June 30 - good cop, bad cop

I forgot to mention this, so I'm starting today's blog early ... it was only good cop this time.

I was heading west on 522, typically set my cruise control but this time didn't ... and found an OPP officer coming towards me on 522. It was a straight stretch ... he turned on his lights and simply stopped on his side of the road. With no shoulders, that's the entire east-bound land. I stopped beside him, facing west, taking the west bound-lane and rolled down my window ...

License and ownership please ... I pulled out my Florida drivers license, my insurance card, shuffled around and found the photocopy of the registration ... he didn't care that it was a photocopy. I told him that the original was back at the cottage. He was quite conversational -- I asked him how fast I was going -- 102 km (in an 80 zone), I apologized for not watching my speed; he asked where I was coming from -- we have a cottage on Osprey Road; -- he asked whether the flies were getting better -- yes, but not much better on a cloudy coolish day.

He let me off with a warning, saying -- slow down a little, there is a lot of wildlife, no shoulders, bush on both sides of the road. Yes officer ... thank you officer. I'm always polite to these guys. They are just doing their job. I'm sure that if I had been rude or not wearing my seatbelt, that would have given him a reason to give me a ticket. I expect that he had his radar set for 100 and I was just over his tipping point. Closer to 110 and he probably would have given me a ticket for 100, but at 102 he was prepared to simply give me a warning.

It serves me right for not using cruise control. I use it almost all the time, unless traffic is going too slow. Speaking of slow, I hardly ever hit the speed limit going down to Parry Sound. Trucks, RV's, cars towing boats -- it was very busy south and north bound. They had opened up a new section of highway, routing traffic there while they now re-work the old road. It's only a mile or two but they are making progress. I think that the major change is targeted for next summer when they will bypass that 70kph section that runs just north of Parry Sound through Nobel. That will make a big difference. It will also make a huge difference to the business that goes through the Tim Horton's there, which is busy 24x7.

-------

Bad editing ... there was a line at the end of that last blog saying "I talked to ..." -- I have no idea ... I must have been editing and inserted something and moved on. Arlene thought that it was just a bad soap opera ... to be continued !

------

Ah -- I think that I started to write that I'd talked to Bob Sims, but then went back and inserted something and changed it to Bob dropped over and didn't see the dangling line.

------

I just got back from Loring, went in for gas, mail and a couple of items at the General Store. The trip back was with windows partly open since I'm not keen on the smell of gas wafting out of the jerry cans in the back.

On the way back along Osprey two X5's met -- that's an unusual thing on this road for sure. The other is owned by Bob Troup. We stopped and chatted through open windows for a minute -- apparently that bear hit a number of cottage garbage cans, so he/she was making the rounds.

Sandy has gone into Sudbury. Jason et al didn't arrive last night but I got an email from him a short time ago that they'll be in later today. The Troups just left ... Lorraine Troup will be back up in a couple of weeks with her grandchildren but Bob's pretty busy this time of year since he has a fruit farm in southern Ontario. Bonnie & Jim have a crowd -- Pauline and family from England; Pam and family from Barrie or thereabouts; I'm sure that Bonnie is relaxed and taking it all in stride :).

There were a few drops of rain as I was in town but it looks like they got more than that on Osprey during the short time that I was out. There are black clouds all around ... I think that I'll hit the trainer, as much as I hate it.

Oh -- I've pretty well decided to do the LOL 1000km ride around Lake Ontario that runs July 9,10,11. Watch out Sue -- I'll be riding by sometime Thursday morning ! I have to commit or not by the end of tomorrow. The challenge with this ride will be what to carry, since there are no drop bags etc. for the two overnight stays. This probably calls for a backpack but a) I hate riding with a backpack and b) I don't have one. So ... how much clothing can I bundle up and bungee to the top of my rack-pack ? I at least need changes of bike clothing; underwear, shorts and t-shirt for the sleepovers; toothbrush and toothpaste; suntan lotion; butt cream; Perpetuem !?!?. My bike will get lighter as the three days roll by just from using up the Perpetuem.

The overnight stops are two -- Peter Duesel's house in Ontario NY and Millhaven Ontario (Canada) -- no, not the penitentiary. I'm sure that they too have beds but the problem is the barbed wire.

-------

Our friendly bear was standing up and partaking of the sunflower seeds at the bird feeder this morning when I went over with Abby to let her out. The bear bounded off into the woods when Abby started barking; naturally I didn't let Abby out right away ! Our garbage is in the garage ... it looks like we're going to have to put our bird feeders in the shed overnight -- trouble is, said bear was there at 6:40. Had Abby been out sooner, I doubt if it would have come close. We don't have anything THAT interesting. A couple of minutes later I let Abby out and she tore off, about to run up the hill until I called to her and she stopped. Good dog. Smart dog.

So ... yesterday I talked to Bonnie -- the bear was there too; Bob Simms -- the bear knocked over their garbage; Art Ysseldyk -- the bear knocked over their barbecue and ate all the food that workers next door had left outside in coolers -- said workers were staying in tents -- yikes. Welcome to the great outdoors.

I expect that where this will end is with the bear being shot if he keeps hanging around. Art talked to the Ministry and they said that it could be shot, just tell them. I'll talk to him and Jim (or Bonnie) today and see if they had any more bear activity.

Backing up -- Jason, Lorraine and Gavin arrived a little after 4pm yesterday. They'll be here until sometime Thursday, then back up next week.

Backing up some more -- Bob Simms told me where he was catching minnows. He found a pond off 522, not far from the landing, cleared a trail and marked it. I went there yesterday afternoon and put in a minnow trap. I'll go over this morning and see if I have any minnows. I also put minnow traps out in front of our gazebo -- there was a whole school there yesterday. I'll check them shortly. In front of the gazebo is more convenient than off 522 !

That's it ... and today there are no dangling phrases down below to confuse you and me !