MeAnd’Er-ing into the Maritimes

 

The big rollover!  10,000km  

It did this for the time when it reached 100, so we have actually travelled for 165 hours - and still talking!

Day 54 - Just so you can get things in perspective, today is July 12th, and Day 54 was June 29th, so I’m always playing catch up.  Things slow down for us when we are staying with friends and family because we spend time visiting and I just write things in my notebook to share with you when I get a chance.  At this moment I am sitting in the verandah watching the clouds roll over the Northumberland Strait.

Quebec City to Saguenay/Chicoutimi via Hwy. 175 through the Laurentian Mountains, the wildlife reserve and Jacques Cartier National Park, and I had my 1st (and probably only) bacon wrapped weiner at L’Etape rest stop.  It rained most of the day, sometimes really heavy downpours,  I asked Roger “where do the cyclists take shelter?)”.  We’ll have to ask Neil about that when we get back.  Parts of the park had a lot of trees with black bark - maybe pine beetle?  

From Saguenay to Tadoussac we hugged the north shore of the Saguenay Fjord, we could only imagine how beautiful it must be without the heavy clouds and rain.

We landed in Tadoussac at Gite Au Vieux Pommier greeted by Ella, a power house of energy from Tunisia - she switched us to Auberge Madison Gagne operated by her son and they have a fierce battle going on with which has the better ratings on Google and Expedia!  We’re too tired to care.  We were right on the edge of the water and a field that was filled with wild strawberries.  I’m reading Braiding Sweetgrass and this was quite significant to me. 

Day 55 - Tadoussac - This is a whale watching town on the Saint Lawrence River - beluga, humpback, sperm, fin and blue, and dolphins.  We didn’t take a tour but we did visit the Sand Dunes of Tadoussac, a UNESCO site.  The dunes are 2 immense marine terraces measuring 30 metres in height that stretch along the edge of the river and when we went in the morning it was so foggy/cloudy that we would have been happy to see the water much less a whale, but the sky cleared in the afternoon and we returned to this … 

We have since learned that my friend Gai and David live there!  

Tomorrow is Canada Day and we didn’t see a flag anywhere.

Day 56 & 57 - Canada Day!  We drove from Tadoussac to Les Escoumins to catch the ferry to Trois-Pistoles on the Gaspe Peninsula, the south side of the Saint Lawrence River.  

We drive to the Les Escoumins ferry through Essipit, an Innu Reserve (I hate that word) in the Cote-Nord Region, one of the 9 Innu communities in Quebec, part of the Manutiun Tribal Council.  Innu are members of the large Cree-language group.  Lots of information at https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/innu  The community was filled with new homes, condos and cottages, community hall and a great gift shop.  The young boy working there told me he learned English mostly through playing video games!   

The ferry was a quite a contrast from our BC Ferries I must say.  But I did see a beluga whale!!

We later learned from a lady at the EV charging station outside of Truro, Nova Scotia that Trois-Pistoles has The Best cheese curds at Fromage Des Basque! during a conversation we had as they waited for us to finish our charge. Another EV charging friendship

Trois-Pistoles has a huge Presbyterian church with the most amazing steeples and alter. 

Now this is where I got confused - I thought the ferry went to New Brunswick, but we travelled a long way in what was still Quebec until we got there. Janet was so excited to be in New Brunswick I started to doubt my maps! 

We stayed on Hwy 132 (what we have learned is that a highway is what a road with 2 lanes is called), still along the St. Lawrence, Through Rivière-du-Loup then through marsh and farm land  into New Brunswick to stay the night in Edmundston, where the storm damage caught up with us and the power went out!  Next morning heading out Hwy 44 along the Madawaska River and had our 1st encounter with a moose.  No damage done to either!

and continued along lupin lined Hwy 17 to Campbellton where we drove right into a parade!  And witnessed our 1st Road Rage :(  Campbellton was known for its salmon and logging, just like Mission, and there’s a large fountain in the middle of town honouring the Resticouche Sam, a Rotary tribute to the mighty Atlantic salmon - prime reason for the settlement along the Resticouche River.  

