Catching Up with the Brundiges (7/30-31/2015)

We are definitely on the move now.  Thursday morning we were ready by 8:45, but we had to wait on the Johnsons so it was about 9:00 when we got on the road.  (Inside joke -- everyone is ALWAYS waiting on the Froeschkes, so this morning was monumental when we were ready to go before they were, although they were ready by 9:00, our standard departure target time.)  It was a pretty uneventful day and we put in a fairly long day.  we drove 271 miles today, were off the road about 3:30, and set up by 4:00, in Pakenham, Ontario.  The only wildlife I saw was something that I thought was a "red wolf," but Collins told me it was probably a red fox, even though it was longer and taller than any fox I had ever seen before.  It was wolf-size, but red-fox in color.  No one else saw it, so I guess I'll go with red fox until I can get a second opinion that agrees with me.  David thought he saw an eagle, but no one else saw that either -- Joe just saw David run off the road when he was watching the eagle!  Ahh, life on the road. 

We kept trying to watch for fuel at a decent price, with a parking lot we could both get into.  We finally found gas in the town of Deep River for $1.139/ltr.  According to my questionable calculations, I think that was about $3.31/gallon, but I have to have Marilyn give me a lesson in converting liters and gallons, and Canadian dollars to U.S. dollars.   She uses the 20cents/dollar exchange ratio, which would make it closer to $3.449.  So maybe somewhere in between those two numbers. 

We also grabbed lunch here at a Burger King -- the highway through town was all torn up in road construction so getting in any place was difficult.  And the ice machine was broken, so Joe's first soda of the day was without ice  -- not so good.  I thought we were just in the part of the country where they no longer served ice with their drinks, but Joe said later that he was told the ice machine was broken, so hopefully that is not a permanent situation.  Parked next to us here at the Burger King was the smallest camper we have ever seen!

We found campsites outside the town of Pakenham, at a cute little campground called River Bend, right on   Ontario's Mississippi River.We were cautioned here to obey the speed limit of 10 mph (probably was 10 km) because of kids and ducks.  And sure enough, there were both.

After we got set up, Joe, Mazie and I drove back into town where we had seen a produce stand.  We bought some fresh corn, cucumbers, and Mazie also bought some beets.  We checked out a bakery/gift shop too, then went back to camp and I fixed our fresh corn for dinner -- yummy!  After dinner, Joe got out our fishing poles and we drove down to the river to throw our lines in the water.  We didn't go up to the office to buy worms so we had to use artificial bait, but it was fun just sitting on the dock casting our lines.

Joe, the great fisherman, decided to switch baits and he found two rubber worms in the tackle box, so he put one of those on.  After a few casts out into the river, he decided to just let the line drop right in front of the dock.  So he opened the bail and the line starting dropping into the water.  It kept going ... and going ... and going ... and going.  He said he must have found the deepest hole in the river.  I said, "maybe you have a fish!"  He said, "Oh!"  He flipped the bail and pulled back on the pole, and sure enough there was a fish on the other end.  But he didn't set the hook hard enough, so he wasn't able to bring it even to the top of the water.  The big one that got away!

Shortly after that, I tried a similar approach, and I actually did hook a little fish and got it to the top of the water, but then it fell off.  I think it was a yellow perch.  But at least we got to see it.  I messed around with my line right in front of the dock, and Joe thought my new technique of holding my pole was worth a picture.

We didn't have any more luck, but Joe soaked his feet in the river right amongst the lily pads.
It was very scenic, and as the sun set, the trees were reflected in the water.

This campground was nice and grassy, and there was a "yarn-bombed" tree at the entrance that certainly caught our eye.  Very cute.

This morning as we were getting ready to leave, some soldiers came running through the campground down to the river where canoes awaited them -- part of their fitness training.  We were told they had run 20 km with 40 lbs on their backs, were going to canoe 20 km, then there was some more running, and crossing the river. 

The dump station here was a little complicated, because of rules about how far from the river the dump station could be (500 ft. I think he said), we couldn't just pull up to it.  It was backwards to what we usually have, but we got dumped and on the road by 9:15.  We had seen a sign in town yesterday about pancakes 12 km down the road, so that was our breakfast plan.  But as I was talking to the campground owner while Joe was dumping our tanks, he said the pancake house was only open during maple syrup season, so we were out of luck there.  He told me of another place, so we stopped in Carlton's Place for breakfast.  We had to wait a couple minutes to get seated and Joe started talking "fishing" to some other customers.  We sat down, and the next thing I heard Joe, back at the front door, say "what did you do with my people."  So the waitress then showed him over to our table.  Can't take him anywhere!

We finished our very good breakfast, then headed on to our rendevoux with Collins and Marilyn. We went through one town, Franktown, boasting of being the "lilac capital of Ontario."  Wrong season for me, though, so of course there were none blooming.


We are camped at Collins' sister-in-law's house, back by the shop. We only drove 48 miles today, and were here about 11:30. After we got situated here, Collins and Marilyn took us on a sightseeing tour of the places around here, mostly where Collins grew up.  We went into Smith Falls and watched the locks, checked out some other locks, stopped by the cemetery and saw Collins and Marilyn's gravestones (a little morbid),  and stopped by Marilyn's sister's house to say hi. Then Joe and Collins went over to another nearby village to watch a car race on a dirt track, the World of Outlaws.  It was a nice day, but we did have a little shower about 7:00 p.m.