Southampton, Ontario-Lake Huron

Ya, we made it without the trailer for 2 weeks. We left it at CanAm for some repairs but they were busy and we couldn't wait.....we hauled it out of there before they got to it and headed up to visit our bestie in Southampton.
For PETESAKE! it's summer and next week, a good friend we didn't get to visit in Seattle is coming to town, well, to cottage country in the Kawarthas so next weekend we'll spend the Civic Holiday in Sturgeon Falls. YAY!
     We live on Lake Ontario, and I have always had a relationship with this lake no matter where in Ontario I've lived. Even when I lived in New York, it was Lake Ontario I had to go around to get home and a couple of times I took a ferry across from Rochester to Cherry Beach in Toronto. (So sad they stopped that service)

Lake Huron is distinctly different. It's still a Great Lake so there's a similarity but it has it's own unique personality. I experience it as "wilder". It's further north so the vegetation in and around it is slightly differentand it is unfamiliar so that much more beautiful to me too.

The little town of Southampton is a cute seaside town with a lighthouse and an admirable dedication to preserving it's rich history.  Our friends are one of the early families native to the shores and we love to hear their stories of the lake, the town and the buildings around.

EDUCATIONAL POST: Things We Learned On This Trip

THINGS WE LEARNED ON THIS TRIP:


If you've been following us, you know that we just got back from a cross-country Airstream trip to California from Toronto. 
On this trip we learned a few things I thought I'd share.

*PUSH THE WATER FOR THE DOGS!-our dogs are new to traveling so they don't drink whenever they have a chance....they are used to having water always there and drinking when they're thirsty. I trained a "Drink" command so we can use it when we stop. If this sounds strange to you, you can read how on my Canine Health Basics Blog.
.....also for the comfort of the dogs, we taped this dryer vent to our air conditioning vent to direct the cold air to the back of our Jeep. One downside of using a small tow vehicle is that there are no rear vents and one downside of having black labs is they NEED cool air! More importantly, this fix allows US the comfort of not having to wear snowmobile suits up front 'cause they are a bitch to get off at a truck stop...OR a pit stop.
     OBviously, we already had those shade thingies in the side and rear windows and ...........WE WOULD NEVER LEAVE THEM IN THE CAR! in the sun unless it's winter or late fall. (And even then, I need to be able to see them.
(I have no photos for this post, so here's another cute one of our dog, Johnny trying to get closer to the Air Conditioning by squeezing through the two front seats. :-)

*We LOVE our new 12 volt FAN...(and for the same, but opposite reason, will love a 12 volt space heater, no doubt, when on the road in winter.) We bought the fan at the Airstream Center in the first week of our journey while at Alumapalooza even though it wasn't very hot yet in Ohio and it was fairly expensive (I thought I might shop for a cheaper one) but when we got caught in the 5 hour traffic jam in the desert in Nevada, without shore power, it was worth twice it's weight in Gold Bars! same goes for a space heater I'm sure, if you ran out of propane! Or to save propane for cooking and refrigerator and use battery/solar power for ambient temps.

* KOA- I know, I'm getting the impression it's not cool among the full-time set to use KOA's but we joined their VKR club (Value Kard Rewards) and it has paid for it's yearly membership price with the 10% discount we get when we stay there and we do, because we know, that although there may not be exceptional natural oohs and ahs, there will be a dog run, clean showers and friendly staff and usually a pool and a hot tub. (many times a bottle of red wine as well!) Sometimes you just feel like knowing that.
    On this trip we found out the card also accumulates points which gave us a further DEEP Discount. We paid only 12 bux for all the above on a water/electric site! (PS the Yosemite KOA has some pretty spectacular natural views)

*Join Flying J/Pilot truckstops, it's free, they have points for membership too and we get half price for a waste water dump event.....5 bux!!! As well they give members a couple cents per gallon savings on gas. No brainer.

*We loves LOVES Truck Stops-We love their showers, clean, usually great water pressure, excellent customer service and they don't mind that we share, so well worth the $10 for the two of us. We bring in our "roaming" shower bag and use our own towels which to me seems ethical since we are sharing.

*National Truck Stop Directory really IS the trucker's friend AND the Heirs'Dreamer's friend too! We camped 1 out of three nights and stayed at Truck Stops the other two when crossing the country. We found that we (and the dogs really need to hang out, swim, do laundry and usually have a campfire every three days. On campground driving day, we'd get off the road early too and treat ourselves in several small ways to be sure we were following the Aluminum Rule and "enjoying the ride".

* There's an app for that! I just downloaded Allstays Camp and RV to our IPad. I haven't used it yet but it claims to store a bunch of info on your device that you can access without Internet which would have come in handy in the Sequoias, Yosemite and Kings Canyon National Parks and for sure will be worth the 5.99 I paid for it.

* Stupid Facebook For IPad App: Need it because you can't share a photo from the Safari regular version, but you can't include a description and you can't comment on it; you have to go back to Safari and re-open FB after closing it out on the Ipad version. You can only post one photo in an album unto it's self at a time and you can't share. DOH, Facebook, get with it, we are on generation 3 of IPad with another rumored on the way already. 'Kay, so that was more a whine than a learn, but WTH, it burns my assetts....and I know, I know, it's bad form to complain about something that's FREE, but still. whiiiiiiinnnnnne.

