Late May and Early June Activities

Wednesday May 30th I went into Hamilton to play a round of golf at Beverly Golf and Country Club, where I started my golf career as a 13 year old. That evening, with my brother Peter, I attended a fundraising dinner, lottery and auction at Beth Jacob Synagogue, the one I grew up at. I purchased one of the auction items, a pair of tickets to the Labor Day football game between the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Toronto Argonauts in the new stadium (built on the same site as the old one, but with the field turned 90 degrees) in Hamilton, which I had not been to yet. An event to look forward to throughout the summer, which my brother agreed to go with me to. (Many moons ago, when I was a football official in Hamilton, I worked some high school games at the old Ivor Wynn Stadium.) I stayed over for a few days. On Saturday morning we went to synagogue. In the afternoon we went to the Busker Fest in Dundas 

This performer was from Israel.

A good juggler and unicycle rider.

Street artwork piece in progress.
(One of my old nicknames was Wonder Woman, so this resonated with me.)

and on Sunday we went on a hike at the botanical gardens in Burlington. 

We encountered a lot of very friendly chipmunks. It turns out that they are that way because despite the signs saying not to feed the wildlife, many people bring nuts and seeds with them, for just that purpose. 

We visited the Iris gardens.
These large purple ones were among my favorites.

Nice quality time spent with my oldest brother.

Monday June 4th I played my first Mixed Seniors Golf league round. Registration was $10, which covers a season ending banquet. Each week is an additional $1, for prizes. They play closest to the hole on a par 4 and a putting game, where you have to predict how many putts you will have in the round and then match it with your actual performance. It didn't take me long to figure out it was better to predict a higher number, so that you had wiggle room towards the end of the round, as opposed to using them all up with several holes left to play. 

Wednesday June 6th I played my first night of Euchre at the Dunnville Legion. They have a good group of very serious players, much more serious than the Monday game at Lowbanks. They have a few different rules and give more points for lone hands than what I am used to, but the adjustments are easy to make.  

June 8th I headed to Kingston for the annual Cataraqui Golf Club Field Day (Invitational) and Eastern Provinces Match Play. The plans were the same as last year, when I also went with the trailer.

One of the prettier green complexes at Cataraqui.

View from my campsite, close to the river.

I played pretty well in the Field Day, shooting 81, and the fact that my early season play at Freedom Oaks in difficult scoring conditions helped to elevate my handicap a bit, allowed me to win Low Gross, worth $100 in the pro-shop and qualified 5th in the Match play. 

I was able to win my first round of match play rather easily. In the second round I lost a very close match. My opponent in that match went on to loose in the following round. They are planning on making this event into the Provincial Match play championship going forward. I'm not a big fan of that idea. Time will tell if I decide to continue playing in it.

The folks camping next to me were newbies and needed some help with setting up, packing up and dumping their tanks. I was able to help them a bit as the few moments I was around was when they seemed to be in the greatest need of help, so it wasn't like I had to go out of my way to be nice. 

Late May Plumbing Issues

On Monday May 28th, while I was cleaning up from dinner prior to heading to Lowbanks for Euchre for the first time the hot water tap of my kitchen faucet decided to break off! This sent a stream of hot water upwards reaching the ceiling. As the trailer plumbing system is not equipped with in line shut off valves, thinking quickly I realized that I had to run out the the water tap at the post to shut the water off. Until this problem was resolved I would not be able to use any water, because it would leak out of the opening. I didn't want to miss Euchre so I quickly cleaned up the mess, wiping off the ceiling, counter top, cabinets and floor and headed out. 

I arrived at Euchre a few minutes later than I had originally planned, but not so late as to not be able to play. Thankfully one of the ladies I played against mentioned that her husband was a plumber. She gave me his contact information.

When I got home from Euchre I filled a pail with water from the hose at the post to use to "flush" the toilet and used bottled water I had on hand for other needs. I would be able to make due, under the circumstances, until morning. 

First thing Tuesday morning I went to the local Home Hardware store and with the help of their plumbing expert purchased new faucets (l figured I should replace the bathroom sink faucet at the same time) and all the fittings (including shut off valves for hot and cold water lines on each), I thought I would need, half way thinking I could do the repair myself, but then thought better of it. I called the euchre players plumber husband and the local mobile RV repair shop. I decided to go with the plumber as his hourly rate was half that of the RV shop and was able to get there several hours sooner. 

