After three years, we’re finally getting on the road again! Sadly, we gave up our motor home last fall because we knew we wouldn’t be going back to Arizona for winters any more and it seemed a waste of money to pay for storage and insurance on it when we couldn’t go anywhere else, during COVID. But now we can travel across Canada, and we’re setting off in our car today for Halifax, Nova Scotia taking our time along the way.
Today’s destination will be Drummondville, Quebec. I hope you’ll follow along. There will be pictures in future posts, promise!
We’ve had some problems with the car battery dying, even though we recently replaced it. Something is draining it. But Jim just puts the charger on it for a couple of hours and we’re good to go for a day or two. Wish us luck.
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It’s been too long since I’ve posted on this site. During COVID shutdowns, because we could do no long-distance travel, I immersed myself in other types of writing. But you might recall that we did do some local travel on our e-bikes.
This past week, we sold our motor home, so our journeys to Arizona are done. We have no plans for escaping the cold of winter, yet, but we did embark on a new biking journey this week. We took our bikes to Long Sault, Ontario on Thursday evening, after a stop in Prescott to take my brother out for a drive and dinner. We spent the night at the Lion Inn so we could ride the Long Sault Parkway Trail on Friday morning.
The air was cold when we started out, shortly after 9:00 am, but the sun was bright. I took enough pictures to give you an idea of the beauty of the area.
Directly across from our hotel was a round-about intersection with a pedestrian/bicycle crossing that took us to the River Trail, which led us to the Parkway Trail.
The Beginning of the Long Sault Parkway Trail and a bit about it.
The Islands. The eleventh island isn’t named on the map, but there was a road to the right named Moulinette Island Road, which seemed to lead to a private community.
Most of the islands have campgrounds and beaches, that have restroom/store buildings, but there are no houses or businesses. We could hear birds in the trees and see some on the water. It truly is a peaceful green space.
When we reached the end of the trail at Ingleside, we found a great little place in a plaza to eat lunch, before the return ride.
There is a story behind these islands. They were once a part of these two cities, until the 1950s when an agreement was made between Canada and the US to flood the St. Lawrence River that ran beside the towns and between the two countries, in order to expand the shipping lanes. On MacDonnell Island there is an information area with posters that tell the incredible story of houses and other buildings being moved, and the Highway #2 being flooded. We found the small portion of the highway that remained above water.
The road that goes nowhere
Most of the pictures on the boards are now faded beyond recognition, but I did capture the written story in pictures. If you take time to read it, you will be amazed.
The information is posted in both English and French. I cropped out the French only to adjust the pictures to a smaller size and square them up. You can find more detailed information on the Wikipedia website.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this journey. I can’t say when the next one will be but I hope you’ll join me when it does. Happy Travels!
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Yesterday was the nicest day we’ve seen so far this spring, so we decided to go for a bike ride. It was too spur of the moment to ask our friends if they wanted to join us. It’s just as well.
We’d tried taking the trail out of Hastings before, along the river bank, but it was too treacherous – uphill and down on a narrow path of large loose gravel and some very large rocks that made steering difficult. We got off of it at the first intersection with a paved Concession Road.
This time we took the concession roads east until we found the trail heading south. It didn’t look too bad so we entered it. It was a little rough, with a few large puddles to go around near the beginning, but it was a beautiful ride through the trees and past the swamps. Like the trail heading west out of Hastings, it was built on the old railway line. It wasn’t our plan to go all the way to Campbellford and when we got to the tunnel that goes under County Road 35, we could have walked the bikes up the steep incline and ridden home using county roads.
Tunnel under Country Road 35
But we decided, since we didn’t have anything else planned for the day, we’d continue on and have lunch in Campbellford. That was a mistake. We’d already been riding for about an hour.
The trail became narrow again, with heavy, loose gravel piled between the two lanes and along the outside edges. We had to go slow, which made staying within the narrow path difficult. We were often precariously perched on the edge of the bank along a creek. When my tires lurched, I had visions of tumbling over the edge and landing head first into the water. The only good thing about the trail was that most of the wooden bridges had been recently rebuilt. It took us an hour to get from the tunnel to Campbellford.
