Circling the U.S. Chapter 15: Ontario - The First Week

Thursday, June 27 - Thursday, July 4, 2019

Our original plan was to bicycle to Toronto then head north toward Georgian Bay and ride up the peninsula to Manitoulin Island. But plans change. Our experience with the cities in New York, especially Buffalo, got us thinking twice about going to Toronto. No one we talked to seemed to think that bicycling into Toronto was a good idea. Neither did they tell us that Toronto would be a fun city to visit once we arrived. We decided to skip it and thought we'd head along the Lake Ontario shore for a bit then cut inland, heading due north. But Tom, our Warm Showers host in Grimsby, dissuaded us of that idea, instead encouraging us to go south to the Lake Erie shore, then west and north to the Lake Huron coast, giving us a shorter ride inland where the roads tend to be more heavily trafficked. Hence, our circuitous route through Ontario. For the most part it worked out well.

I've put a circle on the map for each night we spent in Ontario.

After our shuttle ride over the Peace Bridge in Buffalo, we had beautiful cycling along the Niagara River. We expected we'd find a grocery store before arriving at our campground, but a cyclist who joined us for several miles let us know that there was nothing along our way. It was beginning to look like freeze-dried lamb fettucine for dinner. But, just in time, we came upon a casual dining restaurant where we had beer and a vegetarian pizza that Rob described as "exquisite."

After taking a Canadian look at Niagara Falls we arrived in Niagara-on-the-Lake. It looked to be a quaint little tourist town with hanging baskets of flowers lining the main street and shops and restaurants thronged by tourists. But it wouldn't have been fun to wander the crowded streets under a hot midday sun so I made a mental note that we should come back when we are retired and can plan our visit after the crowds have retreated. 

Our first full day in Canada, June 28, was also our first introduction to the Great Lakes. Several miles after passing through Niagara-on-the-Lake we came to a beach in St. Catherine where people were swimming in Lake Ontario. A swim seemed like a good idea. And it was because the next beach we came to was closed due to unsanitary conditions from recent flooding, and then we changed directions so we only had that one chance to dunk ourselves in Lake Ontario.

Grimsby Warm Showers hosts Tom and Rhona. Tom got us heading southbound to the Lake Erie shore.

Our second full day in Canada was tough. We started out riding through well-populated areas that were not at all scenic. Rob got a flat tire on a busy strip-mall road. We had to ride up a steep hill on a four-lane highway with no shoulder and lots of traffic speeding by. That may count as my scariest moment so far.

We weren't going to make it to our Warm Showers hosts for the night and the only campground we could find cost $84 (Canadian).  The young man at the tourist information booth told us that he had stayed at Knights Beach Resort with his family and could recommend it. When we arrived and had registered and paid our money, the young woman at the desk told us to just find a spot somewhere in the big grassy area set aside for tents. But it was already filled with large groups ready to party and the only places that weren't taken were wet.

We went back to the office. I said, "Couldn't we pitch our tent in the picnic area? We'll be gone by morning. All we want is a quiet night's sleep."

The squeaky wheel gets the grease. The manager came out and said, "Follow me." We got on our bikes and she climbed into her golf cart and led us into the heart of the campground where the seasonal campers had set up their summer homes. We turned left and right and down a long gravel road with a fence on one side  and campers on the other and finally came to a stop at a narrow empty grassy spot with campers on three sides. "I'll have a table brought over for you," she said.

We were put in an empty seasonal spot with a picnic table delivered just for us. The neighbors had to make adjustments. The next door neighbors had been using the driveway and the rear neighbor had a hose hooked up to our water supply. But they were very welcoming.  The couple next door invited us to join their campfire and let us have some eggs and milk for our breakfast in the morning.  They "borrowed" some little Canadian flags from another neighbor for us to take along for Canada Day. We enjoyed our snapshot into seasonal campground living. The residents come for the weekend and a week or two during the summer. Over the years they become friends with their neighbors joining each other for drinks around their campfires. For them it's an affordable vacation home.

When we left the next morning we stopped to thank the manager for accommodating us. She asked us to write a review on Trip Advisor. We said we would, but we didn't. I would have to say something like, "This is the most expensive campground I have ever stayed in and if you are tent camping forget about having a private campsite unless you beg the manager for somethng in the seasonal section and I'm sure you can't count on that." It wasn't worth the trouble.

The next day we stayed with Warm Showers hosts John and Janet Fulton, whose home Rob described as a Club Med. See my post titled "Where Rob Rides an E-Bike."

We got in at least one swim in Lake Erie before turning inland towards the Lake Huron coast.

Can you see the water sprinklers in the background? There were a bunch of little kids playing in it while we were taking a break from our morning ride on July 3. We couldn't let them have all the fun, so we changed into our bathing suits and joined them. The best part was a set of three buckets above our heads that would fill with water and dump over at random times. I tried to get under one before it dumped, but my timing was always off. It's a shame those parks weren't around when our kids were little.

The train station is no longer there but the town is. When I saw the town's name I thought, "My Aunt Harriet passed away a few years ago. She would have had fun knowing there is a town named after her. I didn't think to take a picture of the town name when we passed it but got a second chance when I saw this sign.

Ontario, like so many rural places we've ridden has beautiful farmland with picturesque farmhouses and barns and fields of hay bales. I've taken many pictures of scenes like this one, but not in Ontario.

I promise this won't be the last farm picture.

I'll close this post with a couple more food pictures.

Some camping meals can be healthy and turn out pretty darn good. We cooked this at our high-priced campground - tofu and stir-fried vegies with teriyaki sauce over coos-coos. The problem becomes what to do with the extra teriyaki sauce. We have yet to solve that one.

We have our morning routine. While Rob cleans out the tent, I make breakfast - hot tea and oatmeal with raisins and nuts. It's a meal that gets us started and keeps us going. After ten or twenty miles we might come to a town with a coffee shop or diner, nothing fancy, just a place for locals. Then we'll stop for a second breakfast. This is my usual. Notice the shredded homefries. Breakfast for the two of us cost $16 on July 2.