Our trip to the east coast of Canada....continued

I took this picture as we were going by Lake of the Woods, Ont. The scenery was beautiful on the drive down to Fort Frances. I had been to Fort Frances several years previosly but did not remember the drive as a vehicle load of us were attending a funeral there. We stopped for groceries at store & asked the young man at the gas station if there was a place nearby to camp & he gave us the directions to Pithers Point Park. What a nice little campground. We had to dump at the station as we were leaving but that was alright.

view of Sand Bay from Pither's Point

We left Fort Frances on the 8th of July with our destination of Nipigon, Ont. We stopped at the Atikokan tourist booth for lunch. We had phoned ahead & reserved a site at Stillwater Campground. We followed #11 and it was a beautiful drive. Very treed on each side & glimpses of water along the way.

Stillwater campground, Nipigon, Ont.

We arrived at Stillwater Campground later that afternoon. Along the way we drove by signs advertising Amethyst mines. We elected to stay a couple of days at the campground so we could tour the area.










We had the best ever deal while we stayed here. If you spent the night you got a discount coupon for the restaurant down the road (Becker's Restaurant) that they owned as well. Nice! Good food and reasonable prices. Unfortunately the sign out front still said Gus's so alot of people would not know that it has changed hands. We headed for the Amethyst mines the 9th of July. We turned at the first one we came to which was Blue Points Amethyst mine. What an experience! You take a pick/hammer and gloves with you (we didn't know this at the time). Then you are charged by the bucket. We vowed to return on our way back, as we really didn't want to take alot of rocks with us all the way to the east coast & back again. We toured around the region and still didn't get into Nipigon to see the "smallest Canadian Tire Store".

Agawa Bay, Lake Superior, Ont.

Our next destination for the night was Glenview Cottages & Campground, just north of Sault St. Marie, Ont.

Time flies by

Wow, has time ever gone by fast. We have called Nanaimo, BC our home now for over a year. We spent the winter at Jingle Pot CG with the idea that we would leave here in the summer of 2012 & head to the east coast of Canada. We happened to mention to a lady friend who moved in across the street from us that we were taking off in the summer for 3 months or so. She told us that she had never been to the east coast either & would love to go if she could. Sure, we said no problems. We had the room for another passenger. 
So we planned our leave date as the middle of May sometime. That worked for all concerned. Then I got a call from the doctor saying that my surgery would take place on May 15. Okay, recuperation time put the trip to the end of May. Then my husband Joe gets a really bad case of gout just after I get out of the hospital and that takes us another 2 weeks to clear that up. So the plan was the middle of June we would leave. Then we find out that his health card is somewhere in the system & no idea when he will get it. By the time we got all that sorted out it was almost the end of June. 
We finally left Jingle Pot CG the 27 of June. We took the ferry from Departure Bay, Nanaimo to Horseshoe Bay, North Vancouver and got to our friends place in Hope later that afternoon. We had phoned ahead & made reservations at the place they lived at (it was a mobile home park that had room for camping). We were directed to park in the worst place to park a rig our size. It was down in the "bowl" where they held get togethers and very unlevel. We could not put the slides out or run the fridge. We were at such an angle that we slept the opposite way in the bed. We put a big gash in the underside of the trailer from the side of the box tilting up as we were turning (more on this later). We were charged $45 for just parking there. Can we say rip off? The only reason we stayed there was it was convenient to visit our friends & we had made reservations. As we drove into Hope there was a nice little campground on the river and we decided that on the way back in 3 months time we would park there if we stayed in Hope again.
 Our lady friend Sandra was driving herself to Saskatchewan where we would pick her up & away we would go. The reason behind that was she had 2 cats that needed to be looked after and she also had family to visit. So she would drive with us till Weyburn, where she would leave her cats & car behind for when she returned. Sounds good right? She didn't get to leave Nanaimo until the last ferry out (which was running 30 minutes late all day), so by the time she arrived in Hope to spend the night with us it was almost 3 in the morning. We didn't get much sleep needless to say. 
The next day we left for Canmore, Ab where my son had moved to earlier in the spring. That made for a long day. We needed diesel fuel in Kamloops, BC and the Shell station we pulled into didn't have diesel. Of course being 53' ft long we couldn't drive out of the parking lot. The very nice attendant came out & stopped the traffic behind us so that we could reverse and carry on. We  arrived in Canmore early evening and set up in Wapiti CG. The manager Strath was happy to see us again as we had stayed there on a number of occasions in the last 2 years. Sandra had the air bed on the couch deflate during the night (new trailer & bed had never been used till then) and was not a happy camper. Didn't blame her one bit. She elected to carry on to Weyburn, Sask and we would meet her there in a few days. 

Parked at Canadian Tire while we enjoy a Tim Hortons in Weyburn

We ended up staying extra days as my Uncle came through on his way to Creston from Edmonton (his daughter (my cousin) had got married that weekend). This was the July 1 long weekend here in Canada. So we left Canmore, Ab on the 2nd of July & headed for Weyburn, Sask.

Parked at "Hotel Wilson" in Oak Lake

We parked in the Walmart lot for the night as it was late when we arrived. Sandra met us around 9:30 in the morning & we were off to Manitoba. We called friends of ours who lived in Oak Lake (town of) and they were home & we could park in front of their house. We visited family while we were there for a couple of days & then we headed for Winnipeg, Mb where Joe's son lives. 

enroute to Fort Francis, Ont

We left Winnipeg, Mb on the 7th of July, 2012 for the east coast. Finally we were on our trip with no more family/friends to visit. This is going to be a series of installments as it is going to take time to put it all together. Hopefully you will follow our trip as I post it. Thanks for reading & will add more at a later time as it is quite late now. Thanks, Jeannine