Catching up!

I am a little backed up here. We had trouble getting Internet in Windsor. Actually, we got NO internet in Canada at all. I have to work on fixing that problem. So here are some posts written on the day they actually happened.

We are having a wonderful time. So far this is everything we hoped it would be and more. We are now 19 days into the adventure and still with a group of friends. We are looking forward to slowing down a bit when we leave the group later this week.

In the meantime, here is what has been happening!


Friday, July 27, 2012 Day 14 Dearborn, MI

I think the favorite stop so far was the day we spent in Detroit. Detroit has its issues but I can honestly say I have fully enjoyed every visit I made, especially this one!

The whole group, all 16 of us, spent the day at Ford!! The morning we toured the Henry Ford Dearborn Museum with its many fascinating exhibits. Here is Kermit in front of his favorite – the Ford Tri-Motor plane.

Then we toured the Ford Rouge Plant. Wow is it big! Like Disney World for manufacturing junkies like me! Heaven!! We saw two movies. The second was about the Rouge plant, complete with smell-o-vision and steam effects! So cool! We toured the living roof. Every roof in the huge complex is covered with sedum to collect and reuse rain water and return oxygen to the air. In the background of this picture you can see the living roof.

No pictures allowed during the plant tour. Walkways around the assembly plant allowed us to see Ford F-150 trucks being assembled. I am not sure how the employees feel about it but they seemed to ignore the viewers pretty well. We saw someone stop the line for some sort of problem and all the workers in the neighborhood gathered around to quickly fix the problem so the line started again. Pretty cool! They make 60 trucks per hour. One per minute. Wow!

Saturday, July 28, 2012 Day 15 Windsor, Ont.

Complicated weather in the morning as we left Wyandotte. This is a shot of the marina at Silver Shores. Our boat is just to the right of the flag. The people were great. The manager, Russ, helped us along with tips and donuts! We appreciate the hospitality.

The weather cleared for a nice ride to Windsor. You can’t go North without stopping in Windsor, Ont. It has the best view of Detroit which really looks lovely from the water. We always stay at the Lakeview Marina next to Lilly Kazilly. It is clean, has great places for Rusty to explore, allows good boat access on the wall, and a restaurant with a cool name. What more could you ask?

Saturday in Windsor was a jam packed day. We got here about 11am. Naturally we were the last boat in our little Feldner Flotilla. We are always last for some reason. No problem! We got tied up and cleaned up and left immediately for a 12pm tour of the Hiram Walker Distillary. We had so much fun last year we decided to do it again! This time we had a magnificent lunch on the patio in the beautiful garden on the water. This was the original entrance, the place where Al Capone docked his boat when he visited to place orders during Prohibition.

Isn't that a great picture of Char Houser?

Here are all the women. From left to right is me (Katherine), Vicki Hoffman, Karen Sigman, Diane Steiber, Maeo Bates, Char Houser, Eve Gribble, and Julie Feldner.

Kermit was dubbed "Big Bird" in this colorful shirt. Here he is with Jim Sigman with Ron Feldner int he background.

Tish is the historical manager of the facility and her tour was different than last year. We saw parts of the building we only heard about. We visited the pool in the basement was closed in the 1910s and converted into a storage room now used as the archives. We also saw the entrance to the tunnel Hiram Walker built to travel under the Detroit River in the winter! The tasting was special this year. We all loved the new Blackberry Canadian Club – we drank the entire bottle during lunch! Another favorite was the 20 year old special. So smooth!!

 This cask is from 1994 signed by all employees in the plant at the time. They keep this in the archives. The swimming pool is below this floor.

Here is the gang in the tasting room. See Tom Steiber in the background with Diane Stieber, Vicki Hoffman, and Bill and Eve Gribble.

 We drank a LOT of Canadian Club - even Big Bird!

After a short nap (we drank a LOT of Canadian Club whiskey!) we went to dinner at La Contessa Restaurant on Erie Street. This is a street filled with great looking Italian restaurants and shops. This was our second visit to La Contessa and we had another great meal. This was a traditional Northern Italian meal (4 hours!) with a lovely high-end contemporary look.  A nap at the Ceasars finished the night for me. Kermit won $90 at roulette so he was happy!

Here is the looper locator for Windsor.
http://greatloop.org/mod/aglcalocator/membermap.php?id=1001

Sunday, July 29, 2012 Day 16

Sunday brought perfect weather. Absolutely incredible. Char Houser made breakfast quiches with mimosas for everyone. She is turning out to be a little Maeo with the food! Marvelous until the bee stung me. Ouch that hurt!

It is sad to say good-bye but Char and Tom had to return to Sandusky to go to work on Monday. We will miss them TONS and TONS during the trip. Maybe we can see them in Chicago?

Naturally we were last out of the marina. As we poked our way up the channel in Lake St. Clair with Feldners and Sigmans, we noticed Stiebers and Hoffmans stopped in the water. Bad news! Tom Stieber’s boat threw a rod through the engine block. Evidently there was oil everywhere and their trip was over. Every boater reading this sadly knows that this means huge trouble.

There are many reasons to travel with a group. Lots of calls later and Steibers were limping down the river. Tom and Char Houser turned around at Bob-Lo Island and met the limping Hawaii at Hiram Walker and escorted Stebers home on one engine. They all arrived safely at Venetian Marina 8 hours later.

The rest of the group continued to Cove Marina where we spent the afternoon in the pool and had a great dinner at Dockside Restaurant. Great perch. This is the life!

We will spend Monday at Cove exploring Chatham, Ont. And a few people fishing for musky in Lake St. Clair. More later!

Here is the looper locator for Cove Marina.
http://greatloop.org/mod/aglcalocator/membermap.php?id=1001

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Next steps: North Channel Yacht Club on the North Channel of the St. Clair River just north of Lake St. Clair. We arrived yesterday. What a lovely place! This is a destination yacht club. Members keep their boats somewhere else and drive them to the yacht club. I will send pictures and looper locator later. The group is pushing to go out on a dinghy ride!!