season) or at the large campfire ring in front of the office building. We so enjoy listening to all the stories. It has been wonderful getting to know Barbara and Shawn the owners, as well as Wendy and Greg from North Bay, Ron and Deborah from North Temagami, Bruno and Debbie who own the chip stand in Temagami and Lorne and Darlene who are moving from near Huntsville to Englehart, as well as several other couples.
The Ontario Northland Railway runs right beside our campground so several times a day small freight or passenger trains go by. The good news is we never hear the trains at night. One day we watched a work crew realigning the rails by raising them with some special equipment that comes from Europe. The yellow machine above measures the vertical alignment of the rails, then lifts them up (ties included) to the correct height and packs gravel around and under the sides. The second photo shows another machine that levels and packs in the fresh gravel around the new position of the railbed. We got to talk to the workers for a half hour or so while they worked beside the campground.
Just a kilometer or so from the campground, Red Squirrel Road leads to a large chunk of crown land with access to several lakes including Net Lake. One day we drove the truck there and launched our kayaks. We explored many different bays and I photographed some rocky outcroppings like the one shown above. Look how clear the water is - you can see the rocks beneath the water very distinctly!
Then we paddled around behind an island in a shallow bay and John spotted this cow moose (below) and her newborn calf. I was able to get a few photos of her with my zoom before she walked out of the water and disappeared into the bush. She had been eating the yellow water lilies we discovered afterwards. Her calf (not shown) was a bright russet red.
There are some interesting towns to the north of us - Cobalt, Haileybury and New Liskeard and we spent a couple of days exploring them.
Cobalt is the silver capital of Canada. Nowadays it appears to be ‘fiscally challenged’ (read: ghost town) but a hundred years ago it was the place to be in northern Ontario. Tons of silver was taken out of the ground here, mostly from open veins reaching the surface, and this wealth in turn financed the subsequent opening of all the other mining operations in the north.
One day we took a driving tour of the old mining district near Cobalt and found it very educational. Shown below is one the ‘glory holes’ or open chutes that were cut into the bedrock to allow removal of the silver-laden ore. This one looked to be maybe eight feet wide.
We also saw a fair bit of wildlife while on the tour, including this perky little red fox who cautiously passed us while we were standing by our truck in a parking area by an old rock crushing mill. We also saw two beavers swimming in one of the tailings lakes, munching on yellow water lily blooms.
In the photo below, John is touching the polished surface of a huge slab of glaciated conglomerate. Apparently the rock was formed eons ago when lava filled in the spaces between older boulders and stones. Then during the last ice age, the advancing glacier ground off the top of the formation to reveal a cross section of the old stones embedded in the surrounding rock. We thought it would make beautiful slabs for kitchen counters!
Here is our travelling road show, bound for northern Ontario. Can’t wait to try out those two new kayaks tied to the roof of the truck, our mountain bicycles strapped to the front of the trailer, and our ATV in the garage at the back of the trailer. We will be staying the first three weeks in Happy Holiday campground, just a few minutes up Hwy. 11 from the town of Temagami, which is about 90 minutes north of North Bay.
The scenery is so gorgeous up here, with hundreds of clear blue, deep lakes, a good mix of coniferous and deciduous trees and lots of wildlife. The photo above is part of the view from the 100 foot fire tower above Temagami, which we climbed one day. We saw a grouse and her brood in the path leading up to the tower. She was doing the broken wing act to distract us from her chicks.
One day we drove to Loon Lodge, a fishing camp on a tiny island off the shore of Lake Temagami. We had lunch (fish of course!) with a bunch of Port Perry friends who were there for a week of lake trout fishing. One of the guys, Mike Fowler, was gracious enough to take us out in his boat for an afternoon of fishing on the lake. Above is a photo of John supervising the down riggers. I learned how to drive the boat at trolling speed, using the depth gauge to keep the bait at the proper depth. We got no bites that day but enjoyed the visit.
Another day, we paddled the kayaks from the small lake at the campground, down a meandering creek (shown above) to the next little lake, then around a short portage and down another little creek to Net Lake, which is one of the large lakes near the town of Temagami. We saw a turtle basking on a log and black and merganser ducks and fish in the creek, which is very clear. Then we stopped for a picnic lunch on a small island in Net Lake (shown below) before heading back the way we came.
