Second Last Day

drive, drive, drive, drive, drive…

Too many long driving days – today we left at 8am, it is 3pm now and there is still over an hour to go. I feel sick of it. Carm is sick of it. I’m pretty sure the dogs are sick of it. They are all sitting or lying in the backseat with their eyes wide open, just blankly staring.

 

 

Is this misery ever going to end? Will we ever get there?

 

I can’t count the number of lakeview or lakeshore drive, hotel, resort, rv campground, restaurants that we’ve seen.

This morning we managed to book the last campsite at Samuel de Champlain provincial park. Lucky, cause the private park that I called was booked up. Unfortunately it is just a bit farther than we would have cared to drive. On the good side is that we’ll be able to check out another provincial park!

We’ve made a few stops today, but nowhere pretty. We stopped in some dinky little town at a little chip stand for lunch – pogos and chips – blah. And a coke for me. After months of little to no soft drink consumption I’ve taken to having a coke or root beer on the road. A coffee would do the trick too – I just need that mid-day boost.

Past North Bay we’ve been seeing signs for Ottawa.

 

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We are here at the park. It isn’t surprising that this site was still unbooked – it is totally unlevel, impossible to get into, and about 100’ to the power outlet. As it turns out, with some advice from a neighbouring camper, we pulled into the non-camper part of the site. And we still needed 3 boards to get reasonably level…

We prefer “parkland” style parks, and this is not one of them. Nor is there any great lake to swim in!

But we are here and still, so that’s a good thing. It would be better still if the campers across the road from us didn’t have a dog that barks often, and all of them seem to have loud voices that carry easily into our camper.

It must be time to get home…

Swimming, Eating, and Fox Heads

Friday, our last full day at Pancake Bay dawned with rain, lots of rain. In fact it had rained all night, turning our site into a dirty mess. By 11 am the rain had stopped so that we could take the dogs out for a good walk.

On our way back the sun was starting to peek out from between the clouds. Time for bathing suits! By the time we got to the beach it was clear and the sun was shining brightly. The water seemed warmer than the day before – it was lovely. There wasn’t a soul on the beach. We played around in the water and searched for rocks. As we were getting ready to leave dark clouds were starting to crowd the sky. Perfect timing!

We spent the rest of the afternoon reading, and then it was time to get read for supper. We had reservations at a local Bavarian restaurant on Batchawana Bay for their Friday night fish fry. Apparently people come from far and wide. The restaurant and attached resort is owned by an Italian and Austrian. Together, with help from their family they have created this lovely resort, carved out from the lakeshore of Superior.

 

Salzburger Hof restaurant served up a great buffet with several salads, German potatoes, pasta with a great tomato sauce, chicken, sausages, and of course the star attraction – fish! Everything was freshly made and delicious. It was hard to choose.

We mentioned to the owner that we often ate at another German restaurant and would someday like to try his schnitzel and spatzel to compare notes. Before we knew it a big bowl of spatzel with thick mushroom gravy was on the table in front of us. Oh my it was good! I can’t believe that I ate another bite, but somehow I stuffed it all it in!

We’ve had good luck with eating out this trip – we haven’t done a ton of it, but each time the food was memorable (in a good way).

On our way back to camp we stopped at the little trading post just outside of the park. Aside from the bread and gas that we bought, I got a fox head pelt, thinking that I could make a jaunty hat for Spike. It turned out to be a bit too small, but he may still be forced to wear it at Halloween. I should have sprung for the coyote pelt, but Carm said no ;-)

Good times!

Life’s a Beach!

Pancake Bay Provincial Park on Lake Superior.

The sites here are heavily treed, but we managed to squeeze the villetta in just fine (getting out might be harder!). The problem with trees though are the huge amounts of mosquitos…

Wednesday night, just before the sun was about to set, I dragged Carm off to the beach. I wanted to have a swim and watch a bit of the sunset. The people beach is just a few steps away from where we are (the dog beach is much further), so it was an easy walk. And there I was – swimming in Lake Superior at sunset! How special is that :-)  I didn’t bring my camera, but since Carm was watching from shore I should have slung it over his shoulder. We didn’t stay until the sun was fully down, as frankly I couldn’t feel my legs anymore! (the water is a tad cold)

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Thursday was one of those perfect summer days that you just want to go on forever. It was warm, hot even. The breeze off the lake was ever so slightly cool. The beach was fairly deserted. The sand was warm and the water was just the right amount of cold. Lovely.

After taking the dogs for a good walk we dropped them off at the trailer and loaded ourselves up with chairs, umbrella (again!), drinks, snacks and books. It wasn’t much of a walk to the beach, just a minute or two, so we were set up and ready to swim in no time.

We were in and out of the water a few times, I thought for sure we would burn, but I guess I  slathered enough sun screen on to keep me mostly safe. Plus I wore that great shirt I got at Big Bass Pro Shop in Calgary. I’ve worn it a few times to keep the sun off (spf of 50).

 

After we were back from the beach (not till 4pm!), we walked the dogs again and then went for a drive – can’t get enough of that driving you know. We found a spot that has wi-fi, but not very good bandwidth so I couldn’t post my blogs.

I guess it was good to get a hair cut on my face… are we going to stay here a while so I can go to the beach again?