Thursday - September 20, 2018 Kingston KOA, Ontario, Canada
We left camp around 7:45. We took Hwy. 86W to Lake Placid where we stopped to get gas and breakfast. Lake Placid is an interesting town with Olympic venues and old historic buildings. We stayed on 86W to 3W to 81N. We ignored Google directions and just followed the map. The drive through the Adirondack Mountains of New York was very pretty with a lot of streams that reminded us of the Ozarks.
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| Mountains near Lake Placid |
We drove over the St. Lawrence River by Watertown, NY on the 1000 Islands Bridge. When we got to Customs on the Canadian Border we discovered that we had made a mistake by having too much alcohol (a box of wine and a case of beer). This cost us $15 in duty tax. Also, the man at the customs booth and the woman we had to pay our money to were both very rude.
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| 1000 Islands Bridge |
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| Another shot of the bridge |
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| 1000 Islands area of the St. Lawrence River |
When we were in Canada we took 401W to exit 611 then 38N to our KOA outside of Kingston, Ontario. This KOA was just okay, with no shade trees. That turned out okay because of the high winds. We saw turkeys again and there are black squirrels in this part of Canada.
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| Almost to the KOA! |
We fixed a boxed stroganoff with ground turkey for dinner. Later, our neighbors tried to start a fire, but everything was too wet. It made a lot of stinky smoke. We had to shut the trailer up completely. Yuck!.
Friday - September 21, 2018
It rained hard overnight and early in the morning. We drove into Kingston around 9:00 am. It was still sprinkling rain when we got into town, but it stopped raining shortly afterward. It was very windy all day, with high wind warnings throughout the afternoon. We stopped in the visitor's center, which was an old train depot. After getting information about where to walk in town, I asked if there was a place we could get a road map of Ontario. The man pulled one from under the counter and said "It's normally $3.95, but today is Arkansas day so it is free for you." Of course, he already knew that we are from Arkansas. Nice man.
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| Fountain with old train depot visitor center in background |
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| City Hall |
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| Kingston sign: minus the 'I' |
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| Tower - part of the old fortifications |
We walked 1 mile of the waterfront on Lake Ontario. We saw the old Pump House, The Towers (part of an old military fort), and lots of ducks. The ducks were resting in a park close to the waterfront and had their heads all turned so that the wind wasn't hitting them.
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| The old Pumphouse Museum |
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| Wind blowing the willow - ducks with heads tucked under |
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| Mike by Lake Ontario |
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| Mary by Lake Ontario |
We left Kingston about 11:20 and drove east on Hwy 2 to Gananoque. We walked on the waterfront of the St. Lawrence Thousand Islands area. While there a nice couple talked to us and suggested that we eat lunch at the Gananoque Inn. We both had fish (fried haddock) and chips and regret not trying the cod tongues. The waitress said that they are really the tongues of cod. Can't imagine that they were very big. Lunch was good and the view was pretty.
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| Waterfront of Gananoque |
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| A view of the 1000 Islands area of the St. Lawrence |
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| Lunch view from the patio of the Ganonoque Inn |
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| Road heading out of town |
After lunch the weather became sunny, windier, and warm (in the 80's). We went back to camp, took showers, and got ready to leave in the morning.
Saturday - September 22, 2018 Parry Sound KOA, Ontario, Canada
We left the KOA by about 7:00. We drove 401 to 62N to 127 to 60W through Algonquin Provincial Park. I saw a deer by 401 and turkeys by the road in Algonquin, but no moose. This was a really pretty drive and kept us from going through Toronto.
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| Entrance to Algonquin Provincial Park |
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| An authentic totem pole at the visitor center |
After driving through the park we stayed on 60W to 141 to Rankin Road to the Parry Sound KOA. It was a nice KOA with lots of trees and hiking trails. The young man who checked us in told us how to walk to a Dairy Queen. After setting up camp we decided to go there to get ice cream. We took a wrong turn so that a 15 minute walk became 1 hour. We earned that ice cream. We got our ice cream and took the 15 minute walk back.
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| Mike at our campsite at Parry Sound KOA |
We did see some moose poop on our detour. The closest we came the entire trip to seeing moose. It got really cold overnight.
