Leg #3 of our trip was to cross Quebec and Ontario and visit friends.  We entered Quebec in Fermont from Labrador and planned to exit Ontario in Sault Ste Marie in the US.  So far so good. 

From Niagara, we got back on the 407 ETR toll road to cross north of the city of Toronto and then north to Peterborough. 

Let me backtrack just a bit to explain 407 ETR (or Electronic Toll Route).  It was recommended that we use this road to go to Niagara and back as it does not go through the city.  The road is about 60 miles long and the toll process is like other cities and states, but our SunPass Pro wouldn’t work there.  And as far as I know, it’s the only toll route in Canada.  So, I had preordered a transponder just for this portion and, when it was finished, we returned the transponder.  I’ll report later how everything turned out!  So far, we have not received any notice of tolls?! – and BTW, the road is excellent as it passes through the countryside and forests with virtually no traffic until it reaches Burlington and Hamilton.  But by then, it ends anyway!

Back to the trip, the stop in Peterborough was to visit the woman that Gail has done contract work for over the past 6 years.  They had become very close friends, and her name is also Gail (Gail M)!   They had met personally twice back in 2020.  We pulled into her driveway and stayed for 3 nights.  It was a great visit, and the house was in a central location for us to do some exploring, get some laundry done, and get the Jeep serviced.  All needed items. 

Close to her house there was a park and a lake so we headed out for a quick walk and let Gail M get some work done.  The walk was pleasant, and the park was full of people playing volleyball, swimming and grilling out!  And when we got back, Gail M treated us to a nice dinner.

The next day we headed out to run errands and get some work done on the Jeep.  We took it to Canadian Tires since the new tires had not been rotated since we left Miami about 12000 miles back.  They also changed the oil, replaced the front brakes and serviced the air conditioner.  A bigger tab than planned but Moonshadow (our Jeep) is ready to go again.

After running other errands, we got back to a nice surprise of a steak dinner with fresh corn-on-the-cob prepared by Gail M’s son, Scott.  A very nice gesture. 

The next day, we visited the Farmer’s Market but didn’t buy much except some Canadian Girl Guide Cookies.  There were only two choices, so we just picked one!  Different from our normal purchase from the Girls Scouts outside the grocery store in Miami!

Then on to a visit of the Canadian Canoe Museum which sounds maybe a bit simple but turned out to be very well done and covered all types and uses of hand built, manually powered canoes including the different construction techniques and the stories of the families that owned them.  Very educational!

Speaking of education, we then went to see some of the boat locks on the Trent-Severn Waterway.  The most interesting was the Peterborough Lift Lock that actually moves the boats up (or down) 65 feet to the next level in a large “pool” of water and powered by a hydraulic system based in the weight of each “pool”.  One pool goes up while the other goes down.  Using Archimedes’ Principle, the weight of each pool remains constant when the boats pull in, although they reduce the level of the water in the lower pool by a foot after each transfer to make it lighter than the upper pool.  So, the weight of the upper “pushes” the lower one up as it comes down!  You have to see to believe it, but such a great system.  And hard to believe that it was built over 8 years from 1896-1904 and still in operation!  And there are only 3 like it in the world.

Then we had the pleasure of meeting Gail M’s sister and having dinner at her family’s Italian restaurant!  

The next day we headed to Bancroft, ON to visit Gail M’s friend David at his place in the woods outside of town!  That’s right!  Another Gail and David (Although he goes by Dave which makes it easier).

It was a pleasant drive until the last mile or so which turned into a gravely dirt road.  And I had just washed the Jeep at Gail M’s house.  Oh well.  We had a nice quiet evening swapping RV camping stories over a nice hamburger dinner.

The following day we took off to Barry’s Bay about an hour north in the Jeep to visit Trish and Dan.  More people Gail (my Gail) has worked with and never met in person.  They both worked at Gail M’s company and Trish still does.  She handles accounting, so Gail works closely with her.  Their place was in the country on about 10 acres and very quiet.  And considering being in central Ontario, it seemed unusual to have a swimming pool!  We had a nice visit with lunch and met their very friendly Labradoodle, Oliver!  And I had a spin into their back woods on their ATV!

On the way back to Bancroft we stopped in a few places to explore.  Found out that complete sets of old Pyrex dishes are valuable on the antique market!  And bought our first butter tarts.  Very good!

After dinner we went for a short hike to the Eagles Nest Overlook with Gail and Dave which is a trail that he has redesigned and is helping to upgrade and maintain.  (One of the many things he does.  He also has a bicycle repair shop in town).  The views were excellent.

The next day both Gails worked (my Gail helped out doing some QA) while the David’s cleaned the RVs.  Gail M also has a Class C RV like ours that she keeps at Dave’s.  We were all rewarded with a boat ride and swim on the York River.  Yes, even I got into the water.   And we saw two loons with two babies on the way back.  Couldn’t get a good photo, but they were really cute!

We look forward to an opportunity to go camping with Gail M and Dave in the future.

We had a few more quick stops before heading back to the US, still about 500 miles and 3 days away.

One was in Mattawa, a suburb of North Bay, ON.  A nice park on a small lake with very reasonably priced ice cream!  We didn’t need it, but we justified it by walking to get it!   And the girls overloaded the cones to boot!!

The last stop was in Massey, a suburb of Sudbury, ON at Chutes Provincial Park.  It was a short drive, so we had time for a nice hike (the Two Bridges trail) along the river to see the waterfalls (chutes!). 

And since we were crossing into the US the next day and didn’t want to try to bring firewood across the border in case we were inspected, we had our first campfire this year!  We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows.  A nice end to our Ontario visit. 

The next day we headed back into the US and our next leg.  Check back to see how our border crossing went and our crossing back into Canada!