July 1, Saturday — Niagara-on-the-Lake
The customs officer at the Niagara Falls border asked us if we carried a long list of items — including weapons or ammunition or “anything for self-defense”. It felt unAmerican to reply “No”.
You wouldn’t have known we were crossing the border on a holiday — Canada Day. It tickled me to be spending this particular day in Canada. Plus I felt excited to be seeing a play at the Shaw Festival, which I’ve heard about for years.
Niagara-on-the-Lake turned out to be a smaller place than I imagined, a manicured town with lots of gorgeous flowers and well-tended boulevards. People were gathering in the downtown area, called Queensway. Parking was a challenge. We finally found a spot and as Doug was looking for the parking kiosk, a local guy wearing his red T-shirt said, in a congenial tone, “Another guy with a rig just like that got a citation for height the other day. Cost him sixty bucks.” He suggested another spot, but when we got there it was full. We finally ended up parking at the Shaw Theater early — we were the parking attendant’s first customer and he was extremely nice to us.
We walked down Queensway and got seated on the outdoor porch of the Prince of Wales Hotel. We ordered Prosecco and an upscale plate of poutine, which was the Canada Day special, because Why not? It was a very pleasant spot to watch the world go by — especially the horse and carriage stand beside us where people posed for pictures.
Across the street was a park featuring live music, which we wandered through before going to the playhouse at 2:00. There was a car show also, of historic cars. These seem very popular in Canada.
The play, “Blithe Spirit” by Noel Coward ran a full 3 hours. The set was a drawing room, dramatic and plush in dark green. The plot is about a man who hosts a seance to summon his late wife as a lark. It’s a farce with lots of witty banter and plenty of drinking prompts. The ending is suitably chaotic. The acting was superb, lots of physical comedy. We thoroughly enjoyed it.
After the show we drove a few miles to Strewn Winery, the Harvest Host where we stayed for the night. We were the only vehicle there, and had a spot alongside the grapevines. There was a rosebush planted at the end of every row, so we had one right beside our door. We ate at their restaurant, Oliv, for supper. Lots of lovely eating today!
July 2, Sunday — Orillia ON
The truth is that we don’t enjoy driving Big Blue in cities — it’s not easy to navigate on narrow streets — a bit too tall, and wide, and long, especially for parking. So we think twice before we visit a city. For this trip we’ve decided to bypass Toronto. It’s a great city but we’ve been there many times.
Our next destination is a small town north of Toronto — Orillia. Our reason may seem hokey. We want to pay homage to the late Gordon Lightfoot. Anyone who’s read my memoir, Ruined, might recall that Gordon’s music is the soundtrack to our courtship and marriage.
Doug and I met on a canoe trip on Lake Superior. As we paddled along, we sang about “the big lake they call Gitchie-Goomie.” That’s from the “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” one of the best ballads ever written. “Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minute to hours?” Funny lyrics to sing as we paddled a small canoe on big water! Superior is not a lake to trifle with.
We’ve heard Gordon in concert a half dozen times since then, twice in 2022. He died in May of this year, at the age of 84. So we wanted to visit his hometown and see the statues in his honor.
We were even a bit more sentimental than that — we met on July 2, 1983, exactly 40 years ago. Forty years of paddling together! Aren’t we lucky? I’ll post the picture we took on the shore of Lake Superior that weekend.
We arrived in Orillia in the early afternoon. We parked by the Opera House and took pictures by the bust of Gordon. There were lots of people about, so we walked the streets of the town and stopped in a couple of stores. Then we got a beer and a sandwich at a pub with live music. When we told the young man who waited on us why we were in town, he looked puzzled. We must have seemed like ancient specimens to him.
That night we camped at the Hammock Harbour RV park on Lake Couchiching. Most of the units there were seasonal campers. Before supper we went for a swim in the pool. Afterward, we played a game of Shanghai.
July 3, Monday — Gordon Lightfoot
On Monday morning we drove back to Orillia to check out two more Gordon Lightfoot sites — his grave and a “Golden Leaves” statue at Tudhope Park.
Finding his grave was more difficult than we anticipated. We knew it was in the Saint James and Saint Andrews cemetery, but it’s a much larger cemetery than we expected and there’s no special marker.
A woman walking by seemed like a local, and she was, and knew of Gordon, but was unaware he was buried there. Maybe part of the problem was that this was a holiday Monday so there are no employees about, and very few visitors.
I’m a member of the “Gordon Lightfoot Fan Club” on Facebook and knew that I’d seen a photo of the gravestone. I was able to call that up on my phone, which helped a lot. Soon after, we found it.
We also went to Tudhope Park to see a fairly recent statue, from 2015. It depicts a young Gordon, seated, with an arch of maple leaves over him. Each leaf depicts one of the songs from “Gord’s Gold.” It’s fun to figure out which pictures went with which songs. We took lots of photos of the statue and of the flags flying in the park. And of course we took a photo on the shore of Lake Couchiching.
(It turned out that the Mariposa Folk Festival, the next week, had many tributes to Gordon, including his band playing and his daughter, Meredith Moon, singing. I’ve also seen recent photos of a new art installation of guitar sculptures throughout Orillia.)
