Summer flies by

Wednesday 14th July
We visited the festival again to watch the US dance team.

We saw the Philippine dancers.
 

Ann was not impressed by this year’s US entry.

Thursday 15th July
After visiting the dollar store Ira and I worked on replacing our high current RV lighting with LEDs.
The day ended with fireworks and this time Buddy didn’t seem to care.

Friday 16th July
Lunch out again at the Cambodian restaurant in town - always worth a visit.

Saturday 17th July
More LED project work.

Sunday 18th July
It was the last day of the festival but the weather was iffy so we did the library thing before enjoying the last fireworks at night.

Monday 19th July
One last day of shopping.

Tuesday 20th July
Time to leave our schoolyard and drive to the Drummondville Forest.  Ira and Ann had found a parking lot for the cycle path which was nice place to stay.

Picture courtesy of I. Russianoff

We cycled to the Drummondville Zip-line and signed up for it.  However, after seeing the degree of difficulty of some of the courses, not to mention the height above the ground, plus trying out the free version we made a collective decision to cancel the reservation.

Wednesday 21st July
We did some cycling around the cycle paths plus some card playing.

Picture courtesy of I. Russianoff

Thursday 22nd July
Time for Carol and Lynton to head for Montreal and an anniversary party.

Ken and Cheryl were having their 30th Wedding Anniversary party the coming Saturday and we’d arranged to park in their driveway (thanks to their friendly and co-operative neighbours).

After supper we went downtown for the Just for Laughs street (free) stuff.
These people dangling from a thing, dangling from a crane were pretty impressive.

And how can you resist dancing robots.

And whatever this is supposed to be.

Friday 23rd July
It’s the day before the party and time to do the last Costco run plus other stops.

Saturday 24th July
It’s the day of the party and (most) people are working furiously preparing food, moving furniture around, setting up music etc.

The party is to (hopefully) take place in the garden but the weather doesn’t look too promising, still everything goes ahead on the assumption it won’t rain.

Five o’clock and people start to arrive.

Here’s Ken explaining I don’t know what to some young lady.  His stepbrother, who Ken didn’t even know existed ten years ago, is in the frame at the back on the right (with the camera slung round his neck).

This Ken & Cheryl’s daughter Jessica taking pics.

Carol is talking here to the next door neighbor who very kindly let us monopolize their driveway with our RV.

Burgers were cooked by chef Mike (Jessica’s boyfriend) with son Jeff’s ‘girlfriend’ in the background.

Somehow Jeff seemed to avoid being photographed.

The cake was a work of art by a friend of Cheryl’s.

Here are the principals doing the cake cutting thing.

Miraculously, although it sprinkled a few drops occasionally it didn’t actually rain for the whole event.

Sunday 25th July
A day of clearing up and returning the house to normal.

Monday 26th July
Ken and Cheryl always seem to be able to find great breakfast places.  Their newest find is Eggs Frutti.  As you might imagine there is much fruit.

This was Ken’s platter which had a pile of smoked salmon in the middle prior to the pic.

Tuesday 27th July
Time to meet up with Ira and Ann for some cycling in the Laurentians.  We finally got the right IGA parking lot.

After moving over to a nice park for lunch it was on the bikes for ride up the start of La Route Verte,
 part of the Linear Path which is the old railway line that use to go right up into the Laurentians and has now been turned into a much used bike path.

The weather was stinking hot so Ann, Ira and I went looking for a fountain which we found.  It was a kiddie fountain but we joined in with the four year-olds for cooling shower.

Wednesday 28th July
While doing all this cycling we had decided that since we had to lock the RV up when we left we couldn’t leave Buddy inside with it all closed up so we had bought a baby bike trailer.

Picture courtesy of I. Russianoff

Things seemed initially to go OK with it though you can see that Buddy doesn’t seem to be so happy.

Picture courtesy of I. Russianoff

Here we are buzzing down the road.

Picture courtesy of I. Russianoff

We made it as far as St Jerome (and back) that day.  A good 30km run for old folks.

 Picture courtesy of I. Russianoff

Thursday 29th July
After a leisurely morning we moved the RVs to the St Jerome train station parking lot where there are showers and all sorts of attractions.

We did another 30km run, this time to Prevost (and back) much of it by rivers and some pretty scenery.

