I’m writing this e-mail in Petawawa, Ontario at Pine Ridge Riverside Campground on the mighty Ottawa River. It’s a nice place, but there’s no internet connection. Same story last night when we stayed at Brennen’s Campground on the shore of Lake Ontario about a mile from the Golden Fish Restaurant in Pulaski, N.Y.—- familiar I am sure to the many salmon snaggers on the blog/e-mail list. Tomorrow (Thursday) I hope to stop along the highway somewhere and send this. Anyway, yesterday brought no surprises, except I guess for rookies. For instance, the toll for the trailer on the New York Thruway was $26.00. And the mileage for this rig is running a little under 10 MPG when we had hoped for 12 or even a bit more. Please send donations!…. The weather was hot, hot, hot with a high of 96 degrees, and still in the upper 80’s in the evening. The good news is that the air conditioner works, and we were only 100 feet from the water so things did cool down….. Today, we had our first adventure. Going thru Customs, we were told to “go around the bend and pull over by the orange cones.” (For those of you already laughing over the Ft.Lauderdale airport incident, this was Dave’s hearing, not mine.) There was a bend in the road up about 200 yards, but no cones. We were now headed across the St Lawrence with no place to turn around. Very briefly, as we turned around at the first spot possible, we were flagged down by a cop and had to go back across the bridge to Customs where we were greeted like Osama Bin Laden. The Customs guys were fairly obnoxious. This “bend” was to make a virtual 90 degree turn across three or four open lanes of traffic and into a parking lot full of trucks. The cones were approximately 200 yards back in the lot. Anyway, this cost us about two hours of time as they checked the trailer for radioactive material, ran our ID’s thru Interpol or whatever, threatened to confiscate the trailer, and generally acted like State of Connecticut bureaucrats. Just a minor communication problem…. The rest of the day was uneventful and the Canadians, excepting Customs, are unfailingly friendly and helpful. ….. There is something of a problem finding campgrounds in the area and this problem is going to continue for the next few days…. So far, so good. Will be in touch again soon if we’re not deported…. Take care….
Hello from Canada
Greetings from Spragge, Ontario!
We covered a lot of ground today leaving Petawawa a little after 9:00 AM and traveling roughly along the Ottawa River to North Bay and Lake Nipissing and on into Sudbury before making a decision to push ahead since it was only about 2:00 PM. We are now sitting in a campground on the banks of the Serpent River where it empties into Lake Huron….. We spent the day looking for places to link up with the internet but were totally unsuccessful. The campground does have a modem, so tomorrow I hope to send two e-mails. I’m avoiding the blog, afraid I’ll mess things up and all of you will get nothing…… The days are developing a routine of sorts. We get up around 6:00, have coffee and breakfast, try to catch the Sox score (though only the first campground had cable TV), and then pack and hook-up the trailer. By the time we get on the road, it’s generally after 9:00. We spend a lot of time at truck stops buying diesel. We spend a lot of time viewing scenery you wouldn’t walk ten feet to see. But then there are some wonderful things to see and it makes it worthwhile, though by mid afternoon we’re ready to call it a day. The trailer isn’t all that difficult to handle and after a while you truly do forget it’s there— which probably ain’t such a good thing, either. I mean we’re still rookies and have to keep that in mind. We then find a campground, set up the trailer, and start supper… We meet a few folks who have no homes but their trailer and who simply follow their wanderlust. At every campground so far we’ve met people who are staying for the summer. As you can imagine, most, but not all, are retired. Some don’t approve of George Bush. I don’t expect that we’ll meet many who do…. Tomorrow morning, it’s on to Sault Ste. Marie. It’s a short jaunt of just over 100 miles so we get a break from driving and maybe a chance to do something touristry….. Although we were followed about a quarter mile by on Ontario patrolman, there is no reason to think we’re being tailed. I suspect we’ll make Alaska after all….
On the road to Mandalay….
On the road to Mandalay
Where the flying fishes play
And the sun comes up like thunder
Out of China ‘cross the bay….
Yeah, a bit of not-so-free association, but we are on the way tomorrow to Thunder Bay where, I just found out, a private trout pond awaits. It’ll be my first chance to fish on the trip, assuming we put the eight or nine hours of required driving behind us and I’m still capable of holding a flyrod. This morning at the campground the office wall was filled with pictures of bass, walleye, and a bunch of muskies over 40 pounds. It got me to thinking maybe I should fish a while but duty ( Northward Ho!) beckoned….. So far, we’ve covered just over 1000 miles. The next two days will see us cover almost that much again. It’s a region infested with moose and deer so the travel is best done in daylight, and if the opportunity presents itself, you choose the collision with the deer— if you know where I’m steering. The Thunder Bay area is fairly remote and it will be the first day that I’ll spend in places I’m totally unfamiliar with. Am looking forward to it…. Bits of miscellaneous…. The couple to the north of us, driving a land yacht of such magnificence that it makes all else on the campground appear shabby, are attempting to visit every major league ball park this season. So far they’ve been to eleven. The folks to the south of us are from Ontario and bought their trailer in February.They have already put 15,000 KM on it! Next week they park the trailer for a while and fly to Italy for a “vacation.”….. We had considered staying here in Sault Ste, Marie tomorrow to go on the Agawa Canyon Train Tour, an eight hour trip through Canadian Shield Wilderness, but we’ve found out that the train only runs two days a week through mid-June— and one of those days ain’t Saturday. This was a trip Dave was really looking forward to so he was devestated. He had to settle for a trip to the Spruce Haven Petting Zoo and he’d like me to let everyone know that his favorites were the pot bellied pigs, the miniature horses asses, and the yak. He couldn’t stay too long because his generous nature led him to quickly spend a fortune (Canadian) on animal pellets….. Till tomorrow…..