The Travels of the Agnew Family

Today's big event was the 2nd annual Walkerton Car Show. What an amazing turnout --- both cars and people. There were so many cars that they had to start parking them on the side streets. Here's a few photos of what we saw.


Who can resist a corvette convertible and matching trailer.


It's amazing that something that looks so rusty hasn't crumbled.


Cute little buggy.


One of our neighbour's Model A. Jim got priority parking on the sidewalk as it was in front of Window Business. The perks of knowing the owner.


A parking lot of motorbikes.


One of my favourites --- an MG TD.

In the afternoon was the event I was waiting for --- the Pet Paradise Dog Show. The dogs were amazing and the trainers were pretty good too.


Extra jump height is achieved by jumping off the trainers back --- look at those teeth --- don't get in between a dog and his Frisbee. The trust between dog and trainer is incredible. The dogs would just leap at the trainer knowing they would be caught.


The dog was very content standing on the trainers feet looking at the crowd. She had to wiggle her feet to get the dog to jump down. The dog can skip rope better than I can.


The dogs can jump really high. Well, except maybe for Grander, a big Newfoundland. He seemed to prefer the brute force method.


One more jump for a Frisbee. There were also a lot of activities for children over the weekend. Saturday had a pirate show and face painting, today was a magician, petting zoo and pony rides.

There was also lots of entertainment at the beer tent and another dance in the evening. The arena was became a dining hall for the weekend where breakfast, lunch and dinner was served to about 400 people.

All the towns around Walkerton have homecomings every ten years and this year it was Walkerton's turn. In the area where Ed and I grew up we don't have homecomings so we were very interested to see what it all about.


The big event for today is the parade. I've been told that there were around 125 entries in the parade and I believe that as the parade took about two hours to pass by us.


There were tractors ... it is farm country after all


pipe bands, from Walkerton and other towns


other bands


Shriners --- walking, riding mini motor bikes, four wheelers, etc. These guys were having a lot of fun


horses


odd contraptions


antique cars and a true woody's --- this truck body was built of wood.

After the parade there was a duck race in the river. As it's been a really dry summer the river is quite low, and some of the ducks got stuck.


The little yellow dots are the ducks and the barrier is to catch the ducks.


There were only 4 entries in the bed races but it was still fun to watch.


Local bands were playing all day at the entertainment tent (beer tent) and the ones we heard were pretty good. There was also a dance Friday, Saturday and Sunday night at the Horse Palace.

It's been a fun week. Kayaking on on Monday at Maple Hill, biking with the Probus group on Tuesday, biking around Walkerton on Wednesday and kayaking down the Saugeen on Thursday.

Wednesday's bike ride was uneventful till we were riding on rail trail in Walkerton. A doe and her fawn ran across the trail a few hundred yards in front of us. Just before I arrived a the spot where the deer had cross the trail another deer ran out and crossed the trail. I slammed on my breaks and stopped in time (I probably had loads of time and space but it felt really close). Ed said the bike would definitely had lost out if there had been a collision.

Ed remembered the camera on Thursday's kayak adventure. First thing to do when you kayak down river is to take a vehicle to the end point, in this case about 10 kilometers north of Walkerton. Second this is to drive a second vehicle with the kayaks back to the starting point, in this case Lobbies Park in Walkerton. After putting the kayaks into the river we were on our way ... well almost on our way. Just after Ed's kayak left shore it was grounded --- parts of the river are less than 6 inches deep so it's really easy to get grounded. A couple of pushes with the paddle and Ed was free and floating down the river.


The river is very beautiful and peaceful. During the trip we saw a pair of raccoons at the water's edge, lots of kingfishers, several ducks, some crawfish and some other little fishes. We passed several fly fishermen so there must be trout in the river as well.


Oh, and Canada geese. Not sure what these guys were up to but they seemed to be enjoying standing on the rocks as they didn't move when we floated by.


We stopped for lunch at a bluff and Ed climbed the bluff.

Can't wait to float the next section of the river.

Five local businessmen who collect automobiles, motorbikes and tractors got together and decided to open their collections to the public to raise money. This is the 2nd year for the event. Each year a different service group will co-ordinate the event and receive the funds raised by the event. Our friends John and Carol who live in Michigan like cars so we invited them to come for a visit and attend the show with us.

The collections were in five different locations and people who own antique vehicles were encourage to drive them to the different locations where they were given priority parking --- adding sidebar viewing.

At our first stop there were two collections owned by two different people: corvettes (Al Reich's) and motorcycles (John Hudson's).


Just a few of John's motorbikes. Too many corvettes and people to get any great shots.


Outside in the VIP parking where some Model As.

Next stop was Tony Lang's car farm. Tony is a very serious collector. He has three huge storage buildings with cars and a forth building which is the shop.


His most famous car is a 1928 McLaughlin-Buick used by the Royal Family during their tour of Canada in 1927. Only two of these cars were built and the other is in a museum in Ottawa.


The largest of the four buildings. My favourite at this end of the building was a 1954 Corvette convertible.


At the other end of the building I couldn't decide between these three. Oh it's nice to dream but I guess I'll just stick to my little Miata.

Our third stop was at Andy Schmidt's house. Several years ago he built this house around his race car.


The center piece in the lower floor rec room is his race car. The door is wide enough to drive the car thru and the exhaust is attached to a pipe that runs outside so he can start the car --- he did.


