Biking with Via

Rail bridge in Napanee. It takes on a whole new perspective when you are actually ON the train as was I last weekend.
My plans to take Via from Belleville to Edmonton in July took a twist.
Via offered FREE transport during the month of July to any members of Defence, and all Veterans.
Guess what! The month of July is totally booked, as a result, but I'm not complaining. What a wonderful gesture. Only in Canada, you say!
This is some of the info' I procured yesterday, though.
If you book regular fair on Via, you are allowed one stop over.
Thus, I could book to Vancouver, stop in Edmonton to leave my bike at my brother's, and go on to the coast. Take a bus back via Calgary to visit my newly widowered Uncle Tom.
Via also has a plan called Canada Rail whereby you can make numerous stops over 30 days.
There is also one other plan that allows stopovers.
You can take a bike for an extra $25.00, if it is boxed, the pedals removed, and the handle-bars turned inward. Note: be sure to travel with a wrench, allen key, and/or bike kit.

'Travel on the Cheap' to Tulip Festival or Elsewhere

This past weekend, I took Via Rail up to Ottawa to visit my daughter who has recently chosen to make Ottawa her home. The Parliament buildings are in the background across the river from The Museum of Civilization.

This is the Japanese Garden at the museum, the rocks arranged to symbolize pebbles thrown into water and the raked sand symbolizes the rippling effect following the stones' hitting the water.

The Falling Fountains cascading down the sides of the museum, facing southerly.
The Ottawa Tulip Festival was on this weekend while I was there, and we also visited the Ottawa Market, and the Museum of Civilization in Hull (Gatineau).

These pictures are some of the ones I took while there.

This is 'The Man With Two Hats', a very tall statue at Dawes Lake. During WWII, Canadian soldiers played a crucial role in the liberation of the Netherlands. With the donation of this monument - an expression of joy and the celebration of freedom - the Netherlands pays a lasting tribute to Canadians.
The statue is identical to one that stands in Apeldoorn, Holland. The twin monuments link Canada and the Netherlands though they are separated by an ocean. The two countries will forever be close friends.

Also, because Ottawa gave sanctuary to the Dutch Queen and her daughter during the same war, we have received these beautiful tulips as another token, and, thus, the tulip festival. Holland has a festival every year, too, and every fifth year (I believe it is) the festival is international and shows exceptionally rare tulips.
This beauty was captured, and discovered, by my daughter, Josie. The tulip was hiding between a bed of pinks and a bed of whites. A gorgeous mutant, maybe.
Did you know that you can buy a train ticket (probably bus, too) to anywhere in Canada, and make overnight, or longer, stops along the way?
This means you could go cheap coach, (just over $890 from Belleville) to Vancouver with 12 travel days in either direction within a 30 day period. You could hop on a bike, and bike awhile along the Trans Canada Trail, and then you can hop right back on the train and continue on your way until you choose to get off again.
Travel is such a great retirement choice. It just goes to show that you don't have to be wealthy to travel.
Thank you, Nate, for this: "Love traveling & also love to save money while traveling. That's why used to get my hotel bookings through Quality Inn for the best online rates."
Now I have to go check out April 17th blog.

Lose Sight of Shore

Cove at Point Petre, Prince Edward County, near Picton, ON
"One doesn't discover new lands
without consenting to lose sight of the shore
for a very long time.
The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself.
It is not in your environment;
it is not in luck or chance,
or the help of others;
It is in yourself alone."
(not my words)
(but words that describe my upcoming venture, and me, quite well)
(I only hope the words 'for a very long time' mean weeks, not years)
Right now I seem to be locked out of my files on my computer.
The TransCanTrail file has so many important notes,
and the names of every town except those in Quebec and N.B.
This is a big setback and I haven't even started the trip.

Green Thumbs

Gardening is My 11th Choice.
Gardening is rejuvenating.
As you can see in this picture of Chrissie and Marlowe, you can make your carport into a garden.
Also, people garden in their house such as the livingroom, bathroom, kitchen. You can transform a grubby bootroom with potted plants and flowers.
You can grow herbs on your kitchen counter if there is a nearby window.
Veggie gardens instead of the sterile green deserts that lawns create make a wonderful ecological change.
Transplanting perrenials that are growing up against the house into the lawn is a fantastic idea. You can space them so that the lawnmower will move around them, et voila, no more weeding. They can only spread as far as your lawnmower allows.
Mowing around flowering and non-flowering perenials, bushes, and trees creates the most delightful pathways, magical for ascetics and for your pysche.
Bushes and trees transplanted from roadsides give a wild plant a better chance, away from winter salt deposits, and into cared-for land.
Queen Anne's Lace will drip with literally hundreds of flowers when mowed around.
Whatever kind of gardening you choose, you will be rewarded.
If you have 'no green thumb', plant some sedum - sedum thrives on neglect.
It's great fun. Try it!!!

Food: 10th Choice for Retirement Activity

Food!
Actually, the preparation of food can be a fun activity.
Be careful if you choose to bake pies and cakes, though, because you could become very heavy as a result.
I have started preparing veggies wraps for lunches, and I experiment with something new each day, if possible.
Not only do I need no salt or butter, but I am feeling energized.
I use leaves, dills, hard-boiled egg, olives, tomatoes, cucs, onions, marinated garlic cloves, jalopenos, cheeses, celery, artichoke, radish, or anything else that might come to mind.
Occasionally, I will add leftover baked chicken, but haven't yet tried salmon, tuna, nor refried beans, but I'm sure I will.
(I rarely eat beef or pork because of all the toxins they are fed, and because of their never actually getting to graze anymore.)
I place the wrap on plates unwrapped, and it looks very pretty that way.
It's called 'Wrap Your Own'.
Tastes great, and its fun to eat, picking up all the little bits that keep falling out.

Maximum Decibels

Letter to the Editor:
Lots of local media attention is being directed right now towards allowing ATV's to cross local roadways in PEC.
What's so harmful in that?
Let's look at this issue in a different way.
Why the anger towards these machines; why the opposition?
If ATV's muffled their mufflers, would there be so much opposition?
Remember what it used to be like when no one had the right to stop smokers from smoking in restaurants or any other building including one's own house?
Smoke could be blown right into your face and there wasn't anything you could do or say if you wanted to remain accepted by society instead of being labeled crazy or intolerant.
Well, noise presents the same issues.
Lawmakers should stipulate a certain number of decibels that can be produced by all vehicles - ATV's, snowmobiles, cars, trucks, boats etc.
Then people wouldn't necessarily 'hate' them.
The operators/drivers would be tolerated and maybe even respected. They sure aren't widely respected right now.
How hard would that be to legislate. 'X' number of decibels or you're pulled over.
Look at all the extra revenue in fines.
Look at all the night-shifters that could get a good day's sleep, all the anger and opposition to noisy machines and their operators that might disappear.
I suggest we start right here, in The County, with a maximum decibel law.
Are any of the council members in agreement? Are you?
Karen Smith