Blair's Blog

The last weekend of the kids summer holidays was a great one, warm and sunny, just like summer should be. The only dark clouds seen were the ones that formed over the kid’s heads when ever someone would mention the forbidden word – sch**l.

We had a great weekend, Friday was my day off work and so Brenda and I took advantage of the fine weather and got the motorbikes out early and headed out for breakfast together. After a nice brunch, we did a bit of riding southeast of Calgary working our way back home. The day was heating up nicely, and with the Calgary kids already back in sch**l, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to head for Lake Sikome. The kids were definitely game and we packed some food and drink and beach toys and inflatable dinghy and beach umbrella and chairs and … eventually got to the lake about 2:00pm. We spent all afternoon and evening just enjoying the water and the beautiful day. On the way home, we picked up pizza and all watched a movie together.

Saturday, Brenda and I got out for another short motorbike ride, but came home by 10:00 to make a mess o’ pancakes and bacon for brunch. The rest of the day ended up being devoted to yard work, but in the evening Steven and I played some online computer games with Uncle Brian and only stayed up a little bit too late.

Today we spent the day at Heritage Park with Uncle Brian. Gram and Gramps met us for lunch at the Wainwright Hotel and took a train ride with us before they had to head off to another engagement. We went on the paddle wheeler, the dangler swings and the caterpillar ride, played some “games of skill” and picked up some fresh produce at the Fall Fair. After we dropped Uncle Brian off at home we picked up some burgers and headed home to have a little backyard picnic.

All told, it was a pretty great way to end the summer holidays … just too bad about sch**l starting tomorrow…

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It is a beautiful morning, so Brenda and I got up early and hit the road on our motorbikes before the day got busy. We’ve stopped for lattes in Langdon. Of course, chai latte is the official beverage of the motorcycle road trip, but I suppose that new riders need to work up to that lofty height of consumption. Brenda is drinking a regular latte with soy – it’s beyond the pale…

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With the ever increasing number of cousins on the Langendoen side of the family (14 now, ranging from 7 weeks to 13 years old), we decided last year to have one big birthday bash in the summer time. This way we can all get together and celebrate how the kids are growing and maturing without the logistical problems of multiple parties being planned. Each of the cousins draws a name and buys one present and receives one present and we choose a location where we can all be together and enjoy an entire day.

This year we chose to return to the campground at Cow Lake Recreational Area, where we had last year’s birthday bash. We were unable to get a boat this year and the weather was a little cool and windy, but the kids didn’t mind a bit. We barbecued up a bunch of burgers, hot dogs and smokies for lunch, let the kids swim and play in the lake and then it was time for the presents and to warm up by the fire in the day use shelter. The evening was quite nice as the wind died down and we packed up as darkness fell.

We stayed overnight in Rocky Mountain House and had a swim at the hotel before we headed to Barry and Breana’s place near Caroline for another feast. We had chicken and salad and garlic bread that had been intended for the birthday bash the previous day, but we never quite got to it! I’m pretty sure there were substantial leftovers even after all that additional eating.

Uncle Ronny brought his little quad and mini-bike over and, along with Uncle Barry’s trike, the kids all got rides around the acreage. It was quite a good day and by the time we got home in the early evening all of us were pretty tired out and ready to thunder in early.

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For my birthday this year, my brother-in-law Barry invited me to go on a motorbike ride to the Ponoka Vintage Motorcycle Rally along with his brother Ronny.  “Sounds good”, I thought, and the plans were made to be in Ponoka on the weekend of 25 & 26 July.

Except that, a couple of days before the event, Ronny had to cancel.  Since there were three registrations bought and paid for, we had to find another brother, and fast!  So we decided that the sensible thing to do would be to promote Brenda to Honorary Brother.  The ceremony was quick and fairly painless.

Brenda’s Mom and Dad were available to look after the kids, so away we went on our bikes early Saturday morning.  We met Barry in Innisfail and then had a big brunch at a restaurant in Red Deer.  We finally rolled into the Ponoka Stampede grounds just after noon.  A little too late to join the poker run, but that was OK, since the day was hot (32 °C) and that gave us plenty of time to check out the vintage bike show and shine, to ride down the road and see the classic car show and shine, and, most importantly to check into our hotel and cool off in the pool!

We had a fantastic steak dinner and then afterwards there was an “Engine Blow-up” 50/50 contest where some guy ran a poor old 2-stroke dirt bike at fulll throttle until the engine quit.   For $3 you could buy a ticket and guess how long the engine would run – some guy won $80 with his guess of 41 seconds.  I missed by miles, guessing 33 minutes.

Many of the motorcyclists attending the rally just stayed in tents at the stampede grounds, but we wimped out and stayed at the local Super 8.  However, we looked pretty smart about 5:00 am when there was a mighty crash of thunder and the skies opened up with a deluge of rain.  Thunder is definitely the sound of money well spend on indoor accommodations!  The rain lasted until just before we had to head back to the grounds for the mega-pancake-and-sausage breakfast.  The rest of the day was mixed sun and clouds with no more rain to be seen.

Brenda and I headed back home by late morning on the Sunday to relieve Opa and Oma – it was a great trip.  It was Brenda’s first real road trip and we covered about 500km in all.

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