2011 Vacation Day 15 - Friday: Our last official vacation day...

Today we head in the direction of home, with an overnight stop about half way at Driftwood Provincial Park. Got packed up and were on the road by 9:00. We decided to stop briefly at Killarney Outfitters, where we rented the kayaks yesterday, and quickly grab some wi-fi.
As we are heading past Almonte on the way home, we are going to stop at a mechanic that specializes in Westfalia's, as he also sells a brand of very small RV furnaces that may be suitable for the Alto. We got his contact information and set up a meeting for tomorrow.

As I was getting something out of the Alto while we were there, Dale was talking with the store golden lab dog who had followed us to the trailer. Well, next thing you know, the dog had grabbed one of my crocs to use it as a play toy. Typical behaviour, wanting you to throw it to him, but not letting you get it from his mouth. He was bouncing all over the place and running around the field wildly, all with my croc hanging out of his mouth. It was hilariously funny, all the more so given the experience of the fox last summer in P.E.I. who stole the same croc last summer and of course then chewed the strap off of it. What is with those things that just seem to attract animals? We managed to stop laughing to finally get him to give it back to us, but not before I had to race him to save the other croc as well, which he immediately went for.

Took a bit of a cross country route back up to Hwy 17. Interesting to see the many little towns that are scattered around this region. It seems like a harsh landscape, not really good for farming but good for forestry, real hardscrabble. Stopped at Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park to check it out for possible future stays. Drove the campground and took some site numbers.  The park is on Moore Lake and has a nice little river flowing through it. Back on the road, we stopped for gas in Mattawa. This little town seems to have an edge to it. Not sure how to describe it, but it just feels a bit rough. Lots of ATV's racing around everywhere, big logging trucks, a few taverns and diners. Could be totally off base, but this is the first impression we got. Lots of roadwork going on around Mattawa as well, in town and out, the highway is torn up in numerous spots. I could see in my mirrors that the Alto was getting covered with all sorts of road crap. After driving well over 2000 km, the Alto was now the filthiest it has ever been...definitely going to be spending some quality time with the pressure washer.

Rolled into the Driftwood campground around 3:00 pm. Really nice park's people running this place, had a great chat with the Warden, a sharp young woman, and a couple of her staff. This is a moderate sized park, with an electrical section and a non-electrical area along the beach. We had reserved a site in the electrical area, and our site was quite nice, overlooking the water from the top of a hill. Good privacy, but the site is a bit sloped.
Went for a swim and the main beach. Kinda small, and it is all grass. This park is the result of a bay being created back in the 50's when a dam was finished and a huge area behind the dam was flooded. So a lot of the park seems like it was planned, rather than being cut out of existing bush. The bottom in the water was hard sand, which is always the best. Water temp was quite nice and still very refreshing.

Wandered over to the lower camping area next to the water, and it is really nice. Most of the sites back onto a shallow sand beach and the water. They may not be as private as where we are now, but the location on the water is superb. Took a bunch of site numbers, and if we head this way next year, we will surely be in one of these sites. Waterfront sites at a provincial park in Ontario are truly a rarity. A pre dinner G&T was consumed, and dinner this evening was the same as last night. Fish and chips from Killarney. Dale had some leftover, and I had bought one to go. Brief time in the nuke, and we were all set. Certainly not as good as right out of the fryer, but pretty close. Thinking about the fish, this was more of a traditional fish fry style of meal, similar to how we used to do up the pickeral we caught at the cottage. Lots of little battered pieces, easy to tell where in the fillet each came from, all tasty little morsels. The fish dinners from both coasts were more large chunks, probably because the size of the fish from the oceans are considerably larger. Regardless of where it originates, fish and chips is one of our favorite meals.

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