Retroactive!

Hello friends,

Due to a number of on the road kinds of problems, including being on the road, the theft of our camera somewhere in South America, and the implications of Tim's being away in South America for the better part of the past month and a half, we've been stalled in blog updates. Tim's back, we've got the account sorted out, and we're actually living in a place that we'll be staying in until the new year. So many stories to tell. It's been an action-packed summer, and we're glad to be settled down in New Edinburgh, Nova Scotia. Here's our first post, probably written at the beginning of August.

We have been on the move for over a month now, with most of that time being out of the reach of the internet . This has been good, but has led to little communication on the blog front. Here’s a summary of our camping adventures.

Our first 6 days of travelling from Saskatoon were camping days. So, beginning with Riding Mountain National Park through to Chutes Provincial Park on the North shore of Lake Erie, we drove, unpacked, swam, cooked meals, slept, packed back up and drove some more. These were fun and adventure filled days.

Fun at Riding Mountain. 

Manitoba is big. And as Tim says- this is NOT a vacation! Which is why he is on the phone in this picture.

Manitoba boasted a few great landmarks, including this one.

We found Riding Mountain National Park to be our least favorite stay, but we really didn’t spend much time there, and it being our first night, we were working out the kinks in how to live out of a vehicle. We found many ways to be more efficient and careful in what we were doing as we camped longer.

Our second night was spent at Rushing River Provincial Park in Kenora, ON. We had a great campsite on Dog-tooth Lake, a nice, placid lake which was perfect for a cool evening dip. Knowing that thunder showers were in the forecast for the night, we prepared a makeshift tarp to go over our tent and fly- which kind of felt like we knew what we were doing. It wasn’t necessary in the end, because it didn’t rain until 7 the next morning. It was a pattering when I woke up, so I woke everyone else up and we packed fast. 20 minutes later we got the last thing into our vehicle seconds before the skies opened up and poured. It felt like such a win to drive out of there dry.

The fun begins in Ontario!

Beautiful place and weather for an evening swim.

Our next campsite was Rainbow Falls Provincial Park on the North shore of Lake Superior. This was a smaller campground, but our site was located right on the shoreline. Unfortunatley, it was a cold and foggy day/night, and blackflies were abundant. We had a great evening of exploring the shoreline, and watched a fellow camper land a good-sized lake trout in front of our site. We tarped over the tent again, and found ourselves mostly dry the next morning. It should be mentioned that we found a restaurant called Serendipity Gardens in a nearby town, that is aptly named for the gaden on site, and also that the restaurant just kind of pops up in the middle of nowhere...It was amazing food, and a wonderful atmosphere. Highly recommended.

Such a perfect place to unwind after a long day of driving.

We headed for our next and last stop on Lake Superior (yep- a big ol’ lake), Pancake Bay Provincial Park, driving through Wawa down to just North of Sault St. Marie. This was an amazing place to camp- granted we had beautiful weather and a campsite right on the shoreline. By this time, we were feeling like pros at camping. We got our chores done and spent time in the water and exploring the shoreline. We had a campfire and savored the experience. If ever we do end up camping on Lake Superior again, this is somewhere we would definitely come back to.

Our last underwater shot with our camera.

Our basic planning of this drive across most of the country revolved around meeting up with the Davis family (who now live in Ohio) to camp for a few nights. A 2-year follow-up to our Michigan camping trip together. When we crave adventure, we plan things with the Davis family. Ever since we met them while living in Australia, they have been a part of most of our great stories- both planned and unplanned. We love them a lot, and they are so much fun to camp with.

We spent the last 2 nights of camping on our cross-country journey with the Davis family in Chutes Provincial Park in Massey, ON. It was a bit off the beaten path, but proved to be beautiful, and a great spot for our group. The Davises have 3 children, close in age to Edie and Celia, so they play very well together. They also brought their rescue beagle Fern, who provided yet another wild-card in our melee. We hiked, swam and played together for 2 days and 2 nights. A lot of the playing involved very little parental input (touch football with a ripped towel, squirrel luring, etc.), and it’s easy to see that our children ‘get’ each other, despite the fact that we haven’t spent any substantial amount of time together since we moved back to Canada from Australia in 2012. We spotted a mother bear and 2 cubs near our campsite, which I’m sure is still providing much fodder for the imagination of 5 young children. We also found an old school playground near the campground, while scouting for icecream. If you go back a few blog posts, you’ll find that this also happened on the Upper Peninsula in Michigan 2 summers ago. Amazingly a rickity old merry-go-round has shown up all 2 Jardine/Davis trips, providing just enough terror to apease thrill-seeking children, and keep adults uncomfortable.

Hiking with kids. A definite memory-maker.

Miss Fern.

Lazy river.

Two of my favorites.

Eager readers.

These two are super squirrel hunters.

All kinds of amazing.

Chutes Provincial Park was the last place that we camped on our cross-country drive. The remaining week of travelling was spent staying with friends in real homes, or in the case of Quebec City, in a hotel. Our next posts will deliver some of those details.

We are having fun, but definitely have moments of missing home. We hope that our friends back in SK are doing well- including our beagle Charlie. We know he’s in good hands, but we miss him a lot.

Love to all!

Laura and the Jardine sardines (riding in our tin can across the country).

Pre-departure goodbyes with Grandma Howard. We miss her a lot.