The Travels of the Agnew Family

Every once in a while the airport community has a party. One of the guys owns a big portable deep fryer, which he brought to one of the hangers and he fried up chicken wings, french fries and blooming onions ---- very tasty. Other people brought salads, buns, fruit and desserts. Several talented fellows brought their musical instruments and provided entertainment. What a nice evening.

Ed's GPS has being doing weird things occasionally for a long time. Last week it got down right ornery and when things Ed owns get ornery they get replaced (that is everything except for me (at least so far)). So guess arrived for Ed yesterday ---- yup a brand new GPS and guess what I have --- yup a used somewhat ornery GPS.

It was a beautiful day for a drive, so we grabbed the GPS's and hopped into the Miata and drove north.

After a nice lunch at Elsie's diner in Owen Sound we went looking for geocaches.


One of the caches was in the back corner of the Cobble Beach development. Tree stumps along the road way were carved.


Another a cache was at this cute parkette.


The view from the parkette taken with Ed's new GPS. Yes it has a built in camera and a flashlight. It actually takes pretty good photos.


This park didn't have a cache ... we just stopped to enjoy the view.

It's not very often (in fact only the 2nd time that we know of) that a geocache was placed on private property without the property owner's permission. We stopped at the side of a road and walked along the road pondering how we were going to get at a geocache which appeared to be on a trail but was down a step hill. A women appeared and asked if we were looking for the waterfalls --- we said yes and we were also looking for a geocache. Her response was "I told them to remove that geocache a few years ago". She was very nice and showed us the path by her house that leads to the waterfalls. Turns out the trail that my map shows is just west of the road actually runs along the road. Think some trail markers need to be placed along the road to make it clear.


The waterfalls.

Ed retrieved the cache and gave it to the property owner and he e-mailed the cache owner indicating that the cache had been removed. The property owner invited us to stay and have a drink. We had a nice visit and got to meet the resident chipmunk.


This guy is very brave and happily runs up legs, runs across laps and sits on laps to get peanuts. He takes three peanuts and stuffs them in his mouth before disappearing to hide them in a safe place. He's back in a couple of minutes wanting more.

The 2016 Regional CanAm Aerobatic Competition was held this weekend at the local airport. Ed went to watch and take a few photos.


Some of the airplanes that are flying in the competition.


A composite photo of one of the planes during it's routine.


Sunday was a washout due to rain and wind, so the planes gassed up on mass readying to fly home.


Since the planes weren't flying spectators got a chance to walk around on the tarmac and look at the planes.


Not your run of the mill plane --- think this guy flew in to watch the competition.

Ed took this photo of the back yard on August 12. The only patch of green is where the overflow from the rain barrel flows.


This photo was taken taken after 4 inches of rain over the course of a week and a half. It always amazes me that grass can survive a drought.

We stayed over night at the cottage. After a yummy breakfast of fresh Chelsea buns from the local bakery we went geocaching. Ed wanted to hit a string of geocaches on a road about 20 minutes north of the cottage. A string of geocaches placed a few hundred meters apart that are relatively easy to find is called a power trail. It was a tight race between the girls and guys as to who found the most caches --- the boys said they did but I'm not sure.


On the drive back to the cottage we stopped to find a few more caches which took us to some pretty spots.


Not sure what any of them were doing.


Another pretty view.

We found 23 goecaches today met a couple of geocachers.

While I was out watering some plants this morning I came across this spider web that was strung between a hosta and a tree. The dewy web glistened in the morning sun.

Off to Rob and Ellen's cottage today. First thing on the agenda is riding the ATV's. Today we decided to ride club trails that are further from the cottage that we haven't ridden before. Part of the trail was along the road, part of the trail was on a sub trail of the Bruce Trail with lots of trees and rocks to make it interesting, part was along roads that I wouldn't drive my car down but was perfect for the ATV and part of it followed the rail trail.

Due to yesterday's rain there was water on the trails especially on the dirt road. Rob managed create a wave that just about went over his head soaking himself when he drove fast through one of the puddles. Ed and I were more restrained and only got wet up to our knees.


A few sections had small lakes on the trail. Rob drove close behind me to benefit from me pushing the water out of the way.

