Epidemic

Next morning was cool and damp ......the fog had rolled inland, and over the campsite. We put away the camp, and, following breakfast and hot showers, we headed out again, following the north shore of New Brunswick on the south shore of Chaleur Bay. We found a Hyundai Dealer who was open, to see if we could get the caulking/liner for the windshield repaired, but the fellow who does that sort of thing was not in. We then telephoned the next dealer, in Charlottetown, but found the service department was not open, at least until Monday.....so the plan is now to head that way, and be in Prince Edward Island Sunday evening. The scenic route along the water was mostly shrouded in fog, with occasional glimpses of the water and seaside, as we continued along the scenic water route. The towns and villages along here are all very proud of their Acadian Roots.....founded by the original inhabitants of Acadia who were expelled from their original settlements/homeland in French Nova Scotia (Acadia) by the British in 1755. Many of them settled here, while many also went to Louisiana, to be known as Cajuns (Acadians). At the very east end of the Bay of Chaleur, which opens into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, lie the Acadian Isles. We drove to the tip of these 4 Islands to see the Lighthouse on Miscou Island. It is the oldest lighthouse in New Brunswick, and, according to our CAA book, one of the last manned lights in Canada (I think they mean Eastern Canada, as there are still a number of them on the West Coast). We found it shrouded in fog, and again, the foghorn was not being used - maybe they are decomissioning the horns. It also didn't appear to be manned.







The Miscou Island Light (in the fog).











A few kilometres south of the light was a boardwalk with an interpretive walk into a peat bog. Peat moss is a very large export of this area, and we found the walk interesting and instructive.






Linda admires the Peat Bog









This may be where the peat moss in your garden came from.






As we drove further south, we passed in and out of the fog, until by 16:00 we decided to call it a day and set up camp about 20 KM before the city of Miramichi. This campsite is less like camping, and more like suburbia, with myriad RV's parked around it, a Canada Day Parade for the youngsters organized for today (a few days early, but convenient for the weekend campers), pool, laundry, etc.... It gave us a chance to catch up a bit on the laundry. Unfortunately, there is no wireless internet here, so the blog/email will have to wait a bit longer. One thing was extremely noticeable here - the friendliness of the people. Not to say that the rest of the country has been cold, or even cool, toward us, but here people walk up and start chatting. Many of the campers here are locals who leave their RV's here for the summer as a cabin getaway for the family, and they seem quite warm and friendly to each other and to we newcomers as well. It's kind of infectious, and we found ourselves losing a bit of our insularity, and chatting with other campers ourselves, much more than we would have normally done. Perhaps these Acadians are starting a Friendly Epidemic!
Next morning, the fog was back, so we decided to cook porridge for a warm-up breakfast. We still hadn't had the promised rain, although the forecasters continue to promise it for the next few days.
The fog again started to lift, and we drove southeast again, stopping for a photo opportunity at Shediac, the site of the world's largest lobster.


Caught by the largest lobster!







Being in Lobster Country, we decided to splurge on a lunch of Lobster Rolls and poutine....now in a bright sunny mid-day. A short drive further took us to the Confederation Bridge, which crosses the Northumberland Strait from New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island. We stopped for groceries in a small grocery store, and set up; camp a few kilometers short of Charlottetown, in Cornwall, PEI. From our campsite here we can look across the bay toward the harbour in Charlottetown, which should afford us a good view of the July 1 Fireworks. That's if we stay here.....they have no wifi, and I am now 4 days behind in getting it posted, and checking on email. Good thing we're on vacation.

Gaspe

Yet another bright and sunny day greeted us. Not that we hadn't slept well earlier, but we found that we had both slept better this night, and concluded that the sound of the lapping waves from the St. Lawrence had induced this effect. It was certainly better than the traffic noise we had learned to ignore, while in Quebec City. Our wi-fi connection was a bit iffy, so after breakfast, we drove down into the town, and picked up a better signal from a local home, where we were able to get our emails and update our digital information. Then it was on to new adventures, as we were now at the far reaches of the St. Lawrence River itself, and setting into the Gaspe Peninsula, which opens out onto the Gulf of St. Lawrence, at the mouth of the river. Although it was quite sunny and clear on the land, a fog bank lay off on the water, in a similar fashion to the type of weather which had contributed to the Empress of Ireland's demise almost 100 years ago. The fog actually started to penetrate into the land, with wispy tendrils of mist drifting across the highway as we approache Matane. Here we stopped to pick up groceries, and a tarp.....the weather forecast is for rain and thundershowers over the next few days, and the tarp may come in handy. Then we treated ourselves to a Tim Horton's coffee and muffin, and continued along the highway, with the fog starting to lift, or at least to drift back out to seaward. Apparently there are many different kinds of whales (8?) whih migrate or live along this shore, so we were constantly watching for a blow - but none were sighted. We stopped for a short visit, at Cap Chat (named for the shape of the Cape which looks like a crouching cat), to view the largest windmill in the world. It is a vertical type of windmill, and produces some 4 MegaWatts of power. It is surrounded by hundreds of other, more traditional (3-bladed) power generating windmills.



Typical Gaspe Shoreline Scenery








As we continued eastbound, the nature of the scenery changed to one reminiscent of the north shore of Lake Superior - winding, hilly (almost mountainous) terrain, with the water on one side and spruce, pine and birch trees on the other. The main difference was the close proximity of villages and towns along the highway, all spaced about 15 km apart. Some, or many of them, are fishing villages, and most are becoming more tourist-driven. We did enjoy the scenery, however, and by late afternoon found ourselves at the far east end of the Peninsula, and at the very end of the St. Lawrence River.








