The Colder Maritime weather began to change the leaves of urban Moncton, It is that time to evaluate the winter activities At 70 years old, each day is valuable and needs to be spend wisely. Last year, I tried to do a "Snowbird Retreat" and spend a couple of months in Longueueil, south shore Montreal, Playing Pétanque at the local Bouledrome and being around the family was great. Last year, I had to cut the visit short and returned to Moncton in mid November bwcause it is hard to find a room and not have problems with the conditions of stay..
Enjoying the sport, I could play a different type Petanque team game each week night and still do a tournament on the weekend.. Petanque is much like my summer sport of Lawn Bowls with a shorter lenght playing field but the same game objective. Managing a team toward a win. Pétanque is the french version of Lawn Bowls and the canadian sport of Curling.
.
Bowling out of the Riverview Club of Manchester LBC, and not having a executive role, my Lawn Bowls consisted of the provincial Interclub and a few competitions, When I was not at the greens practicing. I worked at the nearby public park to build a Pétanque court. The city of Moncton had planned to redo the Read Park and from June to late August their contractor had removed the Play Jungle Jim from near the woods and into the center of the Park.
A bike path was planned for the edge of the woods and as they removed the old Kids play area, I approached the city's planning and recreational staff to suggest that the Kid's Play area could be converted into a Pétanque area. It was agreed that this area's development would be delayed and I could work to build the Petanque court.
At this point, although Moncton is a bilengial city and the french Acadian make up a large percentage of the population, there was no knowledge of the sport of Pétanque. When I began talking to the city staff the word Bocce was often used. When it was explained that Bocce was the Italian game of Bowls as Lawn Bowls was the English game, and Pétanque is played all over france and Quebec; my reply was "Great Idea, but there is no budgeting for such a development" When I told them that I would, with a few friend build the Pétanque court if they allow me the present Play ground material, it was accepted.
In the beginning the area of development was large enough to develop 6 Pétanque lanes of 4 meters wide. However, with the Bike path running so close to the Pétanque court and the need of a grassed area between this path and the Court, the size was decreased to two lanes. Final dimension of the court was 25ft by 50 feet. as myself and a few africian immigrants finished the boundries and began to level the playing surface.
At the end of August,, with the contractor finishing the development of the park, it became a question of wheather the city accepted my development or was it to be tuned into a grassly area. Unable to contact the city staff who were on vacation, the contractor contacted the planning architect who accepted the new Pétanque court. The gravel was placed and packed and the landscape of trees and grassly area was completed.
I finishing the season with the Atlantic Bowls Competition in Prince Edward Island;.A four days of quality competition was a big expense, which I decided to try as a retired sportsman. Well worth the while, and I understand why some fellow players travel all over Canada to compete Also during the summer I had spend a lot of my non-bowls time building the first Pétanque court which exist in Moncton. It was a good summer and now at the age of 70, I did not want to waste my winter with only a tuesday night pool commitments.
Returning from the four dauys of competition of the Atlantich Bowls in Charolettetown, PEI,; it was necessary to decide if I should keep my apartment or make some sort of move.. In March, seven months earlier, the furniace had broken and although I paid heating in my monthly rent of $650; there had been on heat. It was not the first week of September and I had told myself that if nothing had changed when I returned from PEI, I was going to move out of the present apartmernt.. Still no heat as I told the landlord in a registereed letter.
The decision was wheather to move to another apartment or completely closedown my my apartment, It all required the sameamount of work of getting a trailor, pack everuthing into boxes and finding help with the moving. The difference was that if rather than finding another apartment, I just sold everything and kept the miniumn, I did not have all the problems of building another apartment. Also, not know what to expect for the winter seem too much as the cold of April and May was unbearable with my artistas. So with Kijiji.com selling my livingroom and furniture, and a couple of yard sales it was decided. Moving out and keeping only my clotghes and a few personal belongings.
The last day, was hard to put my books and VHS cassettes in a box and out on the lawn with the sign of "Free, Take what you want. A Donne". The car was filled top and even the roof rack had boxes and a "Spare Tire" as I drove out of the parking on my way to Montreal on Wednesday, 29th September.
