Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri

My rant about the crack of dawn continues briefly to point out that this morning we were actually up-and-showered before the crack of dawn. Not such a big deal really since sunrise was at 8:00 am here in Sarnia. The good part is that the days are getting longer...

A quick look outside revealed that the predicted overnight snowfall was a bit of a bust: barely a full inch. So here's what the first snowfall on the car for 2009 looks like; thrilling no? ... and guess who doesn't have or need a snow brush?

Damn, that's cold on the bare hands!

We arrived with some trepidation at customs and ended up being next; no line-up! The Customs Officer was a young persistent young lady with a NY accent and her male ferret then positioned himself behind the car. I handed over our passports and she requested that I turn off the motor and hand over the keys. New for us, but no problem so far.

She asked that I open the trunk. I have to digress somewhat here so that you have a chance of understanding the outcome.

When we got up, the car had snow on it, and was very cold, so I used the valet key to start the car and let it run, then I locked the car while I loaded the un-freezable stuff and our travel suitcase, camera, computer etc. back where they belonged. Being a convertible, I've always been conscious of the truck's vulnerability so I always lock it. That way, I figure, if someone slices the roof, they still will not be able to access the trunk. Now, back the the scene at customs.

I couldn't open the trunk from the inside because I locked it, remember? I mentioned that it was locked and would need the key. The Customs officer handed my keys to the snout and of course they didn't work, right? Of course not, I had been driving with the valet key and it was working exactly as designed: it ran the motor but could not open the trunk. By this time, I was starting to understand what was happening and offered to get out and help. That got an very immediate response and a fairly loud and unmistakable 'stay in the car!', which I understood immediately. I fished out the driving key, handed it over and the trunk was opened. Then came the question from the snout: what's in the box from Amazon? I thought it was a book, but Joan piped-in that the contents were listed on the box front. The trunk was closed [and re-locked!], the keys returned to the Customs officer and the inquisition continued. Why were we going to San Diego? how long would we be?where were we staying? how long again? where were we going to be in Florida? how long?, why? How were we getting to San Diego? Florida? etc. As it turns out, that last question is not as stupid as it sounds. The Customs officer wanted to know if we were going to fly within the USA without asking the question directly! I had been faced with the same question before, except that at that time, that officer followed up with a direct:" will you be flying within the USA or from the USA" It was interesting to see the officer grilling Joan then me with similar but slightly different rapid-fire questions.

Since we had thrown out the chicken breasts that we had brought to make sandwiches earlier in the morning, we didn't have any fruit, liquor, tobacco, fruit, [or any food that was good for us other than snacks: peanuts, chips, candy, bread, butter and hard boiled eggs]. By now, the officer was getting bored so she wished us a safe voyage and we were off. Not as bad as it could have been had they decided to look at everything we had stuffed here and there in the car. Nothing we shouldn't have, mind, just the hassle of getting everything free of snow and back in its place.

Shortly after that, we missed our exit and went west when we should have been heading south west, not a big difference, but enough to matter. I can hear someone mentioning Emma, the GPS. Well, as it turns out, I had not programmed the trip since we had done it often, and since her maps are getting somewhat dated when the highway interchanges are new. At any rate, Emma told us exactly where we were but off-ramps were scarce. We eventually got gas, got turned around, and eventually found the elusive exit and we on our way, the right way...

The rest of the day was just about as uneventful as it can be: fairly light traffic most of the time, attempted snow flurries every now and again, some mist here and there, and good fortune in finding the local NPR radio stations. Four states in one day means a couple of cheap gas fill-ups where my usual fill can be under $50 here [but well over $60 at home]. Some things are definitely looking up! The temperature needs some work however. It hovered between -6C this morning up to a grand momentary high of +3C by mid-afternoon, then back down to -3C when we arrived here, just south of St Louis Missouri at around 7pm.

The Quality Inn has a pool and Mexican Restaurant where we had a very good meal with our New Year's toast: a couple of Margueritas and Dos Equis. While I settled down to the keyboard, Joan had the best of intentions in finding something suitable to watch on the tube. Herewith the evidence...