The biggest windmill (Gasp!) in the world










We passed the Coast Guard MCTS station at Riviere-au-Renard, and I was tempted to drop in for a visit, being a retired MCTS person.....but I AM retired, and the day was wearing on.....so we continued a few kilometres further, to the tallest lighthouse in Canada, a full meter higher than the one we'd visited yesterday at Pointe-au-Pere. Here, the fog had again drifted in, and the light was operating. I was a bit mystified, however, that the foghorn was not on, even though it was evident on the property, and visibility was less than 1/4 mile, and obviously more like zero just offshore. The Parks Canada people operating the information booth were unable to understand my question in broken french, and in english, and my hooting like a foghorn only mystified them more.....so perhaps I'll never know - or perhaps the foghorn has been decommissioned. Only a few more kilometres more took us through the National Park de Forillon, where we found a campsite at Petit-Gaspe nestled under some pine trees in case the forecast is correct. We hiked down to the beach, and along a trail, then back to camp in time for a BBQ'd steak dinner. From the beach we could look across the Bay (Gaspe Bay) to the town of Gaspe, which we will visit tomorrow.
The forecast turned out to be wrong, thankfully, and we had a quiet, rainless night, waking up to another lovely sunny day. We left our camp at Petit-Gaspe, and drove along the bay into the town of Gaspe. This was where Jacques Cartier first landed in N. America, and founded a settlement here, in 1534. We've been told that the French spoken here sounds "funny" to the other Quebecois, because it was mainly populated by the Basque French in the early days, and still speak with a different accent. As we proceeded past Gaspe, the fog started to drift in again, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and we were soon driving in very limited visibility. By the time we reached Perce Rock, the fog was lying just along the coastline, but not on the roadway. The town of Perce is very touristy, with a lot of hype about the rock with a hole through it. Unfortunately, we could not see the rock (we did catch a quick peek-a-boo glimpse of the top of the rock momentarily) due to the fog, and after about an hour of walking about town, we decided to continue. I was a bit mystified by the boatloads of tourists heading out into the pea-soup fog to go whalewatching, though, and wondered if they would be able to find any sealife at all in that soup.





These people are even more optimistic than I.....they are disappearing into a pea-soup fog to
look for whales.







The fog started to lift a bit as we continued, but the rainshowers were now becoming evident. The water on our south side was the Bay of Chaleur, with New Brunswick on the other side. We drove to the end of the Gaspe Peninsula in on and off rainshowers, and crossed over into Campbellton, New Brunswick, and Atlantic TimeZone. That made our early afternoon an hour later, so we drove a few kilometers east along the scenic shore road, stopping at a camping area at Eel River, Charlo. Gas has dropped in price from 109.4 on the Quebec side to 101.4 / liter on the New Brunswick side. It's hard to believe I now consider gas at $1.00 a liter as reasonable! We set up camp with our new tarp laid out over our tent, because the radio stations all warn of more rainshowers, with a thunderstorm warning included, for the next few days. The wifi was coming in very strong, but unfortunately the camp was having a problem with it, and no-one could connect. Following our dinner, we could hear the sounds of a group singing Beatles songs, old Rock and Roll, and some C&W tunes. Apparently it was Dance Night in the campgrounds. We wandered over toward the music, and found a roaring bonfire with many of the campers standing and sitting (on provided picnic tables) in front of a stage set up for this duo. They were very talented, and we enjoyed the tunes. Linda didn't much feel like dancing, even though it would have been our first dancing date in a very long time....I could really picture our friend Janet rocking to this atmosphere! The bugs started dancing around us, though, so eventually we buzzed back to our tent for the evening, lulled to sleep by the tunes still playing.

Saint Somewhere, Quebec

From Quebec, we will have to remain on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, unless we opt for a ferry across (all toll, so with this budget thing, not likely). We headed out and as we were filling up the gas, noticed that the front windshield liner on the outside driver side is coming loose. No chance of getting that fixed today, on the National Holiday! So out with the duct tape, and it's stuck in place for now, until we can get a repair done later in the week. Again, we are avoiding the major highways, and instead stayed on the road along the river, through the towns. You'd think we were in the Caribbean, as almost every town is named Saint Something. It is a nice drive, especially on a bright sunny day like today, with lots of time on our hands, and very little traffic on the roads (the holiday has really reduced the traffic). Both of us remarked how impressed we are with the neat and tidy appearance of the homes, yards, and the towns themselves - even though many of the homes are over 300 years old. They seem to be all freshly painted and well cared for, with very little evidence of neglect anywhere. Each village and town seems to have its own church, with a spire around almost every corner. As we progressed along the river, the other side went from 15 kilometers to over 45 kilometers, with occasional islets dotting the scenery. As we passed Rimouski, I was drawn to the sight of numerous sailboats gliding along the waterfront area. We decided to continue to another one of our genealogical (and place of general tourist interest) goals, and pulled into the National Historic Site at Pointe-au-Pere. This is the location of the 2nd highest lighthouse in Canada (the largest being about a day ahead near Gaspe), as well as the Memorial Centre for the Empress of Ireland. Linda's aunt was lost in the sinking of this great ship when she was struck by a freighter in the fog very near here.



The MemorialExhibit to the Empress of Ireland, which sank in May 1914 with a loss of life of 1012 people, including Linda's aunt.
















The Point-au-Pere Lighthouse, 2nd tallest in Canada at 33 meters (the biggest is 34)











So we looked through the exhibit/memorial/museum, including a 3D film about the incident. Linda found her aunt's name listed in the records, as well. We also toured the lighthouse (in French and in English), which is architecturally very similar to the one at Esperanza, which I'd seen on my sail around Vancouver Island a couple of years ago.







The Big Lens in the LightHouse











As a bonus, the site had also just received a submarine, Onandaga, which is now based here as a maritime exhibit. Having seen the sights, we decided it was time to find a place to camp for the night, so we headed about 10 km. further down the road to Ste. Luce, where we found a pleasant little camping ground.


Sainte-Luce Waterfront






We set up camp, and then walked down along the waterfront, where the holiday-goers were still partying for the Fete. I was tempted to get an order of Poutine from the local bistro, but we were too close to our budget mark for the day. Maybe tomorrow.....I'm told Gaspe Poutine is among the best in Quebec.

Blowing it in Quebec

It was a quiet solstice for us.....hopefully, some of our friends made up for us by doing proper druidish things. We got up the next morning ready to greet the first day of summer, by investigating the National Historic Site near Trois Rivieres, where, in the early 1700's through until the late 1800's, the area was known for its iron production, with smelters and forges. "Les Forges de St. Maurice" was extremely well presented, with explanations of the operations that even I could understand.






This sundial correctly gave us the time as 09:40, but then I remembered we are on daylight savings time.....can anyone tell me how the sun knew that?









