Our trip began with a stop at Pickard’s to pick up two containers of peanuts. Not sure if 2.4kg will last the entire trip or not, but it should keep us for a while.

We left around 3:30PM and didn’t want to spend too much time in rush traffic around Toronto so we stopped at Montfort’s Mediterranean Restaurant for dinner. Traffic through Toronto wasn’t all that bad after that and we made it to the Odessa ONroute just west of Kingston where we spent the night.

After a pretty good first sleep despite the trucks coming and going at the rest stop, we headed off to Kingston to pick up a few things we’d forgotten – toothpaste for example. Gas was $1.45 at the Esso so we thought we might as well fill up, only to find the station raised its price from the time I put the credit card in and authorized to the time I pressed the “Regular Gas” button. Now we got to pay $1.62 per litre. Martin was livid as was another customer!

To cool down we visited the Artillery Park Aquatic Centre in Kingston and went for a swim (and shower).

After having lunch by the Kingston waterfront, we looked at the weather report and saw that there was a significant storm system heading our way. The news talked about major flooding in Toronto, so we skipped further Kingston sightseeing and headed east, stopping at the Mallorytown ONroute to sit out the storm. Most of it fortunately passed to the south of us, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. We did have some excitement when a large truck hit the curb with one of its rear wheels about a meter or so from our van. The trailer’s formerly round wheel was now hexagonal but fortunately our van went unscathed.

On last year’s Western Canada trip we decided to avoid taking major highways and visit smaller towns as much as we could. It was so much fun to see small towns and their unique attractions and interact with the local people. Why not do it again this year? Highway 401 is a major four lane highway while Highway 2 is the older and smaller road that runs closer to Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River and connects communities along the way.

We had dinner in Brockville at a park directly on the St. Lawrence River. An older woman parked next to us, got out of her car and wandered down to the river with a pool noodle under her arm. After dinner we investigated what happened to her and discovered there were steps leading into the water and one could go for a swim there. So we did! The water was great and we were soon joined by Sadie, a white poodle whose owner threw a frisbee for her to retrieve. Sadie had a lot of energy and fun and didn’t want to come out of the water. Her owner told us about the old railway tunnel under the city which we went to explore. The Brockville Railway Tunnel is truly a sight not to miss!