Day 18 - Menominee to Wisconsin Dells Another day of driving and then we arrive at the Wisconsin Dells. This is an area around the Wisconsin river. It has the most amazing river formations and stone outcrops which were created in a 5 day period 14,000 years ago. I not sure how they know this but this is the story that they give you. I will post some pictures in due course. I first came here 28 years ago when I was 18 or 19 and doing the U.S. on a 3 month Greyhound bus pass. I remembered that it was worth visiting so that is why we came again. When we arrived the place was practically deserted. It has over 100 motels so we were able to find a good one which was also very cheap. A huge room, TV etc, indoor (heated) and outdoor pool, sauna and jacuzzi, launderette (cost $1) for $50 per night. Almost for free. The reason the place was deserted is that the season is over. Most of the schools around here (not in Canada) went back this week. Also the weather for the last 10 days has been so bad (rain and cool temperatures) that the tourist trade has died. We arrived and the boys immediately went swimming. Seems like you can go to all sorts of amazing places but what the boys really want is a bit of water, a bit of food, a couple of balls and they are happy, happy, happy. Mind you we have been making them do a journal everyday and they are also doing a Kumon English paper and Maths paper everyday. Sometimes they do it willingly other times it's really hard work. Because this is a holiday resort there are literally 100s of things to do here. So we are all trying to get everyone else to agree to what we want. As with all things here in the U.S. For us there is so much choice that it drives you to a standstill. I'm sure we will end up doing something.

Day 17 - Espanola (Northern Ontario) to Menominee (Wisconsin, U.S.A) Another great adventure. We went to an Anglican church in Thessalon (very like Thessalonika which is very biblical) in Northern Ontario, Canada. There was only a congregation of 9. None of them under 70. The six of us nearly doubled their size. The preacher (vicar/pastor) was excellent. She had been in the Canadian forces and you could tell she was up for the job. She spotted us straight away and welcomed us in. Her uncle lives in Chichester and she had studied in England. In her sermon she told us how her house had been broken into whilst she had been on holiday. After what we wrote the other day about leaving your car unlocked, we were very surprised at this revelation. But she wove the story into a sermon about Rebecca that was absolutely stunning. She then invited the boys up to help her with all the candles. After the service she really didn't want us to go and invited us to lunch with the congregation. However, time was of the essence and we had to get back on the road. Mum and Paul need to be home in Oakville by Friday or Saturday next week. We crossed the bridge into the U.S. where Lake Huron meets Lake Superior and then drove down the coast of Lake Michigan. We went through the Hiawatha National Forest (they were having a Pow Wow - really!). We also saw chipmunks today, which are mice like creatures with stripes down their backs - very cute. In the past 2 days we have traveled 1,200 kilometers. Such fun when you fill up with petrol and it only costs GBP17.50. My old blue van cost me GBP60.00 a pop but gas in the U.S. is around 30p per litre. Also we are staying in these fabulous motels. We get a double double bedded room (4 beds) for the whole family for $55 per night. This is around GBP28.00. This included continental breakfast, internet connection, 72 (only) channels of TV, clean towels, air conditioning. What more could you want? We are all getting sore bottoms from too much sitting in the car but we are having great games of eye-spy (I spy something beginning with T - come on Dad not another tree!) and singing songs on the way - very John boy Walton.

Day 16 - Oakville to Espanola (Northern Ontario) Today we set off on the first real driving part of our trip. Almost a whole day in the car traveling from Toronto to Tobermorary on the shores of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. From here we went on the equivalent of a small cross channel ferry across the Lake to Manatoulin Island. Around the lake there are lots of very picturesque lighthouses which we took pictures of for my father as he used to be a lighthouse keeper, there are also lots of small islands which gives a very Swallows and Amazons feel to the place. The scenery is very reminiscent of the lake district. The weather has been just perfect sun but not to hot so lots of great scenic views across the lakes. The boys have seen beaver dams today at several locations as well as a few unfortunately dead raccoons at the side of the road. They also got to smell skunk for the first time to which Julian remarked "the smell isn't too bad, I could have one as a pet!" (I don't think so). We have been through "apple country" and are staying in a "paper town" tonight. There is a huge paper processing factory a the edge of the town that has its own hydro electric powerplant next door that Sammy referred to as "a small Hoover dam". .e have also experienced in a very small town a public toilet where there were fresh cut wildflowers and lovely soap in the ladies!!!! (and the Gents). Something England could certainly emulate. Toady was a great adventure.