We spent three to four hours there, before setting out in our car for the next short leg to Quebec City. The highway on the south side of the St. Lawrence appeared to be a bit less of an autoroute, and more scenic, so we crossed over to that side on the only bridge over the river between Montreal and Quebec. We then meandered along the south side of the river, enjoying the scenery, but getting aghast at the rising prices of gas, which had gone from 98.9 near Montreal to 111.9/liter. During the drive, we've been speaking to each other in french (or trying to), and listening to french radio stations (yes- we still had a choice of some english ones). Fourty-some years makes a long gap for our memories of high school french! We arrived at a KOA campground in south Quebec early in the afternoon, and checked in, then headed out for a bit of sightseeing, and shopping. The area around here has a lot of market farming, with large fields of vegetables and fruits.....we picked up some just-picked field ripe strawberries at a road stand, and some groceries in a local supermarket. Back for another quiet evening of tenting. June 24 (tomorrow) is Jean Baptiste day, also called La Fete Nationale (National Holiday). I'm not entirely sure why John the Baptist got involved in Quebec Nationalism, but it is this day which is celebrated vigorously as a day of remembering the francophone roots of this province. The whole province gears up for a big celebraton, with parades, concerts, picnics, and of course, no work (big holiday). Many people have started the celebrations a day early (in fact, this last weekend, as the actual day is mid-week, on Wednesday). Fleur-de-lis flags fly everywhere, and are painted on peoples faces, as well. We drove into the old city this morning, and made like big-time tourists. We have often been called upon to use our impressive vocabulary in French, but whenever we speak, somehow the people instinctively know we are non-native speakers, and switch to English. If it wasn't so convenient, it could be embarrasing. The old city is walled from the old fortress, with brick and stone/masonry buildings lining the streets and alleys. We walked our feet off, and stopped for lunch in the lower part of the old town, below the ramparts.







Le Chateau, and boardwalk, Quebec City











Very nice, but now our budget is blown! (A couple of sanwiches, with beer cost us $47.00, before tip.....and we've been close to maximizing our budgetary means most of the week. We continued walking, taking in the grassy lawns on the Plains of Abraham, where people were starting to assemble for this evening's soiree for the beginning of the Fete Nationale.



The ladies of Quebec dress very stylishly!










Several popular groups and singers were practising and setting up.....none of the names are familiar to us, but they are apparently quite well-known and popular here. By late afternoon it was time to head back to our site, and to total up our accounts for this week.
Being Tuesday, it is again a Day of Reckoning. So here it is: Distance travelled this week: 1559.7 KM Costs: Gas - $195.34 Food - $209.12 Accommodation - $226.41 Other - $98.93 Total - $729.98 So this week we indeed blew our budget by almost $30.00. However, our past four weeks were all under, so we are still, in total, under our targeted costs.....but our cushion for emergencies, ferries, odd luxuries (like celebrating Linda's Birthday in a couple of weeks?) has shrunk a bit.




Linda bags a Moose in Quebec City!











We were originally planning to stay in Quebec City for Jean Baptiste Day, tomorrow, but likely now we will continue a short distance east, and possibly we can make it to Charlottetown, PEI for the next big celebration, Canada Day on July 1 (seems appropriate to aim for the original city of Confederation for that).

Two more Cousins, but no Virgins

And set up a visit we did! The same evening we headed into town, up Bank Street, to meet up with Ian. We visited over hot chocolates at a Tim Horton's and presented him with the photos and certificates given to us in Creston, BC (we had our copies made up in the Sault). He produced an old (110 years) insurance policy with lots of interesting genealogical details, of a common gt-gt-uncle. We ended up visiting for several hours, before having to go back to our campsite, which would have locked us out shortly.


That's me with cousin Ian











Back in our tent, the people camping next to us serenaded their upset dog to sleep (and us!), resulting in a bit of a fitful night of sleep. Next day, following breakfast, we contacted Jamie to organize our day. He'd set up a tour of the Vintage Wings operation in Gatineau (used to be Hull). So we drove into town and picked him up, and got a guided tour around the city before crossing the Ottawa River and proceeding to the Gatineau Airport for our tour. It was an extremely interesting operation, with the three of us, and two others, being guided around a hanger full of 18 completey refurbished vintage aircraft, all in top condition, and maintained that way. Our guide was an ex-RCAF pilot who'd then been with DOT as a flying inspector. The company works at procuring and maintaining old aircraft, many of them military, and keeping them in flying condition. Their website is at VintageWings.ca. My friends in Comox may be interested to know that these are the people who have purchased the Y2K Spitfire from Comox, and intend to finish it, at a cost of over a million dollars to get the aircraft in top flying condition......and it will indeed be well taken care of. They already have a different, later model Spitfire, as well as a Corsair, a Mustang, a Chipmunk, Tiger Moth, Fox Moth, Beech Staggerwing, Waco, Harvard, Lysander, and a Beaver on Amphibious Floats (which took me back a few years). Their " Hawk One" Sabre Jet was away, flying with the Snowbirds in the 100 year celebration of flight across Canada. They have several other aircraft being restored and rebuilt. All in all, we spent over 3 hours there, and likely could have spent more.





A Beautiful Beech Staggerwing
















When I win a big lottery this is the kind of airplane I'll get!










But then back into Ottawa for a late lunch/early supper at a Mexican Restaurant. Jamie presented us with some very snazzy hats, with LED brims, something he deals in....some with Fleur de Lis, for our trip in Quebec, some with Maple Leafs for the rest of the country, and some with red LED's, for sailing/flying. If you want to check them out, his website is at www.seamlessfacilitators.com . By early evening we had dropped off Jamie and returned to our camp south of town, and settled in. We had a much better sleep, in spite of the rain - the first real solid rain we'd had overnight for our trip. This was our test for water in our 30-something-year-old tent. It passed! Some of our things ended up a bit damp, but mostly, I think, from condensation and evaporation from our hot little bodies. The fly was wet, but pretty well everything else was reasonably dry. We packed everything up, and decided to do a fast-food breakfast at Tim Horton's, rather than sit in the rain. Then on to the Museum of Science and Technology, in east Ottawa. We enjoyed the museum, but found it more directed to children - very educational! Museums generally have older "stuff" , but I felt that a Science and Technology Museum should strive to keep up-to-date, and they seemed to be about 15 years in the past for their latest acquisitions. They must be hurting for budget, as quite a number of their " hands-on " exhibits were not working. It was inspiring, though, to see a large number of parents explaining some of the exhibits to their children, and the kids seemed to be very into the lessons. They also had a great exhibit featuring Yosef Karsh. We managed to spend a few hours there, and finally departed for the bridge across the Ottawa River, and the end of Ontario for awhile, by 1 PM.
As much as possible, we stayed off the main highways, travelling along the Ottawa River and then east, avoiding Montreal by passing well north of the city. We'll save some of our big-city Quebec stuff for the trip back, when we can visit and get our smoked meat sandwiches and Montreal ambience then. We did pass the largest log cabin in the world, though, at Montebello, although we didn't stay there, as it's now a lodge run by Fairmont, and likely well above our budgetary means.




This big log building is so huge, we couldn't get it all in the photo. It has a 60 ft fireplace, and several very imposing wings, all not visible here.