Andy also collects tractors and modifies some of them. This use to be the fastest tractor in the world till a fellow in the US saw it and modified a tractor as well.


Carol and I showing how big this tractor tire is --- I know it's actually a small tire and a small tractor by today's standards but this tractor is from 1969.

As an added bonus Dave Hawkins took his cars to the Chepstow Lions Club (a nearby town). The lions club also offered steak dinners to four hundred people. When we bought our car show tickets the steak dinners were sold out so we had a steak dinner at home.


A 1951 Henry J.

Last stop on the tour was Bester Forest Products Sawmill where a dozen or so of Lorne Bester's vehicles were on display.


Who needs a snowmobile. The front wheels on this car could be replaced with skis.


Another toy I wouldn't mind having --- a Shelby Cobra kit car.

What a great day to share with friends.

Ed and I have been busy since we arrived home from our California trip and updating the blog fell by the wayside. In an attempt to bring the blog up to date I'm going to write a couple of entries summarizing periods of time. This entry is for July 16th to 18th.

We've done day trips in the Miata but never an overnight trip. So it was about time for a mini vacation in the Miata. What better way to start then to visit friends. Our friends Kathleen, Steve and their daughter Jess have a beautiful property just outside of Paris, Ontario where currently have four horses, three mini horses and a number of cats. Jess rides competitively and we arrived just in time to working with Cohen.


The front yard of our friends home has been converted to a riding ring complete with jumps.


One of the half dozen or so outside cats. Even though they are feral they like to socialize and a few even let you pet them. All of the cats have had a visit to the vet.


After an amazing dinner we went outside and enjoyed the quiet evening with a fire.


Four cats call the inside of the house home. This one was determined to say good morning to Ed. These four were also feral cats and they are all extremely friendly.


Jess was showing two horses in on Sunday. Even though it wasn't necessary for this show, she decided to braid her horses mane for the show. Harlee was very patient. Do you like my new hair do? ... Using Harlee's tail piece I got an idea of what it would be like to have really long hair.


Waiting for their turn to jump. Kathleen is holding Harlee and Jess has Cohen.


A girl and her horse.


Jess and Cohen in action.

It turned out the horse show was held not very far from Carlisle which was only 5 minutes from our house in Mountsberg. Since we were only twenty minutes from my mother's house we decided to drop in and stay the night. She was surprised and happy to see us. In the morning we climbed into the Miata and drove to Lake Erie.

Port Dover is a cute lake town. It's claim to fame is the arrival of thousands of motor bikes on every Friday 13th. The rest of the time it is a quiet touristy town.


Port Dover has a beautiful beach.

After wandering around Port Dover and finding some geocaches we continued driving along the lake looking for more geocaches.


We also found some ducks


and a shoe tree. Yup, people nail old shoes to the tree, or


throw shoes high up into the tree.

Ed and I have been busy since we arrived home from our California trip and updating the blog fell by the wayside. In an attempt to bring the blog up to date I'm going to write a couple of entries summarizing periods of time. This entry is for the first half of July.

We begin July with cat sitting. Our neighbours, Rob and Ellen, have a daughter with four cats. Three of the cats ended up at Rob and Ellen's house when everyone else went to the cottage --- something about 15 people (2 of which were three years old) and four indoor cats only asking for trouble or at least a house break.


Ed and I didn't mind cat sitting as it gave us the opportunity to get a cat fix --- there's something very therapeutic about petting a cat.

My sister, brother-in-law and one great-niece came to visit the "mothers", so Ed and I drove to Burlington to visit with everyone.


My brother David, great-niece Sarah, sister Carol, my mother and brother-in-law Darryl.


Me, my sister, my mother and my brother.

The forth and final day of Explore the Bruce 2016. Our last punch took us to Arran Lake just outside of Tara.


Not a kilometer from the Arran lake we found a family of Sandhill Cranes having lunch.


One end of Arran Lake is marshy which equals lots and lots of water lilies. What a beautiful spot to paddle around.




One nice thing about kayaks is you can get close enough to some birds (in this case a pair of loons) to get a decent photo.

Maggie's parents, Bob and Sue went on a two day outing and asked us if we could puppy sit. Guess what Ed's answer was.


It was a hot day so we took Maggie to the beach. Can you tell that Maggie looooooves the beach?




All tuckered out.


Don't we look like outdoor enthusiasts. My cousin Yvonne and her husband Bob are camped at Miller Lake and they have invited us for a visit. Decided we bring some toys with us. Ed and Bob kayaked around Miller Lake, then the four of us went for a nice bike ride along the lake.


Another dog fix for Ed. Miles is Yvonne and Bob's dog.


The campsite. Summer House at Miller Lake is quite the campground. There's the lake, the rec hall, tennis/pickleball court, basketball court, bandstand/stage area, shuffleboard and lots more. What a fantastic place for kids.

Since we've had the ATVs I've wanted to ride the rail trail from Walkerton to Port Elgin (about 100 km round trip). I finally talked Ed into it.


It helped that there were some geocaches on the rail trail. This was an interesting cache container.


This was another interesting geocache container. It's a hubcap with a modified underside.


Couldn't resists taking a photo of the lilies.

Remembering our best buddy on his birthday, July 11. Zaph I miss you every day.