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1 to 15 June 2017 16 to 30 June 2017

Thursday June 1, 2017

They are so nice with me, they joined me for the garbage run!

We are visiting the village of Picton in the afternoon.

John A Macdonald lived in Picton between 1824 and 1835. It is here that he did his first case in court at the age of 19.
Christianne on the accused bench.

John A Macdonald was one of the architect of the Canadian Confederation and the first Premier of Canada.
Estelle really likes him, so does Michele!

What is going on?

Estelle just needed a good hug...

What a big maple leaf, I do not know what type of maple tree it is coming from.

Watch out Estelle! The waves are pretty big!

Oups! Estelle is gone with the waves!!!

Where is she?

We found her and took her back home with us.
The girls getting ready for bed.

I find it funny to watch them getting ready for bed, quite an attraction...

Now they are ready!

We had a very good day with my sisters.

Friday June 2, 2017

They are leaving this morning.

Goodbye and drive safe. It was fun to have you both with us even if it was very short.

We are getting back on the road Sunday morning and traveling to Saskatchewan. We have some last minute shopping to do in Trenton.
The bridge in Trenton is the Gateway to the Trent-Severn Waterway. It is over 380 km long, the waterway.

We do some more preparations for our travel in the afternoon.

Jannie and Jan have invited us for a drink tonight. We gladly accept and spend a few hours with them. We talked until midnight.

Saturday June 3, 2017

We only have a few things left to do before we hit the road tomorrow.
I clean the windshield with windex first and the use a dry steel wool "0000" to finish cleaning the windshield.
Why steel wool and won't it scratch the glass?
Steel wool "0000" is very soft and will not scratch glass. It will really clean the baked on "stuff" on the windshield, works great!

Once all the outdoor stuff done, I can relax a little.

We cannot wait to see Jeremy and Gabriel again.
We will be taking our time to travel to Saskatchewan. We do not have to be there until June 21st or 22nd.
We will travel slow!

Sunday June 4, 2017

Time to hit the road!
The rain started just as we had to go outside.
Weather forecast for today? Rain and rain, but no wind.

Goodbye North Shore, Jannie, Patricia and Jan.

Just outside the RV Park.

Needed some gasoline before we hit the road.

And rain on the 401!
Not the best, but traffic is light.

As we got closer to Toronto, the rain slowed and with the low clouds, it made some interesting sceneries.

Maybe 10 km sort of the interchange for the 400 north, the rain stopped. It sure makes it easier and safer to drive.

We should not have too much traffic on the 400 as everybody is coming back to Toronto and we are going away from Toronto.

We stopped close to Barrie for lunch.

It is close to 2 pm when we arrive in Parry Sound, our destination for today.

How many signs do you need next to the road?

Our home for the night, Walmart in Parry Sound.

We have traveled a little less than 400 km today, not bad.
The roads were good, traffic was light, even in Toronto.
A good day traveling for us.

Tomorrow we are going to Sudbury.

Monday June 5, 2015

So far, the roads are very nice.
We drove by many small town
Shortly after we left Parry Sound, highway 400 becomes provincial road # 69.

As we got closer to Sudbury, road # 69 turns into a 4 lanes highway again. They even have animal crossing bridges.

Sudbury seems to have a large population, but the greater Sudbury includes many smaller towns. Some up to 10 km away from the city.

We leave # 69 behind to take # 17 for the next 1500 km.

Once on the west side of Sudbury, we leave # 17 to go to the "Big Nickel and the Dynamic Earth Science Centre".
Some people have told us there was nothing to see in Sudbury, we will see.
All around Sudbury you have those tall chimneys. They are from the mine processing plants.

We are coming up to the Big Nickel.

Here it is!

I think it is too heavy, but Michele is stronger than me!

Looking pretty!

Hummm, why am I the penny?
Is it because it is no longer in use, obsolete?
Does it mean I am too?

It looks like it was renovated lately.

They have an exhibit on the earth and the dinosaurs.
I am playing in sand, making mountains and lakes. It shows you watersheds and how water flows inside the watershed. Very interesting.

A Chasmosaurus, he was found in Canada.

It is a medium size science centre. It is very well done for kids and grown-ups alike.

Member of my family?

Recognize some people you worked with at one time?

Many exhibit have microscope with a large monitor above, I have to check out my latest howie!

The other section of the science centre is for the visit of an underground mine.
We took an elevator and went down about 10 meters. Along the way, our guide explained why Sudbury is rich in particular metals. A BIG meteor landed here 1.5 billion years ago.

It is little out of focus, but it shows you a mine in 3D.

Time to go underground. This mine was dug just for the science centre.
All is good, we can go in.

