Windsor, Ontario (7/5/2015)

Although we considered just taking the day off, we decided to drive into Windsor and check out a couple of the things Collins had listed for our stop here.  Dave and Mazie decided to skip our adventure and trim and wash the dog, then drive out to a couple local wineries (where they bought 3 bottles of wine, but who's keeping track).  So off we went, first to the Canada Club Brand Center.  On the way we spotted a Best Buy so Marilyn checked in there for her Canada GPS software, but they didn't have it, so we continued on.  The guided tour started at noon, so we spent a few minutes wandering around the gift shop, then began the tour.  It was interesting, covered the history of how Hiram Walker decided to start this whiskey business in Canada, and continued through the prohibition years that, while was incorporated by Canada, did have an effect on the whiskey business across the River.

Our tour guide was good and made it very interesting.


This is now a museum, but a lot of the furniture, the walls, floors and ceilings, and the craftmanship of the carved wood are all original.  I sat at Mr. Walker's desk, and his ledger (original) is right there to look at.

You could see the Detroit River, separating U.S. and Canada, right through the windows in this building.

We stopped in the Speakeasy in the basement, and Joe made friends with Al Capone, who was a repeat customer of Canadian Club (no surprise there).

Then we ended in the tasting room, where we were each served a sample of their two new flavors, only available in Ontario, since October 2014.  A 100% rye and a maple rye.

So here's my very first ever taste of rye whiskey.

You can see that I thought it was yummy.  The second sample, the maple, was a little more palatable.

We left there and took their recommendation for a lunch spot -- Kildare's, a pub down the street.

Then we went to the Willistead Manor, the mansion one of Hiram Walker's sons built, 36 rooms for him and his wife (no children, but lots of servants).

The house and grounds were beautiful, on 15 acres I think, which is now a park, and the house is used for weddings, etc.

We probably got to see about half of the rooms, which did not contain much of the original furniture but did have period-authentic furnishings which were all donations.

The house was lovely of course, and our tour guide there was also very good.  I learned that the "drawing room" is the room the women withdraw to after dinner when the men went to the buillard room for their whiskey and cigars (or whatever).  So I have decided to name my scrapbook room at home my "drawing room" because it is where I go to withdraw (sounds better than "woman cave").

We finished that tour and headed back to camp.  I kept trying to get on the internet to work on the blog and finally went down to the office and sat in a chair for an hour and got one day posted.  Hopefully our next campground will have better internet, and we will be back in the U.S. so I can use my own Hotspot.

After dinner, we gathered again at the picnic table for a few games of 99.  The weather today and this evening was absolutely lovely, nice to sit outside, and I think we can open the bedroom window tonight.  I hope we can make it across the border tomorrow without getting searched again, but we will see.

On to Essex, Ontario (7/4/2015)

Today we moved on to Essex, just a few miles south of Windsor, Ontario, which is just across the river from Detroit.  It was a fairly uneventful day.  We got on the road about 10:50, and drove 115 miles with a nice stop for lunch right along the beautiful Lake Erie.

We drive through lots of farm country, and lots of huge hothouses.  We think the hothouses are for hydrophonic tomatoes, but we don't know that for sure.  But these make the ones around Vincennes look like toys.

We had another beautiful day, no rain, temperatures in the 70s.  We arrived at the campground about 2:30 and decided to take the rest of the day off (except that David did some laundry).  They had two pools here so we probably all should have made use of them.  We stayed at a golf resort that was very nice, but I couldn't get the internet to work so that was frustrating.  I finally ended up at the office, trying to sit on an uncomfortable chair with my laptop on my lap, trying to get my pictures loaded into the blog.  We played cards (the new 99 game) outside on the picnic table before calling it a day.

Around St. Thomas (7/3/2015)

Today we had a few errands in town to take care of, so while Marilyn headed out for another day with her friend Nyla, Collins had a down day and took a long nap, Joe, Dave, Mazie and I headed into town.  We found a bank and got some Canadian money, then went to the library to try to upload the chip that Mazie bought for the GPs while I tried to get some of my blog pages finished.  But we were both unsuccessful.  The chip Mazie purchased was just an update of the maps she already had on the GPS for which she had lifetime updates, so she needs to try to return that.  And the internet service was so slow there that I was only able to upload about 10 photos in the hour plus that we were there.  We gave up on that and headed back to main street where we found a barber for Joe and David.  Mazie and I went into a shop across the street, and they guys showed up in about 10 minutes -- fastest haircuts they had ever gotten.  We left there and went to a produce market and picked up a few things, then headed back to camp.  Most of us tried to get in a little nap before we met up with the other group for dinner.

Dinner was at Buccaneers, fish (perch for most of us, Collins had pickerel which is the same as walleye).  We had a fun dinner with great company.

This restaurant is right on the beach at Port Stanley, on Lake Erie, so we walked down the little boardwalk for the view.

There are murals on a lot of buildings back in St. Thomas, and there was one here on the side of a building.

