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The Road to Keswick
We made one stop for lunch and gas on our way home to Sister Suzanne and Bills in Keswick. At the gas station, Km found some Danish people to talk with who were waiting there for the bus to Toronto.It is a small world!!Then it was my turn at the Chip Truck.There I met a guy who had family in Denmark.That Danish licence plate was still attracting people.Everyone was curious as to where the licence plate comes from. It made it very easy for them to strike up a conversation. After sharing a large portion of french fries with Km, we were on our way again.Just south of Orillia, we head east on Highway 12 which travels east over the north end of Lake Simcoe. When we reach the other side of Lake Simcoe, we head south on 12/48. It was here where we pulled over onto the shoulder of the road. The speedometer now reads 99,999. This I wanted a picture of and then another at 00000. With this job done, we pack the camera away and turn right and follow highway 48 through Sutton and right on to Roches Point. We were minutes from our starting point. I recall some three months ago, when we said our goodbyes here and headed out on the open road and I remember being a little nervous about what was to happen during our journey. My major concern was where we were going to sleep that night, never mind all the other nights. It seemed to work out though. I don´t feel tired at all and we´ve been on the road for three months.
It was 4pm in the afternoon when we reach Suzanne and Bills and head up the driveway, We sound the horn to announce our arrival.Funny enough, as we reach the house, there was no one to be found. We get off the bike, walk out to the backyard to see if they were out by the swimming pool and realize that they were not home. We returned to the front of the house and then out of nowhere, Sister Suzanne, who is not a Nun, just my sister, comes running out the front door and is heading in my direction.She then leaps in the air as if she was shot out of a cannon with her arms stretched out to both sides.Everything seems to be going in slow motion.There´s nothing to do now except brace myself for impact. I kind of got the impression that she was happy to see us. Km snaps a few pictures of the incident and then it's her turn to claim her hugs. It was surprisingly enough, nice to be back at the Coopers. Wait... let me try that again because it´s always nice to be at the Coopers! It was surprisingly enough, nice to arrive safe and sound at the Coopers after our long journey.The Journey that ended, there where we started. Our Mission was accomplished!!!We had traveled just over 19,000 kms from the east coast to the west and then back. We had a million memories and experiences along the way. It was now time to try and digest it all.It might take longer than the time we spent traveling.We left everything we had by the bike and went to the backyard to sit by the pool and we were offered a beer to quench our thirsts.We spent the rest of the day swimming and talking by the pool. Looking forward to jump into the shower and then into bed.
Monday morning after breakfast, we talked with Sherri on the phone.She would be arriving in the afternoon to visit. Sherri and Suzanne did makeplans to visit each 5 years ago but one thing led to another and nothing happened.They do this every time I come to Canada. Its kind of a tradition with them. It was really nice to see Sherri again. She was a little disappointed that we weren´t standing in the driveway waving flags when she came but she did find us out by the pool. We had a very nice day together talking and laughing. After dinner we spent a lot of time discussing exercises for people with backaches. Then after discussing how to cure them, we tried them out to see how they worked in real life. Well, we tried them mostly on Sherri since she was the one with the backaches. We hope we found some good exercises for her. Even though she is older than I am, she is much too young to be having problems of that nature.
Despite the fact that Sherri and I don´t see as much of each other as we might like too, it always feels as though we just saw each other yesterday. That´s what friends are all about.Sherri is my oldest friend. Once again, and I love saying this, She´s not only older then I am (3 months), but we have been friends for some 47 years. I´m still trying to get her to come to Denmark without much luck. She doesn´t travel well. She feels best being on the ground which makes it difficult to cross the ocean. I guess we will have to wait for the future when we can get Scotty to beam her over. Time just flew for us andbefore we knew it, we were standing in the driveway saying goodbye. Suzanne and Sherri once again made a pact to get in touch for a visit in the near future. As far as I know, they are still working on it. With the last farewell, Sherri hopped in the car and drove away. Another lovely day in Roches Point at the Coopers.
