Post No. 5

20 July, 2017, Blog Posting No. 5

17 July North Bay to Renfrew/White Lake, Ontario, on Hwy 17

At North Bay we stayed in a spotless small campground called Dreany Haven just a few km east of North Bay. It was another long haul from Wawa to North Bay, 670 km. Once again partook of refreshment at a Tim Hortons, Starbucks is rarely seen west of Alberta and coffee of any sort is rare along Hwy 17. The.TH coffee is of equal or better quality and much cheaper than Starbucks. Tim Hortons absolutely rock in this part of Canada, oh for a few thousand to have invested in early Tim Horton, this trip would be in a chauffeur driven Mercedes instead of a converted self drive Mercedes van!!. Short drive from North Bay to Renfrew, where we made a call at a farm belonging to Rand and Claudette, brother and sister-in-law of our old friend Judy Lindsay. Judy was in fact raised on this rather lovely property just on the edge of Renfrew. Who could believe that our Judy, doyenne of the arts and some time business editor of the Vancouver Sun started out as a farm girl. K and I thought we had come from small country towns but downtown Renfrew looked pretty quiet compared to the bright lights of Gisborne and Rotorua of our youths. What did you do on Saturday nights in Renfrew in 1963 Judy? Rand showed us around the family property and Claudette kindly provided a light lunch so we were well refreshed when we left Renfrew at 1400 hrs.

By sheer happen chance our other contacts in Ontario were Glen Greig and Gail Atkinson, located in White Lake, only25 minutes away. Phil and Gail had worked together in the difficult days of seismic investigations at Klohn Leonoff in Vancouver. When the Special Projects group evaporated Gail went on to eventually become a full prof at Western and a distinguished figure in Canadian seismicity, while Glen took early retirement from Waterloo to spend more rewarding years developing and building their various rural retreats and helping to raise their two children. We have kept in touch over the intervening 30 plus years with Xmas newsletter exchanges and occasional meetings when business brought Gail and Glen to the west coast. However this was the first time we had cornered them in their rural Ontario lair so it was quite the occasion for us. They have a house on the lake with a deck built by Glen, so we enjoyed a sundown and a drink on the deck. The dogs were allowed into the lake, (we usually limit their time in water) and they took great delight in sharing their joy by bringing out their soaking bodies and shaking as much lake water on us as they could. We suspect that when they recount tales (tails?) of this long journey with doggie pals the time spent at the lake will be the highlight of the whole trip. They didn’t stop running in and out until totally exhausted so we had a very quiet evening after that. We had a great evening over a couple of bottles of excellent Malbec and a delicious meal of locally raised pork. We had lots of catchup and had to work quite conscientiously to solve all Canada’s and the world’s problems before calling it a night, Gail was heading to Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island to join a golfing pal, with a 4 am start to catch her flight in Ottawa the next morning. Good news for us is that Gail and Glen are fairly committed to moving permanently to a house in Qualicum Beach, confirming the call of the good life in Vancouver Island can be heard practically all the way to Ottawa now. Be warned all of those Canadians not living on Vancouver Island or planning to move, make up your minds soon! When the Vancouver Island Liberation Front (FLIV to you Francophones) takes over we will probably close the border to outsiders and require passports and family connections before letting any one else in. The leech like BC Ferry Corporation will be amongst the first to be lined up against the wall when the revolution comes.

18 July, we had a leisurely breakfast with Glen and were on our way to Ottawa at mid-day. Easy drive, we set ourselves up in the Rideau Heights Camp in Nepean for a few days to explore Ottawa. The camp manager offered to give me Justin Trudeau’s address so I might take up the offer and sort out a few bits of neglected west coast business. Reaching Ottawa is the first of our eastern destinations, so now our exploration and enjoyment of this vast new world starts in earnest.

Kirsty’s observations from the command chair on our journey so far:

· Ian Tyson is excellent accompaniment driving through Alberta!

· We loved the Prairies! Not all flat. Lovely rolling hills, with trees on the border with Alberta. Magnificent clouds and skies which are a great foil to canola fields.

