We were planning on moving down the road today, but after looking at the weather forecasting showers, we just decided to spend an extra day. Tuesday is forecast for full sun. I went to the office last night and requested an extra day, but was told the site we were in was booked, so would have to move. That's OK. Packed lightly this AM and moved back to #339. That's the site we were originally in when we arrived.
Aug 22nd
Today took a drive that was recommended by a man at the St Jacos Market yesterday. Went out to a town a few miles from Waterloo, called West Montrose. This is a place where the last covered Bridge in Ontario is. Drove through and stopped to take some pictures of it. While we were there several Mennonites crossed with their little buggies pulled by high stepping horses. Quite a sight to see this mode of transportation in todays world
Then we continued on for another 10 miles to Elora Conservation Area and Gorge. Here the Grand River flows through a narrow gorge for a few miles. Seems that this is a favourite place for the young to "Tube" down through the gorge and over the many rapids.
We walked along the top on a well shaded path and watched some of the fun they were having. Stopped for a hot Dawg at a local consession there before moving on. One of the brochures we had showed some sort of a mill in the town of Elora, right on the river, so we decided to see if we could find it. We did. It is now converted into an Inn.
Not sure what the original mill was used for, but it now is quite a picturesque place right above a falls on the Grand River. Then returned to ELTORO. Took longer than we had anticipated, but it was worth it!!
Aug 21st
Today out to St. Jacobs Farmers Market and Flea Market and Outlet Mall. It was only a few miles from home. Thousands of people flock here every day to sample the produce from mostly local Mennonite growers.
The produce is phenomenal!! Every kind of jam, jelly, sauces, relishes, preserves, pickles, that you could imagine.
Also beautiful quilts and home made crafts. Too bad ELTORO is saturated!!! But we did buy pickled sausage, eggs and asparagus and two huge dill pickles. YUM YUM -- pucker power! We will eat them ASAP. We also bought two goose down pillows. By the way, the goose down comes all the way from Alberta. We needed new ones to replace those we do not like in ELTORO. The lady there told us the best goose down pillows there are in the world come from the Hutterites in Alberta, but no, we had to come all the way to Ontario to buy them. I'm not telling the costs. We walked through the large Flea Market.
It was great, but much like so many other Flea Markets we have see before. Also the big Outlet stores, are much the same, but we did pick up a few things in the Kitchen store. Denice, well me too, have a slight addiction to all types of gadgets, and we did need a coffee carafe to keep our left over coffee warm. On our way home, just at the corner turning into Green Acres RV Resort, we came upon a whole contingency of Ontario Police. They had set up a posting in two spots along the Conservation Drive about a half mile apart. They did not have their lights flashing and were only waving motorists by at a slow rate. Nothing seemed to be amiss. No accident. Nothing. We could not imagine what the ruckus was about, until mid-way between the two sets of congregated officers, just off the road we saw a large farmyard with a whole bunch of Motor Cycles and a bus with a large banner on the back saying, "Hell's Angels" Ontario Branch" Now we knew!!!
The police were there just to have a presence, and to make sure nothing erupted, I guess. Nice neighbors we have here!! They must have been having some sort of gathering at that farmyard.
Aug 20th
Today was maybe a little slow. Didn't do much in the morning, but after lunch decided to take a drive down rural roads to Stratford to see what was there seeing it was only about 25 miles away. The rural scenery is great here.
Sooo green and yards so well manicured. Every farm seems to have a acre or two of well maintained lawn and flowers. Some have ponds and fountains. I don't think too many of the Ontario farmers are suffering economically. Once in Stratford we stopped at Shakespeare's Park at the info hut, then found free parking near by. Spent an hour or so just walking along the Avon River.
Again the park is well kept and flowers are everywhere. Ducks and swans cruised up and down the silent, smooth waters, as did the tour boats. A most enjoyable afternoon!!
Aug 19th
At 8:15 took Jeep down to Bustard Jeep Chrysler for window repair. Brought home via their shuttle. Originally we had reserved our RV Site for only 3 nights, but since we liked the Park had requested an increase it to 1 week. They accommodated us, but we had to move to another site as the one we were in on the lake had been previously booked, so as soon as I got home from the Jeep Dealer, we packed up and moved, but only a few sites to the east. Not a Big Deal!! And then settled in again. At about noon Bustard Jeep called with the "Good News, Bad News" story. The "bad" was to advise that the whole window controller and glass had to be replaced as there was an update. Cost $560 before Tax. The "Good" was that yesterday they had ordered two of the windows for another customer, whose window would not go down, and they would use the "Steal from Peter to Pay Paul" scenario as the other customer was unaware that the parts were there, and they would re-order for his parts. So we are without wheels today, so another day of relaxing. So today is sort of an expensive one, but I guess, "That's just the cost of doing Business".
