The month in Latchford at the cottage is over and boy did it go by fast! The first week we arrived, Eleanor (Aunt Mavis’ sister) was visiting so it was nice to spend some time with her. Another great surprise in our first week is that Joan Proulx was visiting from Newfoundland, so not only did we get to see her, but Betty was there from “up the line” and Jeanie was visiting from Fort McMurray. What a treat!

After a week, it was time to take Eleanor home to Haliburton, so we all packed in the car and made the 3.5 hour trip. Kathleen treated us to a nice lunch with homemade macaroni and cheese, always a favourite of mine. After a couple hours of visiting, we said our goodbyes with hugs and started the 3.5 hour journey back to the cottage. We stopped at a Husky truck stop for dinner. I really enjoyed the burger and the prices were very reasonable. We will be sure to watch for these restaurants when we are on the road again.

The next week, a couple of friends of Mavis’ came to visit, Janet and Tim, and as it happens, they live about 10 mins from our campground in Waterdown. We had a great time and some great laughs. They were even good sports enough to put on the red cowboy hats I picked up for them for the Cowboy service at church that Sunday. We will see them again in September.

Throughout the month we relaxed, walked, read books, went to church and worked. The weather was beautiful most of the time, low to mid twenties and sunny. As usual, Joerg went cycling around a few times to check out the area including cycling all the way into New Liskeard and back (30km each way).

We had some nice visits with Lynn and Rob and enjoyed the company of Anne a couple times. One of those times, the four of us made a trip to Villa Marie in Quebec for a late breakfast/lunch. We really enjoyed the little town and the culture of the patrons. The drive (which is about an hour from the cottage), was so beautiful with the farmland landscape. Even though it is so close, you really felt like you were in a different country.

While in the north, we also took the time to do some vehicle maintenance. We had an oil change and 4 new tires put on the car plus we had an oil change for the RV. When we bought the RV, we also bought additional engine insurance which requires us to have an oil change every 6 months or 12,000 kms. There was a great truck repair shop, Pioneer Diesel, which nicely took care of us and we were in and out of there within an hour.

We decided to leave on Thursday August 30th to try and beat some of the long weekend traffic. We stopped at Casino Rama overnight and then hit the road at 8:00am the next day. We were going to stay at Elements Casino in Flamborough overnight but Security said we couldn’t (even though the parking lot was three quarters empty and the place is open 24 hours), so we decided to call up our campground and see if we can check in a day early. They were great at accommodating us and found us a place. So here we are. Settled in again for another month. I look forward to doing some hiking on the Bruce Trail, see some waterfalls, and hopefully see some fall colours before we head off south early October. I will let you know.

The Itinerary for our Journey from Latchford to Hamilton

Day 94 – 121 (Aug 2 – 29) – Stopped in Latchford ON
Day 122 (Aug 30) – Latchford ON to Orilla ON – Total driven: 339km
Day 123 (Aug 31) – Orillia to Hamilton ON – Total driven: 232km