Leaving Quebec, we drove north so that we could drive through Ottawa, the capital city of Canada. We didn’t really plan on spending time there, just a quick drive through, and of course, wish that we had had more time as it is just a beautiful city with great cycling infrastructure. We parked right by the Parliament buildings and were hoping to get a look inside, but the entire area was closed for renovations! There is an election coming up quickly in Canada, so I guess they take advantage of the absence of politicians to work on the upkeep of these very old buildings. We did get to look at the outside though – pretty impressive.

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One stop that was of particular importance was at the tomb of the unknown soldier and thankfully that was away from the main buildings and open. It was very moving to stand and watch the soldiers guarding this monument, and I was particularly struck by a poem attached to a wreath in front of it. It was written by the parent of a soldier who died, and I had such an emotional connection with it I was moved to tears. What a great loss for a family, to have their son or daughter die away from them like that. I truly hope that all of the politicians who occupy the space not far from this memorial come by here often and remember, when they want to send our sons and daughters to war, what that really means for the people who serve and for their families. I am truly thankful to all of those who have given their lives and who continue to put themselves in harm’s way for us.

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This emotional moment over, we moved on to walk by the canal and marvel at how neat it must be in winter to skate down it. Of course, in order to do so, you would have to live here in the cold and since that’s just not my favourite thing, I’m not sure I will get to experience it, but I think its pretty cool non the less. We ate dinner in town before heading to the home of a family friend, Jen, where we had permission to park for the night. Jen works with para-athletes and was just back from a month down in Lima where the PanAm ParaOlympic games had been held. We really enjoyed meeting this vibrant young woman and hearing about the work she does. It was a lovely evening and we left feeling like we had a new friend in a new city that we would most definitely have to return to.

The next few days were spent driving to a few other cities in Ontario where we met up with some of Jim’s old friends. First up was Larry and his girlfriend, Jan, who live on a sailboat! We had a great time hearing about their travels and how they manage to live life on the move in a different way than us – different but the same in that we all enjoy being on the move and exploring new places. Our next stop was with Dennis and Sharon where we enjoyed touring their beautiful old home right on the river. And then, finally, we made a quick stop back in Bradford to say one last goodbye to part of Jim’s family. From here on, we would be on our own until the end of November when we hit Waco for Thanksgiving.

Before leaving Ontario, we wanted to hit two tourist spots. First up was Niagara Falls. We drove down on back roads, enjoying the scenery and stopping at a few wineries before ending up in Niagara on the Lake where we spend a quiet night parked in a very quiet green space. The following morning, with the sun shining, we headed off on the bikes for once, to cycle down to Niagara Falls and back (about 50 km). It was a glorious day and we enjoyed stopping here and there to take in the scenery before finally arriving in the early afternoon at the falls. Having never been, it was a pretty impressive sight for me to see. We bought lunch (splitting a VERY expensive burger) and enjoyed the view for a while before cycling back up to pick up the van. Along the way it became pretty warm, so when we saw the signs advertising wine slushies, we pulled up and enjoyed a nice, icy treat before pedalling the last 10 k back to the van. We were both pretty pooped by then (nothing to do with the wine…really!!!) so we took out our chairs and read/snoozed for a while before finally packing up and driving down to Niagara to find a place to park for the night. We found a nice little park where we made dinner, but noticed that there was an event going on the next day and that the park would be closed, so we moved to an alternate location, but not until we had walked down to the river to see the incredibly intense rapids above the falls. We were astounded to see what looked like a ship, wrecked not too far from the edge and found a plaque describing what had happened. It was in the 1950’s and two men were working on this barge upstream, dredging the river when their barge broke away from its mooring and the barge, with the two men aboard, was headed towards the falls and certain death. Thankfully, they quickly thought to lower the part that was used to dredge, filling the bottom of the barge with sand and trapping it there in the water. They were safe, but they were stuck – far away from land. They spend what must have been a very cold night on board before finally being rescued the next morning when a line was shot over to them and they were brought back, over the water, to safety. What a story!!!! Incredible!! And the boat remains there to this day. Yikes!!!

