Wed-Sat Oct 15-18 - Sarnia

Wed-Sat Oct 15-18  -  Sarnia

Camped at the Countryview Motel and RV park

On our way south we decided to stop for a couple of days and spend some time with Grant in Sarnia.  We camped at the Countryview RV Park about 20 minutes out of town (the closest we could find) It is a basic but sufficiently comfortable RV park.. not a 'destination resort' but good enough for a few days while visiting the city. 

Getting some mighty good hugging

We had a great time with Grant just chilling and cooking and catching up (with a little guitar playing thrown in). We were treated to one amazing trout dinner at Grants apartment, cooked to perfection and we even managed to watch a hockey game together, (which was fun despite the loss). 

Time to say goodbye.. see ya soon!

Grant stayed with us in the trailer on the night before we left and we dropped him off close to home, with a few tears shed by Janice as we took off again for points south.




We drove for about 7 hours through Michigan, Ohio, into Kentucky and after a disappointing stop at a truck stop where we intended to park for the night (it was too full and very noisy) we drove on for a while to a Walmart parking lot just north of Louisville, Kentucky in a small town called La Grange. It is a perfect spot for a quick overnight free boon-docking, and we could even pop into the store for a couple of supplies before filling the hot water bottles in anticipation of a cold night.

Summer 2014 - general

Oct 10 2014

Backyard family time with friends

Our site at Fifty Point Conservation Area

Since we got back from West Africa and UK in June, our summer was spent at Fifty Point Conservation area and we took a break from blogging other than to document our six week trip to the East coast. . Fifty Point is a great place to hang out and we have booked it for next summer based on the fact that our 2 year allowed absence from Ontario (for government health coverage)  is over and we now have to send a minimum of 5 months in the province each year for the next 5 years.  It has a marina, a beach, picnic areas, a restaurant and some great views across the lake.

We reunited with friends and family and enjoyed a trip to a cottage, BBQ’s, a baptism, plays and concerts. (Seeing Colm Feore play King Lear in Stratford was fabulous.) We enjoyed a ‘family thanksgiving; with friends and visits from so many people it would be too hard to list them all. It was a beautiful summer and we loved being able to visit family and friends. The biggest problem was that the time went so fast that we missed seeing many people. We have booked to return to Ontario for 6 weeks in Dec/Jan and will be staying in a cottage in Niagara On The Lake, so hopefully we can tempt a number of people to come and see us there.

So I am going to start up the blog again after leaving Fifty Point and hope to find time to diarize the next stages of our journey of adventures. …. So stay tuned. 

Tues Aug 12th - Tour around Ile D'Orleans

Tues Aug 12th - Tour around Ile D'Orleans

Lovely boulangerie...

Scrumptious treats

What was forecast to be a rainy day turned out, to our delight, to be quite sunny with a few high clouds, so after a slow breakfast we set off at about 11am to tour around the island. We reminisced a little as we drove about the time we were here many years ago with our friends from UK Derek and Lin. Stopped at a Boulangerie for coffee and bakery treats late morning, then drove around the point of the island looking out over Quebec City, then on to the Cassis maker where we bought some Cassis, then a winery ( Le Vignoble de Ste Petronille) to have a tasting and bought a bottle of nice white. More tastings at various food and cideries etc with a last stop at the 'fromagerie' for a tasting of fried cheese... yum!!! Bought some local cheeses, some dry smoked sausage and, armed with our fresh bread from the boulangerie, we headed back to camp to enjoy a lovely platter of our goodies... a quick walk to the Quai before bed.

Land around Vignoble de Ste Petronille

Vignoble de Ste Petronille

Cheers to the good times

Mon Aug 11 - Truck Radiator blown

Mon Aug 11 - Truck Radiator blown

Montmorency Falls from Bridge

Homemade chips and mayo

Church next to pub

View from Pub parking

Good to have truck safe again

Janice up early... back is rather bad... so she walked to the end of the quai (quay) with a cup of tea and watched the ships sail by. We had a quick toast (with homemade marmalade from Alma farmers market) and set off for the dealership to have the truck checked... we made it gingerly without issue, but when we arrived we looked under the truck and coolant fluid was flowing unchecked onto the floor...  No need for the service tech guy, who speaks little English, to explain what was wrong!!!! New radiator needed to be ordered, so we sat on this beautiful sunny morning in the waiting room of the dealership, racking up the bill as we sat. BUT... we are so very lucky. Safety in this lifestyle we live is first and foremost above all.  The idea of being stuck on a highway with the 'condo' attached, in the rain, with no help in sight on a Sunday in the middle of the wilderness.... or  sitting comfortably in a waiting room on a sunny morning catching up on the blog.... the choice is clear and we are indeed counting our blessings today. .... more to come later..... here we go... so after about 4 hours... finally new radiator and we had a quick intake of breath when the bill came to discover, much to our delight, that it was covered under our extended warranty... just $200 deductible.... whooo hoooo!!! So .. happy and surprised (and feeling a lot safer) we headed back to the island and went to a micro brewery / pub for a bite to eat and a nice beer... then back to our campsite. Made a cup of tea and walked to the Quai again..