By the time we were finally travelling down the last little stretch that would take us onto the paved roads of the town, my bicycle was rattling. I looked down to see my front light barely hanging on. Fortunately the bikes came with repair kits, and Jim put it back into place.
Reconnecting the light
After lunch, sitting on a curb outside Tim Horton’s, we left for home, taking the paved roads. We did make one detour along a well-maintained gravel road to say hello to friends, who it turned out, weren’t home. We still got home in less than an hour. Total distance, thirty-three kilometers. Would we do it again? Not unless it’s graded and made fit for bicycles.
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I’ve really let my blogging slip by the wayside and I’m sorry, but I just couldn’t get into the re-blogging thing. Now that spring has begun to show her face, we’ve managed a couple of interesting local excursions.
One day we took at drive to Healy Falls, where the water is running rapidly once again.
We got our e-bikes out and did a couple of tours around our neighbourhood to get back into the groove of riding. Then one day we did a 28 km trip to a neighbouring town, with two of our biking friends. It was a warm, almost-like-summer day. It was the last day before Ontario was going into another lock-down, when we’re told to stay home except for essentials, which includes getting fresh air and exercise.
Taking back country roads, with many steep hills, we arrived in Norwood in time for a take-out lunch, which we ate while sitting on the curb of the parking lot. The ride home seemed easier.
A few days ago we discovered, after Jim’s daughter told us about it, the lovely Nawautin Nature Sanctuary in a nearby Township. After an unpleasant start to the day, it was just what I needed to calm my soul. The pictures say it all.
Since then we’ve had rain and cooler weather again, but hope for more excursions soon prevails.
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I was a day late, but I finally managed to call Mom to wish her a Happy 96th Birthday, before riding into Sturgis for the pancake breakfast sponsored by one of the churches (still haven’t got the grocery shopping done). We returned to the RV to take care of a bit of business, and then we got on the bike and took off for the day.
We had to go to Rapid City to mail a package, but after that we put troubles behind us, riding up the twisty road towards Mount Rushmore. It was a beautiful ride.
We stopped at the Gas Light Bar & Grill in Rockerville for lunch. I had one of the best salads I’ve ever had – chicken, walnuts, cranberries, shredded cheese and lettuce with raspberry vinaigrette. It was huge. I felt badly when I couldn’t eat it all. Jim managed to finish off most of his seafood salad, which he thoroughly enjoyed as well.
The only modern convenience in the town
Rockerville is a ghost mining town containing partially-preserved old, wooden shops, a bank and a few homes, located in an area just off the main street. Other than a few occupied homes, the Gas Light is pretty much all that’s there, nestled in the valley between the north and south sides of Hwy 16. We wouldn’t have found it if it hadn’t been recommended to us by a fellow biker who’d shared our table at breakfast.
Next stop, still along Hwy 16, was Keystone, a wonderful town whose historical downtown has been preserved in the manner of the gold rush days. It too was packed with bikers. We spent an hour or more poking through the shops and taking pictures before carrying on to Mount Rushmore.
Many restaurants and bikers in Keystone
The climb through the mountains was amazing, the sheer rocks naturally carved into some interesting works of art. And then the famous faces of the four Presidents, Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln, came into view. Awesome!
We spent another couple of hours touring the National Park Information Centre and taking pictures.
From there, we had to go see Crazy Horse, an on-going sculpting project commissioned by the Lakota Indian tribe back in 1948 as a monument to Chief Crazy Horse. The original sculptor is dead, but his wife and kids are carrying on the dream, all paid for by donations, draws and sales at the commercial outlets and museum. Government funding was turned down by the family. It will be many more decades before the project will reach fruition. The contributions made by the thousands of bikers who would visit this week, would make a big difference, as acknowledged by the “motorcycles only” designated parking.
It was after six when we left there. We opted to take Hwy 385, stopping in Hill City for dinner. Here the entire downtown business part of the main street was closed to all vehicles except bikes, and bikes there were! The sun was setting when we left and the reported 100 degree Fahrenheit temperature earlier in the day was quickly dropping.