Stephane was our guide, he was OK.
He is explaining how mining was done in the 1950.

He also explains how they use dynamite in the mines.

With the underground visit completed, we head back to the MH. On our way back, we stop at some outdoor exhibits.
Why is this rock different?

Can you see it?
You can even touch it!

I have always wonder why?

Here is an example of how the people of Sudbury are transforming the landscape back to the "green" it used to be.
The photo at the top is about 50 years old and the bottom one is a few years old.
You can really see the difference.

We were a little surprised by the quality of the science centre.
Goodbye Big Nickel and Sudbury. We really enjoyed our time here.

I have an application on our tablet that lets us know places where we can stay for the night (Boondocks) for free with no services.
I went out to check one out, but a local gentleman was there and "kindly" reminded me it is "closed" after 10 pm. I told him we would not be camping, but simply parking! We do not want to create waves with the locals, we carried on down the road.

We made a stop for gas, notice the name of the truck stop?

We finally made it to a campground that belongs to the Passport America club.
We still had to pay $26 for a site with only two services.

Too many no-see-em to go out and take photos, tomorrow maybe.
We watched the hockey game in the evening.

We had a good day on the road. We stopped at a very good science centre and still traveled 310 km.

The road after Sudbury was terrible for about 100 km, then it was good.

Tuesday June 6, 2017

What is up with that, I am up at 6 am!!!
After breakfast, I went out for a walk, a very short walk because the bugs were up and about too!
Our home, we are on the right of the house.

You have to go down to the docks, we are on the left.

Our site is close to the lake, but not very level.

A view of the dock area and Lake Lauzon.

A view from the windshield.

As I mentioned, we only have two services, water and electricity, no sewer.
Not even a dump station.
The lady recommended a dump station located in the next town.

It is a very nice dump station.

Before we got to Sault-St-Marie (S-S-M), we are back on a four lane highway.

Just east of S-S-M, we turn into the Garden River First Nation territory to get to our next campground.

Less than a kilometer later, we enter in our new home for the next two nights.
$72.00 for two nights with only two services, a little expensive, we think.

The young lady at the office gave us a nice site with a view of the lake.
Once at the site, we realize that the post with the power is at least 60 feet from our MH!
On top of that, we have to watch where we walk because the geese have done their "job" all over our site. One little pile every foot!
Goose poop is bigger than some small dog poop.
Back to the office.
I walk in and she says "power post is too far?" You think!
She gave us a new site. This one is better.

After we got all settle in, we took off for S-S-M and the "Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre".

First stop is at the Wildfires 3D movie.

WOW and double WOW!
We really enjoyed the movie. Now we understand better how wildfire burn and how they fight it.

With my 3D glasses.

Next is another movie. This one is about a trip on a bush plane to a camp on a lake far to the north.

Really well made, a gentleman in the aircraft telling us what to do and not to do, on the main screen, the actual trip.

Other than the CL-215, the other 3 airplanes are the best bush plane ever.

Come fly with us?

A CL-215 from Canadair, today Bonbardier. The only aircraft of its type in the world. It is used only to fight forest fires.

We continue our visit with a 3rd movie. This one is more like flying.

There are actually 3 movies to watch.
We are ready to take off from the St-Marie river.

The first flight is above the St-Marie river, the second flight is over the Agawa Canyon.

The third flight was about fighting wildfires.

An overview of the museum.

They have a section for the kids. It explains theory of flight and other subject related to aircraft.

They had many flight simulator games. Michele and I were not very good, we did not completely understand the way the console works.

A Fox Moth being restored. We had the chance to talk to the man working on the restoration.
Very interesting.

Michel playing at being a "Superstar".

A Grumman Tracker, originally this type of aircraft was used to hunt soviet submarines. Once they were declared surplus, many were converted to water bomber.
Here is a little anecdote, my first ever airplane ride was in a Canadian Armed Forces Tracker between Shearwater, NS to Bagotville, QC.
I was 17 years old! I had not even one year in the service.

This is the King of bush airplane, the DeHavilland DHC-2 Beaver.
This one is actually the second (#2) ever built. It is the oldest still flying Beaver in the world today.
The assembly line for the Beaver started in 1948. The last Beaver to come of the assembly line was in 1967. 1600 Beavers were built and it is estimated 900 are still flying somewhere around the world.

A 1940's firefighter bush camp.

A Noorduyn Norseman.
This one was built in 1938 and it was the 17th to come out of the assembly line.
It is the oldest Norseman flying in the world. More than 900 were built.

If you are ever in the Sault-St-Marie area, make it a priority to stop and visit this small, but "loaded" aircraft museum.

We traveled only 140 km today, but we had a full day.
The road was very good except for a few "bumpy" area.