Within 20 hours the job was completed at a total cost of about $350. Part of the repair likely would have been covered by my RV extended warranty which had a $100 deductible, but going that would have taken longer and been more inconvenient, so I'm fine with the way I handled it. 

I'm really glad the faucets have been replaced with better quality ones than the original and that the shut off valves that should have been installed originally are now in place.  Hopefully these changes/upgrades will allow me to have no or few further problems with these components of the trailer. 

Getting Settled Near Dunnville

Maitland Shores does not yet have regular weekly activities organized to the extent that they had them at Silver Dove Estates or Tucson Meadows for that matter. At Maitland Shores most of the activities are for the kids, like wagon rides and games. On long weekends they have a pot luck dinner (where the owners provide the main protein and a side) and live band one of the nights and fire works if appropriate.  My first full weekend there was the May 24th weekend, the official start to the summer in Ontario. The meal was to feature hot dogs and hamburgers. I arrived on time, the others arrived fashionably late (about 30 minutes.) I met a couple of seasonal campers, but generally the group weren't that welcoming/friendly. 

With a home base and golf membership taken care of I began to check out what else Dunnville had to offer.  I went to town and found the local library branch. They have 4 computers you can use, WiFi throughout (useful as the campground doesn't have any, and with my phone plan I am supposed to be limited to 1GB per month of roaming, which Dunnville is considered, but in reality I am able to use more), lots of materials available to borrow, including a good selection of movie and TV series on DVD's, which would come in handy because over the antenna I wasn't getting a very wide selection of TV channels. I found a study carol, in a well windowed corner with a power outlet nearby. This pretty much became my spot. 

At the library I saw postings for other events in the area like church run fundraising dinners and charity bingo games (Tuesdays and Fridays at the Optimists Club.) 

I visited the local Chamber of Commerce where they provided me with a welcome package (a handbook listing business and services in town) and a copy of the weekly local paper called The Sachem.  Through the paper I learned about a Euchre game in the nearby town of Lowbanks on Monday nights. By playing at Lowbanks, the other Euchre aficionados put me on the the games on Wednesday nights at the Dunnville Legion and the last Saturday afternoon of the month at the Presbyterian Church. 

Dunnville is a big enough town, population around 6,000, that it has enough stores and restaurants to meet the majority of my needs, though the locals I met often spoke of making trips into Hamilton to shop, to me that was a little farther than I was interested in going just for shopping, but also shopped when I would go to Hamilton to visit my brother. There is certainly more in Dunnville than there was last summer in close proximity to my campground in Appin, Ontario. There is a Canadian Tire, a large Home Hardware, a couple of drug stores, Liquor and Beer Stores, Sobeys, Food Basics and Giant Tiger. In the downtown there are quite a few small boutique types stores and several banks.  A local coffee shop, trying to be like Starbucks, a Tim Horton's, a McDonalds, a Subway, two Chinese restaurants, two Pubs, several Canadian style family restaurants, one upscale restaurant, one Italian restaurant and several pizza places, a couple of fish and chip shops. There are government offices for drivers licenses and health cards, police and fire departments. A very safe feeling and easily habitable place, without traffic jambs

My typical weekly schedule while in Dunnville would be:
Monday morning Mixed Seniors Golf
Monday evening Euchre in Longbanks
Tuesday evening Bingo occasionally.
Wednesday evening Euchre at the Legion.
Last Saturday afternoon of the month Euchre at the Presbyterian Church. 
The other days of the week I would play golf, go cycling and go out for dinner occasionally. 
When I needed to go into town for groceries or other activities, I would generally visit the library for an hour or two. 

Moving To Near Dunnville Ontario

When I left Ontario for the winter, I was planning on returning to Silver Dove Estates for another summer. I had spoken to the owners about my intentions and had offered to leave a deposit, which they said was not necessary. In April, I emailed them to reconfirm my intentions and the response I received was that they had "rented my site to other people," and had no other sites available in the spring, but that they would have new sites available July 1st. I believed that those sites were the same ones that were supposed to have been ready the previous April, when I first arrived at the campground, so was not prepared to wait for July 1st, because of their unreliable track record and my need for a campsite well before that date. There was no explanation as to why they did this, and it was surprising because they had said on several occasions that they liked me and liked having me in the park because I didn't cause any trouble and I added a touch of class to the place. I suppose I fell victim to their poor management and organizational skills.  