We are travelling from Toronto to Manatoulin Island, Sault Ste. Marie, Green Bay, Chicago and then to Pittsburgh (south east of Cleveland). 

Day 15 - Oakville

We spent the whole day today painting the inside of the house downstairs. Julie and I managed 2 coats of paint on the kitchen, dining room and family room. Non stop. But no change there. We were doing that for the last 3 or 4 weeks before we left. At least Julie was.

Tomorrow we are setting off for the Great Lakes tour. Setting off north in the car from Oakville and heading up to Tobermoray. This is the peninsula between Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. Then taking the ferry across to Manatoulin which is the largest inland island in the world and then driving up to Sault Ste. Marie. Then we go across the border into the US and head south through Wisconsin, ending up in Chicago.

We are then going to go and visit Nick and Lindsay in Pittsburgh. They were students who stayed with us at 74 King Edwards Gardens for about 3 months this year. We are really looking forward to this as they were great house guests for us and it will be so interesting to meet them in their homes. One of the benefits of having so many people live with us over the years. It's time to go see them.

We may be "off the air" for a few days if we are unable to connect on our travels. We will take my Mum's laptop with us but since Julian loaded up Age of Empires - Titans Expansion (about 3 GB of stuff) this computer has struggled to stay afloat. We will be in touch.

Day 14 - Oakville

Was very dull when we woke up this morning. The flooring men arrived to lay new lino in the kitchen and bathrooms. Just when we thought the building work was finished. There is lots to do on this house. It's 25 years old and by North American standards, is now very much last years model. The houses are built here to very poor standards and just about everything needs replacing. All the windows are shot so we are having many of those replaced. We will be setting up the house for renting after we leave in November, so it needs to be in tip top condition.

I set off with the boys at 11:00 am to find the local swmming pool. After finding one that had closed for it's annual maintenance, I found one some way away just as it was closing it's morning session. Got back home 1 and half hours after I had left and we were all dry.

We went off to the pool after lunch and had a great swim in a fantastic pool which was part of a local community centre. Unbelievable ammenities in these centres. Just about everything you could imagine and more. All brand spanking new. No rubbish, no graffiti and clean, clean, clean.

Julie is showing some signs of relaxing. She managed a smile and a laugh today. We might all be getting back to a normal pace of life at last. I think we are catching up with our sleep.

I spoke to several people in the office at home today. It seems when I do this that I am still there and I cannot believe the distance that is between us. They all seem cheery enough and business carries on. I can't remember the last time that I had no responsibilities in this area and it's quite difficult not to be asking people to do things or to be checking up on something. I miss it. Not from the point of view of telling people what to do but mainly because it all gave me a purpose. Who are we without out purpose?

Day 13 - Oakville

 

We took the kids to see a school today.  It's a private Waldorf Steiner school.  Very different from anything else they have experienced at school so far.  Julian's godfather is a teacher at a Waldorf school in England, so we know quite a bit about the system. 

 

Sammy was very interested as he would be doing some woodwork.  Julian could not see any computers anywhere and was sure they were going to put him in the wrong year group.  They start school a year later here so he would be in the year group (by name) that he has just done.  More schools to see over the next week or so.

 

We will probably leave on Friday for a trip around the great lakes, taking in Chicago as well.  We have been there before and it is a glorious city.

