The Road Goes On…

Category: Ontario

  • Falcon Lake, MB to Dryden, ON

    With the weekend coming, we couldn’t extend our stay at Falcon Lake any longer so it was time to have our last breakfast at The Nest, get the van cleaned up and ready and hitting the road for Ontario.

    Before leaving Manitoba we dropped in at the visitor centre and thanked the two ladies we had talked to when we first entered Manitoba. They had been very helpful in suggesting interesting places to see in towns off the Trans Canada highway, many of which we ended up visiting.

    There was lots of road widening construction on Hwy 17 in Ontario and many sites where blasting was being done. We had several stops where traffic alternated along the one lane that was open.

    In Vermillion Bay, we stopped at the Nowhere Craft Chocolate and Coffee Roastery. Little did we know that our stop for a cappuccino and a hot chocolate would turn into such an insightful and detailed lesson on how artisanal chocolate is made. Eleanor, the owner, spent close to an hour explaining and showing us the process while we were sipping our drinks and tasting her delicious chocolate. We couldn’t help buying some roasted beans, nibs, and bars. The seeds for making our own chocolate from raw beans has been planted. In time, this will no doubt, have been an expensive place to stop at. Ruth is already worried about the new set of equipment required.

    A few kilometres further is Egli’s Wool and Sheepskin Shop. Last time we drove by Martin bought a sheepskin winter hat and we decided to stop by again. Ruth was particularly interested in the large selection of knitting wool, but was strong enough to refrain adding to her already vast collection.

    In Dryden we had dinner at the Masala Restaurant which offers East Indian, Greek, Thai and North American food. They had a buffet, but it was mostly Indian except for maybe the french fries and spring rolls. The food was delicious and the entertainment was a large party celebrating a 60th birthday. We congratulated the birthday boy and were quickly accepted as family and each given a piece of the tasty birthday cake.

  • Rushing River Provincial Park, ON to St. Malo, MB

    We finally made it to Manitoba and had a great experience at the Manitoba Visitor Information Center where we received many good suggestions on what to see and do along with a sizeable package of brochures.

    Our first stop was at the Mennonite Heritage Village in Steinbach where we learned about the history of the Mennonites starting with their beginnings in various European countries and their migrations to avoid persecution.

    There were two major periods of Mennonite migration to Manitoba, the first in 1874 and the second starting in the 1924. Life wasn’t always easy but they had greater freedoms and rights in Canada.

    The heritage village features a number of building including stores, a blacksmith shop, a print shop and the Livery Barn building which now houses a restaurant where one can enjoy pierogi, sausage, borscht, coleslaw and rhubarb cake. Tasty!

    A special exhibition consisting of posters telling the stories of families who left their home countries to start new lives in Canada was put on by graphic arts and photography students at a local high school under the guidance of their teacher. It told stories of some of the original Mennonite immigrants as well as stories of more recent arrivals from countries such as the Philippines. Touching stories and very worthwhile seeing and reading.

    It was now time to find a place to stay for the night. The tourist information agent had suggested a provincial campground in St. Malo which turned out to be a hidden gem. The Manitoba provincial campgrounds are much cheaper than the Ontario ones – $19.50 for an electric site vs $44 for a non-electric in Ontario. The St. Malo surrounds a reservoir and has swimming and boating possibilities. Great beaches and lots of sites available. In the evening the Canada Geese had swimming lessons.

    The early evening light at the beach was stunning as was the ice cream from the nearby stand. I think we might be the only vehicle with Ontario plates.

  • Sleeping Giant Provincial Park, ON to Rushing River Provincial Park, ON

    Another driving day – 610 kms, breaking our record from yesterday. We chose to take Hwy 11 west of Thunder Bay towards Fort Francis, ON where we stopped for lunch. Fort Francis is right across the river from the US. Google Maps said there were two restaurants in town (besides Tim Hortons, etc) and we chose to try the CanAsian Family Restaurant. They offer a mix of Thai, Chinese, Filipino and Canadian cuisine. We went with two Thai options – a spicy curry and Pad Thai noodles. Excellent choices!

    After lunch we walked through town and explored a few of the shops. First stop was a really neat art gallery with glass, pottery, paintings and jewelry. The next stop was called Betty’s the Pink Store and it had a wide assortment of craft supplies, fashion, shoes, sewing machines – pretty much anything you could think of. Betty’s was started by Betty Anderson who made a living as a seamstress and eventually saved enough money to open her own store which is still run by her descendants. Ruth found some beads she needed to have for an upcoming necklace.

    The town has a nostalgic flair which today continued onto the street with a small collection classic cars. Unfortunately for Ruth, no 1957 turquoise and white Belair. We had to settle for a 1956 Ford Victoria.

    Hwy 71 between Fort Frances and Kenora has a lot of hunting and fishing lodges and a lot of “8 miles” ahead signs, so probably gets a lot of American tourists.

    Our original hope had been to make it to the Falcon Lake Campground in Manitoba, but with our excursions, time and energy didn’t permit. We debated staying in Kenora but chose the Rushing River Provincial Park instead. We were quite lucky to get a spot right at the beach which we took full advantage of with a refreshing swim.

  • Lake Superior Provincial Park, ON to Sleeping Giant Provincial Park, ON

    Today was mostly a driving day – we covered 551 kms, a good portion of which was behind our trucking friend from EMCO.

    We stopped for lunch at Drifter’s Restaurant in Terrace Bay where we had been on a previous trip. Great food, same as last time!