A short drive in and a look around was all we could afford here. In following one of our highways eastbound, we ended up at a dead end, on a small island on the St. Lawrence, at a ferry to Sorel, on the other side. Instead of taking the ferry, we took a short break with an ice-cream cone (avec deux boules - 2 scoops), before returning back eastbound toward Trois Rivieres. One place we stopped was not set up for tents - only RV's, but they were able to direct us to our next camping spot, just Northeast of Trois Rivieres, near Shawinigan. So here we sit, at Shawinigan, camped in a grove of White Pine - the only tent among several hundred RV's, with this being the Summer Solstice. Apparently on this night we are supposed to find a virgin and do something to celebrate, but I either forget what to do with them, or never knew! Perhaps I can figure out what to do when we celebrate La Fete Nationale, Jean Baptiste Day, in Quebec City!

Driving for the Capital

The rain and thunderstorms never materialized, and we awoke to another fine day. The chipmunks here are just as tame as the ones we saw at Caliper Lake, ranging around us quite unafraid. Following a quick breakfast, we were off in search of the sister of my gt-gt-grandmother, and her family, who died in Baysville, a bit south of here. Hopefully, they are also buried in Baysville. So we took a scenic drive along the west side of Lake of Bays, through Dorset (which has a historical society, but appeared to be closed), and along the south side of the lake into Baysville. We found the cemetery, and with a bit of searching around, found our gravesites. It was impossible to stand still to photograph them, though, without being attacked by swarms of mosquitoes and black flies. So back to the car to add to the Deep Woods Off, and then back to the graves to go for a quick photo shot. That worked, and we ended up finding five of the family,although we'd only known about 3 of them. As we headed north, along the east side of the same lake, we passed a lake named after the surname of these ancestors, Tooke, so checked out the roads there to try to find an old homestead, or hint of them. But only summer-type cottages seem to be present along there now, and none of them have the Tooke name on the mailboxes. We continued into Huntsville, to meet up with our old friends Bent and Anna, who we'd chummed with while sailing in Cyprus and Turkey. We had a fine lunch, and traded stories and reminisces. I was tempted to stay for a bit longer, and go sailing with Bent on his boat which was tied up on the lake below the house, and maybe for dinner too (they tried hard to convince us to stay).



Bent and Anna at their home in Huntsville









But by mid afternoon, it was time to start back eastbound, so we bade them farewell, and headed into Algonquin Park. As we drove along the highway, we saw two more moose along the edge of the forest. A short time later found us setting up camp at Mew Lake, about halfway through the park. It was a reasonably secluded site at the end of the lake, with a breeze blowing off the lake to keep the bugs at bay. Again the chipmunks and squirrels show no fear of us. We had a bite to eat and then walked around, exploring the area a bit. Around dusk, as we were going to bed (10PM) a group of young people showed up and set up in the campsite adjacent, and then started to party until who-knows-when-in-the-morning. I guess that's my comeuppance for the same kind of thing I used to do many years ago (what comes around goes around....even if it involves decades!).
We did, however, manage to get a little bit of sleep, so bright and early next morning we decamped (if that is a word), and continued eastbound out of Algonquin Park, and through Renfrew, eventually ending up in Ottawa. Actually, it is a camping ground about 20 Km south of the city, as we didn't feel right about setting up our tent on the banks of the Rideau Canal or beside the Prime Minister's Home. We have a couple of first cousins here, and hope to touch base with them before leaving Ontario. Both Jamie and Ian have replied to my emails, so we should be able to set up a bit of a visit with them.

Onward

This section of the blog is a catchup, as I hadn't posted for a few days while visiting and exploring in Sault Ste. Marie area. We did manage to have a giant brunch with Jarrell, Marla, and Katie and compared notes on our family trees, before bidding adieu and driving east again. We stopped into Desbarats to try and find more information on a book prepared by the Women's Institute some 30-40 years ago, relating the pioneer stories and area history, but were unable to track it down......so off we went, eventually bound for Sudbury. Approaching the town of Blind River, we saw our first moose of the trip, so we stopped and photographed her as she munched on the new reeds and grasses in a slough beside the highway. It was a relief to me to finally find one, as I'd been telling Linda since Kenora that we were bound to see lots of moose in northern Ontario, and when the bears showed up yesterday, she reminded me that she still hadn't seen a moose! Halleluja - here was one!


Our first Moose sighting











We continued on, stopping at Espanola to try and call an old buddy, Charlie, who I'd tried to get earlier, but the phone refused to put me through. I was also having trouble finding a number for another old friend, Bill, who as far as I knew, still lived and worked in Sudbury as a noted environmentalist and bushman. With Tim Horton's right beside me on the highway, I was able to pull out the computer and get reasonable WiFi, so I tried Googling Bill's name, coming up with dozens of his papers, but no contact info. I finally tracked him down, and was able to telephone him at work. I hate to impose, or descend on someone without warning, but it is not possible for me to go through or into Sudbury without at least trying to get hold of Bill. He insisted we come over, and it was like the last 28 years or so hadn't existed. We had a great visit, with pizza and beer, and a sauna in Bill's renovated Homestead home.



Don relaxing with Bill in Sudbury










Being a Tuesday evening, it was again a day of reckoning, ending our 4th week on the road. The numbers for the week came out as follows: Distance driven - 1255.4 Km (not counting the 300-500 Jarrell drove when we toured the cemeteries) Gas - $109.00 Food - $289.84 Accommodation - $134.92 Other - $99.21 for a total of $633.17. So again, we've made it on less than the $700.00 budget, and added a $67.00 cushion for later expenses.
We stayed overnight at Bill's place, and then headed east again, through Sturgeon Falls where we stopped for gas and groceries, then North Bay, then heading south for Huntsville. The price of gas had jumped as we left the Sault, with 94.3 jumping to 102.9, then to 107.9 in Sudbury. By North Bay it was back down again to 101.9, and then in Huntsville we were back to a slightly more reasonable 94.3/litre.
Huntsville is close to the western edge of Algonquin Park, which we plan on driving through, on our way toward Ottawa. But first, we had to take care of some laundry. We found a laundromat which was huge - in fact, it is apparently the largest one in Canada, and takes up a full city block, with a lounge, and WiFi, free coffee, tea and popcorn, and lots and lots of laundry machines. I was able to get restarted on the blog, and got the Soo portion uploaded with the pictures finally into the computer. Then it was time for a long-overdue haircut, at the local barber shop. The forecast is for rainshowers and thundershowers tonight, so there is a big temptation to try for another Kamper Kabin.....but none can be found in our meagre price range. We finally found a 150 acre campground with tentsites with a nice treed canopy, so we ended up with that. They also have WiFi, so I am now able to do this portion of the blog, and get caught up totally again. This puts us in range to find some more of our dead ancestors, about 40 KM south of here, in Baysville. Then we hope to meet up with some old friends from our sailing days in Cyprus, Bent and Anne, who insist on our coming over for lunch tomorrow (and supper and staying, but we're not sure about that.....we still have to get to Newfoundland, via Algonquin Park and Ottawa).

