"Watch out for the Moose " they say..

 

Leaving Virden behind we drove through Manitoba and headed into Ontario.  I had googled a campground near Kenora Ontario, which was roughly a six hour drive.  I thought it would be nice to camp on one of the lakes at “Lake of the Woods”.  The campground I selected was Pye’s Landing Camp and RV Park.  “Your summer destination on Lake of the Woods”.  The photos showed it was right on Clearwater Bay. There was a nice dock right out over the water.  Sounded great.  There was no real address, just “Trans-Canada Hwy Clearwater Bay”.  Of course the GPS in the truck was not helpful, but Google Maps was, or so I thought.  I have found on this trip that Google Maps is my go to GPS and have started relying on it instead of the truck.  

Let me tell you about Lake of the Woods.  It is over 70 miles long and is one of the largest fresh water lakes in the world.  Well, it is the 36th largest in the world.  I watched a documentary on the lake a few years ago.  At the time of the filming of said documentary, Lake of the Woods was considered to have the most expensive cottage real estate in the country,,,,but I Googled it and see that Lake Rosseau is one of the most expensive.  Lake Rosseau is also in Ontario.  Ontario has over 250,000 lakes! 

To get back to Pye’s Landing.  First of all Google Maps took us off the highway down a dirt road, where we had to do a U-turn in the middle of the road (Ray did that with no problem,,,,he loves a challenge).  We got back on the highway and stopped at the local store/service station.  The lady there told us that we had driven past it.  So following her directions instead of Google, we went back down the road and did see a tiny little sign on the north side of the highway (not the lake side) and a very suspicious skinny driveway.  What we found once we went up the narrow driveway was a huge gravel parking lot with hook ups for campers.  There was probably about 300 RV's there.  It was not on the lake at all and you could not see the lake.  Oh well,,,,as we had driven more than our 4 hour drive, we stayed there.  It was pouring rain, so did not even go out of the trailer!!

Pye's Campground

Kakabeka Falls

The weather since crossing into Ontario has been raining and cool.  Definitely not “short wearing” weather.  Due to the lousy weather we were now on a mission to get down to Riki’s place in Kitchener.  We decided to head towards Thunder Bay.  Originally I had wanted to drive down towards Fort Francis and then back up into Thunder Bay coming through Quentico Provincial Park.  But Ray said he just wanted to head east.  Kakabeka Falls was 6 hours away, so we headed there.  The Falls are 30 kms west of Thunder Bay on the Kaministiquia River.  The Falls are 130 feet high and are known as the “Niagara of the North”.  Although I don’t see the comparison.  But call it what you will,,it is still beautiful!

I chose "Happy Land Park" to "park" our butts for the night.  We have stayed there in the past, but the photos online indicate a pool. Not that it was warm enough to go for a dip, but I did not recall a pool in the park previously.  Well on this trip, I still did not see a pool.....but the site was perfect, except for the storm we had!  We did meet a couple from Oklahoma.  They were on their way to Lethbridge Alberta for a family reunion.  The fellow was asking Ray when was the last time he greased his wheels. (uh? grease the wheels,,,,wouldn't that make for a slippery ride?).  Ray told him that he had the trailer checked out by a mechanic just before we left, and the wheels were good.  "Hell no!"  Says the guy from Oklahoma.  He got out his grease gun,,,,,and went to town greasing the wheels! Now we are good to slide our way to Kitchener!

Looking for somewhere to have a bite to eat and to see if there were any local craft beers to sample, was a bust.  There was however a liquor store.  We checked it out and found quite a few local brews.  Then it was decision time.  I went with what the employee suggested and bought a couple from Lake of the Woods and a couple from Thunder Bay.  My favourite was “Skull Rock from Sleeping Giant”. A dark stout.

 

Wawa

Onward from Kakabeca Falls we continued the next morning through Thunder Bay.  Overlooking Lake Superior, on the east side of town was the statue of Terry Fox.  The memorial for him is above the highway and is such a peaceful place to reflect on Terry's journey across half the country and on what his effort has done for cancer research.  Terry has made all Canadians proud!  

