July 20th Belated

Distance Travelled: 465 kms

Today was a whirlwind. Our only goal was to make it across the Chi-Cheemaun Ferry to Tobermorey and once that was accomplished we had no idea what to do with ourselves.

Thanks to Google, we’ve found a little piece of heaven off the beaten track. We’re in a little place called Miller Lake on the Bruce Peninsula about 35 minutes off the ferry. For a little while we had started to doubt the GPS, but just because there’s a dirt road doesn’t mean there isn’t something worthwhile at the end. Now, I will say we have yet to encounter a campsite with mosquitoes this bad. There were actually swarms of them and it did take us about 30 minutes to find all those bloodsuckers in Clementine. In spite of that… the owner is absolutely the nicest lady and our site is incredibly private and quiet.

The trees are rustling once more outside (there is no way I’m going back out there!!) and I’m sitting with Clemie waiting for the boys to doze off while Nate takes a shower. It would appear that for today, we are still on BC time as it’s currently after 11 pm.

We bought both breakfast and lunch today in our haste to make the 5:50 pm ferry, as the next one would have been 10 pm! As we pulled up at Wendy’s, though we found Clementine’s long lost older sister, Petunia! She was the same colour and everything. The owners asked if we were planning on heading up to Serpent River as that’s where a large gathering of VW buses was taking place. As tempted as we were, we really needed to find a place to stay on the other side of the ferry to allow the boys less time in the van. They were so nice and even had two sons of their own!

The ferry ride was interesting. Nothing at all like BC Ferries, in many respects. The boat was much smaller, but somehow looked huge. There was also much pomp and circumstance to each arrival and departure. In BC, it happens all the time so people don’t tend to wave, honk, etc.. but after this ride they sure did! There also seemed to be a lot of alcohol consumed on this boat which didn’t seem like the smartest of ideas. Jericho and I went outside at one point to take a few pictures of this beautiful lighthouse and when we were making our way back inside, we saw this little girl of about 4 or 5 crying. I asked if she was going in or out (as she seemed to gotten stuck between the two sets of doors) and she sobbed that she wanted to go outside. Then I asked if she needed help finding her Mom and she nodded through tears. So Jericho and I took her to the crew member nearby and Malachi noticed the excitement and tagged along. As we were walking towards the play area her Father came up and hugged her, letting her know he’d been so worried. I watched for a moment as I saw the woman I recognized as her Mom (it was a small boat) as she just sat there and watched her daughter sob to her Dad. Maybe it’s just me, but if my child had been missing, I might have made a little bit more of a scene!

We are very close to the end of our journey on this end. In fact, if the mosquitoes weren’t so bad, we might just stay here until Friday evening. The place we are staying at with Nate’s family from July 22 – 29^th is about 45 minutes from here. So on one hand it seems silly to venture far from the area. But on the other hand, I was so looking forward to seeing the Niagara area once again and showing the Falls to the boys. We’ll see how we feel tomorrow.

Thank-you to those who have sent notes saying you miss us. We miss everyone back home too! We felt we were being reminded of home often today as we passed by Maple Ridge Road as well as Maple Ridge Campgrounds, and they were both hours apart from one another! At this point I need to send a special note of condolence to my aunt as there doesn’t seem to be a way for me to travel back for my cousin’s funeral. This breaks my heart, and I hope she understands.

Until I write again…