Soo

As the weather starts to warm up (finally), so are the bugs! Black flies and mosquitoes are living up to their onerous reputations. Our stay in the Kabin was a good chance to get our stuff reorganized before we descend on our friends. Laundry done, car reorganized, we headed into town to get an oil change for the car, and try to find some more butane for the stove (getting scarce....maybe we should have gone for a propane or camping fuel type of stove). We did manage to find some at Canadian Tire, at triple the price of the cannisters at home.....nobody else seems to carry it anymore. Hmmmmmmm.....
We picked up some liquid refreshments to go with our friends' offerings, and descended on our friends, Anna and Hal, who have moved into a Century-old home which they are reconditioning, with beautiful grounds and a lot of history, and 19 acres of land. Hal was just off to a night shift, so we picked up a pizza for dinner and visited with Anna until 2AM.


Hal, Anna, myself and Linda at H&A's place











Next morning, it was up and off to meet our cousins Jarrell and Arlene, and daughter Marla, all of whom are researching the same family lines, and who'd offered to guide us through the various cemeteries in the outskirts of the Soo. We drove east to Leeburn, photographing many ancestral graves, then off to Bruce Mines for lunch. Marla and Jarrell have done extensive research on our McKay line, and were able to complete a great deal of our missing links, and questions. During lunch, we learned of the possibility that McKay Island and lighthouse, nearby at Bruce Mines, was likely named after our common gt-gt-grandfather, BlackJack McKay (this story has a ring of truth to it, as opposed to the Mt McKay story of Thunder Bay). We visited the light, and climbed up, viewing the reef where his ship may have foundered while entering Bruce Mines harbour. Then it was off to visit more graveyards, all to the north of Bruce Mines area, and we managed to find most of our 40-some people. We also visited a very much alive relative, Donald, grandson of the twin brother of my gt-grandmother. He was able to show us numerous old family photos and memories - priceless! We finished off with one final graveyard before returning to visit Anna and Hal.
Their 3 children were all arriving for a family meal, so we had a great chance to meet them, and visit with the whole family, had a delicious meal, all followed by a bonfire in the yard and more catching up.





Jarrell and Arlene, cousins and friends, who guided us through many cemeteries in search of roots.







Marla and Jarrell had both invited us over for dinner tomorrow, but we had made contact with even more cousins, who were driving up from Traverse City Michigan area, to visit and share genealogy. So Marla gave us a wonderful option to do a picnic in her yard, with her gazebo......and a mini-family reunion was born, with 3 branches of our roots getting a chance to meet and share information. We had a fashionably late morning next day, with a Sunday brunch (yes- it was Sunday) prepared by Hal, who has an amazing wrist action as he tosses homefries around in the skillet. Then it was time to say our farewells to our old buddies Hal and Anna, and to move over to the KOA Kampground to meet our internet genealogy cousins, Leslie and John, who'd driven up to meet us and camp with us. They managed to beat us to the campgrounds, and were assigned a site well away from the one that had been assigned to me when I'd reserved it, so we ended up waiting for each other at opposite ends of the grounds, until making phone contact, and getting together. With our camping gear out of the car, we had room for the two of them in the car, and drove over to meet the other cousins, with a fabulous barbecue, enormous salads, and new cousins who became new friends.



Family BBQ made up of newly-made friends and cousins.










We even managed to compare a few genealogical notes! Abbie, Marla and Tim's border collie, is an avid ball player, who can dribble a soccer ball around a yard with amazing dexterity. We visited until late in the evening, and made it back to our campground in time to wake up the only other tent in our campground, set up nearby. Next morning was another fine sunny day - the only clouds, in fact, were the clouds of mosquitoes and blackflies enjoying our visit. It at least added extra meat in our breakfast meal. We then decamped and headed back to Jarrell and Arlene's place, via a couple of local cemeteries, where we found nine more dead relatives waiting for their headstone photos to be completed. Arlene had managed to find a real treasure - the silver engraving from my gt-gt-grandmother's casket, which had been presented to Jarrell's grandmother. An absolutely amazing find for us, so we managed to take multiple photos of it, before piling into their van for another tour of the graveyards and historical sites east of the Sault. Leslie managed to find some more family history information at the Bruce Station Municipal office, which also collects local history. And we all visited some 5 or 6 cemeteries, searching for our "people". Finally, as evening was setting in, we said our goodbyes to Leslie and John who were off on a late 4 hour drive back to Traverse City, and we were off to find a campsite with less bugs. We found it near the Sault airport, at Point des Chenes, near where I'd first lived when I'd moved to the Sault area 35 years ago. Things are looking good......the price of gas here is back down (95.5/liter), we've found our numerous dead ancestors/relatives, we've seen some old friends, and met some new ones in our cousins.





Katie, Marla, me and Jarrell comparing genealogy notes.








Tomorrow is going to be a travelling day eastbound again, after a breakfast and visit with Jarrell and Arlene, Marla, and Katie (Marla's daughter) It will also be another day of reckoning, and I believe we may end up going a bit over on this week.....we shall see. Oh yes.....I almost forgot to mention today was a two-bear day. We'd seen a bear in our travels around Leeburn and Desbarats, and then again on our way to our last campsite. Bears seem to be as common here as the deer back home - several had been walking around Anna's yard earlier in the week, although we hadn't personally seen those.





It was a two-bear day (this one walked out on the road in front of us, on the way to our campsite in the Soo).

Across the Top of Superior

I had just completed uploading the latest blog when we got in telephone contact with Brian, my buddy from old days at the Coast Guard College. He lives near Thunder Bay, but had been visiting family in Southern Ontario, and just completed a drive back from just north of Toronto - in one day. He's been in contact via email, and following the blog, and we'd been planning to meet up if possible, and here he was, almost 16 hours into a driving marathon, (covering a distance in one day more than we had in the past week!) and arriving in our Kozy Kabin. We met Marla, his wife, and replayed old times in a visit into the wee hours of the morning. They invited us to stay and see a bit more of Thunder Bay, but even though we're taking it slowly, we still have places to go, friends and relatives to see (both dead and alive), and Newfoundland to see. So we had to decline, and said our goodbyes.
The following morning found us waking to a steady rain and very cool day.





