The Squamidian Report – Apr. 27 /19
Issue #883
Including:
From Lorne
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Those of you who are observant may have noticed that there was no
Squamidian last week or the week before. Thats the first time we’ve
missed any issues in a very long time. Oh well. Thats how it goes.
Anyway, we were away on a road trip to KW so ‘The Wife’ could bring
back a trunk full of things that she wanted to bring back. And face it,
road trips are kind of fun. You get to see a lot of country, you get to
see how the geology changes as you work you way along. And change it
does. Transitioning from the coast to the west is startling,
transitioning from the west into the north is as abrupt as crossing a
line, and so on. It was spring on the coast, winter in the mountains,
spring on the prairies, very much winter in north western Ontario, and
early spring in southern Ont. One thing about road trips in a car as
opposed to on a bike is that cold, rain, snow etc are not as big a
factor and have little effect on personal comfort. This trip, done this
time of year, would not have been possible on the bike. This trip done
this time of year meant the only traffic was in and near the cities and
the whole of southern Ontario from about Barrie on down. There were
times in the north and in the west that we could drive for very long
periods of time and never see another vehicle. Gotta love that. Anyway,
heres a brief breakdown of how things went.
Day 1…
This was our shortest day (an easy 706km) as we intended to drive only
as far as Castlegar in the Kootenays where we would drop in on old
friends, catch up a bit and spend the night, which we did. And yes, we
were expected and invited. Dropping in on them meant heading out
through the city and out the Fraser Valley to Hope then taking #3, the
Crows Nest Highway. Interesting thing about where they live, there are
elk all over the place. When we got up on the Sunday morning there were
about 18 very large elk wandering around on their front lawn.
Day 2…
Day 2 was a bit longer at 920km. We had to battle winter driving
conditions over the Kootenay Pass and through the eastern Rockies. Once
out of BC we went through some of the most scenic sections of Alberta
and out onto the prairies. Its also a very windy part of the world,
with wind farms as far as the eye could see. Driving was easy and
although we had taken longer than expected to drive the snowy mountain
passes, we rolled into Swift Current Sask by early evening where we got
a nice motel room and relaxed.
Day 3…
We left Swift Current just as the sun was coming over the flat eastern
horizon and therefore it was directly in our eyes. And yes, most of
Sask is very flat, interesting but flat. We then ran into a low fog
bank that mercifully blocked the sun but also blocked any chance of
seeing more than a few hundred feet. Luckily, there was almost no
traffic and the highway is divided by about a quarter mile with a nice
no-mans-land of fields in between the east and west bound lanes.
Eventually the fog burned off and we crossed Manitoba and into Northern
Ontario. In doing so we literally left the west and entered the north.
Went from flat prairie and low scattered trees to granite rock, lakes,
rivers, northern types of trees and WINTER. Just like that. Its like
the provincial boundary also dictates climate and geology. We went from
dry and sunny to cold and rain that was turning to snow, so, we found a
motel in Kenora. 1026km that day.
Day 4…
Off we went at the crack of dawn, with snowy, icy slippery roads to
deal with. Driving was slow and careful. There were tractor trailer
tucks in the ditch just to remind us to take it easy. Eventually, and
well east of Dryden, we found clear dry roads and it was good from
there on. Again, no traffic. We could drive for miles without ever
seeing another vehicle. We did drive for miles, all the way to Wawa.
Past frozen lakes, past forests still sporting many feet of snow
amuncst the trees. Past the red rocks of the Nipigon area. The whole
Thunder Bay end of Lake Superior is still frozen as are all the bays
along the northern and eastern end of the lake. Did I mention that
while the highways in both directions from Thunder Bay are in great
shape, the bypass through is so rough and bumpy that it just about
shakes your fillings loose. After a 943km drive the motel in Kenora was
welcome, especially because it was now well below freezing out, but the
stars were sure nice.
Day 5…
Off at the crack of dawn as usual. I’ll stop saying that because every
travel day found us on the road early. The motel desk person warned us
to be careful until well after sun-up as there had been 4 moose hits on
the highway already that pre-dawn morning. Breakfast in Sault St Marie
then on across the top of Huron and Georgian Bay then down 69. Traffic
had been none existent with the exception of around the cities until we
hit Barrie and the 400. From then on, highway or byway, traffic was
nuts. Anyway, we jumped off the 400 at #9 and came down though farm
country into Maryhill and Sue’s sister’s place. A 952km day. Said day
being Wed Apr 10.
This east bound leg of our journey was 4547km in length, averaging 909km per day.
We spent a week in KW so ‘The Wife’ could work away at getting her
mom’s house cleaned out. I basically just hid a lot, as well as
dropping in out at the homestead and hanging with Greg when I could.
One puzzling thing, on the Saturday morning we headed into town but as
we got up to speed on the road her sister lives on, the driver’s side
front tire started making noises as if it were flat. Pulled over and
found it was indeed almost flat. We limped into Maryhill to an auto
place but the guy working was grumpy and not at all interested in
dealing with a tire issue. I did manage to borrow some air from him so
we could go on into KW and find a tire repair shop. As soon as we
started to leave Maryhill we got the same flat noise again. This time
it was the rear tire on the same side. That didn’t make any sense at
all. We limped on in to Bloomingdale to an auto place only to find the
guy there was too busy to help us out. There was a second auto shop
just down the road and although not expecting much help from them
either, I asked anyway. To my surprise they said no problem, they just
needed to pull a car out of a bay and ours could come right in.