The heavy rainstorm there left 100 families out of their homes.  

This was where we pulled over and had a fun facetime visit with John and the kids - nothing like one of those to make you homesick!  

It’s a lot of fun travelling through these towns - every one of them has at least 2 spiring steeples and lots of old historic buildings and homes.  BC feels so young! There is a Starfish route through New Brunswick which we pretty much followed all along the coast of Baie des Chaleurs, Gulf of Saint Lawrence and Northumberland Strait, through Bathurst, Caraquet, Miramichi and on into Shediac, 

Day 58 - We’re in Acadia Country!

We enjoyed a visit at Musee Des Cultures Fondatrices in Grand- Anse, former Pope’s Museum (yes, the only museum in North America dedicated to the Papacy.  There is a scale model of St. Peter’s Basilica and painted ceilings that are still there when it reopen in 2016 as a cultural centre.  There is the story of the Irish Potato Famine and the migration to Canada and settlement here of the Irish Catholics.  Later, when many refused to swear loyalty to the British crown they were cleared from their settlements and large numbers were sent to France and the Caribbean.  But a number resisted this and hid with the help of their Mi’Mak allies and have since returned to the area and reestablished large communities such are Caraquet, Capital of Acadia, St-Louis de Kent and many others along the coast.  We passed on the big Acadian Historic Village - the tour was 2 hours long and we really felt we had the most of the information from the local centre.  

Day 59 - Shediac, home of the World’s Largest Lobster, a statue commissioned by the Shediac Rotary Club

The Auberge B & B was lovely and we met a couple from Frederickton who had moved to Nova Scotia from Surrey 3 years ago, drawn by the low housing prices, in another EV charging station conversation.

Continuing along the coast we stopped on the beach near Cap-Pele for a picnic, looked off to the east and low and behold, there was the Confederation Bridge! So off we went - popped onto Prince Edward Island for a visit to Borden and sent a bouquet of pictures of his old house and his grandparent’s home to my friend Colin back home.  We stopped into Pigeons Gift Shop and visited with Ashley, super friendly and very helpful giving us names of indie bookstores when we return to PEI.  

$50. toll on the Confederation Bridge and we were back in New Brunswick, Hwy 16 through Melrose to Aulac, then into Nova Scotia!  We have travelled in 3 provinces in one day!

Nova Scotia, past Springhill - birth place of Anne Murray, and on to Truro.  Stopped in at Masstown to charge the car and met a great couple from Quebec who gave us lots of great tips on places to stay and cheese curds.  I did not know that they are best if left at room temperature overnight before making poutine!  

Truro - In Colchester County - territory of Mi’Kma’Ki people.  We went to view the Tidal Bore but it was low tide, but the really helpful lady at the Information centre directed us to Burnt Coat Head in Hants County for a better Bay of Fundy tidal experience. A tidal bore is a tidal phenomenon in which the leading edge of the incoming tide forms a wave of water that travels up a river or narrow bay, reversing the direction of the river or bay’s current.  It is a strong tide that pushed up the river, against the current.   Unlike the Skoomunchuk, this is a wave as opposed to rapids.  

Berry’s Motel on Robie St. in Truro was interesting, mix clientele, most appeared to be permanent and well lived in, but our room was really clean and Berry was really friendly.  Interesting ….

On our way to the tidal bore we stopped in at the post office in Maitland, very colourfully decorated,  and the town with “Canada’s Oldest General Store”.  I took a picture of the white place because I’m thinking it’s probably Canada’s Oldest Duplex!! 

Brunt Coat - nothing short of amazing!   We walked on the ocean floor in the Minas Basin of the Bay of Fundy.  When the tide comes in it travels about 5”/minute to an average of 47.5 feet high (the extreme range is 53.6!)  Burnt Coat is known for having the largest tidal range of any location in the world.

