Heading out on our new adventure......

Our Location: Walmart Front Yard, Sudbury, Ontario

The last few days have been busy as we’ve been preparing to depart on Wednesday. A number of chores including propane regulator changed, laundry done, visits with various folks, and just a number of things to accomplish. 

These are the roads to and from friend Linda's Camp in the Providence Bay area, they include Blue Side Road with it's ONE LANE bridge, as well as the Manitou River on the Government Road.

Today Wednesday May 30 found our temperatures reaching 84F/29C on the first day of our newest adventure. To say it was hot would be an understatement but the humidity is what was so difficult to handle. The morning started warm at 6 am with temperatures at 57F/14C and just continued to rise. 

Welcome to the wide spot in the road that is Tehkummah. (Tack - a - ma)

We finally pulled out of our temporary spot on the green at 9:30 am after coffee time, a walk, showers and packing up, hooking up and heading down the hill. A quick stop at Dad’s house to say our see you in a month or so and we were off to the hamlet of Manitowaning to pick up my sister Jan as she’s coming with us this time. A stop at the local Information booth/used book stop to drop off some books, then on to sister’s house to load up her necessaries before pulling out around 10:15 am, leaving her partner Rick behind to mind the house, garden and cats. 

The small town of Mindemoya, we do laundry here.

The day would be a short one for us, our destination about 2 hours away. Only one stop for a top up of the Big Dog’s water bowl at $1.29 per litre (approx 4 litres to a gallon, you do the math). 

This turtle was crossing the green where we were parked. Only one we noticed.

We passed through Sheguaindah, Little Current, Birch Island, Espanola, McKerrow and past our usual turn off at Lively (Linda and Randy are at Camp) and motored to Sudbury and Mr. Walton’s front yard. We arrived before 1 pm and were unhooked and headed out to the blood lab, bank and Cosco for a quick couple of errands. We managed to have a quick lunch at Cosco before coming back home. 

The road during part of our travels today. Included as you can see are the blossoms just now showing themselves. Also the 'other' view but this one coming down Ten Mile Point hill toward the town of Sheguaindah.

The afternoon passed with us running all the fans, having all the windows and vents open seemed to keep the heat at least manageable but a shopping excursion into Walmart for some groceries and a few little things helped us cool off a bit. Sis and I  finally retreated outside to the shade of the Igloo as the heat inside wasn’t abating much but it was much cooler outside.

The town of Little Current located on the North Channel is the only gateway that allows one to drive onto Manitoulin Island. The Channel is accessible by a swing bridge that opens during the summer months, every hour on the hour for 15 minutes as needed to allow marine traffic to pass. Riley managed to snap a picture as we crossed the bridge, a picture of the North Channel that leads out to the waters of MacGregor Bay/Kilarney area. Another picture into the North Channel shows a large cruise ship docked at the down town docks of Little Current.

Here it is 7:35 pm and outside has cooled off some, hopefully the night time air cools off as well so we can sleep. As we sat outside Darren from Winnipeg, Manitoba sat with us and chatted away for an hour or so.  Darren and his wife Joan (whom we didn't meet) are parked behind us in a Class A motorhome. Around 9:30 pm we three ladies journeyed back into Walmart to just wander around and finally came home at 10 pm when the store closed for the night. The air is cooling off but it's still pretty warm. The three of us are finding it difficult to get to sleep. 

Highway 6 North, this is part of the drive between Little Current and Espanola. This particular stretch is called the Willisville Hill.

Thanks for stopping by. Today’s pictures are just some of the views out the window as travelled over the last few days including today. 

This is an extremely steep grade which finally gets us to the top of the above mentioned hill.

Until next time….. take care, be safe,

Deb

A busy week....

Our Location: Lakeshore Rd N, near South Baymouth, ON

The last number of days have been busy with various errands, jobs, and visits. We’ve travelled a bit to place like Espanola, Little Current, Manitowaning, Mindemoya and Tehkummah but we have yet to visit the little hamlet of South Baymouth. We will though and I promise to remember to take the big camera instead of just my phone.
 

Waiting for Dad at the bank in Little Current. Ahead is a small glimpse of the water front, which is the North Channel.

Tuesday found Riley and I securing a new family doctor in Mindemoya as our Hamilton family doctor retired and we don’t care for the new fellow. We’ve slowly been switching things to the north and have now joined with Dr. Maryna Harelnkava at the Manitoulin Health Clinic.

This is the local OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) building. No town cops, just provincial and Native ones on the Island.

