Yea!  I'm back on line!  After my last blog post, I wasn't able to connect my computer to the internet until now

Thanks to the volcanic ash, we were given one last day in Somerset to enjoy the sunshine and relax a bit.  We took Cypher, Recess and Rio down to the inlet and let them have a romp along the coast.  We wandered through a pasture of cows and a huge flock of sheep on the road.  Cypher helped out at one point sending a lost baby back to the flock....

In the afternoon, Shona organized a mini bus to take us to the town of Cheddar.  Most of the gang went and toured the caves and museums, but since I was feeling a bit cheap, I opted to stay out in the sunshine and do a walking tour of the town with Kim.  We enjoyed a huge block of cheese and a couple of mini baguettes for lunch and then headed up the very narrow road through the gorge in search of a walking path.  Walking along the narrow road with cars wizzing by honestly wasn't for the faint of heart!  We eventually found the path that would lead us up to the top of the cliffs.  With each passing rendition of the story, Kim increases the number of stairs that we climbed, but it was A LOT!  Our legs had already taken a beating from the sprint courses the day before, so by the time we made it back down, we had a bad case of jelly legs   The views were definitely worth it and the beer & cider at the bottom tasted even better!


A few sheep on the road


Cypher, Rio & Recess on our morning walk



A self portrait of myself & Kim resting at the top of the cliffs.  What a fantastic view!

Dinner was once again at our favourite pub, the Huntspill Arms where they were starting to treat us like the locals.

Tuesday, the ash had cleared and our flight was confirmed, so after a quick breakfast of toast we headed to the airport.  We arrived a bit late due to traffic, but still managed to get the dogs checked in at cargo.  The check in at the airport was painless and I managed to squeeze in three in-flight movies.  Kim's husband John picked us up and we eventually found the Air Canada cargo bay (how can such a big building hide?).  We were told that our dogs had arrived, but couldn't be released until Ag Can and Customs paperwork had been signed and yet ANOTHER bill paid.  Two hours later, all paperwork was done and we were ushered into the cargo area to pick up our dogs, but where were the dogs????   The folks in the cargo area were a little confused as to where to find the dogs and when we finally found someone who knew where they were, we were told that we'd get them in half an hour!  By this point, the poor pups had been crated for 14.5 hours and their humans were pretty darn crabby.  Tracy had a little 'chat' with a manager and suddenly our dogs appeared   Rio hopped out of the crate, wagging her tail and very happy to relieve herself.  Her crate was really wet, but I think it was due to the fact that they had kept trying to give her water through the bars of her crate.  Just after 9pm (almost 4 hours after we had landed), we were on the road to Ancaster to pick up my car at Kim's place.

Bed at Aunt Nancy's house in Burlington had never felt so good....     An easy drive home in the gorgeous sunshine and now I'm very eager to go and pick Kyra up from school, see Dave and see Pipe & Rio (who I'm assuming are hanging out with Dick at the farm, since they didn't greet me at the door!  I'm really hoping that they didn't run away!).

What a FABULOUS adventure with a FABULOUS group of people!  Tracy and Nina did a great job of getting us where we needed to be and the rest of the gang made the trip extremely fun.  I don't think I'll be taking a dog back to the UK anytime soon, but that may change when I'm not so sleep deprived

Thanks to everyone for your blog & facebook comments and your emails.  Hopefully tonight I'll finally have a chance to read them! 


Watch out for sheep crushed by rocks?