We were all silly enough to forget to take a couple of pictures of us all together, but I did get a picture of me searing the roast beef……. My cousins Kelly, Tommy and Jennifer came to the campsite last night to have dinner with me. We had baked potato, carrots done in orange juice and maple syrup, and a roast beef. All done on the campfire. Cookies and Cream cake and ice cream for dessert. It was great meeting up with them. The rain managed to hold off……
Slept in until 07:00 this morning. Not Bad. Oatmeal and orange juice for breakfast. Last night Stephanie said I needed to go to Port Dover and have a meal at the Crepe House. She had just seen it on a rerun of “You gotta eat here!”, a program on the food network. So began the tour. I stopped at the Crepe House and had the Turkey Dinner crepe. It was delicious, and very filling. Not enough room for their butter tart crepe, at least not yet. I walked around the town checking out the sites and doing some geocaching. About 2 hours later I returned to the Crepe House and asked for the butter tart crepe “to go”. Then on to Port Bruce, Port Burwell and then Port Stanley. I decided to go swimming here. The last time, was over 20 years ago, when Stephanie and I were courting. By this time it was 19:15 so it was time to head back to the campsite and have a fire…..but one last stop at the elephant statue in St Thomas. This was erected to remember Jumbo the elephant that was killed by a train in St. Thomas.
Today was a quiet day around the campsite. I did go into town and pick up a few more groceries. The weather was great. Started reading my next True Crime story, went for a hike around the park, and decided to try their trail. I have to say the park itself is very nice, but the trail gets a negative rating. I should have taken pictures…Took a a nice swim in the pool, then returned to the site to relax and cook dinner between the two thunderstorms that rolled through.
We received some sad, but not expected news at the beginning of the week. John’s oldest cousin Reg had passed away at the age of 65. The funeral service is in Stratford on Saturday. John decided that instead of travelling between Kemptville and London 4 times, because we are attending the Fickling Family reunion on July 20, he would take a weeks vacation and camp in the area. Finding a site was challenging, only because we have never camped in the area. But finally the decision was made. Dalewood Conservation Area, part of the Kettle Creek Conservation Authority. Kettle Creek….that’s the development were we live in Kemptville. Site 106 was the choice. John left Kemptville at 06:30 and was on site by 14:30. The traffic, especially through Toronto was non existent. Some parts were a little bumpy though. Stephanie will join him next Friday.
Site 15. The first time we have been on this one. It’s not all that bad. We arrived after work on Friday. The weather was good for the entire weekend. The campground was a little fuller than last week, but it’s still not crowded. Saturday nights dinner was flattened chicken, corn, and chocolate upside down cakes for dessert.
A whole week at Higley Flow on site 41. We have stayed on this site before with Owen. When arrived on the Monday the weather was not too bad, but as the week continued it got colder and rainy. Tuesday, John had to return to work for the Ottawa Paramedic Award Ceremony. While he was away Stephanie pretty much stayed inside the camper, reading and puzzling while it poured rain outside. Thursday was a bit better. At least the sun was able to warm us up. On Friday we were really surprised when we bumped into Phylis and Tony. One of their family members had to give up the site for the weekend so they decided they would use it. On Saturday we headed to the Syracuse Camping World to exchange our winter RV cover. We left the campsite in long pants and a jacket at 7c, but the time we got to Syracuse it was about 36c (humidex).
The second weekend of camping. This time it’s a little bit warmer. Higley Flow site 20. We got to see Phylis and Tony after a long winter.
Woke up a little early today. Tried to sneak around, but as soon as I was up Ben was up. Sausage egg mcmuffins for breakfast. Stephanie continued to finish her puzzle. We went into town to do a little Geocaching. There were a couple of new ones since we were here last (2 years ago). When we arrived back at camp we decided to go for a hike on the Lakeside trail. So far we only picked up 5 ticks. It got colder this afternoon, only 10C, so we “chilled “ in the camper, watching a video and Stephanie tackled another puzzle. Lemon Chicken with rice for dinner, followed by a walk around the campsite. Its really empty now.
We were able to sleep in a little bit. The rain had stopped (sort of). Sausages, eggs and toast for breakfast. Today we decided to head on in to Syracuse to visit Camping World. Always a fun place to take your time and shop around. I did well and saved Stephanie the agony of going through all the items on the selves one by one. We escaped rather nicely, only $20..ish.
More rain when we returned to camp. Stephanie decided to puzzle while I relaxed. I attempted to make dinner over a wet fire and charcoal. A pot roast, don medium well in the end, in the cast iron pot over the fire. And flaky buns on the BBQ.
Dinner was really good.
Out of the house by 10 o’clock and finally on our way to our first stop in 2019. Fair Haven Beach State Park. Site 259.
We took our time heading sooth west. A stop at the Ogdensburg Price Choppers, Lowes for Ben and I. Then another quick stop in Watertown at the Salmon Run Mall.
We arrived at the State Park around 15:00 to find that there were a lot of campers. It looked like a huge family get together. Our site was in a more secluded part of the campsite overlooking Lake Ontario. No sooner did we arrive, it started to rain. We made the quick decision to head into towm to sample to local cuisine. It was still raining when we got back to camp, so we decided tp watch some movies and play Scrabble. Stephanie won the first game.
