Bon Echo Memories

Last year we stopped at Bon Echo but only for one night as that was all we could get without moving to a different campsite each night. This year we booked early but still were pipped at the post for the sites we wanted. We got sites in the radio free campground that are further away from the lake; it turned out to be a much quieter campground. I arrived at the campground before my sister and brother-in-law; after missing my loop and doing a tour of the whole campground I finally found my site. It took me twice more around before I got my trailer backed into my site, but I did it. I have to say I did give some thought to just taking my sister's site because I could have pulled across that one. 

There's a nice dog beach at Bob Echo where the dogs are actually permitted to be off leash. The next day we took Teddy and Liam down for a swim. I had brought their life jackets. Teddy is quite keen to go wading and didn't even mind swimming. Liam had to be dragged out. I did that twice so he would get the idea that with the lifejacket he's not going to sink, then we just let him wade and meet the other dogs. 

We had a thunderstorm overnight and had breakfast in the rain the next day. Afterwards we headed into town as I needed milk and so we could go the Pioneer Museum. The bonus was that there was not only cell service but open Wifi so we sat in the pavilion at the small park for a while before heading back to the campground.

Pavilion

Cloyne Pioneer Museum

Later I walked the dogs down to the lagoon and the narrows through the adjacent campground. I walked back on the park road to our campground to get an idea of how far it was; it was quite a long walk.

Lagoon

Colourful canoes.

Mazinaw Rock

Bon Echo is known for the pictographs on Mazinaw Rock but to see them you have to take a tour boat or rent a canoe or kayak. I have never done that, perhaps one day I will.

The next day I drove down to the Narrows to take the dogs wading there. Teddy was all excited to go in wading and bark at boats, Liam stayed on shore.

Come in the water's fine!

I'm not coming in!

Teddy barking at the tour boat.

Later on, that same day, my sister came down with me and we let the dogs paddle again. Liam didn't want to be left behind this time.

Wading is not so bad after all!

When we arrived at Bon Echo there was a fire ban, but we got lucky, with the rain the fire ban was lifted so we were than able to have campfires. It's not camping without a campfire.

My sister's trailer by firelight

Ontario Parks campfire ring

Solar lights for the path to my campsite.

As usual, we at very well, our dinner menus included chicken, salmon, pizza and a charcuterie board. For breakfasts, we had blueberry pancakes and bacon, breakfast wraps with sour cream and salsa, and scrambled eggs, sausage with jalapeno cornbread.

Chicken breast with cheese, tomato and Balsamic glaze 

Strawberry shortcake

I really like Bon Echo even though it's quite hard to get into, I'm sure I'll go back again. One day I have to see the pictographs on the cliffs. 

I only have one more camping trip this summer as my big trip coming up in Sep is a river cruise on the Danube so Podrick will be going back into storage early. Sad to see the summer camping season coming to an end but getting excited for the next adventure.

RPod Adventures 2021 - Parks of the St Lawrence

This past week, two of my sisters, their husbands and I went to McLaren Campground on one of the islands of the St Lawrence Parks Commission.  Our next three camping trips will also be to the St Lawrence Parks staying at a different campground each time. We all arrived at about the same time which was a good thing. I tried to back in but because of a ditch on the other side of the road I had no room to maneuver.  I thought about trying to back in on the off side as that actually was the angle of the camp site pad and I also thought about driving through the camp site behind mine as it was empty but since the others had arrived I let my brother in law back it in. I did manage to get backed into my driveway at home on the first go so maybe I'm getting a little better. 

One of the St Lawrence Parks we've camped in before, Riverside Cedar is right on the St Lawrence so you can watch the freighters go by on the river.  McLaren is on a channel and the island just off shore is Croil Island which belongs to the state of New York. We could only see the freighters through a small gap but the channel was full of kayakers, people on paddle boards and boaters, there were even a few people swimming. 

My campsite with Croil Island, New York visible over the water

We pretty much relaxed the rest of the first day. The next day I took the dogs on a walk around the island and wading by the dock. That evening we were under a severe thunderstorm warning; the park staff even came around to warn us about the weather. We spent the evening in the fifth wheel camper. For awhile it looked like it was really going to storm but the worst of it blew over pretty quickly. I had made a foil packet dinner of shrimp and Mexican corn, that worked out well as I had made the packets in the afternoon and they just had to be cooked on the BBQ. We ate inside while it rained and enjoyed the evening chatting and drinking.