 

Trying to sort out a good way to post all (or at least the best ones) photos on a web site.  Also trying to put together a mailing list to send a round robin type letter to about 75 people.  Anyone who knows of a good bit of software for doing this, please let me know.  Many of the ISPs do not allow multiple mailings and restrict you to a much smaller number of addressees.  I need a mailing list e-mail programme or at least a way of doing it easily with Outlook Express.  Please let me know.  Either post a comment or e-mail me at the usual "londonboards at hotmail dot com". 

 

I know I have lost a day somewhere but it was probably so routine that there was nothing to report!

Preparing the boat for the "off" 

Setting off from the house for the Hamilton Harbour trip

The Captain 

Julie all at sea! 

Day 11 - Oakville / Hamilton Big event today was a long boat trip to Hamilton Harbour with a picnic. Great fun. Good weather arrived here this morning but it got a little rough on the way home. Julie was feeling a little green. I am posting a picture. But she grinned anyway. What a trooper she is. The next door neighbour had her 2 grandchildren aged 8 and 10 all day to day. Unfortunately they are both girls. The boys were really pooh poohing the idea of even talking to them but the girls had already spotted the boys and rang the doorbell to ask them to play. Now these girls had at least 6 layers of make up on, mini skirts, perfume, dangly earnings - the works. Now my boys, well you know my boys! They are just not ready for this type of thing. Neither are we really. They really start young over here. Bit over the top if you ask me and Lord thank you for sparing us from having girls. Where do you draw the line? By the way, just so we know you are there, you could post a comment. Just click on the comment thingy below here.

Day 10 - Oakville

Went to St. Simons Church in Oakville this morning. I first went there 22 years ago with my brother when I emmigrated to Canada in 1982. There were a couple of people who remembered me (I have been back a few times - most recently 3 years ago). The most remarkable thing for me was to realise how much I have aged in the last few years. I clearly look older than some of the people I thought were old 22 years ago. One man remarked to me how much I looked like my father (the half glasses don't help!). I took it as a compliment.

The church is quite conservative and so dramatically different from our own and that which we had enjoyed in New York. We shall probably visit again but have just discovered another local church on the internet that is most likely to be our home whilst we are here. They have a set of drums.

Went out again for lunch and came back and had an afternoon nap with Julie. Can't remember the last time we did that. Mum and Paul sorted the boys out and we emerged from our room about 4:00pm. Bliss.

Very much enjoying our newly installed 5Mbps internet connection. This is done through cable TV and cable modem and is 10 x faster than the regular 526k connections we have at home. This what the internet was designed for. I can access my computer in the UK remotely (using Remote Desktop)and it's as if it's right in front of me. Just magic.

(techies check out http://www.broadbandreports.com/archive. We are with Cogeco - no. 4 in the list)

Day 9 - Oakville Big event of the day was getting a fishing licence. Essential in this neck of the woods. We talked to a local fisherman dockside and we were comparing fishing stories. Twenty years ago when I first fished Lake Ontario (ah my boy those were the days) you could just throw in a piece of string with a hook on it and land 20 to 30 lb salmon. This is no longer the case. We noticed 3 years ago that 3 or 4 fishing trips on the boat had produced nothing and it seems that the lakes are no longer being stocked. Twenty years ago 15 million fish were released into the lake every year. Now it is nothing like that number. Also since the salmon are not natural inhabitants of these lakes, they have, since their introduction, developed different habits. Almost like a sub-species. Now Salmon in Lake Ontario can usually only be found where the water is a certain temperature. This is often below 200 feet in depth. So fishing is a completely different ball game. You need downrigger equipmemnt that will take your fishing lures down to these depths. We only have diving devices that probably go no further than 50 feet. However, in late August and early September the salmon spawn up the rivers. We are located at the mouth of a river and in a few weeks time the fish will be coming home. Come to Mama boys. We are waiting for you. Also there is good small fish fishing from the dockside from now so we will try that.