Shuttle picked me up again at 4:45PM and delivered me back to Bustards. Paid the "Bad News" at $616.93. $70 to our good friends in Ottawa!! The Gal at the payment booth at Bustards wrote in large letters on their copy of the invoice, "Because of this bill this gentleman will not be able to afford to go to Newfoundland!!"
Aug 18th
Had email first thing in morning indicating they would schedule an appointment for 9:00AM tomorrow morning, if that was OK. I emailed back it was. Then spent the rest of the day just kind of schmoozing. Nothing very exciting. Went down to a nearby Sobeys for some needed groceries. Came back home and stowed them. Larder is full again.
Aug 17th
Drove down to Niagara today, about 100 miles from here. Routed Jeeps GPS to use secondary highways rather than Freeways. It took us longer but took us right through down town Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge, and Hamilton. Not sure if that was a good idea or not!! Anyway arrived at the Falls in about 3 hours. Paid $20 to park while we took the photos that we came for. There were thousands of people there. I suppose there always is, but it was crowded.
We had planned on staying the night down there, but decided just to make the drive back to ELTORO instead. Took a longer route back as we wanted to at least see Lake Erie, so we headed south to Port Erie, and on the Port Colburne where we crossed the Welland Canal for a second time. Just prior to Port Colburn, took a run out to a local beach along the Lake. It was a nice sandy one, so Denice was able to add to her collection of sands from various point where we have been, Took a few photos and continued on. From there we headed north again toward home. Set the GPS to take the "quickest" way home. She routed us almost the same way we had come, except part of the way was on freeways. Stopped in Cambridge for a quick drive in lunch. Rolled down the window to order, but after getting our dinner, the window refused to roll back up. I tried several different scenario's, but with no luck. Well, it was lucky that it was a warm evening as we had to drive the last 25 miles or so with the window open. Arrived home 8:00PM. Got right onto the web when home to find a Jeep Dealer in Waterloo. Found Bustard Chrysler not too far away. They have an email site to request service so I told them of my problem, and got a prompt reply that they would be getting back to me soon. Went to bed shortly there after without any reply.
Aug 16th
Left Keith's place at 10:00AM this morning. Sure hated to leave, it was such a nice setting and Keith was such a great host, but time marches on, so down the road we went toward Waterloo, our next planned stop. Our preference of secondary highways led us through rural Ontario, down highways 6, 12, 10, 17, and 16. These are all well paved 2 lane highways, most with a speed limit of 80 km/hr. The speed is fine with us as we have a chance to enjoy the passing sights. We did notice that vehicles very often passed on double solid lines as there are more of them than dotted ones. we were travelling slightly over the posted speed limit, but people seem to have what we call the RV syndrome, and have to pass every motorhome and then slow down. In response to this Denice wrote this little joke.
"A man from Ontario was stopped in Alberta for passing on a double solid line going up hill. He asks "What did I do wrong Officer?" The Officer replied "You passed illegally on a double solid line going uphill." The man from Ontario replied, "Oh, sorry officer, I thought that double solid line meant, OK to pass, but go faster." We saw a lot of that!!
Our concept of Ontario is changing. Since we had never been here before, we were under the impression of a much more heavily populated area from the maps that we had looked at, when in reality although it is heavily populated, it is quite rural. I'm sure a large farm here is something much less than a quarter section. The land is rolling, strikenly green, lots of trees, and manicured yards. Towns are small and quaint. Mennonite and Amish people seem to make up a fair amount of the population. Highways are shared with horse and buggies. We only had about 90 miles to travel today, but it took us almost three hours, but a very enjoyable three hours, indeed. We checked into the GreenAcres RV Park on the northern outskirts of Waterloo for a three day period, and were escorted to our site by a nice young lady. We originally had planned for only three days, but once settled in, and found what a nice park it was, decided we would like to make it a week. I went back to the office and requested an extension, but the spot in is not available as it is reserved by someone else. However the receptionist was able to accomadate us by moving us a couple of times. Not our preference, but we will live with it.
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