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!