Around noon, we had brunch at a funny little diner. Once we got inside we realized it was Korean-owned so we both ordered Korean dishes — Doug had Bibimpop and I had some kind of sweet-and-sour fried chicken. The place was full of elderly people eating alone. The young waitress was very sweet, despite the language barriers, and said to each one as they left, “See you tomorrow.” We watched her help one couple get into their vehicle.
Monday Night — Mud Lake
We spent Monday afternoon and night at another Harvest Host. We had a bit of trouble getting there because our GPS brought us down a dirt road and across a train track and said we had arrived. All we saw was a sign that said “Elk Enclosure” and sure enough, a whole herd of elk was laying on the ground under some trees.
We called the host, Chris, who gave us different directions. His place had a very long, narrow driveway, which led to some acreage on the shore of a small lake, rather descriptively named Mud Lake. Chris explained that this lake is the last in a small chain of lakes — Simcoe, Couchiching, St. Johns, Mud Lake.
It turned out that Chris was a brand new Harvest Host — this was the first weekend he had guests. When I asked him about himself, he told me he was originally from Poland and had lived in Canada for something like 12 years. He’s been in this spot for 3 years. His wife waved at us, but she has never learned English.
He had a small dock with a rather beat-up boat with an outboard motor. He told us we could rent the boat if we wanted, or just pay him for the night. His dog was bounding around, a bird-dog, a pointer of some type, very energetic. His name was Wohboos, which in Polish means “Trouble”. Chris said “like you might affectionately refer to a young boy who gets into trouble.”
It was the heat of the day when we arrived so after we set up, Doug fixed us each a gin and tonic. We sat in our lawn chairs in the shade, watching the lake. A Loon family floated by, vocalizing, which was a huge treat. We both lived in Minnesota for many years and the Loon is the Minnesota state bird. Their call sounds a bit like ululating that broadens out at the end. It’s unmistakable. This was a family of two adults and two young, who sometimes rode on a parent. With binoculars, we could watch the parents dive, then come up with small fish to feed the young ones.
Around 5:00 there were claps of thunder and a few bolts of lightning. It poured suddenly and heavily. Doug and I moved to our rig and played cards. Our host lost power and texted us that he would fix it. We have a (propane-powered) generator built into our rig, which we rarely use. We turned it on — super noisy but it works like a charm. When we texted Chris that we had our generator going, he quickly hooked up our power to HIS generator. I understood. He wanted to make sure we were happy because those first few reviews are the key to success.
After the sky cleared, we went out in the small boat. At Chris’ suggestion we explored a small, winding river that connects to St. Johns lake. The river was full of lily pads and reeds, so we felt a bit like Humphrey Bogart in the “African Queen.” I was in the front of the boat, Doug in the back, steering.
We surprised a Great Blue heron, who took flight from amid the rushes and perched in a high tree. That was the only wildlife we saw — not counting our loon family, who were still swimming about on Mud Lake, and a single swan with a black mask. I didn’t realize, until we were back at the dock, that Doug had gotten bit up by deer flies somethin’ fierce. Those are terrible bites — deer flies actually extract a bit of flesh from your body, and the bites welt up. I hadn’t realized it was a problem because earlier I sprayed my feet with bug repellant and didn’t have any trouble.
The sunset was beautiful. I took a photo through the window above our dinette.
That evening we watched an episode of “Mad Men” on our DVD player. In bed that night, I enjoyed the breeze coming in my window, laden with petrichor, the smell after a rain.
July 4-6, Tuesday - Thursday — Visiting Friends who live on Lake Ontario
We visited friends in Port Darlington for 3 days. So great to see a friend after 38 years, to meet his wife, and to be part of their life as we camped in their driveway. We also got to swim in Lake Ontario every day.
July 7, Friday — Arbru Solar Brewery
On July 7, we drove most of the day on Route 2, the Trans-Canada highway. Life on the road is no different than life at home — we had logistics to manage. We dumped our tanks in Bowmanville, bought groceries at a Metro store in Port Hope, filled our water tanks at a facility in Napanee.
We arrived at our next Harvest Host, the Arbru Solar Brewery, around 4:30. They call themselves “Canada’s First Destination Solar Brewery” and have a restaurant. Doug ordered a flight of beers and I got a flight of ciders. We ordered pizza cooked in a wood-burning oven. Because it was the first Friday of the month, they had an open mic night, and a local group played. When that finished we went for a walk through Mallorytown. A pretty typical small town — you cross the railroad tracks and walk a block or two to the post office and community hall, complete with a memorial plaque for war veterans.
Once again we were the only rig at this HH overnight. The nearby train track meant that we heard train whistles throughout the night. There was a road sign with a picture of an Amish buggy, as a caution, but we never did see one. I thought it would have been a nice antidote to hear clip-clop instead of train whistles.
It drizzled a bit, which dropped the heat a degree or two. The camper was up to 78 degrees, which is a bit hot for sleeping. Since we were off grid, we had to make do with the fan instead of the AC. Just glad to have good screens on the windows — the bloody mosquitoes were horrendous!
I’m posting this as we’re on the ferry to Newfoundland. The next update will be the Quebec part of the trip — I’m trying to catch up to real time.
Ruth & Doug,
What a lovely update! You two are truly an inspiration, for your character, sense of adventure and bond. I look forward to reading more as your trip progresses.