Love those kayaks - so easy to paddle and steer when you are sitting down comfortably. They have a padded back rest, foot rests against which to brace your feet, a large waterproof compartment to store lunch or whatever, and a place to keep a water bottle within easy reach.
We adore this northern landscape and I’m getting some good ideas and photos for painting subjects. In the first week I made a painting of a rocky island in a northern lake, done from my imagination but based on what we had seen.
After a long day (6 hour drive) from Springfield, we set up our rig late on Sunday afternoon in a brand new KOA in Bluffton, Indiana, just a half hour south of Fort Wayne. The campground was quite large so we took a walk after supper and explored all the roads within the park.
When we passed one rig a few rows over from ours, a fellow invited us to come share his campfire with him and his wife. We sat down for a chat and it turns out the man, Monte Toon, is a professional watercolour artist from Oklahoma, out for a few months RV holiday with his wife Linda. What a coincidence! So of course we had a lot to talk about - painting styles, pigments we use, how we teach students, build our own web sites, etc. They invited us into their lovely 5th wheel Montana trailer (three slideouts!) and we saw some excellent paintings he was working on. Then we had them over to our trailer and showed them the paintings I had done on our trip. I gave them a Doors of Port Perry poster and Monte said he would mail me one of his prints when he gets home. What a great evening!
The next day was nice weather so we bicycled into Bluffton for an hour or so to see the town (not much to see actually but the exercise was good). Then we drove the truck into Fort Wayne to the visitor centre to see what was happening. Turns out Monday is the day most venues are closed so we could not see the botanical gardens or museums, but the hostess said there was a baseball game on in the evening. We had a huge alfresco lunch at one of the down town hotels and then found Parkview Field, which is a gorgeous ballpark right down town, newly built this spring (see below). We bought tickets, which were less than $30 for the both of us, drove back to the campsite to sleep off lunch and change clothes and headed back to the stadium.
We parked for just $4 in the lot across the street from Parkview Field and found our seats which were seven rows up and directly behind home plate. What a great view! We were sitting with some off-duty players who were measuring the pitching speed with radar guns. In the photo below you can see the ball in the air between the pitcher and the batter. We could call the strikes and balls almost as well as the umpire! The stadium looked to be almost full and we heard there were about 6,000 in attendance.
The previous night’s game had been rained out after five innings, so the first game we watched was the remaining four innings of that unfinished game. Then there was a half our break, the national anthem and seven innings of the second game (shortened due to the double header). The home team, the Tincaps (Class A farm team for the San Diego Padres) won both games against the River Bandits (farm team for the St. Louis Cardinals). Although these are minor league players, the play was very professional and we really enjoyed watching the action. Monday nights are Family Feast so for a buck you could get either a hot dog, popcorn, pop or a pizza slice. What a deal compared to major league games at the stadium in Toronto.
On Tuesday we drove our trailer from Bluffton to Emmett, Michigan (just west of Sarnia) and rested up for two nights there at a quiet KOA out in the middle of nowhere.
On Thursday we made it to London and visited our friend Jade Herder who just bought a new home there. He is doing some renovations to the interior and totally redoing all the landscaping so it will be lovely when he is done. The next day we took a three hour ride along the bicycle path that follows the Thames River in down town London, stopped for a yummy lunch at a pub (nicely avoiding a sudden rainshower in the process - thank you JFR Tours) and headed back to the campground for supper.
The next day we had an appointment at Campkins RV in London to see an Earthbound trailer we had read about on the internet. It was a really nice tow-behind trailer - lightweight and high tech looking - but not a layout we were keen on for our purposes. We asked the dealer to let us know when the model we are interested in is delivered from the factory so we can drive back to London for a viewing.
Having spent three months on the road with our Wildcat fifth wheel toy hauler, we found we used our bicycles as much or more than our motorcycles, so the dedicated garage space is a lot of weight to haul around and an additional eight feet in length to manoeuvre, compared to the actual use we got out of the motorcycles. The other feature we ideally would like is to have is two table workspaces, so that I can paint on one and John can use the computer on the other. We really like the kitchen, bathroom and underfloor storage in our Wildcat but I have seen better functioning layouts for the bedroom storage space and living room seating areas we require. So we are hoping to find a new trailer that is lighter weight and has the features we would prefer. That being said, the Wildcat is a very well engineered, high quality product with many handy features and I would recommend them to anyone. You just have to find the particular model that suits your activities and travel style.
