Sunday August 2, 2015

A short, fast ride today to Dryden. The scenery today was more agricultural than rugged Canadian Shield. I had just said to Ralf how different Ontario was from Manitoba, being more rugged and no farming, when we went through an area that had farms and cows.

We didn’t see any sheep, but saw a place that produces excellent woolen products and sheepskin slippers.

When we crested the small hill and looked into Dryden the Town was dominated by the Domtar pulp mill. It used to be a paper mill, but they sold the machinery to China. Now they are supposed to be manufacturing high-grade pulp, whatever that is. Dryden is a one-horse industry City – the pulp mill. However, there is supposed to be a gold mine opening soon north of the City, which should breathe some new life back into the place.

The Tourist Information Office was closed, probably because it was Sunday.

We had an interesting chat with the owner of the campground. She is very much against Wal-Mart and their policy of allowing campers to stay overnight in their parking lot. She went on quite a rant about Wal-Mart and the City of Dryden for not enforcing their By-law which states no overnight parking allowed in parking lots. For one season she went to Wal Mart and counted every camper and trailer that parked there – over 620 campers for the season. That is a lot of lost revenue for her business.

The campsite was nice, the Wittmers have a nice touch by giving each guest a chocolate heart when you register.

The campsite had a covered picnic area near the tent camping site, lots of picnic tables, and a fire-pit. The showers were good, hot and clean, as were the laundry facilities. As the weather had changed again, and had got quite chilly, the owners allowed us to use the laundry room to cook and eat our dinner, which had a table and chairs.