Taking the scenic route out west to see my girls.

I've decided that it's time to get out to the island to see the girls.  Thinking about a drive through Canada at this time of year made me cringe a bit... snow/saskatchewan/mountains.. NOT.

Option B was the long endless drive through N. Dakota with a similar dose of Montana.. and snow and mountains... NOT.

So what else could I do... south from Duluth to ... say... Missouri and then head west to California from there.. Only adds about 1500 miles to the trip soooo..

Yesterday I headed out.. I took a few pics along the way and took HWY 35W to Hinkley.. over to St Cloud on 23 and then 71 south to Windham.  Why Windham one might ask.. well, it gave me a chance to visit with some of the nicest people in Minnesota.  I stayed with Dan and Teri, and went out for dinner with Bill and Barb, Jeff and Sherry, and Teri - Dan had a Lions function he had to attend so he couldn't join us.

I slept like a log and while I was checking my maps this morning over a cuppa coffee, I found that HWY 71 continues all the way down to Missouri which is my turning point to head west...

Is this going to be too easy???   Life is Good.

Maple Syrup time came early this year.

Maple syrup time arrived along with the beautiful spring weather so we have been out early collecting sap and boiling it down to a fine nectar.  I think that the trees are a bit confused and the temps haven't been quite right for them to produce as much sap as we are accustomed to collecting.

Bottom line - get out there and tap the trees when you can and get as much "product" as you can! We tapped 55 trees and have collected about 40 gallons of tree juice to date. That sounds like a lot but once we boil it down, we will end up with one gallon of actual maple syrup. The weather has cooled down the past couple of days and this has brought an end to our production for now.

I'll have to leave this job in Scott's capable hands as I'm planning on my next travel adventure which hopefully will start Monday.  The plan is to hit the road and drive out to Vancouver Island to see my girls.  I have a lot of time so I'm hoping to drive south to Kansas - or there abouts and connect with the famous Route 66 to California. Then, on to the Pacific Coast Trail (Hwy 1) north to BC. 

I'll be visiting the girls on Vancouver Island and then on 11 April I start a home sit in New Westminster for 4 weeks.  This will give me a lot of time to explore the city of Vancouver along with it's many suburbs - golf - hike and keep company with a sweet little kitty cat.

Life is Good - n'est ce pas?

Back home after a lot of miles and a nice vacation...

Jewels and I did a driving marathon last week.. actually about 10 daze when we drove out to Florida to visit our friends (Bob and Jo Willacy) who have a lovely home in Palm Beach Gardens which is just north of Fort Lauderdale.

We managed to stay ahead of a nasty weather pattern on the way South and West and stopped in to the lovely and historic city of Savannah Georgia.  We spent a couple of nites there and did a lot of exploring.  The city is set up with a multitude of squares which depict life and history of the city. The dining was also tres bien and we totally enjoyed the stop.

As you can see from the pics above, I did manage to fine a slice of the beer drinker's heaven - The world of beer.  I can now say that I have officially seen this part of the "good" life.

From Savannah, we tripped down to Florida and spent 3 days with the Willacys. It was a great time and I managed to get in a couple of rounds of golf although the weather was a bit on the cool side.

Bob and Jo live in one of the PGA complexes and were able to get us out onto the Pete Dye Preserve which is home to many of the local pro golfers.

We took two and a half days of hard driving to cover the 2800km to get back to Duluth, again dodging storms and freezing conditions to arrive home at -22C on Sunday nite. 

It was a great trip but is always good to get home and feed my birds.. I even saw a robin fly over the back yard today so spring must be near. I think that I chased those damn pigeons off the deck enough times today for them to get the picture that they are not really wanted here!

Life is Good!

my girls....

Just a quickie here...

Jill has posted some cute pics of her and the girls on her facebook page... I thot I would copy a couple here to show off my favorite kids and tell them how much I love them and how much I am looking forward to a visit in early April.

YES.. Life is Good.

Finally something exciting in my life :)

Well, not necessarily exciting but an opportunity to get up off my duff and make an entry onto this blog.  I noticed my last entry was Nov 4th so I guess you could say that I'm kinda lax.. pathetic.. lazy .... slow! 

This weekend the Superior Curling Club (where my team won last weekend's Mulligan Mixed Bonspiel - had to toss that in) - hosted the first Lake Superior pond curling bonspiel.  Well, it was kind of exciting in that we had teams entered from Maine and Chicago so of course what happens?? The weather hit +6C on Friday and didn't go down to freezing temps until last nite.

Ice melting, puddles everywhere, and no option on Friday other than moving the event indoors which looses some of the charm of the outdoor affair.  Anyways, the curlers got onto the outdoor ice today and the bonspiel wound up with everyone happy and ready to do it again next year.

The event's main attraction was an outdoor hockey tournament that has been an annual happening over the past few years. The final games were being held today.. everyone was having a cool time.

Hockey guys only get two pics.. because Je suis un curler extraordinaire. 

Life is Good

Making our first batch of EZ Street "C-C-Cold" asphalt in Whitehorse!

I arrived into Whitehorse late last night and noticed that there was a bit of snow on the ground ... well it turned out to be quite a bit of snow when morning broke today...

Took a few pics around the hotel this morning.. and a few at the asphalt plant where we will be working the next few days... Looks like a bit of a challenge to say the least!

 I think our pile of aggregate is under one of these piles of snow!

Life is Good!

A lovely day for a hike - Ely's Peak...

Today, the sun was shining, the birds were singing, and I decided that there had to be better things to do than to hang out on the couch watching football all day. 

Jewels had gone hiking with a friend when I was up north and it was sort of a short cut up to the top of Ely's Peak.. I say a short cut as it was a lot shorter than the route from the rear.. and this route was only a mile... but lotsa climbing...  It got quite warm and the layers were stripped off.. the colors were great... the company was very nice.. and it was a wonderful stroll.

I also figured that if we left early enough, I would be back early afternoon and still get my fill of Sunday NFL football..  Right again!

On the way home, we stopped in at the Enger tower.. colors were so nice.. and always a great view of the City..

 It's probably going to get cooler soon.. perhaps the snow will be falling and we'll be hauling out the snow shoes.. Kind of looking forward to that but a day like today was so nice..

Life is Good