July 23, 2014 (93rd Day)

At 6 am we were awakened by a loud noise. We thought someone had crashed into our van. Turned out it was thunder, and we mean they were really loud.  Oh it is raining hard! Downpour!!! We cannot complain about it because we had been so lucky with good weather most of the mornings. We went back to bed til after 7.  By the time we got up it had stopped raining.

Erwin fixed toasted coconut pancakes per Edith's request.  We had not had pancakes in a long while because most mornings we would try to hurry and leave to begin the trip. Edith usually eats just one pancake at home, but here she had two! It rained again as we were eating. Then came lightning. 

Rain had stopped, so Erwin hurriedly went out to put bikes back on the rack.  Left the campground at 9:50 am.  Stopped by the church to take picture of swan weathervane on the steeple.

Now on way to Upper Canada Village. It is a heritage village that has 40 historical buildings on site.  There are costumed interpreters throughout the village and they showed what it was like during the 19th century. 

The first building we went into has exhibits, so we looked around for a while before going outside to walk around the village. It was humid.  We ate lunch at the Harvest Barn.  Four pigs were on the loose in the village.  The sky looked threatening, but it did not rain the rest of our sightseeing excursion.  It did sprinkle a bit at the beginning, but that was it.  Train ride was $5 per person and we decided not to ride on the train.

The bird eating seeds at grain mil

A couple hundred steps away from the village is the Battle of Crysler's Farm Memorial Field.  It was the 1813 war that the Anglo-Canadians under Joseph Wanton Morrison won against the Americans.

Left Upper Canada village around 1:50 pm

Back to 2 (Waterfront Trail) to Cornwall, ON

As we were driving along it was in Summerstown, ON that Edith saw a nest with ospreys in it.  As soon as Edith got her camera aimed at the nest the parent left the nest with a fish in its talons, leaving the juvenile alone. Each time Edith made sound by shuffling gravel the juvenile would spread its wings.  It was not ready to fly out of the nest.

In Lancaster, ON Edith spotted a  chicken weathervane on the church spire, told Erwin to pull into the church parking lot.  Where we parked there was a sign in front.  Well, it was not Sunday so we were saved :-)

We decided not to visit Montreal, but chose to continue on Interstate 401 to Quebec.  It was 4:15 p.m. when we entered Quebec province line.

There was a service center just after we entered Quebec (QB), went in for a short break and to pick up brochures.

We took exit 29 to 30 EST, paid $3 Canadian dollars to cross the bridge.  There were lots of wind turbines and power towers.  Very lovely countryside, lots of cornfields and silos.

We checked into Camping Aloutte in Saint Mathieu-de-Beloeil, QB for the night. Edith was hoping to capture sunset pictures, but it was not looking good.

July 22, 2014 (92nd Day)

Nice morning again.  Had breakfast at Tim Horton's.  It was still too early to go visit Fort Henry in Kingston, ON, which opened at 9:30 am, and we had two hours to kill. Decided to go to a laudromat which is around the corner from Tim Horton's.  Did two loads of clothing and towels.  Very good wifi at laundromat!

After the laundry we went by the city's oldest and largest cemetery, Cataraqui Cemetery.  Lots of interesting tombstones and statues.  Edith likes to check out old cemeteries while vacationing.

We arrived Fort Henry and parked the van, walked to the ticket office, but found out the office is closed for 10 more minutes. We were too early!  We decided to go with the package good for two attractions: Fort Henry and Upper Canada Village (about an hour and half drive).  We went inside the exhibit, then went outside to go to the fort.  There were band training in progress.  Walked up to the second level and went inside the passage, very damp.  Then to 3rd level where there are cannons .  Back to the first level, went inside the ammunition passage, very wet, water was dripping from above.  How did they keep ammuntiion dry back in those days?    

Still on Highway 2 East we pulled over to check out MacLachlan Woodworking Museum.  The museum has the most extensive collection of woodworking tools in Canada. Any woodworker would love to come and take a look at various tools on display. Edith didn't know there was an admission price and went ahead thru the museum and the next building leaving Erwin stuck to pay the fees, good thing he had a few bills on him!

Mosaic of wood slices on the floor in the foyer

A very large collection of wooden hand planes

1855 Log House

Drove around Gananoque, saw many interesting statues, sculptures, exhibits.

Driving along Thousand Islands Parkway there were many islands with some houses on them. We can see U.S. soil on the other side of St. Lawrence River.

In Prescott, ON we stopped by to check out the historic site - Battle of the Windmill.  Unfortunately, the windmill was closed, but we were not sure if it is closed permanently.  In 1838 a battle was fought near this grist windmill and was converted into a lighthouse in 1973.

The wall of this tower was incredibly thick,  about 3 feet.  I guess it had to be strong to support the windmill.

Not too far from the Battle of the Windmill was a replica of a lighthouse that is being worked on, but we were allowed to climb up inside the tower. 

Now driving on Heritage Highway (2) not much excitement along the route, but the scene is very pretty.  Approaching Johnstown, ON we saw the bridge that connects between Canada and U.S..  

Ogdensburg Prescott International Bridge

Since we had tickets to visit Upper Canada Village we went by there, but found out that to see the whole village would take more than 3 hours. It was around 4 pm when we checked in and the village is closed at 5 pm, so we decided we were going to a campground to spend the night and come visit the village first thing in the morning.

We got a site at Riverside-Cedar Campground in Morrisburg, ON.  After supper we went biking for a while.  We were planning on going out to Morrsiburg, but our next door campers warned us that it was going to rain, so we elected to stay put.  Edith went out for a walk, saw some genuine Canadian geese, (they were after all, in Canada!)