Bikerhen’s Blog

May 18, 2011

Today was our year-end class trip. We went on a Thousand Island Boat Cruise, based out of Rockport, Ontario. While it was cool and breezy on the water, the rain held off until we were almost back to the dock. Dis-embarking right at noon we had a full lunch buffet with too many things to choose from. It was a great day with a great bunch of people.

St. Brendan’s Catholic Church, Rockport, Ontario. This church was built in 1891. The ‘Queen of Peace’ monument was dedicated in 1919.

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May 14th, 2011 – Tutorials are a wonderful thing.

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May 9, 2011

Good grief where is the time going? I have been working on an “Adult Educator” Certificate and it’s made life a little hectic. BUT, I have conquered three courses over the winter. There are days I can hardly wait for my trip out west, but I have been cautioned more than once not to wish my life away by dreaming of what’s ahead. But I rather like dreams. Dreaming sure beats trying to pound time into such a shape that I can get everything done. I will try to post a mapquest map of my planned route.

http://www.mapquest.com/embed?hk=kpWMv5

Okay, that didn’t work, but the link does. I leave May 27th… bright and early in the morning and I hope to update my blog along the way with interesting things I find. The poor husband is losing his car for my sojourn, as his Cobalt is considerably better on fuel than my Santa Fe. Besides I like the idea of him buzzing about in a car with plates that read “Bikerhen”. It keeps the neighbours wondering..

A Wonderful Surprise

Today was the awards presentations for Brockville’s short story contest, sponsored by the Recorder and Times, Leeds County Books, the Brockville Public library and Writer’s Ink. I won third prize for my story “Connections”, a story about a war bride. This is the first prize I have ever won for any of my writing and I am, of course, delighted to be so honoured.

My prize was a book, courtesy of Leeds County Books, of Brockville, “100 Photos that Changed Canada” edited by Mark Reid of Canada’s History Magazine. I’ve only glanced through it so far, but it is FABULOUS, and I look forward to devouring every page!

http://www.harpercollins.ca/books/100-Photos-That-Changed-Canada-Mark-Reid/?isbn=9781554684977

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Attacking our Bucket List    written for s.m.i.l.e. Summer 2010

by Dorothy Bush

There are all kinds of camping: wilderness survival, fly-in/boat-in, backpacking, bicycling, motorcycling, and tenting with and without children as well as trailers of infinite size and variety. The camping experiences my husband, John, and I have enjoyed have matured over the years and I am glad of it. There are those who claim that dragging a small house down the highway isn’t camping, but I disagree. The camping experience is the same but the level of comfort afforded by an RV allows our aging carcasses to still enjoy it. We laugh about a motorcycle camping trip taken years ago that saw us spending ten days soaked to the skin. We laugh NOW; it wasn’t so funny THEN.

The best camping trip of our lives, to date, was last summer when we headed west to visit our son and daughter-in-law in Cold Lake, Alberta. I have a list of all the things we’d like to do and see while we are still able; our own bucket list. We did a lot of slashing to that list on this trip. It was a month of pure heaven: good roads, little traffic, meeting friends both new and old (silver and gold, I call them), exploring places we had never been in this great country of ours and the chance to spend some time with our son and his wife. Not much beats the joy of spending time doing things you enjoy with people you love.

It was late May when we left home. The trees were in full leaf and we had cut our lawn three times already. Imagine our surprise when we were travelling through Northern Ontario to find snow still piled against the tree lines along the road and the few deciduous trees still bare of leaves. This was my first inkling that my worry over which bathing suit to pack was possibly wasted time. I gave thanks for our propane heater.

Camping reservations weren’t a concern as the prime season was over a month away. We had already learned that Wal-Mart not only allows RV’s to park over-night in their parking lots, but encourages the practise. It’s a win-win situation. Campers stay for free but are just as apt to go shopping and pick up supplies while they are there. While we did use their lots a few times over the month, we much preferred small independently-owned campgrounds, such as Thunderbird Campground on Lac de Mille Lacs, near Upsala Ontario. While I prepared supper at camp, John went down to the dock to throw a line in the water. He came back with a lovely Northern Pike. Fresh fish from a cold northern lake pre-empts chili any day! Upsala is also where we saw a black bear right in the village the next morning, on our way through. I gave thanks for solid walls.

Kapuskasing Ontario, over-nighting at Wal-Mart

Driving into the prairies is almost an abrupt experience. At one moment you are still in trees and rocky out-croppings and the next you are in grasslands. I kept my eyes peeled for my first glimpse of a ‘real cowboy’, but the horses were in paddocks and the cowboys were in pick-up trucks wearing ball caps. I didn’t see what I considered a ‘traditional’ cowboy until later in the trip, at the Cold Lake Rodeo.

