Wendy's Brother Brad (and Denise) Moved to Belleville from Toronto

Friday morning we struck out for Brad and Denise's new house near Belleville, Ontario, 225 miles east of London. The drive was a little slow due to heavy Friday traffic and road construction through Toronto.

I did get a chance to pick up a 25 kg bag of psyllium seed husk in the east end of Toronto. The money I saved in freight paid for all my gas too.

The new house is beautiful and is situated on a very large lot, right on the same bay as Belleville. Toronto real estate prices have been "on fire" for the past years so they did well selling their house there.

The weather was hot (humidex 89F) so the living was mostly outdoors in a delightful breeze off the bay.

From left, Denise, Brad, Daphne, and Doug.

Wendy's youngest brother Doug (and Daphne) from Thorndale ON, arrived at exactly the same time as we did. How nice that we could all get together as we don't get to see Brad and Denise too often. Christmas was the last time we saw them at their former home in Richmond Hill near Toronto.

The back yard flows down to a man-made canal cut in from the bay.

Brad hopes to have the canal dredged out to allow his boats to dock in the back yard.

Saturday we headed out in Brad's big Ford Expedition diesel truck.

There are hundreds of square miles scenic land to explore in this amazingly beautiful area of southeastern Ontario.

An old drive-in theater survives the march of time. Coincidentally we too have an old operating drive-in in London and it is also called the Mustang.

The small town of Picton with its old buildings reflects the history of this very old part of "Upper Canada" Many buildings and barns in the area date back up to a couple hundred years ago.

A ferry takes cars from Glenora across towards and is part of the old Loyalist Highway to Kingston.

A grist mill, right at the ferry dock is over 100 years old. It now houses the Ministry of Natural Resources.

A view of the ferry from the cliffs overlooking the waterway.

Click on map to enlarge

 Wine tasting tours are a big part of the tourism of this area. Small ma and pop wineries dot the region. 

This lady at Devil's Wishbone Winery seemed genuinely happy to see us as she "floats" towards the barn. It's only 11:30 am so I hope she hasn't already been sampling her products.

The wineries we visited are in very old barns.

Our animated hostess eagerly shows us around, pointing out the features of this historic building.

Paul, the owner dispenses samples of the wine produced here on the farm.

I can't tell wine from Welsh-Aid but our connoisseurs seemed to enjoy it and they purchased a few bottles to take home.

Another refreshing stop was the cider mill, again located on an old farm near Waupoos.

The cider tasted good and was so refreshing on a hot summer day. We enjoyed it on the terrace in the ever-present breeze overlooking the water. http://www.countycider.com/

They must also make wine since there was a vinyard right beside our table.

Two children enjoy themselves while their parents sip on some of the many flavoured ciders being served here
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Sunday, after a fine breakfast, we embarked on a lovely sailboat owned by Brad's Toronto friend Howard. He brought it down to use here while he tries to sell it.

In the morning there was barely any wind but as the day progressed it increased so we enjoyed a wonderful day sailing. With a humidex of nearly 90F the water was "the place to be" and everybody had a great time.

Monday we headed back to London and made excellent time as the traffic was lighter and the roads were not as crowded. Less than 4 hours in Wendy's Hyundai Sonata put us back at 1:30 pm. Great trip!
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The Port Huron MI to Marysville MI Floatdown. Ended up as the Port Huron MI to Sarnia ON Floatacross.

This year the 39th Annual Floatdown fell on a beautiful summer day. The only problem was that the ominous stiff westerly breeze. I don't know if the organizers or participants perceived the possible ramifications of such a wind, but after attending numerous float downs in the past, I was almost certain of what was to come, although not in the magnitude of the scenes that follow.

A small number of Canadians get ready to depart from our shores as well.

Everything started  fairly normally as the rafts were carried under the Blue Water Bridge by the strong current. The river was closed to all traffic which this year was a good thing.

As usual on a hot summer day, some local Point Edward boys float by without rafts.Over the years the village has talked about banning the practice but has never done so.

As the current slowed, the wind prevailed and the rafts started to float over to Canada. At the Purdy Fisheries dock the water actually flows backwards as an eddy current holds the rafts stationary. Thousands of rafts were blown off course.

Frustrated officials worked to corral the floaters and drag them back out into the faster current.

Two Canada Customs girls I spoke with said "Nobody is taking us seriously, they don't seem to care". The customs bureaucrats are not at all used to that kind of treatment! Ha ha! What a fiasco. They say it's the biggest US/Canadian cross-border invasion since the War of 1812!

No life jackets in sight but lots of booze.

The Border Patrol stands by helplessly as the floaters float where the wind and currents take them. It was hilariously funny to watch. We need a Trump wall I guess. Lol!

Even the Canada Customs girls finally seemed to lighten up and enjoy the goings on.

The booze was already starting to work and the event was only an hour since starting.

Everybody was having a great time. Tossing liquor to spectators and flaunting the rules.

 We drove over to Centennial Park to go to ARTZscape 2016, but ended up watching the action on Sarnia Bay instead.

There were reports of 1500 stray floaters immigrating into Canadian waters. The authorities finally gave up trying to pull them back and set up two emergency "immigration points". One at Ferry Dock Hill on the downtown Sarnia waterfront. Another temporary,  federal, landing point was established downriver in Corunna at the ferry dock there.

Above, a US Sheriff police boat drags a flotilla of rafts out of Sarnia Bay towards USA in the background.

Newly arriving U.S. immigrants (wetbacks?) with only their bathing suits were now stranded in Canada. The authorities herded them to the temporary check-points and then city buses shuttled hundreds back across the bridge to Michigan. Most appeared to have no money, no I.D., no phone. Just a raft and what was left of their liquor and beer. I'm sure they'll remember this day the rest of their lives. Ha ha!

Our visit to ARTZscape was curtailed further by a sudden cloudburst and we made our way back to the condo. What an amazing and comical event. We had a great day!

http://www.metrotimes.com/Blogs/archives/2016/08/23/port-huron-float-down-defies-homeland-security-ends-up-in-canada 

Kibitzing with the "floaters" from USA.

US official drags the merrymakers back into the moving current with a SeaDoo.
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