End of the Quai at Ile 'D'Orleans Campsite

The End of a good day!

Sun Aug 10th - Move sites and truck leak!

Sun Aug 10th - Move sites and truck leak!
We hitched up and moved to our site for the next 5 nights (site 72).. very nice. We did however notice that there was an inordinate amount of water coming from the front of the truck. At first we thought it might be from the air-conditioning. After setting up and sitting outside with a coffee on our wooden deck!!!, Derek checked and noticed that the coolant level was down... he filled it and it took quite a few litres, so we knew we may have more of a problem than we thought. We decided not to leave the campground today in case there was a major issue with the truck, and so spent most of the day reading, walking around the campground and generally relaxing. We wandered down to the shore at about 10pm after a fabulous pork chop meal (chops from New Brunswick farm). We were told by a guy camping nearby that there was supposed to be a meteor shower (an annual event here). But after about an hour sipping our beers in the dark on the beach we gave up (turns out it does not happen until Aug 12th). We researched GM dealers to take the truck to tomorrow. Sad to give up a day in this heavenly place to go get the truck looked at.. but such are the hazards of this lifestyle.
No Photos today... !!!!! 

Sat Aug 9 - Ile D'Orleans

Sat Aug 9 - Ile D'Orleans

Unique church on S side St Lawrence- Quebec

Bridge over to Ile'D'Orleans

Our Site at Ile D'Orleans for 1 night

View from (side) back window

Camping De la Demi-Lieue, is so great, and we only have a 2 hour drive left to get to Ile D'orleans, so we decided to hang out at the camp for the morning (checkout is not til 1pm). We did a load of laundry and generally lolly-gagged around for a few hours. we started our drive to Ile D'Orleans and arrived about 3pm and were given a lovely site at the edge of the campground overlooking fields. We set up and walked around to see the site we will move to tomorrow.. looks wonderful - wooden deck, patio furniture and nice and wide, close to the river facing the south shore of the St Lawrence river. We cooked up a nice dinner with baked haddock, Quinoa and purple beans --- YUM!! We are so excited to be here at Ile D'Orleans.. we last camped here many years ago with our friends Derek and Lin from UK. This island is beautiful, and we can't wait to get to taste the cassis, the bread, wine, smoked fish and soak up the lovely landscape that make up this wonderful french rural Quebec island in the middle of the St Lawrence River.

Fri Aug 8th - New Brunswick to Quebec

Fri Aug 8th - New Brunswick to Quebec

View from campground (S shore) - low tide

Camped at Demi-Lieue CG

We left our site at Headquarters Campground not long after 9am and started the drive toward Ile D'Orleans, which we expected to take two days. However we just kept driving and had hoped to get the rest of the tires replaced enroute. We stopped at Canadian Tire in New Brunswick, who appeared to have the only tires of the size we need in the whole of the Maritimes. After checking the car in and spending and hour or so a t a local MacDonalds they called and said they actually had made a mistake and the tires we need are not there (the owner put them on his truck, without recording them 

Lovely Campground... recommend it!

) ARGGHH!! So we also had them check the computer codes as we had an engine warning sign.. they reset the codes and said there appeared to be no problems... so we kept driving until we found a site. Thank goodness for cell phones and mobile internet and Woodall's Campground Guide. We had difficulty finding anywhere that had space for 2 nights. Drove right through New Brunswick and camped on the south shore of the St Lawrence in Quebec at Camping De La Demi-Lieue (Half Mile Campground)..... It was really a camping resort. Fabulous spot... pool, lake, tennis courts, snack bar, laundry, Bocce ball, and the list goes on. After setting up we went for a quick walk and wandered into the snack bar. Unable to resist we ordered a small portion of poutine (for those non-canadians, this is a dish specific to Quebec and is basically french fries (chips to you in UK), covered with a generous portion of cheese curds, then smothered with very hot dark brown gravy.... OH HEAVEN!!!) It was the best poutine we have ever had... good job we are not staying more than one night!!!!
This is definitely a family camping resort and campfires were ablaze all over the place. Laughter, BBQ's smoking and kids galore... loved it!! We called Camping Ile D'orleans to see if they could take us a day early (tomorrow) and they had one site available for tomorrow night ... we will have to move the next day to the site we had already booked for 5 nights... well at least we have somewhere to go tomorrow and we will be on the island early. 
We are a little concerned that the engine warning light came on again... nothing seems to be amiss, but we will check it again when we get to Ile D'Orleans.