Back to the US -- for the second time this summer!

On Friday, we left Bronte Creek Provincial Park, just west of Toronto, and headed south around the end of Lake Ontario...

Burlington Bay James N. Allan Skyway

Looking over toward the haze over Lake Ontario

As we crossed the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge, we could see the pair of power plants on both sides of the Niagara River (Canadian on the right, American on the left).

As we approached the border, there was an exit identified as "Trucks" and another for "Autos". We weren't sure which Gracie should identify as, and, since the "Trucks" did not indicate "Commercial", we took the "Trucks" exit. As it turned out, both exits ended up in the same place, and by the time we got to the Immigration/Customs area, the signs indicated "Auto/RV/Bus" versus "Commercial", so it was clear.

There was a Holiday Rambler in the left lane, and we were able to join the right lane from where we had been in the "Truck" exit. The rightmost lane was for Commercial Trucks only (and there was no waiting in that area -- unlike the "Auto/RV/Bus" lanes).

After about 20 minutes of waiting...

The two lanes split into 6 lanes to go through the immigration/customs check point.

About an hour after we joined the lines, we were through...

... and into NY state!

We stopped at another Harvest Host on Friday night,

Gracie in the field outside "No BS Brewery"

We were the only Harvest Host participant at the brewery on Friday night.

Inside the taproom

"Grain-to-Glass"

We got a pizza for dinner

We had a good night's stay, although it was warm and humid and we had to run the generator quite a while to get Gracie cooled down enough for us to feel comfortable sleeping. It was quiet and a good place to stay.

Near Toronto

We checked in to Bronte Creek Provincial Park on Tuesday for a 3 night stay...

We had a nice electric-only site. We were grateful that we had been able to fill our fresh tank at the Killara Station Harvest Host, and we dumped at the dump station when we arrived at Bronte Creek. The power pole is shared between two sites, and it happened that the trailer in the site next to us when we arrived was plugged in to the 30A receptacle, which left the 50A for our use!

We went for a bike ride on trails near the campground -- Carl's phone died about a week ago, so all pictures are being taken with my phone -- and I'm not very good at taking pictures and riding a bike at the same time (I'm not very good at doing *anything* and riding a bike at the same time!)... but I got a couple of pictures of him - albeit not necessarily level!

The trail also went through some woods. There were a number of places where the trail was covered with puddles. We rode through them slowly to avoid throwing too much mud up onto our bikes or ourselves.

We had stopped in the Toronto area to hopefully see former co-workers -- we were able to meet up with Marlon and his wife Jeannette -- they took us out to a delicious Italian restaurant...

Carl got Rigatoni...

... and I got Ravioli -- both were YUMMY!

We had a great time visiting at dinner -- this was a picture of Jeannette, Marlon, and Patti outside the restaurant after we finished eating.

We were so grateful to get together with Marlon and Jeanette -- and over the past several days, with several former co-workers! It is fun to be able to visit with folks while we travel!

Killara Station

On Monday night, we stayed at Killara Station, a Harvest host near Minden, Ontario. On Tuesday morning, before starting our journey south, we visited some of the areas around the farm.

There was a "Fresh Building" where there were various dog supplies available and some fresh items from the garden and chickens (though there weren't any eggs available when we were there).

There were plants available for purchase.

Some of the greeting committee!

We went to the garden and picked some swiss chard and raspberries which we enjoyed later in the day!

Thought this was a funny sign...

"Shady Cat!?"

We drove from Minden down the 404 to the Toronto area, near Markham where I had been for various IBM classes and events while I was working, then west across Toronto on the 401 (traffic!), and onto the 427 and then QEW. I remembered some of these roads from when I was traveling to Toronto on business, but the experience was a little different in a motorhome towing! But we survived, and arrived at Bronte Creek Provincial Park for 3 nights.

Visiting in Cottage Country

On Monday, we continued west to cottage country north of Toronto. We were visiting Patti's friend and former co-worker, Pat!

Pat came over to where we were parked at a Harvest Host farm located a little south of their cottage -- and we were able to visit even though a rain storm blew through and we couldn't be outside.  

After the rain blew through, we went to Bonnie View Inn for dinner...

Pat and Patti with Lake Kashagawigamog behind.

We went out to eat at Bonnie View Inn right on the lake -- and we all had fish and chips. (Carl needed at least one more serving of fish and chips before we left Canada!)

The eating area was on a patio right at the lake - what a beautiful spot!

Lake side!

After dinner, Pat suggested that we go out for ice cream...

... she took us to Kawartha dairy...

Lots of flavor options!

Carl and I shared a "Huge" which had 3 scoops, so we chose 3 flavors -- Death by Chocolate, Heavenly Hash, and Moose Tracks...

Who could eat all of that?!?!? Turns out that Patti and Carl could eat all of that! Yum!!!