From here through Windsor (lots of Anglo/British town names here) where the covered bridge we had hoped to see we were told by a guy in the diner that it came down in 1972!  Windsor boasts being the undisputed Birthplace of Hockey in Canada or, The Little Town of Big Firsts.  Windsor is sister city to Cooperstown, New York - Birthplace of Baseball 🏒 ⚾️. 

We’re headed to Roger’s cousin’s near Wolfville.

I’m beginning to feel a little better about getting caught up on the blog, but it’s always going to be behind where we actually are - which is Melmerby Beach in Nova Scotia, on our way to PEI (again)!  

Boy there’s a lot of Largest, Oldest, Deepist, Widest, Tallest things here in Quebec and the Maritimes! 

MeAnd’Er-ing through Quebec

Day 48 - I had really hoped to spend Canada Day in Ottawa, but to do that we would have to stay another week and loose out on some of the Maritimes, so off we go on Hwy 417E and took the 14 vehicle ferry from Cumberland, ON to Masson, Quebec.  Right smack dab into Thurso, Home of Guy Lafleur!  From there we ventured into Omega Park in Montebello (thanks Bruce and Sandra for the tip) for a drive through a wildlife preserve with our bag of carrots to feed to the deer as they tried to stick their heads right into your car!  Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?  Our favourite part of the park was the “One Sky, One Land, 11 Nations” peaceful walk through the forest on a trail of magnificent sculptures and rock carvings telling the legends of those 11 Quebec First Nations who were living here before the arrival of the French.  This is why we are travelling this way - certainly wouldn’t have caught this on the Trans Canada!

Plugged into our 1st Quebec EV charging station (Circuit Electrique) in a very pretty park in Namur with washrooms, playground, and lovely wooden swings in a shaded area.  Way nicer than the EV stations at a gas station on the side of a highway with nothing to do but check your email or play Sudoku on your phone while parked in the sweltering heat or pouring rain.  Then off into the mountains to Mount Tremblant where they were setting up for the 12th Ironman.  Very resort-ish.  We stayed that night in the rural village of Morin-Heights in the La Vie est Belle B&B, very cosy and a breakfast to die for!    

Day 49 & 50- Montreal!  

OMG, I couldn’t believe it - it was my day to drive and as we were approaching the city a full sized ocean freighter passed right over us!  Just like when a train goes over us on the freeway - we were under the Saint Lawrence Seaway!!!  I couldn’t believe it, it blew my mind!  Right there above our head - we were driving under the Beauharnois lock!  Took a bit for me to settle down after that one.

We had charged up in Oka and taken the ferry over to Hudson. Yes, Oka of the Oka Crisis in 1990 over a land dispute between a group of Mohawk people and the town of Oka (lasted 78 days). We stayed with Roger’s cousin Karen for a few days in Beauharnois, which is south west of the city.  It’s home of the lock we drove under and also one of the largest hydroelectric generating stations in the world!  

Montreal: When Roger was 15 his father died and after a while he went to live with his Uncle Fred (his Dad’s brother), Aunt Lee and cousins Linda, Karen, George and Susan.  We stayed with Karen for a few days and a lot of memories and pictures were exchanged.  It was wonderful to watch the two of them and to catch up with other family as well. Karen toured us all around -   We walked around old Montreal together, viewed the city from Belvedere Summit, visited churches, St. Joseph’s Oratory, had a picnic beside an old stone windmill, took an amazing backroad drive through Souanges Canal (with a park full of anchors recovered from the bottom of the rapids before the locks were in place in the Upper Saint Lawrence as “Drop the Anchor” was hollered as a last hope of avoiding the worst fate in the rapids) and watched fireworks on St. Jean Baptiste Day.    

We also shared an afternoon with Uncle Fred and Aunt Lee to continue Roger’s journey down Dowker memory lane, complete with pictures and the family Bible!  Uncle Fred gifted Roger with a picture of one of the Dowker homes, Idywild, on Dowker Island (now a nature reserve).  We visited the family homes in Ste Anne de Bellevue, on Lake Saint-Louis in southwestern Quebec.  One house is being used by faculty of McGill University and the other two are privately owned.

