Family time.

Well here it is July 5th.  The day after July 4th. Independence Day for the United States of America.  How old is America you ask? The United States is 238 years old while Canada is a mere 147 years old. We are really such a young country in comparison.  Tonight we are in a campground in Sturgis Michigan.  This is not the same "Sturgis" of the motorcycle fame.  That Stugis is in South Dakota and we hope to be there within two days travel.  We had a long drive today leaving Guelph this morning at 0650 hrs (that is 6:50 am for those not used to a 24 hour clock).  I am feeling rather blue tonight as I sit and start this portion of the blog.  Blue because I have left some of my family behind.  Read on and you will see what I have left behind.

We arrived in Guelph on Saturday June 21st at about 6:00 pm.  We were pretty tired from the drive down from Sault Ste Marie, and as Riki and Alisha had a family wedding they were attending, we had arranged to see them on Sunday which gave us plenty of time to set up our campsite.  We had chosen Guelph Lake Conservation Park as it was very close to Riki and Brad's house (12 minutes according to the GS).  The campsites in this park are the biggest by far that we have seen.  Over the next two weeks we actually stayed in three sites because we had not pre-booked and were camping over the July long weekend.  Our first site was quite shaded, but as it was very humid and we were having rain storms daily, we really did not mind.  Also as we only had electric and water (no sewage hook ups) we were happy to be right across from the showers and washroom.  Sunday morning Riki brought Alisha over and dropped her off so she could have breakfast with Gramps (aka: Papa/Pops) and I.  Riki had to pick up Madison from Brad's parents as they had babysat her the previous night.  She was so happy to see us but was also a bit shy for all of 10 minutes!  Ray made us breakfast while her and I got to visit with each other.  Madison has changed so much since I saw her in March. In March she was just starting to sit on her own. She had dark auburn hair. Now she is a little blonde chubby baby who crawls all over the place and walks around the furniture! No peace for Mom and Dad that is for certain! This photo she looks like she has red hair, but trust me, it is blonde.

Over the next week Alisha was still in school so our routine became Riki coming over with Madison after lunch for a couple of hours and then going and picking up Alisha and bringing her back to the campsite.  We had dinner together either at Riki & Brad's or at the campsite.  Ray and I were lucky to be able to attend the Kindergarteners class picnic.  Well I was a participant while Ray sat on a bench and visited with another grandfather who was also there.  Alisha was a bit disappointed when we told her that we would not be there for the weekend as we were heading up to Newmarket to visit with my brother Jimmy and his wife Sue.

As the long weekend was approaching and we had not pre booked our campsite, we had to move our 5th wheel from our site near the shower house and with electrical and water hook ups, to an unserviced campsite.  The unserviced sites are also very large and more level that the first site we had been in.  The site was large enough that we could play bacci ball, ring toss and whatever else it was that Riki brought for Alisha to play with.  

June 27 Ray and I headed up to Newmarket to visit with my brother Jimmy and his wife Sue.  We took Highway 24 (or 124) out of Guelph and meandered our way.  It is about an hour and a half drive and we were not expected until about 3:00 or so.  I decided that we needed a Harley Davidson fix, so I Googled to see if there was a dealer in Newmarket.  The closest one was in Richmond Hill which if I remembered correctly, was only about 20 minutes from Newmarket.  I didn't have to twist Ray's arm at all to go.  Having lived in Richmond Hill in the 70's I figured that I could find an address on Yonge Street easy enough, but punched it in to the GPS anyway as it has been about 37 years.  Anyone who has driven on Yonge Street will know that it is light after light basically from Newmarket to downtown Toronto, so when the GPS took us over to the 404 I was not surprised as it was giving us the shortest route possible.  What I did not realize was how much Aurora and Richmond Hill had changed and basically blended together right down to the city of Toronto.  The GPS had indicated that it was 19 kms to the location and Ray said if he had known it was that far he would not have gone.  19 kms on Highway 404 is like going from Mission to Abbotsford.  We got off the 404 on Highway 7 and quickly found Davis Harley Davidson.  What was the real shocker for me was really how the area had changed!  This what I would have called Thornhill, not Richmond Hill.  For those in BC, Thornhill is to Toronto what Burnaby is to Vancouver.  This was not the Richmond Hill that I remembered!  After finding a place to park we wandered around the dealership admiring their bikes.  After about half an hour and dropping a few dollars on a couple of t-shirts we headed north again for Newmarket to my brothers house.