Wednesday we travelled to Espanola with Dad as he wanted to do some grocery shopping, and we too managed to find a few items we could use. Isn’t that always the way though? You don’t need anything and $50 later you leave the store. The ride is about an hour and a half from where we’re located, we must cross the swing bridge in Little Current and continue along Highway 6 north bound through a couple of reserves.  We travelled through Birch Island Reserve, Whitefish Falls Reserve and weaved our way through the rocky outcroppings of Willisville and passed into Espanola just before 10 am. We managed to pass the time at a few stores, lunch and before we knew it we were home by 2:30 pm. Not a long trip but a nice slow pace and a few laughs along the way. 

My view of the morning sun as it greets the day.

Thursday  had Dad and I travelling to Mindemoya to have his 2 week old hearing aid back at the hearing clinic there. Seems they have to send it out to be repaired, and it’s only 2 weeks old. I’m not sure what to think about this little issue but we’ll see how long it lasts when it comes back. We did a few little errands while there in Mindemoya as well. 

This fella and his partner (she's in the ditch among the weeds) may be nesting in this location. Lots of marshy areas here.

Friday has us visiting Aunt Shirley during the morning and sister Jan on our way back home.  We also stopped at the local body shop where my long time friend Blaine did his magic on a stone chip we picked up over the winter travels. 

One of my morning walks, I walk up to the bend in the road which is where our gateway is located.

Taking a few minutes most days I’m also working on the oxidization issue on the nose cone and hopefully will have it finished by Monday and be able to apply some wax to bring the shine back. We shall see how that goes though. I’ve been walking a bit more now that we are back, although the mornings are pretty crisp still but I’m sure they will get warmer soon. The snow and ice are now all gone, with no signs of lingering any where. A walk over the back trail to the Sugar Shack didn’t find any Morrels in the spots I noted them last year and I think it’s too dry. Hard to believe with all the snow they had here but the ground is dry and crunchy in places. Rain in the forecast for tomorrow so hopefully we get a nice gentle rain over the evening and night. It would be most helpful. 

This is taken from our regular parking spot, as you can see we're quite a bit lower down.

Our Canadian long weekend is about over with today being Monday. Rain on Saturday had us doing some inside chores and reading. Sunday found me finishing up not quite all of the nose cone, about 15 more minutes should complete the oxidization removal and then I can apply a couple of coats of wax and be finished with that particular job. We have a few things planned for the week and hopefully a bit of warmth finds the wind/breezes that are constant here on the rock. Things are starting to show their spring colours more and more with daffs, tulips, crocus, and hyacinths showing their bright spring colours. 

We normally park right back there along those rocks and trees on the right. In fact you can see the outline of the out door mat we use toward the left of the picture.

With the long weekend comes the cattle into our little piece of real estate. They should arrive today and be here for summer pasture. All of the gates are now closed, and we will start being more aware of the things we leave outside. Cows will chew anything, we’ve been fortunate enough to only lose the occasional solar light to their destructive ways over the years so we can’t complain. 

You can see the lake from here, but we don't park this high. That's our fire pit down there below on the rock.

So there you have it folks. Nothing exciting but we’ve been busy. I hope you enjoyed your visit. 

Quite the view from up here but we can't get this high with the Igloo.

Until next time… take care, be safe,

Walking across the old orchard you can see the back of my brother's house, my dad lives to the right behind that tall pine tree. You can barely see the David Brown Tractor on the extreme right but Dad's there splitting wood for next winter's heat.

 


Deb



(A note: I've found that posting a daily blog right now just isn't possible as my mornings are too full and the internet speed at night is disgusting so I'll be posting when I can, I'll try for once a week but who knows. I'll be catching up with everyone's posts at some point but I can't tell you when. I hope you all have a wonderful summer!!!!)



 

We have arrived......

Our Location: Lakeshore Road N, Tehkummah, Ontario

(sorry no pics, computer is running low on battery)

We woke this morning in Lively, Ontario to a temp of 31F/-1C outside but no frost or wind, which made it seem much nicer. Monday night in Hamilton was also a coldish one but the temp escapes my memory. Yesterday was of course rain all day but today was blissfully sunny and very nice. The outside temp reached 54F/12C this afternoon and we had the big door open for a bit. It was fantastic.

