Dontcha come back, no more, no more, no more, no more.  Hit the Road, Jack.  Dontcha come back no more.

I woke up singing this today.  And I really wanted all of you to sing along with me.  I haven’t been able to get it out of my head all day.  Always nice to bring your friends along with you when you have a in your head song, right?  I knew you’d agree.

And today we did just that.  Hit the road, I mean.  Texas is calling.  And it’s getting downright cold in Canada.  Time to head south.

So today begins the travelogue of our trip south.  Not that you’ll get an update every day or anything.  In fact, the way things are around here, you might not hear from me again for a month and a half.  But I’ll try to do better than that.  Emphasis on try.

Day One is brought to you by……. trees.  I have 7,324 pics to show you today.  7,323 of them are of trees.  Ha.  Scared ya, didn’t I?  I really only have 76 pics.  Doesn’t sound so bad now, does it?  But if I’d told you in the beginning that I was going to show you 76 pics of trees?  See how tricky I am?  And I won’t really make you suffer through 76 pics of trees.  Because frankly?  When you take pics out the window of a speeding motorhome?  Some of them just aren’t that good.  The oops, just missed that group of really great trees ones far outnumber the good ones.   I’ll try not to bore you too badly.

Honestly?  Some of the very best trees were right at our summer spot.  Here’s one last shot of the trees just behind our motorhome.  I actually took this pic on Friday afternoon.  Such a great view every morning from my dining room window.  And I use the term “dining room” very loosely.  It is a motorhome, after all.  Dining room, kitchen, living room….. kind of all one room.  Just sayin’.

Panda hasn’t quite decided that she likes being a traveling kitty.  The minute we start the engine, she hides under the first thing in sight.  This time it was the dining chair.  She prefers the stationary motorhome living.

We passed lots of these signs.  I mean it is Canada.  A Tim Horton’s on every corner.  Or every exit.  We tried not to stop for one last box of Timbits at every one.

Our new travel companions.  Our maybe I should say Yellowstone and Texas Bears’ new companions.  Captain Bullmoose and Bucky Beaver.  Aren’t they just the cutest things?  Love their Canadian Mountie hats!

The bridge crossing the Ottawa River into Ottawa.  You can see the tops of the Parliament buildings.  It was a bit hazy in the early morning time.

We considered a “Living Colour Tattoo” along the way, but then thought better of it.  Even though we are being very leisurely in our return to Texas trip, we really decided we couldn’t take the time for this.

Some of the trees were mostly golden and yellow…..

And some were very, very red.  I think the red ones were my faves.  Many times there was a nice mix of all the colours together (notice the spelling – when in Canada….), but of course those were the pics that whirred by too quickly and I just missed them.  Look at the blue of the sky too.  It was a perfect day for traveling.  And we took the scenic back roads.

It took us through the rolling hills of beautiful farm country.  One farm we even got to see up close and personal.  Thanks to the GPS.  Those things are just wonderful for getting people lost.  Or taking them to dead ends.  Just ask Pam about the time we trusted hers in Talkeetna, Alaska!  It’s a good story and she’d love to share it with you.

Anyway, today when we were nearly at the campground where we had a reservation for the night, our lovely GPS (and I use the term “lovely” quite loosely) lead us to a road that was more like a path through the cornfield.  I mean it was grassy.  I wish I’d taken a pic of that.  Maybe we can let the GPS lead us there again to get a shot?  Anyway at that point the choices were 1) unhook the tow car to be able to back up to turn around or 2) drive through the lovely farm there and use their driveway for a big turnaround without unhooking the car.  Guess which one we chose?

You got it!  This lovely watchdog who was very ferocious and protecting the place (not) came out to greet us.  Well, he DID stand right in front of the motorhome and Dear Hubby made me get out and get him out of the way.  He kind of hated to run over the greeter dog.  Not very friendly when you are borrowing their driveway.  And the dog nearly knocked me over, jumping on me because he was so excited to see someone.

Here’s the lovely house.  A sweet smoky gray kitty ran out to say hello too.  And there was also a goose and a frog.  I almost stepped on the frog and thought it was a grasshopper.  Until I looked closer…. nope, a frog.  The garage doors were open, but there were no cars or people in sight.  Ahhh, the trusting country life!

See how ferocious the watchdog was?  Not.  And after a few more pats, we continued on our way.

And this is our campground home for the next few days.  Just outside Toronto.  And just look at the big trees.  Oh, how I wanted there to be trees at our summer home!  There were.  They just weren’t near our campsite.  But we have a huge one here.  Right outside our window.  Panda had a really fun time sitting on the table looking up into the tree after we got settled.  I hope there are some birds in it for her to watch tomorrow.

So for the next couple of nights you can find us here.  On Maple Lane.  Looks like these trees need some cold nights before they are going to be able to compete with the colours we had in Mirabel, Quebec.  And tomorrow we are heading into the big city via the subway.  Another Toronto adventure.  You remember the last one, don’t you?  I bet this one will bring even more blogging surprises.

I’ll try not to make you wait a whole month to hear about them.

Hugs,
Barb, 58º at 1:00 am – I really do need to start getting to bed earlier!