Our First Week

Sunday, January 3 to Sunday, January 10, 2010

We were greeted with some of the coldest days in recent Florida history this week. Now you have to put this in context since the lowest record temperature was 26F but still definitely not pool weather, so we made the best of it and got a lot of our shopping out of the way. Most of my time was spent sitting/sleeping/reading (yes reading) in the van while Chris hit all her favourite stores down here (and there are a lot of them!). We hit all the Bealls on 192, the one in Clermont on both Monday (over 50) and Friday (under 50 discount), one of the benefits of looking younger than your age. We also went to Florida Mall, WinterGarden Mall, and the Loop.
There many more stores (too numerous to mention) where all I heard was "Stop the car!!!!"
We also drove by the rental house we'll be at later next month (very nice) and stopped at Orange Lake to arrange for our next three weeks there. The staff was excellent and gave us all 3 weeks in the unit that we bought on ebay last year. They also arranged for Paul & Andrea to have the unit beside ours for the 2 weeks that they are here. Couldn't resist sitting at our spot on the Lazy River and soaking up the sun! Still cool although it almost reached 60F, but sunny and T-Shirt weather.




We saw these on the Orange Lake property when we were leaving.

Saturday and Sunday will be the low point ( highs in 40's), but it should all be downhill from there!
Cheers!

We're Here!!

Monday, January 3, 2010
We had a good night's sleep and left Columbia early in the morning and had a relaxing drive to Florida. Had to get the standard picture at the Florida Welcome Centre and the requisite glass of Florida Orange Juice!


People were walking by saying "What is that all over that van??".................."Salt you dummies!!" 8O)


We stopped at the Daytona Flea Market for a quick look around and picked up our 10 pound bags of Oranges and Grapefruits.
We then drove to Kissimmee and checked in at our first timeshare, Vacation Village at Parkway. We have stayed here many times before. It is a nice resort and we got a two bedroom unit on a last minute deal.

Tough Drive

January 2, 2010
We left this morning at 2:30 am for the Sunny South. The weather report last night was calling for a storm coming across from the west. The weather was clear when we woke up. I figured if I could get to Erie before it hit I would be ahead of the game. Roads were all clear right up to the Queenston border where we were greeted by about 8 inches of snow with flakes coming down the size of baseballs! It was hit and miss as we passed through Buffalo so it seemed like it was just streamers coming off of Lake Ontario. Once out Buffalo we had clear sailing all the way to Erie. I figured we had it beat!
We stopped at McDonalds in Erie for breakfast and while we're inside it starts snowing. Holy crap, it really started snowing! The only way I knew I was on the road was by staying between the snowpiles on each side of the road! It was so bad that we finally had to pull over at one of the rest stops and wait until daylight.



Our drive was a real tough one well past Beckley! There was even snow in the parking lots in Charlotte from their last storm!
We kept pushing on and made it all the way to Columbia, South Carolina. Glad we got that one behind us!

I'm Back!!

January 1, 2010
Happy New Year everyone. After a bit of a hiatus (just too busy or too lazy to post), I have decided to continue my Blog, if not for my friends then at least for me. I have found this a great tool to review and re-live my adventures since I've retired.
I will be doing it a little different until I catch up. I will be trying to do a daily or periodic report and will also be going back and filling in the missing events as I find time. For those that are interested, send me an email and I will let you know when I have posted an older report. Otherwise just keep checking back on the older pages as I will be trying to keep things in chronological order.
Talk to you again soon.

Pete's Place

Sept 11-13, 2009
As many of you know, September is my favourite month of the year and one of my favourite activities is the annual get together with my Tromper buddies! These guys have hiked the entire length of the Bruce Trail over a 25 year period and with that conquered, this year's Tromp was scheduled for Pete's Place, Peter Burton's unique octogon shaped cottage on Lake Isabella just north of Parry Sound. The other Trompers arrived on Thursday and I pulled in Friday afternoon with boat in tow. Once I got settled in, I took a few of the boys out to catch a few fish. The guys are seasoned Trompers, but not anglers and I was anxious to put them on a few fish to show them how much more enjoyable fishing was compared to dragging your butt up a bunch of rocks!! Confidence was much higher than reality as the bass proved hard to locate on this pretty little body of water. Here's Gary and Doc in deep concentration doing a little "Drop-Shotting".


