Best laid plans

It has been a full month since my last post, and so much has happened that I hardly know where to begin.  I'll try to make a very long story short.

On March 7, I flew from Tampa to Buffalo,and rented a car to drive across the border.   I visited with some friends and family for 5 days, then headed back down to Buffalo to catch my flight back to Florida.  Everything fell apart when I reached the border, and the guard sent me to see Immigration, where the woman told me she considered me to be an 'intended immigrant'.  We had done our research, and believed that, as Canadians, we were allowed to stay in the US for up to 6 months at a time, and that we could 'reset' the clock by returning to Canada.  The length of time we are required to be out of the US is not written down anywhere, and reentry to the US is entirely at the discretion of the border and immigration people.

As much as I like spending time in the US, especially during the winter months, I have no desire to give up my Canadian residency, and all the benefits that come with that.  But it didn't matter what I said, she was not going to let me back in!!

So, there I was in my American rental car,stuck on the Canadian side of the border, burning up the cell signals to Michael in Florida as we scrambled to figure out what we were going to do.  Our original plan of leaving the President in Florida for the summer would still hold, but we would move the schedule up.  And now, Michael would have to do all of the work by himself.  Meanwhile, I needed to find a place to stay until we could get the Trojan in the water - and the water in Northern Ontario is still frozen!!

Friends and family came to the rescue for me, and friends in Florida helped Michael with many of his chores, and provided some much needed moral support as well.  Thank you to everyone - we couldn't have done it without you.

We are now settled into an apartment in MacTier, a little town not far from our home marina. We have been boating here for many years, and know the waters of Georgian Bay very well, but have never really spent the time to explore the local area by car.  We are now enjoying exploring the land based attractions.   It's still quite cold here, and yes, the water is still hard, but there are signs that spring is definitely on the way.

This is the view from the town dock in Parry Sound.  Brrrrrrr!