Goodbye Canada

Well we hated to, but we had to say goodbye to the Nunans.  It was almost harder than saying goodbye to home since we know we'll be back home and we don't know when we'll see them again.  We stayed so long we began to feel like family.  Jo summed it up well when I was drying the dishes one night and didn't know where everything went - "by next month you will."

So the very nice man in Brantford fixed up the van in good shape.  He rebuilt the fuel pump - which was a good thing as he said it looked someone had sort of done half a job at some point.  He found the timing off a bit so fixed that too.  The van has more power than it did, it actually gets up to 65 without too much trouble now.  Better on hills too.  I had him check the shifting linkage as it was getting hard to get into first.  He found a bushing type thing out of place and dirty and so cleaned it all up and put it all back together far better than before.  So other than the price tag - which was a lot but also a lot less than it sometimes is (and I think he gave me a really good deal) it was a good thing to have happen all around.

John and his crop of corn.

After and before the corn goes through the harvester.

About half a load.

We asked that the skunk be disposed of after we left. 

We left Paris Thursday and drove secondary roads all the way to Stratford, Ontario, home of the Festival Theater.  I've been there once before to see plays, a lot of Shakespeare and other plays are put on there.  Thursday is a quiet day and only two shows were being performed so we didn't see anything.  We toured the theater lobby, the gift shop, downtown Stratford and the Avon River.

The theater - rainy, windy, and cold but only for a short while.

This is a donut shop chain - Tim Horton was a hockey player - these are very popular and seem to be everywhere - we thought they were just in Ontario but actually saw some in Michigan too. 

John Nunan and I stopped and bought donuts one day but this is not our trash. 

The westward again towards Lake Huron.  Sam did almost all the navigating and certainly followed the map if I made the route decisions.  We went through more and more farmland.  I love the open land.  About 90 percent of the land is open and farmed.  Very little is pastured.  Huge, bigger than around Paris, fields of crops.  Lots of silos.  All the barns have stone construction on the first story.  Mostly the houses are brick or stone and are at the end of a long lane that is protected from the wind from windbreak trees.  Trees are planted all around the houses and farm buildings too.  Beautiful, tall two story houses - a very pleasing design.

The soil got darker and darker.  We had been told that some farms grew onions and leeks out that way.  We saw a sign for a turnip farm.  We saw three oil wells.  They are the ones that look like an insect dipping up and down - some sort of a pump.  They were on individual farms.  As soon as Sam got out the camera we didn't see anymore but I think there are more a little further south in Ontario.

We found a State Park near the edge of Lake Huron and before we parked for the night we had a visit to the beach.  It was tremendous with huge white waves rolling in - in every way looking like ocean except for no change in the 'tide'.  And we thought Lake Ontario was impressive.  A huge sandy beach with no one on it.  Weather blew in and we camped with the sound of rain and little bits of hail hitting the roof.  Wind in the trees.  But we are snug in the camper for a least two hours after parking before we need to get in the sleeping bags.  And then we are plenty warm.  Morning is a little hard - a bit chilly - but we get up and get going quickly and warm up.  This morning we went to the beach for a long walk.  Like Niagara Falls, it's hard to describe the drama of the water, the noise of the waves, the drama of the sky.  There was so much chop it looked like the horizon had trees, nothing smooth about it.  That persistent wind that makes driving the van work was blowing hard.  We needed winter hats, gloves and our coats.

Lake Huron

A funny sign.

The next morning.  A gorgeous sandy beach with no one but us on it.

Lots of beautiful patterns in the sand from the wind blowing the grass.

We then followed the lake to Sarnia, Ont. to cross the border back to the USA.  Oddly we had a terrible time finding fuel - what the heck to they do for fuel??  We drove round and round and round - saw a sign and the place was vacant - saw another place - no diesel.  We had to ask someone where a gas station was.  We crossed the high bridge over the river dividing Ontario and Michigan.  Only a 50 minute wait to get into the states.

The ship in the foreground is the H. Lee White.  Loaded with taconite.  Headed for some dock in Ohio.

 

 We stopped at a viewing station of the St. Clair river that divides Ontario and Michigan.  They had a radar map that showed all the ships in the area and which direction they were going and what they were carrying and who they belonged to.  The ship in the background of the picture with two in it is heading for Belgium.  I forget what was in it.  I think some agricultural crop.  It was at anchor.  And to think it will pass right by the first place we stayed on this trip on the St. Lawrence.