Men in Skirts

We woke up to the caterwaul of bagpipes being tuned up. What an alarm clock! The picture below shoes the view out of our back window at 7:45 – and there were a few more just out of sight. Oh my! Carm thinks that hell might have bagpipes – one day is fine but I can imagine that at the end of several days one might just go mad. Why don’t they have more than one song?

By 10:30 am I could see the buses carrying the bands start to show up – let’s add some drums to the racket! (I’ll post a separate post with videos of the bands – the massed bands did an excellent version of Amazing Grace – it brought a tear or two to my eyes).

In the early afternoon a woman knocked on the door to see if she and her girls could camp-out under the front of our camper. The whole campground is a muddy mess and she was looking for somewhere high and dry (see Kabira’s legs below – Spike was even worse as the mud hit his belly) . Of course we said yes… and it had the added benefit of keeping the bagpipes from practicing directly under our camper! There was a band practicing not too far away, maybe about 100 feet – all afternoon. I had bagpipes in my head until late into the night – it’s a sound that really sticks in your head after hearing it all day.

I’m not complaining though – the whole thing is a bit fun and certainly makes the rally even more memorable. It’s really so awful that it is funny :-)

In my own family history, on the Norwegian side, a distant ancestor was awarded a large piece of land by the king of the day – I think it was in the early 1600’s but might have been even earlier than that – it seems that he had killed a Scottish dog so that the Norwegians could ambush the Scots who were invading them. Our family name comes from the name of the farm (which still exists) in Norway.

Cold, Rainy and Muddy

It rained torrents last night – who could sleep with the rain pounding down and trains rumbling right past the door (not really, but it seemed like it). And today it is cold and rainy – the forecasted high is 14C – with more rain…

We had a nice walk last night and got reacquainted with a few people and met some new ones. Hopefully there are some weather breaks where we can get out and meet a few new people.

As a side note – in the morning some trucks parked right out of the back of our camper with the materials to make a stage – oh boy! It looks like the dancing (with its attendant piper) will be even closer this year.

It rained on and off all day – the roads were mucky, making every outing with the dogs a disaster. We did head off to Canadian Tire in the afternoon and came across a paved walking path – unfortunately it started pouring while we were out. It’s a good thing we get along so well as we are really stuck in the camper together today – togetherness :-)

Onward to the Rally

On this prodigious day we loaded up the trailer again and headed off to Kingston – the site of the 2011 Titanium Rally. What fun we are expecting, with 32 trailers expected there will be lots of new people to meet, and perhaps some old acquaintances to renew friendships with.  Thank you to Merriam Webster for today’s word of the day – prodigious (pruh-DIJ-us adjective - 1: resembling or befitting a prodigy : strange, unusual ; 2: exciting amazement or wonder ; 3: extraordinary in bulk, quantity, or degree : enormous). My use of the word isn’t exactly correct as we aren’t experiencing exciting amazement or wonder, but we are excited to head further afield.

Rideau Acres, the site of the rally, is approximately a 2 hour drive away. It is supposed to rain on and off today, but maybe the weather will hold off until we are at least set up and maybe even till we’ve given the dogs a good walk (let’s keep our fingers crossed!).

I’ve talked about the 2009 rally a few times in my blog. It is the one that had the Celtic Festival at the same time (right next to our campsite I might add) – I think I even posted a video on YouTube. Guess what – I did a bit of sleuthing online and found out that the festival will be on again this next weekend… while we are there… in the same campsite. I think it will be good fun! But maybe I’ll pack some cotton wool…

Pleasures? Getting all packed and ready to go – the only thing I forgot was dubbin for my boots – especially important with all the rain forecast ; lilacs – yes, I brought a bouquet from the garden. They smell so lovely in the camper. ; meeting new people ; being snug in the camper when it turned cold.