Freebie Friday...

We have been doing our blogging directly on FB the last month for family and friends as we make the transition to turn Flamingo Landing Studio into our business site. 

We decided before we shut the Flamingo Landing Studio site down as our personal blogging forum and move it over to business to have a few fun Freebie Fridays over the next few weeks (based on some of our favourite places streaming around this amazing country of ours)!

At the top of our list, nothing like a romp around New York City! The city so great they named it twice: New York, New York...

An awesome time last month dipping into the States for a detour and exploring the city that never sleeps (we kept pace and stayed up with it)! Better yet we were able to explore the city with my brother Brian, his wife Erica and their children! Who says you can not have your cake and eat it too!!!

A twist to a Freebie Friday this week dedicated to NYC, answer true or false to following statements, folks that correctly answer all five will have their names put in a draw. Next Friday morning we will pick the lucky winner who will receive a set of our “New York, New York” photo greeting cards along a framed print of the city that never sleeps, with an added bonus of an exclusive set of postcards from The NYC SB Roastary Reserve!

Send us your answers on any of our social media channels to be entered:

1. The first European settlers in NYC were the Dutch, the city was called New Amsterdam (True or False)

2. It is illegal to honk your horn in NYC (True or False)

3. The Brooklyn Bridge is older than the Tower Bridge in London (True or False)

4. The term “the big Apple” originally refers to Horse Racing (True or False)

5. New York City taxis were originally red and green (True or False)

Peace out, till next Friday

xo

The Unknown Wreck

Exploring the Twillingate Islands of Newfoundland. I decided to veer off to a small side road at the south tip of South Twillingate Island. I stumbled on Black Duck Cove where this unknown wreck and and old ferry dock structure were waiting for me. Gotta love finding hidden gems while exploring photographic opportunities. A lucky find made it all worth while.


These photos are available as cards, or prints of any size.

Card are available for $7 or 3 for $15

16x20 Frames with 11x14 Matted prints are available in black or silver for $100 plus shipping.

Larger sizes and printing such as canvas or face mounted prints are available on a custom basis

Gotta go West to go East

Yes we had to go West to London Ontario before we go East to Newfoundland.  The Airstream is at Can-am where they are aligning the axle, thanks to a tire that wore out on one side.  Then we will finally go East.  We've been hanging around Ontario waiting for the appt and we are ready to get back on the road and continue the adventure, which has been great but in many ways feels like its been on hold, waiting.

We hope to have the Airstream out of the shop by end of this week.  And even better the Universe is talking to us again, after we dropped off the Airstream we meandered through the country roads to find some towns and barns between London and Stratford.  We saw some Airstreams parked along side the road, so we did a quick u-turn and came back to Admire them.  We met the owner, an Airstream enthusiast who owns two vintage Airstreams and a 1951 Spartan that they travel to Florida in.  He said he owned over 20 Airstreams and of course Sharon started talking about our dent.  He offered to pull the dent for us after we pick-up the Airstream from Can-am.  Of course Sharon loved the 28foot 60's vintage airstream that was custom designed for a tall person and included a small bathtub.  She now says we will own this Airstream.  Yes I rolled my eyes, but will get the cheque book ready, because I'm listening to the universe!

When the Universe Tells You Something you Listen

...Continued - My First day of Retirement was pretty eventful.  Sharon's post on Freedom was great to capture that day.  Prior to that, we visited Sharon's lifelong friend Debbie in Detroit and she took us to Northern Michigan and we spend several days in the Lake Leelanau area, which is a pretty amazing area on the Northeast side of Lake Michigan.  We toured around lighthouses, Sleep Bear Dunes National Park and several historical towns.  After Lake Michigan we headed back to Detroit and decided, since we were only two hours from the Airstream Factory in Jackon Center Ohio.  We ventured off to see the factory tour.  Which was amazing as we got to walk the factory floor and see how Airstreams are made and all the cool new models rolling off the line. 

The story gets good as I was thinking about hitting the Indy race in Mid-Ohio, but changed plans and toured the Mansfield Reformatory (where Shawshank Redemption was filmed), which was very cool.  We then had the choice of Pittsburgh or Cleveland, a flip of the coin and we were off to Cleveland, where we decided to find an Arts district called Waterloo.  After telling Sharon we were on a Wild Goose Chase, we finally found Waterloo St and stopped out front of this amazing Metal Studio.  We were greeted an amazing artist at his studio full of treasures and beautiful pieces scattered with other whacky creations of old medal, wood and bricks that washed up on the shores of Lake Erie.  Sharon and him started to make some creations and he gave us some of the old bricks to take with us.  But most importantly he gave us the advice to live by.  He said start your studio now, after you are done your travel and you will not regret it.  Don't go back to the corporate world.

Those kinds of random events that we all have to listen to, these signs from god that say you are on the right path.  We've had a few bumps on the road but, so far the adventure has just begun.

K-Town Here We Come!!!