We camped one night at the Brooks, Alberta, Municipal Campground. There are many such places throughout the west, some run by cities or towns, others by Lions or Kinsmen Clubs or church groups. They are usually un-staffed or looked after by volunteers, fees are minimal and payment is on your honour.  We toured the Brooks Museum while we were there and had many chuckles as we went through. You know you are old when you see items you still use in a museum. The twin of my husband’s tractor was parked outside, beside the twin of his mower. On our way to lunch we were standing on the street corner deciding which way we were going to go. We turned to find all four lanes of traffic stopped in both directions to allow us to cross. Can you imagine? In Ontario you take your life in your hands crossing the street!

Drumheller, Alberta is advertised as the Badlands of Canada and driving down into this massive crack in the earth is nothing short of other-worldly. We met our very distant Bush cousins, Chane and Joan in Drumheller and they toured us about all the great scenic spots including Wayne, Alberta (population 27) and the Last Chance Saloon. Bullet holes from years past remain in one wall attesting to the fact that there was a little ‘wild’ in our west as well as that south of the border. The hoodoos and fanciful outcroppings through-out the area are eerie as is the fact you can find pieces of petrified dinosaur bones laying about. It was also a little quirky to find a ghost town with my name… Dorothy, population 12.

The Hoodoos, Drumheller, Alberta

The Last Chance Saloon at Wayne, Alberta

Dorothy at Dorothy, Alberta

Our next stop was Cold Lake where our son and daughter-in-law live. We were fortunate to be there during the month-long exercise Maple Flag, one of the largest joint training exercises in the world, run by the Air Force. As well as having the opportunity to watch our own and International aircraft take-off and land, there was a static display where you could see the planes up close. The day was complete with a community style buffet breakfast, aircraft mementoes and paraphernalia to purchase and the chance to visit with aircrew personnel. An unexpected highlight was a ride on an Airbus for a re-fuelling exercise. We didn’t know where we were other than restricted airspace over Northern Alberta/Saskatchewan. Regardless, it was yet another once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Refuelling exercise somewhere over Northern Alberta/Saskatchewan

We spent two weeks in Cold Lake, an interesting city that is an amalgamation of three towns: Grand Centre, Cold Lake and Medley. Kinosoo Beach has been named one of the top 25 beaches in Canada, however it never got warm enough for me to try the water. An advantage to the cool weather was the absence of black flies and mosquitoes around the campfire. The area is an outdoor-person’s dream. Opportunities for hiking, biking, quad-ding, fishing and hunting abound and the residents welcome tourists with warm smiles.

Our last week-end in Cold Lake happened to coincide with the Cold Lake Rodeo, adding another cross-out to our bucket list. The fairgrounds and bleachers were packed and it appeared people had their favourite athletes, as in any competition. The excitement was palpable and it lasted all day, from the bronc-riding, through the roping to the chuck-wagon races. But really, I wondered at the sanity of those people driving those horses. At full speed those wagons fairly slid around that track.

Chuckwagon Races - Cold Lake Rodeo 2009

On our way home we stopped and visited our Bush cousins again, this time near Lloydminster, Saskatchewan. Joan Bush was formerly an Elliott and they invited us to tour their cash crop farm. Farms out west are measured in hectares, fields of crops or pastures are huge, and machinery massive.

Machinery on the Elliott farm, near Lloydminster, Saskatchewan

The Prairie Provinces are simply incredible! The land is flatter than what we are used to but it undulates and rolls gently. It’s easy to imagine it as it once was, the bottom of a great sea. We never expected to see an inland salt marsh, but the Quill Lakes region in east-central Saskatchewan has been designated a Western Hemispheric Shorebird Reserve. One hundred and forty species of migratory birds have been recorded, including the Piping Plover, Peregrine Falcon, Whooping Crane, Sandhill Crane and the White Pelican.

My absolute favourite prairie critters though were the Prairie Dogs, otherwise known as Richardson’s Ground Squirrels. They are the bane of farmers and urbanites alike because of the huge towns they dig out underground, but they are small, the size of squirrels and the colour of cardboard. They are as curious as can be, standing and chittering or whistling at you until you look in their direction, then they duck down into their burrows. My cousin Joan was able to coax one near with treats, but most are not this sociable.

Joan Bush, with a prairie dog at Drumheller, Alberta

My husband and I view camping and travel the same way. It’s about seeing things you might otherwise never see; about meeting people by chance you might otherwise never meet; about enjoying the great outdoors, and about experiencing a bit of life as others experience it in their parts of this great country. Camping is a great avenue by which to do all of the above. Anything else that might happen along the way is just icing on the cake, or in our case, another item scratched from the bucket list.

