INSIDE with the Festival Nomad (No. 26)

 Over the years I have attended, worked with and organized hundreds of festivals and events. With this new series, "INSIDE with the Festival Nomad", I want to give you an "inside" look at some of the festivals and events that I have been involved with or that I have visited. Along the way, I have had a lot of fun and sometimes frustration, but I have never been bored!

ACROSS CANADA … Algonquin and Then Home

We sadly left Ahmic Lake and headed east. To get to Algonquin Provincial Park, we needed to pass through Huntsville. We stopped there to stock up on supplies. We finally arrived in Algonquin at about 12 noon. Once inside the Park, we found an available “forested" campsite. After we had "staked our claim", we went off to visit the Friends of Algonquin Museum and their gift shop. We were, after all, still on a business trip! That event we had a fabulous meal at Algonquin's Killarney Resort! After dinner we met up with Henry and Debbie Kole and shared their campfire. That night we slept fitfully amongst the trees! The waves from the nearby lake gently kissed the shore and lulled us to sleep. After sleeping late, we got up relaxed and ready to enjoy a day in Algonquin! It was a lazy, idyllic day, spent swimming, sketching by the lake (Judi), exploring the park (me), searching for wildlife (moose) and eating hotdogs and marshmallows, roasted over a sparkling campfire! We spent two wonderful days in the Park. During that time, we visited with Henry and Debbie and their two girls. We also started planning with them, what would eventually become the Cobourg Waterfront Festival. It was an exciting time, full of great expectations, anew home, a new business and new friends! We left Algonquin Park bright and early, stopped in Whitney for breakfast and then traveled to Buckhorn for a meeting with Edwin Matthews, owner of Buckhorn Publishing and Gallery-on-the-Lake. We needed to make a report about our trip to Ed. We finally arrived back in Cobourg at 4:00pm after having traveled "Across Canada"! We had logged over 17,000 kilometers and had been away 45 days!