Sunday - September 23, 2018
It was so cold in the night that we used our heater. We slept in and drove into Parry Sound around 10:30. We got information at the Stockey Center which also has a Bobby Orr Exhibit. Parry Sound was the home of Bobby Orr. We walked by the waterfront of the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron. Georgian Bay contains 30,000 islands and is the largest fresh water bay in the world. We walked to a beach and park area and sat for a while on a small peninsula by the water.
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| A sailboat on Georgian Bay |
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| It was windy by the bay |
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| Mike at the beach area |
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| Mary on the peninsula with Georgian Bay in the backgrouns |
We walked back to the marina area where we had parked and ate lunch at the Bay Street Cafe. I had fried pickerel fish tacos and Mike had fish(Cod) and chips (sweet potato fries). It was a very good lunch.
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| Lunch time view |
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| Bay Street Cafe |
After lunch we drove across the Seguin River on the way back to camp and stopped at the Trestle Brewing Company. We walked to the old trestle on the hiking trail then went back to the brewing company. We got a flight of 4 beer samples and sat in Musoka chairs on the patio. While there we visited with some people from Sudbury, Ontario. Very nice people. This was a very pleasant way to spend our afternoon. We enjoyed one of the beers so much that Mike bought a 6 pack to take with us.
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| View of old trestle from hiking trail |
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| Mike enjoying the afternoon at the Trestle Brewing Company |
After that we headed back to camp and I fixed egg and sausage burrtos for dinner. It got really cool again overnight. This was a very good day.
Monday - September 24, 2018 Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
BLOWOUT #2
We left camp by 7:30 and stopped at Tim Horton's for coffee and breakfast. We took 401W to 69W to 17W. We hadn't been traveling long when we saw a wolf on a bluff by the road. That was exciting. Then, just west of Lively we had another blowout on the driver's side of the trailer. We called roadside assistance again, but this time had to pay up before they would come. The insurance only pays for $100 for one time per year. It cost $150 to get the tire changed. We waited for 4 1/2 hours before help came. Two Ontario Provincial Police drove by without stopping. UGH! There were 2 highway workers who stopped offering to help, but by that time we had already paid for the roadside assistance.
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| Finally getting the tire changed |
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| Not a very good place to pull over |
Once the tire was changed we drove back to Sudbury and bought a new tire and rim at Canadian Tires. We were so tired by then that we decided to stay in a hotel for the night instead of driving on to Sault Ste. Marie. We stayed at a Comfort Inn and ordered a pizza to be delivered from Topper's Pizza. It was one of the best pizzas we had ever eaten. I got a message from ATT telling me that I had used over $100 of usage. I knew it would be expensive because we were in Canada, but didn't know it would be that high. I called the phone number in the text and the woman I talked to put me on the $10/day international plan and waived the previous fees. Nice. We only had to pay $10/day if we used our phone. Sleeping in a hotel was kind of nice for a change. We just didn't like the reason for staying there.
Tuesday - September 25, 2018 Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada
We got up and took advantage of a shower in our room with no time limits. We ate breakfast at the hotel (a good breakfast for a hotel) and left about 9:00. We took 17W to Sault Ste. Marie and got to the KOA there about 1:00. Mike noticed that the tire on the driver's side trailer tire was very hot. The KOA owners recommended a place to get it looked at. Luckily they were able to get our trailer in that afternoon and it was only a mile away. The guy fixed a sticking brake on the trailer. That seemed to fix the problem.
The KOA we stayed at was really good with nice owners. It had lots of shade trees and was convenient to town.
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| Finally made it to Sault Ste Marie |
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| Our campsite |
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| At the Sault Ste Marie KOA |
I fixed boxed alfredo with canned chicken, peas, and shredded cheese for dinner. It was pretty good. It was very cool and rained some this evening. We were glad for electricity to heat the trailer.
Wednesday - September 26, 2018
We slept late this morning (for us that is). It was rainy and cool this morning. We went to a TSC store in Sault Ste. Marie to buy a new spare tire for the trailer. We were afraid to use the old one after having 2 blowouts. After getting the new tire we drove to the Mall Station to park. We walked a little by the waterfront of the St. Mary River, but it was so cold and rainy that we ended up walking inside the mall.
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| Rapids of the St. Mary River |
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| It was cold by the river. |
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| Riverwalk of the St. Mary River |
We ate lunch at Montana's BBQ restaurant then drove to the Hiawatha Conservation Area north east of town. When we got there we did a short hike to Crystal Falls. We only knew about this because of my pre-trip research. Tourist information in Sault Ste. Marie wasn't very good.