Watching for long-horned mountain sheep, we saw some scaling the rocks to our left and stopped to take pictures. They seemed curious and began to descend towards the road. Just as curious were other bikers and people in cars who began to stop too. There was some concern then that the sheep would cause an accident when a couple of them scurried across the road in front of a car and a bike. As we drove off, we warned approaching vehicles to slow down.
It was dark by the time we reached Deadwood, so after a quick tour of the main street, which was busy with biker activities, we continued on our way, arriving back at the camp at 9:45 pm. It was a great day, but exhausting, especially after I stayed up late posting pictures to Facebook.
Before we left on this trip I’d just finished reading a book by Nora Roberts called Black Hills. It’s been interesting seeing The Black Hills that she writes about and the area towns, like Deadwood.
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After discovering that the device for getting onto the internet, which we bought the night before, just wasn’t going to work, we headed back into Rapid City with computer packed into the saddle bag, expecting to get help quickly from the computer geeks at Best Buy. The first geek couldn’t do it so he called the sales associate from the mobile phone department. He could do it through the phone help line, if only he could get through to them.
He was on hold for twenty minutes, when another geek, the head of the department suggested that a different device would work better for our needs and could be installed very quickly by her. It was more money, but we decided it would be worth it if it was going to work. So, we made the exchange. That wasn’t a simple process. A monthly invoicing system had to be set up because, unlike the previous device, a one month prepaid card couldn’t be purchased. Our having a Canadian address made that process complicated. It took about an hour just to set up the account.
Then, it was back to the geek desk. A half hour later, the geek was still trying to get this device to work. In the meantime, the head of the mobile phone department came in (he’d sold us the original device) and he tried to help with first the account set-up and then the device set up.
We left for lunch. When we got back, the head geek had left for the day, leaving the problem with yet another geek. Another half hour passed before it was finally discovered, by the mobile phone fellow, that the battery hadn’t been installed in the device!
We thought that was the quick fix, but no, it still wouldn’t work on our computer, but it did work on theirs. So, after wasting four hours of our day, we left with computer and device once again stashed in the saddle bag.
Jim decided he’d like to take a back route home, and it was a lovely ride, until we ran out of gas! Fortunately a kind lady who lived nearby went home to get us enough to get us to Sturgis and a gas station.
Once we were finally back in the RV Jim went to work on the computers and internet device and he got them both working. At least the day ended better.
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On Sunday morning, still in our campsite near Mitchell, South Dakota, we took our time getting ready to leave. I did some laundry; Jim repaired a window screen that had become loose, and I finished blog and Facebook postings. While I sat outside completing these tasks, I watched streams of motorcycles speeding past on the I-90. By 10:30 we had joined them, but the bikes ruled the road.
With a couple of stops along the way to refresh, we finally arrived at our campsite at Sturgis around 4:00 pm.
One of many camping sites
The day was another very hot one, reaching temperatures in the upper nineties. Our poor old motor home began to protest when we stopped to register. She didn’t want to start again. But we managed to slowly move her to our campsite and backed into place. We did our nesting; electric hooked up, table and chairs out, awnings pulled to provide some shade. We started a list of things we should purchase the next chance we got, like a sewer connector, a new door blind and stamps to mail cards. After a frustrating evening of trying to get and stay connected to WiFi, an internet stick was added to the list. Hence the reason no news got posted that day.
On Monday we took the bike into downtown Sturgis, list in hand. Lots of luck! There were many interesting sites and lots of pictures to take. Beer could be bought at nearly every corner; if you wanted a souvenir t-shirt or cap or any biking paraphernalia, you had hundreds of shops to choose from. But nowhere in sight was there a computer or mobile phone store, or a grocery store. Our list had to be discarded for the time being. We just parked the bike and enjoyed the show. The streets were lined with bikes of every shape, size and description that you could imagine. Granted the majority seemed to be Harleys. At least the loud pipes on our Virago blended right in.
There were bikes customized to look like cars; there was a bike that looked like our Venture, but it pulled a coffin for a trailer, painted to match the bike. The licence plate read “X-wife”.
The people riding the bikes and walking on the streets were just as varied. Jim especially enjoyed photographing the buxom women who equally enjoyed flaunting what they had. It seems that pasties are the only top covering required in this state. We saw people dressed in caveman/warrior garb, women in bikinis, old people, young people, an extremely tall woman, probably seven feet.