Yesterday’s drive wasn’t long even though it sounds long, we pulled out of Hamilton at 9:15 am, stopping just north of Toronto for about 15 minutes at the Enroute near King City. From there our next stop was right around lunch time at Parry Sound where we pulled in grabbing a bite to eat from the Tim Horton’s. I had a nice Crispy Chicken Sandwich, Riley ordered her usual, a BLT, we both added potato wedges but won’t do that another time, they were terrible. We also filled up with fuel at $1.19 per litre (approx 4 litres to a gallon), Hamilton was $1.04 per litre and when we filled up at the turn off of Hwy 17 and Hwy 6, it was $1.11 per litre. A big tank is nice but expensive. ~laugh~ We left Parry Sound stopping once more before reaching our destination of Lively, Ontario just a little after 3 pm. 

We called our friend Linda making plans to drop by for a quick visit about 8:30 pm. It was fantastic to see both Randy and Linda again, it’s been 6 months!! We enjoyed the pics of their holiday in Cabo, Mexico and hearing all about the wonderful adventure they had with their friends Wayne & Anna. You know a place is great if you’ll return and they didn’t hesitate to say they would return another time.

Back to the Igloo we snuggled down into our beds and I personally never heard a sound until 6 am this morning. I don’t sleep like that very often so it was a real shock for me. Riley turned over when I started the heater but went back to sleep for a bit. By 7:40 am we were packing up inside and outside. We spent a bit of time doing a few minor things before hooking up but we pulled out of our parking spot at 8:50 am heading further west and then south.

Of course Ontario only has two season, winter and construction. We’re in the later season now as we were constantly in construction zones all the way yesterday and most of today. At one point we were delayed for 10 minutes waiting for the flagman to let us go. It looks like the drive to and from Sudbury will be long this summer as construction will be an ongoing thing until the snow flies again. Hopefully the delays aren’t as bad as they were last summer/fall when wait times were much longer. 

We pulled in at the junction of Hwy’s 17 & 6 to top up our fuel and some Tim Horton’s. Didn’t take long and we were back on the road again. Within a few minutes we reached the mall in Espanola with the time being around 10 am, pulling in we managed to find a great spot to park at the end of the lot. We took our time going into a number of different stores getting a few things that we knew we’d need, some things that we thought we’d like and even a few things that we hadn’t planned on getting. We piled the groceries into the Igloo and headed out about 12:15 pm.

If you have ever driven the stretch of road between Espanola and the Island they know it’s hilly, curvy and rough. Today was no exception but there was very little traffic and we were able to cruise along without any slow downs. No leaves are out here, lots of buds around, and a red tinge to some of the smaller bushes, a few pussy willows were out, the grass is green and there is lots of water laying around, but spring hasn’t quite made an appearance yet. We crossed the swing bridge around 1 pm and headed straight south from there.

We pulled into Dad’s driveway just about 2 pm with a warm, sunny afternoon ahead of us. We chatted with Dad for a bit, dropped some things in his freezer and headed on to our summer spot about a 1/4 mile away. We had a few things to do before pulling up the hill to our site, with all the water the ground was pretty soft in some places but I just tucked the Dogsled into 4 wheel low and we crept up the hill with no issues of any kind. Took about a half hour to get turned around, parked where we wanted to be parked, and get unhooked. After that we worked on a number of inside/outside chores and by the time I was having a snack around 3 pm we had just finished everything. Dad and Marion dropped by for a quick visit which was nice.

They left and we closed the big door, came inside and read for a bit. We enjoyed sitting here with all the window blinds open and enjoying the peace and quiet that comes from being ‘out in the boonies’. ~laugh~  A call from Dr. Dube’s office in Hamilton came in around 4 pm informing us of Riley’s appointment in Sudbury on June 15. We’ll see how things go next week when the results come back from the blood test she had last week.

Dinner tonight was Honey Pecan chicken, with garlic mashed potatoes and Thyme/Parsley vegetable medley. We followed that with a few peaches.

After dinner we loaded some things into the Dogsled heading up to Poppa’s to deliver his requested items and the gifts we brought back. We visited for about an hour or so before heading back home. 

We played a game of Yahtzee, can you see me doing my happy dance? ~laugh~ I did win, and yes I even rolled a Yahtzee. Riley just wasn’t having any luck tonight and I’ll take the win. They are few and far between for me. ~laugh~

After that I did the dishes, tidied up a bit before heading off to write this post. I hope the Mifi works but I haven’t tried it yet. I guess you’ll know if it works as I’ll post this tonight, if not I’ll have to post it at another time.

So we have arrived, safe and sound. We are parked up on the hill with the frogs singing around us, we’ve seen our first porcupine when we were coming home from Poppa’s house tonight. A couple of deer earlier in the day and of course the Sand Hill cranes are in the field behind the house.  It’s good to be back home!!!

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your visit. Until next time…be safe, take care….