No way we are going outside with all the no-see-em waiting at the door!

Wednesday June 7, 2017

Michele decided not to come with me for the visit of the ship Norgoma.

When I got there, it said on the door, it will not open until June 19th!
A bust of the first Canadian Woman astronaut, Roberta Bondar.

I still got some info on the ship...

What should I do now?
Why not take a walk on the waterfront boardwalk by the St-Marie river.
Bears?

One caught a pike and the other two are just watching...

And a forth is filming the whole thing!

All along the boardwalk you have small signs informing us about landmark on both sides of the river.
This is on the Michigan side of the river.

The locks on the American side of the river.

The bridge.

What the locks mean today.

The reasons for the locks.

They have some wind chimes inside those ship horns.

I really enjoyed my walk along the boardwalk.

I am home for lunch.
Michele join me for the afternoon. We will be visiting the Sault Ste. Marie Canal National Historic Site.

Darn, the welcome centre is closed for renovations. Now the welcome centre is in a trailer by the lock. This means not much to see in there.
Still, they do have this small display showing the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence Waterway.

Michele and the engineer's residence behind her.

The reason why Canada had to build locks on our side of the river.

What is that?

The explanation.

It must have been a sight to see...

This is how it works.

We decided to hike the Attikamek trail.
We walked right by the rapids on the St Marie river. The fishing seems to be good today.

The rapids and the bridge to the USA.

We are hiking the South St. Marie Island.

Some of the residents!

WOW!
Mommy, daddy and 7 babies!
They are not moving.
What should we do?

We take our time and observe the two ducks you can see on the left of the photo.

I managed to walk by and they did not even moved, but they were angry at me.
After a few minutes, I managed to make them move to the water so Michele could join me.

When we got back to the lock, a small cruise ship was coming in to use the lock.
The ship is coming from the Lake Superior side of the lock.

Once the doors are closed, they evacuate the water downstream from the lock.

The ship can now continue her trip to Lake Huron.

We had a good day today, tomorrow we continue our trip west.

Thursday June 8, 2017

We have to get ready before the bugs wake up...

First stop is at the dump station.

Second stop, hooking up the car to the MH.

We are back on the road and we have to go through S-S-M.

Third stop, fill up the fuel tank. We still have 3/4 of a tank left, but why not fuel when the price is low vice when it is high somewhere in the middle of nowhere. This way we can make it to Thunder Bay no problems.

Our fourth stop will be in Wawa for lunch.

The scenery's are so nice.

Now the roads are more mountainous. Specially around Montreal River.

Just before Wawa, we hit our first road construction since we left Trenton. We stopped to have lunch in Wawa.

Our fifth and last stop is in White River. Winnie the Pooh. "Where it all began".

We bought the application "OvernightRVparking" to map out the place where we can park overnight for free with the MH.
The White River information centre is one of them. They even allow you to open your slides! The town understand that tourist will spend money here if they stop here!
It is located just behind the Winnie the Pooh place by the highway.

This is the Winnie the Pooh place by the highway.

I think we will take a short walk!

About the real bear.

They have a small museum for Winnie the Pooh and the history of White River.

It is a very small and free museum.
One corner is all about Winnie the Pooh.

And the other corner is about the history of White River.

Ahhhhh! Michele and Winnie!

Back at the MH, we do a lot of reading.
Later in the afternoon, I went out for another walk just to check things out.
I noticed this motel with an advertisement of "Colour" TV.
Just look at the format. It must be from the late 60's or early 70's.

We covered 320 km today and we are in the mountainous area of Lake Superior.

Friday June 9, 2017

Goodbye Winnie the Pooh!

We are on our way to just the other side of Marathon. It will not be a long day of driving.

A bear!
This is the first bear we saw during this trip. Actually it is the only wild animal we saw other than birds and people.
I think it is a young cub.

Slag from an open pit mine.

Shortly after the bear, we saw this young moose. This time we have nobody behind us so I can slow right down next to him.

He does not like our MH!

Even with the "going uphill" and "downhill" the road is very nice.

Our new home for three nights.
Neys Lunch & Campground. OK, for get the "Lunch" part and it was a "general Store" at one time, but now the store is barely 20 feet by 20 feet.
The campground offers 3 services, but only 15 amps electricity. For $20 a night, you can't complain.

I think this campground was very nice at one time, now it is OK.

The store is even a LCBO agent (selling booze).
If I was to place all the bottles of booze together, they would not even cover a table 2 square feet. LOL!

I think their main clientele are hunters...

We are right across Neys Provincial Park.

Once again, we are attacked by no-see-em every time we stepped outside.

