Sep 15 (By Jeremy Snyder)

With the timing of our concert moved from 3:00pm to an evening show at 7pm, everyone had a lot more free time to do as they pleased. Some slept in after a later night of singing to various hits if the 70, 80, and 90's making for a lot of good fun and cheer. Others enjoyed a light breakfast of hard boiled eggs, toast and some welcomed coffee.
Lester, our bus chauffeur took us all in for a short ride into town. Another beautiful day to share quality time with friends whether that be taking in some shopping, enjoying fish and chips, clam chowder, dipping your toes into the ocean, or even cruising around in a convertible Mustang.
Off to the concert at the Alexander Graham Bell museum to setup and warm up. After a significant hiccup where our keyboard decided it wasn't going to participate, Natalie after making a few frantic phone calls was able to obtain a keyboard from the local Baptist Church as a 'divine rental'. Working behind the scenes both Dave and Paul ran to the hardware store to get a soldering iron to 'MacGyver' / fix our keyboard enough for the concert. With significant skill they managed to repair it so we were able to switch out the keyboard again just before to concert.
We were received well with a packed crowd and delighted our audience. Great job to all that helped bring this concert to fruition.
What a delight to be treated to a seafood dinner from the concert hosts afterwards at the curling club. Great food and fellowship was had by all.

Getting ready to wow them in Baddeck. Thanks to Margo Perrotta for the photo.

The culprit that tried to throw us off-track. Thanks to Sheila Wallace for the photo.

John Black writes: “There was a warm welcome and great food served to us by the good people in Baddeck.” 

Thanks to John Black for the photo.

Karl Euler writes : “The proceeds from tonight’s concert will go to Victoria County Memorial Hospital for supplies in patient rooms.”

Sep 14 (by Colin Ross)

An early start at crack of dawn,

We met at Police H.Q.
To board the bus, -  it's Pearson bound,
We left without - just two.

For they had left some days ago

To drive the Chorus truck,

That's Karl and Fred, with all our gear, 

We wished them 'best of luck'.

Excitement, anticipation,

A sense 'it's finally here'

Th'initial planning now complete

From o'er the past few year.

It's all come to fruition

The hard work's paying off,

The team have "dotted all the 'i's'

Their toil we CANNOT scoff.

We're queuing up at 'check-in'

At Pearson Internat.
It seems that all arrangements
Have been performed, ‘down-pat’.

Our tour director Terri,

She’s such an awesome lass

A splendid job, performed with ease

At herding such a mass.

On route from ‘port to hotel,

Our stomachs felt a void,

So stopped at ‘Murphy’s Fish &. Chips’

And what a fare, enjoyed.

An uneventful journey

Like clockwork, smooth, it sped

But with that early start, we hear

The calling of the bed.

And just in case you're wondering,

The truck, with all our gear,

When 'rriving at our first hotel

We noticed - YEP, - it's here.

Sep 14. (by Jeremy Snyder)

Friday Sept 14 (from a different perspective)
Off to a very early start with the remainder of the chorus arriving at Police Headquarters for 6am, we all managed to get on the bus by 6:20am and head off to Pearson international airport. Thanks in large part to our travel agents at Blowes we breezed through check in and security having lots of time to await our flight at 10:15am.


Arrived at Halifax 1:15pm (local time), and boarded the bus to take us to Baddeck with a stop at the delightfully delicious World's Famous Murphys for fish and chips. The writer here even sang a little for the ladies and was awarded a free drink. :)

Back on the road, we hope to hook up it’s Karl and Fred by 9pm

Sep 14. (by Karl Euler)

This morning found us anxious and eager to reach our destination and so we were in the truck and rolling at 6:30. It was shaping up to be a beautiful day (once the sun came up) and at the same time we experienced an extensive down-east-type fog on numerous spots on the road.

About 7:15 we crossed into Nova Scotia and began to enjoy the scenery and views here. Marvellous countryside again with hills, trees, and cute small towns, each of which of course had a Tim Horton’s.

We arrived in Baddeck about 12:30 and decided to tour the town (5 minutes). Then we went to the Bell Museum to meet with the administrator and scout out our venue for tomorrow’s concert. The local folks all knew we coming and about the concert.

The only hitch at the moment is that, according to our schedule, our concert will be tomorrow at 3:00 p.m., but we were now told that, no, it is in fact at 7:00. That’s what all the tickets say as well as all the advertisements. Something for Bob to figure out when he arrives in a few hours!

The view from our Lodge

And a great place for dinner!

Sep 13 (by Karl Euler)

What a great day!

Fred and I learned that we are both early risers, so by 6:30 we were up and finished breakfast, and on the road by 7:00 (just to clarify ... that’s a.m.)

It was a beautiful day with full sun. In the morning we had spectacular views of the St Lawrence and its countryside. About noon we crossed into New Brunswick and once again marvelled at the wooded mountainsides and the rural landscapes, admiring the quiet country settings and quaint little towns all through the province.

Things ran very smoothly today, including, yes, the truck, which purred smoothly and once again encouraged us to regain our confidence in it. Our only complaint about the truck now is how often it likes to have its thirst quenched! We hope Don and Gavin won’t be too upset when they see the generous array of bug splats all over the front ... you can hardly see the WRPS logo!

Our plan had been to stop in Fredericton tonight but we arrived there fairly early (we had forgotten about the time change), and so we motored on to Moncton, arriving here about 5:00. That leaves us only 253 miles to go to Baddeck tomorrow. With any luck we will be there early afternoon and have the day to lounge while we are waiting for the arrival of the flyers. Hope y’alls have a great flight (while we are practising our music of course)!

Sep 12 - Part 2

Luck was on our side when we discovered that the truck problem was a rotten tranny line which is not a major repair ... and the parts were readily available. Thanks to all those who helped make the fix possible so quickly!

As it happened, Fred rolled in to my place at 11:15 and we were off at 11:30.

A good driving day with great weather and no further surprises! It’s always a pleasure driving through the Kingston area and reminiscing about the rocky remnants of the ice age. We arrived at the Comfort Inn in Drummondville at 9:00 p.m.

Tomorrow we are looking forward to an early start and suppertime arrival in Fredericton, and an evening ‘off’ to relax (and practise our music of course ;-)) ).

Sep 12

Things got underway last night as we all took our garment bags with our uniforms to our Tuesday-evening practice and loaded them all into the truck in wardrobe boxes. Fortunately there was exactly enough room inside to hold everything; an additional wardrobe box, if needed, would not have fit.

Then our first 'adventure'. As we were loading up, we noticed a few oil drops on the driveway  but weren't convinced the truck was at fault. However, after practice we checked again and confirmed that the truck was definitely the culprit.

We really weren't keen on driving to Nova Scotia with an oil leak! Fred took the truck to try to make arrangements for a fix and it resulted in an appointment at the garage this morning. Our intent had been to leave at 9:00 this morning but that has been changed to being at the mercy of the mechanics.

What really was cute was the look on Natalie's face when I told her that the truck was broke and we would all be doing our down-east concerts in our shorts and t-shirts! :-)