Day 123 -Friday Aug 3, 2018 Heading east still …to Renfrew Ont. It's a Holiday weekend in Canada

Yes the Canadians have an extra day off in the summer. ThIs weekend  the Monday  was declared a national holiday  of no name. A day so people can have a long weekend in the middle of summer. Sounds like a great idea.

Anyway the campers in this KOA campground could be here an extra day, not that it makes much difference to us as we will have Monday as a travel day.
 

Our campsite in Renfew Ont.

Looking down the road

The trip today had most of its miles along the Ottawa River that borders Ontario and Quebec. Every once in a while we would see a portion of the river and it looked more like a series of lakes , rather than the “traditional” river.  little loops , and many trees overhanging the banks  gave to a feeling of an endless stream of lakes. Sometimes there would be a stretch of a half mile of river and at other times there would be one little “lake” after the other.

The big bird find today was the GREAT BLUE HERON believe to or not as we had not seen one in 2 1/2 weeks. We have AMERCAN GOLDFINCHES  at the feeder/

Along the Q 17 were many signs of the Laurentian Plateau.

As we moved east the red rocks were replaced by the blue gray (limestone?)

The towns along the way were few but busy in this summer season. They had better make in the summer as it gets slow after October 15th.  Our favorite signs were the “snacks that Canadians love so much…”Chips” or “Fries”.  not French Fries but just “Fries”.

Queens highway  #17 is the main link between Sudbury and Ottawa. As Sudbury is the main link to the southern part of Ontario and Toronto (Hwy #11). So traffic, although not bumper to bumper, was steady and  I pulled over three or four time to let building traffic behind me pass. I was doing only 55 mph today. Traffic moves at about 90KPH or about  60 mph. Generally it runs about 5 mph over that. I’ll tell you  though, that what I saw today was many cars passing on the double yellow lines. Tis is hilly country in the Laurentian highlands and that is a dangerous habit.

Some of the towns along the way you may have never heard of. They were after NorthBay…Corbell, Rutherglen, Calvin, and the first one on the Ottawa River was Mattawa. Then came Deuz Riviere, Bisset,  Mackey, Rolphion, Point Alexander and Deep River. Next came Bissett  Creek, Stonecliff, and the larger city of Petawawa. Finally there was Pembrook and Cobden just before Renfrew. Actually we never saw Renfrew as we are on the outskirts of town on the west end.

The very large Algonquin Provincial Park is just south of us. It is a hiking, camping, canoe and kayaking park as there is only one road that even goes through the southern portion of it.




We did get our feeders set up and already  some Goldfinches and a female Ruby Throat Hummingbird have appeared. 

This young Goldfinch came first and dad prompty sent him home .Later dad came back and watched him intently before starting to eat  by himself.

THis the Male American Goldfinch.

 Our friends next to us are situated so that their door opens to our door. Usually campgrounds have pull ins going the same direction, but this part of the campground is situated differently. The family is from Ottawa and has 4 teenagers with them. It will be interesting and we will share some I am sure.

That’s it for the day, the weather was on and off clouds ,with intermittent sun shining. Still warm at 81 F all of this afternoon. It is very moist and could rain. This part of Ontario has had heavy rains the last two weeks.