We left Port Perry on May the 4th and after 16,000 km (10,000 miles) we arrived home on July 25 safe and sound. We didn’t want the trip to end but once we were home we were delighted to be there. Since there had been springlike conditions at home while we were travelling, the lawn and gardens looked lush and beautiful. Dad had done a great job looking after our house and lawn and picking up our mail while we were gone.
Gas was much less expensive for our trip this year than last. John figures the average price we paid was about $2.35/Gal (US) which is in the neighbourhood of 75 cents per litre (CDN).
Of the twelve weeks we were away, we spent seven weeks in the desert and we had just four or five rainy days during our entire trip to the American Southwest. We really gained a new perspective about water resources and saw how precarious the water supply is in the Southwest. Very soon there will not be enough water to support people and agriculture down there. We are so blessed to have abundant rainfall and thousands of lakes in Ontario and we must strive to appreciate and protect them. I will never complain about a rainy day again! (Unless my paintings get wet at a show - then I might whine a little.)
Our favourite region to visit without question was southern Utah, because of all the exciting canyons to explore and photograph, fewer crowds and the weather was cooler there than in Arizona due to the higher elevation. We would love to go back and hike more of Zion National Park another year - anyone want to come with us? BYOT (Bring Your Own Trailer)!
The blog is finished for this year. Thanks for listening and commenting from time to time. We really appreciated hearing from you about going’s on back home. Bye for now…
Our main reason for choosing Springfield, Illinois as a stop on our homeward journey was to visit two Frank Lloyd Wright buildings. We set up our trailer in a quiet KOA in the country about 20 minutes outside of town and drove the truck into Springfield to find the sites.
On the way we passed the Muni outdoor theatre and saw on their sign that ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ was being presented on the weekend (today being Thursday) so we parked in their driveway, called their reservation line on the cell and bought two tickets to the Friday night show.
The first Wright site we visited was the Lawrence Memorial Library that he was commissioned to design inside of an existing school in1902. The library is unusual because it is only one of nine interiors designed by the famous architect for buildings he had not designed himself. Only three interiors remain in existence today.
The school is now an adult learning centre, closed for the summer, but the groundskeeper let us know to ring the bell and ask for admittance. We did so, got buzzed into the school and met one of the administrative staff who unlocked the library room for us to enter, and she left us alone in the room (gasp). The most amazing thing is that the library is still in use, after a $100,000 renovation in 1992, so the shelves were full of rather untidy rows of books and I could sit in a FLW chair (another gasp), something that is not allowed in any FLW house tour we have experienced so far. Admittedly, all the furnishings were recreations, but they came from Wright’s original plans and drawings.
The room and the furnishings were beautifully designed and executed, but we found a big puddle of water on the wooden floor (not a surprise in a FLW building – I hear they frequently leak!). John discovered the window air conditioner was dripping condensate inside the room – not Wright’s problem after all – so he called the staff person and she had the custodian come in and clean up the puddle while we were there. She thanked us very much for letting her know about the water before it damaged the floor.
After seeing the library, we drove a few blocks to the visitor centre downtown to see what highlights we should see while in town. Springfield is state capitol and the home of Abraham Lincoln and his tomb is there, so many tourist sites revolve around his life and presidency. We left the truck parked downtown and walked about six blocks to the Dana-Thomas house and signed up for the one hour tour (only $5 each).
What a magnificent building this house is. When Susan Lawrence Dana inherited about 3 million dollars from her father in 1902, she commissioned Wright to renovate her parents’ Victorian mansion into a palatial home for entertaining. Apparently she was one of the few clients who saw eye to eye with the egotistical architect about his artistic vision and it was one of the most expensive private homes he designed. Can you imagine the awe inspiring result when you partner an artistic genius with a very wealthy and willing client? Man oh man… Of course we were not allowed to photograph inside the home but these exterior views of a few wings will give you an idea of the look of the home. You can see more details online at www.dana-thomas.org.
The next day was Friday and while John had the brakes inspected on the truck (they were fine) I worked for four hours on a sketch for a house portrait commission, which is due in September for a 50th anniversary celebration. That evening we drove over to the Muni outdoor theatre, parked in the grass field and made our way to our seats. We were in the 11th row and there were a few thousand people there. What a great facility! It’s been operating for over 50 years and is one of the largest all-volunteer community theatre organizations in the US. Last year they entertained over 40,000 patrons. Fiddler on the Roof was quite well done – good sets and lighting, a decent chorus, great lead actors and every singer had a remote microphone so we could hear really well. The weather cooperated with moderate temperatures and no rain. What a great evening!