We stood in the crowd for the daily group photo. If you look really closely you can recognize Jim’s hat in the crowd. Well worth the $10 we paid for a copy. We poked through several of the shops, ate pulled pork for lunch and ice cream cones for dessert. We visited the Knuckle Saloon for a cold drink and a listen to some excellent guitar picking and songs by Rogan Brothers Band.
By 4:30 the sun and the walking had done us in so we found our bike and decided to look once more for the Post Office. By the time we found it, it had closed and there seemed to be nowhere else to buy those stamps. Some suggested we might try the grocery store and told us where to find it, but it would mean another slow ride through town; We came back to camp.
But the desire to get internet connection to complete some business and post our updates led us to get on the bike again and head sixty miles east to Rapid City. There we found the internet stick we were looking for and an IHOP where we finally had some dinner. It was nine o’clock by the time we finished eating, time to return to camp. Perhaps tomorrow we’ll get that list taken care of.
In the evening we were still struggling with internet while enjoying some live music coming from the beer tent.
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The bikes began to pass us first thing this morning, one or two bikes for every two or three cars. By one o’clock the ratio had changed. By then we’d crossed the border into South Dakota. There were bikes on the road, bikes in the back of pickup trucks, bikes in trailers and bikes in toy haulers. There were girls, guys, one-up and two up, some pulling trailers, others packed with gear. There was even a “headless” rider! Or at least that’s what it looked like. When he passed us his gear was stacked so high behind him, that he couldn’t be seen, but a helmet attached to the side of the load created a strange illusion. There were bald heads, scarved heads, hair flying, since riding without a helmet is legal in this state unless you are under eighteen. Often times, though, the women were wearing helmets as were some men.
There were long waits at the Gas Stations Too!
After we crossed into South Dakota, we stopped at the visitors centre, and met up with many more bikers. We thought we were pulling a load until a huge motor home that must have been 42 feet long pulled into the parking lot. A lift on the back held a trike, and behind that was a twenty foot cargo trailer, presumably containing a few more bikes. Jim asked the fellow that was outside it if he found that the weight on the back made the front of the motor home lift. He was told, “It poses no problem. It’s much easier to pull with the motor home than with the hummer!
That’s a heavy load!
At the visitor centre we picked up several brochures and when we said we were on our way to Sturgis, we were given a Rally Package. Inside was more literature about things to do and see in the area. Looking through them stirred our excitement. We could spend a month here and never see all there is to see!
As the day wore on, however, the cool temperatures of the morning turned hotter and more humid. We stopped more, as did many other bikers. The vehicle a/c wasn’t working. Our last stop was at Mitchell where we filled up with gas, bought a Dairy Queen treat and then visited the Corn Palace.
The Corn Palace is an intriguing thing to see. The outside is adorned with pieces of art done entirely out of corn cobs of various colours, straw and other grains. Inside there are many more murals of the same medium. Amazing! And it was all free to see, even the parking. Purchases from the gift shop pay for the upkeep.
Corncob murals and interesting Gift Shop
Jim made a new friend
When we left Mitchell it was already five o’clock and we’d still have a four and a half to five hour drive before we reached Sturgis. We decided we’d had enough for the day and looked for a campsite. We found a quiet RV park attached to a motel about thirty kilometres down the road. We plugged in, turned on the “house” a/c and barbecued outside under a tree. Sturgis can wait another day.
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I said yesterday that I was going to be posting updated versions of my posts about our trip to Sturgis and Beyond, and I still plan to do that. But today, I need to rant!
This morning I was reading some posts on one of the FB pages from our “winter home” at Mesa Regal RV Resort. I was shocked, but not really surprised about what a saw. What used to be a friendly, all inclusive community has become greatly divided. I’ve seen it progressing over the years while following some of the FB posts, but now it is out of control, and the cause is the same that has escalated the already ripe division throughout the US this past year – COVID-19.