Terry Fox Memorial Thunder Bay






Off we went, first to pay homage to Terry Fox, who'd run across Canada (most of the way, until Cancer got him) on one leg and a prosthetic. Then eastbound, via Red Rock and Marathon, into Pukaskwa National Park, about halfway across the north shore of Lake Superior. The entire way was steady rain, even though the radio forecast was only for a 30% chance of showers. As Lake Superior likes to stay a numbing 4C pretty much all of the time, and since the wind was blowing freshly in from the lake, we found it quite chilly......mindful of a February day in Courtenay, instead of June in Ontario! So we opted to sleep in the car, and instead of setting up the tent, we went into car-sleep mode, and set up a tarpaulin off the back of the car for cooking. The rain at least stopped, so we were able to pull out the barbecue and do up a dinner of pork chops, potatoes, carrots and onions in foil for a camp-style dinner. A short walk to the beach after dinner, and we were cold, tired, and ready for bed.
Next morning was a bit brighter, but still cold. So again we set off eastbound, past White River, the original home of Winnie the Pooh (an orphaned bear from here who ended up in London Zoo and caught the fancy of Christopher, son of A.A. Milne). We soon found ourselves in Wawa, the home of the Big Goose (Wawa in Ojibway means "wild goose"). We found a lovely waterfall to relax beside, and had our lunch at Magpie River Falls, before turning south toward Sault Ste. Marie.




Lunch at Scenic Magpie Falls, Wawa







The scenery remains quite beautiful along this stretch, but much of it was hidden today by fog blowing in off the lake. We have invites to stay with friends Anna and Hal in the Soo, and cousins Jarrell and Arlene, but as it is very late afternoon as we pull into north Sault Ste Marie, we don't want to impose on anyone, and so we've booked into another Kozy Kabin Kampsite for this evening. There are 44 dead relatives here to investigate and find, and several live ones, as well as friends still living, so we expect we may be in this area a few days.

Family Mysteries Unveiled

Happyland was our choice over the Provincial Park nearby at Kakabeka Falls, partly due to cost (a bit cheaper than the Provincial Park) and the services.....wifi (turned out to be weak and intermittent, but ok for email), hot showers. It is interesting that Provincial parks in Manitoba cost 15.75, and Ontario Provincial parks almost double that, at 27.50, which seems a bit much for a tent site without a lot of amenities. I guess they don't want to be competetive with the private parks like KOA and Good Sam, etc. We spent an uneventful night at Happyland, again finding it quite cool. With rain in the forecast for this afternoon and tonight, we may try something new and exciting......a Kamping Kabin. But first, into Thunder Bay proper, to look around, and do some family research. The historical museum is closed on Mondays, so we had to miss that, and went on to the public library, who have a wonderful research area with lots of archives and microfiche of local newspapers. We were able to find obituaries of over 20 family members, and glean more information about them. By then it was late afternoon, and raining.....so off to the KOA east of town, to set up camp. No gas today, and we have the food already, so we can afford to splurge, and go for a little Kozy KOA Kamping Kabin (1 room with bed, electric light, heat, and WiFi). So we took it, and got warm and stayed dry. In our almost three weeks of travelling so far, we've had very little rain, and that only while driving. The cold temps have been bugging us a bit, though, following us for over a week now. It was very nice to have a bit more room than a 7x3 ft. tent, 3 ft. high! We managed to get caught up on a bit of laundry, to get rid of the smoky smell from some of our campfires.







Linda as a Kozy Kamper at our Kabin











Armed with all this new information from the obituaries, we decided to stick around Thunder Bay another day, and find the graves. This we managed, for the most part, in two cemeteries.....Riverside, and Mountainview. Mountainview looks over Mt. McKay, which family legend says is named after my gt-gt-grandfather. We have confirmed that this is a story/legend only, and that it was named after another McKay about 50 yrs before my ancestor could have been here. Other family legends, though, came to life from the obituaries and the gravestones, and we discovered several more relatives and their stories. We tried to drive up Mt. McKay for a view of the area from the higher ground, but an admission fee stopped us.....we were going over budget on the day......and it's hard to convince someone from BC to pay to go up a hill! So we went to the museum instead, and had a good look around, and then met with the curator who was able to search his archives and come up with more information on my gt-aunt, who'd been a high profile citizen of Ft. William in her day. We also stocked up on a few provisions in town, and got some gas at the native gas station, which is a bit cheaper than the rest of town. At 103.9/liter, it is the least expensive gas around here....averaging 105.9 and as much as 107.9/liter......shades of home prices! I had earlier mused about the windshield bugs of Alberta and Saskatchewan. It seems there have been even more, even stickier bugs in Northwestern Ontario, and almost none in Manitoba. I don't believe temperature has a lot to do with it, as we've been having cooler weather in NW Ontario, and that should be keeping them down a bit. There may be government money for a study in this. We are, however, starting to get a "taste" of the biting bugs here, with black flies and mosquitoes encouraging us to apply the Deet, as they attempt to feast on us. I dread to think what we're in for when summer temperatures finally arrive.
Back to the Kozy Kabin for another night, although with that, we are definitely over budget for the day - lucky we've saved a bit on the last few days. Our reckoning for this, the third week: Gas - $223.40 Food - $141.47 Accommodation - $231.91 Other - $52.75 for a grand total of $649.43 for this week......still under by just over $50.00. We travelled 1920.4 Kilometres this last week.

From Richer to HappyLand

It is not far from Richer to the Ontario border to the east, so next morning, after nicely surviving the big frost (at least we didn't get the snow that apparently fell in SW Alberta and Saskatchewan), we headed out and crossed into Ontario, and Canadian Shield country. Definitely a change in scenery as we approached the provincial border, with lots more rocks and trees and lakes evident. And beavers. Lots of beavers. From BC through the other three provinces, we'd seen occasional beaver dams and lodges. Now we were seeing them everywhere we drove. We entered Kenora, and stopped for a bit of shopping/stocking up. Then, we decided to take the road less travelled, so headed south along Lake of the Woods, finally stopping at a Provincial Park at Caliper Lake. This turned out to be a fine choice, with a very beautiful campsite on the lake, near a sand beach, with flush toilets, hot showers, and a very friendly chipmunk (we called him the park Ranger, as he was ranging around the campsite).




"Ranger" the chimpmunk, ranging around my feet.





