Day 41 - Recap and stats

Well, not actually day 41, but it had to fit numerically for the blog.

Our trip took us through 8 provinces (NS, NB, QC, ON, MB, SK, AB, BC) and 9 states (WA, OR, ID, MT, WY, SD, MN, WI, MI) and we saw all 5 Great Lakes.

We travelled 9,658 miles (that's 15,543 km.) using 1094 gallons of fuel picked up in 58 stops and costing $4829.18.

We have been asked 'What was your favourite place?" and we have no answer. We thoroughly enjoyed it all. We spent time on the Acadian shore of NB, visited family in Ontario and in the very different geography of nothern Ontario, hiked in the badlands of Saskatchewan, drove through the plains of Manitoba and the mountains of Alberta, had a wonderful stay in British Columbia (wine and cherries in the Okanagan, then Stanley Park and Victoria) and followed all that up with Yellowstone National Park, Mt. Rushmore, the badlands of South Dakota, mountains (several ranges from the Cascades in Washington to the Rockies in Wyoming), a great RV rally and meeting up with old friends and making new ones in WY, hiked in the U.P of Michigan and visited friends in 'mainland' MI before returning to Canada to visit our kids who we don't see nearly enough in Niagara Falls where we biked along beautiful paths, and then visiting friends in the pretty Eastern Townships of Quebec - how can we choose just one?

However, I did discover that I could easily live in North Vancouver, or Vernon, or Niagara peninsula - but not in the prairies (landscape, while beautiful, is too desolate and houses too isolated), or the mountains (too cold and driving would be brutal in the winter). Some places are meant just to be visited!

We were so glad to have had the opportunity to see so much of our beautiful country! And even after all of that, we are happy to be home.

Day 41 - Edmundston, NB to Mahone Bay, NS

Our last day on the road!

We're off to a bad start. Mike stopped at a campground so that he could dump our tanks before going home - we're going camping in a couple of days and won't have hook-ups, so we want to have our fresh water tank full and the others empty. So while I pack up inside, Mike went out to drain the tanks. Ooops, the dump handle broke off the grey water tank. No choice but to leave it open - not a problem since it is now empty and we are going to be home by supper. Could have been the black tank handle which would have been much worse!

Today is another 'just stop for fuel' kind of travel day - Mike is like a horse heading to the barn.

We stopped for fuel in Moncton, and right close to the gas station is a trailer sales/repair place, so we went over to see if they had a handle for the tank. Yes, they did - $100 by the time we were done.

I actually got another stop - at Masstown Market for some veggies. Groceries being important to Mike, it wasn't a hard sell :)

We had planned to stop at Holly and Glenn's on the way home, but I had to settle for a phone call as it was getting late. Next stop was our own driveway!

The trip is done!

Day 40 - Fitch Bay, QC to Edmundston, NB

Uh-oh, Mike is in go-mode. No sightseeing today!

We drive through the beautiful lower St. Lawrence (Bas St. Laurent) region of Quebec, where I really like to slow down and take the river road, but I'm not driving. The river is really brown and dirty looking today, and it is cold and windy, so not good for bike riding anyway.

We're making good time, but Mike is grumbling that we had a late start (not that late) and unless we got a certain distance we wouldn't make home the next day. I'm thinking that if he had done the table we would have been later and would have an extra day anyway, but am wise enough not to say so.

Straight along on highway #20, past Quebec City, past Riviere du Loup, past Edmundston - and we might as well find a place to stop. We found a wonderful RV park that we are sorry to just spend one night - hard to see from the road, although not far off the highway at all, with lovely large sites right by a little river. The owners live there, so it was OK that we were past normal arrival times.

Supper, a walk (in the cold wind) by the river, and bed.

Day 37 -39 - Fitch Bay, QC

We left Niagara Falls in time to miss Toronto traffic, drove right through on the 401 highway (the one we love to hate). The 401 is a fine stretch of road for commuters, but, like most major roads, for the most part not scenic or interesting. Since we (read Mike) are 'scheduled' to arrive in Fitch Bay today, we have no choice but to take the faster routes, missing all the nice Ontario towns that make the trip interesting.

