Cross Canada Adventures by Ralph Martin

Author:Ralph Martin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blueskies Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

. Some were drawing, some writing about their visit, some working with guides, and one group sat out of the sun around a teacher reading a picture book.

Since I had retired, that was the first time I missed having a bunch of kids for story time. I was tempted to hip-check the teacher and take over the reading—but only for a second.

Near the end of our visit, Donna and I sat on a bench overlooking a formal garden when it occurred to me that I would like a picture of the two of us. There was a fellow standing nearby and I asked him, as millions of tourists ask people every day, if he would please take a picture of us with our camera. He was very obliging and quite fastidious about getting a good shot, even posing us just right. We thanked him for his efforts and with a big smile he said that he liked to do a good job. As he gave me back my camera, he handed me his business card. Happily, we learned that he was a portrait photographer who was visiting the gardens to plan a wedding shoot. Some days you do get lucky…

Soon we were faced with the prospect of driving through Toronto or taking secondary roads around the city. By now you know I have an aversion to driving in city traffic, in fact, to driving in big cities in general. This runs contrary to the aim of roadbuilders, of course. I call it my Rome theory: 2000 years ago in Europe, the centre of commerce and power was Rome, hence the quote, ”All roads lead to Rome” and most roads did. Present day politicians and those who finance them are usually city-dwellers and all of them reckon their city is the new Rome, so all major roads lead to it. This is certainly the case for Toronto. If you want to go to Toronto, there are lots and lots of signs to lead you and tell you how far it is. However, if you want to go away from Toronto (and who would ever want to go away from Toronto?) you’re on your own. Avoiding Toronto requires lots of map reading and exploring secondary highways.

The good news is that since major highways don’t offer the opportunities to sightsee and visit that are afforded by roads less travelled, we got a chance to see a bit more of Ontario, which turned out to be very interesting and enjoyable. We ended the day camped beside the Rideau Canal near Smith Falls. We had stopped in at an unusually good infocentre/museum and learned that the canal is set up for recreational boaters. There are lock stations for hikers, cyclists, and boaters to stay overnight, complete with public facilities. When we asked if RVers (us) might make use of one of the overnight stops, the girl thought for a minute and then said “Well, usually not, but it’s early in the season so the lockmaster might let you if nobody is using it.

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