Road trip to Sauble Beach

There is nothing like a good road trip to clear the mind. Sally, Tia and I did that on Tuesday and had a great time.

Yesterday morning dawned with that almost perfect lazy summer day feeling. Absolutely clear blue sky, cool, no humidity and with the forecast for a sunny and warm day. We had work-related stuff to do, but we knew it could wait.

After I got back from my regular morning workout at the Y, it didn't take long to convince Sally that we should really go for a drive. And Tia of course needed no persuasion to go for a 'Road Trip'.

We packed our camera, filled up the tank of the X Trail and headed west up Highway 26 with the intention of making it to Tobermory. I hadn't been there in years and Sally had never been.

Because we dawdled along we didn't get to Owen Sound until nearly noon. Once we saw the distance to Tobermory (and realized we had to make the return drive down the same road), we changed plans. We decided instead to head to Sauble Beach. With a stop first in Southampton. Had lunch there...fresh cut fries at an outdoor picnic table.

From there, we headed up to Sauble Beach. Not much had changed in the nearly 20 years since I had been there last. The Dairy Queen was still there, the shops and restaurants were still selling bathing suits and flip flops, and of course, the beach sign still arched over the entrance to the beach. We even got to park on the beach...something that brought back memories for Sally from her childhood experience at Wasaga Beach when you could actually get close to the water.

And even though we live in Wasaga with the longest stretch of sandy beach in Ontario, we were impressed with Sauble. The water was incredibly clear and clean and the sand felt like finely ground sugar. And for a Tuesday afternoon in mid June, there were lots of people on the beach.

After a quick walk around the shops, we rolled on. And because we had no clear timeline to get back, we took a detour...to Keady!

This is why unplanned road trips are so much fun: Exploration!

We headed back from Sauble turned south from Highway 21 at Jackson to Keady. Sally wanted to visit the well known Farmer's market there. Unfortunately we got there just as it was closing. Another road trip?

And since we were feeling unfettered, we decided to head back to Wasaga using back roads. The plan was to head east and end up on highway 26 outside of Thornbury.

It began well enough on paved roads but soon deteriorated to two lane gravel then to a single lane. The road names became a blur: Sullivan-Derby Town Line, Concessions 7, 11, 12, Sideroads 6, 7. After the detour around the closed and under-construction County Road 40 North, we found ourselves on the David McNichol Parkway (heck of a name for a country road) heading down into the Beaver Valley to the town of the Blue Mountains. Back into familiar territory.

What a glorious day! Even Tia was thrilled although she was exhausted and just wanted to curl up and sleep once we got back home.

The next time we may even make it to Tobermory....

Wasaga Beach Road Runners

I put my money where my mouth was last Saturday morning: I presented a cheque to founder Mike McCluskey to become a sponsor of the Wasaga Beach Road Runners club http://sites.google.com/site/wasagabeachroadrunners/. That's Mike on the left with the flashy top from the Boston Marathon...yes, he is a serious runner :).

We decided to support the club for a couple of reasons.

First, I have been a runner for well over 25 years now but have never met a group that I wanted to run with. While I have only been on a couple of the regular Sunday morning runs so far, these guys have not left me in their dust.

I have learned how to run better as well. This will prove invaluable as the training for the Reggae Marathon http://reggaemarathon.com/blog/ gets serious over the summer.

The best information so far: pacing and quicker leg turnover. Once I loose a few of the extra pounds I have packed on over the last few years, I expect even more improvement.

And I now have a new toy to aspire to: a Garmin https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=142&pID=230 that not only measures heart-rate, but through a satellite link-up records time/distance/pace and too many other things for me to remember. Although it has been a trusty friend, the Timex Triathlon will be retired soon.

The second reason is business-related. With Pre Paid Legal and the Identity Theft Shield www.prepaidlegal.com/hub/spennock , we are passionate on educating people on the dangers of identity theft. Our focus is on the at-risk consumers in the towns and cities along the southern shores of Georgian. Hey...we live in the best part of Ontario, we feel privileged to be able to work here as well.

Bringing these two parts of my life together feels like a perfect fit: we get to help Mike launch and build the club while I train with a great group of people, and we promote our business where we live.

My biggest challenge will be what logos to feature on my running shirts over the summer :)

Until next time...

10 Days in Hell...a Cautionary tale

Even now when I look back on the 10 days in September 2009, I can't believe how close we came to total disaster. It took his death to release us from the hell we were in.

Dad had not been well. He had been dealing effectively with his compounding health issues for many years. He was on home dialisys and had endured multiple surgieries over many years all in efforts to keep him alive and vital. And for the most part the cocktail of drugs and treatments worked. But we all new that one day something would happen to change things.

That day happened when he was told that due to gangrene and the serious potential of blood poisining his leg would have to be amputated. He did not take the news well. For a man who been mobile and active his entire life, this was not good news.

We did the best we could to cope with the situation. We had been through this before. Heck, we had even been through his heart surgery during the SARS episode in Toronto years ago. We figured we could deal with this.

First step in the plan: sell the house in Orangeville and move into an apartment in Mississauga closer to his primary-care hospital. We put the house up for sale and after a couple of false starts, got it sold with a firm offer and closing date of October 1. We then found a great assisted care place and signed lease in great anticipation.

The move never happened.

In early September Dad suffered a major heart attack and went into a coma. Thus began our descent into hell as we faced the reality that if he did not come out of his coma, the house deal would not close on October 1. You see, although my parents had a will, they did not have Power of Attorney documents. Dad would need to sign the legal documents. This was not going to happen.

For 10 days until September 25, 2 days after he died, we turned over every legal leaf in our efforts to find a way to close the deal. There was none: they would be sued if the deal did not close.

Since then I have been asked many times what it was like to have gone through that experience. Truthfully I have no answer. There are too many mixed emotions. I do know however that a good way to never let this happen to you is to put your financial business in order now. Get your will updated, but more importantly, get your Power of Attorney done. If you don't, you run the risk of finding our what hell really is.

PS: As you might expect, this was a tough post to write. And since I thought of it last week while running, it took another week to get up the courage to post it. Part of the healing process I guess.

Why doesn't Tim Horton's have a non-dairy alternative for coffee?

That is not a trick question. Since we have moved to a gluten and dairy-free diet due to health issues, we have been forced to look very closely at ingredient lists. We do this for products we buy to prepare meals at home, and we pour over ingredient lists at the restaurants we frequent.

Imagine our surprise last week when we went into our local Tim Horton's for our regular coffee. Sally liked hers with double milk, no sugar. I took mine with double milk, and 2 artificial sweeteners (I know, I know...that will kill me. I'm too old now to change...I'll take the chance). We asked if they had a soy-based alternative. Blank stare. In fact, although we cannot use Lacteeze or similar product, they didn't have that either.

OK, I may have missed something here. The number one coffee chain in Canada doesn't offer a non-dairy alternative? I know we are not in the majority, but we are long-time customers. And loyal. We have a Tim Horton's Bunn coffee maker at home and use only Tim Horton's Fine Grind in it. And we just had a reverse osmosis filter system installed so we can have pure water to brew our morning cup.

Since that experience, we have driven to Collingwood for our coffee fix. To the Starbucks actually where they are pleased to offer both a soy and non-dairy alternativehttp://www.starbucks.ca/en-ca/ . Wow. They actually got Sally to try a Soy latte!

We are trying hard to be loyal. But unless something changes soon, we will be forced to join my sister, a die-hard Starbucks fan, in patronizing Starbucks.