The post that started a succession of name-calling and finger pointing was a simple question: “Is anyone else concerned about the big gathering of people at the west end (of the park) yesterday? There appeared to be no masks or social distancing and it went on for hours.” (Paraphrased)
Some people confirmed their concerns and questioned why the management rules weren’t being enforced. There was mention of Covid cases already in the park.
Then, there was a barrage of angry residence who had been participants, with the usual excuses: It was a Memorial Service for a long-time resident; it was a gathering of mostly relatives, and some close friends from the park; you weren’t invited so it was none of your concern; you weren’t close enough to get infected so you don’t need to worry.
It quickly escalated to personal attacks: You weren’t invited so mind your own damn business; you’re just busybodies who tattle on their neighbours; if you don’t want to be involved, stay home, inside; this would be a good park if it weren’t for the busybodies. And on and on. One person even had the audacity to suggest that a commenter needed to “get a life!”
It takes a lot to get me riled up enough to speak out, but this time I responded: “And this is why Covid is out of control! There seems to be no understanding of how it spreads, not because of a lack of scientific information, but because too many people choose not to believe it.”
I know that I’m wasting my breath because “there are none so blind as those who will not see,” (a phrase that got its origins from the Bible In the book of Jeremiah, chapter five, verse twelve). But I need to at least try, because this reality crushes my hopes of ever getting out of this depressing situation any time soon.
How can these non-believers. How can we make them see that it is their selfish attitude, their determination that they will not be “told what to do”, their belief that their own personal “freedom” is the top priority, are destroying what their country stands for: Justice and Freedom for all!
Thanks for indulging me. My next post, I promise, will be back to our travels.
Stay safe; stay sane!
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Yesterday was a very long day. We crossed the border at Sarnia, into Michigan. It took nearly an hour to get across the bridge and through customs. Once across we stopped along the way at various rest stops, trying to find information about camping, but there was none. Jim thought he’d like to get as close to Chicago as we could before stopping. Finally, at nearly 9pm we found a campground near Michigan City, Indiana. We tried to call to book a site, but the number was out of service. That didn’t look good. We made our way down a tree-lined road, in the semi-darkness to find it. It did exist, just under a different name, but when we reached the gate there was a sign “Camp Site Full”. Now what? There were no others around that anyone knew of. We made our way back to the Blue Chip Casino. We’d heard that most casinos allowed overnight RV parking. So we “boon-docked” it once more. Of course having felt that we should patronize the casino for a little bit, at 10:15 pm we stood in line to get our membership cards and off we went with $20 each in hand to find the five cent slots.
Camping at Blue Chip Casino
It wasn’t long before the smoke accosted my eyes and nose. I’d forgotten that that’s the one thing I don’t like about travelling in the US, there are still no No Smoking laws. Oh well, I thought, if the usual scenario takes place, my self-allotted crazy money would be gone in fifteen minutes and we could leave. 🙂
Wouldn’t you know it, it lasted twice as long! Jim and I managed to lose our last nickel about the same time. We packed it in and headed to bed in the RV. I can say it definitely isn’t a camp site that I’d choose again, if given the chance. Not a lot of quiet; lots of lights. There was a nice breeze blowing through the windows and vents though, giving us some relief from the severe humidity of the previous night and day.
Jim insisted we should take advantage of the free gift offered to new members once they’ve garnered 200 points (by betting $40, including winnings re-bet), so we each came away with a case of coke! Oh well, it was a bit of fun and worked out alright.
Tonight we are in an actual campground for the first time since we left home. We put in over 500 kilometers, but we managed to arrive here, at a KOA near Austen Minnesota, before dark.
The I-90 is a good road in some states, a terrible one in others. We did a lot of bouncing at times. Making our way through Chicago with our 44 foot rig (32′ RV plus 12′ bike trailer) was interesting to say the least, as was weaving between pylons on the various sections of highways where road work was being done. I was finally inspired to take some pictures, although it was difficult to keep the steady hand needed to get quality shots. 🙂
Throughout the day we were overtaken by many many bikes, some being ridden, many more being towed behind trucks or motor homes. A quick glance around this camp ground indicated that there might be a few here as well.
Tomorrow we should reach Sturgis, where I expect to gather some much more exciting material for these posts.:)
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Mind Traveler 