Tuesday we just chilled out around the house doing nothing special.We did run into Sutton so Km could do a last little bit of shopping. Now she could pack things in a car so she was very excited about all this extra space. She found herself back in that little antique store we visited just before we ventured off on our three month journey. Bill got a kick out of the fact that Km bought an old pickling glass filled with buttons. If Bill had a list of things to buy, this would no doubt have been the last thing on his list, if it was at all there in the first place!!Ditto here.Once again, it was probably that Venus Mars thing. She managed to buy quite a few gifts to take home to Denmark for friends and family without emptying her wallet too much. I myself was on the lookout for a new mailbox to take back to the summer house. We don´t have the North American mailbox style in Europe and I find them quite charming in comparison to those we have over there. I eventually found it at Canadian Tire store close by. I also bought another set of pots and pans to take back with us. They were the best we have owned so far so we wanted to assure ourselves that we had a back up set if needed.
Wednesday morning after breakfast, I was off to R&R Cycle.I had ordered a new set of whitewall tires and today´s the day he will install them. I decided to only change the back tire. The front tire, surprisingly enough had still some tread left after 19000 kms. Good ol´Dunlop quality tires. I also ordered a set of throttle cables which were half price in comparison to Denmark. Suzanne would pick them up at a later date. The ones I had were worn out before we left Denmark but held up all the same. Today was also to be the big wash day for the bike. It is very important that the bike is tip top clean when traveling from one country to another. They are much afraid of soils coming into the country and I can risk have to pay a small fortune to have the bike cleaned by professionals before they release it to me. It did take all day to do the job right. Bill was there to make sure everything went as planned. With that job done, it was off to the pool. We had the rest of the day off to do absolutely nothing.
Thursday morning we woke to a very dismal day.The clouds were thick and grey and it looks as though we could be in for some rain.We were invited to a BBQ at my friend Barry and his wife Joi in Toronto. We haven´t seen them since we last were here in 2005. With a little luck, we will be able to light the BBQ and cook something on it. Our plan after breakfast was to return to Sutton for the last minute shopping and lunch. My niece Ashley decided to join us in town.As we returned home again, the weather was changing for the worse. They are calling for a thunder storms. This was not the ideal weather for a motorcycle, especially after we spent most of the day yesterday shining the bike up.It wasn´t what you would call barbeque weather either.Suzanne suggested that we take her car into Toronto instead.Didn´t take too much convincing on her part before we said thanks for the offer.We also wanted to make a quick stop at Bass Pro outdoors store.We were looking for rain clothes called Froggys.They were supposed to be very light and not take up much space on the motorcycle. We arrived there around 1pm and walked around for about an hour before departing without the Froggys. They were extremely light but as far as being compact, they weren´t. We were both getting pretty hungry so we decided to try and find a Deli.I was looking forward to sinking my teeth into a Corned beef sandwich.We left the job of finding one to the GPS. It headed us in the direction of the first Deli which we passed on and after the third one, we gave up and said we would go into the next no matter what.It looked okay from the outside but unfortunately as we walked in the door, I knew that I wasn´t getting a real Corned beef sandwich here.The Chinese are not famous for this.We were hungry, so we stayed.It was now time to move on down in the direction of Barry and Joi.We still had time on our hands so I took Karen M to Yorkdale Shopping Center. I ended up buying a couple of shirts and some Levi´s Jeans. As we leave Yorkdale, we could now see that it was building up to a storm. The sky was getting blacker and the clouds thicker but as of yet there was no rain.If we left now, we could be at Barry´s by 5pm as we agreed. We were lucky enough to find a parking spot in Barry´s driveway. Probably due to the fact that he was out doing a last minute shopping thing. We knocked on the door and were greeted by Joi who looked a little surprised to see us so early. Barry had not informed her about what time he told us to arrive. He actually forgot himself because he wasn´t home either. We came inside and offered to help Joi get ready by setting the table and drinking her beer.We were quite a crowd gathered here for dinner. Barry was put in charge of being Grill Bill today. Thank goodness for that because as soon as he went out the patio door, the thunder began and the rain came pouring down.I could see from my spot