The Forest City, Visits, New Oven, Food and Sky Photos

The Ridge

On Friday, July 2^nd Bill and I were both off work for the day. All 3 of us were awake by 6 and loaded up for our drive to London. Gibbs knew something was happening with all the hustle and bustle and although he didn’t say, was happy he got to come along. 😁 That is just too long a day to leave a puppy at home. We took his bed, blanket, water, dish, poop bags and treats along so he would want for nothing.

This looks like "where are we going?" look

Bill and I made our drinks to go and Ptooties left the Ridge at 7:30am. We arrived in London by 10 and found Zubick’s Scrap Metal on Clarke Rd. I’d discovered last night that they have a drop off out front of their business where any and all things can be dropped, 24/7/365. Perfect, they can have our old microwave oven. We dropped it off and carried on north to visit our friend, Derrick next. He lost his wife, life partner, world in March and it rocked all of us who knew her. ☹

The sky started to clear 10 minutes after we left home

I like the backdrop here of the farm

I have to admit to a bit of uneasiness/nervousness over the drop in but knew we had to make a point of seeing how he was doing in person. We were pleased to see that he was in the garage just getting ready to meet his former business partner and good friend, Jeff, for a bike ride. He was happy to see us and took the time to sit out back on their deck for half hour. It is important for him to keep busy so we didn’t stay long.

A stop at Zorra Highland School for a piddle
and then he sat 😂

Baby steps is what he’s taking as he deals with his grief and his/our friends in London and his family are being ever-present in his life. Dinner invites, visits and the afore-mentioned bike rides across the city. We’re sad that we don’t live closer to do our part but in actuality, we are very happy not to be living in London aka The Forest City. The traffic, the long lights, the new developments etc. are more than we care to be a part of anymore. After our visit, we realized that he has a long way to go but we had a great talk and a couple of really good hugs.💗

I love the metal insects at Zubick's

From Derrick’s, we drove back across familiar streets, working our way to CanAm on the southwest corner. Gibbs was a hit with a few of the staff, Wendy especially enjoyed the little furball. She loves puppies. 😊 We got our new ‘warrantied’ oven into the car and drove to the Flying M to fuel up. The chores are almost done. Lastly, we drove east to Costco. Oh, my goodness! There were traffic lineups to get into the parking lot and then a long lineup to get into the store once we parked.

A '67 Mustang zoomed by

We’d decided that I would stay with Gibbs and Bill would take the list and do the shopping. That may sound odd, but he is much better and faster in this store than I am. He texted when he had a question but other than that, he was in and out in 40 minutes. Pretty awesome. With everything crossed off the list, we headed towards Dorchester for lunch. The A & W there is a good stopping point, just nicely out of the busy-ness of the city. It was 1:00 and we were hungry.

The Furrion Oven rides behind Gibbs

More interesting sky

I think it is cool to see the remaining drive-in still
in business
The Mustang is popular, well, not during Covid it is

Rolling under the wheels of the no-carb wagon, I ordered the Bacon Cheddar Uncle Burger combo again. At least the Root Beer was diet! The sky to the southeast was quickly turning blacker as the clouds rolled in – again. Have we not had enough rain? Back home, the forecast was for 99% precipitation today and at least here, in this part of southwestern Ontario, we’ve been blessed with some sunshine. I texted Kim that we were on our way.

Drive through A & W

As we drove to Ingersoll on the 401, the sky opened up for a bout of heavy rain. It didn’t last long and by the time we reached the Wilson’s home, it had stopped and the sun was back out again. They had asked us to stop in if we made it to London today and if we had time. 😊 It’s always nice to see them. Today was a bonus visit because we got to meet the ‘boys’. They talk a lot about their 3 grandsons so it was our pleasure to meet Seth (“7, I think”), Ethan (“11, Grade 6, I think”) and Aden (13) who had no doubt who he was and how old.  All handsome young people.

There goes the sky again
It was raining on the north side of the highway

Two minutes later, we all had it

We were home by 4:30 and unloaded the SUV. At least the groceries came inside. We were both very tired so the oven stayed in the vehicle for the night. Bill filled our fridge water jug and I separated the mini sausages into freezer packs. Gibbs was quite a good little boy today. It was a long time in the car for a pup but he fared well even through the driver changeover after Teviotddale. He was happy to be home and ran around without a leash while we took care of business.

Driving into Ingersoll

The Wilson's lovely home

Isn't this an interesting grain mill?
I don't know what else to call it

When traffic came to a stop on the way home,
we soon found out that the drivers were all
animal lovers 💕
He looks a little harried but he's safe

And the sky has cleared

I made a cup of tea and we agreed that we didn’t need supper. Just a Friday night snack with cheese to get us through the evening. Gibbs was tired out, not surprisingly, he had quite the busy day so after a run around outside, he crashed on the floor at our feet. 😊 This was a good day and is sure to be a quiet evening.

After a long, busy, enriching day,
Good night from the Ridge!

Thank you for your visit today. Your comments are always welcome.