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| Pretty trees in the Hiawatha Conservation Area |
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| Crystal Falls |
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| Mike by the falls |
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| Mary by the falls |
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| Another pretty tree |
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| Still more pretty trees |
The weather was better by the time we got to the Hiawatha Conservation Park. We saw some very pretty trees here. We got back to camp by about 3:00 and called it a day.
Thursday - September 27, 2018 Thunder Bay KOA, Ontario, Canada
We left camp by 7:30. This was our longest driving day of the trip (420 miles) with a lot of wilderness. This was a pretty drive taking us by Lake Superior most of the way. I took advantage of WiFi at our KOA the night before we left to find gas stations along our route. In one place we went 137 miles between services. It rained on and off the entire day, sometimes very hard rain. It rained so hard part of the time that the trailer leaked getting a part of the bedding wet. The leak seems to come up from a seam on the front of the trailer, not from the top. The scenery was still pretty, even with all of the rain. We even saw a lynx crossing the highway in front of us. We were very excited about that.
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Sunrise as we left Sault Ste Marie KOA - part of the business that fixed our
trailer is on the right. |
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| A view of Lake Superior from the road. |
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| Another view of Lake Superior from the road |
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| Nipigon River Bridge |
We got to the Thunder Bay KOA around 4:00. The owners moved our campsite from the original site (with our permission) because the restrooms in the upper, prettier part of the KOA had been closed for the season. We wanted to be close to the restrooms and showers. This KOA was okay and was located about 5 miles east of Thunder Bay. It was in a very convenient location for all of the things we wanted to do for the next couple of days. It got really cold while we were here and we had to use our little electric heater a lot.
Friday - September 28, 2018
We slept until about 7:00. It was still dark because Thunder Bay is on the far western side of the Eastern Time Zone. After breakfast we both took showers and got ready for the day in Thunder Bay. We got into Thunder Bay around 9:30. We walked on the boardwalk by Lake Superior for a little while, but it was super cold, windy, and misting rain.
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| A view of The Sleeping Giant island |
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| Mike on the walk by Lake Superior |
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| Mary on the walk over the road into town |
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| Had to take the selfie by the lake! |
We walked toward town to try and find something indoors to do. We were standing at a street corner wondering which way to go when a nice lady asked us if we needed help. Mike told her that he would like to get a cup of coffee and she took us to a local coffee shop nearby (St. Paul Roastery). Really nice of her. We both got a cup of the brew of the day and sat in the shop while we drank it. This place is used by a lot of locals who take advantage of the free WiFi. One man sitting next to us talked to us quite a while about where we are from and about his experiences visiting the US. He and his family of 5 have been living in a trailer while they build a new house. He was an interesting person to visit with.
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| Outside view of St. Paul Roastery |
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| Inside view of St. Paul Roastery |
After coffee we walked back to the boardwalk area and had lunch at Bight Restaurant and Bar. The views of the lake and changing leaves on the trees were great from inside. We had the poutine with spare rib, gravy, and cheese curd . We had to have poutine at least one time while we were in Canada. It was really good!
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| View at Bight Restaurant |
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| Mary enjoying lunch |
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| The poutine was good |
After lunch we drove to look at the Current River Falls and Park and then to Centennial Park. We tried to go hiking in Centennial Park, but it started raining pretty hard.
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| Current River in town with a fish ladder on the right |
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| View of Thunder Bay from Centennial Park overlook |
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| At the overlook with The Sleeping Giant in the background |
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| Current River in Centennial Park - trees were so pretty |
We went back into town and got gelato at Primes. The gelato is made in house every day. They make any that contains nuts at the end of the day and use a separate spoon for each type of gelato. I was able to enjoy some gelato without worrying about tree nut contamination. We went back to camp after finishing our gelato. I dried the bedding that had gotten wet and remade the bed. It was really cold this evening.
Saturday - September 29, 2018
It was super cold this morning - 30 degrees with some frozen precipitation and heavy frost.
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| Frost and a little bit of snow on the car this morning |
We left camp about 10:00 am and drove to the Terry Fox Memorial Visitor Center on Hwy. 17. This memorializes a young man who ran marathons across Canada after losing a leg to cancer. He eventually died from the disease. There were beautiful views of Lake Superior and The Sleeping Giant from this overlook.
