0542 Up to Ontario and Lake Huron

18^th June 2016

A day back in a Lotus Elise !

I left the camp site at about 8.30 am and headed over the bridge into Canada – No delays at all, and after a cursory check of the car, I was through the border and away.  Dave lives in Mississauga, a sizeable city just south of Toronto, and there was no point in trying to follow a scenic route – this is a busy part of the world – so I stayed on the freeway, doing the posted 100 kmh while EVERY single car, truck, and motorcycle passed me doing 120 – 130 kmh !  I found out later from Dave that the cops won’t stop you if you are “only” doing 20 – 30 kmh over the speed limit !!   Heaven forbid any of these guys ever come to Australia, or even more so, Perth, because they will get a real surprise when they are stopped for doing 2 or 3 kmh over the limit !

No problem finding Dave’s place with the gps, and after a cool drink and checking on an email or two, we took the roof off his Elise and at some time after 11 am headed off for a ride under blue skies and increasingly warm temperatures. There is no way that I can remember exactly which way we went because I was having a day off from navigating (!), but we basically headed NW from Toronto, and ended up having lunch at a great little local diner at a place called Caledon.  Dave was wise and had a children’s size meal – I plumped for the full size Spanish Omelet and struggled to finish it !  Good though.

Leaving the diner, Dave moved his car in front and I learnt of one of his “quirks” for which he is quite famous (or infamous ?) – He is always finding strange places where he can stand on one leg while putting his other leg behind his head !!  Hmmmm !!  At this stage I thought it was a one-off occurrence, but I was to learn different during the day !!   (If you want to learn more about his escapades, you only need to look here ! 
http://www.lotustalk.com/forums/f68/so-elise-requires-flexibility-eh-87485/index6.html

After our lunch we headed on through some delightful countryside, past some land that a local farmer has crafter into a replica of The Badlands (bit weird !), and then visited a couple of delightful wooden houses out in the countryside before ending up at Wasaga Beach, on the shores of Lake Huron’s Georgian Bay.  Wasaga Beach is a little like Surfer’s Paradise on a hot day, but with no surf.  In other words it is packed with people, you weave your way to the water through endless bodies that are relieved to see the end of a cold Canadian winter, and if you are driving, then you need a “wicked” car and basically cruise the block endlessly !  I was a little stunned by it all, but Dave eventually parked the car and we headed down to the water armed with a small football.

The beach was absolutely packed – a hot sunny weekend, everyone was there, plus a few more friends !  We dropped out shoes and headed into the water past a big kite flying section, and fortunately (I was in my normal shorts and T shirt !) you can walk out about 100 metres or more and still the water will only just come up to your knees !  If you have a boat or want to swim, you will need to go way out into the bay to find water deep

enough.  We tossed the ball around for a while, and a young lad of about 7 joined us for a while – It seems to be “the thing to do” as lots of people were out in the water or on the beach tossing either a ball of some kind, or throwing Frisbees.  At least I was pleasantly surprised by how warm the water was – For a place where it can freeze solid in the winter, it was warmer today than the water off Perth – Probably because it is so shallow.

After a wander through part of town (many beach balls, T shirts, and blow up plastic rafts for sale everywhere), we stopped for a rather good (and very large) ice cream, which helped to cool things down on what was by now quite a hot day – High 20’s or low 30’s easily.  Returning to the car, we headed down the road, and hadn’t gone far before Dave pulled into a Kart Track, where we did a quick lap just to have a bit of fun, and then left to carry on back to the south.

We stopped in South Wasaga beach (I think it was) where Dave has come many times over the years for his family holidays, and while we were at the beach, he was putting his foot behind his head again while standing on a wooden pole ! 

On the way home we stopped in a small town (can’t remember !) at Steelers Restaurant and had a cold beer at the end of a hot day with the roof off, and a great roast beef dinner – Very pleasant.  From there we then wandered out way back to Mississauga, with Dave taking me to various

places of interest on the way – Through the heart of the city, out to the University Campus

where they did the analysis on some of the original rocks brought back from the moon, and to a great mansion where, once again, Dave performed his leg trick !  I later found out that he has done the same leg feat with multiple different cars in front of that house – I think that by now the owners must be wondering who he is !! 

From there it was home, and we had a night cap of some kind of Portuguese grappa that just about finished me off – It was about 11 pm, we had been out in the sun all day, and driven over 300 kms !  I was exhausted – But very happy.  SO good to be back in an Elise again, and sitting on the correct side !!  I rilled into my bed and knew nothing until about 7 am the next morning.  Thank you Dave for a great day – I really appreciate you taking the time to spend your day taking me around a beautiful part of the world – In a beautiful car !!  

Pics are here :-  https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/6299182185343451489?authkey=Gv1sRgCO6Fxu6huPGPkQE