The week did however, allow me to catch up on the blog and photos, get an appointment for the truck servicing and fixing a few nagging problems with the trailer. I was also as able to get any shopping done that was required including topping up the wine reserves.
It was cool at nights and fall is definitely in the air. The aspen trees are yellow and leaves are falling constantly. The win is blowing hard each day and rain or showers seem to be the norm.
Finally got the truck in on Friday, our last day in town, for it regular service.
Good-byes were said on Friday evening and Saturday morning saw us on the road heading east with sunny skies and a strong tail wind.
We stopped in Winnipeg to spend a couple of hours with and old friend of mine along with his wife. It was good to see them if only for a short time and we were soon on our way east again heading for Dryden, Ontario. As we headed into Ontario, we could see that fall was well on its way there also. The leaves are changing and occasionally we would see the odd splash of red in the bushes along the side of the road. We arrived in Dryden around 5 pm and settled in at our usual RV Park there, the Northwestern RV and Tenting Park. We had a late dinner and then in bed early. Long days seem to tire me out more than they used to. I wonder why?
We woke up to another frosty morning. Everything was white and the trailer seemed a bit cooler. That confused us for a few moments until N found a couple of windows still open a crack from the day before.
Again, we were on the road early heading for Nipigon. Another nice day and another tail wind. Boy, do tail winds help the gas mileage! We are trying to cover as much distance as we can each day because we have been over this road so many times and the drive is starting to get a bit boring. We arrived in Nipigon by mid afternoon and settled in an RV park that N always wanted to stay at. We are getting caught up on our budget and bookwork and enjoying the relatively warm temperature of 14C. Tonight it’s back to the minus figures so we’ll be scraping frost again tomorrow morning.
We left the Sault early in Tuesday morning after making a phone call to the Elliot Lake retirement living organization. They said that they would make arrangements with the town for us to stay at the municipal RV Park, and set us up a schedule to view the town and some of the 1800 rental properties they have. It was a relative short drive to Elliot Lake (less than 200 km) and by early afternoon we were settled in at a full service RV Park in Elliot Lake, complements of the retirement living organization.
Our first engagement was a tour of the town and surrounding area. We met our tour guide, Tom, at the Retirement Living center at 5 pm. Tom, who has lived in the area since the 50’s gave us the two-hour grand tour. This is an impressive area. There are thousands of lakes in the area, miles and miles of hiking trails and 4-wheeler trails, which in the wintertime become cross-country skiing and snowmobile trails. These trails are kept separate to avoid conflicts between the different users.
We decided to have the organization show us what was available in their rental units so we were set up for another tour on Wednesday morning at 9:00 am.
Wednesday morning saw us visiting several different apartment buildings looking at one and two bedroom apartments. The Retirement Living group is a non profit organization that was able to purchase a large number of apartment buildings, town houses, duplex houses that had been built by the mining companies to house employees when the uranium mines in the area were going full blast. These buildings were built in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s and the interior décor reflected this. However they have been well maintained and things like heating systems, electrical and exteriors have been brought up to today’s standards. Although the interiors are dated, so are the rents. The one-bedroom apartments start out at $475.00 with hot water provided. Heat and lights are over and above the rent and range from $60 to $120 a month depending how much you economize or don’t economize.
Thursday and we are still in Elliot Lake driving around the area in pouring rain. We checked out the shopping in the area, found out about the great fishing in the area and generally tried to get a feeling for the area. By now you are probably wondering why we have taken this detour. Well, Elliot Lake is just about the same distance from Halifax as it is from Brandon. Also, it is only a four-day drive from here to Texas and/or Arizona where we think we would want to spend the winters. Elliot Lake is a one day drive to Ottawa and to Toronto. On Friday, we looked at a couple more apartments and did our final looking around the area. Tomorrow morning we leave here and head towards Renfrew, just an hour west of Ottawa. By Sunday evening we hope to be at least half way through Quebec and if all goes well we should arrive back in Bridgewater by Tuesday or Wednesday next week.
This will probably be our last post until we are back to N.S., unless we decide to detour to some other place on the way home.
Quote for the day:
You can live to be a hundred if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be a hundred.
- Woody Allen
Cheers
P & N
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