Day 5, 6 & 7

Pictures of days 5, 6 and 7 can again be seen at the bottom of all the blogs.

Day 5:

Today we travelled from just before Sault St. Marie to Pembroke. We are still in Ontario and this will be our 3rd day travelling this province just to get across it. You do not realize how big the country is until you do this trip.

We did a lot of driving today but did stop in Sudbury to visit the `big Nickel` at which place Leo discovered that the trailer hitch was not locked and we had just driven 260 km with it this way. Luckily nothing happened, but now Leo does the outside of the trailer and I do the inside.

After Sudbury we drove on to our campground, one with no internet this time. This campsite had 112 sites of which perhaps 20 were taken, while another camper who comes here yearly told us that in previous years it was always full.

We then did some shopping and went to bed early to be ready to rise again with the birds.

Leo's driving started off very well when he passed a grader only 20 km into the day's trip, but he passed nothing else for the remaining 660 km. Ah well, beggars can't be choosers.

Day 6:

We got up early again and left our campsite in Pembroke around 7:30 to go to Ottawa to spend the day in this beautiful city. We went to the Museum of Civilization for the afternoon. It took us 5 hours just to walk through the basic exhibits. It sure is a fantastic place and worth another visit next time we are here. I am sure you will enjoy the pictures Leo took of the museum.

After supper we went to the Parliament buildings and walked around the grounds. Leo did his wonders with photography again and got lots of looks from passers-by as he was taking his pictures from on high using his camera mounted on a fishing pole. Hopefully the strange looks were worth it.

Afterwards we went back to our campground and to bed to get up early again the next morning.

Today Leo got totally skunked in his driving, but please don`t bring this up with him when you see him next because he will still be upset about it. All he passed was an Amish-style buggy behind a trotting horse along the highway shoulder. His kind wife offered to allow him to count this for the day, but his pride would not let him.,

Day 7:

Today is Saturday, and was another beautiful day when it comes to the weather: sunshiny and hot. We drove from just east of Ottawa through Montreal (with the biggest city traffic since we left Calgary) to our camp site in St. Philippe. After we got lost and found our way again we parked our campmobile and went to Exporail (the Canadian Railway Museum) in St. Constant to look at trains, and more trains, and then again more trains.

Leo just loves Montreal driving! Positively loves it! Within the 120 km he drove in Quebec on the freeways approaching Montreal, and skirting its southern edge, he passed two motorhomes, two trucks and 34 cars! He even stopped counting the cars because he needed to concentrate on the traffic! Staying in the centre lane does pay its dividends here.