Missing Toronto traffic means meeting Montreal's! So, finally aware of his bored almost to distraction passenger, Mike decided to take a different route around the city (other choice was through the tunnel and over the bridge in rush hour traffic). Wise move on a couple of counts :)

So, we're going to take the #30 highway around the city and through Chateauguay (where we lived at one time) and then catch the Eastern Townships Autoroute. Wow! The #30 has just recently been made into a nice 4 lane stretch - and we zoomed along until we met construction. Lots of it! The highway will, at some time, be an excellent route for us to take, but not so good today. At a snail's pace, and through intermittent rain (meaning an extremely muddy truck and trailer) we slogged through dirt and gravel. Chateauguay has really expanded in the many years since we have been there - big new houses where there were only fields before. There is lots of new home construction - I wonder who is buying them.

At last we are on the Autoroute, and making better time. We run in and out of rain, and hope it will be stopped by the time we get to our destination.

We are surprised at the number of boats at the marina and on the lake at Magog - we usually go through here in early spring or late fall and they have all be hauled out. Most of the boats are at the docks due to the rain and wind - it would be really pretty in the sunshine.

Patsy and Wally live on a gravel road off a gravel road......and it is absolutely pouring down rain. Backing up the driveway is difficult, first of all because it is uphill, also because it is somewhat at an angle, and to top it off has to be approached on the 'wrong' side - and Mike's passenger doesn't really want to get out to guide him. Mike figures he can do it without help, but without being able to see anything it's pretty hard - and I have an umbrella - so between the two of us we got the trailer into the driveway and up the hill and then more or less abandoned it for the dry and warm house, figuring we can finish the job later. Patsy has dinner ready!

It is really good to see them again, and we look forward to spending a couple of days with them. Deane and Doreen (Wally's brother married to Patsy's sister) stopped by and we played some hillbilly rummy until the rain became a full blown thunderstorm that sent them home to comfort Deane's dog, who like most dogs is terrified of thunder. The power went off and on, and then the storm moved on to keep someone else awake.

With the rain subsided, we situated the trailer properly and set it up, and slept soundly.

Wally knows when Mike comes he expects a 'Mike-list' of chores that need an extra hand, and Wally has a couple of small ones ready - and so does Patsy! She would like the dining table refinished!

The first day the weather was gorgeous, so the outside jobs got tackled first. Patsy and I walked into Fitch Bay (the guys drove) and we picked up a few things for lunch, etc. and did a few things outside to make the best of the fine afternoon.

Good thing - the next day it rained! All day. So Patsy and I drove into Magog to buy some stain/varnish while the guys sanded the table top (outside, under a covered deck). I got to practice my French, and the sales clerk her English, buying the stain, which, when the guys applied it, was absolutely the perfect color.

We took some time off to visit Patsy's brother who runs the large farm that they all grew up on. John is outside digging a drainage ditch for one of the barns - it is a construction zone with a small backhoe, a bulldozer and John and his son taking turns on the dozer and the jackhammer. There is a chicken truck beside one of the barns waiting for the catchers to come - 7000 large chickens going out today. This is a large, active working farm, and John and his wife Mireille plus two of their sons and a daughter-in-law all put in full days. I missed the photo-op of Mike and John down in the ditch working and laughing.

Mireille is a wonder-woman - works hard physically on the farm both outside and then inside, busy now with fall freezing and canning as she manages a large garden as well. Plus she is very artistic and is involved in community organizations too.

The next morning Mike planned to sand the table and give it another coat of stain/varnish before we left, but the table is still tacky. No sanding today. OK then, Mike is ready to hit the road! Wally needed more on his 'Mike-list'! So before I finished saying goodbye to Patsy, he had the trailer ready to go.

Day 36 - Niagara Falls, ON to Fitch Bay, QC

So now we are getting ready to hit the road again - bikes back on the rack, slides pulled in, everything secured.

It will be a 10 hour day, and we're timing it to miss Toronto traffic, but of course that will have us hit rush hour in Montreal......

We're looking forward to seeing Wally and Patsy and other members of the family.