On Saturday we drove down south to the town of Chatham to take in their Sweet Corn Festival in the park. It was a small town so the event was not large, but they had a good display of highland game contests (caber tossing, etc.) and the cow chip tossing state championships (I kid you not - the photos prove it!) Here you can see one contestant in mid-throw and another selecting his chip from the wheelbarrow.
The next day we drove our kit and caboodle northeast to Bluffton, which is near Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Leaving Kansas City, we decided to leave the big interstate corridor and take a more northern route, so we could pass through the small town of Chillicothe, Missouri. Why you ask? Because it perports to be the home of sliced bread. Seems the local bakery was the first commercial user of the loaf-at-a-time bread slicing machine in 1928. They have lots of lovely murals throughout town, including this one below.
John and I had visited Hannibal, Missouri, home of Mark Twain, on the Mississippi River, back about 25 or 30 years ago on a motorcycle trip with our friends the Whitneys. Back then we stayed in a delightful former house of ill repute called The Bordello, toured the famous local caves and took a moonlight cruise on the Mississippi on a paddle wheeler. Even I with my terrible memory, remember that as a fun time.
On our 2009 trip we had not been able to locate a local campground on the internet ahead of time so we got a list of three campgrounds from the local visitor centre when we arrived in town. We looked at the closest one, called Injun Joe’s, paid for two nights and then found the site was too small for our rig and the campground looked like it had seen better days. Many permanent trailers is always a warning sign for us.
So we got our money back and went to the second campground, outside of town between the river and the train tracks. It looked a little better, other than that it had rained a lot recently and there were large puddles everywhere. When we paid for two nights (cash only), we hadn’t planned to be awakened every two hours each night by the train whistles, but there you go. Can’t win ‘em all…
As we found out later, the third campground was close to downtown and was ‘big-rig friendly’ so we should have stayed there. A hint for other RV’ers: when booking campgrounds sight unseen, look for the following and you will not often be disappointed – campgrounds should offer free wi-fi, have a 1-800 phone number for reservations and a web site and they should accept payment by credit cards. Any campgrounds not offering these services are often in decline, in our experience anyway.
Our first night in town we went to a play called ‘Mark Twain Himself’ at a small theatre and really enjoyed the solo production. The actor talked to the audience in the manner that Twain did when he was alive - he was a renowned public speaker as well as a writer. We were spellbound for the 80 minute performance.
The campground we stayed in had no internet service but we found an internet café in Hannibal and spent a nice morning there the next day enjoying coffee and warm sticky buns, catching up on emails. There was a little public garden in downtown that featured the work of the local master gardeners so I got some decent flower photos there, two of which are pictured below.
That afternoon we took a one hour guided tour of the Rockcliffe Mansion in Hannibal, shown below. It is a 13,500 square foot American ‘castle’ on the National Register of Historic Homes and was built between 1898 and 1900. Many of the furnishings and personal belongings such as clothing and hats were intact, which made for a very interesting narrated tour.
Several table lamps had been made by Tiffany, as was this impressive stained glass window in the main stairwell. Photography was not allowed inside but we lucked out and ended up having a private tour (because no other visitors showed up) and the guide gave me permission to photograph the window when I asked. You can read more about the house at http://www.rockcliffemansion.com/.
That evening we saw the new Johnny Depp movie ‘Public Enemies’, which was the story of the final days of the American bank robber John Dillinger. I found the style of cinematography very disjointed which kind of spoiled the film for me, but I am always amazed how Depp can reinvent himself with every character he portrays. I almost did not recognize him in this movie.
The next day we moved our rig from Hannibal, Missouri to Springfield, Illinois, in our steady trek homeward in an easterly direction. Below is the bridge we went over to cross the Mississippi River into Illinois and the photo is taken from the Hannibal waterfront.
The drive from WaKeeney in western Kansas all the way across the state to Kansas City was a straightforward haul along the interstate, so I took the opportunity to write the text for my artist journey blog on our lap top during the five hour drive. It felt great to catch up on some stories since often we are so busy having fun that it is hard to find the time to document it!
