On Monday July 15 we left our campsite at Inverhuron Provincial Park on the shore of Lake Huron and first drove a short distance to the day use area, where we did a short walk to find the final “punch” we needed as part of our Explore the Bruce challenge. We then continued south down the coast to Goderich, a town that Rhonda’s cousin Linda had asked us to take some pictures of as part of a genealogy project she is working on (for the side of her family not related to Rhonda). It is a nice town, with a courthouse in a central square surrounded by a circular road, with other roads radiating out in eight directions. We stopped at the courthouse, then drove down to the harbor and beach, but didn’t stop (although it was tempting, as it was another hot and humid day). Our route then took us inland (southeast) to Clinton and Seaforth, two other towns of interest to Linda. At Seaforth we found a post office and mailed in our completed Explore the Bruce punch cards, and had lunch at Tim Horton’s. After lunch, we turned to the southwest and headed back out to Lake Huron near Grand Bend and on to Pinery Provincial Park, which has what has been rated as the best beach in Ontario. The beach is several kilometers long, and the north end allows dogs. We stayed for probably 3 hours or so, enjoying the slight reprieve from the heat. We didn’t really want to leave but it was getting late and we needed to get down towards Lake Eerie, so we made our way south through an old oil well area to Chatham, where we camped out in a Wal-Mart parking lot and made dinner. It was starting to rain before we got there, but was still very muggy, and there was an impressive display of lightning off to the southwest towards Windsor.
4 Photos above: the beach at Pinery Provincial Park near Grand Bend
4 Photos above: the beach at Pinery Provincial Park near Grand Bend
On Tues. July 16 we bought breakfast at the McDonalds in the Wal-Mart. It was so humid that my shirt was soaked just from walking from the RV to the store and back, but the air conditioning in the store was nice. We then drove south to Leamington, the “Tomato Capital of Canada” and home of the Heinz Ketchup plant, and continued to Point Pelee National Park, where we took a shuttle bus and then hiked to the end of the spit, the southernmost point of land in Canada (except for Pelee Island and another – uninhabited – island further south. It was interesting learning how the National Park had been created to protect wildlife and migratory bird habitat but became a victim of its own success, becoming overrun with parking lots and cottages up until the 1960’s, when they started buying out the cottages and allowing large areas to return to their natural state. We had a quick swim in the lake (our only swim in Lake Eerie), but a thunderstorm was coming so we had to get out of there. Continuing east, initially along the lakeshore but later along the 401 highway to the north, we made our way through London and Kitchener/Waterloo and up to Conestogo, where Rhonda’s cousin Denton and his wife Lynda live. (Denton is actually Rhonda’s mom’s first cousin, and is also a cousin of Linda who is mentioned above). Rhonda had never met Denton and Lynda, but they welcomed us into their beautiful home right on the golf course, and we ordered in pizza. They had a couple of spare rooms, and invited us to stay the night – it was great to be able to sleep in real beds out of the motorhome for a change!
5 Photos above: at Point Pelee, "the Tip of Canada"
On Wednesday morning Lynda had to leave to babysit her grandchildren but Denton was working from home. We enjoyed a leisurely morning, having breakfast, doing laundry, and planning the Niagara Falls portion of our holiday. After saying our good-byes and thank-you’s, we drove a short distance to see the “kissing bridge”, billed as the last remaining covered bridge in Ontario, then headed south to the 401 and east towards Hamilton.
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