By the end of the weekend only a few Pike and a small bass were caught, but as usual the company was excellent and the scenery spectacular!

We retreated back to the cottage for one of many fabulous meals and relaxing nights.

The next morning we arose to a beautiful misty morning.


The view from Pete's Place is something out of a magazine. Talk about serene beauty!!


This was going to prove to be a day of adventure. We paddled to the other end of the lake in canoes and kayaks. Bud and I paddled a canoe down the lake and returned in the kayaks, a first for me.


Nobody told me how hard it is to get out of one!!!!


Next, in keeping with unusual experiences I took a dive and went for a swim in the lake to cool off!! Water Temps were still in the low 70's....................... very refreshing!!!!!






Doc and Bag went waterskiing, but I did pass on that......been there done that 8o)


Saturday evening started with the Annual Quoits Tournament that Peter and I were quickly eliminated from!
This was followed by another fabulous meal.

Here's Doc, Bud, Bag, Gary and Peter

The highlight of the evening was a Jupiter sighting through Gary's fantabulous Telescope!!! You could see 4 of Jupiter's moons and also make out the colour bands on Jupiter!! Really amazing!

Sunday we went into Parry Sound for a little investigating.


I got this close to the Bobby Orr Hall of Fame, but it was closed on Sundays (next time!!).


We did do a short hike and Doc and I met a guy that let us take his electric bike for a spin.


We arrived back at the cottage and I was preparing to take my boat out of the water. Doc shoved me away from the dock, but unfortunately in the wrong direction and the motor was heading towards the rocks on shore! Doc quickly circled around and took one step in the water to get a bit closer to the boat. It was a BIG FIRST STEP.........

hahahahhahahahahahahahahaha.......Doc is a great guy!!!!

Just another great time with a bunch of great guys.
Thanks for the memories!

U2

Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2009
We got tickets from Terry & Mandy for the U2 Concert at the Rogers Centre. The wild looking "Thing" (Spaceship??) is a special stage that was pretty amazing. They actually have three of these on the tour as it takes so long to assemble and disassemble. Word is that it costs over $800,000 for each show so they haven't broken even yet!!


The dome was open which provided an awesome view (CN Tower) and much better acoustics.


The concert was excellent and the view was good thanks to the Big Screen that came down out of the space ship. It would actually change shape!








It was an awesome show and a great night out with the kids!

Humbled!!

Wednesday, Sept. 9
Today was the day I had been waiting for....The Bass Pro Associate's Classic. The top 10 teams from the four summer tournaments would qualify for the Classic. I finished 4th overall out of about 20 boats to qualify. I had not pre-fished a tournament all season and had made out pretty well so I didn't pre-fish this tournament either (big mistake) despite the fact that all the other qualifiying teams had. The tournament was being launched at Camp Ashtabula on Pigeon Lake which provided access to the Tri-Lakes (Pigeon, Upper Buckhorn and Chemung).
The weather at launch time was excellent:


Pogger and I took off for Buckhorn with a bunch of waypoints that I had been given from a couple of buddies. Most of the strategy was based on working the shallows believing the bass had still not moved to deeper water. We worked the first few points to no avail. We moved from waypoint to waypoint throwing everything out there. Paul caught a little one that looked like it might measure the minimum 12 inches. We work a weed patch by a rocky shoal near the main channel and I finally catch one. Its bigger than Paul's but certainly no monster. We decide to abandon plan A and headed the 10- 15 miles to the north end of Pigeon Lake. We worked a few rocky shoals but nothing. We headed the 10 miles back near the launch and finished the last couple of hours fishing a shallow bay nearby. What a downer coming in to weigh knowing that we had eliminated ourselves.
When we went to weigh our fish, Paul's fish did not measure which added insult to injury. We weighed in my one fish for a miserly 1.86 Lbs.


It turns out that the guys that won only had 2 small dinks 5 hours into the tournament. They started fishing a deep weedline right off the launch site and caught and weighed in 5 fish weighing 14.76 lbs!


The neat thing was that Jay had gone to Michigan only 4 days earlier to pick up his Ranger Bass Boat. What a great way to celebrate his new aquisition!!
They won $1000 for first place and another $300 BPS gift card for big Smallmouth (4.12 Lbs.)


Paul and I finished a dismal 9th, but still collected $150.
Not a great performance, but still a good day on the water with one of my boys.

