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Norfolk County

by Richie
Turkey Point Provincial Park

Ontario, Canada
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Heading west about 80 miles from Niagara Falls, we traveled Route 3 along Lake Erie to Norfolk County. It was a superb day for a drive – blue skies and no traffic, because Monday was Civic Day (similar to Labor Day) and Canadian folks tend to stay home on this holiday.

We crossed through farm country, dotted with tidy homesteads and neatly planted fields of corn, squash, strawberries, and even tobacco. Most of the little towns we passed through were quiet, the shops closed. But a lively festival and doings was happening in Dover, a central party point in this region.

Turkey Point is a popular lake resort, and many folks we met (yes, we talked to people!) have fond childhood memories of this area. The Provincial Park where we are camped is enormous – hundreds of campsites nestled in deep woods, with lots of poison ivy to boot. Our campsite is triple wide, the biggest we’ve ever encountered, but the power pole is planted 49 feet into the woods (huh?). Given that we have 50 feet of power cord – if we string two together – it took a bit a maneuvering to park the coach close enough to plug in. Jet black squirrels eyeballed us from the trees and seemed to get a good laugh at our choreography.

 

Power Cord

 

Black Squirrel

This vacation sure has been filled with glitches – thankfully all solvable given time and resources. The latest was the motorcycle. Some forgetful person (that would be Tim) left the key on for many hours, draining the brand new battery. Luckily this bike will jump start with an easy push, so that’s what we’ve been doing for a week. Tim at the handlebars, and me with my bright pink helmet pushing from behind. Which of course prompted smart-aleck comments from onlookers; “Helluva a way to start a bike!” and “Did she come with the bike, or was that extra?” Yeah, thanks.

We did find a couple of stores open on the way to Turkey Point. One had just the right battery charger, so we hope this issue is resolved now.

 

Charge!

Another good find was an open-for-business grocery store, Food Basics, which was “basic” only in the sense that they don’t provide grocery bags. It was just like an American grocery store, except all the brands were different and the labels were in French. So I had to study the packages for some time to find what we needed, like Saucisses Au Poulet (chicken hot dogs), and Minces Au Riz (rice crackers).

We drove to the town of Turkey Point last night for a peek-a-loo. Charming little place, right on the sandy shores of Lake Erie. Had a pleasant supper and local pints, and chatted with a guy on holiday who was a stanch supporter of US politics, the Republican kind. He had lots of opinions, and was surprisingly well informed about our Kentucky congressmen. They pay attention up here, eh.