I’ve been touring around the island for the last couple weeks just checking out the colors and seeing new places. I enjoy hitting new roads that I haven’t been on before and I know you think that Manitoulin isn’t that big but you’d be surprised how many little lanes and side roads there are. Still quite a few out there for me to explore but now that I have the time we’ll make it to every one eventually. Here’s a few photos from my recent excursions.
Another of my favorite places to visit on Manitoulin is Gordon’s Park. I had the opportunity a few days ago to get a guided tour from Rita and Terry and we had a great time heading up through a couple of the trails, getting all the way up to the old cabin and the Dark Sky Sanctuary. The fall colors are out in full force and I snapped lots of photos of our outing, some of which you see here. Gordon’s has LOTS more than just hiking trails and astronomy so make sure you stop in whenever you visit Manitoulin Island. Tell them “Our Manitoulin” sent you and we’ll see you on the trails!
It’s just occurred to me that what I’m looking today is the rest of my life…
Make sure you stop by these docks if you are a visitor to Manitoulin. It's full of boats of all sizes throughout the summer but looks pretty quite right now. Come take a look in July or August and you'll see a big difference. 
The bandstand can be a real hoppin' place also, especially during Haweater Weekend. What's Haweater Weekeng you ask? You'll just have to come and see for yourself, the first long weekend in August every year. I'll save you a hot dog!
I've looked for one of these things for years and last night my mission was accomplished. One of the neighbours dropped off some beets from her garden and when Gloria was getting them ready to cook into pickles this thing hopped out and onto her shirt. Wow, what a fantastic insect. He willingly walked onto my hand and slowly made its way up my arm over the next few minutes. Right now he/she is on a plant on the deck where I let it crawl to after that.
Other things I've only seen here?
And oh yeah, don't tell Gloria because I didn't, but there was one of these on the road near the house when I came home yesterday. Just a small one, maybe 3 feet but definately a Massassauga Rattler, probably one of the last in this area as it's been 2 or 3 years since I last saw one. They normally do everything they can to avoid humans but I guess the warm road was just too much for this one after these cool autumn nights. They probably wouldn't kill you but with the closest antidote being many hours away in Toronto you have to wonder what the experience would be like. You try it first and let me know, OK?
The little car is all better and home where it belongs with no damage to the transmission. What happened was that the radiator blew and when that happened anti-freeze found its way down into the transmission casing. Because I had it off the road and shut down within a couple hundred feet and in less than 30 seconds there was no serious damage. I was just lucky that I was in a place where I could do that, and I have this nasty image of how much fun it would have had I had been in the middle of the Champlain Bridge in Montreal. 
I spent a few hours yesterday at one of my favorite spots on Manitoulin, McLean’s Park. It’s a couple kilometers down New England Road lined with trees whose branches overhang the gravel road. I’ll post some photos of that in a couple weeks after the colors have started to change.
I go out there as often as I can just to enjoy the silence and walk the trails while occasionally enjoying a pipe full of whatever tobacco I have at the time. There is an old porcupine that I see quite often and though I didn’t get a glimpse of him yesterday I could hear him shuffling through the leaves a ways off the trail. The routes vary from short to over 7 kilometers and you can cut back and forth among most of them to create your own customized tour. 
The vegetation varies and there are many old trees that have been well worked by the woodpeckers. Naturally you have a chance of seeing raccoon, deer and there must be black bear around also.
It turns out that my little red car is going to be OK and the repair costs won’t be too bad. As soon as I realized something was wrong I got it off the road and shut down within 200 feet and that saved it. Still, I’ve been driving this Jeep since last week and I must admit that the style and feel have grown on me. I also like the 4-wheel drive option as where we live can be quite nasty sometimes in the winter. We haven’t had any problems that we couldn’t deal with up to now, but the idea of kicking it into 4-low and not having to worry about the snowplow being late would give me a little peace of mind. 