We had such a nice visit with Pat -- we were only sorry that we could not visit with Pat's husband, Mark, who is suffering with a summer cold.

Another Harvest Host - Cartwright Springs Brewery

When I was planning our trip across Ontario, I wanted to route our trip to visit another IBM co-worker who now lives in "cottage country" north of Toronto. I looked for a place to stay and found Cartwright Springs Brewery -- I thought I needed to visit there in honor of Dwayne (whose name was Cartwright, as was mine before Carl and I married!).

One of the other RV Harvest Host visitors and André, our host.

Some of the cooking facilities for making deep fried foods (on the left), smoker for pulled pork (in the middle), and pizza oven (on the right).

Gracie in her spot at Cartwright Springs Brewery

Another view of Gracie in her spot

Front of the building

Sign on the front

Looking in to the property from the road in front (it seemed a bit tight to us, but we managed to get in!).

A social area up above where Gracie was parked -- there was a firepit where we enjoyed a fire with other Harvest Hosts guests in the evening.

André at the bar inside the building

We had a nice stay and it was a good stop about halfway from our Harvest Host stop in Quebec and on the way to my friend in cottage-country north of Toronto.

Continuing into Ontario

After our overnight stay at the Harvest Host farm in Quebec on Saturday night, we headed west and north into Ontario and to Ottawa to meet up with some former co-workers of Patti...

Not very far after leaving the farm, we entered Ontario...

St Andrew Catholic Church in West St Andrew, Ontario -- A beautiful church with a rather magnificent steeple in this town!

Cropland was prevalent along the way we were driving.

This farm building had one roof covered with solar panels...

...and the building that was perpendicular had panels raised to catch the sun's rays too!

I had contacted a couple of ladies who had worked for Cognos before it was acquired by IBM and with whom I had worked at IBM. We arranged to meet at a shopping center that had a Walmart (I figured we could find a place to park Gracie there), and one of them recommended a restaurant... so we met up for lunch.

It was so nice to catch up with Sarah and Deb!

It is fun to get to see former co-workers who are also friends as we travel! When we worked together, we rarely saw each other (I was in Texas and they were in Ottawa), but we were on meetings (conference calls) together. It is nice to see them in person. None of us work for IBM now...

Back to Canada - Quebec

On Saturday, we continued north in Vermont and crossed back into Canada into Quebec. We wanted to "collect" more provinces on our map.

We had scheduled a stop at a farm in Quebec just before we would cross into Ontario...

It is a beef farm, and they don't have anything to sell to customers, so we just made a donation. There was a 5th wheel also staying at the farm the same night.

Some of the beef cattle in the field next to Gracie. The farmer was pretty frustrated with his cattle because he had had to spend a couple of hours getting his bull back from his neighbor's field -- his neighbor has a cow in heat and the bull had found a spot in the fence that he could get through. After quite a while, the farmer had been able to get the bull back and get the fence fixed, but it was pretty exhausting!

Gracie in the yard. They had us park in the yard near the house. We were a little concerned about whether we might sink in the grass, but there was rock right under the surface (in fact, up through the surface in some parts), and Gracie sat solidly on the ground. You can see the Starlink on the ground out in the area in front of Gracie.

I had seen these blue flowers along the roadways as we were driving -- there were some near the front yard, so I used Google Lens to figure out what they were -- Google Lens identified them as Belgian Endive, but when I just looked that up online, I don't think it is correct!

This is another picture of one of the plants, amongst an evergreen tree. By doing additional searches, I think it may be Chicory.

One additional picture from Quebec - this was in a little town on our way to the farm -- indicating that the intersection had a 3-way stop - all three directions have a stop sign.

When we were chatting with the hosts at the farm, we heard about two interesting Quebec customs:

• Moving day - as we understood it, the leases in Quebec are all timed to expire on July 1 (which is also Canada Day, a Canadian national holiday). The lady at the farm indicated that it can be a major pain as everyone is trying to move the same day, there aren't enough moving trucks, and it is chaotic. 
• From reading online, it sounded as if it is derived from a law that the landowners could not kick the farm laborers out of their homes in the winter, so moving day had been set for May 1. That then became a problem in more recent times because people were being required to move before the end of the school year, so the government set the date to July 1. Since "Canada Day" is not a holiday that the Quebec folks particularly appreciate (it celebrates English Canada), it may also have been placed as a bit of a statement against English Canada. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moving_Day_(Quebec))
  
• Construction holiday - we arrived at the farm on a Saturday, the beginning of a two week "construction holiday", when all construction workers have a 2 week holiday from work. 
• I asked, "Does that mean there is no road construction for the next two weeks?" 
• "No -- road construction is considered essential and it continues on."
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Construction_Holiday_(Quebec)
  

Seem odd to me, but I guess it works for Quebec!