Back In My Home Province Spring 2018

For those that aren't all that familiar, Ontario is a very large province. The population is over 14 million and the land mass is 1.076 million square kilometers. People generally consider Texas to be a big state, but Texas is only 695,662 square kilometers, which means Ontario is 35% bigger than Texas! The provincial health care people require Ontarian's to be in the province a minimum of 5 months of the year in order to maintain the provincially financed health care coverage, or as the Americans refer to it, "free health care." I want to keep my health care, so when I was planning on entering back into Ontario from the west side and quite far north, I figured I could do a considerable amount of touring around, while I complied with their requirements. I should also point out that I am usually pretty meticulous about my planning for these trips, but I hadn't done much in advance for this portion. I think I was lulled into complacency by the fact that this place is my home and shouldn't be that difficult to navigate.

My first stop in Ontario was the Wabigoon Lake RV Park, appropriately named as it is on the bank of the lake, the night of May 7th. It is a very small campground but well laid out and well run. Easy pull through sites. If I was going to open a small campground I would use this one as a model, though I would want to build it in a location where campers were likely to want to visit 12 months of the year. If I had know what was ahead of me, I would have stayed at least a second night, even though it was right next to the Trans Canada Highway, so there was some traffic noise all night long. 

My next stop was Thunder Bay. I saw the Terry Fox Statue as I was entering the city, but didn't stop because it seemed like it would be difficult to navigate the area with the trailer. The Provincial Park I had hoped to stay in was not yet open for the season, so I ended up staying in the parking lot at Walmart. I got dinner from their "steam table"  and had breakfast a the in store McDonald's. (1st night without an electrical hook-up.)

The following day I drove a couple of hundred miles along the North Coast of Lake Superior. The views were quite nice. I spent the night in Marathon, which is such a small town, they don't have a Walmart, so I stayed in the shopping mall parking lot as once again the campground was not open. I had dinner at a Mom and Pop restaurant in the mall and breakfast at A & W. (2nd night without an electrical hook-up.)

Unfortunately as it turned out it was an old fashioned winter, not as mild as some of recent years, so the campgrounds were not going to be opening for a couple more weeks. They were gearing up for the May long weekend which this year was May 18th to 21st. 

The following day I drove about 250 miles along the East Coast of Lake Superior. Once again the scenery was quite nice. 

I don't usually stop at touristy spots along the highway, but I made an exception for Chippewa Falls. It wasn't planned, however there was some road construction with a signal person just past it, and I had to stop for that anyway. There also appeared to be public washroom there, but as it turned out they were not yet open for the season (there is a theme developing.) I was thankful that I travel with my own washroom, so went in the trailer to look after nature's call. Thus relieved, I was able to hike a short ways up the trail to the waterfalls, which were flowing rapidly with the aid of the snow melting up stream: 

There was interesting signage close to the parking lot, firstly about how this was roughly the halfway point on the trans-Canada Highway, and secondly about how members of the group of seven artists had enjoyed painting in this area. I enjoyed this brief educational stop and then carried on to Sault-Ste Marie, where with no campgrounds open I got permission to stay in the parking lot of the OLG Casino. 

When I arrived at the Casino, the battery in the trailer was showing that it was quite low. Not driving very far the last couple of days and needing the battery power for my CPAP machine, the furnace fan (the nights have been pretty cold), water pump and some lighting were taking its toll. I was pretty sure I needed to stretch the power out for at least one more night, so rather than use it all up and be really inconvenienced, I decided to not use my CPAP that night. I knew I would not likely sleep as well, but at least I would no likely wake up in the middle of the night without any heat available. I had dinner in the casino and breakfast from Tim Horton's. (3rd night without an electrical hook-up.) 

The following day I drove about 250 miles along the North coast of Lake Huron towards Sudbury, another place I had visited in the past but not fully explored. This leg of the trip also marks the point at which I have been on the coast of each of the five "Great Lakes" with my trailer. I arranged to stay overnight at Timberwolf Golf Club, where I had played a tournament several years ago, and which had opened for the season earlier that week. It was pleasant enough and there was enough daylight left to play 9 holes. I had dinner in the clubhouse before retiring for the night. Once again I opted to forgo the CPAP machine and thankfully made it through the night with heat. (4th night without an electrical hook-up.) 

The following day, before heading out of town I visited Dynamic Earth Museum, home of The Big Nickel:

Inside they have displays about mining and minerals. The highlight is a tour through a portion of a mine, which depicts the evolution of mining, from the early days of men with picks and axes and donkeys pulling ore from the mine in small carts, through more modern times with mechanized equipment. Now I have a better understanding of the confines and concerns when there are reports on the news of miners trapped in mines. 

My last stop "on the road" was at the KOA in Barrie, Ontario. It was quite busy there, somewhat surprisingly, on Mother's Day Weekend, which most Ontarian's would consider to be a couple of weekends before the official start of camping season, and I would think most Mothers given the choice would prefer to be at home rather than camping. It was nice to be back in a campground with full hook-ups, and I was able to get a discount using the membership card I had purchased in Cedar City, Utah. I stayed there just one night.  

And finally on Mother's Day, May 13th, (not my favorite day of the year, since my Mom passed away) I arrived at my "home" for the summer, Maitland Shores, RV Resort and Marina near Dunnville, Ontario, on the shore of the Grand River, just before it enters Lake Erie. 

If I had decided to purchase a portable generator earlier on in my RVing career, I could have hung out a bit longer in Northern Ontario during this cold spring, but for the few nights I really could have used it, I don't think it was worth an investment of a minimum of $1,000.00 and then the worries about where to store it so it wouldn't get stolen, having fuel on hand for it, and maintenance on it. (A solar system has its limitations and expenses as well.) The last few days of this trip were a bit stressful, worrying if my batteries would hold up and sleeping without my CPAP, but I survived.