Friday 30th July
St Jerome has a farmer’s market every weekend, starting Friday.  We were all impressed by the quality of vegetables and foodstuffs on sale.

 Pictures courtesy of I. Russianoff

Saturday 31st July
St Jerome is very attractive and really is the official start of the bike path.

Someone has spent a lot of money on beautifying the whole area around the old station which is now a tourist office.

The clock tower is a major feature.

St Jerome also has a cathedral but why it has what appears to be a motel incongruously sticking out the side is anybody’s guess.
 

Time to move on with the RV so it’s on up the highway to Prevost abd the parking lot for their weekly flea market.


Carol and I cycled up a little further to take a look at the art show that lines the cycle path.

We took a look around the flea market but no purchases.

Sunday 1st August
Carol had some medical appointments to attend to in Ottawa and I had decided to keep on cycling for few more days so I drove her (and Buddy) back to Ken and Cheryl’s in Montreal to pick up the car.  Buddy did not like his chariot; let’s just say it upset his digestive system.  She drove on to Ottawa and I drove back to the campsite with the best view in Prevost.

Picture courtesy of I. Russianoff

We had extra entertainment that evening when we heard this terrific engine noise and this fellow took off from the parking lot behind us and flew off into the distance.

Picture courtesy of A. Russianoff

Monday 2nd August
On we cycled up the linear path which was much more scenic than the lower parts.  Every so often where there was once a station is either a renovated or a re-constructed building that acts as tourist info spot.
 

We cycled almost through Ste Adele as far as Val Morin with more uphill than we’d experienced before, although it never gets what you would call steep (4% max grade), for our best day – 40km yet.
Rivers and hills all around.

Tuesday 3rd August
The weather changed to very wet so we took the opportunity to move the RVs north again to get some propane and do a little provisioning and on to Ste Agathe and another ‘train station’ parking lot.

Before supper we took a ride back down the path but the weather looked bad so after Ira and I took a ‘shower’ in the river we headed back.

Wednesday 4th August
We woke up to morning at the Ste Agathe ‘train station’ with dire weather warnings.  It turned out to be a beautiful day and we cycled back down the path to Val David and Lac Raymond.

More scenery on this section.

 The bad storm that went through Gatineau fortunately detoured to the North of us in the evening.

Thursday 5th August
Time to leave the Laurentians and rendezvous with Carol and Buddy in Gatineau – specifically the Robert Guertin Arena in what once was called Hull.

I took a route back to the Ottawa, via the north shore of the Ottawa River, I haven’t driven in a long time.   It’s changed a little with portions of the 50 ‘Autoroute(?)’.  However, it beat coping with any of the Montreal traffic.

Buddy was in for a professional cut when I arrived and parked the RV, however, Carol and a newly shorn Buddy drove up before too long.

Friday 6th August
The day of Lynton’s stress test.

We were up early and off to the Heart Institute to get on a treadmill and be injected with a radioactive isotope – oh goody.

After that was all over we were joined by Ira and Ann so it was grilling in the parking lot again.

Saturday 7th August
Time to pick up some of our mail and visit Richard in Prospect.  We headed out for breakfast and ended up staying all day for supper.

Sunday 8th August
A good day for a bike ride if the rain doesn’t arrive before we are done.  Ann took us on a tour round the bike paths of Gatineau and up the Gatineau River a short distance.

Free showers at the Casino – the best!

Monday 9th August
We couldn’t visit the area without going to the buffet in the Lac Leamy Casino and stuff ourselves silly.

One of the big attractions is the fireworks.  Last year I took some pictures of the fireworks.  This year I took some pictures of pictures of the fireworks.  As you can see the latter is way more impressive.
  

Tuesday 10th August
Movin’ on time again.  Now we’re heading away from the very noisy Robert Guertin Arena parking lot to Sandy and Ellen’s place and the tranquility of Fifth Depot Lake.

First we swung by the liquor store and Costco to provision up and then on through Carleton Place and Perth and into the middle of nowhere.

It was good to see Sandy and Ellen again and check on the progress of their house building project.  We caroused until nearly midnight.

Wednesday 11th August
 It was a strangely calm day for here.  Usually the wind is blowing continuously.

Sandy and Ellen were off playing golf for a couple of days so we had the place to ourselves.