Day 8 - Oakville

Didn't really do much today. We are just hanging around trying to stay awake, feed the kids, stop them fighting and keep sane. It rained most of the day and we went to a restaurant for lunch.

Just catching up really.

Day 7 - Oakville Fishing Got up at 4:00am (whose idea was this?) to go fishing before dawn. Of course I had failed to check what time the sun comes up and we got up far too early. Although we met other people going out on their boats fishing, we really got up too early. The sun did not come up until 5:30am or so. Next time we will leave it until later. It was great and the boys absolutely loved it, although Julie felt pretty rough for most of the 5 hours that we were out. We didn't catch a thing or even get a bite. Not sure we really know what we are doing. We have very primitive equipment but it was fun anyway. Went out for lunch with Mum and Paul and then watched some of the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Still can't grasp the idea that this is not just a 2 week holiday. We are planning some outings and programs for the boys. Looks like we might head off for Wisconsin and Chicago next week for 3 or 4 days.

Day 6 - Toronto (Oakville actually) Woke up to the sounds of Canada geese on the lake. We did a little shopping to get in some supplies and then went to get some shoes. None of us have any shoes that are of any use for what we are up to. None of us possess trainers. So we went to a local shop (actually part of a massive chain) called Payless Shoes. Sounds great doesn't it? Well if you consider that the Canadian dollar exchange rate is 2.42 dollars to the pound, a pair of good quality trainers for Can$35 sounds very tempting. Then there was a sale on. Julie got hers for half price, mine were Can$6 off and the boys had some off too. We each got a pair of trainers and Sammy also got a pair of sandals for less than Can$100. Under 42 UK pounds. It's cheap here. Even cheaper than the U.S. We went to the boat this afternoon which is just around the corner in the marina. Everyone is keen to go out on it straight away. But I want to check it all out first. These things can be death traps. Survival in the water of Lake Ontario is 10 to 15 minutes at the best of times. The boat has a massive V8 engine in an inboard/outboard arrangement. We have ship to shore VHF radio for emergencies, life jackets, fire extinguisher, flares and anchors to check before setting out. When I first came here 20 years ago, anyone could take off in any type of craft. Now there are stringent safety checks. Drinking is only allowed on boats with a flush toilet. We had to get one of those several years ago. What's the point of having a boat and not being able to enjoy a beer on the way? Ended up taking the boat for a quick spin and all seems to be in order. So we agree to go fishing at the crack of dawn tomorrow.

Day 5 - New York to Toronto We have ten bags (including an electric guitar case) so there is quite a lot to get packed up. We get up early and go for our last New York breakfast. These have been one of the highlights of our visit. Their breakfast bars are great - they really know how to do a breakfast especially the hash browns (fried potato). We called the cab driver who brought us from the airport in a 8 person bus and he came to collect us around 10:00am. We were at La Guardia by 10:30am for a 1:35pm flight, so we had a long time to kill. The flight is 55 minutes and we went on a small 50 seat jet plane (3 seats across - 2 and 1) but as soon as we hit the tarmac in Toronto the airport was hit by a severe storm. Because of the lightning, no personnel were allowed outside so we could not be guided in and had to wait an hour on the tarmac until the storm blew over. We got home to Mum's place around 5:00pm and enjoyed re-aquaiting ourselves with Lake Ontario. The house sits right on the lake and you can see right across to Niagara Falls, U.S.A. Fantastic.

Day 4 - New York It's started to get really hot in New York today. Everyone was telling us how lucky we were getting some cooler weather. Now we know why. Hot, hot , hot. We visited the aircraft carrier the USS Intrepid which is moored (as a permanent museum) in the Hudson River at about 42nd Street. There were tons of aircraft on the deck and they had a Concord on a barge. Did you see them take one down the Thames? It was just like that. It looked very sad. This magnificent aircraft sitting on a barge bobbing up and down in the river. Nothing like the poise it had if you saw one on an airport runway. Went to Grand Central Station which Julian immediately recognised as the location of level 3 in his Spiderman computer game. Our cab driver had already shown us the bridge and cable car (did you know there was a big alpine type cable car in New York?) where another Spiderman scene (from the first movie) was located. This building is magnificent -not at all like Charing Cross! Walked back to the hostel (you can virtually walk everywhere in New York) and started to pack for the morning. We are on the move again.

