Westward ho!

Windsor, ON – If you were headed out on a long, long journey and wanted to start it right, you probably wouldn’t find a better way to do it than we did yesterday. We spent our first night out in Acton, ON with a couple of dear friends, Scott and Mary Jane, who not only wined us, dined us, and put us up in a cloud of down-filled comfort, but also pulled out maps, guide books and travel photos of their trip to California and filled our imaginations with wondrous ideas of where to go and what to see. 

To back up a bit, we got up bright and early yesterday morning to accomplish all the last-minute tasks in the house and in the motorhome. We were blessed with a clear day that was comparatively warm after many days of bitter cold.  That made hitching the little Honda FIT to the back of our motorhome a lot easier, since the best way to make the connections properly is with bare hands. We pulled away at last, around 9:30, and headed for the open road. 

Highway 401 was clear and bare and the sun shone most of the way, except for a cloudy patch shortly before we reached Toronto that swirled a few snowflakes about us.  Once we got past the big city, we could see, in the bush, grim evidence of the recent ice storm that crippled the area over the Christmas holidays. It reminded us of Ottawa’s storm back in 1998 – and of Mother Nature’s amazing ability to overcome such challenges.  Now, in the Ottawa area, there is little evidence of the damage that looked so terrible all those years ago.

Cleanup crews with trucks and equipment were clearing broken tree limbs and debris in and around Acton when we arrived shortly after four in the afternoon.  Scott came out and hopped in his van to lead us to a parking area near their home where he’d arranged for us to leave the motorhome and car overnight, and then drove us back to the house.  That’s when the wining and dining, and a wonderful evening of catching up on news and adventures, began.  We had so much to talk about that it was hard to tear ourselves away and get some sleep.

The aroma of bacon, eggs, toast and coffee greeted us this morning, and we sat at Scott and Mary Jane’s new kitchen island while they completed breakfast preparations.  Scott also concocted a spectacular smoothie for us to take with us, made with carrots, kale, bananas, blueberries, cranberries, chia and flax seeds, yogurt, ginger and coconut, all liquefied in their Vitamix machine!

A soft snow had fallen overnight, so we had some sweeping off to do on our rig.  We had hoped to be able to swing the RV and car around in one arc to exit the parking lot, but it was just too tight!  So we unhitched the car, made the turn, and hitched it up again.  It didn’t take too long, and then Scott led us to the turnoff where we parted ways.

The highway was messier today, and it was foggy for a while on the 401 headed for Windsor, but later on the ceiling lifted and the road cleared a bit. The clatter of ice plates flying off the roof of the RV startled us the first couple of times as the temperatures rose, but now the snowy cap is gone, to our relief – and we don’t think we sent any vehicles behind us into the snowbanks with the debris!