I have never voted Green before but was seriously considering supporting Elizabeth May and specifically Lorraine Rekmans in our riding this time but now I'm not so sure. Look at their promises so far…
Oh, for another Pierre Trudeau who was a true scholar and not afraid to do what had to be done while saying to hell with what anyone thought about him personally. Yes, I was a Trudeaumaniac and I'm proud to say so. Unfortunately the politicians today are not of the same calibre that he was.
You know it occurs to me that there are huge gaps in my life during which I have no photographs. I’ve always said that I didn’t need photos because I had a memory… but is that memory accurate and what about after the memory goes? There are things I wish I could see again just to grasp some point of reality and not just a blurred image of people, places and events but again, what when the memory goes? Would having a picture in front of me even mean anything? Would I know who or what it’s a photo of? Will a person even know a photo is a photo? Then again, I like my memories and have probably tailored them to be just so but still, I wish...
… you start to know your opponents by their name and profiles. Take Joan here for example. I’ve fought her on “BBQ Fight!” many times before and know her by heart. I know when she’s added new upgrades, I know which grill she will upgrade to next, I know when she’s stronger or weaker than I am, I know when I can (got ‘cha this time!) out cook her easily. The problem however is that she’s not the only one and this is not the only pastime that I pass time with. There is also “My House” and the various “Slot Machines” and “Scratch Tickets” I have to play daily. Don’t you DARE stand in the way of my “Bingo” or especially not my “Texas Hold’em” in which I have been in the money for all but one week in the last 4 months! Sigh… what’s next. I wonder if there is such a thing as an actual, physical Bingo hall out there? No, don’t tell me… I don’t want to know!
Here it is the middle of the night and I can’t sleep. Too many plans, too many projects, too many memories of the past 35 years on the road… and some from earlier than that.
Am I doing it this way? Of course not, I’m too accustomed to running 14 things at the same time in the stores while trying to coordinate 10 or 20 staff members to do the same. My wife always said that I have an addiction to adrenaline and I think maybe she’s right. I’m truly the happiest when I’m actually trying to get every single one of those 14+ things done by the end of the day, but I’m realizing now that is has taken its toll over the years. I won’t get into any medical problems (real or imaginary) in this blog but I’ll just say that you have no idea how much of a downer it is when that type of demand is suddenly taken away from you. It used to hit me as soon as I stepped on a plane when leaving a community and I would just collapse in my seat in a state of complete exhaustion and fatigue. The thing is though… that rush would always start up again in a few days or a few weeks and I’d be back to my old overdrive self who thought this was normal and that I was feeling great. Guess what… now there is no new trip coming up in a few days and I’m having withdrawal symptoms from my 35 year addiction.
My hopes for a cure? Daily updating of all my web sites, taking on new duties for a couple of them, adding a new one or two, trying to contact and get to sign up on Facebook everyone that I've ever met in past 50+ years, setting up a table at a weekly flea market, setting up and conducting a meeting with over 500 people to pitch Watkins as a fundraising idea (that's going to have the adrenaline pumping), searching daily for new and prospective associates all over the continent, hoping to update this blog every day and renewing some past acquaintances. Hmmm… that’s not 14 projects, guess I have to try harder. Autumn of my life indeed... I think I many need HELP!
“And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” (T. S. Elliot)
Well this is it, the end of 35 years of travel from sea to sea to sea several times over. It’s been mostly fun with only a few regrets but I’m not sad that it’s all coming to a close. I’ve seen more of this country than most people can ever dream of and visited communities that people pay tens of thousands of dollars just to get to once in their lifetime. Wow, and someone actually paid me to do all this! I’ve been lucky to work for a company that takes care of its employees as well as Northern does and I’m grateful for the opportunities I’ve been given, no matter what I may have mumbled under my breath from time to time.
