Simnett Travels

Sunday, July 31st – Oliphant to Nashville, Ontario – Day 169  Today we returned home. Charlotte had stated that she wanted to be home for her birthday. It involved a lot of cleaning of the cottage and packing things back into the trailer before driving two and a half hours home. There was a great deal of relief to be home. Tomorrow the cleaning starts.   A trip post mortem will be coming soon.

Saturday, July 30th – Oliphant to Wiarton to Oliphant, Ontario – Day 168  Jo-Ce had not been on the Bruce Peninsula for many years so we wanted to take her around to see the sights. We started with a trip to Wiarton, Gen, Jo-Ce and the kids looked around at the stores while I went to the library.  When we met up again, we walked across the street to see the living quarters of Wiarton celebrity, Wiarton Willie. He wasn’t up for pictures but a short distance away was the Wiarton festival. We purchased some junk food, the kids each got a ride, and we curled using roller stones.   Once we were finished with the fair, we took a short drive to our go-to walk to Bruce’s Cave. The walk is fantastic, you go down a lovely path through the forest with rocks lining the path to a huge cavern in a cliffside. You can climb through a passageway into the rock and out another side. It’s always fun.   We had dinner at the cottage before going to Red Ba...

Friday, July 29th – Oliphant, Ontario - Day 167  We reached the cottage and did nothing. We had a day where we just hung around. To ruin a perfectly good day of doing nothing, we planned on doing something. We went for sunset at Sauble beach with ice cream on the side. Then we came home. What a great day.

Thursday, June 28th – Sault Ste. Marie to Oliphant, Ontario - Day 166  The alarm went at 8am which wasn’t appreciated. No breakfast or coffee in the trailer today, we had a date with the Breakfast Pig, an eatery Gen found recommended on ioverlander. We were in the parking lot beside the visitor centre, so the Jo-Ce took the kids to visit while we packed up. The Breakfast Pig was fantastic; the fried chicken eggs benedict on waffles was delicious.  The day started to speed up a little bit. We mapped in our trip to the Manitoulin ferry and found out it was a 4.5-hour drive. This left us with three hours to spare. We went to the Sault Ste. Marie Canal National Historic Site where a lock transitions boats from the higher Lake Superior, past the St. Marys River rapids, to the lower Lake Huron. We were able to walk across the locks and over two islands to get a view of the rapids.   Hurrying back to the car, we drove through the downtown towards A...

Wednesday, June 27th – Pukaskwa National Park to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario - Day 166  We woke at Pukaskwa National Park, another in our series of National Parks, to eat cereal and oatmeal. We showered and washed the dishes while Jo-Ce took the kids to the visitor centre to work on their explorer booklets. Once packed and ready to go, Gen and I joined them.  The trail they recommended was the Southern Headland Trail. It was fantastic. We climbed over hills of granite and through moss covered forests. I learned that the rocks in the park were pink granite, but they looked grey because black and grey lichen grows onto the rock. The walk reminded me of my time spent near Port Severn, similar rocks, lichen and plants. The trail led to a beach covered in driftwood before we took a boardwalk back to the campground. The boardwalk went through dunes and cedars which reminded me of my time spent near Sauble Beach. I took a minute to appreciate the landscapes I have lived in.  ...

Tuesday, June 26th – Thunder Bay to Pukaskwa National Park, Ontario - Day 165 We woke up at the Fort William Historic site and went to the visitor centre to pay for camping. There was a fort with actors dressed in period costumes that shared information about when the fort was functional. It sounded great but it cost money, which generally means we aren’t doing it, and we would need several hours, limiting our time at other sights. We pushed on into Thunder Bay. We drove through downtown to check it out. Gen thought it looked a little bit dumpy.  After a quick tour, we headed for Mission Island Marsh Conservation Area. Two bridges later we were on an island looking out across Lake Superior at the sleeping giant, a rock formation on a peninsula. We walked a boardwalk to the edge of the lake and the kids played with driftwood before we were back in the car.  Next stop, groceries. I dropped Gen and the kids off to pick-up groceries while Jo-Ce and I went to check ou...

Monday, June 25th – Vermillion Bay to Thunder Bay, Ontario - Day 164  Gen woke up around 6:30am unable to sleep anymore with the traffic on the TransCanada nearby. She started to cook farmers sausage and egg for breakfast. The farmers sausage was delicious. We packed up the trailer and went back to Vermillion Bay to see the town. The town was small, but we went to the public dock and enjoyed a boardwalk along the lake. It was nice enough that we decided to go for a swim in the Lake of the Woods. Very refreshing before a long drive.   Our goal was to camp near Thunder Bay, a four hour drive. The first town we reached was Dryden, home to a huge pulp and paper mill. We stopped at a little park to walk a short trail to a suspension bridge. There was a beautiful, tiled mosaic in the park that we stopped to appreciate. The suspension bridge had a great view of the water used to power the paper mill. Before we drove through downtown Dryden, we stopped for gas, a ca...

Sunday, June 24th – Morris, Manitoba to Vermillion Bay, Ontario - Day 163  The kids were promised a petting zoo and a petting zoo they demanded. The rodeo had free entrance to the grounds, so we stopped in quickly to see the petting zoo before we got on our way. Our first distraction was free face painting; John was Elsa, Charlotte was a butterfly and Aisling had a mermaid crown. Gen snuck off to buy a hot dog and a poutine. We ate while watching amateur cowboys isolate cows.  Finally, we reached the petting zoo, the kids were satisfied petting kittens, ducks, rabbits, a pig and some goats. Time to get on the road, well, except for the coffee stop, ice cream stop, time for kids to run around on a big platform, shopping for necklaces, washrooms and, finally, exploring the exhibits building. My pleas to leave fell on deaf ears. At least I got to see some of the rodeo from behind a fence.   Farmer’s sausage was a must in...

Saturday, June 23rd – Morris to Winnipeg to Morris, Manitoba - Day 162  Honey nut alternative-brand-Cheerios went over well in the morning. We did a quick clean-up and got in the car to drive to Winnipeg, an hour north. We had a mixture of sightseeing and chores to take care of today. Our laundry pile was getting out of control so a laundromat was a must. I dropped Gen, Jo-Ce and the kids off at a farmers’ market with a splash pad to look around and do some light shopping. I went eight minutes down the road for an oil change. Great Canadian Oil Changes (alternatively known as Valvoline) did a thorough job and only tried to upsell me on three or four things. We were overdue for an oil change; we’ve been rushing around and haven’t made the time.  Upon returning to the farmer’s market, we ate a lovely lunch of gnocchi and salad. When the kids were finished, they put on their swimsuits and rushed into the splash pad. We allowed them a bit of time to play before drying them off ...

Friday, June 22nd – Riding Mountain National Park to Morris, Manitoba - Day 161  The time change got to us. We arrived at our campsite at midnight, the time change made it 1am. By the time we got to bed it was 2am. Not a recipe for an early morning; the alarm went off just before 9am. We had showers, wheat germ-oatmeal-yogurt bowls (which did not go over that well with the kids despite the obvious nutritional benefit we told them about) and packed up.   We arrived at the visitor centre to find out that they were out of Explorer books. Aisling was unimpressed. We received the dog tags for our previous completion of Parka books. For those who don’t know, Parka is the beaver mascot of our national parks. He’s obviously pretty cool. We’ve taken several pictures with him. The Parka books are for younger kids and are fun. There is a story with pictures in place of some words that John loves getting read to him; he identifies the pictures, but he takes his time with each even ...