Childhood Dreams

Saturday, September 5,2009
if someone would have told me when I was 12 or 13 that I would be running a Remote Control Racing Track at big outdoor store when I grew up (a relative term), I would have thought that I had died and gone to heaven!!!
Not on my 50 Things List, but living my childhood dreams. 80)

One Year Today!!

WOW!
Today marks my 1st Anniversary of retirement from Dofasco (and my Blog's first birthday). I haven't missed the old place but I sure have missed many of the people.
It has been one hell of a ride and a real blast. Probably the best year of my life. I am really glad I started this blog as it is a great reminder for me of how much I've done.
Bring on Year #2!!!

Tornado!!

Friday, August 21, 2009
Worked at Bass Pro today and was exposed to something new for me. This picture was taken by Bernie from the front window of the store!!

Two tornadoes actually past by and the one did some very serious damage to about 60 homes just behind the Mall!!

Cooch...... A Tough Day!!

Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Lake Couchiching was the fourth stop in the BPS Associate Fishing Series. This would determine the top 10 teams to qualify for the BPS Classic next month. Paul & Terry weren't available for this tourney so I invited my fellow BPS associate and French River buddy, Bernie Zweerman (Professor "Z") along for his first taste of tournament action. Bernie is a Walleye specialist and was looking forward to focusing on bass for a change.
I left the house at 3:00 am with boat in tow and picked up Bernie outside of New Market. We arrived to a beautiful sunrise at the launch site in Orillia just after 6:00 am.


There were 18 boats for this tournament and excitement was running high as many were on the bubble for qualifying for the Classic.


Blast off was at 7:00 and we sat back to catch a shot of everyone taking off and to let the water settle down a little.


Those who had pre-fished the tourney had found it to be a tough bite and it proved to be an extremely tough day for us. We first tried a shoal that had been good to Paul and I in the past, but nothing was happening. We moved on to the narrows between Cooch and Simcoe and worked the weed edges to no avail. It was a fairly calm day so we made a run to Strawberry Island on Lake Simcoe where there were some good drop offs and structure, but came up empty handed again. By noon the winds were picking up and we bombed back to Cooch to work the North end of the lake. Things were starting to get scary as the big "S" word started to loom larger!!
We got about 2/3 of the way up Cooch when we spotted four people in a boat that had broken down. The rear cowling was off and one guy was paddling with futility. Bernie and I looked at each other and knew what we had to do. (It is against the law not to help a stranded mariner). We approached them and they told us that their I/O had seized. They needed a tow back to their marina which was located near Casino Rama (you could see the hotel on the horizon). It took us about an hour to tow them there. We were having a bad day anyways and maybe we could also use this as an excuse if we got skun%#* 8O)

You can see my balaclava thingy in these two pics. Its is made out of some sort of light UV resistant cloth. I may look a little gay, but believe me it is very effective in keeping the sun from reeking havoc with your skin and keeps you cool at the same time. That little rag cost me $20 in Florida but is worth every penny!
After we returned the stranded mariners back to their marina, we returned back to some more futile fishing. We eventually returned to the same shoal that we started at in the morning , arriving at 2:15 pm with 45 minutes remaining in the Tournament!! I finally picked up my first and only keeper (over 12") at 2:30pm to avoid the BIG S!!! I've never been skunked in a tournament yet and narrowly avoided it once more. All of a sudden the action picked up as I caught another smaller bass, the largest Perch I have ever caught (see below) and a Rock Bass. The feed was on, but unfortunately time was running out.

I pulled the trolling motor out to move and do one final pass over the shoal and low and behold "Where is my trolling motor prop?????" It had spun off somehow. Too late to change it, so I power back to the other side of the shoal to do one last desperate drift. Unfortunately, I miscalculated and end up heading for the shallowest part of the shoal and my boat hull starts banging on the rocks. Now I am in panic and melt down mode (it wasn't pretty) as I struggled to push us off with my paddle while Bernie tried to use the handle of the net to help as best he could. We finally pushed ourselves off and managed not to sustain any significant damage.
We made it back in time for the weigh-in, but only had the one fish (1.86 Lbs) to finish a disappointing 15th.
No matter the result, I still had a great (and eventful) day on the water with Bernie, something we'll probably talk and laugh about for years.
The good news was that you only use your best 3 tournament weights to qualify for the Classic and I ended up finishing 4th overall for the season and Paul and I will be fishing the Classic on Pigeon Lake on September 9!!!
Can't wait.