    We decided to stay at the Sleeping Giant Provincial Park as we had enjoyed it on a previous trip. This time, however, the black flies were unbearable and even just registering for our site cost Martin a pound of flesh. We skipped the walk and swim but watched a movie while the little buggers were desperately trying to come through the window screens.

  • Massey, ON to Lake Superior Provincial Park, ON

    While driving toward Sault Ste Marie, Ruth searched for some attractions along the way. Boy did she find something interesting! Entomica, an insectarium in the Canadian Bush Plane Heritage Centre. It was the right place for both of us. Huge flying insects for Ruth and old airplanes for Martin.

    These huge bugs from Africa have velvety bellies and claws. Creepy, crawly, interesting, but not necessarily something you’d want to wake up with.

    Not only did they have fascinating insects, but Willie Wonka, the chameleon captured Ruth’s heart.

    Chris, the director and curator, spent quite a bit of time with us and showed some more unique insects and explained where they lived and why they are so special.

    Once the insectarium closed at 3:30, we visited the bush planes and learned about the heritage of these airplanes and some of the people who built and flew them. Ruth was very happy to see a special exhibition of the history of women in aviation in Canada. It took a long time before they were truly accepted.

    There was a movie covering the use of aircraft in forest fire fighting operations, which seems timely given the current wildfire situations throughout Canada.

    A Canadair CL215 water bomber. I believe these were built at the Canadair facility that was close to where we lived in Montreal.

  • Sturgeon Bay Provincial Park, ON to Massey, ON

    Day 3 and our van needs some fuel. There are a lot of reservations in this area with cheap fuel for all – $1.39/litre today.

    The next stop was at the French River Visitor Centre where we hiked to the Recollet Falls where the deer flies warmly welcomed us and extracted their ounces of blood. It was extremely hot and humid but the 1.5 km hike was definitely worth it. We had fun taking pictures.

    After our hike we visited the museum and learned about the importance of the French River in the fur trade and the rivalry between the Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West Company which later merged into one company.

    We asked the very friendly museum staff for recommendations for a campground to stay for the night and they told us about Chutes Provincial Park. Chutes gets it name from the chutes that were built to help move logs over waterfalls.

    The park has a lovely swimming area in the pool at the base of the waterfall with currents which we took advantage of.

  • Midland, ON to Sturgeon Bay Provincial Park, ON

    Early breakfast with 2 eggs, bacon, potatoes and toast at Stacked was a Canada Day Weekend delight. Now we were fuelled and ready to go. The first stop was at the Art Barn, 8 kms away. This used to be a dairy farm and the barn now sells crafts created by local artisans. The owner of this 50 acre property also allows campers to stay overnight for a donation. Maybe on the way back…

    We continued on north on Hwy 400 to Parry Sound were we enjoyed the Canada Day festival that was happening – Ribfest, artisan booths, log sawing. One of the artisans was from Düsseldorf in Germany. We walked to the harbour and ate a huge ice cream while sitting in Muskoka chairs watching the floatplanes taking off.

    We continued our drive not knowing where we would stay for the night and came across Sturgeon Bay Provincial Park which happened to have two sites left. What a beautiful small campground, right at a bay with fabulous swimming opportunities. We talked to quite a number of people and Ruth fell in love with an American Bulldog. Martin talked to the park warden for a while and learned all about the training they undergo and why they need bullet proof vests.

    After a long, enjoyable swim in warm water and dinner, it was time for Duolingo in the van.

  • Dundas, ON to Midland, ON

    After rushing to get everything ready and the van packed, we left left at 4PM on our way to Midland, ON. Traffic wasn’t bad at all, considering it is a long weekend, but there was an accident on the 400 which closed the highway and resulted a in detour. The detour was scenic, but we were happy when we were back on the highway. And, yes, our first night was at a Walmart. Needless to say, we bought some traditional items – chocolate, Pringles – and a Despicable Me DVD that was in a clearance bin for $5. The traditional T-shirt purchase has been postponed for a future visit.

  • Algonquin, ON to Cantley, QC

    The morning started with housecleaning and a shower to make ourselves presentable for the next leg of our trip. Time to leave Ontario for Quebec. The goal was to stay at the Gatineau Park campground but, alas, we discovered the Pepsi and her canine friends were not welcome in the campground.

    We were directed to another campground and we ended up at the Cantley Campground. There was no swimmable lake, but there is a fishing pond with ducks and geese (or geeses as the sign said). The campground is on a huge terrain and has many playgrounds, walking trails, mini-put and many more amenities. The breeze was very welcome on this hot and sunny summer day.

  • Dundas, ON to Algonquin, ON

    Wow, how time does fly when you have leisure time! Scrambling on Thursday night (July 4th) to get ready, we left around 10:30PM and headed for Markham to stay overnight in Martin’s dad’s driveway and have breakfast with him at Cora’s in the morning. Then the adventure began. We headed straight to Algonquin Park stopping only for a well deserved ice cream at Kawartha Dairy in Minden. We were lucky and got a great spot in the Lake of Two Rivers campground, about half way though the park on Hwy 60. Four glorious days of relaxation, sleeping, swimming, kayaking, eating, reading, knitting and did we mention, sleeping.

    On two of the evenings we drove a short distance to the Visitor’s Centre and listened to two presentations – one on the life of loons (did you know they can hardly walk because their legs are near the tail end of their bodies, they can live 20+ years and a family of four can eat 900lbs of fish in one season!). The second presentation was on the life and mysterious death of Tom Thompson. There are a lot of myths and questions remaining on what happened to him and where his body is actually buried. We went to bed that last night feeling a little sad to be leaving this wonderful campground and Algonquin Park, but adventure awaits!