We found a lovely KOA about a half hour drive west of Kansas City, which is a bustling place. John found out about a large Cabela’s store near the Kansas Speedway so after we hooked the trailer up to utilities we drove the truck into town. We drove by the Speedway which is the big professional race track where NASCAR events are held. Impressive grandstands and acres of grassy fields for parking (empty when we saw them). Just as well – if it had been a race weekend we would not have found a campsite in the vicinity I am sure. We checked on the internet and they were selling tickets for the fall races already.
It was Saturday afternoon and Cabela’s (which is an outdoor store like Bass Pro, selling clothing, camping and hunting gear) was having their weekly outdoor clearance sale (75% off) so John found a nice pair of leather loafers and a gift for a friend back home. We explored the store for a few hours and had supper at Jimmy Buffet’s restaurant ‘Cheeseburger in Paradise’ at the newly buiilt mall next door, which was called Legends Entertainment District. The photo below shows a band playing in one section of the outdoor mall. There were lots of people there - not sure if they were actually buying stuff or just there to be entertained.
Having seen several advertisements for the Nebraska Furniture Mart, we passed by that store, which took up a huge section of the outdoor mall. The first photo below shows the entrance to the parking lot and the second photo shows just two wings of the store from the outside.
There were about seven lanes of cars – maybe 100 vehicles – lined up in the Customer Pickup lot, which made us wonder what sort of bargains would attract that many buyers during a recession. We decided to return on Monday for a look-see, when it would not be so busy.
The next day, Sunday, we were awakened in the early morning by a loud thunderstorm. It was so lovely to hear the rain on the roof of our RV and feel cosy and sheltered inside so we slept in late. During our whole three month trip we only had a handful of wet days so we enjoyed the rain. After doing the laundry and going on a grocery run in the village nearby, we got out the motorcycles and drove back to ‘Cheeseburger in Paradise’ for the weekly motorcycle ride-in that the restaurant hosts. As it turns out there were only about ten bikes there so we had a snack, took the photo below of our bikes in front of the restaurant and headed back to the campground, but the ride was really nice through country highways.
Monday we headed into the Nebraska Furniture Mart first thing in the morning and more or less had the store to our selves. It took us over an hour to walk through all the departments and we have never seen such a large showroom of furniture, appliances and electronics. What surprised us was that prices were about the same as at home, so I guess it was the large selection that brought in the buyers, or else they had had a special sale on during the weekend when we saw so many people lined up to pick up their purchases. There were perhaps 30 or 40 fridges on display, some retailing for as much as $7000. We saw all kinds of those nifty coffee tables that swing up to dining height. It was a very interesting visit.
We checked out a few more stores that John was interested, including the LMC Truck Accessory warehouse, and he made us some delicious back ribs on the BBQ back at the campground. The next day we loaded up and headed for Hannibal, Missouri.
Just inside the western border of Kansas lies the village of Goodland, a blip on the interstate whose main claim to fame appeared to be this giant reproduction of one of Van Gogh’s sunflower paintings on an 80 foot easel. You can see our rig parked behind it in the photos below. Yes it’s a big sucker. The Rotary Club has made a bit of a park around it and you can see John signing the register.
WaKeeney is a tiny freeway town in western Kansas (read: flat) and does not have a lot to recommend it, but it had a stock car track and fortunately the one night we spent there was a Race Night.
So at 7:30 we drove over to the fair grounds, paid our $10 each entry fee, got our two beers for $5 and settled down in the stands to watch the races. This photo below shows the back of the bleachers from the parking lot.
We had a blast! There were three classes of races – stock, hobby and modifieds. The early races usually involved 4 to 7 cars at a time and they raced five laps around the 1.5 mile dirt track. The stock cars were older style Oldsmobiles and Cutlasses from the 1990’s.
My favourite class was the modifieds because they went the fastest and made the most noise (what a caveman I am!), looking like something between the Back to the Future Delorean and a comic book cover. The later races involved a dozen cars or more in races of 15 and 20 laps. The bleachers were on the side of the track with the start and finish lines, and there is nothing like the sound of those cars all bunched up in two rows bumper to bumper, roaring past the start line – enough to make my empty beer can vibrate in my hand! Then a few seconds later, the cloud of gritty dust drifted over us, deliciously tinged with a whiff of nitrous oxide! The races were over at 10 pm so we went back to the RV and had showers to wash off the grit before heading for bed.
The journey from Glenwood Springs took us up into the mountains (over 10,000 feet) and back down to Denver which is just over 5,000 feet. John wants to know if our stay in Denver qualifies us for the mile high club. Lol
The photos below show some of the mountain scenery we passed.
