May was a crazy month and here’s why:

Andy drove to Ontario with a load of stuff for the boat during the first week of May.  I flew out to Toronto on May 5th, as we were going to a wedding near Bracebridge on the weekend. I flew back to Winnipeg on Monday.  While Andy was away I received an offer on our 35 foot Carver “Odyssey” we had been using it as our cottage on the water since 2009.  Once we bought the trawler in 2014, to do the loop, we had been trying half heartedly to sell it.   I signed the papers the night I returned from Toronto, so we are a one boat family now.

Andy drove back after replacing a window and one of the toilets in the trawler. He made it home on May 10^th, just in time for a visit from both his sister and her husband from Fort Frances, and his brother and wife from Wainwright. They had come to Winnipeg for Uncle Al’s 90^th birthday on May 12^th.

The long weekend in May we drove the 500 Km up to Swan River to visit my family.  It was also the occasion of my mother’s 88^th birthday.  She had moved into the Lodge Swan River in January, after a short stay in a nursing home in Benito, and several months in hospital.  We hadn’t been to her new place as she was still in Benito when we visited her at Christmas.   It was a great party with almost all the family there.  After the birthday, everyone was glued to the; TV, as the Winnipeg Jets were playing the Vegas Knights in game 5 of the 3^rd round of the Stanley Cup playoff. They lost and didn’t make it to the Stanley Cup final.   On the way home Monday, we stopped at a greenhouse, so I could buy some tomatoes and peppers to plant in my garden.  Since we were past the “May long-weekend”, the unofficial safe date for planting in Zone 3, I planted my garden.

Other things keeping me busy in May were a cookbook that I had volunteered to make for the upcoming McMorland Reunion in August.  I needed to get recipes and information from 10 branches of Andy’s mother’s family.  Not an easy feat—lots of emails and reminders back and forth. I had  enter  most of the 165 of the recipe’s into the printer’s website in April, but I had left making the  11 family trees,  and writing the dedication with a few pictures for May.  I had a May 31^st deadline, as I didn’t want to be working on it while on vacation. I sent the last pictures the evening of May 31st.

The last weekend in May was the beginning our annual Grand Session for the order of the Eastern Star.    On the Saturday night we invited Debra and Robert Kelly, our good friends from Missouri, over for supper and to catch up on what everyone had done in the past year.  Our time at Grand Session was going to be quite limited as I was busy at work, and could only attend a couple of the evening sessions.  On Monday evening, Andy presented the Manitoba Flag and I gave a tribute.  On Wednesday night I was one of the installing officers for the new slate of officers for 2018-19.

Now if this wasn’t enough to keep me busy in my quest to have everything done for a June 1^st departure from Winnipeg—there was one other unplanned for complication.  On the evening of May 25^th, I started having a toothache.  I had been to the dentist at the end of April and had complained about a sensitivity to hot and cold.  The dentist’s office wasn’t open on the weekend, so I survived with an ice pack and orajel until Monday.  I got in to see the dentist, who recommended a root canal, as it would alleviate the pain, and stop the abscess.  The root canal was slated for Wednesday morning.  After the procedure because of a crack in my tooth I was referred to a dental specialist, which I will see in July after I’m back from vacation. I was given antibiotics in case I have another flare up or swelling.   Thursday was a super busy day at work, I was trying to complete a list of things needed to be done before leaving, I wasn’t successful, and I had to delegate a bunch of things.   I was also a busy day for Andy he had a medical procedure at one of the hospitals, and then had to go see a surgeon, about a hernia repair.  He too was referred to another specialist for his opinion, so his surgery won’t be until later in the summer.    That evening we packed up the cars, both the trunk and backseat was full of clothes and stuff for the boat.  Now that we only have the one boat, we won’t have to transfer stuff between boats.

On Friday morning, we got up at 5:30, and were out of the house shortly after 6:00.  We had decided to take the American route, through MN, WI and MI, the roads are better, and the gas is cheaper.    We went through, Duluth,

( yes, it is an elevator)   Marquette, and Ashland

(It was windy on Lake Superior, the water was a red- brown colour near the shore-Andy said it was the colour of the tree bark being churned up)

and also through Christmas Michigan, and here’s Santa to prove it.

  I did some reading,  ISO procedures- they were as exciting as Nicole had said!  We had thought we would stay in Newberry, but it was still light out, so we continued another hour

(Here’s the locks at the Sault from the bridge  to Canada) crossed the border back into Canada at Sault St. Marie.  A 13 hour day, and Andy drove it all.  We stayed at the Catalina Motel;   Andy had stayed there on one of his past trips.

We left Saturday morning at 7:30 and continued East.  We went through many towns along the Trans Canada.   Lots of rocks and construction, where they are continuing to twin the highways.  I couldn’t post many pictures, as a lot of them are blurry, as I was taking them as we were going 100+ Km/hour.We continued until Orillia and then turned east onto highway 12.

  We arrive at Buckhorn just after 3:00.  Spent the rest of the afternoon and evening unpacking and sorting through stuff.    We went to the Cody Inn for supper and resisted going for Kawartha Ice cream.

Today  we will drive  into Peterborough (about 30 km away) and do some grocery shopping, and continue to get ready for moving down the trent severn waterway to Lake Ontario.  We had a marine electronics technician on the boat on Friday and he completed a couple of repairs  from that were needed at the end of last year. He changed some wires so that the Captain can now start and stop the boat from the upper helm- which he hasn’t been able to do in the 4 years that we’ve owned “On Business”.  It’s not yet 6 am here, it’s a little breezy, and the sun is shining, although they are predicting rain starting at about noon.  Will likely do some cleaning on the outside once the Captain gets up and then continue inside once the rain starts.  It’s good to be back on the water!