After watching the first few minutes of Caesar the dog trainer, there were the usual rumblings heard from peaceful sleep.

Ah yes, we did have a moment while driving past Effingham where we met up with Jan last year. No squeals of delight this year since Jan had to use her 'weather-window of opportunity' and is already happily ensconced at the Stephen Foster State Park in the Florida Panhandle where she's met mutual friends who were there the last time we were all at that park! But I digress, we called Jan and left a message since she was visiting Tom & Florence while we called. Planned or Coincidence??? Let's just not go there.

Well it's 10:00 pm, Joan's turned off the TV sound, the room is getting colder [heater turned waaaay down] so I guess that's it for 2009.

Hope yours was as good as ours and that 2010 will be happy and healthy for you and yours! Give yourselves a hug, you deserve it!

... and now, steal another piece of fudge? ... Who's to know?

Cheers!

The Rush to Sarnia

The crack of dawn can be the target-time for departure or the actual time of departure. As usual, these two times rarely coincide.

A relatively early [before nine, crack-or-dawn-wise] discussion with my Brother Ron ended with his suggestion that departure today would minimize the likelihood of foul winter weather, expected until Friday. He suggested that we would be driving into predicted snow by late afternoon in Sarnia, our usual first night destination.

We scrambled, packed and stuffed the car, collected more stuff and stuffed some more. Joan ran the machines: dishwasher, washer/drier, and had her coffee and her morning talk with Chris. After about three and a half shopping carts-full [that's what we use in the condo to move stuff] the trunk was full, the space where the top goes to when it's down was filled with books, puzzles, and other square stuff, the cooler and 'snack canyon' were installed close at hand in the back seat with winter coats and such stuff. The GPS was fired up and suddenly it was the crack of dawn: 12:22 [noon and a bit]. Much as this may surprise some, we have left later!

As we drove down the Queensway, it was -9C; by Kingston [in less than two hours] it was -2C; Toronto [in four hours, which is damn good if I say so myself, it was 0C; and in Sarnia [under 7 hours] it is back down to -3C and plummeting fast, but still better than 'back-home'.

We crossed the street to the Monet restaurant where we could have had a room at the Quality Inn for $14 cheaper! but I digress. The food and service were good and now we're settled into our travel routine. The blog for me, the Jacuzzi for Joan: both of us with plastic cups filled with a fine red that would have gone bad had it been left behind. ... Or confiscated at the border if found in the car... What choice was there?

The trip was quite uneventful, with much less traffic due to staff holidays. Even going through Toronto was at very high speed [120+ km/h] until Joan jinks'd it by saying: "This is going well." That did it, major slow-down: crawling speed. Fortunately, it didn't last long and we were flying again.

The snow is showing itself now to satisfy the overnight prediction. Should be an inch or so and hopefully, this will be as bad as we see going South. By the way, this is the first snow of the year to fall on my car! Not bad for Dec 30th!

Maybe tomorrow I'll find where the camera is, likely beside the fudge that is also missing. ... well, sort of missing, but not really.

Maybe I should snap Joan in the Jacuzzi, wine in one hand, horse magazine in the other. ... or maybe not! Ah, the life of a snowbird... What a way to start a Winter holiday!

The Orchids

I previously mentioned that we were welcomed home by over 50 orchid blooms provided by our orchid regulars, which prompted a request for some pictures.  We had four orchid plants, and added two more from this trip.  Here's a snapshot of each and their story.

The first plant is actually a named plant: Dtps Taisuco Firebird 'NC' X Dpts Ruey Lih Beauty 'RL' [which you can  Google if you want to], and was likely bought at Costco a few years ago.  It now has 6 blooms [about 3.25" wide] on two new spikes.

The next plant is a very well shaped and pretty 'no-name' from Costco.  It also has six blooms [2 5/8" across] on last year's spike and has a second spike developing for more blooms that should open in a month or so.

Here's another 'no-name' with 13 2.5" blooms on two spikes.  This plant was also found limp and dry [with the next one below] and made a remarkable recovery.  This is its second blooming for us.