It was at that point that I started researching alternative places to spend the summer. First off I realized that there were no other campgrounds close to Wardsville Golf Club, where I had played the previous season, so relocating would require finding both a golf course and a campground. 

One of the focal points of my summer in Ontario was going to be playing in the Canadian Women's Golf Championship, which was to be played at Lookout Point Country Club in Pelham, Ontario. Pelham is in the Niagara region, an area I had spent some time in in the past and held some appeal as it is closer to Hamilton and Toronto than Appin. So, I got to thinking that I could be really well prepared for that tournament if I played the course all summer and I knew that the Pro and Assistant Pro from my former club, Ladies Golf Club of Toronto, were working there, so if would be familiar. They had offered a one year trial membership program the previous season, which proved quite effective, so they didn't need to repeat it, to my detriment. But, there were other options like an out of town membership or a 10 round package. With this in mind I started looking for a campground nearby. I learned that there were three, but sadly two were completely full for the upcoming season and one had only one site open, but it was too small for my trailer. So, I started to pan out from the Pelham area trying to find a solution to my accommodation and golf needs. I was feeling there was a bit of an urgency to settle on a place.

I ended up landing upon Maitland Shores RV Resort and Marina, who said they only had two seasonal sites available at that point and Freedom Oaks Golf Club 

on the basis of their websites, a few phone calls and google maps, I pretty much committed to both site unseen. 

I arrived at the campground on Mother's Day (not my favorite day of the year, since my Mother passed away and I am not a Mother), Sunday May 13th, the ground was a bit soggy, but I was happy with my campsite, which was a corner lot at the far edge of the property, next to some woods and a farmers field. Being on the corner makes it easy to get into and out of, which I tend to want to do a few times throughout the season. I was able to level the trailer quite easily and hook up to the services, all of which were not the most conveniently located, but I had enough cord, hose and sewer pipe to reach them all. I soon met my immediate neighbors, who were all very welcoming. 

The following day I went to the Golf Course. It was less than 10 minutes away, all on paved rural roads, a very stress free drive. I was initially encouraged to take a cart and drive around the course to check it out. I had a look at the east portion of the course, which looked fine, though wet and I was disturbing golfers already out playing, so I cut the tour short. I then went back to the clubhouse with the plan of playing a preview round, even though I was already in my mind committed to joining. The round was fine. The west part of the course is a little more interesting than the east. Freedom Oaks was going to suit my golf needs. 

The owner of the course who looks after the pro shop, Pete, suggested that I get in touch with Lynn, who often walked the course (my preference) playing by herself. 

Lynn

She used to work in the clubs kitchen, but was now retired. We arranged to play the following day, and as kindred spirits became friends quickly. She helped to introduce me to a number of other ladies in the club, including Ella, Kathy, Joan:

Joan

Pat and Anna Loraine one of the owners who plays with her dog Darla, along side. Lynn suggested that I join the Monday Seniors League, but not the Tuesday Ladies League. Lynn and I typically played together two or three times a week when I was in Dunnville and did other things together, like going to play Euchre and having dinner together at each others places or at nearby restaurants as she was recently separated and had no interest in dating.  

Back In My Home Province Spring 2018

For those that aren't all that familiar, Ontario is a very large province. The population is over 14 million and the land mass is 1.076 million square kilometers. People generally consider Texas to be a big state, but Texas is only 695,662 square kilometers, which means Ontario is 35% bigger than Texas! The provincial health care people require Ontarian's to be in the province a minimum of 5 months of the year in order to maintain the provincially financed health care coverage, or as the Americans refer to it, "free health care." I want to keep my health care, so when I was planning on entering back into Ontario from the west side and quite far north, I figured I could do a considerable amount of touring around, while I complied with their requirements. I should also point out that I am usually pretty meticulous about my planning for these trips, but I hadn't done much in advance for this portion. I think I was lulled into complacency by the fact that this place is my home and shouldn't be that difficult to navigate.