Day 3 - New York We got up quite late today as the local time clicks in. We found a great church on the internet - check out: www.nyjourney.com and the drummer had a Roland drum kit (like mine) and they sang our worship songs and we heard a great message. It was put on in a theatre. Fantastic. After church we sat out on Broadway in a sidewalk cafe and had coffe, hot choclate and muffins. How good can life get? We then spend 3 hours ambling through Central Park. We saw break dancing, roller blading, a rock band and all kinds of sights. For Julie this was the highlight of our visit so far. Just sitting and watching the world go by. Tonight we are going up the Empire State Building. We chose to go at sunset so we could see the city lights when it gets dark. In the meantime we are having a little rest before we go. Julie is actually having a late afternoon nap!

Day 2 - New York We went to the Statue of Liberty. This took just about all day after we had to line up to get tickets, line up to get the ferry, line up for security checks, line up to get the ferry back. This is line up city. After the hours lining up to get the plane, go through passport control, go through departure gate adn then the big one - going through immigration at JFK - the kids think that America is really just about lining up! Security here is big business - perhaps the only business that's making any money at the moment. Everywhere you go there are metal detectors and sniffing machines. Whole blocks in the financial district are cordonned off and any building anywhere with a financial tenant has been beseiged by police and security personnel. They are taking the threat very seriously. This leaves you with mixed feelings. Yes they are being vigilant and they must know something is up and should we be here under that threat? We are here now and we aren't moving on for a few days yet. We are all very tired. Everyone is in bed and asleep by 8:30 pm local time except me and I won't be long.

Day 1 of the Great Adventure After only 2 hours of sleep on Thursday night, we have arrived in New York, New York. We checked into our hostel on 57th and Fifth and have 2 bunk beds in a room about 12' by 16' but at only 11 pounds per person per night in Manhattan, it can't be bad. We have to try to get used to a different standard of living for a year. The boys were very surprised, as we had only just spent a few days in the Queens Hotel in Portsmouth (rooms of about half an acre in size with swimming pool on site etc) and thought that was the standard they could expect. Well they (and Mummy) are all sleeping soundly as I tap into the hostel internet service. Funny thing was the girl who sat in the seat in front on Sammy on the plane coming over, checked into the same hostel and is 3 doors away from us. She is a movie buff and the boys spent 15 minutes talking to her about their favourite movies. Mum and the boys did their dairies tonight and we hope to be able to keep them going - even put them on-line like this, although we do want them to practice their writing. We had so many messages of greetings before we went and a stack of Bon Voyage cards, I'm not sure we will be able to thank everyone personally - but thank you anyway.

Onwards and Upwards

We have rented the house.  After about 15 viewings, we have found the perfect tenant.  Family with 4 girls under 12, they particularly liked the climbing frame.  This is a great relief.   We will not have to dismantle the contraption.  It took us nearly 3 months to build!

 

They are french and want the place for 18 months to start with and possibly for 2 years.  We can accommodate this as we will go and live in our flat when we come back.

 

It is a great relief that the rental has taken place as we were begining to think the perfect tenant was on holiday somewhere else.

 

I have confirmed a date for leaving work - 30th July.  We will be on a plane within days of this date.  The tenant doesn't want to move in until the middle of August but we want to be in New York for the first 3 days of August.  So the house will be empty for a while.  After we have been in NYC for 3 days, we will take an overnight bus to Toronto (by Greyhound Coach it takes 12 hours) and meet Mum who will be flying back from San Diego on the 3rd of August.  Then the Canadian adventure begins.