Skihills don’t look so exciting without their snow cover.
We saw several runaway lanes for vehicles that lose their brakes. This sign below was interesting. It says “Lost Brakes? Do Not Exit - Stay On I-70″. The runaway lane was built inside the guardrail and ran along the right side parallel to the traffic lanes.
That evening we saw this double rainbow above our trailer.
The next day I didn’t really feel like touring museums and stuff in Denver so John found out on the internet about a big Bass Pro store in a shopping complex in Denver and suggested we go there to start. We ended up staying the whole day there and had a great time. The Bass Pro store was a large two storey one with good displays of clothing, hunting and camping gear. I got some shorts on sale and John got a pair of reinforced hunting pants on sale. They have Kevlar on the lower legs so burs don’t stick to them.
Elsewhere in the complex I found a ladies wear shop with a great summer sale on (50% off the lowest marked price) and got three lovely tops. We had a delicious lunch in a Mexican cafeteria style eatery and saw the new Disney animated film ’Up’ in the cinema. It was a heart warming story about an old widower who flies his house using helium balloons from the US to the South American jungle. We enjoyed it. Then we checked out this neat Gadget store and bought a few gifts for people at home. The old printer that we had brought with our laptop had died a couple of days ago, so we got a nifty compact HP printer on sale at Office Max. We hauled our loot home and the next day we moved our rig to Kansas.
This is how flat eastern Colorado is. Most people think of mountains when they hear Colorado, but the whole eastern half is a large flat plain.
We left about 10 in the morning on a beautiful sunny day and headed upriver on the bicycle trail from our campground in Glenwood Springs. The trail snaked alongside the Colorado River and we got good views of the roaring, muddy rapids as we went along. We met lots of other cyclists, joggers and river rafters during our ride.
We carried Gatorade, water, cheese, fruit and my camera, all without knap sacks which was nice. We bought our mountain bikes about 25 years ago (from Wayne Robinson’s Bicycle City shop in Oshawa, for those of you who would remember) but they are still in really good shape and we used lots of gears. The trail went 13 miles upriver but after 5 miles we had lunch and decided to turn back. The return journey was easier as that was the downriver direction so there was a fair bit of coasting.
My new bicycle seat is divided in two halves with a long valley carved down the centre. When I asked the young salesman in the cycle shop if this was to improve air circulation he said no it was to “relieve pressure”, which I thought was very delicate phrasing from a 20-something guy to a lady old enough to be his mother. Anyway the new seat technology helped considerably and I was glad I upgraded. I suggested John replace his bicycle seat as well and he is considering it.
That afternoon we drove into Glenwood Springs to get groceries and stumbled upon a trailhead going to the Doc Holliday memorial in the old town cemetery. So we parked and hiked up the hill to take in the lovely view of the town in the gorge (sorry – no camera with me) and found the marker that said Doc Holliday was buried “someplace in this cemetery”. Apparently the old burial records were lost, stolen or destroyed back in the early part of the 20th century so no-one knows which grave is his. Doc Holliday took part in the shootout in the OK Corral with Wyatt Earp but Doc actually died of tuberculosis at the age of 36 when he came to Glenwood Springs to take the healing waters. Ironic.
While on the hike we met some other people who let us know the weekly farmers market was taking place downtown that evening so we took the groceries back to the RV, got all the fresh stuff in the fridge and drove back to the market. It was interesting but there were definitely no bargains. I bought two blondie squares for our snack and a small focaccia loaf and that came to $13. Should have asked the price before he wrapped everything up for us… There were perhaps twenty vendors there selling organic produce and wine, jewellery, the usual.
The next day we loaded up and headed for the KOA campground just east of Denver.
Well this is a red letter day! When we were in Moab we met a young couple from Florida who were out on a five month RV trek. They like to do outdoor stuff and had kayaks and bicycles with them and we had several nice chats with them in the campground. They let us know about a really great national park in the mountains of Colorado where the hiking was really great, so when we left Grand Junction we headed for the area they suggested.
Before we pulled out we noticed this baby dove that had fallen out of a nest on our campsite and stayed put long enough for me to take some photos. Mom and Pop Dove were nearby so we knew it would be OK. First flight day maybe?
As we left Grand Junction we got a good view of some of the vineyards and orchards for which the area is famous.
