They just told us, at rehearsal Saturday night, that the Baysville Antique & Classic Boat Show will be no more. You might have realized that we didn’t perform there last summer and that was because they didn’t have the event due to road construction in the area. Well, apparently the way they redid the highway and bridge make it no longer safe for pedestrian crossing at the old spot. That combined with the rising costs of everything means they will no longer be having the event.

I’ll miss it. The location made it a really nice day and the crowds were always fabulous. We would set-up in a nice grassy green park which was great and apparently the geese thought so too, because I remember the first couple of years walking along and finding little “surprises”. Definitely won’t miss that!

Anyway, THANK YOU to all the people who have worked hard to pull off the event for so many years and to all the great fans who came to see us! We will miss you, but maybe we will see you at another performance.

I will leave you with some pictures from the past years in Baysville and if you have any I would love to see them. You can email them to info@nlso.ca.

This past Saturday we were in Fergus, ON, for their 175th Annual Fall Fair. 175 years! That’s a long time. The weather was pretty good. The skies were clear and the sun was out, but it definitely had the crisp feel of a fall day. The whole event was pretty interesting. They had the Golden Helmets there, unfortunately we missed them. They had already finished their demonstration by the time we arrived to set-up. For those of you who don’t know who the Golden Helmets are they the OPP’s precision motorcycle team. Think the Snow Birds or the Blue Angels on motorcycles. OK, maybe not as cool as fighter jets but they are still pretty impressive. They also had an OPP helicopter and the Lumberjack Company was doing a demo competition. Hats of to the guys who hustle up those poles while carrying chain saws. The big event was in the evening, a truck and tractor pull. Pretty incongruous steel pan music and tractor pulls, but music is for everyone, right? I have to give credit to the audience they really enjoyed us and we had a good time. Plus the event was pretty easy work wise. They already had a tent and a stage set-up and we could pull our truck right up to the stage, so unloading was a breeze.

Well this past Saturday was our last full performance of the summer. While I am sad to see it go I am also happy that we will get back to learning new songs and hopefully doing some school workshops and community clinics. That’s the great thing about it just when you are ready for a change of pace, voila! The performance went well. It was at the Parry Sound Airport’s 8th Annual Fall Fly-In. It’s kind of fitting, we started the year at the Parry Sound Dragon Boat Festival and we ended it back in Parry Sound. Little history fact for you, our very first public performance was in Parry Sound way back in 2001. There was this cray little plan that runs on two 15 hp motors. Can you believe it? They also had a Fokker triplane (maybe better described by saying, The Red Baron’s plane) and a Sopwith biplane. Also some guy flew in with a pretty cool stunt biplane. I heard that they had 3,000 people through out the day. The runway was super busy. I sure am glad I wasn’t the guy on the ground directing all the air traffic.

We are just eating dinner as we wait to start our performance for the Hospice Muskoka “Summer Sizzler” Charity Benefit at the J.W. Marriot Rosseau Resort & Spa. Boy, that’s a mouthful! This is the second year we have participated and it’s great. It’s a beautiful setting here at The Rosseau. We are set up on the Lakeview Lawn. The name says it all. It is right behind the main building up on a bluff that overlooks Lake Rosseau. The weather is perfect! It’s nice and warm but not to humid. Maybe next time I’m here it will be as a guest so I can just kick back and chill.

I’m sitting here at my computer more than a little disappointed. Tonight’s concert for the Festival of the Arts in Huntsville has been canceled. Normally we would already be setting up, but not this evening. Something about a tornado watch. It seems hard to believe as I am looking out my window and the weather is actually starting to clear but that too is part of the forecast, the calm before the storm, I guess. It makes since. We really can’t risk being caught out in the kind of storm that is predicted, besides who would come? A lot of us really like this performance it is such a nice setting. The park at the town docks makes for a perfect little open air amphitheater and the audience is just great. Oh well, it is not to be this year. Here are a few pictures from last year.