The following is an alphabetical listing of all the Hudson’s Bay Company and North West Company stores that I can remember working in even if some of them were unofficial and only for a few minutes. Many of them no longer exist but there’s a story with each and every one so perhaps someday I’ll sit down and fill you in on a few of them. As with most memoirs though some secrets will have to be kept and names changed just to protect the innocent. Hmmm, I can think of lots of variations of the HBC initials that were applied to “The Bay Boys” over the years so who am I kidding with the innocent remark! Personally I always preferred the Handsome Boys Club over some of the others.
So here we go… Attawapiskat, Banff, Bearskin Lake, Blanc Sablon, Buffalo Narrows, Calgary, Cape Dorset, Chesterfield Inlet, Chevrey, Chibougamau, Chisasibi (Fort George), Churchill, Clyde River, Coral Harbour, Deer Lake, Eastmain, Edmonton, Fort Albany, Fort Severn, Fort Smith, God’s Narrows, Happy Valley, Happy Valley Rental, Hay River Foods, Hay River Retail, Igloolik, Inukjuak (Port Harrison), Inuvik, Iqaluit (Frobisher Bay), Iroquois Falls, Island Lake, Kangiqsujjuaq (Wakeham Bay), Kangirsuk (Payne Bay), Kashechewan, Kasibonika, Kuujjuaq (Fort Chimo), Kuujjuaraapik (Great Whale River), La Ronge, La Tabitiere, Lake Harbour, Little Grand Rapids, Manouane, Mistassini, Montreal, Moose Factory, Moosonee, Nelson House, New Liskeard, Nitchequan, Norway House, Obedjiwan, Ottawa, Pangnirtung, Pickle Lake, Poplar Hill, 
Poplar River, Portage La Loche, Povungnituk, Qiqitarjuak (Broughton Island), Rankin Inlet, Rigolet, Rossville, Salluit, Sanikiluaq (Belcher Islands), Sapotaweyak, Sault Ste. Marie, Sioux Lookout, Smooth Rock Falls, Split Lake, St. Paul’s River, Toronto, Vancouver, Waskaganish (Rupert’s House), Weagamow, Webequie, Wemindji (Paint Hills) and Winnipeg.
Descending out of 37,000 and although the sky may have some scattered clouds I am optimistic. I'm headed home off my last trip, and our future is secure due in a great part to the Watkins home business we started working on a couple years ago. Call it a premonition but I knew this day would come eventually and I'm glad we prepared. A buddy of mine might not be so lucky as he may only have days left before his "package" is presented to him, take it or leave it.
I know they have a bigger payload and operate more efficiently and cheaper but there is something not quite right about putting a turbine engine on a single engine aircraft. I'm talking about the Beaver and more so of the Otter.
I don't know how many of the aircraft I've loaded and unloaded over the years, a couple hundred probably if you throw in the Norseman and every one of them was a piston engine. These machines had heart, they had a personality, a life. They had to be tickled and talked to softly when at -70 you put back in the battery and oil that you had taken out the night before and hauled on a toboggan up to the house so they wouldn’t freeze solid. They had to be cursed while you had to put on the engine tent and fire up the blow pots to heat the frigid metal before you finally attempted a start up in the morning. You swore even more when the skies were frozen into the slush and had to be hit with an axe to loosen and you still had to have people pulling from side to on a rope tied to the tail of the plane to try to work the aircraft loose.
Then, the roar of power with the smell of av-gas in the cockpit mixing with the odor of wood smoke coming from your moose hide mitts as you rose into the rising sun. You can't possibly understand how much I truly miss those days. But I digress...
There was romance and feeling to these aircraft which flew as they were intended. Yes, I know the reasons but it's still sacrilege to put a turbine engine on a great machine like the Otter. Anyone out there have an opinion? Please jump in with a comment.
PS: I actually still do a lot of flying but now it's all on the computer. What do I fly most often? I alternate between a DHC-2 Beaver on floats, a Grumman Goose and a good old DC-3. All have piston engines as some things just aren’t meant to be changed.
