Welcome to Trillium Court

Trillium Court is located about 10 minutes north of Lake Erie near Long Point & Port Rowan. The owners, Earl & Marjorie Bouck are both originally from this area and we often reminisce of our public school days and teenage years together.

Back in the ‘80’s they sold their home in Tillsonburg, gave up their secure corporate and union jobs, bought a restaurant on Long Point from Marjorie’s parents and haven’t looked back.

They acquired this 30 acre prime piece of property about 22 years ago with a goal to build a house for their retirement years.  Shortly after buying the property Marjorie recalls sitting back near the ravine enjoying a glass of wine together when the idea of a campground began to take shape.

I guess you could say the rest is history.

That vision has become an 85 site nature park with mostly seasonal trailers. A few tenting sites are available to accommodate the weekenders and overnighters as well as a couple of full service trailers for rent on a nightly, weekly, or monthly basis.

The park is extremely well maintained and offers a heated swimming pool, nature trails, activity centre, horseshoe pits and a well equipped playground. The office & RV service centre, located at the entrance to the park provides replaceable parts and supplies for trailers & RV’s.

After touring and comparing several parks & marinas in the area last year we made the decision to make our home here for the summer season. While they didn’t have any open seasonal sites they did guarantee us a temporary spot which was originally a pull thru site. Pull thru’s usually accommodate overnight travellers that just want to get off the road for the night with easy access to entering and leaving the park.

Our goal is to find a spot where we know we can return to each year; a site where we can put up a small storage shed to hold some of our tools that we don’t need to take with us when we head south for the winter.

We love the people here in the park and the location is ideal for us. Marge & Earl have guaranteed us a spot for next year even if it means returning to this site again. There is always a turn over in these parks and we are hoping a more permanent opening will become available. We feel that as long as we are in the park we will be at the top of their waiting list.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everyone has told us that the ravine and wood lot are covered en masse with trilliums in the springtime. We didn’t arrive here until the end of May but we are looking forward to next year and snapping a few shots of Ontario’s beautiful provincial flower.

We really enjoy the park and all it has to offer but the real attraction is all of our wonderful neighbours. We’ve met many new friends and been re-united with several old friends people we’ve known for quite a while.

Both of my parents were born and raised in and around Port Rowan so the area is home to me. In fact this park is actually only about 3 miles away from the one-room school house where I attended Grades 1 & 2. Grade 3 to 8 would find me at Walsingham P.S. which is only 4 miles from here.

I’ve come full circle and I’m proud of that.

 

 

 

 

 

Our new neighbour and great friend Nancy gave us this sweet glass hummingbird feeder shortly after we moved here and I can’t tell you the enjoyment we receive from watching all the activity going on every day. If you’ve ever tried to photograph a hummingbird I know you will appreciate these pictures.

Above you can see this little guy coming in for a closer look.

These tiny creatures are really quite brave . . . there are times when they will come right up and hover very close to your head for a few seconds and then they just flit away.

Trying a sample  . . . .

 

before flying away to check out the buffet at Nancy’s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today I’m grateful for all of God’s creatures. Large & Small.

Back at the Whyte House

Jack & Bonnie are friends dating back to our boating days in the 80’s. Back in the 90’s they literally ‘took the plunge’ – selling their business and their home with plans to sail around the world. They didn’t exactly sail around the world but they did spend about 7 years living full time on their boat(s) in some very interesting places.

Christmas Day 2009 at Victoria Palms

I’m encouraging Bonnie to start a blog and when she does she can fill you in on all of their (mis)adventures in those tropical places and the exciting experiences they encountered during that time.

They are now living in a beautifully landscaped heritage home in Wortley Village in London, Ontario.

We’ve reunited during the last few years as they have become motorhome owners and travel quite extensively throughout the year. Their first RV was a Tiffin Allegra which must have given them the bug and they have recently become the proud owners of a beautiful Country Coach.

Their travels often take them through Texas as they like to travel in Mexico as well as the other southwestern states. Whenever we can we get together in the Valley and have had shared many memorable fun times . . .

. . . .usually involving food:

 

Lin’s - Our favourite Chinese buffet in the Valley.

 

 

 

Or Taco Cabana for Mexican. We often relate this event to our friends – The 4 of us ordered large combo plates with enchiladas, tacos, rice & beans, with all the trimmings and 5 margaritas and the total bill was $19 & change!

 

Cowboy lunch at the  Chicken House Opry.

Everything tastes better eaten outside!

Here Bonnie shows off her culinary skills – New Years Day Dinner.

The Southern Tradition for New Years Day dinner consists of Pork for health, Cabbage for money and Black eyed peas or lentils for luck.

This tradition varies depending on the area.

Next to eating . . . . We Love to Shop!

Or at least Bonnie & I do. And we especially enjoy Thrift Stores or what’s known in the valley as Ropa Stores.

Large department stores often ship large volumes of returned or discontinued items to these Ropa Stores. Shoppers just wade through these mountains of clothes, bedding, towels, etc. filling  up bags and pay 50 cents (+/-) a pound. A few of the stores have retail areas set up with items on hangers or at least a little better displayed. In order to move these mounds they use a forklift to shake things up a little. I’ve zoomed in on the above photo to give you a better idea.