Liam and Teddy glamping

We survived

The next day while one sister and her husband went off cycling, my youngest sister and I went and did a small trail called the Chipmunk Trail. We actually drove the length of the Long Sault Parkway and stopped and walked through a picnic area before doing the trail. We were only going to give the Chipmunk trail a one star because we hadn't even heard a chipmunk, then we saw one eating right by the trail so we gave it a five star rating. He was startled by the dogs a little and moved off of the trail.  Also on the shore line, we found another place where people had built Inuksuks. Liam added another animal to the zoo that he is, when he knocked over one that I was trying to photograph. So now Liam is a gorilla, a goat, a horse and a bull.

See the stone on the rock at front, well that was a really nice Inukshuk like a person with two legs and even arms, but just as I was lining up to get a photo of it and the tall one in the water, Liam came across the front of me and knocked it over.  Oh well, we didn't do it on purpose. 

After getting back I took the dogs swimming by the dock. Teddy likes to wade and doesn't mind swimming. Liam was not a fan, when I got him in the water deep enough so he had to swim, even with the life jacket on he swims like he's trying to get out of the water. I'll have to take them again with someone to help out so I can keep him swimming longer. Beckett swam like that but once he realized he wasn't going to sink he calmed down and kept his feet under the water. 

The next day, I drove over to the Lost Villages Museum. All along this area were a number of small communities that no longer exist, many were lost to flooding caused by seaway expansion. Last year when we camped at Woodlands campground, you couldn't go into the buildings. This year the buildings are open again so you can go inside as long as you wear a mask and socially distance. 

Of course, we also had some campfires at night and enjoyed good food.  But most of all we relaxed and made memories.

Grilled peach with ricotta cheese, lemon honey sauce and mint

Home now but already thinking about the next adventure.

World Tour

As we all know in these pandemic times traveling isn't easy to do and likely won't be for awhile. One of the retail outlets that was considered essential throughout all of this was our liquor stores so I started looking through my local store at wines from other countries. When I started posting the pictures of the wine I was having with dinner, my brother jokingly asked if I was doing a world tour. 

But that got me to thinking about food from various parts of the world. You might have read in my blog about the dinner I hosted for my sister and brother-in-law (my bubble) based on The Ivy Restaurant in London.   I made a special dinner for myself from Scotland for Robbie Burn's Day of stacked neeps and tatties. I used hamburger for the base rather than haggis. 

I also made for the first time an Acadian Meat Pie. My mother always called them "tourtiere" but I've since found out that tourtiere use ground meat while my mother's recipe uses chunks of meat. Many Acadian meat pie recipes call for potatoes but my mum's only used chicken, pork and steak. I used just chicken and pork for my meat pie. It's a Christmas tradition to have meat pie; in our home we always had it on Christmas Eve; when I was much younger it was a late night meal after Midnight Mass. 

My last job before retirement had me as the Canadian Forces' representative to NATO for explosives safety so I got to travel a bit for work. One of the places I went to was Rome, Italy, I'm not a huge fan of pasta in fact I ate at my first Hard Rock Cafe in Rome just to get away from pasta. One thing I really did enjoy was the tortes that were on the breakfast buffet. One I especially liked was a chocolate and pear torte so of course I had to give it try making one. It didn't turn out too bad if I have to say so myself.

Another dessert I made was for our Thanksgiving shared dinner. I ate dinner at my sister and brother-in-law's house but we shared the meal with my neice and her family and had a video chat over dinner. My contribution for the dinner was Sambuca Shrimp and Swedish Crustless Apple pie.

But back to wine, one day I had a white wine that was from South Africa so I looked online to see if there was a relatively simple dish I could make and came up with Bobotie. It's a curried ground beef dish and was quite good. 

This past week, I had a wine from Chile so I again decided to try and find a Chilean recipe and came up with this corn and ground beef casserole, called Pastel De Choclo. It was very good, the savory and sweet tastes went well together. 

So I've been doing well in my world travels, Canada, Scotland, England, Sweden, Italy, South Africa and Chile. I live in Canada and have been in every province but haven't yet visited the territories. I've been to England, Scotland and Italy, so I guess I'll have to add Sweden, South Africa and Chile to the bucket list.  I wonder where I will go next?