My first stop in Ontario was the Wabigoon Lake RV Park, appropriately named as it is on the bank of the lake, the night of May 7th. It is a very small campground but well laid out and well run. Easy pull through sites. If I was going to open a small campground I would use this one as a model, though I would want to build it in a location where campers were likely to want to visit 12 months of the year. If I had know what was ahead of me, I would have stayed at least a second night, even though it was right next to the Trans Canada Highway, so there was some traffic noise all night long. 

My next stop was Thunder Bay. I saw the Terry Fox Statue as I was entering the city, but didn't stop because it seemed like it would be difficult to navigate the area with the trailer. The Provincial Park I had hoped to stay in was not yet open for the season, so I ended up staying in the parking lot at Walmart. I got dinner from their "steam table"  and had breakfast a the in store McDonald's. (1st night without an electrical hook-up.)

The following day I drove a couple of hundred miles along the North Coast of Lake Superior. The views were quite nice. I spent the night in Marathon, which is such a small town, they don't have a Walmart, so I stayed in the shopping mall parking lot as once again the campground was not open. I had dinner at a Mom and Pop restaurant in the mall and breakfast at A & W. (2nd night without an electrical hook-up.)

Unfortunately as it turned out it was an old fashioned winter, not as mild as some of recent years, so the campgrounds were not going to be opening for a couple more weeks. They were gearing up for the May long weekend which this year was May 18th to 21st. 

The following day I drove about 250 miles along the East Coast of Lake Superior. Once again the scenery was quite nice. 

I don't usually stop at touristy spots along the highway, but I made an exception for Chippewa Falls. It wasn't planned, however there was some road construction with a signal person just past it, and I had to stop for that anyway. There also appeared to be public washroom there, but as it turned out they were not yet open for the season (there is a theme developing.) I was thankful that I travel with my own washroom, so went in the trailer to look after nature's call. Thus relieved, I was able to hike a short ways up the trail to the waterfalls, which were flowing rapidly with the aid of the snow melting up stream: 

There was interesting signage close to the parking lot, firstly about how this was roughly the halfway point on the trans-Canada Highway, and secondly about how members of the group of seven artists had enjoyed painting in this area. I enjoyed this brief educational stop and then carried on to Sault-Ste Marie, where with no campgrounds open I got permission to stay in the parking lot of the OLG Casino. 

When I arrived at the Casino, the battery in the trailer was showing that it was quite low. Not driving very far the last couple of days and needing the battery power for my CPAP machine, the furnace fan (the nights have been pretty cold), water pump and some lighting were taking its toll. I was pretty sure I needed to stretch the power out for at least one more night, so rather than use it all up and be really inconvenienced, I decided to not use my CPAP that night. I knew I would not likely sleep as well, but at least I would no likely wake up in the middle of the night without any heat available. I had dinner in the casino and breakfast from Tim Horton's. (3rd night without an electrical hook-up.) 

The following day I drove about 250 miles along the North coast of Lake Huron towards Sudbury, another place I had visited in the past but not fully explored. This leg of the trip also marks the point at which I have been on the coast of each of the five "Great Lakes" with my trailer. I arranged to stay overnight at Timberwolf Golf Club, where I had played a tournament several years ago, and which had opened for the season earlier that week. It was pleasant enough and there was enough daylight left to play 9 holes. I had dinner in the clubhouse before retiring for the night. Once again I opted to forgo the CPAP machine and thankfully made it through the night with heat. (4th night without an electrical hook-up.) 

The following day, before heading out of town I visited Dynamic Earth Museum, home of The Big Nickel:

Inside they have displays about mining and minerals. The highlight is a tour through a portion of a mine, which depicts the evolution of mining, from the early days of men with picks and axes and donkeys pulling ore from the mine in small carts, through more modern times with mechanized equipment. Now I have a better understanding of the confines and concerns when there are reports on the news of miners trapped in mines. 

My last stop "on the road" was at the KOA in Barrie, Ontario. It was quite busy there, somewhat surprisingly, on Mother's Day Weekend, which most Ontarian's would consider to be a couple of weekends before the official start of camping season, and I would think most Mothers given the choice would prefer to be at home rather than camping. It was nice to be back in a campground with full hook-ups, and I was able to get a discount using the membership card I had purchased in Cedar City, Utah. I stayed there just one night.  