 

While we girls love to shop, Jack & The Cowboy enjoy talking ‘everything RV’!  Amps, Volts & Watts again plus Poly Glo, tire pressure, yada, yada, yada . . .

 

Creating more memories at The Kite Festival at South Padre Island. This is a national competition and kite fliers from all over the country show up for this major event.

Any of these photos simply do not do this display justice. For perspective if you look at the bottom of the above photo and compare the size of the spectators to the size of the ginormous kites.  We always enjoy this event and try to attend every year.

What is clear in the photos is the weather. It was cold and we were freezing!

Obviously the cool temperatures didn’t prevent us from having lotsa laughs!

We’re looking forward to making more memories this upcoming winter. Word has it their compass heading is set for South to the RGV in Texas.

Today I’m grateful for reunions with people we proudly call ‘Great Friends’.

del.icio.us Tags: Friends,Jack & Bonnie,RGV,SPI

Phaeton Bedroom Update

This is what the bed looked like: dull & drab

then we added our own pillows and changed out the bedspread.

The Cowboy actually found this one & I think it looks great- following the leaf theme in the rest of the motorhome.

However, I wanted a punch of colour so I took two of those dull beige cushions

and laid each of them out on a very large, bright red scarf from Dollarama

gathered up the 4 corners to the top

secured with an elastic

and it looked like this

which resulted in the dramatic splash that I was hoping for.

A couple of artificial red roses incorporated into the valances

would have made my Mom, the Official Plastic Queen of Port Rowan,    very proud .

Two black picture frames with black & white photos were attached with velcro to the walls to complete the look.

There’s still a couple of things I’d like to do. I think those valances would look nicer done up with some of the black fabric that I have. We’ll just save that for another rainy day.

The bottom quarter of the comforter is a solid colour – dark charcoal gray and not the leaf pattern. . . limited space with a wide angle lens.

For perspective, here is a shot of the other end of the bedroom.

The cost of the comforter, shams, dust ruffle & deco cushion was about $130.00 which will last us 2-3 years. The scarves, roses and frames totaled about $10.00 which means I can afford to trade out the colour whenever I’m ready for a change.

How often do you do a change the bedding in your bedroom? Do you have one for summer and another for the other seasons?

Our seasons consist of Spring   Summer    Fall    Summer  

Repeat.

BTW The Cowboy simply adores the cute little decorative pillows *sarcasm*

Today I’m grateful for rainy days, red roses & rubber bands.

del.icio.us Tags: Phaeton updates

Sweet Pease

This is a story that I relate frequently.
One of our favourite ROD membership parks is The Club at Lake Gaston, West Virginia.This is where we met full-timers Mike & Sandi Pease from Sweet, Idaho in November 2006. They are Thousand Trails members and share a few of our ROD parks.
We were there for a few days while were having some scheduled repairs to our motorhome in Roanoke, West Virginia. We immediately made a connection, however, we found out that they were leaving within a couple of days. After spending the night around a campfire eating Sandi’s cookies, we knew we wanted to meet up with them again. Sandi bakes some delicious desserts so The Cowboy felt this was a match made in Heaven. We agreed to meet up for the American Thanksgiving holiday at our next stop which was another of our favourites Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park.
Dennis & Diane McCanna, our friends from Brunswick, Georgia joined us for the holiday weekend and we all had a great time. The McCanna’s deserve a post of their own

Suwanee Music Park is a very large, very busy park that host’s a lot of bands and reservations are required, well in advance, to guarantee a site.



We certainly didn’t lack for entertainment there  - they were hosting an antique farm equipment show that weekend with several concerts in the evenings.
If my memory recalls this was the moment that Sandi realized the guys were independently enjoying themselves and we were left to our own devices. (read: shopping in the quaint little shops )

There’s also an area where people who are travelling with their horses can also be accommodated. Nature at it’s best with small farm animals showing off for us and maybe just a little bit nervous at Thanksgiving time?
During the day the weather was perfect for exploring the many hiking paths

and the campfires in the evening set the mood for either swapping lies







or roasting hot dogs.

There is so much to see and do at this wonderful park but I digress.
This post started out with Mike & Sandi and I did have a point to make.
When we left Suwanee a few days later we promised to keep in touch. Again, Thank You Verizon!
We did in fact keep in touch as we spent Christmas & New Years together and quite a few other times over the course of that winter while we enjoyed the Sunshine State. We even made sure our paths crossed at Easter.
There are many more stories that include Mike & Sandi, not only in Florida, Texas & Arizona – but they also joined us in our home province of Ontario during the summer of 2008.
Now I know you thought I’d forgotten . . . but my point is:
We were 2 couples from totally different sides of the country that met when we were both travelling hundreds of miles away from our birthplace and became lifelong friends.
Today we are grateful for Mike & Sandi’s friendship and all of the wonderful lifelong friends we’ve made.