Happy trails!

• Casco tour Friday afternoon,
• meeting more Bush relatives and touring the homestead, and maple syrup operation
• dinner at the McIntosh Inn,
• photos at the homestead Saturday morning (because we’d all forgot cameras the day before)
• Thousand Islands Parkway
• Thousand Islands boat cruise and Boldt Castle, Saturday afternoon,
• Tunnel Bay and Blockhouse Island, Brockville,
• dinner at the Red George Public House,
• and an evening walk along the old Galop Canal.

An upper turret room in an unfinished state. When we visited in the 1970's the entire castle interior looked like this

Chane and John Bush in front of Boldt Castle, Heart Island, Thousand Islands

Chane, Joan and John Bush at Boldt Castle, Heart Island, Thousand Islands

I have been working at TR Leger in Brockville and earlier this week I met a young man who just has this amazing vision when it comes to word art. He makes these word montages out of newspaper and June magazine clippings, bits and bites printed from the internet and I don’t begin to understand how he envisions these and puts them together but he does a fantastic job. I do know he doesn’t use any formal grid system as I’ve watched him at work and the end products are pretty amazing.

 

There is a theme runs through each one and a mixture of words that conjure images of both views of his theme, the good and the bad. There are bits of inspiration and wisdom that just seem to pop out.  Every time I see one of his works I see something different. Just an amazing unique vision.

Word Montage 2 by Chris Fox

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May 14th, 2010

Flower Spider aka Crab Spider

I was sitting in the kitchen last night, looking at photos on the laptop with my daughter Jessie. Something moving across the table caught my eye and I zeroed in on it. Not very happily I was looking at this outrageous looking spider. I don’t particularly like spiders. (understatement).

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May 6th, 2010

Today I have been working on a short story that I would like to enter into the “Scene of the Crime” Contest for the annual Writing Festival of the same name. This one day festival is held on Wolfe Island, (Ontario) August 14th. The contest is due prior June 1st and I have a story done, but I’m not satisfied with it.. so, back to work. Information about the writing festival is here:  http://www.sceneofthecrime.ca/

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May 5th, 2010

We have had a wonderful spring here in Eastern Ontario. Beautiful days in March had a few people out on their bikes. I watched with envy but was waiting for rain to clean the salt and debris from the roads. It seemed a long time coming. More beautiful days in April and still not a lot of rain. More snow for which the road department had to use salt, yet again.

I waited for rain but had the husband get the bike out of storage so I could at least get it washed and ready for riding. I admit to a serious mistake. I put the bike away dirty and paid for it; a lot of elbow grease was needed this spring to clean it up. And something else.While cleaning and checking and checking tires and such I noticed something missing, the rear wheel axle nut. Now where in hell would that go? And exactly when did it go? I had visions of riding merrily down the road and being passed by my rear wheel…. not a pleasant scene in my mind. I trotted in to see the husband in his throne (appropriately named leather lazy-boy). “Mmmm, I think something’s missing on the bike,” says I.

“What?” asks he.

“Is there supposed to be a nut on the rear axle?”

“Well I don’t know without looking.”

“Well, can you come look? It’s a threaded bolt, which usually means it should have a nut, right?” As you might be able to tell, I’m pretty deficient in motorcycle mechanics. Well, any kind of mechanics to be honest. Thank goodness, those genes didn’t pass on to our children. Pre-ride checks and daily maintenance I’m okay with, except I don’t really check my nuts. (Minds out of the gutter, everybody!)

The end of this scenario is that the nut and washer were indeed missing and I had no idea when or where it disappeared to. I visited our local dealer, Knapp’s Yamaha and ordered a new one, which subsequently came in a few days later. It’s a lock nut and should NOT have come loose, but like lots of things, should and did are completely different events.

Note: that one nut was over $25.00 and the washer was $11.00. I didn’t buy the washer. I’m not enough of a chrom-a-holic to need a chrome washer. But $25.00 for one nut… that makes a pair quite valuable, say what? LOL

Moral of this story: Watch your nuts… make sure they’re on tight..

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May 4th, 2010

I am trying to think of what is important enough to discuss on a first blog post. Maybe it doesn’t really matter, and I’m just stalling.

I spent last evening cleaning out my google blog, and posting a link to this site. I just don’t have an interesting enough life for two blogs… go figure. When I think of it, it might not be interesting enough for one, but I do enjoy it, so will persevere. And maybe have some fun with it as well.