Flamingo Landing Studio (on wheels) will soon be heading Eastward to Kingston, Ontario for next Saturday’s Pop-Up, hosted by fellow artist extraordinaire Juanita Fritz-Millett.

We’ll also be bringing with us samples of the latest sculpture pieces of local Quinte artist Shawn Donnan (Horizon Metal Works) for the exhibit. Shawn may even be making a special guest appearance (if he gets back from his Alaska tour in time)!

If you are in the Kingston/Belleville area please join us on the outskirts of K-Town for this Open House style “Pop Up” exhibit from noon till 5pm next Saturday, August 10th (wrapping up over a good ole’ fashioned pot luck dinner).

Address deets, please contact Jason or myself.

Look forward to catching up with old friends and meeting new friends along the way.

xo

FREEDOM!!!

“When was the last time you woke up and thought this could be the best day of your life?” And the best day of his life it was! Jason achieved his goal of retiring from the Corporate world (after several false starts, he has full freedom as of today) and is now officially pursuing his creative talents!  Super sonic proud of him for reaching his goal of FREEDOM 42 (and for all you doing the math: YES... I married a young one)! Going where the road leads us we are jumping into the biggest adventure we can take, living the life of our dreams. The last 24 hrs have been a whirlwind of surprise run-ins with some of the most inspirational people (and places) that we could ever imagine: Hanging with airstream’s longest and oldest employee (still going strong at 90) at the mothership in Jaskson Centre, Ohio (we got onto the production floor and were able to be hands-on with the design and assembly crew) to taking a pass at the Lexington Ohio Indy, a morning glory walk around Shawshank Redemption territory to an unplanned late afternoon in Cleveland’s Waterloo District making art with world renowned artist J.Schmidt in his studio (rare as he is a recluse, he passed on more than a few treasures, including advice that confirmed we are on the right track). Followed by an unexpected evening with the Polish congregation of St. Casimir Church, a miracle of a place. The Bishop ordered the church to be closed, two and a half years of constant prayer outside the church yard (initiated by a 90 year old gentleman who had a vision) after the closure did indeed bring them a miracle on St Casimir’s day! The church was ordered to be reopened by the Pope, the only time in history a Pope has ever over-ruled a Bishop's order. Amazing evening celebrating with them all over pierogies & cabbage rolls, with our own police escorts in tow (Perfect timing as a travelling one of a kind Our Lady of Fatima sculpture/statue was visiting the church this week, they did a blessing for us by it and I got to touch her, which apparently not many are allowed to do)...Oh yeah, and we also managed to crash in on a lakeside black gospel jazz event with some of Cleveland’s liveliest folks at Euclid Beach Park. The first day of the rest of our life was indeed a BANG not a whimper! Peace Out xo

Happy R-DAY!!

Happy R-Day


Well I have been neglectful on posting photos and blogs since we started our trip across Canada at the end of June.  I was still working and taking vacation as we picked up the Airstream on Vancouver Island and prepared for a long journey.  Today is officially my last day of work at BlackBerry.  It has been a long build-up as we planned for this day and moving forward with our plans for our world tour.  Albeit we have decided to break-up the world tour into smaller trips, rather than one big bang.  With more of an Airstreaming focus as well.

We had Sharon's brother  and their two youngest kids with us when we cleaned up the Airstream and finally headed out catching the ferry from Vancouver Island and headed for Ontario with the two kids in tow, while Gary and Marina did the sensible thing and flew to Ontario.

We ended up having only 10 days to make it from Vancouver to Oakville.  This may seem like a lot of time, but it didn't give us a lot of time to explore and meander off the beaten path.  We really had to make miles every day.  It did allow us to break the trip into manageable distances, allowing for some time to visit friends and relatives.  We first stopped at friends in Salmon Arm,  best friend from college welcomed us and gave the kids another chance to hang out with Darrin's family.  We then boondocked in Banff National Park, with no hope of getting a camp spot we ended up parking at Moraine Lake overnight which was great as we were able to enjoy the sunset at one of my favourite places and an early morning hike as well.  However I didn't even have time to stop in my hometown of Pilot Butte and didn't get to see any friends.  We did get a wonderful dinner with my Aunt Pat and Archie and enjoyed a rider game while the thunder and lightning boomed outside, even delaying the game.  One quick night in Sask and had to keep going.

We were able to visit Doris and Dennis in Winnipeg for a fun treasure hunt and then found several great provincial parks on the long drive through Northern Ontario.  Stopping in Massey for some Tammy Therapy.  Sharon needed her long-time friend's re-assurance after a backing up mishap at Lake Superior and a small ding to the Airstream.

We were then in striking distance of Oakville and our first leg of the trip came to an end.  The kids and Sharon were more than happy to arrive at Nanny and Papa's and to see their parents after 10 days in the Airstream.

After that we were off to Sharon's Sisters place, then Hamilton, Detroit and now Cleveland...To be Continued