Our journey that day was alongside the Colorado River which, unlike our blue rivers at home, was very muddy and it seemed fairly high on the banks. It was so great to finally see some greenery and to leave the desert behind., although temperatures were still in the 80’s.
As we drove through the Glenwood Canyon area, the river valley narrowed to a gorge so there was lots of action in the Colorado River in terms of rapids, rafters and kayakers. The divided freeway had to become a double decker structure to fit in the canyon and we could see a bicycle path that ran for many miles alongside the river, below the freeway. It was really dramatic scenery and we were enthralled.
The reason for the red letter day is that we got about twenty miles past Glenwood Canyon, heading for this national forest park our Florida friends recommended and John said “How about going back to stay in Glenwood Springs and bicycling the trail along the river”. This is very unusual for John to suggest backtracking when we are underway with our rig. It’s like this inertia thing that says “must go forward!” I thought it would be fabulous to go back there. So we pulled off the freeway, checked our campground directories, found a campground in Glenwood Springs, phoned them on the cell to make sure they had room for us (they did) and turned back. Good move!
This is our campsite in the Glenwood Springs RV Park, which is between the freeway and the Colorado River. Our truck is to the right of centre and our trailer is to the right of that. The river is behind the building down a big hill. What a gorgeous spot!
We arrived in the early afternoon so after we got hooked up to our services we got on our bicycles and peddled three miles to downtown Glenwood Springs on the excellent bicycle trail. It appeared to be the old road, now closed to automobiles and reserved for pedestrians and bicyclists and it went right along the edge of the Colorado River. Pinch me somebody! Oh wait, my old bicycle seat was pinching me just fine…
Downtown was really busy with traffic and we had to bicycle over this long footbridge that went over the freeway, the river and the rail yard (did I mention I hate heights). We checked out an outfitters surplus store which was overpriced for the most part but I did get a neat balaclava for snowmobilng. We cycled through some residential streets that were interesting and shady. It was mostly uphill on the way back to the campground so the trip back was very challenging and my tush was suffering somewhat.
After supper at the RV we drove back in to town to browse the shops (that is John’s favourite time to go window shopping with me – when the stores are closed). Honestly it was just as well because prices were really high, this being such a popular tourist town. But we did find a cycling shop that was open and I bought a new bicycle seat – one designed for girls! My 25 year old seat was falling apart (I mean the bicycle seat silly – my behind is somewhat older than that). John installed the new seat on my bicycle and we were all set for our Colorado River trail bike ride the next day.
On Sunday we went to yet another Farmers Market in the nearby town of Pallisade, which has dozens of wineries. Prices were relatively high so I just bought some organic salad greens. I talked for quite a while to a very nice lady who was selling her handmade jewellery that I had seen at the other Farmers Markets in the area. She said she went to shows spring through fall as well as working full time at another job and raising a teenager. Once he was done high school she planned to sell her house, give half of the money to her son for his college education and use her half to buy an RV and go on the road selling her jewellery full time. I told her about our RV trips and about me doing art shows for about 18 years while working full time and now doing art and travelling full time. We had a really nice chat.
We picked up groceries at a City Market store near our campground. What a fabulous grocery store chain. They have a huge fresh produce section, an in store bakery and deli, a good fresh meat counter and offer an amazing selection of ready to eat entrees the like of which I have not seen at home, even at Costco. We got one of their free membership cards to qualify for all the special price deals, typically saving 20% on our groceries.
After stashing the groceries and having lunch in the RV, John wanted to check out another car show nearby. Since it was in the vicinity, I had him drop me off at the Ross store for an hour while he looked at cars. I found another fabulous blue cocktail dress, fully lined, originally priced at $130 and I paid only 5.99. Made my day!
The botanical garden in Grand Junction has free admission on the first Sunday of each month so we decided to check it out on our way back to the campground. Good job it was free because it was very small and a little sad looking. They had a butterfly conservatory with lots of cocoons but only one butterfly that we could see. An indoor greenhouse offered a few tropical flowers and orchids, and there was a small outdoor display of desert plants and a water lily pond. At least I got a few good photos for painting ideas.
The next day we said good-bye to Grand Junction and headed for the mountains of Colorado.
The fourth of July fell on a Saturday so there were lots of events to go to in and around Grand Junction and we had a fun day.