I found it strange to find large white pelicans in the lake - I had never considered pelicans as a Canadian type of bird. We have yet to come across a bear or moose, but there were lots of white-tail deer along, and crossing, the highways, throughout Manitoba and (so far) in Ontario. We watched some people out in their boats fishing, and the fishing seemed pretty good.....people were coming back with lots of Pickerel, Pike, Bass, and perch....and apparently sometimes Musky. Although it was forecast for another cold night, it seemed quite a bit warmer - in reality, it went down to 4C, but that, relative to -2C the night before, made things seem quite toasty.
This morning we availed ourselves of the fine hot showers, and set out 100 KM south, to Fort Frances, where we searched in vain for another couple of dead relatives. There are two cemeteries there that we know of, and we searched both, but were unable to find them. Being Sunday, there were no offices open to try to find out about plot listings. So instead, we continued toward the east, now parallelling the US border, and headed toward Thunder Bay. We stopped alongside a lake for a quiet lunch, and then continued on, and into a campsite about 30 KM west of Thunder Bay. It has a very positive name - HappyLand CampGround. Hopefully it will be, because the low temps are continuing. Tomorrow we will start some serious investigations into some more family history.....both Thunder Bay and Sault Ste Marie have quite a few family ties to research, and we will need several days in each.

Chasing Wild Geese

The next morning was cool. No - forget that - it was downright cold! But we're tough, so we can handle it. We managed to rustle up some breakfast on our camp stove and then set out eastbound again. I'd seen enough of Hwy#1 for awhile, so we decided on the Scenic Route......north, then east, through the Q'Apelle Valley on mostly gravel roads. Scenic it was, for Saskatchewan....l..quite lush and rolling, and reminded us a lot of the Okanagan in B.C. But eventually the road led us back onto the main road (#1), through Moosomin (it was raining by now, and cousin Maryann has done the graveyards of Moosomin), so we crossed into Manitoba. In this province, we had quite a number of ancestors and relatives to find, and most of them off the beaten track! So southbound we went, through Souris and Boissevain, in search of a much smaller and less known community, Homefield. This was home to a great-uncle McKinnon, but I'm amazed he ever found it, or stayed! But with a little perseverence, we found the village (not sure what the term is if it's smaller than a village), and asked at one of the two or three occupied homes for directions to the cemetery. There we found my gt-uncle and his wife, and then continued in rain showers back northward again, to Spruce Wood Provincial Park. On the way was a very large camel marking the edge of the Manitoba semi-desert lands, so I had to get a photo (not sure if Sara the camel is purported to be a world's largest, but checked her out anyways).

Sara










The rain stopped for setting up of camp, and we managed to take a short walk around some of the park, to the lake (actually a wide turn in the Assiniboine River), and to whip up a bit of supper. Then off to bed early, to keep warm. Temperatures dropped to zero, so next morning found us again wondering if we had the date correct - it is June, isn't it??? We had more relatives to track down, so it was off to Portage la Prairie. There are several cemeteries there, and our information was sketchy on our Collins ancestors, so we went into a pioneer museum to see if that would help. They directed us to the public library, where we spent several hours looking through microfiche files of the local newspapers, at obituaries and events, and the listings of all of the local graveyards. But we turned up nada. It is possible that they are buried in Winnipeg, so perhaps; we can find them later in the trip. But......another couple of graves should be about 100 KM SE of Portage, so back we go, into Carman Manitoba. A search of the cemetery there found no trace......either they are in another site in Carman (which no-one knows about), or they are unmarked, or our information is incorrect. This family search is turning into a wild-goose chase. And a cold one, at that! The temperature has only gone up to 7C by mid afternoon, as we cruise through Headly (my gt-grandfather died here, but now it is Winnipeg suburbia) and into Winnipeg. We were able to find the Elmwood Cemetery where many of my McKay relatives are supposed to be located. Alas....the goose chase continues, and we can find no sign of them! There are many more cemeteries here, but being Friday afternoon, the chances of getting at any records on the weekend are slim.....so Winnipeg will remain on our "to do" list, for the return trip to BC. We passed the longitudinal centre of Canada in late afternoon as we cruised eastbound out of Winnipeg, and finally called it a day in Richer, Manitoba, in a small campsite. We'd managed to do fairly well on gas the last couple of days (avg. price 97.9/litre), and on campsites and food.....so tonight we treated ourselves to the local diner for perogies for dinner - a local specialty. I now sit at a picnic table on wifi, with gloves on, as the temperature is now dropping from its high of 7C, on its way to below freezing tonight.
BRRRRRRRRR. Typing on a laptop with gloves on is not quite as easy as I'd thought, with smaller keys and larger fingers.....but the delete and backspace keys help a lot. Tomorrow we will be heading into Ontario.




BRRRRRRRRR









We are hoping to eventually meet up with a buddy from Thunder Bay, but we seem to be moving a bit too fast, and he may not yet be home when we get there.....but he is heading that way, so perhaps we can camp; in Wawa or someplace nice on the north shore of Superior (Wawa has a big Goose!).

A Ghost Story to Relate?

We had our supper in the campsite, and then called Laura's mom, Helen, to set up a visit.......she insisted we come over immediately - so we did. There we met with her daughter Connie, and Connie's husband Leon, and their dog Taffy, as well as Helen, of course. It was a good visit, with treats and chatting, playing with Taffy, and my favourite fruit - cherries. Several hours passed quickly, and although they offered to put us up, we were already camped in at the campground - so they insisted we go to breakfast with them next morning, Helen's treat.











Leon, Connie and Helen treated us to breakfast at Big Al's in Regina.



How could we refuse???? So this morning, they picked us up at 0900 at the camp, and we followed to Big Al's Diner for a huge breakfast. (Al Capone reference again....he was big here - even bigger than that moose!). I got in a short call to our financial adviser, Keith, in Victoria, who told us we are still in OK shape, so I guess we can continue to afford our $50.00/day habit.
We said our farewells at the diner, and drove east again, this time in search of a relative of Linda's who'd been buried in the village of Pense, SK. It's a whistlestop place on the main line of the CPR, but we managed to find several graves with the proper names, and those were at the Anglican Cemetery in town. We then discovered the other cemetery just north of town, with the two plots we were initially looking for. That's when the spirit of Linda's relative showed up. The camera stopped working, as the batteries died. Hmmmmmm........ So Linda went back to the car for the spare batteries, and heard a low hissing noise. Hmmmmmm.....
The source turned out to be the right rear tire slowly leaking. We managed to stop it with a can of "Stop Leak", a liquid for just such an occasion. With pictures of the plots taken, we had to find a service station to take care of our temporary solution, so returned to the highway and continued another 50 Km to Regina. We found an exit which led to a Kal Tire, who opened up an extra bay to take care of our problem, rather than make us wait - and when all was done, they gave us the bill. This was, of course, a worry due to our budgetary constraints. But no need for worry - they took care of it, with a safety check thrown in, and clean windshields and tires - for no charge. I'm starting to like the friendly ways of Saskatchewan. Speaking of windshields, there is another thing I've been noticing. Either there are a lot more bugs in Alberta, or they're a lot stickier and gooier. Our windscreen would almost instantly smear itself with suicidal bugs all through Alberta, but now we seem to be getting only a few. Not sure if they are happier here, and less suicidal, or what. But.....back to Kal Tire. The repair was all done in about 40 minutes, so we flashed up the GPS on the computer to find out how to get to the Riverview Cemetery from there, to find more of our spirit's ( and Linda's) kin. Maybe it was fate, or the spirit was still with us, because we had inadvertently chosen the road which led to the cemetery, and were there in another 10 minutes. We discovered most of who we were looking for there (one of them has an unmarked grave, but we confirmed his burial there). Then back to the road.