This next plant is Phalaenopsis Malibu Bistro.  I rescued this plant from a friend's apartment [with the one above] where it was completely limp and totally dry.  It made a complete recovery and this is its second blooming for us.  It now has 24 blooms on one old and one new spike, each bloom is about 3" wide.  Some of the blooms are a little limp right now and I hope they will re-hydrate and last their usual three or more months.  A second plant has started growing in the pot which is quite unusual.

And now for the new guys.  The first was part of a 3 for $20 purchase and is a 'no-name'.  Judy has the other two plants, but I digress.  The bloom is very waxy and star shaped.  It even has a very faint scent, or my imagination wants it to have a scent, whatever.

I had to remove this plant from its pot for easier Canadian customs processing and just re-potted it yesterday.  There are actually two plants in the pot and I don't know if they are clones or siblings, or what.  There's a spike growing from the second plant that may clarify things.   ... or not.

And lastly, a very small blooming no-name from Publix, a Florida grocery store chain.  This bloom is only 2" wide and the picture does not show it at its best since this plant also had to be un-potted on Wednesday and repotted yesterday.  The bloom suffered from the indignities of travel in paper bags, etc. and will be cut off shortly.  Hopefully, the remaining buds will open successfully and the four new blooms will last a few months as they should.

Maybe I should open a store?  ... or maybe not.  These orchids are easy to grow, easy enough to find at the grocery store or gardening department at a reasonable price [under $20] and can provide a fantastic long lasting show of many fairly large and colourful flowers that can last over three months.  Unfortunately, if you buy them in bloom [which I strongly suggest] while you're on seasonal holidays, they'll end up blooming every year while you're on holidays...  Duh.

Back to Ottawa

We arrived back home yesterday [Friday] shortly before 1 p.m. after a 9 a.m. departure and a fairly uneventful drive.  It rained off and on, the traffic really thinned out as we neared the border, and all real signs of Spring were just a memory.  Patches of snow appeared here and there but they should be disappearing soon since the temperature was in the high teens [centigrade].  I'm sure the trees will eventually leaf out as they did down South, but I digress.

By 2 o'clock we were completely un-packed, or should I say, un-stuffed...  with piles of books, puzzles, and other assorted 'stuff' duly stacked for delivery to their new owners in the next few days, and surprisingly small piles of clothing were set aside for the laundry machine.  [Actually, these really only need ironing due in large part to my aggressive stuffing of clothes into the car trunk, but that's another story].  

By 2:30 the computer was downloading all the emails we had accessed remotely during our three months away and the three orchids we brought back were potted up to join the condo-regulars [there are currently over 50 gorgeous orchid blooms to enjoy in the condo!].  

An invite for supper with Nancy, Christopher and the princesses solved the no-food-in-the-condo issue and delayed the inevitable grocery shopping task for the moment.  Now we have about a cubic foot [or slightly more] of mail, magazines and junk to go through and the proverbial nemesis: income tax to deal with.  Oh joy...

It was real fun to be recognized by the grandchildren, a little reluctantly by Caitlyn at first, but as supper progressed, fun was had by all and laughter prevailed.  After supper, the lets-jump-on-Grandpa ritual took place and all is well in our universe.

I guess that settles it, our snowbird escape is now officially over.  Joan is off to the bank machine and grocery store [for carrots] on her way to the barn.  There are over 700 duplicate emails on our 'main computer' to sort out, and it's raining outside.  

Thanks for reading these notes, we'll likely not add much to the blog until we go away again...  Please keep in touch when you can.

Hillsville VA to Brewerton NY

After a 9 o'clock start in very heavy fog, we kept heading east and north east on Interstate 77 until we joined Interstate 81.  We alternated between dense fog and light rain until shortly after noon.  The traffic was very heavy all morning and we ended up following a Quebec trucker most of the morning as he was speeding reasonably and seemed to know where the speed traps were.  After lunch, the skies cleared and the traffic got somewhat better.  We did see some snow patches in some fields and mountain tops this morning, but the temperatures have been warm [room temperature] everywhere except the high mountains. Hopefully, the last miles to the border will be fairly quiet.

