Back in Canada!!!  Once again we crossed the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor.  After a very slow crawl, literally covered end to end with transport trucks where we managed to not get side swiped, we were finally back on Canadian soil.  Our first stop was our friends Doug, Becky and Bandit’s back yard where we stayed for a few nights.  It was great catching up with them and meeting some of their family. We then moved to a campground for a few days where we spent some time cycling to a few of the wineries in the area along the shores of Lake Erie.  We had discovered several that we enjoyed last year and several more this time! Our wine collection is forever growing 🙂 From Kingsville we headed north, up along Highway 21 which runs along the shores of Lake Huron.  It was a lovely drive that took us through the villages of Grand Bend, Bayfield, Port Elgin to Southampton where ore friends and neighbours from Tucson spend their summers.

Greg and Trisha have a gorgeous spot and a beautiful park model home on the shore of a little pond. Since their community is also a RV park we spent 2 nights in a beautiful tree lined site.  It was nice to reconnect and spend some time getting to know them better. Greg took us for a wonderful car trip and showed us the beauty of the Saugeen Shores. Another spectacular drive along the shores of Georgian Bay and the Blue Mountains , brought us to our next stop, Wasaga Beach. We had never been here before so we were excited to explore! A few days here allowed us to do some great cycling along the shores of Georgian Bay, looking across the water to see the remains of snow on the ski hills of Collingwood.

The campground here was small, but notable due to the eclectic assortment of small “hippy” like trailers, which were so fun!  Prince Edward County here we come!  With a parking spot for our home in Phil and Alex’s ( cousin’s ) backyard we settled in for the Canadian May 24 holiday weekend. Funny thing is the Bender/Mayeski clan were all out of town at an equestrian competition SO, we actually were dog and cat sitting, which of course we love to do! A visit to the county is not complete without a cycle over to Waupoos Cider ( we had to buy some for Wanda ), so off we went on a beautiful spring day.  As most people know, Larry has cousins EVERYWHERE,  and in The County he has 2.  So we contacted Todd and Melanie to see if it would work to connect with them, and as luck would have it, the whole family was coming for the weekend!  So we were invited to their place for a barbeque where we had a wonderful time connecting with everyone! The Bender/Mayeski clan arrived home late on the Sunday night after a very triumphant competition with Isabella

collecting multiple red ribbons.  That night we stayed up very late drinking and solving all of the world’s problems 🙂  It also turned out that Lois and Denver and the kids were heading back to Ottawa after Lois’s dad’s in London, funeral so we met them for a couple hours at a restaurant in Belleville. Visiting with them is never boring. It was a busy couple days!  Our next stop was just a short distance away, and a little to the north, in Madoc.  Here we went to visit Bob, Ann, Bear & Wags ( more friends form Tucson! ). They spend the summer in a nice, quiet park along with millions of black flies!   It is amazing how this little flie can take such a big bite out of you!  They gave us a short tour and showed us The Mighty Marmoraton Mine, an abandoned open iron ore pit mine, now filled with water. It was a short visit and now it was time to move down to Lake Ontario, to the beach in downtown Coburg.  The Municipal Park was quite nice and we were parked only about 100 meters from the shores of the lake.

What was also nice was, we were only a 3 min. walk to downtown which doesn’t happen very often 🙂  Since we were so close to town we had the opportunity to go see A Tribute to Johnny and June Cash at the restored old City Hall, it was a good time. Coburg has a very nice, old downtown feel to it which we enjoyed!  We were able to do a couple nice cycling rides that took us along the shores of the lake in both directions.  My very good friend Heather ( and her kids ), who live close by,  was able to come to us for a wonderful visit, just sitting around by the lake with good conversation.

Heading back to Jordan ( Niagara Region ), with our 2 year “anniversary” very close, we are reflecting on the last 2 years of our life.  All the people we have met who have become our new friends, connecting with family, all the amazing sights we have seen and all the new things we have learned, we are truly grateful for it all.  While in Jordan we did several cycles with Kate and Mike, had a barbeque at Eva and Guy’s and visited some of our winery friends and of course bought more wine! One of the events we look forward to and enjoy, is heading over to Fort Erie to stay at our good friends Shelley and Rob’s place, Atkin Acres.   This has turned into a yearly event for us, where we participate and support Rob, in the annual Niagara Region ALS walk. It is a fun day with good friends and ends with a huge bonfire.  This year we spent several more days and had lots of fun!

Another milestone happened while we were here, it was our 25th Wedding Anniversary, WOW!  I spent the morning at the spa with Shelley while Larry golfed and then we met for a lovely lunch on the terrace at the golf course. A great day!

The last few weeks of June were spent back in the New Hamburg area visiting with friends and preparing for our 7 week journey over to the UK. Leslie and Steve were kind enough to allow us park our home at their place AND drive us to the airport, and off we went!!!