We're pretty well at the end of our blog - and are so behind with pictures! We won't have internet while we are at Wally and Patsy's, so won't be updating likely until we get home - and will add the pertinent pictures then (a little late, but the WiFi in most of the parks won't support the bandwidth apparently required to upload pictures, something I hadn't been aware of, don't know what to do about it).

So when we get home I will promise pictures and a final post for any who might be interested. Thank you for joining us on our trip.

Day 32 and following in Niagara Falls

A few days in Niagara Falls

We always enjoy visiting with Martin, Rebecca and whoever else of the family happens to be home - this time we were lucky and got to visit with Tim, Jon and Jeremy.

Tim just had his wisdom teeth removed the day we came, so he has been under the weather with his face all swollen and obviously uncomfortable. The bonus to us is that he decided to stay home for the weekend, so we have been able to spend some time with him and also his girlfriend Emily.

Jon’s summer job on Maid of the Mist has extended to weekends, so we’ve only seen him for little bits, but keeping busy is good! He’s getting his courses lined up for Brock University in subjects I can neither pronounce or understand :)

Jeremy is doing really well, and enjoys coming with us in the truck, so we’ve been able to spend quite a bit of time with him.

So, what have we done? Martin had a ‘Dad job’ so he and Mike have been constructing a bannister for their stairwell. Rebecca and I took Tim to Guelph to pick up his insulin, and then promptly brought him back home for the weekend. But I got a road tour of the university grounds and also got to see Tim’s new apartment.

Saturday Mike and I did some shopping, then in the afternoon we all (except for Jon who was working) went to the Wayne Gretsky winery (Rebecca and I had seen the sign and thought it might be interesting). As it turned out, it is a small operation, still relatively new and not all that interesting as wineries go. As a result we decided to follow it up with a tour of Peller Estates winery - a beautiful building in a lovely setting, very grand - and had an excellent tour of the facilities. Since they don’t process the wine there, we were shown into the vineyard and given an informative talk on the process of growing and harvesting the grape. Mike and Martin had opted out of the tour and went back to their carpentry, so they missed out on this. Then we went into the winery for the usual tasting etc, although here again the tour was much more informative than others we have been on.

Since Martin is the pastor, Sunday is church! This was their ‘Round-Up Sunday’, sort of a get-back-to- church-after-the-summer service, so we all wore whatever western gear we had. Just for fun, Martin asked if I would join the worship team with my fiddle - great fun actually. Unbeknownst to any of us, the church chose this weekend to honour Martin and Rebecca - their 10 year anniversary with the church here in Niagara Falls. It was special to us to see how much the congregation appreciates the work that both Martin and Rebecca have done there. And to think this was the weekend we happened to be there!

We finished the day with a quick walking tour of Niagara on the Lake, followed by dinner at Rebecca and Martin's with their good friends Ian and Patti, and also Rebecca's Mom and Dad - a full table! We enjoyed (again) Rebecca's fine cooking! This was followed by a game of Hillbilly Rummy, which is always fun, stopped early because not everyone at the table is retired :)

On our last day in 'the Falls' the weather continued to be perfect - great day for a bike ride! There are miles and miles of bike paths in the area, so we had lots of places to choose from. We rode from Rebecca and Martin's house to the Brock tower, a pretty ride through parkway, by the whirlpool, past the power plant and to the park where the tower is. Martin has been wanting to climb the tower, and in the interests of economy (there is a charge for the climb) Rebecca and Mike decided not to do it :) I was undecided - but the tower was closed. Martin was disappointed, I'm not sure if I was disappointed or relieved - it's very tall and narrow, and would be quite dark inside - but the view would be fantastic.

We spent part of the afternoon in Chapters :) and then in the evening the Niagara Concert Band, in which Martin plays clarinet, was having a concert, so we went and thoroughly enjoyed it. Jeremy was likely the most enthusiastic member of the audience! The band has been in existence over 125 years, which is quite amazing.

And then it was good-byes all around - we always are sorry to leave as we don't see nearly enough of this part of our family.

And tomorrow - on the road again!