We should have a fairly short day tomorrow with some rain but no great issues.  How lucky is that?

PCB to Hillsville, Virginia

Yesterday was supposed to be rainy all day, especially in the afternoon, so we packed the car.  Actually, Joan packed and I stuffed, but I digress.  With the car already packed except for the last minute stuff,  we didn't have any problem leaving shortly after 8 this morning, nearly an early departure record for us...

It rained off and on for the better part of the morning, but nothing really serious.  Certainly nothing to live up to the dire flood warnings from the TV!  The rural scenes in northern Florida are just spectacular, yet very peaceful.  Some of the area is serious grazing land for cattle and it was a pleasure to see contented cattle in the fields rather than in the very high concentration of feed lots.  We also noted that ponds, small lakes and rivers in the area were swollen well beyond their habitual shores due to the recent rains, or should I say deluges.  Further into the day, the signs of flooding disappeared completely, only to be replaced by the signs of drought.  Rivers had visibly shrunken from their usual shores and lakes had new islands that hadn't been seen in decades.  All this a sign of the major drought that has afflicted many parts of Florida,  Alabama, and Georgia.

Traffic patterns in Florida and Georgia usually obey the posted speed limits.  Today, in South  and North Carolina, all bets were off: average traffic speeds were often well in excess of 10 miles per hour faster than the posted speed, and sometimes much faster.  I snuggled in with the jet set and we made very good time in areas where the police are known to be merciless on speeding.  I guess I was at the right place at the right time...  ... or just plain lucky.

Since traffic was moving so quickly, we decided to continue into Virginia.  Crossing the line between North Carolina into Virginia meant climbing a humungous hill, where the temperature dropped, our ears popped, and the sun set.  It was time to stop for the day so we pulled into the Quality Inn in Hillsville, VA. 

This trip was our first this far East in almost ten years.  We are amazed at the volume of traffic, especially trucks, and the population density of the area.  Our usual route home has been further west along the Intertates 65 and 75, where there was much less traffic and many fewer trucks.  Today was much more frantic that our previous trips home, hopefully, tomorrow won't be as bad.

Car Show, Sunset

An antique car show on the pristine lawns of Rosemary Beach: what could possibly be more interesting?  That's what I thought over the last few years, but this show was always scheduled after we left for the frozen north.  This year, the show was scheduled for the last Saturday in March and I've been looking forward to it since we arrived in Panama City Beach.

Sometimes, I expect too much...  Saturday was a wash-out, ... literally!  It rained quite hard most of the day so the antique car show was moved to Sunday.  Maybe it was because it was a rain-date, or maybe it's just the local norm; a real antique car show it wasn't.  A one year old souped up Miata, a few hot rods, and some older cars does not an antique car show make.  Whatever, there were a few interesting cars there.  

The first four pictures are of two cars owned by one collector: a 1937 and a 1936 Ford four-door convertible.  These were both intelligent restorations; not better restored  than originally built.  These cars are driven and are definitely not 'trailer queens'. 

This next car is a 1936 [?] Packard Super Eight wearing a 20 year old re-paint.  It's never been fully restored, just continuously maintained, with the occasional paint, roof, or other replacement.  As an aside, the owner's wife [long suffering?] was sitting in the back seat reading a book.  When people noticed her, he just said: That's Miss Daisy"...  How appropriate, but I digress. 

The twenty year old paint job still had some shine!

While we're here in the Florida Panhandle, I've been eating a fair bit of shrimp.  Most of it is local [mainly from the Apalachicola area].  Yesterday, we went to the Panama City docks area for lunch and I made this photo of the fresh shrimp stand complete with the shrimpers backdrop.  How fresh is that?

Last night was to be the end of sunshine for the next few days...  Couldn't pass up the occasion to shoot the sunset. 

So now it's pack everything up [well done by Joan] and jam it all into car [my job].  Serious rain is expected this afternoon and we're meeting Jan for supper at Carrabba's Italian Grill, a newly discovered favorite [chain of excellent Italian food].  There's more rain expected for tomorrow [Wednesday] but our lease is up so we'll just hit the road northward.  I'll try to post updates of our return journey as occasion permits.  Thanks for caring.

