Day 113-115

 

 

 

 

 

Niagra Falls

 

 

 

Niagra Falls Album

Thunder Bay to Toronto

ROAD REPORT: I took Hwy 11/17 out of Thunder Bay . At Nipigon the road splits with 11 going north and 17 going south, following the north coast of Lake Superior . I took Hwy 17 to Wawa , Ontario where I spent the night. This section of road was fairly good with some rough spots. The biggest problem seems to be within the town or city limits. The pavement seems to go to hell as soon as you cross the town line.

RV PARK REPORT: Wawa RV Resort and Campground.
Good Sam:
This was an overnight so I didn’t see much of the park. I was able to get a pull-through site that was long enough that I didn’t have to disconnect the Toad. I also was able to get a satellite signal.

After an overnight at Wawa, I planned on stopping at Jewel Lake Wilderness Park , a nudist resort, for a week but I couldn’t get through on the phone to get directions. I kept getting voice mail which does my absolutely no good since I’m on the road and most of this area is out of cell range so they can’t return my calls. So when I passed through Sudbury and reached the junction of TC-17 and ON-69 (which goes to Toronto ) I abandoned the trip to North Bay and took a right onto ON-69. I knew I couldn’t reach Ponderosa Nudist Park in Hamilton , ON before dark but I figured I’d drive until about 3 PM and then find a park to overnight.

ROAD REPORT 2: From Wawa, TC-17 is great except for a short stretch of road that is being rebuilt. Immediately after turning onto ON-69 I thought that I may have made a mistake by not continuing on 17 and picking up TC-11 again into Toronto . The first few km were just a continuous patch. However after that it got better.

Coming down ON-69 you will run across a village by the name of “Spanish”, 56 km further down the road is a village called “Espanola”. There has to be a story there! Too bad I don’t know what it is.

RV PARK REPORT 2: At about 4 PM , just past Nobal, ON. I ran across a sign for the Sportsmen Tent and Trailer Park, which sounded interesting so I turned in. The approach road is about 2 km long and is a single dirt track all the way. The road condition seemed to be deteriorating the farther in I got and I was getting worried when I finally reached the park. It was a nice little fishing camp on a small lake with about 20 semi-permanent trailer setups that were obviously people’s summer cabins with neat little front yards and flower gardens. The park had its own dock, rental boats, and boat ramp. They also had a chalk board in front of the office showing the largest fish caught. They had bass, pike and trout listed. I got another pull-through site where I didn’t have to disconnect the Toad! I was almost tempted to stay awhile and try my fishing luck but I had reservations at the Ponderosa starting the following day.

ROAD REPORT 3: Leaving the Sportsmen I continued south on Hwy 69. a few km south of Parry Sound I gassed up at a Gas Bar and Trading Post (I’ve lost the name). These guys had a real money maker going. They had free coffee, about 12 shops, most with their wares out on their porches or in the parking lot, a restaurant, bait and tackle shop, and a post office. The place had pump attendants directing traffic into the gas bar, pumping gas, and even washed my coach’s windows. Two of them had step ladders and got up there and scrubbed 600 km worth of bugs off! They even had a free overnight lot! Too bad I didn’t know about them earlier.

Back on hwy 69, this turned into Hwy 400 for the final leg into the Toronto area. There I picked up Hwy 401 west to the Hamilton area and Ponderosa Naturist Resort. Hwy 69 was pretty good, 400 and 401 was 4 lane (or more, in some areas), divided and was in good shape. I ran into a little traffic for awhile while in the immediate proximity of Toronto but not bad. From 401 it was a short jaunt down hwy 6 and over to the Ponderosa on local roads.

RV PARK REPORT: Ponderosa is a nudist park; the report is in the AANR section.

The park doesn’t have internet access so I checked with the Tourist Info Center , where they referred to the local phone book for Internet Café’s and found one in the Ottawa district of Hamilton. It turned out to be (or soon to be) a licensed restaurant upstairs, still under construction, and an internet room downstairs that was still being remodeled but was operational. They have about 10 machines set up for gaming and about 6 workstations. I understand the workstations will be moved upstairs when the remodeling up there is done. The gaming stations are really far out. All the CPU’s are in clear plastic cases with blue neon tubes outlining the fans and other major components. These are all mounted on a shelf running along the wall above the monitors. The monitors are all 19” flat screens and are sitting on a shelf that looks like it’s made out of diamond plate aluminum but is actually plastic. Under the monitor shelf is a footrest also made out of the faux diamond plate. The chairs at each play station are very plush, high back, swivel and pneumatic adjustable office chairs with adjustable arms. Very comfortable. The whole playstation area is kept dark; the only lighting is the neon tubes in the CPU’s and the light from the screens. The kids love the whole atmosphere. They were playing on-line as a team against other teams on the net and it sometimes got very loud, like when they ambushed another team or got ambushed. The stations were also set up so they could play each other without going on line. The guys that are starting this business have really thought things out. I’d love to see it when they get all done.

While here I put the Toad into the shop to check the squeak in the left front wheel and to get the right rear tire replaced because of a slow leak that had been patched twice and is still leaking. They found some rust that was making the noise but they also found that my pads and shoes were glazed and both my rear tires were worn down past the wear stripe. So I had the brakes redone (which I had done in May in Mount Vernon ) and two tires replaced. They put the new ones on the front.

Since I’m only about 45 minutes away from Niagara Falls , it only makes sense to run down and take a look. I spent a day there, doing the usual tourist things. I rode the “Maid of the Mist”, walked the trails, toured the town and took lots of pictures. Unfortunately I may have damaged my Canon Rebel digital. The day after the trip it started acting up. It won’t display the menu so I’m stuck with the existing settings until I can get it fixed. It may have gotten wet while on the Maid of the Mist, even though I had it under the rain poncho they give you.

I needed some cash so I tried a couple of ATM’s with no luck. Then it dawned on me, there are 2 casinos here! I was sure that their machines would recognize my cash card, and they did. So I got to see one of their casinos.

The RV Park had a Luau Night with a roast pig and the whole works. So I broke out my lei that I keep hanging from the RV rear-view mirror. Unfortunately it started raining about 10 minutes before the party was to start so there was a mad scramble to move everything inside. It rained all night but the food was good and the company pleasant.

Downtown Hamilton has a mall, farmers market, and Library combined into one humongous building that covers a large city block right in the middle of the city. Actually I think its 4 buildings that have been connected. I probably spent a total of two days wandering around there. The farmers market was unbelievable in the wide array of stuff available, including on-site bakeries, fish markets, meat markets, fruits and vegetables, etc. I tried to take some pictures but don’t know how they will turn out as my camera is stuck in the “Outdoor” mode.

I never made it into Toronto , but will go through the city on the Freeway on my way to the next stop.