You Want to Drive Where?!

This is a question that almost breeds as much terror, when asked, “You Want to Leave When”! I am not only a “time” coward; I am also a “distance” coward. It’s not that Judi is a tyrant. It’s just that she likes her sleep. If getting up too early cuts into her sleep time, you’d think that a long distance drive would be perfect! No, it’s just the opposite. Judi likes to be a co-driver. No, she does not want to drive herself, she just wants to “help”. This means being awake all the way!
Choosing the right event to visit is important. On any given weekend there are lots of events to choose from. Just check out the Ontario Travel website (http://www.ontariotravel.net/TcisCtrl?site=consumers&key1=experiences&key2=FestivalsAnd
Events&language=EN) or Festivals & Events Ontario’s (FEO) website (http://www.festivalsandeventsontario.ca/) to see how many. It’s a daunting task to choose the right one. We want our Nomadic wanderings to take us throughout Ontario. We want to visit different communities (large and small) along the way. And, we want to experience as many different types of festivals and events as possible! Since I was elected (Judi had the only vote!) to choose the events to visit, I have to take all these variables into consideration. That means the visits can’t all be local! Once I have made my choice, I have to inform the other half of the team (Judi) where we are going. If it is a short distance, it’s not a problem. Remember, distance = time (to leave). However, when it’s a long distance, say 2 – 3 hours, that a much different story. I get the “stare”. I feel like a 12 year reporting to the principal’s office. She asks me to explain where exactly it is. I try to tell her but my answer normally trite, like “Try thinking of this trip as a great adventure!” or “Half the fun is getting there!” She just grits her teeth and says “When are we going?” Like a true Nomad, I love to travel (in a car, not on a Camel). It relaxes me! I can drive for hours without a break, so it’s hard for me to understand. The funny part is that once we arrive Judi has a great time. That’s what makes us a great team, I love to get there and she loves to be there! Once we finish the visit everything is back to normal… that is until I tell her that there is a great festival in Timiskaming that I want us to visit! She is not amused!

Honey, You Want to Leave When?!

Weekends for most people are a time to relax and to sleep in. No so for the Festival Nomads! We travel to a lot of events that a quite a distance away from where we live and we like to make the most of each event we visit. So sometimes we need to leave quite early! That’s why it’s always interesting when Judi asks me what time we have to leave. Basically I’m a “time” coward! When she asks the “time” question my mind races! I try to gentle and evasive. I pause and think and then let my sales training kick in! So I answer her question with a question. “What time do YOU want to leave, honey?” or “What time do YOU think we should get there?” Always putting the onus back on her as though it’s her fault that we will have to get up early. Sometime it works, but of the time it doesn’t. Sometime I just mumble the answer hoping she won’t hear me, but she keeps on asking until I give her a straight answer. We’ve been married a long time so she knows me to well and has my sneakiness pegged! I’ve even tried the “old dodge” answer. “Let me think about it. I’ll check their website and let you know.” Of course, I already know the answer, but I’m too much of a coward to tell her the truth! It does, however, buy me a little time. My sneakiest moments are when I don’t give her a straight answer and then on the morning we have to leave I wake her up and say “Aren’t you getting up, we have to leave soon!” She answers by saying “You never told me.” I come back with a snappy “Yes I did, don’t you remember?!” She knows I’m fibbing. I know I’m fibbing, but she a good sport and let’s me get away with it! She understands me all too well!
Now, my fellow festival fanatics, I am NOT suggesting that you should follow my lead. In fact, I am hoping just the opposite. We need fewer “time” cowards out there. So stand up and be counted. Fess up and tell your better half that you need to leave at 5:00 am, like it or not! I’m sure he/she won’t hurt you… MUCH!

The Mystery of the Disappearing Festival!

It was a beautiful day for a drive in the country. The sun was shinning and the birds were singing! We had our route all planned. We would drive along the 401 Highway to Gananoque and then take the Thousand Island Parkway to Brockville. The website on the Internet had told us that we were going to the Brockville Celtic Festival. Judi loves Celtic jewelry so she thought she might find an interesting ring to purchase. I told my daughter, Ainsley, who is half Irish, that we were going to a Celtic festival and she asked to look for something Celtic for her. I re-checked the festival’s website the night before we were to leave just to make sure all was well. Nothing had changed on the site, all was well! With these things on our mind we got up early and headed out for our great Celtic adventure! The drive to Gananoque was clearly sailing all to way through, hardly any traffic. We reached the Thousand Island Parkway in great time. The road along the St. Lawrence Seaway is awesome. The water, the landscape and the hundreds of islands all add to its beauty. We stopped a number of times to take photographs. It was the time of year when everything is lush and green and the flowers are in full bloom. The trip was well worth it, just to take in the scenery! As the Parkway ends, the road to Brockville begins. Brockville is a beautiful historic town, full of century old homes. The road onto Brockville passes through this wonderful residential area. After a few kilometers we entered the historic downtown area. We assumed that the festival would be easy to find, so kept on driving into the heart of the downtown, all the way looking for signs of the festival. We drove right to the harbour front area thinking that the festival might be held there, but it was not. There was no festival sign to be seen anywhere! Judi said “Why not stop and ask someone where it is?” Being a stubborn man, I said “Let’s just drive around a little; I’m sure we’ll find it soon!” An hour later we were still “driving around”, with no festival, Celtic or otherwise, in sight! To make matters worse, we had driven in a complete circle and had ended back at the harbourfront! Fortunately a little voice inside me said “Listen to Judi, she’s right!” We easily found the town’s tourism office. It was just a few streets from where we had ended up. I parked in front of the office and asked Judi to go in and get directions. I was too proud to do it myself! Judi was in the office for only a few minutes. When she came out there was NOT a happy look on her face! She opened the door and before I could say anything she blurted out “It’s been cancelled!”