Wine Country, Baby!

Of course we watched the movie, Sideways and therefore drove up to wine country with unrealistic romantic notions of what a trip to Sonoma and Mendocino Counties would be like :-(  However, the quaint country roads and the many signs offering wine tastings every few hundred yards was enchanting.
      Since the 1990's in NYC, I have had a fondness for a wine called Fetzer; their Cabernet Sauvignon specifically, although I've also had their Chardonnay. Before the "organic" status was the rage it is today, it was rumored that Fetzer had refused to pay the then "new" licensing fees to advertise their organic and sustainable business practices. They were a fairly priced bottle of wine, and remain so, even in Canada. (We found it for FIVE dollars in a Walmart in Indianapolis on this trip! and will be filling the Airstream with it on the way back!)
      If I couldn't get Fetzer, I had found in the past few years that another organic, that HAD obviously paid for the right to call it's self that, also had a lovely Cabernet Sauvignon and did not cause a "hangover" if ACCIDENTALLY over-consumed. :-)
      Somehow, in discussing my passion for the two, some Liquor Store employee somewhere, told me that Fetzer also owned this licensed upstart, Bonterra, so I was psyched to find out how this had all played out.
      I scoured their website for information about tastings and their address but could find nothing saying where nor when, but also nothing saying that there wasn't one. I was getting worried and also while reading of their many awards, their Blue Heron preservation site etc, well, you can read it all here if you want: FETZER WINERY

   In the end, we just drove up there, I eventually found a telephone number, though confusingly it was also the number for another vintner called CampoVida. I'll spare you all the gory details, but it seems that the Fetzer family business was sold after the death of the patriarch and is still run by an arm of Concha Y Torro from Chile who bought the vineyard and continues to run it with all it's high standard practises. One of their sustainable practises is to have this guy take the weedeaters to the grape vines. They weed and prune and then he takes them all back at night. >>>>>>>>>

There was no Fetzer/Bonterra tasting room but the lovely Rosanne at CampoVida took us through a tasting list of their selections and we bought two bottles of their Red Blend they call a Cuvee.

     It was disappointing but we did find this GREAT radio/cassette player for the Airstream at a fantastic Vintage Collective on the way back!

We just love it, and hey, it plays Cassette Tapes!!!

Elisa, a co-owner at the shop, The Vintage Collective, in Geyserville, California took our picture in front of the Airstream in her parking lot and posted it to
 her Facebook Page.

We SO wish we lived closer to this great.

Hot Air Balloon Ride-Calistoga CA

     After a couple of glasses of wine, everyone is fearless, I guess, and my retired Cop husband tells me that this is why the blood alcohol limits for drinking and driving are seemingly low; it's because, after just a couple of drinks you make irrational decisions about how fast and reckless to go in your car and if driving the Internet, you might book and pay 5 LARGE for, a HOT AIR BALLOON RIDE when you actually have a fear of heights! AND book it at 6 frickin' A.M.!
   

 Fortunately, I do not actually wake up for a couple of hours after I'm walking about anyway, so the balloon was already getting inflated before I started trying to come up with strategies for getting out of the commitment; and by strategies I mean, ones that would get us our money back without going on the ride.

 At the same time my fear and anxiety was, not completely disarmed but reasonably softened by the slow, steady and competent ways of our Pilot, Jim. He looks like John Denver, which was also quieting to my mind (beCAUSE I forgot he was killed in the crash of a small private plane he was foolishly in!)
     Jim and his team of 3 Mexican men barely had to speak to each other as they methodically prepared the alarmingly small amount of equipment for our ascent above Sonoma Wine Country. There was only one other couple joining us and neither seemed afraid so I ACTED cool. About half an hour into the ride and after many conscious attempts to breathe all the way into my diaphragm and relax my muscles, I began to enjoy the gentle floating motion. ( as long as I did not look straight down).

The experience further clarified my theory that it isn't an actual fear of heights that I have developed in middle age, but more a dependence upon having control. Once I felt that Jim was in complete control and that I could trust him, I relaxed and enjoyedtheride. I have always especially enjoyedwarching a team of humans working as well together as Jim and his crew do and watching them, under the stress of a wind shift that had us headed for a landing in a vineyard, complete with young STAKED plantings, had them running about below us like purposefeful ants! Renaldo, a man of about 60 ran like a gazelle having chosen the correct row between plants that we would float over.

     The ground rope was tossed, Jim worked the fuel fire and while the one obviously very strong man held us in place, the other two ran and hurdled and ducked under planting lines until all three had the rope and dragged us to a safe landing. It was as exciting to watch as the ride was it's self. Afterwards, we celebrated with a champagne breakfast.

Since it was only 10 am by then and we were already started, we headed up country to our favorite sustainable/organic vineyard, Fetzer-Bonterra in Mendocino County.