Cooler Day, Costco, Another Family Birthday, Meeting Fellow Bloggers,

I was awake at 6:15 but stayed in bed until 7 when I got up to greet this wet, dull day on Wednesday, Aug. 22^nd. Today is one of my older sister’s birthdays. Audrey lives in Terrasse-Vaudreuille, Quebec so I don’t see her often. She always manages to get to Ontario a couple of times a year at least for our sister-fest and either Easter or Thanksgiving to see Mom. It gives me a jolt when my 4 older sisters approach and pass the age of 70, it means it isn’t that far off for me either.

Happy Birthday, Audrey!

I made my tea and sat and read comments and blogs from yesterday. If it wasn’t so rainy, I would have taken the chance and gone for a walk but it was, so I didn’t. Bill slept until just after 8 and related that to his restless night. Me? Slept like a baby, a well-fed, dry baby. 😊 Bill went inside to get the new valve system that Marshall picked up for our Suite yesterday in Indiana. He doesn’t need Al in service to do it for him. He can take care of this small job himself. It is not the first time he had replaced it.

Brunch today

We got cleaned up and drove to Costco to be there upon opening. A quick in and out for our dairy products and a few other items we needed. Bill probably holds the record for the fastest Costco visit of anyone, ever. Within 15 minutes we were in back in the truck. He has become quite good at it and wastes no time. Back home, we hopped in the shower and had a bacon and egg toasted sandwich. I’m really enjoying the rye bread with caraway seeds once in a while. It is still carbs so can't make it too much of a habit.

Quite a distance was travelled like this

Clemson ready for the adventure

Lots of work in the mud and rain

Bill wanted to replace the valve assembly but there wouldn’t be time this morning so planned on doing that after supper tonight. We got dressed, settled Clemson in his seat belt in the back seat and followed the 401 past Iona, West Lorne, Dutton and Rodney (familiar haunts to me) to the Wheatley turn off. 

It was a cooler 66F as we took the turn off at 1 pm

It was rain most of the way with no sign of relief. Surprise, surprise when west of Rodney, the sky and the pavement began to dry up. Our turn off was marked Essex Rd. 42 and it curved around and took us through Lakeshore. This was a pretty town on Lake St. Clair in Essex County. Honestly? I’d never even heard of it before.

Lakeshore had a lovely water tower for me

This route took us through Wheatley, a small community of approximately 3,000 inhabitants in Chatham-Kent. 

We found Marlene and Benno along the shores of Lake Erie in their beautiful home, tucked back in cottage country. We pulled into the driveway alongside their 24’ travel trailer, White Hawk, I think is the name. 

When Bill slows down, the head pops up
"Are we there yet?"

What a lovely spot they have with their newly acquired lots on either side. We later got a tour of their ‘getaway’ wheels. Having never met them before but feeling we already knew them, it was a delight to put their faces from their blog into reality. They greeted us at the door.

This turned from what we expected to be a pleasant afternoon visit to the most delightful afternoon and evening experience. With their German descent, we were introduced to a few of their traditions and relished every one! 

Elsa was allowed out to greet us at one point and sat with us on the couch

A German tradition
Can't have coffee without the cake, right Benno? 

From a celebratory ‘new friends’ greeting of wine around 1:30  (Marlene, I must get the name of that wine!) to coffee and cake for a 3 pm break (oh my!) and then after our hosts showed us around the property and into Benno’s ‘much-drooled-over’ workshop, Bill and I toasted with a glass of Radler beer.  This was another new taste for us. I enjoyed the Grapefruit and Bill, the Lemonade flavour. Interesting!

Clemson made himself quite at home in Reggie and Elsa's bed

The 'shop tour'

Happy Hour

The sun came out and the sky was a glorious blue for the remainder of the afternoon. Marlene was sweet enough to treat Clemson to some soft food of Reggie’s since we hadn’t planned on staying for dinner and didn’t bring his. 

Clemson enjoyed the different food
Thank you Marlene

And then settled down outside like Royalty

I felt bad for Elsa and Reggie as they were confined to their cage in another room for the best part of the day. Reggie was not in the mood for company and although Elsa was pleasant, she’s such a sweet little dog, she was very curious about our snobby baby. It was out of kindness to Clemson that they decided to keep them both in their room.

Marlene had this Alabama 'Moonshine'

souvlaki, roasted potatoes, zucchini and peppers, brussel sprouts salad
Dee-lich--ous!

And in case that wasn't enough, cherries and whipped cream for dessert
Not only was the dinner great, the conversation was great too

What a wonderful dinner! Even Benno out-performed himself by being ‘The BBQ Chef’ tonight. It was comical to witness the charade between him and Marlene as they prepared dinner and we all had a lot of chuckles. This was a terrific day spent with new friends and fellow travelers. We enjoyed hearing their stories of past travel days on their 42’ (?) sailboat and we shared what we could of the rv travel side of our adventures and what we’ve learned in our short time on the road.

Clemson is very brave when a glass door separates them

And sadly, the day had to come to an end as we said goodbye around 8 pm and headed home. Because of the constant 401 construction (almost all the way it was 80 km), we decided to take the scenic route home and turned onto Talbot Line (#3 hwy) at Wheatley. This takes us along a road we’ve always enjoyed travelling with occasional glimpses of the beautiful expansive Lake Erie. I tried to capture it but that didn’t work out well at all so I sat back and enjoyed the views.

thank you for a great day!

Driving around the harbour near their place

The homes along the lake were absolutely gorgeous and as much as I didn’t want to own them, I sure would have given up a couple of hours touring them! There were many 'oh wow' homes and even a few 'OMG!!' mansions. 

One of the less substantial homes, if you can believe it
I wasn't quick enough to capture the OMG ones

We arrived home around 9:45 and it was Bedtime for Bonzo! Well, it was bedtime for me, that’s for sure. I think Bill followed soon after, I don’t know as I dropped off immediately. What a wonderful day we had, meeting fellow bloggers and experiencing some new tastes and company.

A view of Lake Erie
Good night from the Suite at CanAm

Thank you for stopping in today. Your comments are always welcome.