Day 23 Tues-The Long Haul 🤪😩!

So up very early 5 am to get my readings and blog done before getting out to finish the last of the packing done and out to the car…As I am so slow to getting organised in the AM so got my breakfast ready to take with me…1/2 a bagel 🥯 with cream cheese, salmon 🍣 and capers yum…I did enjoy it…John had his standard Cereal and juice….we left at 0710hrs we are heading to Sauté Ste Marie a city on the way across this big country as we heard Howard’s Vancouver and The Rockies…..

We said farewell to Tim and Jess as they had to leave later to put Phoenix in to care for our 3 week trip….Poor little fellow he will miss us all…..or should I say we will miss him…at I’m days he loves his care place so much he never wants to come home…

Off we set to make our way north without going through Toronto again…the traffic is crazy and at that time it would be peak hour….so off to the smaller rural backroads going through farmlands…smaller towns ha ha…the smallest I saw until we hit the more northern parts were 19,500 unreal…they look small but they aren’t…the back roads ended up being to slow after an hour or more of 80 is plus they were busier than we thought they would be…by the time we made it to Orangeville we decided even though it was much prettier and interesting it was far to slow as we had 800ks to drive today…a big haul indeed…
So off to the major Hwy our only up was we’re had everted Toronto thank goodness…bit the Hwy was very very busy and heaps of road works….

We pulled up fir a cuppa at a Tim Horton’s don’t tell our Tim he says their crap….but beggars can’t be choosers on a road trip like this…we missed 3 lots of Road Transit centres as they were actually advertising Tim Horton’s only after we drove by did we realise they all had one…

A coffee and a Brekky bacon, egg, and Hash brown in a wrap like I had with Judy was great plus bonus I have half left for tomorrows Brekky if the one at the hotel is crap…

The landscape finally started to change with Rocky outcrops popping up along the Hwy…up to this point it had just been thick, thick bush,and and pine forests….Now the rocks were getting bigger and bigger giving the landscape a more dramatic feel….

Then as I was busy doing something with my phone….sorting pics I think…John says what’s that….and all I could see on the other side of the Hwy was brown hairy thing…I thought maybe a cow…with a truck looming towards it we John realised it was a big brown bear….by the time we could slow down he had scampered off the Hwy the truck averting him and me missing a great photo op….😩😩😩 let’s hope more….

For lunch we pulled up at Jeremy’s Diner with a big sign in the door saying due to not being able to hire staff as of Wednesday tomorrow they were shutting indefinitely…that’s so sad….we are just blown away with how many hire me signs on 100’s of businesses a lot like home but more so…in the towns we have visited it’s nothing to see 10-20 hire staff signs up….Covid has a down side of people not wanting to work now…I truly don’t know how they are all living…not sure if there is a dole here but guessing there must be with the sheer volume needed to be hired…

Anyway we had lunch nothing special but food…As usual I was bought the wrong thing…John says I am a magnet….once sorted I could eat….John had a huge Foot Long Hot Dog….mine was pea soup and garlic bread…the garlic bread was great…the pea soup ordinary and tasteless…but I ate some…

So off we go again…seeing the Huron Lake winding its way along the Hwy on both sides sometimes…huge river systems and wet wet land that looked soaked…

We saw and I missed time and time again the different Indian Tribes names and say it was Native Indigenous lands we were entering… many we didn’t know but Mohawk we did….
The other thing is the sheer volume of Cannabis shops dotted along the Hwy…some must be making great money as getting very flash…others as just Dongers…..

Other sights we saw was heaps and heaps of boats small motor boats covered in what looked like heat shrink over it one….at a close up look it was heat shrunk over them all…100’s of boats are done like this must be to protect them from the harsh winters…Plus hundreds and hundreds of massive Caravans RVs they call them of Fifth Wheelers…most pulled up in peoples yards…they must use them as extra housing from the look of it…When we went to Utah years ago we noticed this in all the Indian reservation homes and others as well…tiny run down homes with massive RVs parked close by….same here the further west we have come…So strange to see it…plus I noticed heaps of abandoned caravans in fields or surrounded by bush….must be easy to just cast off here….

So, so green…and the rugged rocky outcrops along the freeway made for a dramatic look…. Some of the Hwys looked like driving into Sydney with the craggy Rock walls between each side of the Hwy…
Lake views become so pretty but I missed most opportunities with camera issues…this Z5 is doing my head in big time.,,

We made it to our destination just around 5pm…Tim and Jess a good 1 1/2 away behind us….

The hotel Howard Johnson by Wyndham is crappy from the outside…but rooms are clean and neat…downside I had to ask the office if they could store our freezer bricks in their freezer our tiny room ones just would t cut it…as we will be staying in Airbnbs we need some stores so I am the chuck wagon again, with groceries and cold goods….

Tim and Jess made it at 6.45pm tired but elated they had done their very first big jaunt driving so far in one day….while they lived in Sydney they never owned a car only hired one and did short trips out or when longer shorter distances…and not having been a big driver Tim was concerned he might get too tired…but he did great…

They booked in and we all started to try and find a place for dinner…Tim found a Scottish Whiskey Bar Restaurant to go to….What a great little Bar this turned out to be great food 🥘 , only small, but great atmosphere, great services perfect end to a big day and I finally got to try out the deep fried pickles….I loved them, John thought OK….ha ha his way of saying I don’t really like it…😜
We were pretty had it so actually ended up going to bed early…Read more