The day was going great till the sky opened up and the rain came down. Didn't take long for Ed and I to be wetter than Rob ... well actually the rain made Rob wetter as well but it also rinsed the mud off of him.

There is one section of the trail called The Rock Cut. When we reached it and took a look at it. I got off my ATV, stamped my feet and said "I'm not driving up that hill". It was steep, there was a sharp turn on flat slippery rock, it was raining and I couldn't see out of my goggles due to fogging and rain. Ok, I'm also a wimp. Luckily, my husband loves me. He drove his ATV up the hill, then walked back down and drove my ATV up the hill. The rain stopped about 10 minutes from the cottage so we stopped changed into some dry tops we happened to have with us so we didn't look like total drowned rats when we arrived at the cottage.

It was a ride to remember.

Got up this morning and looked out the window. Yeah!!!! it's raining!!! In the last week we've had a bit of rain but today over 3 inches of much needed rain fell. I can't remember the last time I was this happy to see a good long steady rainfall.

Luckily, Burlington only got rain early in the morning as it was car shopping day. Ed and I drove to Burlington so Ed could be a second set of eyes when David went car shopping. David's car's radiator started leaking last Thursday and he was quoted an expensive repair which just wasn't worth doing on a 16 year old car that already had a lot of issues. The leak was quite bad making the car undrivable. Turned out my mom wanted to go shopping as well so the four us invaded the car dealership where we found David a nice 2012 Toyota Corolla.

After a week of bicycling, walking and a trip to Burlington we attended the local street party. Each year someone on the street agrees to host the party. This year it was Joan and Dave in their great side and backyard.


They even decorated for the occasion.


Hard at work barbecuing some wonderful boneless pork chops.


Not only do you get to lots of wonderful food you also get to meet knew neighbours and catch up with other neighbours.

Can I blame Ed for the slowness in which I'm updating the blog? It's his job to download the photos off the various photographic devices (multiple cameras and the cell phone) but as I'm keeping him busy bicycling, kayaking, going to Burlington, etc. the photos aren't getting downloaded. Guess the blames back in my court.

This year Ed and I were able to attend our backyard neighbours croquet tournament. As usual it was a lot of fun.


The first group getting ready to "tee-off". Not sure what the proper croquet term is.


Waiting for my turn. By cheating I came in third in my group --- not enough to advance to the next round.

Ed did better than usual this year --- he made it to a second round.

This morning we drove up to Sauble Beach to Rob and Ellen's cottage. After loading their kayaks on top of our kayaks in the back of the pickup truck we drove to Isaac Lake for a little kayaking.


The kayaks nestled together nicely.

Last August we stopped by Isaac Lake when we were out geocaching and saw a fellow with a motor boat and thought this would be a nice lake to kayak around.


Not so much this year. The lake is very shallow and full of grass. We kayaked a bit then decided to try another lake.

About 10 minutes from Isaac Lake is Berford Lake. What a difference.


This lake is much deeper, thus no grass.


Much happier kayakers here. We kayaked around a good part of the lake and Ed even managed to find a geocache.


We decided to take a break and someone (Ellen) decided a float was called for. She does look comfy.


The geese like this lake as well.

It was a beautiful day to spend time on the water.

This morning we received news that a friend had passed away yesterday. This one really hit home as she is one month younger than me. Angela you will be remembered always and you will live on in your children and grand-children. Rest in peace.

It's been a really fun weekend. I can understand why all the small towns have homecoming.

There wasn't a lot going on today but there was the River Race --- if it floats you can enter it. There weren't a lot of entries but they were interesting.


Not sure how many rubber rings were tied together to make the large raft. The smaller ones seem to be having technical difficulties.


A floating sofa, now that's interesting. They did well till they hit a shallow and were dumped off the sofa.

To cap off the weekend was an amazing fireworks display. Anne, Victor, Ellen, Rob, Ed and I got to the park at least an hour and half before the fireworks but that was OK as there was still entertainment and refreshments at the beer tent. The last band was great. When they finished their set the fireworks began.








The finally was absolutely amazing. I would have liked to load a video but either this blogger doesn't allow it or I don't know how to do it so I just grabbed a clip from the video.

Happy Homecoming Walkerton. Looking forward to Walkerton's 150 birthday celebration in 5 years.