In the morning we drove to the nearby village of Fruita to take in the Farmers Market which is held in the green space park in the middle of downtown. There were the usual booths selling local produce (bought some lovely green beans and baby zucchini) and jewellery and other girly stuff, as well as a farm selling alpaca wool products and they had two small alpacas in a petting pen. They looked a little shy so I just looked at them – so white and cute little guys… or girls…?
While strolling and window shopping in the small downtown area we noticed a poster for a Mopar Car Show being held that day in Grand Junction so John’s eyes lit up and we headed to that event next. It was held in the parking lot of a lovely big hotel complex and there was a good display of about 60 or so Chrysler cars and trucks, mostly from the 1970’s to present day.
Each visitor got a ballot for the People’s Choice award so I voted for this spiffy 1957 pickup truck. It’s the same age as I and when I joked to John that it looked to be in better shape than I was, he said if I had as much cosmetic surgery as the truck did then I could look like that too. I think he honestly meant it as a compliment so I gave him a squeeze.
Then we treated ourselves to a nice lunch at Appleby’s, went back to the comfort of our air conditioned RV (it was really hot out by now) and I spent a lovely afternoon painting the lizard in my latest work in progress.
At 5 pm we drove to downtown Grand Junction (same street that had the Farmers Market on Thursday evening) and settled in to watch the fourth of July parade. It was a small parade with no marching bands but lots of American flags flying. The theme was ‘Abe Lincoln’ and I got this nice photo of the parade marshal and some horses.
There also were some great tributes to the troops and veterans.
Nineteen Corvettes drove by, each with a veteran riding shotgun and in the front window was a sign indicating which conflict the veteran served in. Several were WWII and reminded me of my parents who also served in that war.
What a classy way to appreciate these folks who served their country in their younger days. The crowd really responded with applause and “Thank You”’s as the veterans drove by.
We sent a photo of one of the Vettes for Vets to the Scugog Standard newspaper at home as a suggestion of something our local Corvette club could do in a Port Perry parade. The editor thought it was a great idea and said he would try to set up something like that for our next parade which is the Labour Day Fair parade in September.
Several local business were touting their services, this one below being a limo company with a stretched limo and a stretched Hummer.
And of course what is a parade without the Shriners?
We went back to the RV and had a delicious spaghetti dinner with fresh salad and wine with garlic toast made on the BBQ. Later that evening we listened to the fireworks going off but couldn’t see them due to the trees in our campground. A lovely day!
Our second full day in Grand Junction we took a morning motorcycle ride up into the Colorado National Monument which was only about a twenty minute drive from our campground.
The monument is a big escarpment that overlooks the wide valley that contains the Colorado River and all the towns, farms and vineyards in the area. There were lots of switchbacks on the road to climb up to the top but the road surface was well looked after and we meandered along the edge of the cliff at the speed limit of 25 mph.
It was a lovely ride, cool enough to be comfortable in all our gear. We stopped a few times to take photos of the great views.
Here we are back at the KOA campsite with all our toys and John firing up the BBQ (below). You can see where we store our mountain bikes - they lock to a rack on the hitch kingpin at the front of the RV. We store the motorcycles in the side-loading garage to the rear of the RV.
We hauled our laundry over to the KOA Laundromat where I settled in for the afternoon and had an unexpectedly wonderful time. It was one of the nicest laundry facilities I had used on our trip, with eight front loading washers and commercial driers. With five washing machines filled, I was thinking of settling down with a good book when another camper came in to do her wash. I struck up a conversation with her and we ended up yacking for a couple of hours while our clothes got clean. Her name was Mary and she and her husband Bob are full time RVers. They sold their house over a year ago and travel around in a nice diesel pusher (bus) with a small car and two bicycles in tow.
Mary said she had been leery of getting rid of most of her possessions, moving away from her kids and grandkids and living on the road all year but very quickly adapted to their new way of life. When they sold their house they bought an old Pace Arrow RV and enjoyed it so well they traded up to a newer (2005) coach that had more modern conveniences. Mary does a lot of handcrafts to pass the time, such as crochet and tatting. When I told her about me being a watercolour painter she said she had done some of that too. It was so great to make a friend.
Our campground was next door to the local fairgrounds, so we walked over there in the evening to take in a Gun Show. I found it interesting as there were quite a few antique and collectible guns there, as well as turquoise and silver jewellery and a lady selling homemade jams and sauces. She let me know there was another Farmers Market on Sundays at a nearby town so we made a note to go there.