The ride so far has been great. Steve and I have been enjoying the CDS that Dan and Julia made for our trip! The first one starts with Ann Murray's " Canada." How can you beat that?

The ride through eastern Ontario is different from the White mountains of NH and the green hills of Vermont. Much of Ontario reminded me of Sara Orne Jewitt's " Country of the Pointed Firs." Some parts of Ontario look a lot like coastal Maine up where Elaine and Steve Nutter look.

Want to hear some irony? I figured that we would be enjoying some of the best of the world's water. After all, isn't Canada noted for its great water? One of our first campgrounds ( in Sudbury) passed out notices that they have an advisory from the Department of Health that a boil water advisory is in effect.They have had so much rain that they have bacteria in their water. The good news is that because of the rain, everything is spring-like lush.

Our days have been like post cards. It seems as if every third home has a camper in the yard. Just like in Maine, in Ontario, the tiger lillies are blooming, as is the Queen Ann's Lace and the golden rod. The reddish rocks of Ontario remind us of Prince Edward Island, and the red roofs on the tidy farmhouses are like the houses in Quebec. Love the colors! Some of the landscape reminds us of the Rangley area in Maine, too. In all, it feels a bit like home -- only different!

The most amazing part of driving through Ontario is that every time we crested a hill, we saw a sparking lake -- some bigger than others but all beautiful. Each day we saw hundreds of lakes. At first I paid attention to the names of them, but after a while, I just decided to admire them. At one point, we climbed a hill and saw no lake. The two of us looked at each other and said, "Where's the lake?"

Oh, I got a great picture of a Canada goose in Wawa which means "wild goose" in Ojibway. This is a BIG goose. You'll see the picture when we download our pictures. ( Right now we are just typing furiously since we just got internet access for the first time all week!) The big goose was made to commenorate the Trans-Canada Highway which was finished in 1960. Whenever you see a big goose, a big bison, or a big anything, you have to take a picture, right?

Also saw some great art in Wawa. Artists have commemorated the women of Wawa by painting old doors with the women's stories and with photographs of their faces. The "bodies" are just paintings and are decorated in real jeans, shorts, dresses. The doors are lined up in a row by the sidewalk. It is quite an installation. I wonder if we could pass this idea along to artists at home?

We have been entertained by the Inukshuks along the road, too. These are piles of rocks that people have put on the roadside boulders. The Inuits created these years ago to "guide" the caribou so the the Inuits could hunt them. They also used the rocks as markers or to remind them where the best fishing was or where they had hidden food. Today, people make Inukshuks to entertain, to be artistic or to be decorative-- depending on their perspective. Any way you care to look at them, they are lots of fun to see as you drive along the Trans-Canadia Highway in Onatario and Manitoba. We kept saying, " Look at that one. Look at this one!"

So far, my favorite campground has been Neys Provential Park in Marathon, Ontario. In our camper, we looked right out at Lake Superior. It sounds like the ocean as the waves dash on the scattered driftwood and granite rocks. We were just steps away from the beach. Sounds good, huh? It was.

In Thunder Bay, we found the International Friendship Garden. Various ethnic groups have come to Canada. To show appreciation, these ethnic groups have designed and have made beautiful gardens. The Netherlands, Scotland, Lithuania, Germandy, China, Canada -- many countries are represented here. We took lots of pictures there as well. Some night when we have internet access again, we will post those pictures as well.

Manitoba started out looking like Ontario, but by the time we had passed through it, it looked more like the plains. It is so interesting how that works. We saw fields of canola -- just miles of growing sunshine.

Today we stopped at the Forks ( where the red and the Assinibo8ne Rivers meet) in Winnipeg. It was raining so the afternoon wasn't calendar perfect, but it was fun. The Aboriginal gatherings there took place 6,00 years ago. Then came the fur traders, the railroad and riverboat workers and the immigrants. Today we came.

We have been through two time changes -- Central and now MountainTime -- the clock says it is just 10:00, but to us it feels as if it is 11:00 so we are off to bed. Sorry we haven't been in touch, but we have been in Provincial Parks with no internet access. We may just update once a week or so. We are having fun seeing Canada. We are almost to the Canadian Rockies! Now, that will be a kick!

Miss you all. Hooe You all are having some good adventures in Maine! :-)

Bonnie