Tuesday August 4, 2015

Another chilly day. I wore my leggings and socks, and my jacket as we left the motel. You cannot call me a fashionista on this trip, not sure you could call me one before, but definitely not now.

Grey clouds and cool temperatures kept us company all day today. Again, we shook our heads at the state of the shoulders, but we stayed alive.

We had three instances today of cars coming towards us and overtaking and heading straight at us. We had to head for the gravel on each occasion. What is it with these idiots, we wear bright yellow, we are the size of a Fiat 500 and still they overtake as if we are not there.

On the other hand we had lots of instances where trucks coming up behind us gave us all the room that they could.

There were some interesting road signs today. Almost as much fun as the Australian one that said \”Take a Power Nap NOW\”

I have been watching out for bears as we have been going through the mainly forested area of Northern Ontario. Today a new worry came to me, wolves!! Why did I think about this today, well we saw a very large road kill that had huge dog like paws, this was not a large german shepherd, this was a dead wolf. Great, now I have to watch out for Mr. Wolf as well as Winnie the Pooh.

We met two touring cyclists today, going in the same direction as us. Gregg and his son Mike, have been cycling across Canada since Mike was 11, he is now about 16. Let me explain, every year they take four to six days to cycle a section of Canada. They started on Vancouver Island and wherever they finish, that is where they start again the following year. This leg is from Winnipeg to Thunder Bay. They were trying to decide whether to stop in Upsala tonight or carry on for 20+ kms so that tomorrows ride into Thunder Bay is only 120 kms not 145 kms. Not sure how many years it is going to take them to do it, but what a great way of spending time with your son.

We stopped in Upsala and had a great second breakfast at the Family Restaurant attached to the Shell Station. We noticed they had home-made pies, but we were too full after the bacon, eggs and home fries to attempt to eat pie as well. The pies were so good people were buying the whole pie to take with them. Ralf was not going to miss out on pie. Ralf ordered two pieces of pie and then asked if we could come back and eat them later! Ralf explained we were going to get set-up at the camp site and then come back for coffee and pie. No problem, two pieces of strawberry rhubarb pie had our name on it.

Although it was a grey and cool day, we opted to camp as it wasn’t windy and it felt as if it was getting warmer. We pitched the tent, settled in, had a really hot shower, then went to the General Store. The general store has everything in it, general groceries, drugs, post office and LCBO. The shopping malls of old, the owner told us before the got too big. It sold everything from cold remedies to fishing lures, mosquito coils to pasta sauce and of course beer and wine.

For those of you who don’t know what the LCBO is, it is the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. Some Provinces still control the sale of alcohol, others have allowed private enterprises. In Ontario you have to buy your beer or wine and spirits at either a beer store or the LCBO. Most of these tiny little Towns have an LCBO agency in their general store. We bought a couple of beers to go with dinner.

We had a nice chat with the lady in the store, who told us that in Upsala they live on Thunder Bay time, even though the time zone is down the road another 35 ks or so. We have lost another hour, although not officially until tomorrow.

After she had told us this we quickly headed back to the family restaurant for our pie and ice-cream, we thought it was 5:15 and it was 6:15 in Upsala. OMG the pie was good. There was an elderly lady in the restaurant who made the pies and the pastry recipe was her mothers. The pastry was so flaky, you knew that it was made with lard and butter, sounds disgusting but it makes really good pastry.

When we arrived at the campsite, The sun has come out over Milton Lake and I am now going to go and sip my beer and enjoy the sunset with my lovely hubby.

The mosquitos were getting bad, so I went back to the tent.  Ralf quickly came back to the tent and grabbed his camera again.  The sun was setting beautifully.