Day 12- navigating to Ottawa

Still headed East

If you've been following my posts in Instagram you might have seen a glimpse of day 12's navigating problems. When I look back at it, I laugh but only some of us were laughing at the time :)

We got up in good time in Midland and intended to drive to Ottawa that morning so we could  settle into a campsite nice and way and enjoy the evening instead of the usual rushing around in the dark to set up and get kids to bed. However we to decide which road to take because now that we are out of northern Ontario there

However, we needed to decide which road to take because now that we are out of northern Ontario there is more than one road to choose from! We didn’t want to drive down the infamous 401 which is a very busy highway that goes through Toronto – and we didn’t really want to go through any more forests and provincial parks, so we chose the nice rural route along highway 7.  Sounds like a good plan, although I forgot to navigate us through it – too busy being the social media coordinator, I guess.  

So a short detour into the lovely town of Orillia (oops) led us right to a big sign that read ROAD CLOSED.  Sean had to turn our large 30 foot trailer around in front of this old folks home with a little old lady glaring at us from her walker, probably wondering if we were going to knock over any of their flowerpots. (not that we have ever done that before, right sean?  Don’t ask LOL)

After we got back on the highway, Dana texted me that they had accidentally taken a wrong turn and had been heading towards Toronto before they noticed and turned around.  This is when I should have looked at our own map, but I was too busy laughing hysterically at the antics in the back seat and taking videos of the crazy noisy group that we are.  Sammy was writing in his journal and wanted someone to spell museum for him, but no one was listening, so he started yelling in his big boy voice “HOW DO YOU SPELL MUSEUM?” and Zach would reply “I DON’T KNOW!” but before he finished, Sammy would repeat his yell even louder, “HOW DO YOU SPELL MUUUUUSSSSSEEEEEEEEEEUUUMMM?”, and Zach would try to tell him even louder, “I DON’T KNNNOOOOOOWWW!!”

Now Sammy is normally a mild sweet little boy, complete with a mop of dirty blond hair and a pair of dimples in his full cheeks, and so when he gets his grumpy face on it’s hard not to laugh.  Sean and I were so busy holding our stomachs from laughing so hard, that we didn’t notice that we too were headed toward Toronto until it was too late and we were on the other side of a big lake from our travelling companions.  We were going in circles! And the road we were stuck on was getting busier and busier as we went south, so we made the decision to cut overland and try to meet up with our friends on the other side of Lake Simcoe.

Poor daddy- needs a glass of wine and a good nap, I think

 It made for a very long day – but we did indeed find the Wiens, and managed to stop in a beautiful little town called Madoc for a dip in their public swimming pool for a break.  It turned out to be the town that my great great grandparents were from before they moved to Alberta.  It was fun to imagine Grandpa Pete’s grandparents walking down the same roads. 

We ended up in Ottawa just before dark (again) at a lovely little campground inside the city limits called Wesley Clover Parks.  I had enough time to strap on my headlamp from the Night Race and stretch my aching legs out by running around the campground for half an hour with Dana chasing me down on her bike.  It felt good to move again after being stuck in the car for so long.  Tomorrow we will head into the Capital and take in the sights of a big city.