Lots of fond farewells and promises to return. 💕

I have to include this picture because the outside stairs in Montreal apartments I think are beautiful !  

It’s extremely smoky from the forest fires (later learned that flights were cancelled and various other events, including the Ironman one). 

Day 51 - 9000km   143.32 hours together in the car!  According to Google, we could make it home in 4500km, so that’s a lot of backroad driving.  Thank goodness we’re not travelling with gas, so far we’re at $500. in EV charging.

Trois Rivieres - the Champion of EV Charging in our books! Right downtown - close to everything -  18 public charging stations, electric vehicle rentals, and a vending machine for pizzas (which we did not try)!  It is definitely what every city should set as a model. 

Trois Rivieres  is on the Saint Lawrence River and there was a huge freighter in the harbour right behind where we had lunch downtown - where I had my 1st Poutine!  (Not as good as I had expected).  I have put my Indie Bookstore venture on hold for now until we get back to the English dominant towns.  

Trois Rivieres is also the birthplace of Lorna Margit Scott, my mother!

Day 51 - 53

Quebec City - We stayed for 3 nights in a B & B A L’Augustine at Rue Richelieu and Cote Sainte-Genevieve, and it was amazing - very quaint in a house built in the 1800’s.  Our host Carolyn was very gracious and a tremendous cook.  Fellow house guest were from California, Ottawa, Toronto and Mexico.  We were walking distance to everything, and boy did we walk!  This city is so steeped in history that we’re not even going to try to explain here, so we’ll cover Quebec City with some of the pictures we took.  This is our B & B - 

Of note though were some of the 109 firefighters from France who came to help with the forest fires in Quebec, bringing with them 14 tonnes of equipment.   

Also of note was the Chalmers-Wesley Church - I have no idea if my family is connected at all, but our name also popped up in Portage la Prairie! 

We visited Old Quebec City, Plains of Abraham, changing of the Royal 22nd Regiment guards at the Citadelle de Quebec, Plains of Abraham, Museums, restaurants, street vendors, and Chateau Frontenac noting that the Rotary Club of Quebec has been meeting there weekly since 1919.  

We’re not quite out of Quebec but we thought we better get this posted so you know we haven’t fallen off the map! 

Au revoir 📫  

Oh Canada! We’re in Ottawa

Day 46.- We took an uncharted route from Tamworth to Parham, kumbucha and croissant at Sharbot Lake, then followed Hwy 38 through Crow’s Lake, Bolingbroke to Perth, home of 2 inde bookstores!  We visited Heidi and Peter at Spark Books, a really cool couple and their great bookstore on Foster St. for a visit, 

then over to The Book Nook, where we got one of their postcards and sent it back home to Amy at Totally Book-ish in Mission.  

I sat in the humongous Red Chair looking out to the Rideau Canal linking Perth to the Rideau Lakes system.  Perth is also home of the Mammoth Cheese, originally 22,000 pounds, 6 feet high and 28 feet in circumference, produced in Perth back in 1893 for an exhibit at Chicago’s World Fair.  It went from there to England, some of it made back to Ottawa, and the remaining 80lbs are in Perth!  Gotta love the landmarks that make these towns so unique!  I know people fall in love with Mission for our Post Office, Rocko’s, the Abby and other great things!

Ottawa - Hwy 40 to Ottawa to visit friends Bruce and Sandra.  We also met Bruce on our trip to Bangladesh back in 2014 and it was really nice to meet his wife Sandra, plus Duke 🐾 , Ernie 🐾, and cuddly cat who’s name I cannot remember 🐈‍⬛.  Also a very special young woman, Tania, is living with Bruce and Sandra - she fled from the Ukraine 1 year ago when Russia first attacked the Ukraine, and her family is still there.  Tania’s is working as a settlement worker for refugees in Ottawa.  She is also a lawyer in Ukraine, like Sivitha in India, and hopes to return home.  

Bruce is an excellent cook and they spoiled us royally!