Middle of the Pack

Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Balsam Lake, 3rd stop in the Bass Pro Associate Fishing Series. Paul and I were out to better our poor performance at Balsam last year (5.68 Lbs). The forecast was good although the winds were already blowing at 7:00 blast off.

Some of the boats hovering before the start.


The guy in the back of this boat is Alex "Pony" Ponikarovsky of the Toronto Maple Leafs.


It proved to be a tough day. We picked up a couple of small Smallies off a shoal at the start. The wind was getting hard to hold the boat in any position so we moved up into the back of North Bay where we picked up a couple off some old bridge pilings. We then moved up near Coboconk and worked some good looking weeds and stumps and picked up a couple of more which allowed us to start culling. We had a pretty rough ride back to a few shoals in the main lake where we spent a lot of time rocking & rolling. We couldn't improve our catch although Paul had a real good one on for a few seconds.
We weighed in only 7.04 Lbs. (which was better than last year) which put us in 9th (out of 17 boats) which was still middle of the pack and our worst finish so far this year (2nd & 4th previously). We were only one "kicker" fish from being in the money. I am still sitting 3rd overall with one more event to go (Couchiching) to qualify for the Classic.

4 of our 5 fish


We were bouncing back across Balsam in the big rollers when I heard a thud sound and asked Paul "What was that"? We didn't see anything and continued on. Later when I was checking the livewell, it had collapsed on one side from the banging!!! Luckily all the pumps and drains were still attached and functioning!!


When we got back to Paul's, I took Evan to McDonald's while Paul went to pick up his trailer as they were leaving for Gananoque Thursday morning.

Crazy Kids

Saturday, August 1, 2009
I had a great day with Maddy and Miranda on Saturday while we waited for their parents to get home from New York. We first stopped off to see Chris McAllister and his wife Katie and son Colin who were up from Dallas, Georgia to visit with Chris' Mom Norma. I spent a lot of years coaching Chris in hockey. He is a great kid (not really a kid anymore) and is now a Vice-Principal and Athletic Director at a High School in Georgia.


We then went to see G-Force in 3D at the show. Wow, $62 for 3 admissions and a couple of bags of popcorn and two drinks!!!!!
After the show I took the girls to see a couple of the houses where their Dad grew up. First stop was our first home on Leduc Street in Hamilton.


And then to Smithville to see our second home.


We had a great day and they hung in all night until their parents and Nana got home from New York.

New York, New York

Thursday, July 30 to Saturday, August 1, 2009
While I was packing at the French River for my trip home, Chris was getting on a plane in Buffalo with Terry & Mandy heading to New York city! It was the kid's 13 wedding anniversary and they were celebrating it in New York and asked Mom if she would like to join them!!
It didn't take her long to say YES!! She has been talking about going to NY for some time now.
One of the much anticipated stops was Tiffany's ...........


..............along with Macy's, Rockefeller Square, JC Penny's Grand Opening, etc, etc......

There was a trip to Central Park and drinks at Tavern on the Green.
They stopped in Little Italy for a bite to eat.


I picked up the Crazy Kids from Mandy's Mom on Friday night on my way home from Bass Pro. I got a call late on Friday from Chris saying "I'm okay, but I'll let Terry tell you the story"!!
It turns out that she tripped on a curb in the rain at Times Square and went "splat" flat down on the sidewalk. Terry had a couple of Officers call for an ambulance and the attendants spent 45 minutes with her ensuring that she was okay. They wanted her to go to the Hospital (Bellvue) and she told them NO, that she was going home the next day. Terry thought that they might take an earlier flight out the next day, but Mom toughed it out and shopped all the next day before leaving to catch their scheduled flight!!!!!
They sent me this picture the next morning to reassure me that she was alright. I think she was putting on a game face for me.


They got home early Sunday morning (2:00 am) and Chris and I spent most of Sunday afternoon at Grimsby Hospital and found out that she had broken the upper part of the humerus bone. (We have since found out that she may have a broken elbow as well). The nurses were all coming in and high fiving her for toughing it out to finish her shopping!!


The kids took great care of Mom while she was away and she can't wait to get back to finish her shopping!!