By 1500 we were well east of Regina, and decided to call it a day, pulling into a KOA campground in Indian Head. Here they have wireless internet, and laundry, and again, no other tents and only a few RV's .....suits us fine. While Linda started the laundry, I drove into town and got a couple of used books at a second-hand store, run by a woman from Powell River - small world! A few groceries, and beers, in hand (we'd managed to stay under budget enough to buy a few), it was back to the campsite and settle in for some email and blogging catch-up, dinner, and a bit of a read. I don't know if it really was a friendly ghost who had warned us about the tire in time to get the temporary repair, but it's a known fact that spirits can cause electrical fields, and battery failures.....and we wouldn't have caught it otherwise. More to follow.

Drumheller - Then Beyond to the Heartland

Linda on a bad hair day











Don before first coffee in the morning







We woke up to a cloudy, windy, cold day (almost freezing). So following our showers and breakfast, we waited in the car for awhile, planning where in Saskatchewan we needed to find our buried relatives - much warmer in the car than outside, and the museum didn't open until 0900. Then into town for a photo opportunity with a very large dinosaur, as Drumheller has the world's largest T. Rex just outside the tourist bureau. Sometimes I think we should be seeing how many of the " World's Largest " whatevers we can find, as I see that there is a town in Saskatchewan with the world's largest coffee pot - hmmmmmmm. At any rate, we made it into the museum about 0930. Many of the exhibited fossils/bones/dinosaurs all came from Dinosaur Park area, where we were yesterday, so it was quite rewarding to see the completed works, along with an overview of the world since life began. Actually that sounds a bit facetious, but it really was an extremely good exhibit! We spent over 3 hours there, and then set out to find Saskatchewan.



Albertasaurus running from Dinosaur Park








We had dawdled a bit in Alberta with north/south/north/south/north trips, but by 1400 we were eastbound on Highway #1. We stopped in Medicine Hat, Alberta to get those pesky hard-to-find butane cylinders, and finally got a few, as well as some more groceries. That now puts our daily total to over our allowed limit, but we've managed to save a bit the past few days, so hopefully on our day of reckoning (tomorrow) we can still be on or under budget.



This is a common sign in Alberta (put in just for you, Janet!)







This was our last chance to get some cheap (relatively) gas from Alberta, so we filled up. Alberta seems to be much more Capitalistic and competetive, at least with gas stations. BC prices tend to be very uniform in price in any given area, with no-one bucking the trend to competetive pricing. Alberta, however, was all over with prices. The cheapest we saw was at 82.9/liter, the highest at 98.9, and average around Calgary and the highways was around 93.4, but still lots of diversity.....stilll a lot less than BC, and likely most of the rest of the country - we shall see!
We finally crossed into Saskatchewan around 1700 (by my watch, on Mountain Daylight Time) which might have been 1800 Central Time, if Sask. is on daylight time - I'm not sure.....maybe it's still 1700 CST. I'll find out tomorrow. There is a lovely little campsite just into the province, called Eagle Valley, which we pulled into for the evening. There is only one RV here, and we are the only tent - room for about 100 more. They have wifi, but it's too weak and erratic to do much with. Free showers, though.....that's gotta be a bonus. As I sit typing this at the picnic table, Linda is shivering off to bed - it hasn't warmed up much, and looks like we're headed for another cold night. So off to warm things up, and do some more exploring and blogging tomorrow.
Sure enough, it turned out cold and frosty overnight - but we managed to remain comfortable in our little tent. We had a warm-up breakfast with porridge and hot coffee, and then set off toward the Heartland of North America, and mid-Saskatchewan. We left at 1030 (which, I have found, is Central Standard Time - no Daylight Savings here), and cruised along Hwy#1, stopping at various historic points of interest along the way. At one of them, lined with windmills, we had a bit of lunch, and then continued, keeping the speed down to below 90 kph (even though the speed limit is 110). Swift Current is named for the relatively fast flow of the only big river around, the South Saskatchewan River, but we didn't find anything worth staying here for, so contined eastbound. Linda has a cousin from the village/hamlet of Herbert, so we stopped for a photo of the place, and then continued, until we'd reached Moose Jaw. They lay claim to the largest moose in the world, so we had to stop to look at that. Our good friends, Dan and Laura, live in our backyard, and their mom lives in Moose Jaw, so we will have to look her up for a visit. Dan had previously told me about a tour of the "Tunnels of Moose Jaw", which has a theatrical representation of the old days of prohibition, when Al Capone and his boys had set up shop here to provide whiskey for back-home Chicago. We were led into an old saloon by Fanny, the saloon-keeper, and then by Gus, one of Mr. Capone's boys, through the tunnels, with a somewhat comical but seemingly realistic representation of the good old days. Very enjoyable - thanks, Dan! (We can see how these two neighbours have developed an affinity to murder mysteries!). After a short walk around the town, we drove into the south end of town to a campground by the river, and set up camp. Too late to spring ourselves on Helen, Dan & Laura's mom, so close to suppertime - but we'll connect this evening, and maybe get in a visit tomorrow.


Nice Moose! Big Moose!









Today is another day of reckoning - two weeks on the road. How did we do with the budget? We travelled 1774 km this last week, spent 169.52 on gas, 245.63 on food, 73.00 on accommodation, and 117.98 on "other" stuff, for a total of 606.13, almost 94.00 under budget!!!! We will need that extra cash later, though.....the price of gas has now jumped almost 10 cents, to 104.9/liter......and I doubt we will find many bargains in the rest of the country.