We talked a lot with Bruce and Sandra about the take over of Ottawa by the Freedom Convoy last year when the entire city was held hostage by a convoy movement initially created to protest vaccine mandates for crossing the borders, then escalated to protest against COVID19 vaccines in Canada, then on to racism and hatred toward minorities.  People couldn’t got to work, malls and businesses were shut down, and home care providers couldn’t get to where they were needed.  What I didn’t know about was the Battle of Billing’s Bridge: - Sunday, Feb. 13 the flow of trucks going for supplies for the convoy were stopped by a few frustrated local residents to demonstrate the negative impact on the citizens of Ottawa - their city was being held hostage!  The protest started with enough volunteers to corral about 35 vehicles, mostly pick up trucks coming to get supplies (fuel and food) for the protesters downtown.  Dozens of volunteers showed up, then hundreds, eventually more than 1,000 people and they held back the convoy of suppporters for 9 hours.  Later that night drivers in the convoy were permitted a “negotiated retreat” - they were allowed to leave, one at a time, but only after their trucks had be stripped of flags and “Freedom Convoy” stickers, and surrendered any jerry cans.  It is estimated that more than 1,000 people stood strong, shoulder to shoulder. At this point the government and police finally got involved and it ended with no concessions given; the Emergencies Act was invoked from February 17-23.  Ah, the power of a few people who believe that they can make a difference ✊, thank you.

- Today is the day that underwater noises from the missing submersible exploring the Titanic were heard and the air supply is expected to run out within hours.  Sadly things did not turn out well.  

We spent hours with Bruce and Sandra searching for information about my Dad’s plane crash - they are both Veterans and have a keen interest in this kind of stuff.  I’ll have to send them stuff when I get home.  My Dad was a Squadron Leader in the RCAF and was in a military plane crash, in Canada, when I was a baby.  But on the Dowker side we did discover that both Bruce and Roger’s fathers served together in the 427 Lion Squadron during WWII. What a small world, we meet on a trip to Bangladesh, visit in Ottawa only to discover another connection in England.  While on a night operation on March 18, 1944 my (Roger’s) dad’s Halifax bomber was shot down by a night fighter. The pilot maintained control long enough for the crew to parachute to safety in doing so he was not able to save himself.  The plane crashed near Hillesheim Germany. The crew was captured, and my dad spent the remainder of the war as a POW. He was 22 years old.

Day 47 - Downtown Ottawa!!

- By Ward Market

- Old Ottawa along Sussex Street (Sylvia, the story of the lumberjacks collecting their pay and setting out to have some fun reminds me of the Moose Jaw Saturday $2.00 bills) 

- Majors Hill Park (thank you Laurie), and we watched a boat going through the manually operated locks, right downtown!

- the Parliament buildings are being renovated and all business is being done in other wings so we took a pass.  We did tour them a few years ago when we passed through on our way to Nunavut.

- York Steps and the giant Ottawa letters with strangers taking pictures of strangers, so we took pictures of strangers taking pictures of strangers!  

- lots of really old and beautiful stuff to see, and everything is so green!  But it’s hot!

The Canadian War Museum - we spent hours in Gallery 4 - From the Cold War to Present, reliving a lot of memories of growing up with under the desk drills in school and lots of talk of bomb shelters.  Most meaningful for me was the live film from Afghanistan; we could see what some of our soldiers saw - not all of course, but I have much more of an understanding than we had before we went in there.  I’m so proud of my son 💕 and all those who chose to serve in the Canadian military - Thank you. 

The Memorial Hall holds the headstone from the grave of Canada’s Unknown Soldier on a concrete wall in a minimalist, dimly lit space. On Remembrance Day, at exactly 11:00am, sunlight shines through a single window to frame perfectly the headstone.

Lest We Forget

MeAnd’er-ing slowly to the Capital City of Ottawa

8,000km and 127.06 hours in the car together (but who’s counting!)