on the comfortable sofa that he looked as though he could use a hand out there, as the wind now started to pick up speed.I went to the door to ask him if I could give him a hand. He just managed to say no thanks when a bolt of lightning must have been so close that the sound of the thunder made us both duck our heads.We looked at each other and began to laugh. I quickly said okay, fine and I shut the door.I couldn´t bare to see his puppy dog eyes looking at me through the glass door saying, "please don´t leave me out here all alone".He looked as though he could use a hand so I opened the door again and went out to him.He started by handing me the steel spatula and asked me to put the hamburgers on the grill.Hmmmm, steel spatula while there´s thunder and lightning. Not a good combination under the circumstances but we were friends and that´s what matters. My friend then gave me his umbrella to hold while he pulls the table over to make things easier so we have a place to put things on.The thunder and lightning is up in arms at this point and I´m still holding my "FRIENDS" Umbrella and Steel spatula. There was then another thunderous crack of lightning as the power went off. It was pitch black in the house as I see them starting to light candles. Yes, I´m still holding the steel spatula and my friends umbrella. I set my mind at ease by convincing myself that the lightning would definitely hit the tree tops first before they hit me. They did have some huge trees in the backyard. Never thought about Fork lightning that can strike many places at one time..Not sure if the laughing and giggling that went on between us out there was because we were for some strange reason having fun or if it was because we were a little nervous over the situation we were in. Whatever it was, I must admit that it is very seldom that I´ve been caught in storm like that.We find out later that this was not just an everyday thunder storm. Toronto was hit by a Tornado today. Raised havoc around town with sirens going off here and there. A lot of homes were damaged but no one was injured. By all means, it was a lovely day for a BBQ.We had a very nice time at Barry and Joi´s.Got to see their kids and sister Shelly and her boyfriend Joel Sandler who was a old friend of mine from School. By 10pm, we thanked them all for a wonderful evening and we were on our way north again, towards Roaches Point.
It was now Friday and there was less than a week left before we were headed back to Denmark again. Spoke with Debbie Wyldes from AWF Forwarding today about when they will be picking up my bike to ship it home to Denmark. She informed me that it should be crated and ready for pick up on Monday morning. The pickup addresswould be down at my Favourite Aunt Bessie´s place in Richmond Hill.Now I knew what I would be doing today. The crate had to be taken out of the bushes where it has been for the past 3 months and washed up. Bill arranged with his brother in law Eric, that on Sunday, he would come with his pickup truck and move the crate down to my aunts. We will be staying there from Sunday to Wednesday to spend some time with family there until Suzanne picked us up again and took us to Roches Point to pack our suitcases.
Wow... we´re packing our suitcases... sounds so strange.It was a busy day, getting our things together that would be sent with the crate. We filled everything that could be filled on the bike and the rest would just have to be tied down to the crate when we get the motorcycle inside. The things that couldn´t fit in the crate, would just have to be left behind.It was now 3 in the afternoon and we seemed to be ready to relax. Bill´s sister Diane and her husband Eric were coming for dinner at 5.Suzanne was busy as a beaver in the kitchen getting things ready. We had a very lovely evening talking and laughing over a few drinks and we even had time to develop our own language. Sounds strange I know, but it started way back when Bill and Suzanne were at Drumheller in Alberta. Drumheller is one of the best dinosaur exhibits in North America.Suzanne claims that after this visit to Drumheller, her life has never been the same. Bill who is retired, has now got a lot of free time on his hands and uses much this time speculating about who we are and where we came from. According to Drumheller, we all evolved from somewhere in Asia and over the millions and millions of years, have migrated to different places around the world. One of many questions he asked us that evening was...Why do we not all speak the same language if we all come from the same place? All in all, a fair question it was!!Why he was asking us, I´m still not sure but I myself, did my very best to give him my explanation of how I thought the whole thing hung together.I told him that evolution happens over millions and millions of years and people can forget words.I myself have been living in Denmark for just 26 years and now and then I forget words in English. If one does forget a word, one has to make up a new.I told Bill for example, that this table we are sitting at... could now be called a "Blaacha"! Their "glass" table in the kitchen can be called a "Gleyesha Blaacha"!!! Then there's the word "Shiitsou" which a lot of people might refer to as the dog. This is not the case here because we left the dog back in Asia when we migrated millions of years ago.A Shiitsou in our NEW FOUND Language is now a lousy Zoo. You might be asking yourselves the question about how many beers I drank that evening. The answer is easy. It was one, in the late afternoon.After that beer, we went over to drinking rum and cola. If I remember correctly, we finished the bottle.After that, the new language came easy.Go figure!!!Bill also speculated over the question... If they say that we evolved from Apes!!!,Why are the apes still here?? Again... why he´s asking us, I´m still not sure. I suppose the apes are here so we can put them in the zoo. A zoo without apes would be definitely be classified as a Shiitsou. We all did our best to answer his questions but at times it seemed hopeless.I tried to explain to him that some things we just have to accept.Like Tarzan for example.Here`s a man who lives out in the middle of the Jungle. Far away from civilization.Why is it then, that Tarzan doesn´t have a beard!!??I know it doesn´t seem fair to burden Bill with more unanswered questions but I was just trying to prove a point.Poor Suzanne... we will be leaving Canada soon and she will be left alone to answer all of Bills mysteries. We had a really fun evening.It was getting late and to avoid any further questions from Bill, we all said goodnight and we waved goodbye to Eric and Dianne as they drove down the driveway in his brand new Pickup. Karen M and I then headed upstairs to bed.We were off to a Birthday Party tomorrow. Aunt Kelly will be celebrating her 60th.It will take place at a Chinese restaurant in midtown Toronto. It´s one of Kelly´s family who owns the Restaurant.We are looking so much forward to seeing them all again.
Saturday morning, we met in the kitchen for breakfast around 9am.We have been trying to arrange for Bill´s mom to go for a ride on my bike. She was turning 90 yrs and she felt it was about time she took a spin on the motorcycle.Unfortunately she hasn´t been feeling up to par today so we dropped the idea for the time being.We decided instead to go up and get some pictures of both Fred and Delilah in Leathers and sitting of the bike. Diane wanted to use one of the pictures for the invitation to their anniversary party. We arrived at Bills mom and dad´s and it wasn´t long before they were dressed in leathers and Delilah was sitting up on the bike. I´m still quite amazed as to how she got up there without any help at all, but she did. Fred stood there beside the bike with his red bandana dark sunglasses and his biker babe Delilah.Delilah seemed very comfortable and quite at home sitting on the passenger seat leaning back on the backrest looking ever so in love with her Sugar Daddy Fred.Freds motto... Its Hell being an Angel !!We snapped lots of pictures of them both and one or the pictures did end up on the front of the invitation as well as a blow-up for the guests to see when they arrived at the party.We sat and talked a bit afterwards up on Fred and Delilah´s porch until we returned home to Pine Post Rd. I started once again to get things ready to move down to Bessie´s tomorrow. Everything that was leaving with the bike in the crate had to be ready today. There was then time to relax before the party tonight. We arrive at the party at 7pm.We were one of the first people there.That´s basically because everyone remembered about Kelly's time schedule except us. Kelly, believe it or not, is not on daylight saving time or basically anytime at all. When she arrives... it´s time, and she did arrive, at 8pm.Everyonewas extremely hungry at this point but it didn´t matter. There was tonnes of food, lots of talk and laughing and millions of pictures were taken.Another very enjoyable evening.
Its now Sunday 23 august.This is the last day, I will be riding my bike over here. Bill´s brother in law Eric arrived at 11am and we lifted the crate onto the back of the pickup and then the luggage which was to accompany the crate to Denmark. Suzanne and Km sat in the back and Bill and Eric in the front.The weather was looking a little on the rainy side which did concern me a bit. If I get caught in the rain, it means three to four hours of shining the bike up again. That would really be a b***** when it looks as fine as it does now.It did spit rain for a few minutes but that was all that happened from Keswick to Richmond Hill.It was a strange feeling driving down as I`m thinking that this is the end of a three month trip. Perhaps the last time I will drive my bike over here on the North American Continent. I suppose all good things come to an end.In six days, we will be back in Fredericia, Denmark and this past 3 months will just be a wonderful memory.With that in mind, we are looking so much forward to seeing Aunt Bessie and the rest of the family again. Its not over yet !!!Richmond Hill, here we come…
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