My 1987 Callidac was running well with only 146,000 kilometers actual mileage, but was not starting regularly as my battery as due for replacement. During thise first few hours between Moncton and Fredericton, I worried if the trip was going to be a trip of problems. My first Gas stop was before Fredericton and although the car had run good with the occational "Jump,jump" as the motor got worked into the trip,I was thinking I would probably be spending the night somewhere along the road.
In Northern New Brunswick,.as I began to climb into the higher elevations, the fog and rain became a continual part of the trip. The windshield wiper were not new but they did their job. I was forced to keep my speed up to 110 as I followed the large transport and night began to arrive. Between Edmondton, in the North and the Quebec border, the highway seem to be under construction almost all the way. With the two lane hightway turning to one lane, left or right as we moved along; and then finally into two-way traffic and the continual darkearn light it was necessary to find one large transport and keep it in sight.
Using the 200 or 300 meters to the transport ahead as a indication of the changing direction of the highway and the changing construction; I followed a clearly light truck for the next 100 or 200 miles. Actually, followed it right into Rivere de Loup and into the yard of the Quebec Highway éscales. I had to finally squeeze between two cement balls as I passed the scale and went to the Tim Horton and Subway which was beyond the scales.
Quebec highway and finally the 20 or Trans Canada" was a welcome sight as it was wide and well lit. At 9pm as I began to approach the edge of the St-Laurance and Quebec City I decided to call my daughter Lisa to give her news of my success. The car was driving well and now into $200 of gas I had decided that Shell was the best performance gas. The highway was almost empty and the car was rolling along at 110 and 120 and the music was just quite enough to make the trip enjoyable, although I had to stop somewhere and rest. So using the Iphone, I called Lisa. "Dad get a motel and rest" she suggested and offered to pay it. I explained I had $500 in my pocket and that I appreciate the offer but it was not necessary.
With the Tim Horton stops for coffee I had found the trip agreable. Finally, I decided to pull into a Tourist Stop station at St-George de Bauces. Well this was good and bad luck. Good luck in that I had hit a bird in northern New Brunswick and it had broken my grille on the front of the Caddty. If I had not stopped for this rest area, I would not have seen the damage and I would not have seen thath it would have fallen off. If I had lost he grill which was not held by only one plastic holding area, it would have fallen and gone under the car and been lost. I took time to use a cloth scarf to tie it into place and repair it. Good for the rest of the tirp and certainly save a repair of over $200 as it would be hard to replace.
Bad Luck in that I could not sleep. First, the Caddy was so filled that it was impossible to streach out and second, the two large transport of PIGS going to market was very ncuh noise. The PIGS were fighting and like a barnyard extremely nosey. I decided to try for Montreal. I first thougtht I would stop at St-Eulalie where my inlaws lived but as I approached and saw that it was near Midnight, it was a mather of trying Drummondville. Actrally, being in my home area, I knew the Toursist Stops as they approached. Finally just after Drummondville, I decided to go of the 20 and sleep.
Deciding to pull out a few winter coats and climbing up on to the Trunk I fould I had fallen asleep and was awaken bu myself snoring. I felt good and decided to finish the trip to Montreal. It was only an hour of highway and the traffic was almost none. I arrived in Longueuil at 4 in the morning and decided to have breakdfast a t Tim Horton. There I changed my clothes to the better pants and shirt which I would be wearing when I visite the new landlord where I would be sharing an apartment with my own room.
At 8am I called the number and finally knocked on the door and got to meet the land lady . my room required that I enter my blankets and pillow and by 9:30 I was in bed a attempting to sleep. Of course, if you hav forced to stay away while driving, it is nto easly to close you eyes and sleep. almost as if you are goign to have an accident. So I decided to go have a beer and that would help me sleep. Yes it idd. But at 9pm I awoke and knew that my sjgars were low aas i had not eaten much. Also, I had not done a grocery and so feeling dizzy and weak, I went to to d grocery. The container of milk I drak and the two candy bars gave me a lift as I took the groceries up the stair and into the fridge. After a bowl of cereal and milk I was back to bed and settled in to Longueuil.
Over the next few days I slowly moved in my clothes. Yers the Caddy is still filled and now a week later after visitin my friend in the hospital and a few night of Petanque, I am at the Library on their computer writing ths blog Tomorrow, I will put phtots with ti and publish it. Not yet made cotnact with my family and even writing this without my glasses... " I HAVED ARRIVED IN LONGUEUIL"