Day 41 & 42 - After leaving Roger’s childhood home in Toronto we drove west to visit our friend Barbara in St. George, township of Brant. Beautiful rolling hills and small towns, Roger managed to map out charging stations to give us great comfort to veer off wherever we wanted to do things such as pick up fresh butter tarts from a bakery on a country backroad that is only open Friday, Saturday and Sundays.  Lucky us!  Through Waterdown, Carlisle, Peters Corners and Hespeler.

People probably wonder about these weird travellers in a car marked Meand’er Across Canada pulling over to the side of the road to take pictures of their homes, and they are right, we are weird in that we stop and appreciate the individuals that make up our Canada. 

St. George is tagged as “Canada’s friendliest town”, population 3,354, outside Brantford where Jean and Donna of Wawa Goose fame live, but they’re in Newfoundland right now so we’ll have to drop in on our way home.  

We met Barbara in Bangladesh when we went to learn about the Amarok Society schools for women.  

A bit of background here - 

Amarok Society - In 2005, Dr. Tanyss and Gem Munro were invited to Bangladesh by an international organization to make improvements in the country’s education system, so they packed up their 4 children and moved from Vancouver, Canada to Dhaka, Bangladesh.  Within the existing school system there it turned out the biggest threat to education in the developing world isn’t a deficient school system; it’s that even those deficient schools are out of reach for millions of children.  So they helped by opening free schools to teach mothers to teach others.  Each mother takes the responsibility to teach 5 children.  Now they have people with an education in English and Bhangli and are able to get jobs in some of the offices in the clothing factories rather than in the factory itself, because they can read and write!  Our Rotary Club in Mission sponsored one of the schools in Dhaka and Roger continues to support one of the mothers.  

Please read more. https://www.amarok society.org 

We had a very fond journey down memory lane with Barbara’s photos of Bangladesh and our trip with Gem, Bruce, Barbara, Nick, Carmella, Nikki, Angela, Jackie, Judy, Roger and me, all put together as an Amarok trip by Nick.  

Back in Canada Barbara continues to care for people and to give a hand up to people moving here and helping them settle.  Right now she is sharing her home with a young family from Kerela Province in India who have come to Canada, until they settle in their own apartment in Brantford.  Anoop and Sivitha are well educated in India and have come to Canada with their young daughter Nashua, willing to work at one of the multiple, low entry jobs to start from scratch in a new country for a better life.  That takes a lot of courage, and they are blessed to have found Barbara!  

So here we are in St. George, over 8,000km into our journey, and Barbara is only the 3rd person that we know!  Cal and Sharon back in Kelowna, Sylvia in Buena Vista, and now Barbara.  That’s a lot of space between friends, but we are making new ones along the way.

The blog thing is interesting - Lori and Ray have done them on each trip and it seems so relaxed, but it’s not!  I am writing to you about things we did last week - we’re talking St. George but we’re in Quebec City!  For those who know me, I am always taking notes so I have a clip of scratch paper in by bag, which gets transposed when I sit with the map and pictures into a travel notebook (thanks Cyndi), and from there to here.  So I get behind when we are visiting with people!  I try not to get too stressed about it because this is a lot of fun, but my goodness has my memory ever had to work overtime!!  Please excuse me if I repeat myself - it’s all part of the story, and we hope you are enjoying reading it as much as we are enjoying writing it.

Day 42 - Lunch in Paris!  A quaint little town at the junction of the Grand and Nith Rivers with streets lined with cafes, boutiques and specialty shops - but most important - The Dog-Eared Cafe, a wonderful independent bookstore/cafe with cool things like “All books are created equal, but some books are more equal than others” - George Orwell, probably”.  And cell phone etiquette reminder such as “We’ve worked hard to curate an ideal and relaxing environment for all to enjoy.  Please do your part in being respectful of other patrons by keeping your calls, tik-toks, wedding fails, and other unwelcome emittances on silent.” 

There was a fantastic photo exhibit of men called The Bro Show! by Sarah Evans.

