With heavy hearts we left Montreal but not before picking up St. Viateur bagels. Four dozen sesame bagels fresh from the oven and still hot served as breakfast and were delivered to ex-Montrealers at home.
The traffic got worse as we got closer to Toronto and we asked ourselves why, exactly, we were returning.
Today was again a day of not much driving so we used our time to explore a bit. Our first stop was at the Battle of the Windmill, a national historic site, where loyalists defeated a rebellious faction who wanted to overthrow British rule. It wasn’t much of an equal battle with 190 rebels vs 2000 militia. Guess who won?
The windmill is now a former lighthouse.
Our next stop was the Cooper Marsh which was once a dry low land area used for farming. It was later turned into a March when control structures raised water levels to aid in navigation.
After the marsh, Highway 2 more or less just follows beside Highway 401 so we got back on the 401 and headed to Longueuil to a campground right next to the Marina. This is a wonderful place to stay when travelling by RV if you want to visit Montreal as there is a river ferry that takes you directly to Old Montreal for $6 per person (2024).
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!
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!
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.
It was quite a trip, covering over 12,000 kilometres. Despite the wild fires in Canada this year we were able to find super interesting routes in the more southern parts of the provinces and had amazing experiences with nature, animals, people and sights.
The small towns we visited in the prairies we delightful. The people in these towns were very friendly and their museums were remarkable. Many towns had wonderful aquatic facilities, playgrounds and parks for the children. The Manitoba Visitor Information Centre at the Ontario/Manitoba border was particularly helpful in providing lists and information of places to visit.
The more memorable museums and attractions on our trip were:
The iOverlander app was invaluable in finding cool places to camp at.
All the provinces we visited were beautiful and had their unique character. They impressed on us the vastness and diversity of Canada. We can’t wait for our next road trip – maybe eastern Canada again next?
Time to go home! Since we were camping in South Baymouth close to the ferry terminal were lined up at 8AM to see whether we could get on an earlier trip than the 3:30PM one we had booked. We were lucky and made the 11AM trip. The weather was rainy which made us look forward to going home.
The ferry ride went well and the drive to Mobilife (our RV dealer) to pick up a replacement window for the one that broke was quite scenic. Ontario is beautiful as well and we have to explore more of our province.
We got the window we needed and then drove into the Valens Conservation area campground, not to sleep, but to empty the rest of our tanks before proceeding home.
We were almost ready to make breakfast when we had a knock on the door. Our new friends from Quebec City said goodbye and wished us all the best on our trip. After breakfast we couldn’t resist going for one last swim in Lake Superior. It was our last chance after all…
It was time to move on which was a bit sad, but in Sault Ste Marie we had a fantastic Italian lunch at Giovanni’s Restaurant. Well fed and happy we continued our drive to South Baymouth from where we will be taking the ferry to Tobermory tomorrow.
It was a cold morning and the windows of the van were totally fogged when we awoke. When we stepped outside to see what our surroundings were like, we were greeted with a thick fog over the landscape and lake and dew on the plants. It was glorious!
The fog gave way to a beautifully sunny clear day, great for driving. Along the way we stopped at a lookout point just as an extremely long freight train snaked along the mountain below.
This time, instead of waiting until it was dark, we stopped at around 3PM at a beautiful free wild campground directly at Lake Superior. We had to take some pictures of this amazing scenery before going for a swim in the super clear water!
It was refreshing but not too cold and we managed an enjoyable 20 minutes in the water. A couple that arrived shortly after us joined us in swimming and we had great conversations both in the water and later sitting outside in our lawn chairs overlooking the lake.
This wild campground has about a dozen sites and we walked around to explore the area a bit. We got to know some of the couples there and had great conversations but a small dog stole the show for Ruth and she had to photograph it.
Today was largely a driving with wonderful dinner at Drifter’s in Terrace Bay. This is a restaurant that we stop at each time we pass by because the food is so delicious and the service is always great.
Our waitress suggested we walk down to beach in Terrace Bay. The Lake Superior water and the evening sunlight were just perfect for taking pictures.
We now needed to find a place to stay and the now closed Terrace Bay airport was suggested as one option. We started to go there, but it was on a pretty rough road and very close to the paper mill so we chose not to continue. Now we quickly needed to find an alternative as it was getting dark. The iOverlander app came to the rescue and found us a really nice spot near a lake with two other campers. We’ll investigate further tomorrow.
