Another Day of Gallivanting

Well, I do know one thing for sure and that is that I LOVE retirement! I just had to say that again, even though I’ve said it quite a bit already since April 30. Today, Bill and I had to wake up to the sound of an alarm. Worse still was that the alarm was set for 5:30 am. It was necessary though since we've been sleeping until at least 7:30 most mornings. Lordy oh lordy!!

A beautiful sky this morning with the sunrise

We had to be in London for a union meeting at 9:30 am. Since it takes us a minimum of 2 hours and 30 minutes and a maximum of 3 hours to get there from The Ridge, we had to leave at 6:30 am. You never know about construction and detours when you leave home.

A route we don't take with the rv but easy with the car

You might be wondering why we are going to a union meeting when neither of us are working. Let me explain. When a member of our CUPE local retires, the union will issue a cheque for $100 as a ‘thank you for your service’. The catch is that you have to attend a meeting in order to receive your money. Kind of a pain in the you know what but $100 is money in our pocket. I received my cheque at the June meeting and since Bill retired on July 31^st  the first meeting after the summer for him to attend was Sat. Sept. 24^th .

Fog over the fields

We knew if we took our Corolla the gas would be minimal and we would, as last Monday, plan a few things while in the area. We also knew it would be a very long day to leave Clemson home alone so he got to tag along for the ride with Mom and Dad. He is such a good little traveler now, since we got his seatbelt. You’ll see a picture below that George took of him all set to go.

So we met up at the building on Wharncliffe Rd. with a friend of ours who was a secretary with the Board for 35 or 37 years. She was receiving her ‘pay out’ as well.  The nice thing about this whole ordeal is that after the pledge and roll call is read, they announce the retirees, congratulate them with a hand shake and they could leave. We’re outta’ here!

3 retirees with their certificate and cheques

None of us had eaten yet so we found ourselves a Denny’s at the southeast corner of London at the Flying J and had a very filling delicious breakfast. My egg, bacon, shredded potato hash browns and rye toast were just what I needed to keep me filled for the day. Yummy and I didn’t have to prepare it myself!

We caught up with Debbie and Mike during the meal and said our goodbyes for the last time this year. Now that they know we have a bunky for them to sleep in, they hope to visit us at The Ridge next year.

Debbie and Mike

Next stop is Costco for milk, eggs, cream and a few other things. When in Rome………. you know. They are still ‘can’t be beat prices’ so we take advantage when we can. Before we left home, Bill put our electric cooler in the car so we could keep these things cool for the day while we scooted around. It plugs into our cigarette lighter. I stayed in the car with the pooch as no one goes through Costco as quick as my husband when he is alone!

sitting in the car with Clemson

So another stop done. From here we headed out to Arkona to visit our good friends and fellow bloggers, George and Suzie from Our Awesome Travels.

Our home park but haven't camped here this summer at all

They are camping at Rock Glen RV Resort for 3 weeks so a good opportunity for us to catch up and pick their brains before our first trip south.

George and Suzie

When we arrived around 1 pm they were waiting for us, with chairs set up in the beautiful sunshine. It was actually quite balmy; Bill wasn’t dressed for heat so had to move to the shade. There was a lot of chit chat both with them putting some ideas out there according to their experiences and us with all of our questions. How nice it is to bounce things off someone who has been full timing for 11 years!

Clemson in his seatbelt. It settles him down so much for travel
and he is safe if we have to stop quickly

By 3 pm we knew we had a 3-hour drive home so we gave them one of our newly printed Home cards (they aren’t business cards!) and said our goodbyes.

We headed towards Parkhill, through Nairn and onto Hwy 7 to 23. A couple of detours in Mitchell and Listowel but no slowdowns. Bill was pretty tired from the early wake up and driving down so I took over the drive home from Woodham. We were home just after 6 in time for supper.

It was a good day, as tiring as they are with running around so much, things got done that were on our list of things to do. We have one more trek into the city for a retirement dinner so we will be going back one more time this month. At least after each travel day, we get a day of rest and if nothing else, it is good practice for our trip to the southwest.

Now that it is fall you never know what to expect as far as weather so enjoy each one as it comes. Thanks for reading and feel free to drop a comment if you wish.