And guess what, I’m going to leave it at that for this week as I don’t
want to have 5 pages of this all at once. Stay tuned for the second
half in next week’s issue.
doug
****
From Lorne
I find it good to once again be able to rant and carry on about the
unexpected. However, there is a risk with opening just about any topic.
The following is no exception. Hey, on 2nd thought, I had better not. I
don't want to be tarred and feathered or even stoned to death!
Still, who out there cares what a 94 year old thinks? OK, here goes.
The Canadian Government is about to issue a new loonie. Have you
heard about it? I did and expressed my dire disapproval on
Facebook of their choice of topic. Well! that led to dozens of
returns. Two however, were with me. One near my age (expected),
the other an unnamed descendant (for his safety). Take a look for
yourself, but please do not use this media as a sound board. Send your
threats or agreements to me while I disable my computer in order to
redo the room with a new floor. Shouldn't take more than a month
or so.
Lorne
****
THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello Everyone
It was great to see Doug and Sue here in Ontario for a visit. Although
Sue had a busy week Doug was able to get out with me for breakfast and
a morning of visiting our usual haunts that we check out each time he’s
in town. We visited nothing that would likely interest most of you so I
won’t bore you with the details. Needless to say we had a good visit
and a good talk about guy stuff! You know, snow blowers and cars etc
etc. The one thing we did discover is that we most certainly won’t be
having breakfast at The Country Boy ever again. Doug and Sue and I
stopped in there for breakfast and it was so noisy that we literally
had to yell at each other to have a conversation. We all agreed that it
was the worst choice for a quiet breakfast we could have made! We
actually had to get out of there and continue our conversation in the
quiet of the car as we made our way back to Sue’s parents place to drop
Sue off for the day. The weather wasn’t the best while they were in
town but at least it didn’t snow!
Speaking of snow, I hear we’re supposed to have a few flakes over this
weekend. I hope it’s not any more than that! I don’t think I could take
any more of the white stuff for this year.
I’ve already uncovered the MG and am looking forward to taking a cruise
in the sunshine if it ever gets here! The day on Thursday was quite
nice although it wasn’t sunny for more than a couple of hours that day.
Carole and I spent the day working on the back yard gardens to rake all
the dead leaves out of them to get them ready for the sudden burst of
green growth I expect will happen soon. We managed to fill 5 of those
huge brown paper yard waste bags with our rakings and Adam took them to
the dump for us in his truck. It sure is handy having a pickup to help
with that sort of thing. I’ve had several pickup trucks over the years
and now that I don’t have one I really miss the convenience of owning
one. Oh well, I’ll get another one some day I’m sure. In the meantime,
I’ll have to count on our son to help us out with the use of his truck
for such times as spring clean up!
*
I
guess you’ve all heard the latest of what’s happening with our “Ford”
government here in Ontario. It has been announced that he’s decided to
cancel the reforestation of our provincial owned properties altogether.
That means that the plan to plant 8 million new trees over the next 5
years in Ontario is now scrapped completely! What a shame that is since
we are in need of that replenishment of trees in our province for sure!
I don’t know what this premiere is thinking but I guess it’s all part
of his plan to save money for the taxpayers of Ontario. I don’t happen
to agree with his tactics so far and I hope he changes his plan before
he creates a real desperate problem for the citizens of Ontario. He’s
also cut the emergency forest fire-fighting budget by 68% for Ontario.
Can you imagine what will happen if we have another bad fire season in
the coming years? Maybe Ford is thinking that if he stops the tree
planting it will put an end to the forest fires here in the province.
What is this new premiere thinking anyway? I think he’s going to cause
a lot of problems with his huge budget cuts rather than what he thinks
he’s accomplishing by making drastic moves to reduce or eliminate the
provincial debt! He’s dreaming if he thinks he’s on the right path! I
don’t know which is worse, the Liberals spending us into oblivion or
the Conservatives chopping us into dangerous situations by cutting much
needed budgets all to heck. I guess we will just have to see what the
next couple of years brings with this self centered egotistical jerk at
the controls. If it’s not Trudeau lying through his teeth it’s Ford
running this province like a dictator! Maybe it’s time to hand the
controls over to the Green Party? Lord help us if the voters of Ontario
decide to give the NDP another kick at the can!
We all remember what happened in the 90’s when Bob Ray and his NDPers
took the reigns! They darned near bankrupted the province and we don’t
need that either!
Oh well, I’m getting too old to worry about this political crap so
much. So maybe I’ll just have to sit back and remember that I’m
retired and shouldn’t get so worked up about something I can’t do much
about. The only thing I can do is make sure I vote for the least
problematic party again next election. They all seem to have their
heads in the clouds when it comes to running the country or the
province and like to think that what the voters want or expect doesn’t
matter. Look at it this way, we could have Donald Trump as our leader
and what would that do to us here in Ontario! On the other hand, maybe
he’d do a better job than the two jerks we now have to put up with!
What a mess we’ve created by the mixture we’ve elected both federally
and provincially! I think I’ll move to Russia!
Just kidding!
That’s about all I have on my mind for this week folks! Thanks for
tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next time
in The Ontarion Report!
Bye for now … Greg
PS: Something To Think About>
Focus on your possibilities not your disabilities
****
Have a good one..
the doug
The Fine Print!
The articles in these issues are the sole property of the persons writing them and should be respected as such.
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