Wednesday June 20, 2012 – Prince Edward County

Prince Edward County is an island on the southeastern part of Ontario province.  I don’t know much about the area other than a billboard along the route that showed a lady standing with a basket of veggies in front of what appears to be a vineyard.  Needless to say I was quite surprised to find the small town of Picton.  With a large main street there was plenty shops for Nikki to drag me into, thankfully we didn’t purchase and it was short lived due to hunger.  We also found a great harbor right off the main street, so you can explore this town by boat or RV.

We wandered into a great place just off the main street named Acoustic Café.  It was recommended by Linda (our host) as one of her favs.  We found great local beers on tap, a yummy vegetarian sandwich on local bread, and this crazy stuff called Poutin.  Poutin is French fries, covered in gravy and topped with cheese curds.  I can’t say it was tasty, but I can say it was different….however with zero health content I doubt we’ll be making it anytime soon.

We hopped in our car and headed to what we thought were some of the largest dunes in North America.  Expecting amazingness, instead we found non-challenging hikes, dunes that didn’t seem very impressive, and a provincial park that was surrounded by private land and homes.  Oh yea, did I mention the $16 fee to enter and the crappy map that had us driving around for half an hour looking for these dunes?  All in all we felt a little like “nature snobs” as we walked through the park, but the dunes eventually opened up to beautifully clear blue waters.  Spending a few hours wading through water and laying on the dunes we left feeling it was well worth the money and the trip to visit the dunes.

We rushed out to the nearby cider factory to pick up some local cider, and enjoy the most beautiful view of the lake.  We arrived just in the nick of time as most everything in the town closed at 5pm.  We had the rush tasting, purchased 2 bottles and made out way back to the RV.

Last up on the schedule was dinner with our hosts Mike and Linda.  Mike whipped up some coconut tofu and a killer thai salad while Nikki prepared a fresh ginger lemon soda.  Of course we brought Nikki’s signature homemade loaf of bread for our hosts.  Great conversation and a shot of espresso with dessert led us into late into the night.  One of the best parts of driveway surfing is the new friends you meet, and the stories that are shared over a meal.  Come to find out our hosts used to live on a sailboat so they were full of great stories from their travels.

It’s funny how the world works, it seems everywhere we turn the sailboat dream gets a little closer.

–          Jason Wynn

Thursday June 21, 2012 – Drive to Quebec – Jason’s Mom arrives

This morning we got up early to have breakfast with Linda and Mike.  We wanted to get in a little more time with them before we left today.  They are a really interesting couple, very different personalities and hobbies with one common thread….they love each other.  They are very open and honest about everything.  No pent up frustrations or deep rooted anger, only open and ongoing conversations about different areas of thier lives.  It’s really a refreshing and stress free environment.

After breakfast, we clean up, snap a picture and were off to Montreal!

**Approximate savings by staying in Linda and Mikes yard 2 nights = $100

We are heading out of town towards a gas station Linda gave us a heads up about that had unusually cheap Diesel.  We pull up and find out it’s red label.  What is red label?  It’s non-taxed fuel for farm equipment.  Apparently, if you get pulled over and they swipe your tank you can get a big fine.  Red colored fuel isn’t allowed on the highways because it hasn’t been taxed.  We decided to be rebels (aka-didn’t have a choice we were almost on E) and take our chances.  It’s amazing the new things you learn on the road!  We only put in a few gallons and are now driving down the road praying we don’t get pulled over.

Well, we are about 10 miles from our campground near OKA and what we thought would be a fairly uneventful drive just got really interesting!  All of the sudden our GPS said continue straight ahead (showing a big picture of a boat)!  Hmm, looks like we are going to have our first ferry experience.  Let’s hope it isn’t going to cost an arm and a leg and the boat can handle the weight of the RV.

Good news it only cost $43 for the RV and the smart car, it saved us an hour of driving and we didn’t sink!  A very successful crossing!

We made our way to the campground and Jasons mom was super excited to see us!  Now, we just need to get to bed early because it’s Jasons birthday tomorrow and Mary is taking us white water kayaking!  I am just going to give you a heads up, Jason’s mom is crazy, awesome but crazy so it should be an interesting few days.

-nikki