There are a few amethyst mines in the Thunder Bay Area.  Some are open to the public who are invited to try "mining" themselves.  I have ofter thought about stopping in at one of them, but as I do not do well in enclosed spaces, we have never stopped.  There is also a gold mine in the area, but it does not appear the public are invited to stop in.  We followed the great Lake Superior all the way from Thunder Bay to Wawa, where we had planned to stop for the night.

Lake Superior is the largest of the Great Lakes.  In fact it is the largest fresh water lake in the world.  It is 350 miles long and 160 miles wide.  Driving by, it looks like an ocean rather than a lake.  It is known to the Ojibwe peoples as "gichi-gami".  The trans Canada highway weaves around the lake, but mostly through forests. 

We drove to Wawa (Home of the big goose), which was about a 7 hour drive.  Do you see a pattern?  We had wanted to do 4-5 hour drives and take our time, but as most of you know how Ray is, he has a hard time sticking to a shorter driving time.  He just loves to drive!  I fear that when we start heading west through the US, he may want to do 8 hour drives!  We stayed in the Wawa RV Resort & Campground.  We have stayed here a few times in the past.  It is a nice campground with lots of trees and the sites are flat.  Unfortunately because it was storming overnight that the ground turned to mud, so was a bit of a mess in the morning!  You may wonder why I put the name of the campsite in these blogs.  It is for my reference if we were to travel the same route in the future.  Also, putting them in my blogs, is like putting something in the "vault".  I have won a few arguments when Ray thinks I am wrong in where we went or where we stayed.  I just open up the blog and prove I am right! See a method to my madness!!!  Lol

So you may be wondering about the moose at the top of this blog.  In Ontario and all the way to the east coast there are signs on the side of the road, to watch out for the moose.  Well this guy was at the big general store (tourist trap), just hanging around on the porch!

Sudbury

Next top was Sudbury. This was the longest drive yet.  With service station or Tim Hortons stops, it was an 7 hour drive.  We found an excellent campground just south of Sudbury.  It was called Mine Mill Local 598 Campground and is owned and operated by local 598 of the Unifor union.  Apparently about 20 years ago the union bought the property and started having their annual family picnic days there.  One thing lead to another and they started putting in campsites and now have over 130 full hook up sites. It has great wifi, a nice sandy beach on Richard Lake.

  Richard Lake

Sudbury is a mining town. Mining copper and nickel.  Because we were in Sudbury, we had to go and see the big nickel.  The big nickel used to be right on the side of the highway, but many years ago it was moved closer into town.  There is a museum right beside the nickel.  The Big Nickel is the "world's largest depiction of a coin" at 30 feet high ( I think this is not including the stand because it sure seems higher than 30 feet).  It is a replica of the 1951 Canadian nickel.

You certainly can see the storm rolling in!  Just seconds after these photos were taking everyone was running for cover as it was thundering and pouring rain!!  We did a quick walk through of the gist shop and then went hunting for food!

Enjoy!

Old Man River to Saskatchewan Icons

     Family time in Kamloops was good but short as we could only spend the one night due to a big PowWow over the whole long weekend.  I did get some Keaton snuggles so that made me happy.  On Saturday morning as we left Kamloops the air was fairly clear but heading east you could see the haze starting from the Adams Lake fires.  By the time we got to Chase it was like driving in fog.  Very little of the Shuswap Lake could be seen.  The smell inside the truck was like sitting around a roaring campfire.  It was so bad that I put on a face mask and didn’t take it off until we were past Revelstoke.  Even then, it was not great. Our night in Golden was not the best as it was very hot and still smokey.  I had booked us into the Golden community campground, and at the time I had booked, there was only 3 available sites.  Unfortunately the site we had was unserviced.  So no air-conditioning which meant that we needed to keep the windows open all night to get some relief from the heat.  But of course the smokey smell then was in the trailer.  Terrible night!  To get some relief we had spotted the local Legion which is at the entrance to the campground.  Legions are always a great place to stop for a cold beverage as most often the folks love to talk to someone new and you can get a feel of what the community is like.  Unfortunately this Legion was closing in 45 mins and only had a couple of guys more interested in Keno.  But we did enjoy a quick cold one and then left for the campground.  We were very happy to be leaving BC the next morning.