Saturday June 10, 2017

We woke up to rain!
I watch the hares while having breakfast.

It rains all morning. We even hear some thunder in the distance.

I spent the morning working on our blog.

Michele is working really hard on her book.

The real bad weather is getting closer and closer.
It is 1:30 pm and it turns dark outside.

Michele even has to turn on the light to continue reading!

We spend the day indoor, not because of the bug this time.

Sunday June 11, 2017

It is sunny!
It has been a long time since we looked for caches.
I am out looking for caches this morning. Michele decided to stay indoor because of the bugs.
There are only 3 caches within 3 km. The first cache is in the yellow cover for the guy wire.

The second cache is close to the Provincial Park.

I watched a train go by for a long time and I forgot to take a photo!
Have you ever noticed how the air smells next to train tracks?
It has a particular aroma to it.

Next, the third cache. It is along the Highway 17 about 2.5 km away.
I am walking to it. This is the Ashburton Bay. Can you see the ship on the left?

Here it is!

The third cache is camouflage into a pine cone.

A raven's nest.

A walked a little over 6 km before lunch.
The bugs are bad again in the afternoon, so we spend our time indoor.
I still took the time to fill the fresh water tank because our next stop will be at a Walmart store.

Monday June 12, 2015

Goodbye Neys Lunch & Campground!

We are back on the road by 9 am. There are only a few patch of fog left.

Many section of the road are in the process of being widen. We should see better road in the future.

Because Lake Superior is deep and cold, the fog last longer over the water.

The sign says "Flat Country"? Really!

As we arrive in Nipigon, we cross the famous bridge that failed in January 2106. For 17 hours no circulation was going either west or east. This is a "choke" point in Canada, no other way around this bridge.

The truck stops are located on the west side of town. We make a stop for a coffee and an Ice Cap for Michele.

Coming up to our destination.

We are spending the night at the Walmart in Thunder Bay.

We were on the road for 266 km today. This stretch of road is mostly about going up and down mountains.

Tuesday June 13, 2017

We had a good night of sleep for a Walmart parking lot.

We only have less than 400 km to go today. At least it is the plan.

One of those tiny house you see on TV shows.

A quick stop for coffee, a donut and a muffin.

We notice a lot of military equipment going east.

An elk farm.

We arrive at our destination, it is a large parking lot where we can spend the night with no issues.
But!
It is only noon.
What should we do?
Our next stop is supposed to be at a campground in Manitoba, 260 km west of here.
The road is nice. The traffic is good. We decide to carry on.

Kenora is not a friendly city for RVers.
You cannot park anywhere for more then a few hours and certainly not for the night.
It makes you wonder how many RVers do not stop and simply carry on the next town where you are more welcome to spend your money.
Needless to say, we do not stop in Kenora.

Welcome to Manitoba. Manitoba became a Canadian Province in 1870.

We make a quick stop at the Manitoba Welcome Centre.

Shortly after we enter Manitoba, the Trans-Canada Highway splitin 4 lanes. The westbound lanes are just horrible, really horrible.
A gravel road would have been better!
It is about time they fix this road.

Our new home for the next four days.

We had a longer day on the road, all 630 km.

Wednesday June 14, 2017

A quick tour of the campground.
Our site is nice. We have 3 services and our satellite is working.

It is a "different" campground. From what I understand, the previous owner allowed add-on to RVs.
I guess no standards we set and some of those add-on are nice and some not so nice.

The current owners established some standards as far as add-on goes.
The newer RVs sites seem to have better looking sites with less "intrusive" structures.

The amenities.

We were under a severe thunderstorm watch and high winds for the whole day.

Thursday June15, 2017

The campground entrance.

As I said, we do have all 3 services. I noticed this large white plastic pipe with a black cover next to our sewer connection.
Later, when I was walking around the campground, I noticed this large plastic tank in the back of the campground.
I put two and two together and realize that the sewer system is not one big septic system, but an individual system.
What I mean is one tank is located at each site and collects the waste water from the RV, every so often, a septic truck comes and empty the tanks. The tanks underground are not exactly like the one we see above ground.

With the rain forecasted, we still decide to go to Steinbach, but we will not be visiting the Mennonite historical village.
I need to fill the car before we go anywhere.
WOW!, look at the price of gas!
It is very cheap in Manitoba. The last time we fueled the MH in Thunder Bay, Ontario, we paid $1.169 per liter. A difference of $0.23 per liter is a big saving for us when you put more than 225 liters in the MH. That is over $50 saving.

To get to Steinbach we have to drive through the big metropolis of Richer. Population 506.

Steinbach is the third largest city in Manitoba.

After driving around and shopping, we head home.

Until next time.

Life is good...