7000km / 107.5 driving time (and still talking!)
Day 37 & 38 -We left the Soo heading to Sudbury and a herd of dairy cows were there to say goodbye!
We continue to travel backroads (Hwy. 17 to 12S to 48S) through beautiful farmsteads, stone house, wild turkeys, swans, and the summer place of Glen Gould in Uptergrove, ON. This is what people here call “Cottage Country”, and the small towns are lovely. And almost every one has a Home Decor and/or Kitchen store! I so wish Mission would get something like that.
We stopped in Echo Bay, a town “Worth Repeating”: for a photo of the 1987 Loonie, the year of the launch. This one was erected to celebrate the year the Canadian Loonie played a good luck role at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics when a loonie was frozen into the surface of centre ice. Both of Canada’s hockey teams won gold and the legend continues. Somehow The Lucky Loonie showed up embedded in the floor in a Tim Hortons where we stopped on our way out of Ottawa! Go figure 🤔
Towns along the way like Thessalon, with a pink bridge called the Red Bridge, have loads of history with fur traders and the such, with a lot of colonial street names and architecture. We passed a few groups of Amish people in horse drawn buggies; the Espanola food bank is for rent - maybe they don’t need it any more??? I wish! And arrived at the Giant 1951 Nickle in Sudbury in the pouring rain. We arrived at the Dynamic Earth Science Museum just as it closed but still did our photo op - with a picture taken for us by a family from Surrey. Sudbury was once a major lumber centre and a world leader in nickel mining, but now is less resource-based economy and emerged as the major retail, economic, health and educational centre for Northeastern Ontario. We just stopped for the night - we have friends to see!
Today is the day Nick Taylor won the RBC Canadian Open - 1st Canadian to win since 1954, and 1st Canadian born to win since 1914. Kinda reminds me of the World Series - how come it’s World Series if only North Americans play? (There’s an answer to that)
Day 38 - We chose Hwy 38 out of Sudbury and travelled along the east coast of Lake Huron through Parry Sound - there was a cruise ship in the harbour! Visited Parry Sound Books, another lovely independent bookstore. Every town we have stopped in is small and has beautifully restored shops and buildings, much like we’re doing in Mission.
Through Muskoka and on to our hotel in Orillia, Champlain Waterfront Hotel, a short walk to the waterfront and an amazing park and walkway, Rotary miniature train through the park, Rotary Aqua theatre, playing fields, playground and a mysterious missing statue in the centre. Turns out the statue of Champlain was removed in 2017 for restoration and the return of it is still under consideration! Stay tuned orilliamatters.com . Also came upon a monument acknowledging the 1919 service Quota Club of Orillia Inc., a service club for women similar to that of all-male clubs, (Rotary was started in 1905) providing basic needs to women, children, deaf and hard of hearing. This is a group I have never heard of so I had to look it up, you can too if you want. Orillia really is a pretty lakeside town with quite a vibrant downtown.
Day 39 - We left Orillia - Stopped at Wilkie’s Bakery for a Chelsea Bun (he’s been working this place since he was 10!), heading down Hwy 17S past a sign leading to Avro Arrow Rd., just north of Parry Sound, it was a testing site for Orenda Engines, a subsidiary of A.V. Roe Canada, the aerospace giant who designed and built the Avro Arrow, and also used as a munitions plant. In 1959 the Arrow program was suddenly cancelled and 6 completed planes were destroyed, pieces of which have been recovered from Lake Superior. Hmmm 🤔
Outside Queensville in Gwillimbury we drove past an enormous wall - I thought immediately of the Trump border wall it was so big. Turns out to be a 1.2 million square foot distribution facility for Loblaw - this place is huge! They boast 1000 jobs but no mention of jobs that will be lost at the 27 smaller distribution centres across Canada.
Into Aurora, home of a huge mural “Canadian Moment Mural” with everything from QEII signing Canada’s 1982 Constitution, Rick Hansen, Roberta Bondar, even Mr. Dressup - but whoops - no Terry Fox! There is another mural in Aurora, Diversity and Inclusion depicting hands of various ethnicities and genders sewing a quilted blanket that contains patches reflective of the many groups that call Aurora home.
Wish we had bought rolls of lifesavers from Shaun at Candy Shack back home, we’re having to scoop them from restaurants!
Day 40 - We’re in Toronto!!! Arrived last night at John and Siobhan’s, eagerly greeted by Grace the Schnauzer 🐾 They live in the North York area of Toronto so we hopped on the subway at Shepard West and headed into the city. We walked and walked and walked to try to get in as much as we could: The Legislative Building, Queen’s Park (with a boxed in and cloaked statue of Sir John A. MacDonald), The statue was damaged during a protest in 2020 and “continues to be covered until a decision can be made regarding its future”, which apparently is up to the Speaker of the House. We found this on the grounds of the Legislature, acknowledging Canada’s efforts in Afghanistan.
We walked through the University and Grange Park leading to old downtown. I loved Grange Park with its inlay quotes from Margaret Atwood and David Suzuki (to name a few), lots of big shade trees, bordered by brick row houses built predominately by Eastern European Jewish Immigrants. We chose to stay outdoors rather than go inside and spend hours in museums and galleries because we wanted to do as much as we could in one visit. Amazing street art of VanGogh that can only be appreciated by video, and as I haven’t mastered posting them yet you’ll have to wait until we get home! And a great street band. Blue Jays stadium, CN Tower, all of that was there - but Huge disappointment in the CBC. There was nothing inside to look at - no archives, no studios, nothing except for a really nice wall honouring Barbara Frum. What about The Beachcombers? Peter Gzowski? Stuart McLean? Royal Canadian Air Farce? Peter Mansbridge? Don’t let the smiles fool you - I am really pissed off! We’ve been cheated - no pictures, no footage, no studios, nothing!
But we really enjoyed our time with John and Siobhan, and I thought of you each morning Karen when I made coffee in “Karen’s coffee pot”, Thank You,
Day 41 - We left Toronto today but first visited the house where Roger lived as a kid!! It was so exciting, so many of them have been torn down and replaced with cookie cutter style 3 story things, but his was still there - with the tree he and his Dad planted in the front yard ❤️
And a visit to York Cemetery to visit the site where Roger’s parents are buried. This cemetery is huge, and old! I discovered a cross I have never seen before, that of the Russian Orthodox with 3 horizontal cross beams, the lowest slanted downwards.
We left Toronto and doubled back to visit our friend Barbara in St. George, back country the entire way through Campbellville, Carlisle, Waterdown and Peters Corners.
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