We then drove about 25 miles north and west of town to Kakabeka Falls. These are some of the largest falls I have ever seen. They were gorgeous. The water here is brown due to the tannins in the leaf litter. It was still really cold here. We viewed the falls from both sides of the river then went back to town.
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| Kakabeka Falls |
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| Kakabeka Falls from the other side of the river |
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| Entering the Park |
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| Final view of the falls |
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| Mike and Mary with Kakabeka Falls in the background |
We got lunch at a Wendy's and headed back to the trailer. We sat inside reading the rest of the day. We heated a can of soup in the microwave for dinner. It was too cold to cook outside. We put the water hose away since it would be so cold when we broke camp the next morning. Mike went and gave his leftover beer away so that we wouldn't have to pay another duty when we went back into the US on Sunday. Even though it was cold and rainy while we were at Thunder Bay, we really enjoyed our time here.
Sunday - September 30, 2018 Pattison State Park, Wisconsin
We left Thunder Bay around 8:15. We took Hwy 17W to 61S to I35S to Pattison State Park in Wisconsin. We followed the north coast of Lake Superior from Thunder Bay to Duluth, Minnesota then headed south a short distance to the park. Going from Canada into the US was a lot easier than getting into Canada. The worker was very friendly and didn't even ask if we had any alcohol, so Mike wasted the beer he gave away.
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| Back in the USA |
Pattison State Park is a pretty park with a lot of hiking trails and good amenities. The bathhouse was nice and kept pretty clean.
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| Campsite at Pattison |
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| Another view of the campsite |
Once we had camp set up I cooked a boxed dinner. Some people leaving the campground gave us their leftover firewood so we had a campfire. The wood was damp and it took me using all the empty cardboard boxes we had to start the fire so we burned all the wood we had. It was another cool evening.
Monday - October 1, 2018
We slept in this morning. It was cool and rainy again. After breakfast we drove about 20 miles to Amnicon Falls State Park. When we got there the rain had stopped so we hiked a 1 mile loop by the Amnicon River seeing 4 different falls - Upper Falls, Lower Falls, Snake Pit Falls, and Now and Then Falls.
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| Mary by Snake Pit Falls |
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| Snake Pit Falls |
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| Mike by the Amnicon River |
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| Now and Then Falls |
We had to cross an old covered bridge going over the river. It started raining so we ate lunch in our car.
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| Horton Covered Bridge |
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| Another view of the covered bridge |
Since it rained the rest of the day, we went back to camp, took showers, and sat in the trailer the rest of the day.
Tuesday - October 2, 2018
We slept in again this morning. It was cool, but not cold like it had been. We drove 1 1/2 miles to view Little Manitou Falls. We couldn't hike there because the trail got washed out during a flood in June. These falls were really pretty with the best fall foliage we had seen.
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| Little Manitou Falls |
We went back to camp and I grilled ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch. After lunch we hiked 1 mile to Big Manitou Falls. The weather was nicer and it was a good hike. The falls were very impressive.
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| Using the state park selfie station to get a picture |
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| Big Manitou Falls - 165 feet tall |
Afterward we went back to camp and got everything ready for our trip home.
Wednesday - October 3, 2018 Drury Inn, West Des Moines, Iowa
We got an early start (7:00ish), but Google tried to take us on a dirt road again. We turned around and it cost us 30 minutes. We used our Atlas the rest of the way. We took Hwy 35S to 8W to I35S. It was very windy and hot. We drove to the south side of Des Moines, Iowa where we stopped at West Des Moines at a Drury Inn. I chose it because it was next to a mall where we could walk to dinner. But, lucky us, this hotel had a free dinner with 3 free drinks. And the wine was good. This was a nice hotel and we enjoyed not setting up camp one last time.
Thursday - October 4, 2018
We got up early (6:00ish), ate breakfast, and hit the road by 7:00.
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| Pretty sunrise as we are leaving West Des Moines, Iowa |
We took I35S to 71S to I49S to Hwy 62W to HOME!. It was cooler this morning, but was hot when we got home at 2:45.
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| Glad to get back to Arkansas |
On this trip we drove 5260 miles in 39 days through 15 states and 1 province of 2 countries. We stayed at 15 different campgrounds, had 2 blowouts, saw too many turkeys to count, and lots of waterfalls. A FUN TRIP!
