June 5, 2011 - Home to Port Elgin, Ontario

The Bruce Peninsula of Ontario sticks out into Lake Huron in a northwesterly direction, dividing Lake Huron proper from the Georgian Bay. If you’re got a Michigan road map, you’ll still have no idea what I’m talking about, because the mileage chart always covers this area up. So if you want to actually see it you’ll probably have to Google it. But in short, the western side of Lake Huron is in Michigan and the eastern side is in Canada.

Several times in the last two decades we’ve made the trip by sailboat from Harrisville, MI, across 115 miles of Lake Huron to Tobermory, Ontario to visit the Bruce. Unfortunately, we’ve never gotten very far from the harbor, because after making the 13 hour trip over the water we tended to walk in circles and stumble a bit when our feet first hit land. It was a bit embarrassing, especially if we were anywhere near the Crow’s Nest Pub at the time. Inside sailor humor: we always called it “involuntary tacking” – HA HA HA! Never mind.

Anyway, we’re excited to see the area by rPod. This road trip will be a circumnavigation of the Bruce Peninsula, starting at the southern shore at Port Elgin, travelling west to the very tip at familiar Tobermory, then back east along the north shore to Meaford before heading home.

Crossing the border at Port Huron into Sarnia, Ontario was pretty uneventful, as is usually the case. From there you’re only on the expressway for a short time, then it’s two lane blacktop through lots of rolling farmland and pastures and many small towns. As you get nearer to Port Elgin we saw windmills by the hundreds scattered around the fields, turning slowly and quietly. I personally think they’re neat to look at, and I know most farmers like them in their fields because they’re a source of steady income and very easy to grow.

When we arrived at MacGregor Point Provincial Park in Port Elgin we quickly went through the check-in process and headed for our reserved site. However, when we got there, there were already campers in that site. We were just a bit early, but it was pretty close to checkout time, and there was no sign of anyone about, and it sure didn’t look like any departure preparations were underway. Oh well. There were lots and lots of empty lots, so we headed back to the office to get it straightened out.

Our camp at MacGregor Point park. No worries.

When we explained the situation to the very nice young lady ranger at the office, she checked her computer and told us that our site was supposed to be vacated by now. She proposed calling security and sending them to the site to hustle them along. However, she warned, if there was nobody at the site, security could do nothing, and we would have to wait until they returned and could be give a good stern talking-to. Such enthusiasm! But I had to be a buzz kill, and offered to set up in the empty site next door to them. After checking the computer again, she said that would probably be OK too.

You’re not allowed to bring firewood across the international border, so we headed to the camp store to grab a few bundles, and maybe an ice cream cone before they closed for the day. When we got there we had to wait briefly while they finished getting all the computers, credit card machines, etc., back online. Seem the power to the park had been restored only a short time before we arrived, having been out for over 12 hours. So all the ice cream had melted and had already been tossed out. Aaaarrrgh!

We did have time to unload our bikes and check out a few of the great bike trails in the park. More biking on the agenda tomorrow, but for now it’s time for supper and a campfire, so SWMBO can make s’mores. I will go out on a limb here and publicly admit that I don’t really care for s’mores. I like all their components individually just fine, but put them all together, and it’s like, “meh.”