Traveling across Ontario

On our last part of the journey we managed to achieve 7.6 mpg…our personal best!  Yeah, I know…but for us this is good.

We spent the night in North Bay, Ontario Canada so we could have the cats crated up for the border crossing.  After the last fiasco, I wanted to keep this simple.  Gracie walked right into the carrier much to my surprise.  George was already down the rabbit hole and inaccessible. 

Bracing ourselves for another lengthy crossing we approached the man at the window who asked us a few questions, never asked if we had any animals with us and sent us on our way.  Well, that was refreshing!

Along the Canadian highways today we found lots of construction.  One was right in the middle of a bridge, the rest seem to always be at the bottom of a hill.  I couldn’t help but notice how cute the guys were holding the caution signs.  I envisioned an encounter that might go like this:

Opening scene:  a dimly light smoky bar with The Queen dressed in a tight provocative sequined gown which highlights her hard curvy body.  Hey!  It’s my fantasy…okay?  Where was I?  Oh yes, I was cruising for hot young men and then I spotted him.  A construction worker, tan skin, tight muscles, very cute.   Now you have to remember…I’m from the sixties…so naturally I approached him with my best pick up line.

The Queen:  “Hey there, good looking!  My name is Queen Jester; I’m a Leo (close cousin to the cougar).  What’s your sign?”

Cute Construction Guy:  “Stop”.

Q:  “Oh come on now, don’t be coy with me!  What’s your sign?”

CCG:  “Stop” My sign says stop.

Q:  “Huh?   What’s wrong with you, anyway?”

CCG:  “Slow”

Q:  “Why yes, I can see that…you do seem to be one bubble off plumb, but that doesn’t mean anything.”

CCG:  “Huh?  I don’t know what you’re getting at lady.  My sign only says STOP and SLOW.”

Q:  “Well, almighty then!  Moving on….” 

Further down the road I spied a sign for a place called the Clansmen Motel.  It had an image of a Scottish man in plain kilts.  You’d never find a motel in the south named that….the sheets would always be stolen or left behind with two eye-holes cut in them.

Bob...does this indicate a geocache?

 

 

Also different along the road were the signs.  In addition to the deer signs they also proclaimed ‘Night Danger’ with them.  Apparently they don’t cross during the daytime.  I had visions of deer wearing black motorcycle jackets standing around a bar conspiring to cause trouble.

The other sign we don’t normally see were the ‘Don’t Feed the Bears’ sign.

Some of the signs were a bit cryptic, such as this one with a car apparently out of control zigzagging along the road being showered by ….what? 

Is that snow? 
Rocks? 
Meteorite showers? 
Somebody throwing stones at the car? 

This left me a bit ill at ease since it wasn’t clear what kind of danger we might be in.

Perhaps the bears were throwing stones because we wouldn’t feed them.

There seems to be a large Amish population (or something of that sort) based on the buggy signs, as well as the hay fields being gathered.



Amish or sulky racer?

 

Finally we stopped for gas and there was a cute little restaurant next door to it, so we could fill up the tank.  This took $315 and Left Brain found the credit card wouldn’t work.  So we scrambled for the emergency cash supply to pay for our gas and walked over to the café for lunch.   After we placed our order, Left Brain went outside to call Capitol One and let them know we were out of the country.

I decided to try the pan fried periogies with bacon and onion since I had no idea what it was. I may have found my new favorite food.  You probably already know what they are, but to my surprise and delight it was mashed potatoes and cheese in a pastry crust.  It was smothered in bacon and onion with sour cream in the center.  YUM!

Our goal to end this day was to locate a campground with decent internet to get caught up on our virtual lives.  Left Brain was in charge of finding the campground on our Allstays app and put it into the gps, which he thought he had done.  Apparently he had entered ‘city center’ for Ottawa earlier to calculate mileage or whatever it is he does with that thing and we found ourselves in downtown Ottawa in an RV pulling a car.  Yikes!  Then the gps announced that we had arrived.  I ask you…do you see a campground anywhere here?

The campground must be close by, the gps said we'd arrived at our destination

But we managed to get the correct address loaded and finally are set up for a three night stay here to rest and see the sights of Ottawa.  Our goal is to dilly dally in Canada until the end of August since Passport America doesn’t allow any of their discount rates until September 1^st once we reenter the US.

Where the *&$@% do you suppose we are now?

 

The weather here is (as they say it) bloody hot, so we opted for the 50amp service to provide AC for the kitties while we tour the city.  I noticed several Indian restaurants and some schwarma stands, so there should be some good eating coming our way! 

Life is good with the internet back again!

Long Live the Queen of Ontario