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We passed a quiet evening in a small parking lot above the city and the next day got up to find that our parking lot was also part of the event going on and the road around us was closed. Good thing we hadn’t planned on leaving! It was an Ironman triathlon and our lot was on the running course which would be seeing action later in the day. We chatted with the workers setting up and then headed off to find coffee (having eaten breakfast in the van) before walking down to the falls where we had tickets to ride on the Canadian version of the Maid of the Mist, The Horatio Hornblower. From the top, its pretty funny to watch the boats from both the American and Canadian sides head into the falls. The American’s all wear blue rain ponchos and the Canadians wear red. We took the elevator down and grabbed our red ponchos before getting onto the boat and heading into the mist. The whole ride takes about 20 minutes and it was just so much fun!!! We both got so wet, but were protected from the most intense spray by the people in front of us, so I think we were pretty lucky not to be the first on the boat. It was one of those experiences, though, where everyone was laughing so hard and enjoying themselves so much. It reminded me of our whale watching day on the Gaspe. Everyone was friends by the time we were done. What a crazy, fun thing to do!

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Of course, we were not quite done with Niagara yet. We stopped for a quick bite at Tim Hortons (the cheapest thing around there) before getting tickets to go under the falls on the Canadian side. This time we were issued yellow ponchos (wish I’d kept my red one – so much waste!!!) and taken down a long elevator ride to be let out in a dark, wet tunnel. We walked down the tunnel, stopping at several locations where you could walk out to about 15 feet from an opening in the rock face behind the falls. You couldn’t really see much, but you could feel the rumble of the water falling and the spray would come billowing back into the space we were standing in. I was surprised that there was just a small fence keeping people from getting too close – you could have just hopped over it and gone out, but then you would have been gone, gone, gone, so I can’t imagine they have much trouble with that happening. After this, we were able to go out onto a platform near the bottom of the falls where, once again, we got drenched. What a wonderful experience!!!! Who knew getting soaking wet could be so much fun?

Finally having had enough of Niagara, we took the funicular up to our parking space. Here, we found that the runners had been by but many were still coming. This was a water stop, and as they drank they would drop their cups by the side of the road. There were volunteers at the station, whose job it was to clean up, and Jim and I chipped in for a while, since we literally couldn’t go anywhere and couldn’t just sit there and watch someone else work. We enjoyed helping and chatting with one of the volunteer and scored some ice for the cooler for our efforts. Later, when the last of the runners had finally gone, we said goodbye to the volunteers and hello to traffic on our road once again – darn! We should have told them to leave the barriers up for the night! Oh well.

Out last tourist destination in Canada was to stop at Point Pelee, the most southern tip of Canada, reaching far down so that it is at the same latitude as the Northern tip of California! This little national park would be our last park here in Canada, and we very much enjoyed it. Driving down, we noticed lots of little places we would love to have explored, but we found that the only camping in the park was the more expensive Otentiks and we were not prepared to shell out more money than necessary, so had to pass. At the Visitor’s Centre, we saw that we could take a shuttle the last 2 km to the tip, or ride our bikes. Not wanting to waste the chance to ride on a nice road with no traffic, we took the bikes off the van and happily rode the short distance where we parked the bikes before walking the last little bit to the very most southern park of our country. What fun!!! Lake Erie is big (as are all the Great Lakes) and acts more like a sea, with waves crashing onto the shore. When you get to the tip of the tip, there are waves coming from two directions, crashing into themselves. How cool is that??? We took our obligatory selfies before heading back to get the bikes.

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We had one more stop we wanted to make before leaving the park, a big marsh with a boardwalk way out and a lookout tower high above. We enjoyed the views from the tower before making our way along the boardwalk. It would be a great place explore by canoe and I imagine at different times of the year, it would be a fantastic place to see a variety of birds. Our walk finished, we bought ice cream from the little store and enjoyed just sitting and looking out at the water before finally packing up and heading off. Next stop – Michigan and The Big House!!!

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