Several hikers have inquired about J and M. Here is a copy of a letter Dave just received.
Greetings Dave, We're grateful and happy that your executive power decided to check up on us :-) .
We are "T- Minus-10 Days-& Counting (and packing)" from closing down our rickety, tiny, happy-old cottage, and an additional day from heading south.
No, not to Florida tight away. Instead to a friends house in Crystal Beach Ont (near Niagara Falls) where we will house-sit for the full month of October and the first week of November. Luckily for us those five weeks are free. The owners are a Canadian couple also wintering in our Florida community. They will be away spending 10 weeks in Hawaii before traveling to Florida afterward.
Speaking of "traveling", getting to Florida will be the interesting(?) part.
As you know the US Land Border remains closed to "non-essential" Canadian traffic traveling by car. However, we can "fly" there. Go figure. And, equally nonsensical, we can load our car onto a commercial auto transporter to get it into the US.
So, without confirmed plans yet, but maybe formalizing today, we think and hope, we will ship our car across the border from Windsor to Detroit on 8 November for the incredible sucker price of USD $650 and then fly from Windsor to Detroit (via windsor-Toronto-Detroit) for CAD $309pp. As you likely know, it only takes about 5 minutes to cross to Detroit by bridge or tunnel!
We "could" just fly direct to Fort Lauderdale as our across the street neighbour lady in Delray Beach said we could use her car anytime. She offered that to us last winter as well.
But, our big news is that we are considering selling our home there and maybe downsizing to a much more affordable apartment building. Why? Who knows where the good old USA is heading politically, hurricane wise, and who knows what else-wise or unwise. Unfortunately, we have become very addicted to warm weather winters though :-). What to do.
We humbly thank you Dave for your very kind words about Monique & I. Honestly though, you could have rightly said that about anyone in the hiking club. While the Canadian Shield landscape was awesomely inspiring, all of our hiking group friends were an unequivical equal draw to our 7 month unplanned continually re-extended stay in Elliot Lake.
Does anyone in the group have an extra bedroom for a possible week-long visit next summer :-). ....JaM
