Day 6 - Prince Edward County - Sunday, June 23

Yay! Got to sleep in a bit. Had coffee and started our blog. This took all morning. Should be easier to keep up daily posts now..

Though it was only a few minutes from Kelly and Tanya's, we arrived at the Sandbanks Provincial Park around 2:30. We are in Woodlands campground #705. These campgrounds are massive and go on forever! 

Cool "bush" at campground entrance...

Everything grows so well around here!

Very lush vegetation!

 Sandbanks Beach

We set up then headed straight for the Sandbanks Beach (there are a few beaches here).  It was 27 degrees but with humidity, was more like 34. Incredible long fine sand beach. We walked for about an hour one way and it seemed like we hardly made a dent. It was very calm and felt very much like we were at the ocean. 

Awesome walk on Sandbanks Beach!

Oops! Forgot Suzie!

Jonathan Livingston Seagull and his recruits...

Mean Suzanne... breaking up their meeting!

"We'll continue the meeting tomorrow..."

 The view just beyond the sandbank along the beach...

More sand and more dunes in the distance!

Water was very nice temperature!

 Looking down into the water... cool sand ripples!

 A memorable beach day!

Wind picked up a little on our walk back, helping to cool us off. Water was perfect temperature and very refreshing. It turned out to be a very memorable day at the beach!

Back to campsite for a simple supper, then drove around a bit looking at the various campgrounds in the park. Each area is very different. Lots of variety. It is amazingly almost full!

Day 5 - Grundy Lake to Prince Edward County - Sat, June 22

Leaving our campsite at Grundy Lake...

After dumping, (always such a fun job!) left Grundy Lake Provincial Park around 8:30.

Finally got to see a moose on the way out. We'd been seeing road signs showing moose for days and hoped we'd see one. We were hearing them last night as well.

Lush forests, lots of white pine and other pines etc., - so many lakes and river crossings. Wish we could take more pictures, but can't easily stop on side of road with trailer and also because it is mostly 2 way traffic...

Stopped at Timmy's in Parry Sound - birthplace of hockey legend Bobby Orr.

Past Orillia, we are into beautiful rolling hills of farmland. Gorgeous! Lots of red brick homes; heritage looking and new ones too. Some of the towns are decorated with old painted bicycles and hang flowers on them. Great idea!

Took a detour on highway 7A to Port Perry - birthplace of Daniel David Palmer - discoverer of chiropractic. He was born March 7 - 1845. 

Visited beautiful Palmer Memorial Park in Port Perry on shore of Lake Scugog and took photos. Lots of large beautiful trees. Quaint old heritage buidings in town.

Palmer Park:

Made our way to Prince Edward County. Got to Wellington... we were impressed by the signage!

Stopped in Wellington to visit the home where Jon grew up. 

His brother-in-law Kelly was there. Tanya arrived a little later with Elsa still asleep in the car. They have been busy renovating the house to be able to rent it as a summer home. They hope to have it up and running by July 1st. It is an over 150 year old home and they have managed to keep some of the original cupboards and flooring, making it still feel charming and quaint. We were impressed with the renos and furnishings etc. - looking great!  (This is where Jon spent 10 days helping with the renovations earlier this year).  Good job everyone!

After a nice visit with them, and getting to meet Elsa when she woke up, we accepted Kelly and Tanya's offer to park our trailer overnight at their beautiful acreage in West Lake. We will get choice campsites at Sandbanks tomorrow (Sunday) after many have left park. We also would have wifi there and could work on our blog.  

The blog is born!

 At Kelly and Tanya's...

It is very humid here and we were happy to use our air conditioning for the first time.

Day 4 - Lake Superior to Grundy Lake Provincial Park - Fri, June 21

Woke up to cloudy cool 16 degrees and some rain.  Dumped trailer at park before leaving.  Robert says there is nothing worse than dumping s--- AND being eaten alive by mosquitoes at the same time!
On our way by 8:30...

Saw lots of road signs depicting Amish horse and buggy. Turns out there are about 1500 Old World Amish in Ontario. Most others are in the US. Old world Amish as well as Old World Mennonite still adhere to the old ways - little or no electricity, no modern conveniences, plain dress etc. Saw 2 horse drawn buggys on the hwy. Old world Amish, Old World Menonite and Hutterites are all originally Anabaptists who split off following different leaders. Many of their customs are similar....

Stopped at Agawa Indian Crafts store in Pancake Bay and bought lovely little square dish with flower in corner and embossed heart on dish -made by local artist. 

Drive so far is spectacular! Tons of lake and river views, cliffs and lush rain-forest type vegetation. Major pre-Cambrian shield area. 

 Amazing Rock Cuts all over!

 Beautiful rock all around us all day!

 Lakes and rivers all over!

 A lunch stop along a river...

 More awesome rock cuts!

So awesome!

After getting some texts from Stéphanie, Nick and Nicole about flooding in Calgary, High River, Canmore, Crowsnest and Fernie, we stopped at a Tim's along the way to get wifi to see photos and videos, etc. and were shocked by what we saw! State of emergency everywhere; lots of evacuations. Downtown Calgary flooded. In Calgary and surrounding areas some parts got over 100mm rain in one day. Last big flood in the 30's saw 60+mm in 4 days. Canmore had house floating away down river. In Fernie, sandbagging is even going on on Riverside drive near our home. Airport and Annex park are flooded. Erik went to Elkford today and said some homes in Hosmer were in brown rapids! Simon Hunt our real estate agent in Calgary e-mailed saying he and his family had been evacuated. Our hopes and prayers are with all affected. 

Arrived at Grundy Lake Provincial Park around 6:00pm. Campsite #340. Very large private treed lots. Ours had 2 white pine trees on it and was across one of the beaches.  

 Grundy Lake Provincial Park

Lots of Precambrian shield rock around lake and everywhere for that matter.   We of course went for a ride after supper. 

 Granite riding at its best!

 Suzie did amazing!

Riding like she just took a course or something...

A great bedrock trail around part of lake. We could hear some moose calling. Interesting sound! I did ok on this trail - having to dismount a few times due to lack of experience and confidence. Robert of course was in his glory. We rode the roads in campground afterwards. 

Robert saw another trail he wanted to do, so after bringing me back to campsite, he rode the Swan Lake trail and loved it. Said he could hear two moose calling from different sides of the lake.  

Getting dark on Swan Lake Trail...

Rained a bit that night...