Clouds and Silver Linings

Weather warnings; Small craft warning; High tide warnings; Tornado Watch; Violent thunderstorms warning; and finally, but not the least: double red flags at the beach.  It was starting to look like a good day to work on a puzzle...  Instead, we hurried to the beach for a quick walk and 'look-see' before the heavy rains started.

The sky was mean, the wind stiff, the breaking waves gorgeous.  Then in the distance, Joan spotted the distinctive parachutes that some surfers use.  No camera in hand, so I turned back to get it.  By then my glasses were covered with salt and I could barely see anyway so Joan marched on, upwind, and I went back for the camera and car...

When I got back to the park, the only people in the water were surfers and these para-surfers.  Everyone wore a wet-suit and the water was very rough.  The para-surfers wear a heavy duty harness that hitches them to their parachute and they also have a grab handle that seems to give them some measure of control over the huge kite-like sail they use.  Their speed is simply phenomenal! ... and it's a very exiting scene to watch and photograph.  By the time I had got there, two or three para-surfers had already left, probably exhausted but one remained for quite a while longer and I had a good chance to shoot him before the skies broke.  

The first picture gives you an idea of just how small people can look when the sea gets angry.

Somehow, it ends up looking pretty graceful also.

As the surfers tack to and from the beach, they often do spectacular jumps off the incoming waves.  Here's one just taking off.

The parachute just keeps pulling them upwards.  This next guy is already up a good 20 feet, and still rising.

I was standing on a platform that was about 30 feet above the water, and this guy managed to get well above the horizon line, probably over 60 feet above the water.  

At this point, the surfer looses the forward momentum that he had built up, and starts being pulled downwind by the para-sail.  This happens quite quickly but as he follows the sail, the sail loses its power and gravity slowly pulls the surfer back to the water.  The re-entry is very graceful and quite slow and of the dozen or more re-entries that I've witnessed, I've yet to see a fall, it's that gentle! 

The next picture shows the athlete just riding the top of a large wave.  He has enough control to catch up to waves when he wants to!

Here's a close-up o him approaching the beach.  Notice the harness and hand-bar.

This guy came screaming towards the beach only to quite suddenly make a 'u-turn' and head right back out.  In this next picture, he's just doing his u-turn and you can still see his inward track just behind the wave that  just broke.  Now that's what I call a sharp u-turn!  ... and at very high speed too!

Here's another jump.

... and now the landing.  Note that the lines to his sail are almost directly above him; he's literally just suspended by his sail.  This one was a very gentle landing, some area little less so.

Here he is just teasing the curl of a breaking wave, what fun!

For the month that we've been here, we've noticed that the pelicans aren't around much, and we missed them.  Today, with the high winds, the pelicans were either standing around, much like these guys, or they were soaring around the high-rises, looking for up-drafts.  I would have liked to shoot a few soaring pelicans but the rains had started, and it was lunch time...  Decision, decisions, 

The rains came and flooded the streets, the wind tried to push things around, the lightning and thunder made their appearance, and now all's well with the world: no tornadoes for this trailer park today, and Joan had another happy birthday on wednesday.

We expect to head back North on April 1, and will try to have some news for the blog on our way home.  Thanks for caring.

Edward Ball Wakulla Spring SP

On Sunday, we went for a long drive down #98 to the Edward Ball estate in Wakulla county.  This State Park has a wonderful boat ride on the short Wakulla river.  This short seven mile river is spring fed and is thought to be fed by the biggest spring in the world.  Anyhow, the water is very clear and it supports a lot of wildlife, like alligators, ducks and other water birds and the usual suspects found in wild areas.  This river has never been used for commercial purposes and is considered the last wild river in Florida.  The first picture is of an alligator just swimming along our boat, well camouflaged by the water weeds along the shore.

The next picture is a close-up of a different alligator in the more prevalent clear waters.

At mid day, alligators are usually found basking in the warm sun; this smaller one is sharing  log with  couple of turtles.