Newmarket, the sign at the beginning of the city says the population is 85,000 but I believe the sign must be old as the new housing growth just never ends.  Each time we come to Newmarket it is more and more spread out. We spent two nights at Jimmy's.  The first night my niece Amanda and her husband, Jeff arrived with their crew of 6 delightful kids.  Laurel is the oldest at 9 years, followed by Holly 7 years, Cadence 5 years, Reid 4 years, Brier is 2 and baby Harrison will be one in August.  Very well behaved kids they are.  Oh yeah they also had Wilbur with them.  Wilbur is their dog who I believe is 2 years old so very much a large gangly puppy who loves to have you through a frisbee or anything else you happen to have in your hand.  He spent the next few hours going from person to person, whoever had the frisbee by their feet!  With kids climbing trees, dog playing frisbee and Laurel making a wooden teepee, we had a quite an evening.  With so many of us there, Sue had thought to bring in lots of fruit to eat and order in pizza for dinner.  No one need to cook there!  On our 2nd night we had a feast of BBQ's tenderloin steaks and a feast of crab legs.

On returning to our camp site in Guelph, the long weekend was in full swing!  It was so full of campers!!  And so many campfires!!!  It was not a good thing to subject my lungs to that is for sure.  But nothing a few puffs of ventolin did not fix.  All nestled into our tenting site, Riki and Brad brought the kids out.  Alisha was so excited as she was going to be spending the next few nights with us.  Riki said that she had packed her bag first thing in the morning.  Riki was also pretty sure that Alisha would ask to come home the first night.  But she spent the next 5 nights with us and never asked to go home once!  Mind you she did see Riki every day and baby Madison too.

On Monday June 30th we decided to take Alisha on a drive.  She had been wanting so bad to go for a drive so that she could watch a movie in the truck as we have the kids DVD screen which had only been used once previously by Riley and Sadie just after we got the truck.  So we head off with Alisha happy in the back watching a movie.  She did not ask us where we were going and for all she cared we could have been going to the moon.  She sat back there with a huge grin on her face.  A we neared our surprise destination, I pointed out a sign to her that said "African Lion Safari" with a picture of a huge lion.  She was very excited when we pulled into the parking lot.  Now the African Lion Safari which is in Rockton Ontario, is the very best "game farm" that I have ever seen!  You have the choice of driving your own vehicle into the game area or taking the tour guided bus.  We opted to take our truck and drive at our own pace.  Unfortunately we were stopped and as we had the 5th wheel hitch in the back the girl at the gate (lets call her the "warden"), told Ray that he had to turn around and rent a locker and take the hitch out and lock it up as the baboons would take the pins out and then the hitch.  Anyone who knows Ray can imagine how impressed he was!!!!  For those who don't now him that well, lets say he was less then impressed!!  The lockers were $5 to rent and we had no idea if the hitch would even fit in, so very reluctantly we decided to take the guided tour bus through the game area at $5 for each of us (that is over the $101 it cost to get in).  Alisha didn't really care as she had never been.  I was a bit disappointed as it really is an adventure to take your own vehicle through.  But I do say now that being on the bus, you are given the tour guide info that you just don't get if you drive yourself.  We saw so many animals!  But by far my favourite were the Giraffes!  Of course I took the wrong camera lens so my photos could have been much better then these photos.  

I think we were able to give Alisha some memories that she will cherish this past week.  Spending time with Nana and Gramps has been great for her especially camping in the trailer.  When it rained we watched movies that she provided (Barbie, Decpicable Me 1 & 2, Shrek and I can't remember what else).  We did some yoga and took some walks including onto the dam.  The weather was sunny, hot, humid and stormy all together!  My friend Nancy Prentice came and spent a night with us.  While she was here we had a camp fire and made s'mores.  I am not sure if Alisha liked eating them or toasting the marshmallows.  We do know that Gramps was not interested in eating them but he did toast marshmallows for them.  Nancy taught Alisha a new game called "Baby Racoon".  This game involves the racoons going and forging for food and recognizing and watching out for predators.  a learning game for sure!  

 Nancy, Alisha and I on Canada Day

 Yoga with Nana

 Brad and Madison

 S'Mores!!

Hitching a ride with Gramps on one of our walks.

One thing that we noticed while being in Ontario especially around Newmarket, Toronto or any of the major highways.  There are no HOV lanes here!!  At times there is 12 lanes of traffic, but no HOV lanes.  mmmmmm….. that is just odd!

So now tonight we sit in our campsite in southern Michigan and reflect on the last two weeks.  I miss my daughter and my grand daughters.  Next time I see Madison she will be walking (probably running as at 8 months old she is walking around the furniture).  Alisha is such a sweet well behaved girl.  Today when we stopped at one of the many travel centres, as I walked to the truck I saw on the passenger side door written in the dust, a 5 year olds printing "a l i s h a".  Tears sprang to my eyes at the same times as a smile to my face.