Then Earl decided we needed to taste the orangeade here at this other little shop (memories of his youth), so we got a few cups of that to share.  They actually make it fresh from the whole orange, including the rind.

But the evening was not yet over.  It became sort of a "progressive dinner" with another stop at Shaw's ice cream shop, where everyone except David indulged in an ice cream cone, even though none of us was hungry.

We finally said our goodbyes to Nyla and Earl and headed back to the RV.  The campground here had fireworks so we got our lawnchairs out and took in another set of fireworks, which were pretty good.

The weather was beautiful today, although it got a bit chilly last night.  When I woke up at 7:00, it was 55 degrees outside, and we didn't have the heat on so I guess in was 55 degrees inside also.  So I turned the furnace on and went back to bed for another hour and a half!

From Niagara to St. Thomas (7/2/2015)

Today we said goodbye to the beautiful Niagara Falls area and headed back west to St. Thomas, Ontario, to visit Marilyn and Collins bridesmaid, Nyla. 

We got on the road about 10:00, it was 64 degrees this morning but not raining.  We had to drive a little further than we expected, 145 miles today (I don't know how many kilometers that is).  Marilyn and Collins reported that they had an excellent dinner last night at the Skylon, "world famous revolving dining room."  They said the restaurant revolves once an hour and they were there 1 1/2 hours so they got to see the 360 of Niagara one and a half times.  Collins had prime rib, which he said was very good; Marilyn ordered surf and turf, and her steak was tough.  But the fireworks were just about eye level with their viewing, so they had a great evening.

Our drive today took us away from the water (Lake Erie and the Niagara River) but we went through beautiful countryside and lots of crops, which Joe always enjoys. But the first obstacle we cleared was the bridge -- and sure enough, we came under it unscathed, just like Joe measured it.

We saw fields of strawberries, potatoes, tobacco, some kind of melons, and the usual corn, beans, and wheat.  And lots of flowers.  And ginseng!  What we thought were strawberries under some kind of black shade we learned were ginseng, and we saw lots of them.  We saw lots of hothouses or greenhouses, and we don't know if they were vegetables or flowers but they really like their flowers in this part of the country.  Almost every house has some kind of flower garden, and some are quite extensive.  And most of the little towns (or villages as they are sometimes called here) have hanging baskets all through town.

This is Mennonite country and we did meet one horse and buggy along the road, but Marilyn's friends said it was probably Amish.  There are both in this area.  Unfortunately, I had to take it through the front window and the windshield wiper split my photo.

We passed a Siemens plant, and I thought they made mattresses, but Collins informed us that that was probably wind turbine blades beside the plant.  Apparently Siemens makes is involved in many different industries.

We stopped at a picnic area for lunch and had a nice break.  A little later, we had our excellent adventure.  Joe had to take a p-break and he pulled off the road right beside a bakery.  After a group discussion among the ladies (are you going, no, I'll go if you go, etc.), we all traipsed into the bakery.  We were like kids in a candy store (which wasn't too far off).  Everything looked yummy, and the people in line only had good things to say about everything.  So we all came out carrying sacks.  I didn't take my camera into the store, and by the time I told the others on the CB that I wanted to take a picture of our bounty, some of it had already been digested (especially the Brundiges coach).  So here's what is left:  3 kinds of brownie squares plus a carrot cake square, elephant ears (one missing), chocolate eclairs (one missing), an individual pumpkin pie, pineapple turnovers and some other kind of turnover, raspberry I think, and homemade rolls.  And that was after we narrowed down our choices to the minimum!  (For the record, it lasted each of us 3 days)

We arrived at the first campground about 3:00 but there was a mix-up here -- first of all, it wasn't the right campground, and it went downhill from there.  But Marilyn got it all straightened out, so we got ourselves all turned around and headed to the right campground, in St. Thomas, Ontario.  Bridesmaid Nyla is fixing dinner for all of us tonight, so we got set up at the campground and then Marilyn headed over to help and visit.  We followed about an hour later.

This is a beautiful campground, but pretty wet.  Joe had to move over from where he initially backed in and made some significant ruts.  He said if we had done this yesterday we probably would have gotten hung up. 

Nyla and Earl have a lovely home out in the country.  He is a grain farmer, raises some cattle.   With Marilyn's arrival, they forgot to start the beef tenderloin on the grill on time, so dinner was a little later than planned, but it was lovely, and delicious.  We had a fun time getting acquainted, then they taught us how to play some silly card game called "99" which was a lot of fun and laughs.  We didn't leave until 11:00, then had to wind our way back through town to the campground, but it was a great evening.  We watched for deer (they have a lot in this area) but didn't see any.

Friday morning -- we don't have any specific plans for today.  It was 55 degrees when I woke up at 7:00 so I turned the furnace on and went back to bed.  I got up about 8:30 and I imagine everyone else is up (except Joe), but I don't see anyone moving around.  It's a beautiful morning, clear and sunny.  Looks like a good day.