These last four days are being published courtesy of a Tim Horton's. Even though my Chromebook gives me fits each and every time I want to log in to someplace!! But we thought we and better get what we can up and out there. Excuse any typos; it happens to the best of us!!
We hoped for a nice quiet and restful sleep, BUT we had company. How that many got into the camper back we do not know. But we spend an hour swatting and splatting. I finally gave up and opted to sleep in the front seat as it does recline a bit and, for some reason, the mosquitoes don’t get in as easily up there. Andrew finally fell asleep amid the whining (He really can’t hear them once his hearing aids are off, and they don’t bite him as much, but they do hover and land, and that is quite bothersome when there are so many. Since we were further north, the sun didn’t set until after 10. The sun rose early, 4:30 ish and since we couldn’t really sleep, we were on our way a little after 6 one of us covered with lots of red dots, the other with just a few.
We had to take the same road, just the opposite direction, so nothing really knew. It was rainy during the night and it rained for a little bit for the start of our journey. Once it quit, the sun was warm, the sky was bluer than blue and the clouds whiter and cottony looking. The trees looked refreshed from the rain. The waves, and holes, and cracks and such were still apparent even on the opposite side of the road. Since the road isn’t busy at all (perhap 1 vehicle every 15 minutes or so??) we could weave around and try to miss some of the big stuff. We noticed some highway workers donned mosquito netting! Smart!! We will have to put that on our list for future adventures.
We stopped at Rupert River again, just because it is just that awesome. We stopped at another overlook that required a small hike into the woods but a few downed trees blocked the end. We snuck through on what looked like a new trail and could stand at riverside and look upstream to see those rapids. Lovely, and a cool breeze to boot!
We stopped by the gas station and their Internet was back up and running so we got gas and had breakfast. And then drove some more.
We think the sets of “cabins” are perhaps former work camps as most tend to be located near a river, so when they built or rebuild the bridges they had close places to stay.
Andrew drove most and I did a couple of stints. Mostly I read Anne of Green Gables, and it is good. I can’t believe I’ve never read it as it’s been around since 1908!! Anne is an orphan that is accidentally sent to live with an elderly sister and brother. They “ordered” a boy to help with the farmwork but somehow she was sent instead. And she talks and talks and talks and imagines such wonderful things. I am not yet finished so I cannot spoil the ending.
We made it to Manigami and stopped by the center to let her know we had made it back out again, took a loop through town and headed to somewhere to camp. We drove through several small towns but not too many campsites. We found one and hoped there would be a site available as now everyone is off of school and vacationing. The GPS told us to turn right and we did, on a dirt road that seemed to lead into more and more trees. Then cars lined up, and lots of them. We wove through the cars and the GPS told us we’d arrived. There was a French gentleman sitting in a golf cart who meandered over and spoke a “little” English. We explained we needed a site for one night, and he acquiesced. Something with electric? No, sorry. Take Credit Card? No, debit or cash. Oh, oh. He tried our CC and it worked, thank the Lord. We are running low on Canadian cash as we are leaving tomorrow. This is a really BIG campground and the swimming area/lake are open to the public, explaining all the cars lined up. We got backed into our zone and popped up the canopy and screen (less bugs here but you can’t be too sure, plus it as wet when we put it away). They had a restaurant near the entrance and we took the Chromebook down there to charge. Oops. I let it get near death so couldn’t type wile Andrew drove. The restaurant only took debit or cash but we had enough for a couple of sandwiches and drinks. I plugged and and plugged on, writing two days worth.
The last 2 days we drove about 1000 miles ---- basically 1 road --- up and then back down. “Solitude” is the beauty of the area.
We are back at the campsite and a shower sounds lovely. Andrew already took one and said the Looney (Canadian quarter) was a long shower so hopefully his long and my long match. :) I organized the back of the truck a bit and we can perhaps swim in the AM or just wander around. We can’t leave until the gate goes up at 8. :)
There are tons of families here. Some are permanent sites, lots of them are. They even have their own decorative fire pits, swings, patio sets. There are kids of all ages riding bikes, even in French you recognize, “Wait for me!” The road is dirt and FULL of potholes so it is safe to assume traffic is slow and kids are safe. It is amazing how many adults are NOT riding bikes. Kids doing their thing together. Lots of dogs are getting walked and there was at least one birthday party, at least that would explain why two grown up men were wearing pointy hats, sort of like unicorns!! I did see a family walking their dog and a remote control car. Too fun.
The shower was fabulous if not a little disconcerting. It is unisex. So I walk in and hear men’s voices. I take a quick peek at the door and it does say both!! There are three and the doors covers nearly all of it, only a few inches on the bottom to check for shoes and feet and a fee inches at the top. The Looney was indeed very long indeed and hot.
The bike ride back saw me getting second in a race (or at least I passed one boy and followed another and high fived a girl that was at the finish!). I needed to play close attention as the road is dirt AND sand!! So on the way to the showers I almost took myself out hitting a patch of sand avoiding some young ‘ens. When you say, “Excuse me,” or “Passing on the left,” they don’t understand English!! I’ll put my bell on it once home, I think bell dings are universal.
Tomorrow brings us closer to home. Should make it to the USA border into Michigan.. The “U.P.”
No comments:
Post a Comment