Year 3 Week 2

June 26 to July 1, 2006

Frankford to Neys, Ontario

Year 3 week 2

 

Monday ; Frankford / Belleville, Ontario

Today was sunny and very warm.

I felt pretty ill again this morning.

Very early this morning I took the truck to Belleville Dodge to have the driver's door repainted. Late in the afternoon they phoned to advise me it wouldn't be ready today < sigh >.

I'm trying something new with my journal. I'm going to try a weekly entry, with daily highlights.

 

Tuesday ; Frankford / Belleville to Bancroft, Ontario

Today was cloudy, humid, and raining, sometimes heavily.

Early this morning Belleville Dodge phoned to advise of yet another delay, once again due to their own ineptitude. A part required for my truck, that was supposed to be in stock, apparently wasn't in stock. They were sending somebody to get it at another Dodge dealer. In Scarborough, an eastern suburb of Toronto ... 2 hours away. Resulting in at least another 4 hour delay.

I picked up the truck in Belleville about 1:30, drove back to Frankford, we hitched up, and left the campground about 2:30. We drove to Belleville ... again, to buy cat food at PET VALU, groceries and diesel at Wal-Mart. We headed out of Belleville about 3:30, north on Hwy. 62.

We stopped for the night at River Bend Park in Bancroft.

 

Wednesday ; Bancroft to Britt, Ontario

Happy Birthday to my sister-in-law, Lorri.

Today was hot, humid, and mostly sunny, but as we drove we encountered a few heavy thunderstorms.

We drove north on Hwy. 62 to Maynooth, then north on Hwy. 127 to Whitney, then west on Hwy. 60 into Algonquin Provincial Park. We stopped to search for wild blueberries, but it seems to be a bit too early for blueberries. We stopped at Canisbay Lake Campground, intending to stay for the night. But we decided after driving around the campground that it was overpriced, underserviced, and not big rig friendly. We continued west on Hwy. 60, stopping at Tea Lake Picnic Area for a late lunch. We continued west on Hwy. 60 through Algonquin Provincial Park to Huntsville, then a bit south on Hwy. 11, west on Hwy. 141, and northwest on Hwy. 69 along the east side of Georgian Bay, through Parry Sound.

We stopped for the night at River Haven Resort on the Magnetewan River near Britt. I barbecued for supper. And set an oven mitt on fire. Oops ! After supper I went to the dock to fish for an hour. I didn't catch anything. While I was fishing, 3 children swimming and playing on the beach started to holler about finding a rattlesnake on the beach. They threw a shirt over it, and then were all excited, and uncertain of what to do next. I decided to wander over to the beach, ensure that they didn't harm some poor helpless little garter snake, and advise them that there are no rattlesnakes in Ontario. I walked over there and cautioned them not to harm a defenceless little garter snake. They insisted it was a rattlesnake. I picked up the shirt, shook it, and out fell ... a little ... snake with a rattle on its tail ! HUH ? ? ? Ontario doesn't have rattlesnakes ! Does it ? ! ?

Bo was very happy tonight. He got to romp in Tea Lake this afternoon, and twice tonight in the Magnetewan River. Joanne was much less pleased that I let him romp around in lakes and rivers.

 

Thursday ; Britt to Pancake Bay Provincial Park, Ontario

Today was hot and humid again, with intermittent rain.

Today was a long day of driving hard. We drove north on Hwy. 69 to Sudbury, then turned west on Hwy. 17 to Sault Ste. Marie. Near Sudbury we twice saw people selling fresh wild blueberries, so we stopped a few times today to search for blueberries at likely looking spots. We didn't find any. At Sault Ste. Marie Hwy 17 turned north to follow the east shore of Lake Superior.

We stopped for the night at Pancake Bay Provincial Park on Lake Superior. We had been here many years ago, liked it, and wanted to return. It was our intention to stop here 2 years ago on our way from Ottawa to Winnipeg, but we were forced to stay at Sault Ste. Marie instead, to deal with the first of Dee-Dee's many mechanical problems.

We set up in our campsite, had supper, then went for a long walk. The bay was calm. I've never seen Lake Superior's shoreline calm. From the campground, one can look out onto Lake Superior, and see where the Edmund Fitzgerald sank near here in November, 1975.

 

Friday ; Pancake Bay Provincial Park

Today was sunny and warm. A very nice day. We took a needed day off from driving.

Joanne spent the early part of the day painting the sink covers. She has been working on this project intermittently for a year now ! We spent most of the day applying pinstriping to the truck. It was a slow, tedious job, but it went better than I had expected. I ran out of pinstriping before I was finished, so I'll have to buy more to complete the job. We took lots of laundry down to the laundry room at the comfort station, and while the laundry washed, Joanne and I walked down to the beach. We walked barefoot along the water's edge. Lake Superior is cold ! We sat on the soft warm sand for awhile.

For supper we had beans with weiners roasted over the campfire. We spent most of the evening sitting around the campfire. Kind of like old time "roughing it".

 

Saturday ; Pancake Bay Provincial Park to Neys, Ontario

Happy Canada Day !

Today was cool and raining, with occasional thick fog as we drove along the north shore of Lake Superior.

It was another long day of driving hard. Or so it seemed. I was quite sick all day again with colitis. We left Pancake Bay, driving north then west along the shore of Lake Superior on Hwy. 17. We stopped for diesel at Montreal River, then again at White River. We encountered more than an average amount of dangerous driving by commercial trucks. We stopped at a likely looking spot to search for wild blueberries. We found a blueberry patch, but most of the berries weren't ripe yet. We picked a small amount for tomorrow morning's breakfast. We stopped for the night at Neys Lunch & Campground, a small, cheap campground across the road from Neys Provincial Park.

DSK