Day 29 - Between Oshkosh and Green Bay Wi to Taqhamenon Falls, MI

We left the Walmart parking lot and headed north, destination T. Falls State Park. A friend of Jan and John’s had recommended the park to them, and it sounded good to us too, so away we went.

We received a text message from Martin, kicking himself for not asking us to get him a western shirt while we were in cowboy country. He is planning a western themed service on Sunday and thought the shirt would be appropriate. We’re sorry he didn’t ask us yesterday too - Wall Drug had a whole western shop where we could have easily picked one up. But now we had a challenge - got to find a shirt! But this is Green Bay, Wisconsin - west, but not west enough!

T.Falls State Park is at the very tip of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (or U.P. as they refer to it there, right on the shores of Lake Superior. The falls are within the park, and we hope we will get to see them. The U.P. is an outdoorsman’s paradise, with snowmobile and ATV trails plus hunting and fishing. Our route took us along the shores of Lake Michigan, where we at first saw some very nice large homes, which the further we went turned more into cottages and small year-round homes in small villages. If you don’t like winter, the U.P. would not be the place for you! The trees are already turning, so winter comes early. ‘Yoopers’ have to be tough, and also self-sufficient - no shopping malls up here!

Finally we arrived at the park, and after several miles eventually came to the campground. The facilities are typical State park, rustic but very adequate. We found 2 sites side by side, set up camp, and then hopped into John and Jan’s jeep to drive to the falls.

There are actually 5 ‘lower’ waterfalls, 3 visible from a walkway, the others only by boat (which very conveniently we could rent, but didn’t). We then drove to where we could take a trail to see the upper falls - very impressive. At the end of the trail was a set of 94 steps that we could take to see the bottom of the waterfall - the guys declined, but Jan and I wanted to take more pictures, so we got a bit of a work-out going down and back up.

Then back to the campsite where we shared dinner in our trailer - Jan cooked the corn and brought salad, Mike and John grilled burgers, I made strawberry shortcake - we might be camping, but we’re not roughing it! This is our last evening together - we have all enjoyed each other’s company.

Day 30 - Tahquamenon Falls, MI to Eaton Rapids, MI

What goes up must come down - from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan down to Michigan.

We have friends from Florida whose summer home is in Eaton Rapids, Michigan, and Mike is anxious to see them, so he didn’t need any coaxing to leave early!

It’s cold! 36 degrees F.! We said ‘see you down the road’ to Jan and John - it was fun to travel with them - and then we were off. It was so cold that steam was coming off the water making a heavy ground fog.

We followed the coast of Lake Superior and watched the early morning sun in the mist - beautiful.

Then we crossed the bridge between Lake Superior and Lake Huron, just a solitary sailboat out in the early morning.

Today is to be a straight A to B drive, no detours! That is until we saw a sign advertising Western Wear in a town just off the Interstate. Not quite ‘just’ off, more like 10 miles, and when we got there the store looked quite unpromising. Mike said he’d get fuel while I looked for the shirt for Martin. Well, when I went inside all I saw was horse stuff - saddles, blankets, bridles, a few belts, but no shirts. When a sales person asked if she could help and I asked for shirts, she took me through the horse room, through another large room, back behind somewhere else to a large room just full of men’s shirts! It didn’t take long to find one matching Martin’s description (and hopefully his size). But then we thought - why don’t we get shirts too and surprise him? That took a bit longer, but eventually we left with 3 nice western shirts and were back on the road.

Bob had given directions, “Matilda’ was doing her job, and we soon got to the point where Bob had told us ‘when you get there, just call me’ - we did, and there he was! It was so good to see him! We followed him, and soon saw why we needed the escort - we zigged and zagged all over and finally down a dirt road where Bob turned us around in a field and then stopped in front of a barn. It was his barn, and he had an electrical hook up there for us! I looked around, didn’t see a house at all - it was 1/2 mile back from the road along a winding driveway. The land had been Bob’s grandfather’s, and when he was just little his grandfather pointed out a spot and told him it would be a good place for a house someday - and that’s where Bob eventually built his house - a lovely house complete with in-ground pool.