· We decided tourism is an aspirational business in Saskatchewan after following highway signs to non-existent RV camp grounds.

· Has a neutron bomb hit Saskatchewa? On Sunday afternoon we encountered neat, well cared for towns, with no signs of human habitation.

· Great quote from an elderly Saskatchewan farmer: “I couldn’t live in BC – the only place to look is up!”

· Winnipeg has Canada’s best tourist attraction so far – the polar bears at the Zoo showing off their massive paws as they swim above your head.

· Fashion notes – skirts are endangered. Years in Asia taught me that skirts were the most comfortable in extreme heat. But now I am the only woman in Western Canada (apart from Mennonites) who thinks so. Best dressed men I’ve so far spotted were a group of Amish: narrow dark trousers, bright blue shirts and hats. And alas the obesity crisis is no longer just an American phenomenon!

· Several exciting animal sightings but the most impressive are insects! Huge fluffy mosquitoes and cunning ticks. My favorite feature on the campervan – bug screens; our most useful parting gift – mosquito coils; my favorite lotions - DEET and Benadryl.

· Ontario is vast! We drove the Northern route on Highways 71, 11, and 17 for days across the top of Lake Superior and have had our fill of lakes, rocks and trees! Occasionally the rocks, lakes and trees came together for a Group of Seven type vista, but too often it felt as if we were driving on the same stretch of road, hour after hour, to be welcomed by the same cloud of mosquitoes when we stopped, we think they followed in our slipstream.

· Massive infrastructure work on roads in Northern Ontario, but a startling number of service businesses appear to have gone under in the past 10 years – abandoned gas stations, restaurants and motels. One could expire on these routes for want of snacks or even coffee. Tim Horton has become my new best friend and I’ve discovered Timbits! Raspberry filled ones are sheer ambrosia.

· The bottom has fallen out of trapping! Among the tourist tat at trading posts one could buy fox tails for $30, a wolf pelt for $200 and a full mink coat for $500!

· We think of BC as multicultural, but the changing face of Canada is much apparent in central Canada.

19 July, Ottawa

Walked the dogs early then left them in the camper van with all the vents and window open and the exhaust fans operating while we took the bus to downtown Ottawa. Excellent bus system, free to seniors today but our buses are not very frequent. Most of the bus system seems to run on dedicated bus lanes so it was very rapid traveling once the bus actually arrived at our stop. Downtown was alive with tourists. Impossible line up to get tickets to view inside any of the parliament buildings. We were told to be there at 08:30 hours tomorrow to have any hope of getting inside/tour tickets. We walked around the immediate historical buildings. Had a very nice exchange with one of the very knowledgeable, official tourist aids, a charming young lady who had graduated recently with a history degree but was off to teach French at the end of the summer. Bus drivers, police/security officers are all very friendly and helpful. Ottawa river looked a bit scummy, Rideau canal must be wonderful to skate in the winter. Tomorrow we will make that early start and see if we can see inside some of the historical buildings. The dogs you will be pleased to hear survived very happily, and after feeding went straight back to sleep.

20 July, Ottawa. Ticket office for visiting historic buildings was still jammed early in the morning, so we decided to go elsewhere. Took the walk across the river to Hull to visit the Canadian Museum of History, with ambitions to visit the National Gallery on the way back. The CMoH display of west coast indigenous culture was impressive. Did this mean there was nothing left of first nations culture in the east by the time we got around to establishing museums? Didn’t make it to the Nat. Gal, heat and humidity took their toll. Go west young man, avoid the humidity. Tip for tourists, don't do the sweated march across the Alexander Bridge, take the little tourist water taxi. We have actually done 16,000 steps today and 15,000 yesterday, so we are not slackers, but I think Ottawa needs a lot more time than we have allowed. Perhaps one of us will stand for parliament, to complete the tour. We are getting very good Radio CBC cover here, as well a several free to air TV stations, so unfortunately Trumperama has re-entered our lives. Now he is bad mouthing his own choice of attorney general. Obviously the inquiry into Russian contacts has got him panicking, roll on Robert Mueller!!