Fort Macleod Alberta

Driving through the National Parks was not as breathtaking as it usually is because it was still very smokey giving only a suggestion of the magnifcent rocky mountains.  Keeping with our four hours a day drive, and wanting to avoid Calgary traffic, we headed south once we got to the outskirts.  My plan had been to stay in Claresholm for the night,  but as we got closer Ray asked what the next town was.  MacLeod was next and as we have stayed there a few years ago, I thought he may want to stay somewhere else.  Anywho, we spent the night in Rivers Edge RV park.  Full hook ups (Yay!!).  The campground is on banks of Old Man River 

We met a nice father and son from Denmark, travelling through Canada and the western USA.  The son didn’t say much but the Dad couldn’t say enough how much he liked Canada.  The were only travelling in wester Canada but had visited Vancouver Island and loved it!  

We did a quick drive through the town, I say quick as it is fairly small with the population of just over 3000 people, most of which are farmers.  The Legion was closed as pretty much the whole town was on Sundays.  We did find a tiny little “lounge” called Cesars, that was open.  There is room for about 20 people, but there were only about 6, most of whom were perched on stools playing video gambling.  We sat at the bar and had a great chat with the bar tender, who told us that she was born and raised here but had moved away for a few years and had since returned.  I wanted to ask “why”? But didn’t want to insult the town.  Not much to do from what I could see.  And not much to return for.  But that is just me, I am a city girl at heart.  She said that her and her husband were leaving in a couple of weeks to go to BC to hike both the Juan de Fuca and West Coast trails. Impressive!  While there, I had decided to try a local craft beer and had one from Lethbridge.  It was a “chocolate coconut porter”.  It was full coconut flavour.  And I initially really like it, but by the time I was half way through it, I was tired of it.  But being the trooper you can bet I drank the whole dang thing! 

 Of course I can't show my fancy schmansy beer without showing Ray's

Ceasar in Ceasar's Lounge

If you ever find yourself in Fort MacLeod  “Head Smashed-In Buffalo Jump” is a must to visit.  It is a UNESCO world heritage site and home of the Blackfoot cultural museum. The site tells the story of how the hunters disguised themselves as bison and wolves to lure the stampeding buffalo over the cliffs to their death.  The story is also about one particular young hunter who hid under the cliffs to see the herd jumping, but tragically the poor young boy did not survive. The site of the museum overlooks the valley below and is so peaceful.  You can hear the wind softly blowing through the prairie grasses.  A great place to sit and reflect on,,,,everything.

Swift Current Saskatchewan

I am not a football fan of any sort, but apparently the Saskatchewan

Rough Riders have a mascot that is a "Prairie Dog" or also called a "Gopher".    Their gopher mascot's name is "Gainer" and Gainer is apparently from a small berg called Parkbeg.  As you pass Parkbeg on the highway there is a huge sign saying that it was the home of Gainer.  So of course I had to google Parkbeg to find out who gainer was.  This is what it says...."Gainer was one of 38 children border to Dwayne and Agnes Gopher, owners of a small trenching and excavation company in Parkbeg Saskatchewan.  Although his parents always knew Gainer was different from his siblings, they never in their wildest dreams ever expected one of their own to become a true Saskatchewan icon."  The things you learn while driving down the highway in Canada.  Just past the sign, wouldn't you know that a very large gopher ran across the highway in front of us.  I think it was Gainer telling us to have a safe drive!

Our next stop was on Monday the Stat holiday, where we chose the Ponderosa Campground to spend the night.  We had some appies and a cold beer ( Sleemans, no craft beers available) at Original Joes as absolutely nothing was open.  Some fun facts about Swift Current:  

* Nickname is Speedy Creek

* It was first referred to as “kisiskaciwan” which means “it flows swiftly”

*The longest running business is the Imperial Hotel, which is also knows as                      “the Big Eye” due to the big eye painted on the side of the building.