Margo had been busy cooking dinner, and we had a great time catching up on what we had all been doing over the summer and then enjoyed a fine meal followed by a couple of games of hillbilly rummy. We had a great evening with them - extra special because we got to meet one of their grandchildren, a son and daughter-in-law and their daughter.

It was a lovely evening, and we said good-bye to Bob and Margo, looking forward to seeing them in Florida. We went back to the trailer and had a great night’s sleep.

Day 31 - Eatons Rapids, MI to Niagara Falls, ON

We were up and ready to go almost before the sun came up - actually it was before the sun shone as it was very cloudy. No rain this morning, though, so the slides on the trailer were dry. (That’s a good thing).

Bob had given us directions: turn right out of the driveway, then turn right at a certain street......Mike says he came in from the other way, so he turned left. ‘Matilda’ and nagigator advised turning right, but the captain of the truck prevailed, so an early start got off to a later start when he had to backtrack about 10 miles.....he hates it when we’re right :)

We decided to cross into Canada at Sarnia, rather than Detroit (which is where ‘Matilda’ wanted to go) and had a nice easy border crossing.

We (mostly me) don’t like the big highways, so much more to see on the 2 lane roads, so when we saw a sign for a 50’s diner we figured we’d treat ourselves (not sure why we deserved it) and eat out for lunch. I should have taken my camera in - what a place! All original 50’s stuff! Plus 2 huge rooms full of ‘antiques’ for sale. What a hoot. They had an all-Canadian hamburger on the menu, so we ordered it to celebrate being back in Canada. Since we were already on a small road, we decided just to stay on it for a while and ignore ‘Matilda’s’ wanting us to go back on the 401. As a result we ended up (for the second time in one day) off course and had to backtrack. So we followed the 401 until it divided into the 403 and then before getting onto the QEW (which neither of us enjoy) we took a bunch of secondary roads which brought us nicely right to the campground we planned to stay in.

We passed through some nice little Ontario towns, surprised a little by a couple that were near enough to Hamilton to have sprouted huge subdivisions completely out of keeping with the character of the town.

In Pelham passed country markets, quilt shops, yarn shops, all within 10 miles of the park we’re in - so guess what’s on my list for tomorrow!

Mike called Martin and Rebecca to let them know we were here, and they are coming over tonight for a quick visit. So nice of them - we were expecting to go over there tomorrow afternoon since they are so busy and we’re actually here a day earlier than we expected (figured if we got here tonight we could see them earlier tomorrow).

After supper we did laundry, and Mike, bless his heart, offered to babysit it so I could update the blog and catch up on email. Laundromats being right up there with grocery stores to me, I am very thankful!

Martin and Rebecca surprised us by coming over this evening - great to see them!

Day 28 - Gillette, WY to Hermosa, SD

This morning is the close of the rally - coffee, donuts and hugs. It was so good to meet up with friends we have met on other trips! We hope it doesn’t take this long to see them again. And to have made new friends that we will see on down the road.

Then it was on the road again.....

First stop was Deadwood, SD, a wild west town snugged in a valley in the South Dakota hills. It was settled in 1876 when gold hunters found an oasis full of dead trees (hence the name) and also struck the mother-lode. It became a boom town, known for its saloons, outlaws and gunfights. Buffalo Bill was shot here - and his shooting is re-enacted every day all summer!

Then we drove through Sturgis, SD, home of the Harley rally every August. Perry and Jeanne were married there at one year’s rally - so we figured we would say ‘hi’ to the town for them.

Then it was on to Hermosa, which is a tiny town - but its grocery store sells local beef and 8 flavors of soft serve ice cream. This will be a stopping point for us to stay and visit Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, drive the Needles highway (can’t do that with the trailer) and meet up with Linda and Jim, our next door neighbours at the rally, for supper at the Alpine Inn in Hill City where the food is reputed to be excellent.

Heartland RV Park is a nice, clean park, great laundry room :) - and we met several folks who had also come from Gillette today! One of the couples will meet us tomorrow in Hill City (they’ve already been to Crazy Horse etc.) and then to Mt. Rushmore afterwards where we’ll see it lit up at night.

Another day in our RV life!