Epilog… All was not lost! We drove back along the Loyalist Highway. It runs along the waterfront from Kingston all the way to Trenton. It is a very picturesque drive. It goes through a number of small towns, including the quaint town of Picton. The drive even includes a short ferry ride.

Mr. GOOGLE Is Your Best Friend!

How the heck do you find out about festivals and events anyway? That’s the big question Judi and I asked ourselves when we first started out on our adventures. As we began to consider visiting festivals we were lost. Where to go? What to see? How to get there? You can see our dilemma. Fortunately we had just joined Festivals and Events Ontario (FEO) and had attended their annual convention. There they handed out a booklet called “Festivals & Events in Ontario”. This comprehensive guide, developed by Festivals and Events Ontario in partnership with the Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation, can be obtained at most tourism offices and kiosks. The guide is updated throughout the year and you can visit either the FEO website (http://www.festivalsandeventsontario.ca/) or the Tourism Ontario website (http://www.ontariotravel.net/) for updates and further festival information. Reading through the guide gave us a lot of information about which festivals were available and when, but it didn’t nor couldn’t (the book would be about 12 large volumes!) give much information about each event. I wanted to get to the “meat” of the festivals we wanted to visit. Enter the Internet stage right! But, and this is a big BUT not all websites have domain names that match their festivals name. Yes, the guide does show a lot of the festival website addresses and a lot of them will actually get you to the correct website, but not all of them. Here’s an example of what I mean. The Peterborough Festival of Trees’ website is not www.peterboroughfestivaloftrees.ca rather, it is http://www.pfot.org/. This one is fairly easy to understand, but let’s say you want to find out about the Georgian Bay Kayak and Canoe Festival. You would think that the website address would be http://www.georgianbaykayakandcanoefestival.ca/ or something like that. Nope, you’d be way off. It’s actually http://www.whitesquall.com/. Why you might ask is that the web address? It’s simple dear reader, the festival is run by The White Squall Paddling Centre and Outdoor Gear Store and that’s their website! Unfortunately connecting the dots is not always simple. Scary isn’t it! When this happens and the festival name and domain name are not the same and you want/need the festivals information, what can you do? Here comes Mr. GOOGLE to the rescue! The Goggle search engine is likely the most comprehensive search site on the Internet. Yes, there are others and plenty of them, but I use Google because I am confident that it will lead me to the information I want. If you’re not an “OLD PRO” like me, and you are not familiar with the way search engines work, here’s a quick (not comprehensive) lesson. On you Internet page, at the top, you find an “address” line, type in http://www.google.ca/. This brings you to the “Google” page. On the page you will see a blank square just under the word Google Canada. This is where you type in the name of the festival or event you want to find. (So much for the lesson! If you are still having trouble, give me a call and I will help you get started – 1-800-815-8291) Watch out, though, sometime when you initiate a search, you will see at the top of the search page you will see “Results” of the search. In the case of the “Festival of Trees”, 792,000 site that matched the search criterion! DON’T WORRY, you don’t have to view all these sites! First of all, Google limits the numbers you can actually view. They narrow the search down for you by eliminating a lot of duplication, not all, but a lot. Even with their narrowing it down, there is still a lot to left to see. The problem is that when you type in your key search words, the search engine, Google, searches the entire Internet and selects sites that match the words and combination of words that you have typed. The key is to look at only the first few pages to see if what you are looking for is there. The search lists the best matches at the beginning of the lists. That means that the top 5 or 6 matches are likely the one you should look at first. If it’s not there, try another combination of search words. It’s tricky, but if you work with it for a while you will get the hang of it! Patience is the key. Well designed websites make your search easier because their designers understand how search engines work and develop their web designs to take advantage of the search technology. These websites usually appear on the first search page and are normally in the top 5 to 6 matches. I know this seems like a long winded way of getting festival information, but once you get to understand what you are doing, it will be worth the trouble. So, remember, no matter how daunting the task seems, Mr. GOOGLE is still your best friend when it comes to learning about you favourite (and not so favourite) festivals and events!