We've arrived.....

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

(sorry pictures won't load, I'll try tomorrow)

A few days of travel have since passed since I last posted. We've been busy doing a number of things and I've been a bit lazy too. We've had great weather, although a little windy today, a bit of rain last night but other wise sun and warmth have been filling the days. 

  

We left Parry Sound on Tuesday morning, taking our time, arriving in Lively, Ontario near my friend Linda's home around the noon hour. We parked and settled in for a night's stay. A visit with Randy and Linda during the evening hours, had us straggling home to the Igloo shortly after 10 pm. A late night for us. A quiet night there but alas I think our stops there will be limited for a time at least as there is construction trailers now resting near the spot we like to park and a chat with a couple of the workers/foremen makes me think they will be using it for quite some time so we may need to find a new parking place for our next couple of trips through that area. 

Due to the incoming dump trucks around 9 am on Wednesday morning (courtesy information from the two foremen the day before) we were hooked up and pulling out by 7:45 am leaving Lively in our rear view mirror. The roads in Northern Ontario leave a lot to be desired as they are horrendous, rough, pot holes, heaves from the frost, poundings from the big trucks, gouges from snow plows and so forth. Not nice at all.

The trip from Lively to our summer location is at best a 3 hour ride. We managed to drag it out a wee bit, not arriving until around 1:30 pm. We stopped along the way to do a few little things like fill the diesel tank, dump the Igloo tanks, a bit of shopping and a visit with my cousin Karen. We spent more than an hour catching up with Karen and enjoying a few laughs. Hopefully she comes for visit over the summer months when we are on the Island. 

All of the above was accomplished in the little town of Espanola, a paper mill being it's main source of employment. The drive now turns from west back to the south as we head down Highway 6 toward the ferry terminal at South Baymouth. We are not right in the little hamlet of South Baymouth but a short 10 minute ride away. 

This drive netted us sights of ice still on the rock cuts along the road, a few sightings of snow still here and there in the bush off the road as well. The temperatures were warm and the snow/ice is in those hard to reach places for the sun but will eventually melt. The big news is there is still lots of ice in the bays and channels, not enough for ice fishing but still a great deal. Although the North Channel is clear (the town of Little Current sits on the shores of the North Channel) the others are still ice choked and just now beginning to show signs of breaking up. A good strong wind for a couple of days, some good hard rain or some very warm sunny days, or a combination of the above will get the ice moving quickly and once it starts it'll go pretty fast. 

We passed through the wide spots in the road with names like Sheguiandah, Manitowaning, Hilly Grove and finally ended up just past The Slash where we turned from Highway 6 to Concession 6, then onto Lakeshore Road North and right quick we were pulling in at brother Rick's house to fill up with fresh water. As we're doing that brother Rick and Dad were pulling into Rick's yard as well. Rick had a medical procedure and Dad had been the hired driver. Filled up, quick visit with Dad and on the road once more for a 3 minute drive to the our front gate, through the mud and mire and only half way up the hill to our regular summer location we pulled off and settled for a different location for the next couple of weeks. A couple of soft spots going up the final approach made me think that for a short time we could park further down. So we pulled off onto the grassy top and put down the feet. We've arrived home after a very long time away. We left here Sept 24, 2017 and arrived back May 9, 2018. It's nice to be back. 

After a quick set up, some lunch we headed up to visit for a bit with Dad and get caught up on a few things. We managed to get a few little quick visits in before night fall, all with Dad of course. He dropped by after his dinner as well.

The rain started just before 9 pm last night (Wednesday) and fell off and on until around 3 am. After that it was just cloudy with the winds picking up again. Today has been a bit on the breezy side but the morning fog and cloud cover were completely cleared up by noon. I woke up around 4 am and was finished sleeping for the night. Finally got up around 6 am, did a couple of things very quietly before heading out to Dad's house for morning coffee with Dad, Rick and Barb. 

Back home Riley and I had some breakfast before climbing into the Dogsled to get a few things accomplished. A quick trip to the little hamlet of Tehkummah where we stopped at the little country general store, the used book store and the post office. Tons of mail, which I hate having to deal with. I wish I could do everything on line, with no more paper but alas that is not the way it works just yet, maybe at some point though. Back home once again we managed a 5 minute visit with Dad while dropping off some things for him and then settled in to deal with the mail. 

The trusty Auto Club showing it's face with a long ago paid bill had me on the phone dealing with the mess that was made with my account. It was still not fixed properly but you'll love this part, they had simply cancelled my membership, no notice, no refund, just written it off. Can you say ticked off? However I was very nice to the lady and explained what had happened ONCE AGAIN, but this time I wasn't talking to the road assistance people but someone that was actually able to pull up my entire account. When I asked why they hadn't transferred my payment from Southern Ontario to Northern Ontario when they transferred the membership she explained they can't transfer payments like that. The old membership has to be cancelled and a refund cheque issued, and I would have to sign up for a new membership with the Northern Ontario branch and pay for a full year to start the whole thing over. She had no explanation as to why they would do what they did and not tell me. She could easily see that I had paid and that no refund had been issued but that Southern Ontario had simply just written the membership as cancelled. Which means I would have no coverage of any kind, with no knowledge of the cancellation. She in fact fixed it completely, so I now am having the proper Northern Ontario numbers/card being sent to me and billing will be totally on line, etc. Yeah me!! 

A call to the credit card company had me confused as to why a new card was issued with all the exact same information as my current card. They are no longer using a rebate card, now it's called cash back. Really? They couldn't just honour the card until it expired and then send out a new one? Anyway, that was also taken care of, again yeah me. 

Trying to change our family doctor from Hamilton to the Island is also an experience. Our family doctor in Hamilton retired and we truly aren't too happy with the new one, so we're hoping to change to a local guy. We'll be getting some information about that on Monday. Hopefully it works out well, but we shall see. We will also be looking for a new eye doctor up here in the north as it's inconvenient to have one in Hamilton.

My sister showed up this afternoon for a visit. Haven't seen her since we left the Ottawa area last Sept after her daughter Britt's wedding, so it was nice to catch up with her as well. She didn't stay long as she had some other business to attend to this afternoon and evening. 

So there you have it, the last few days of our winter travel. It was peaceful and quite relaxing as we made our way home once again. I haven't taken any pictures of our spot here yet but I will for the next post. 

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit.

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

Deb