If you look closely, there's an osprey sitting on the side of his nest high atop this cypress tree [which is covered in spanish moss].  [double-click on image to see larger version]

Here's a shot of two Egrets, in full breeding plumage.

Here is a shot of a pair of wood ducks.

Next is a picture of spider lilies, which are white, huge, and just beautiful.

There's a brown water-snake hiding in the next picture.

Here's a shot of an anhinga, closely related to the cormorants that we have back home.

The anhinga is usually drying off its wings [much like the cormorant] and it's unusual to shoot its back with the wings closed.

Before the boat ride, we had lunch in this elegant old dining room, which is part of the small lodge that Edward Ball gave to the state of Florida.

Checkers anyone?

An adventure

On Thursday, we went off for an adventure to Shell Island, part of the St Andrews State Park, next door.  Our friends Len and Judy Churchward, from our boating days, are staying with us for the next few days and Jan joined us for the fifteen minute pontoon boat ride to the island.  The first picture is of the group in serious discussion while waiting for more passengers to arrive.  As usual, there will be laughter!

Good friends, warm sun and a great beach!  What's not to like?

 

We walked the beach with this palm tree as a target, so we had to touch it right?

The ferry leaves land on the hour, and the island on the half hour.  Our timing was decided by the almost brutal sunshine and we felt that an hour and a half at mid-day was more than enough, so here we are walking back.  The shelling was reasonable if you don't expect undamaged shells...  Check out Judy's bag...

Friday, we drove into Eden State Park for a quick visit before lunch.  The azaleas are doing their thing while the majestic Virginia Live Oaks look on.

 

Question:  If the sunset occurs while nobody is there to watch, is it still in colour?

If you sit and stare for a while, can you photograph a daydream?

 "Yes you can!" 

Week in Review

Hard to imagine that a week could whiz by so quickly; my guess is that I just have to get used to it...

These first three pictures were taken a couple of days after the prescribed burn in the State Park next door.  It's a pretty ugly [oxymoron alert!] sight and it didn't smell much better either.

In another couple of years, the vegetation will have grown enough that the Park staff  will be considering to do another prescribed burn, and the burn / re-growth process will start all over again.

Over the last ten years, we've watched this 'private house' [the Hilton residence] being built near Rosemary Beach.  It's still quite a way from being finished and they've started building a garage-cum-coach house that will be equally exciting.  The architect is Arthur Dyson and if you go to his web-site, you'll see early construction pictures and a great description of the anticipated interior.  It's not a small house at 9500 square feet!  The garage [guest house] would seem large to most of us, and it's not included on the Dyson web site.

The first of two pictures is from the water side of the house.  I'm sure that with overhangs like that, they'll be able to stay dry on the balcony while watching a hurricane!

The next picture is the view from the #30A highway and those turquoise pipes are conduits for water, electricity and sewers for houses that may be built in the future.  The white wall is a very permanent concrete wall around the Hilton residence [he's a concrete contractor].

The Hilton house generates a lot of comment locally, some good some bad.  I imagine these next two pictures could generate comments too...  It really proves that there's no accounting for taste, or better still, that good taste seems to be in short supply.

The next picture includes  the backs of four houses [in a 'development' of 20 such houses] and what you're seeing is the balcony over the parking spot of each house.  Each house is a popular local colour.

Bad enough to find a small housing development using questionable colour sense, but when a very large 1/4 mile square shopping mall follows suit, this is what you get...

On a calmer note, this morning's fog supplied some interesting light for a little while.  The next shot is of the southern view at the lagoon side of our development. 

This next shot is of the small boat harbour attached to our development.  The strip of boats on the left belong to a separate commercial marina.

With the fog quickly lifting, I went over to the gulf side and this little fiddler-crab [sand crab] and me frightened each other [but that's another story].

The little guy was ready to defend his turf and I was quite willing to avoid his bite, so we parted friends.  Just a few feet farther along the beach, the beach chair and umbrella merchants have set up for the 'Spring Breakers' which really is the start of the busy season around here.

The weather's now as it should be; we've lots to do; what more could we ask for?  Carpe Diem!