And finally on Mother's Day, May 13th, (not my favorite day of the year, since my Mom passed away) I arrived at my "home" for the summer, Maitland Shores, RV Resort and Marina near Dunnville, Ontario, on the shore of the Grand River, just before it enters Lake Erie. 

If I had decided to purchase a portable generator earlier on in my RVing career, I could have hung out a bit longer in Northern Ontario during this cold spring, but for the few nights I really could have used it, I don't think it was worth an investment of a minimum of $1,000.00 and then the worries about where to store it so it wouldn't get stolen, having fuel on hand for it, and maintenance on it. (A solar system has its limitations and expenses as well.) The last few days of this trip were a bit stressful, worrying if my batteries would hold up and sleeping without my CPAP, but I survived.

Winnipeg Manitoba

The next stop on my journey east was Winnipeg, Manitoba. I had been there a couple of times in the later 1990's for Christmas visiting with my then boyfriends family, but had never really done anything touristy there. There are quite a few people I know who live in Toronto, who are happy to be FROM Winnipeg, or in other words, not living in Winnipeg anymore. 

I stayed at the Town & Country Campground on the outskirts of town, next to a water-slide park that wasn't open this early in the season. The park seemed to be owned and run by a nice young couple that were really enthusiastic. A whole different vibe than at the place I stayed near Calgary. Their water wasn't turned on at the sites yet, but the sewers were working. You could fill your trailer with water next to the office, or you could borrow their water tanker truck, fill it up and take it to your trailer to fill it. I filled up on my way in. 

The Jets (NHL team) were in the playoffs and the entire city had caught the fever and were on the bandwagon. Each night of their games, home or away, there was a giant street party on the streets adjacent to the arena. They had a jumbo "goal light" 

Selfie with the goal light.

set up as well as a stage for live bands to play from and big screen TV's to watch the game on, if you couldn't/didn't want to get a seat indoors. They had food and beer concessions outside. I wasn't happy that they were only selling beer in pairs. I went downtown to take in the festivities prior to the start of the game and was interested in getting a ticket for the Manitoba Moose minor league teams playoff game the following night. Low and behold, when I got to the box office, they actually had a few single seats left for the Jets game. (Prior to this, I was hoping that the manager of the campground in Saskatoon, who's son is the equipment manager for the Jets would have been able to arrange a ticket for me, but sadly that didn't work out.) It was a bit on the pricey side, but I figured it was a once in a lifetime opportunity, so bought one of those and one for the following night. (If you dollar cost average them, it works out a little more palatable.)

View from my seat for the Jets game.

View from my seat for the Moose game.

As it happened, both teams lost, so I have vowed to never attend another hockey game in Winnipeg.

Saturday morning I attended synagogue and in the afternoon I visited The Royal Canadian Mint,

Photo op, outside the mint.

Large Lone outside The Mint.

where not only all of our Canadian coins are struck, but also those of 62 other countries from around the world. Each countries flag was flying on a separate pole outside. There were so many it wasn't possible to take on photo with them all in it. There is a display inside with details of these countries and the coins the mint produces for them. I found it quite interesting. For security reasons the raw materials arrive and the coins are shipped out in nondescript trucks. The mint wasn't in operation so the tour was less expensive, and the place is reportedly much quieter and the floor wasn't vibrating.

They had a very large gold bar on display, which was well guarded, but there was an opportunity to pick it up, which pretty much required two hands as it weighed about 400 troy ounces, which is equal to about 28 lbs and at the current price of gold was worth a bit over half a million Canadian dollars.

Large bar of pure gold.

On Sunday, prior to my planned visit to The Canadian Museum for Human Rights I decided to treat myself to some Dim Sum. I did a google search for a good place and headed there, however it seemed that there were more other people heading to the place across the street, so I decided to follow the crowd and wasn't disappointed. This is just one of the carts they had going around with items on it:  

Dim Sum the old fashioned way, on wheeled carts. Yummy.

The museum, approaching its 10th anniversary, is quite an interesting shaped structure situated next to the river and not far from an area of small shops and restaurants. 

Museum of Human Rights, from behind it.

