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.

Day 4

Day 4:

This was our day to follow the shores of Lake Superior on and off. This is superbly beautiful scenery. The road is cut through the granite of the Canadian Shield in places, producing strikingly colourful deep salmon-coloured rock cuts. In other places the rock is a deep purple or pinkish. The views of the lake come and go but are usually spectacular, punctuated by various headlands and islands. To top it off the CP Rail track is visible in many places for those few who care about such things.

The travel was interrupted on a number of occasions by road construction, but that did not detract from a wonderful day. The weather started out cloudish, then cleared and ended the day with mist rolling in from the lake as we neared the city of Sault Ste. Marie. We are camped just before the city and will move past it tomorrow.

The highlight of the day was a visit to the Winnie the Pooh shrine in White River from which town the original Winnie black bear was sent to the London Zoo to be immortalized in the writings of A.A. Milne. A close second was the wildlife we saw: two black bears who are likely distant relatives of that original Winnie and our first moose.

(For those still following the adventures of Leo’s driving, he cheated today. He usually drives at the speed limit, but that is only 90 km/hr here in Ontario. So he drove 95 instead in an effort to improve his passing rate. But he still only passed 2 cars in 780 km of driving. He did, however, pass a tractor and a backhoe during that stretch in a desperate attempt to get some more points.)

Day 2 & 3

Here we are. 2 days later and already in Ontario. Our camp spot tonight is Kakabeka Falls, a place where you can find the most beautiful fall. Leo thinks these are the second best waterfalls, after Niagara Falls, that he has ever seen.

Day 2:

But first some more about yesterday. From Regina we left Highway 1 and travelled some scenic secondary roads. Saskatchewan is not flat, Erik. It has hills and valleys and lakes, and some flat parts,too. It is a pleasure to travel through, with lots of very nice scenery.

After driving 550 km we arrived at Portage la Prairie at the end of our second day of beautiful scenery and nice weather. We ended up in a campground where I got trapped inside my trailer while Leo went out to take some pictures of trains. The reason for my entrapment was the swarms of mosquitoes. We did not have enough hands, feet, fingers or toes to kill the beasts attacking us.

(Oh yes, Leo passed 1 truck, and 1 pick-up pulling a trailer on day 2.)

Day 3:

We got up early and were on the road at 5:30 Alberta time to escape the pesky creatures. Then we spent the next 100 km swatting the stinging pests in the car. They just were everywhere.

We drove through the Canadian Shield and we saw millions of flowers along the road.
After 770 km of Manitoba and Ontario we arrived at Kakabeka Falls, our destination for today. Tomorrow we will travel more of Ontario.

(And not to forget, in the 770 km of driving today Leo passed 2 trucks, 1 van and 1 car, which is passing roughly 1 vehicle every 200 km!)

View the pictures of our trip so far below. Each picture is worth a thousand words.

Day 1

Our first day of the trip. - 760 km done!

We finally left at 8:30 in the morning and arrived in Regina at 5:30. No problems finding a camp spot, and as you can tell, one with internet.

What did we see today? Antelope, pelicans at Brooks, lots of hawks and we had the pleasure of listening to the meadowlarks sing. We also saw 11 Canadian Pacific trains, mainly intermodel ones. Once we arrived at our camp spot and set up our trailer we went to shoot some pictures of an old steam locomotive. Pretty run down but I understand that CP is thinking of restoring it. Just as Leo was finished a security guy came to tell him he was not allowed to take any pictures without permission of the company. Ah well, we already had the pictures.

This one is for the kids - we passed 3 trucks and a pickup pulling a small trailer. This one is for Judy - 3 mosquito bites, you had better work harder and kill some more!

Hope you will join us!

Hello, hope you will join us on our trip to the Rock. We hope to update this blog often with stories and pictures as we travel to the east coast of Canada. Will you join us!