Swift Current has the 3rd most sunshine and 5th clearest skies in Canada

Virden Manitoba

Great drive (even with the carnage of thousands of white butterflies hitting the windshield) , although longer then our 4 hours, today landed us in Virden.  I originally had us staying in Weymouth Sask, but Ray didn’t want to go off of Highway 1 ( say what?????).  I think he was thinking that the highway would be gravel, which I assured him it was an actual highway.  But he is the driver and I am only the navigator.  So by the time we got to Virden, he was done for the day.  The Virden Lions Club campground is where we hung our hats.  It was a beautifully treed, (elm trees) with large sites and full hook ups.  Yup glamping at its best!  But you do appreciate the air conditioner when it is hot.

After we we settled in the site,  the very nice camp host lady, came by to give us our receipt and to see if we liked the site.  Then she looked at me and said, “you know we have a great shoe store in town”.  What??  Did she know me???  She even told me how to get there!   So of course we did go to the tiny main street and sure enough, there was the shoe store.  We went in to take a peek. Lots and lots of shoes, but the prices were unreal.  Vancouver prices for little Virden. I am sorry I don’t need shoes that bad.  Instead we asked a young boy who was the only pedestrian we saw, where the hotel was (for appies) because the only restaurants were fast food places.  He didn’t really know, but said it was “up the street”.  Of course we found the hotel that looked like it was about 150 years old, went in and ordered a beer.  No food served. No craft beers here either.  Rickers Red this time.  The bar tender was nice, but not too chatty.  We left there and right across the street was a non descript building with a flashing sign which said “food”.  So we walked into a really nice bar/casino/restaurant.  We sat at the bar (because that is where you can learn more about the area).  We ended up staying for about an hour talking to the bartender, who brought out her phone to show us photos of her dog and cats.  Only in a small town.  She also filled us in on the lack of staff (she was working 18 hour day,,,,,not really legal) and how expensive it was to rent a place there.  One bedrooms start at $1200 a month.  Another night I didn’t have to cook as we had wings there.  

Virden is known as the “Oil Capital of Manitoba” Oil was first discovered here in 1951

Our  beautiful site in Virden.

Cheers!!!

Places to Go and People to See

I cannot start this blog without starting from the beginning.  Many have already heard the long drawn out story and believe me I am tired of hearing it, so I will keep it brief.

     In the beginning there was a truck.  A truck that badly needed some help. Whether due to the fault of the truck, or the owner,,,,,we may never know.  All we knew is that a new diesel engine was needed.  Having waited about 6 months for a new one for our truck, it finally arrived.  After packing the trailer, we once again set out with our first stop in Kamloops for a couple of nights.  We were booked into the Silver Sage RV park, which is very close to Tanya's.  Due to all of the road construction on the Coquihalla, it was a slow journey.  About 30 minutes south of Larson Hill, I started to smell an acrid smell.  It was putrid.  All of a sudden black smoke was billowing out of from under the hood of the truck followed by a loud bang.  Ray was able to pull the truck safely off the road.  Fortunately we have "Good Sam" as they sent two tow trucks (one for the truck and the other for the trailer). to get us into Kamloops.  Unfortunately, by the time we were towed into our campground 8 hours had passed.  The engine of the truck had blown so once again we were waiting on another new engine.  Longer story short, we have had the new engine since February and have put on almost 8,000 kms;  so it is save to say that we can now continue on another adventure.

     That was last September.  After getting ourselves back home we did manage a road trip (in the car and staying in hotels) back to Ontario and then back home through the US.  But it just wasn't the same.  We still want to take the trailer on another trip across the country before we are too old to want to deal with the traffic. So our plan this time is to drive from Mission to Sydney Mines Cape Breton.  

According to Google Maps it should take us about 59 hours via I-90 (through the States) that is the distance of 6,129.5 kms. I am assuming this is the shortest road?  That is not likely to happen!!!  We are seniors after all and don't need to rush things.  So we are going to drive about 4 hours a day through Canada n(via Hwy 1 and various other routes).  Considering that and with stopping to visit with family and friends, we figure it will take us about four weeks to get to Sydney Mines.  But on the 4 hour a day drive and with Ray's history of 8-12 hour driving days; I will be sure to keep you posted on that!  

We will be leaving on the 4th with our first night in Kamloops.  Hopefully there are no fires along the way.  So now comes the tedious task of trying to decide what clothes/shoes to pack into the trailer.  Stay tuned for another adventure as we get back on the road again!

 

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