Overall, I found my visit to the museum worthwhile, though rather depressing, which I guess is only natural, given how badly many groups of people have been treated over the years, and the need to keep human rights front of mind. The museum boasts 10 galleries, which touch on indigenous people, the holocaust, doctors, Canada 150, a big timeline, among other things related to human rights. I chose to proceed through the museum from the bottom to the top, which meant walking up innumerable rather steep and long ramps, imposing some misery on me, which I suppose rather intentionally helped dull my mood as well. (As I recall The Guggenheim Museum in New York City had lots of ramps, but my impression of them was quite different than here.) I think I would advise others to visit in the reverse order, by taking the elevator to the top and walking downwards.

After visiting the Museum, there was still enough daylight for me to play the 9 hole Winnipeg Canoe Club Golf Course. I had practiced a bit of chipping and putting earlier in the week. It was very early spring like conditions, so I didn't have very high expectations for the course conditioning, but it was nice to get out and play now about a month removed from the decent golf in Arizona and a couple of weeks since I last played in Utah. I played on my own, and a couple of slower groups let me through so it didn't take long. There is some talk of closing the golf course soon, because the land would be very valuable for development as it is virtually downtown. So, if it meets its demise, I can say I had played it. Sadly for the golf enthusiasts quite a few courses are going that way. 

Eastern Saskatchewan

My next stop was Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan (most likely named by indigenous people after the local creek who's shape resembled the outline of a moose's jawbone.) I visited the Western Development Museum, which has displays of mostly modes of transportation (cars, boats, planes, trains, snow mobiles, etc.) and how they evolved through the years. 

A very early RV.

Snowbird acrobatic team training aircraft.

Next up was Regina, Saskatchewan, for the primary purpose of visiting the Royal Canadian Mounted Police  (RCMP) Depot or training center. Every member of the RCMP attends the Depot in order to receive their training in policing. From there they are deployed anywhere in the country to begin their careers. I have always loved the red coats and their musical ride. My favorite piece of currency had been the Canadian $50 bill with the picture of the musical ride on the back. For those of you who may be unfamiliar:

I enjoyed my visit at The Depot, 

including touring the museum, which was designed in the shape of the RCMP's iconic hats:

and watching the new recruits parade around the grounds. 

As one would expect, the training is done in quite a militaristic way. The recruits earn parts of their uniform as they progress through the training program, from running shoes to riding boots, tee shirts to red coats. Though they don't all have to be willing to take to the back of a horse anymore, but they all need to be able to play a musical instrument. 

To break up the journey between Regina and Winnipeg, I stopped in Grenfell, Saskatchewan.  I picked Grenfell because they had a campground that was supposedly open, that I was able to book online. Unfortunately, when I arrived shortly after 5:00, the only thing that was open was the gate. There was no water or power turned on at the site I had reserved. Additionally, access to the washrooms and showers for the campers, in the adjacent arena complex, were locked as well. At this point I really needed a campground with power available because my on board batteries were getting depleted due to several nights in a row without being fully recharged. I need the batteries to run my water pump, washroom exhaust fan, 12 volt lighting, CPAP machine, thermostat and furnace fan when needed, and in this instance it was needed because the nights were still cold!  I managed to find the circuit breaker for my site in the main power distribution box, which thankfully was unlocked. 

After sorting out the power matters, I headed into town for a bite of dinner. All the locals I encountered were quite nice. I settled on a one of the two Chinese restaurants in town. I prefer more authentic Chinese food but the meal was fine, a good sized portion for a reasonable price, prepared fresh, arrived quickly and was piping hot:

After dinner I was seeking out Saskatoon Berry Pie for desert. I realized this was my last night in Saskatchewan and I hadn't yet tasted their berries. I knew they weren't in season yet, but I thought they would have been more readily available then they proved to be. Neither the bakery or diner in town had any baked goods with the berries in them. The best advice I got was to go to the Co-op grocery store in the morning and they may have some in the freezer section and then I could do with them what I choose.

The following morning I switched it off the electricity and I was able to reach someone in the city office responsible for the campground. They said they didn't really open until the May 24th weekend and that the website had recently been opened to start taking reservations for then and the rest of the summer. They need to learn to block off the dates for possible reservations when they don't really want people camping there. I ended up getting a refund for my stay.
On my way out of town I was able to pick up two bags of frozen Saskatoon berries. Mission accomplished.