Later that afternoon, we went to a driving range that I found about 25 minutes away. We both got a extra large buckets of balls to practice and try to work on our drives and hitting all of our clubs. We felt a little better after leaving and decided to stop at a little Italian restaurant in Mexico, New York, for a 39th anniversary dinner! Yes, I said that right: an Italian restaurant in the town of Mexico, in the state of New York.
Our dinners were delicious! Chuck had spaghetti with meat sauce and I had baked ziti. It also came with delicious garlic knots. Anna, I know how much you love garlic knots and these were some of the best! Of course, our breath was not all that great when we left! :)
On Sunday morning, we decided to take a day trip to Canada. Why, you say? Well, it's only about 50 miles away, I wanted to be able to say we had driven ALL of I-81 (from the Canadian border all the way to where it dead-ends in I-40 in Tennessee), and the most important reason of all: TIM HORTON'S!!!!
We first discovered Tim Horton's our first year of full-timing when we traveled to Newfoundland. Tim Horton's seemed to be everywhere. And then last year, when we went with Ken and Bonnie to visit Ernie and Noela in Quebec, we stopped at Tim Horton's more than once! :) Needless to say, I am a big Tim Horton's fan!!
We headed out in the car around 8 am and before long we were crossing the first of those 1000 Island Bridges built way back in 1937:
Then, we came to Canadian customs where, when asked, Chuck tried to explain we were just coming to Canada because I wanted to go to Tim Horton's in Canada for coffee. I think she thought we were crazy.
I guess they decided it was o.k. to let a couple of crazy people from Tennessee into the country. :)
We drove by the 1000 Islands Tower...
...and over the rest of those 1000 Island Bridges...
...before driving west about 15 kilometers to Tim Hortons in Gananoque, Ontario! (When in Canada, you do as Canadians do -- use the metric system!) :)
We ordered my Tim Horton's coffee and a box of TimBits.
We couldn't decide which one to eat first! :)
Ah..... There's nothing like Timmy Horton's coffee. Especially when you have with a TimBit!
After we had finished our TimBits, I bought a bag of Tim Horton's coffee to take back. Interestingly enough, the bag is bigger in Canada because a 400 gram bag of coffee is bigger than a 1 pound bag of coffee. And the exchange rate is .76 Canadian to $1 American making a $8.99 bag of Tim Horton's coffee only cost me $6.83!
And...since we ate every single one of those TimBits...
...I ordered another small box of the blueberry TimBits (my favorite) to take home! I'm so bad!!! :)
We drove back via the Thousand Islands Parkway that followed the St. Lawrence River...
...and we were soon crossing those 1000 Island Bridges...
...and then beginning our trek down I-81...
...and waiting in line at Customs to cross back into the US.
In typical Gregory "waiting-in-line-and-always-being-in-the-slow-line" fashion, we were directed away from what ending up being the fast line, and then had to wait while they put up a pylon in our line for who knows what reason. When we finally got to the Customs Officer, the first thing she told us is that we can't take pictures of the border crossing and all the security cameras at the border crossing. She must have seen me taking a picture with my camera. She said we would have to delete the picture. So, I showed her the picture I had taken:
She soon realized that the security of our great United States of America was quite safe!!
She also didn't seem to believe that we went to Ontario just to go to Tim Horton's. She said, "You know, we have Tim Horton's in the States...even not too far from here." I said that I knew that but it wasn't the same as going to Tim Horton's in Canada!!!! Where they began! (FYI: in 2014 the Tim Horton's restaurants and franchises were bought out by Burger King. A very smart move by Burger King from my viewpoint!) I guess she realized we were just a couple of crazy but harmless rednecks from Tennessee and decided to let us back in. :)
So...we began our journey down I-81 across the last 1000 Islands Bridge...
...and by the New York State countryside where the corn doesn't grow quite as tall as it does in PA.
Later that afternoon, we decided to give those narrow fairways of Streamside Golf & RV Park one last chance. I played pretty horrible the first half and then on the 8th hole, I scored my first ever birdie!!!!! On a dog-leg left hole, I hit one of my best drives ever, then hit my #3 wood long and straight two times with the 3rd stroke ending up on the green within 5 feet of the hole. I knew if I could make the putt, it would be my first birdie! I was so nervous, but I made it! Yippee!! Of course, we won't talk about my score or how bad I was on the rest of the holes.
Below is the fairway on the 11th hole. This gives you an idea of how narrow the fairways are.
After seeing a lot of other golfers going back and forth across the fairways and into other fairways looking for their balls, we didn't feel quite so bad.
And besides, we have so much fun playing golf! We may not be any good but then you get a birdie or a par or a really good (or lucky) shot, that motivates you to just keep on trying, playing, improving, and best of all, HAVING FUN!!!! :)
Do I remember TimBits? I still dream about them. Looks like a great time and new adventures. Hope I am typing correctly. I lost my glasses in the ocean, and I am wearing Bonnie's.. Blessings
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