The End is Near

I will be closing this site down at the end of the month. I want to thank all of you who have provided support, and who have put up with my silly ramblings.

If my health improves over the next year or so, I would hope to be able to attempt walking the Camino de Santiago again. Time will tell.

I can be reached at tim.bilton@yahoo.ca if you want to stay in contact. Once again, thanks very much.

Tim

A Tourist in my Own Back Yard

I have been on vacation for the past two weeks. I thought maybe we would ride our motorbikes to Florida - that would be about a 3 day ride down, a few days there and a three day ride back. Naaa, too far. Then I thought that maybe we would go to Pennsylvania.....naaa, been there, done that many, many times. Finally, I had an idea - why not go to Niagara Falls. You see, we never go there because we live here. People from all over the world travel here, but the locals go elsewhere.

On Day One, I walked 4 miles, down by the falls and up and down the famous Clifton Hill where all of the wax museums, haunted houses, etc. are located.

On Day Two, I walked 6 miles - past the falls and along the river gorge until my feet were telling me it was time to turn around.

In the end, even for a local, you cannot see Niagara Falls in only two days. You need a week. However, if any of you should happen to wander this way, I would be glad to be your tourist guide.

(Note - double click on the pictures)

Friday, the 13th!!!!

Friday, the 13th!!!! Some years there are three, some years only one. But whenever one does occur on the calendar, bikers from far and near gather in a small lakeside town with a population of about 6,000 residents to celebrate. In 1981, three bikers had lunch in Port Dover on a Friday, the 13th. They agreed to meet there the next Friday the 13th, and brought along some friends. Word of mouth travelled, and each Friday the 13th had more and more bikers. Sometimes, such as last year, the Friday the 13ths were in winter months (February, March, and November) and the turn-outs were a couple of thousand each. This was the 50th occurance of a Friday the 13th since the original one in 1981

However, for 2010, there was only one and it was in August. There were 150,000 bikers. Every street, parked side to side, down the middle of streets, every corner, everywhere, bikes!!!

The town has two roads into it, and 6 miles outside of town, the police have roadblocks and only bikes are allowed pass. No cars or trucks - even if you live there. People who do not have bikes can still join in by parking in a field and taking a shuttle bus - the only 4 wheeled vehicle allowed. Besides, it is so crowded, you could not get a car or truck in or out of the town anyways.

The police have a heavy presence during this event - walking through-out the crowd in groups of 6-8 officers, directly traffic, and flying helicopters above.


The bars had large lines for people waiting to get a beer (it was very hot), and fenced in drinking areas were full. However, my fellow biker, Mad Dog, sniffed out beer being sold in the basement of a church. How he found this, who knows but there was no crowd and the beer was very cold.

The last picture, is Mad Dog, walking off into the sunset. Notice the large shadow. There is only one Friday the 13th in 2011 as well. It is in May and it will be crowded as well.

They'll be coming around the corner when they come.....

The annual Price of Wales Horse race was held in my home town a few weeks ago. They normally race every Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday for purses reaching $30,000 of which the winner gets 60%. For this race, which is the second race in the Canadian Triple Crown, the purse is $500,000. For the first leg of the Crown ran in Toronto, called the Queen's Plate, Queen Elizabeth herself was there this year to witness it. You can see above that the ladies dress in their finest horse racing dresses :)

The crowds were very large and millions of dollars were bet, both in person and via the Internet.

The trumpet guy was discussing with a Canadian Mountie what would happen to him if he got his notes wrong!!!!

I bet on #4 here to win, but #3 did not know and won instead :(

Going to the Chapel.....going to get Married......

On Saturday my wife and I travelled to London, Ontario as our oldest nephew was getting married. London is a little bit more than 2 hours from where we live. They got married in St Peters Church, which is the largest and possibly one of the oldest churches in the area

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They had awesome stained glass windows there

This is me studying the hymn book prior to the ceremony

It was very hot with temperatures around 35C and in the neighbourhood of 100F for our American friends. There was no air conditioning inside of the church and the varnish on the pews actually was coming off onto the people's clothing. It was one of the shortest Catholic weddings I have been to, with the ceremony lasting only about 35 minutes.

The reception was held at a very nice hall with a very nice meal and free drinks - what more could one ask for?

Unlimited Beer! :)

I thought that might catch your attention.

We went on our annual motorbike trip to Pennsylvania. I have been going for about 6 years now. This year we had myself, my brother (Diesel), his wife (Diesel's wife), and Dennis (Mad Dog). We had a couple of riders drop out but hey, more beer for us but more on that later.

There was a back-up at the border crossing but it went through fairly fast. The US border guards removed people from two separate vehicles and escorted them to the customs building. They must of got word that certain folks were attempting to illegally cross into the States because they seemed to be on a higher alert than normal. I always seem to go first and explain our story of where we are heading. By the time the fourth bike goes through, the guards are "yeah, yeah, go ahead".

We head down to the Allegheny National Forest which is in northern Pennsylvania. There is a motel there that is inexpensive, has a nice restaurant right on site, and they cater to motorbikes by doing the small stuff that goes a very long way such as leaving towels out in the morning so that we can wipe the dew off of the seats and windshields.

There is a train bridge there that was built across a very deep valley at the turn of the century. In 2004, a tornado came rumbling along (likely sounded like a freight train) and torn down half of the bridge. Until then, it was a fully functioning rail line.

For the first time, we discovered that in a small city of St Mary's, there is a brewery named Straub Beer which has been there since 1872 (actually as long as the train bridge). They give free public tours from 9 am until noon, Mondays to Fridays. We arrived there about 10 am and were told to gather at the Eternal Tap. The Eternal Tap actually is three beer taps sticking out of a wall (light, normal, and dark beer). So you fill up a nice glass container (no plastic cups here) and then the tour starts. The tours are informal so you could be in a group of 12, or a group of 6 , or whatever.....whomever shows up.

We were shown how they make beer, from the time they get the grain, fill the large kettles, add the various ingredients, etc. I really wasn't paying too much attention - I was enjoying the beer too much. Then we got to the area where the beer is bottled. They reached right onto the bottling line and gave us bottles of beer, fresh off of the line. They did not even have caps on them yet and although I am not a big beer drinker, this was by far the best beer I have ever tasted. So now I have a bottle of beer in one hand and half a glass of beer in the other hand. The tour winds up soon after and we end up back at the Eternal Tap. The tour guild takes off with a new group of beer enthusiasts, and we are left along at the tap. So what are we to do. We finish the beer in our hands, and fill up again at the tap. We drink some more, look around, look at each other, and fill our glasses again :) What an awesome place and to think we have been coming to this area for the past 6 years and did not even know about it. For sure, this will be one of our must stops in future trips.

The rest of our time was spent riding through the winding roads through the National Forest, and stopping once in a while to quench our thirsts.

The ride home was uneventful.

Tim