Day 43 - Back into Aurora for lunch with Roger’s cousin Dilys , I don’t think they have seen each other for 20 years so they had lots to catch up on, then overnight in Newmarket to get ready for our trip to Ottawa. via Mount Albert, Uxbridge, 7A to Port Perry to visit Bill Minor at Books Galore, as recommended by the ladies in the post office in Mount Albert.  Bill knew all about Billy Miner because people have told him there is something on the menu in a restaurant chain by that name!  Who knew our very own train robber was a national dish!!

Also in Port Perry …

Sorry Bill, didn’t mean to put you in the same picture but I’m trying to keep this short!

There is a lot of Rotary presence in some of these towns : Rotary Charity Ride, Rotary Red Shoes Walk, Rotary Rail tracks to name a few.  

Charging the car has been a breeze, sometimes we just find chargers without even planning to.

Hwy. 7 East toward to Peterborough through Omemee - Home of Neil Young!!  Had a long chat with  Lorna, a lady who stopped while I was taking this photo and she told me all about his family, which house they lived in down the road, the move to the farm, and also that Lady Eaton lived in town too (as in Eatons  Department Store).  I told her we should put her in the back of the car and she can show us around! 

Further on down Hwy. 5 we stopped at the Trent-Severn Waterway Lock 21 in Peterborough, used mostly by recreational folks.  There are 45 locks in this waterway system, 386km from Trenton to Port Severn, connecting Lake Ontario to Georgian Bay. Lock 21 is 19.8 metres, the highest hydraulic lock in the world.  That’s a lot of work and a lot of water for letting paddlers and power boats through, but that seems to be what they do here.  In BC we just leave people to fend for themselves in the rapids!!  (right Lori?)

Also in the North York Region we passed the Sharon Temple, a National Historic Site constructed in 1825 by the Children of Peace - an Upper Canada Quaker Sect.  The Children of Peace established a co-operative credit union and land sharing system, and also built the Province’s 1st Homeless Shelter.  Ground breakers in my book for sure.

Day 44 & 45 - We made it!  We’re in Tamworth, home of Angela and Roger.  Angela is another friend we met back in 2014 in Bangladesh and she and Roger live on 300 acres in a very rural part of Ontario south of Kaladar on Hwy 7 and north of Napanee on Hwy. 401, in Stone Mills Township, Lennox and Addington Country, or for some, cottage country.  Not what I pictured to be “cottage country” and I had been told by my Ontario friends that there is nothing else like it. I pictured more a number of homes focused on a lake, or mountain, but here it seems to be anywhere out of the city where you would come to get away.  Needless to say with that much land you’re rural, and this is definitely their own piece of paradise. 

Another Ontario surprise to me was our visit to a “sugarbush” - a forest of maple trees where the syrup is extracted.  It is nothing like the drawings I have seen in social studies books - no taps, no buckets, and no row upon row of maple trees!  It’s a forest with a mix of trees and underbrush, and if I didn’t now what i was looking at I probably would have driven right by - except that there is an umbilical cord of tubing connecting the trees to larger lines, gravity fed and collected in vats sitting there on the forest floor!  Quite breathtaking actually, and very, very exciting for me!

Rural Ontario is quite exciting and lots of stuff happening, like the Tamworth Hotel built in 1840 and painstakingly being restored for the past 6 years by Kevin and Carol.  If you are ever looking for the best b & b, this is the place!  

We plugged into Roger’s shop and were fired up and ready to go!  Speaking of Roger’s shop, eat your heart out my woodworking friends …

We are biding a fond farewell to our friends Angela and Roger and heading back to a city -

next stop - Ottawa!  and another Amarok friend :) 

 

MeAnd’Er-ing from the country to the city

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.  

I’m so excited - I get to turn the map over because we are finally out of Northern Ontario!  It drives me crazy to call the 49th “North”, and even crazier to have one province on 2 pages of the map!  Sudbury is on both sides so away we go….       

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.  

Stopped at Bookworms & Co. outside of Newmarket, a fabulous bookstore and great women.  The owner was so excited when I told her of our venture to visit independent bookstores across Canada, we really have met some wonderful people!  

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.