A Seven Hour Drive

Well it is Tuesday morning and I’m off early this morning as I have a doctors appointment in St. Catharines at 9:45am and it’s about a three and a half hour drive.

As you can see it is a little cool hear this morning and lots of frost as I head out, I have a yearly check up with the surgeon that did my cancer surgery and for once a year we always try to be in the area. We got thrown off this year because we crossed into Canada about 3-4 weeks earlier than we had expected, so when I booked this appointment last fall mid May seemed perfect, now not so much. Dr. Jeff says all is good and I need to book for about a year for my next check up…now off for an espresso with Gino and a little catch up before I head off to pick up some things in Beamsville.

Gino is well and busy as always, he and Marlese own and operate an auto body repair shop in St. Catharines for the past forty years and have been friends for about twenty years. He also always has the espresso machine on with fresh ground espresso beans, some days the shop smells more like a coffee shop than an auto body shop…just saying.

A quick stop in Beamsville, I still rent some warehouse space here for the business, and need a few tools and a couple of items for the coach, so a quick hi to Bob and I’m off to Costco to fulfill the shopping list that Miss Laurie sent me off with.

Costco at noon hour what could go wrong, well it was obviously a busier day there than I had suspected, my list was short and sweet but the crowds were heavier than I expected, and of course the sample stations were open so crowds of grazers blocked the isles, but I persevered and completed my list with a couple of extra treats that were on sale. A quick hot dog (you just can’t beat $1.50 for a hotdog and pop) and I’m off to pick up our mail and drop off some items in Stoney Creek at Stephen and Karen’s.

Miss Karen was home so my quick drop and run took a little longer than expected, Laurie has given her Passat Wagon to her nephew and I had the ownership and some paperwork to drop off, as well as our mail to pick up, so add a little visit time and with a three hour drive ahead of me it was time to get back on the road and head for Lake Huron.

The drive back was uneventful but most of it is over two lane county roads, and while reasonably straight once past Kitchener highway #8 takes me through a number of small villages as well as Cambridge which is an amalgamation of three smaller towns Galt, Hespler, and Preston so now it’s a sprawling city with streets running on many different angles but with not much rush hour traffic I am soon on the open roads of Perth County in beautiful farmland and with all the land being tilled it reminds me of the home farm and spring planting, only difference is the size of the equipment. And other that a few large pieces of equipment being moved along the roadway it was a very scenic ride back to the coach.

Now keep in mind when we travel in the coach we only move about 300 kilometres a day (200 miles) so I have covered over two days worth of travel in only a day and still made it home to go out for dinner with Susan and Robert who are celebrating their anniversary with us in Goderich a perfect end to my endurance test earlier….