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2020.01.01 Recap Of 2019

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As we come to a close of another year, once again I like to recap what we did.

Carol and D'Arcy at the Audubon Zoo
We started the year in New Orleans as we always do now. We spend our winters down south and our summers in Canada. We enjoyed Mardi Gras, second line parades and other attractions like the Audubon Aquarium and Zoo. We went to the Audubon Zoo on my birthday. We left New Orleans and headed back to Canada in April.

Parking the house at Monica's house
On the way back we stopped for a visit with Monica, D'Arcy's sister. We parked the house on her lawn for a week or so. We were early since our campground in Ottawa didn't open until mid May. While there we replaced our furnace. We met some of the rest of the Cain clan at the Brock House in Whitby. We had a delicious brunch. Then Monica, D'Arcy and I went to pick up their niece Tiffany from work to go to a show put on every Wednesday at the Tartan Tavern featuring "Two for the Show" where D'Arcy joined them on stage playing his bass and just having fun.

Parking the house at Shorelines Casino
We left Monica's in early May but it was still too early to go to our campground in Limoges, ON so we spent a week in the parking lot of Shorelines Casino in Thousand Islands. It was a good place to stay because they let us put out our slides and run a generator. We were also able to unhook the trailer so that we could get around in the truck.

Man-made lake in Kittawa
Then we went to Kittawa Campground in Limoges near Ottawa where we spent the summer. Kittawa was a nice place with a big man-made lake. They also had a restaurant where they would often have entertainment. Sometimes D'Arcy would sit in with the band. We like to exercise so we would walk around the entire place almost every day.

D'Arcy with too much moose in his hair
We went out to Montana's to celebrate D'Arcy's sixty-ninth birthday. We also had a party at the camp site where some of our friends came as well as my brother Robert and his lovely wife Laura. We enjoyed some nice appetizers and pizza and D'Arcy entertained us with his guitar. Grayson also tickled the ivories (plastics?) for us.

Drummer Royce
We also visited Robert and Laura in their new home in Stittsville. We had a lovely time with our niece Robynne and her husband Bill with our grand niece Clarke and grand nephew Royce. Royce played drums for us and Clarke rode a wooden rocking horse for us in the basement. Ella the dog also joined us. Then we went upstairs for a delicious meal. We thank Robert and Laura for being great hosts with Bill as the cook's helper.

Old Baldy
This was the year D'Arcy picked to cut his hair. One day he just decided to go from a pony tail to a buzz cut. He said it was because we spend so much time outside and driving now that the wind just made it get in the way. He says that he will trim his beard too once he is ready to get a new passport.

Joanne, Alan, Carol and D'Arcy
In October we had to leave the trailer with someone to do some work including putting on a new roof. Since we had to move into a hotel for two weeks we decided to make a trip out of it and went to Montreal. We went out for dinner with my brother Alan and his girlfriend Joanne to one of their favorite restaurants, Wing Phat on Jarry. And what is dinner without a fine dessert so we went to Rockaberry where they served up huge pieces of cake and we washed it down with tea and coffee. The following Thursday we had supper with Alan again this time at Cage au Sportif on Cote Vertu.

Monica, Carol and D'Arcy
After the Montreal trip we headed back to Ontario to pick up our trailer and head out for our next snowbird season. We visited Monica again but this time we parked in a Boston Pizza parking lot while we had dinner with her. We then headed out to Windsor. We had already arranged to go to a campground there called Willowood. As nice as Kittawa was we needed to be in a campground that was open for a full six months. Because Windsor is so far south they can be open a bit longer. We stayed in Willowood for two nights before entering the US on Nov 1.

Carol with the dental staff in Nuevo Progreso
This year we also took a side trip to finish the dental work that they started last year in Los Algodones, Mexico. We stayed in Country Sunshine in Weslaco, TX where we could drive to the Mexican border and cross on foot. I now have five new porcelain crowns.

While in Texas I broke my toe and had to visit the hospital. Officially it was my middle toe but D'Arcy called it my roast beef toe. When I told the nurse about all the bones I had broken in my left leg over the years she said "Why do you hate that leg so much?"

Fred, Bev, Carol and D'Arcy
This year we met Joe's brother Fred and his wife Bev. They also winter in Country Sunshine. Jos and Poe are our dear friends that we met in Cumberland and kept in touch even visiting each other in New Orleans and going to Mardi Gras together. We celebrated Thanksgiving there as well and then we hit the road for New Orleans.

D'Arcy playing at the New Orleans Super Jam
D'Arcy will play music anywhere he can and I love watching him have fun as well as taking pictures. Once we arrived in New Orleans D'Arcy played harp at Café Negril with John Lisi and Delta Funk. He also joins the jams at at Dmac's every Thursday and at 33/90 every Monday with Gene Harding who plays the drums and sometimes the horn. D'Arcy also sits in with friends at Vaso and other music venues on Frenchmen Street.

Carol enjoying Réveillon at the Gumbo Shop
We celebrated Christmas with a Réveillon at the Gumbo Shop on St. Peter in the French Quarter. Our waiter Will took very gook care of us. We walked out very full and satisfied.

Carol and Charlotte
Our friend Charlotte came to see us for a while before she left for home in Alabama. She hopes to see us again before we leave in April. We met Charlotte, Mike and two little dogs Sozo and Misa last year as they were in the spot right near us in Chalmette.

Bye Bye 2019
On New Year's Eve we took a Lyft down to Frenchmen and Royal then we walked up Frenchmen talked to BJ for a while then checked the bars out to see who was playing and as we were leaving BMC I took a pictures of D'Arcy with the sign at the door. Then we walked up Decatur, across St. Ann and up Bourbon Street. We ate supper at Cafe Maspero on Decatur where we were well taken care of by our server Josie. We then walked back down Decatur stopping at En Vie Espresso Bar and Cafe where D'Arcy ordered hot chocolate with rum in it. Then we took a Lyft home.

Happy 2020 everyone!