Geoff has already eloquently said all the thanks and kudos I wanted to say to Bob and Joyce and Rob and Grant, what a great weekend!
Boobee.. me tired too!
Still groggy a day later... sun, fun, lotsa food, a couple of wobblies and several hours at the wheel of a big truck, whew!
I must mention the great volunteers from the Swords and Ploughshares Museum (in Convoy order):
Graeme Milne; OCdt in the CIC, self employed contractor (Capital Creations), father of two great lads who got home from cadet camp this past weekend and enormously patient driver of F60 LAAT towing the 40mm Bofors who had to stop every 25 minutes to top up the fuel, even in the middle of an intersection!
Blair Bossi, co-driver to Graeme; teenager, ex cadet and competent navigator who only missed one intersection on the long and twisty cross country route from Kars to Hammond
Ansis Strenge; a tall and talented electronics technician and somewhat cramped driver of the C8
Cody, Blair's buddy, co-driver to Ansis and hard working dogs body on his first Museum adventure... we look forward to having you back Cody!
Rob Hutchingame, Capt and CO of our local Cadet Corps- 1st Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery. Good and tolerant friend and driver of the M37 Cdn towing the 6 pounder
Dave Bossi, father of Blair and driver for OC Transpo who ably handles our M135 Cdn with 10 ton float trailer hauling the UC on it... bleeder of brakes extraordinaire!
and tail gunner- Kristen Hutchingame, better half of Rob, mother of Munchikin ("Jordyn" is the official five year old mascot of the museum and is in charge of looking cute, lisping through the big gap where her front teeth succumbed to the tooth fairy, sitting in all the puddles, catching all the frogs and butterflies and leaving Barbie bits in the Museum so she has an excuse to visit regularly!) who patiently drove the family van behind our painfully slow column at 40kph for two hours each way; who stopped at the Kars General Store to get everyone a popsicle to cool down after the long hot drive, who sweet-talked the cop when Graeme stalled in the middle of the intersection resulting in the cop helping to hook up the tow rope when I pulled Graeme out of the way!
The Museum is a dead thing full of rusted old machinery... its these and many other volunteers who bring it all to life with their enthusiasm, patience, tolerance of Major Mike's crabby moods, willingness to get really dirty scrubbing out blackened cannon barrels and all for insubstantial "thank you's" and the odd meal or beer... of course, as Rob H said yesterday, "... its like an army recruiting ad when you volunteer with the S&P... every day is an ADVENTURE!"
Thank you all for getting us to Bob's and back safely, thank you all for making it easy for me to get kudos like those Geoff blessed US with... THANK YOU!
Mike