It has been awhile since I added to the blog. Last entry was we had just arrived in Kitchener/Waterloo area. The main purpose of this trip was to go to Ontario and see our family and friends. My sister Joann and her daughter had visited us in BC just as the Corona Virus was esculating to being called Covid. I had not seen my daughter Riki for 2 & 1/5 years and a lot has happened in the world since then.
Riki and the girls live in Kitchener, but so close to Waterloo it may as well be part of that city. The campground I had found for us was in the heart of the old traditional Mennonite community, complete with some residents using the traditional horse and buggies to get around. When we were driving into Waterloo from the St Jacobs area, we saw numerous buggies travelling on the wide gravelled shoulders on the side roads. We did not see any, however, on the major streets and highways. As we passed farms, I looked into driveways looking for parked buggies, with horses maybe grazing in the fields. But I didn’t see any. Just trucks and farm equipment parked in the driveways and yards. So not really sure where these traditional people resided or parked. The following photos are taken from the front window of the truck, the ones I took from the side are a total blur. The horses pulling these wagons looked so proud with their high prancing feet!
Our campground (Green Acres Campground) was the best one so far on this trip. It was very family friendly with things to do for all ages of kids. We had Alisha and Madison there for the week we were there. We took them home each night as Ray thinks there isn’t enough privacy in this smaller trailer. He is the one who gets up 5 times a night, so I guess he had his say. We played mini golf, went swimming and just walked around the beautiful grounds that had two large ponds. Ray spent some time at the playground with Madison, while I visited with Alisha alone. We had lots of talks which is what we both needed to do. When I booked this site (yes, I did prebook this one, but only the night before!! LOL), I wanted the site from Friday to the following Sunday (9 days). But as it was going to be over a long weekend, we could not stay until the following Sunday and could only have the site from Friday to Friday. I figured that I could pop into their office each day and ask if anyone had cancelled over the long weekend. Each time I checked, I was told no such luck. We wanted to stay in the area until the 5th because we wanted to spend Alisha’s 13th birthday with her. I checked with other campgrounds in the area, and was told the same thing. No sites available. It was starting to look like we would be parking in one of the Walmart parking lots for the last two days of our stay. But, Mr Riggins “surprisingly” started chatting with a lady camping close to us. She is a seasonal camper, staying each year for 6 months. He happened to tell her our dilemma. She asked for our cell number, as she was going to go down to the office and see what she could do. Well later that afternoon, I had an email from the campground office, telling me to please call them. I called and all of a sudden our site was opened up over the weekend! I guess it pays to have your husband chat up the neighbourhood! He is so social!!! We didn’t have to camp at Walmart after all! We were able to spend Alisha’s birthday with her. We took both girls shopping and to a movie. It was fun spending the time with them and Riki. We got to meet Riki’s boyfriend (of two years), Braden. I would have liked to see more of Riki than we did, but she was working during the day. We did have the evenings together though. Next time. The part of Waterloo we were in is a fairly newly built area and is full of traffic circles. Riki is about 15 minutes from the campground, but with all eight of the traffic circles it could take us 20-25 minutes to arrive at her place. By weeks end Ray had the circles down pat. We were honked at and shown the flipped bird, only once! The below photos were taken at Kitchener's Victoria Park.
We said our goodbyes on the 5th and headed up to have a quick visit with our niece Amanda and her husband.
We stayed about an hour and then continued on our way to see our friend Nancy, who lives in Oro Medonte, which was about 2 & 1/2 hours from Waterloo. For those who have never heard of Oro Medonte, it is about 30 minutes from Orillia. Orillia is on Couchiching Lake which flows into Lake Simcoe. In the winter Lake Simcoe can be covered with ice fishing huts. Way back in the 70’s I went fishing in one of these huts. Okay, I did’t fish.... But I did sit inside the hut looking down the hole that had been cut into the ice. The ice looked to be about a foot deep. All I remember is sitting in that hut listening to the cracking sounds and thinking that any minute we would be thrust into the lake. But it never happened. It was surprisingly warm in the hut as the hut had a funny stove. Nancy took us into Orillia where we went to the Mariposa Bakery. It is unlike any bakery I have ever seen before. Whatever your passion is, they have it at this bakery. From homemade jams, sweet and savoury pastries and cakes. They even sell some clothing items (t-shirts, sweatshirts etc). After selecting a number of goodies, we headed up to the seating area to have “lunch”. Afterwards we walked down to the waterfront. I must say in the two nights we were at Nancy’s we ate a few too many bakery items! I am happy to say that I can still fit into my clothes so it wasn’t too bad.
From Nancy’s we went up to Minden (about a 2 hour drive) to spend a couple of nights with my sister, Jo and her husband Tom. Minden is just a few minutes away from Halliburton which is a beautiful community with cottages scattered around the surrounding lakes. It was an emotional visit with my sister as her and her husband (Tom) lost their only son a few months ago. Very raw emotions. I hope that just visiting with each other helped them a bit. We were able to celebrate Jo's youngest granddaughters birthday. Mckenna turned 8 years old! that was a fun celebration!
For something to do during Covid, Jo's husband Tom, started to build birdhouse and selling them to raise money for various charities in the Minden area. He has donated hundreds of dollars to the food bank, the legion and other charities. I posted this photo on Facebook and sold 5 more birdhouses for him for people out here in BC.
In fact when we arrived back in Osoyoos, my other sister, Christine an her husband came and met us and took delivery of their birdhouse.
We are home now, driving 7-8 hour days. A lot faster then the 4 hours we said we were going to do. But we both just wanted to get home. It took us 7 days to get here,,,we are here and glad to be back. Very tired!!
Thanks for following along,,,,
Lori and Ray
