Leviston, New York to Wheatley, Ontario – 24 April 2023

Waterdown, Ontario – 24 April 2023

It was good to be back in Canada and to see all the familiar shops and signs.  The Campground we moved to – Olympic Village RV Campground in Waterdown, was a little in the middle of nowhere and was quite packed with permanent RVs and mobile homes. Many of the RVs and Homes were not occupied but had a lot of furniture and decorations so we assumed these were people’s holiday homes.

We had 5 days booked at the campground and the whole week was jammed packed with appointments we had made ahead of time.  Jax needed to get up to date on some of his vaccinations and I also wanted him to have a full exam, have his nails trimmed and top up his supply of flea and tick medication. The Waterdown animal hospital staff were very nice but Jax wasnt having any of it. He growled under his breath and was rewarded with a muzzle. Poor thing was absolutely petrified with his tail wrapped closely under his stomach.  All went well and he was happy again when we stopped at Starbucks on the way home for his favourite pup cup.  He absolutely loves pup cups and as soon as we drive into the drive thru he starts to howl and lick his lips in anticipation.

Besides the vet we also both had eye exams, dental appointments and I was also able to organize a hair appointment. My dental cleaning was fine but the young female Indian Dentist who said I needed a filling, was a little too efficient and fast. She jabbed me with the injection in my jaw with such a force that I screamed, and then she held it there for about a minute while she was pushing out the fluid.  I have to say that my jaw was sore for at least 3 days after that episode. Derek also had a filling but he was brave and went without an injection so didn’t have the same experience.

Derek also got the car in for a much needed oil change and service.  We also managed to do a good grocery shop. As the weather was rather chilly our fridge was behaving itself, and I was really appreciating having a working inside fridge instead of having to go out of the RV to the drinks fridge every time I needed milk or something else from the fridge.

The week flew by fast and in spite of not having time to explore the area, we managed to tick off everything on our list which was great.  It was a busy work time for me as Lucy was leaving to go to Croatia for a few months and we had been working together on a new business storage unit and also getting new stock and items ready for a container of dog wash machines that was set to arrive at the end of May.  Derek on the other hand was busy changing oil filters on the truck.

Wheatley, Ontario – 28 April 2023

From Waterdown we moved to Wheatley, Ontario. The weather got progressively worse as we drove and by the time we got to the Camper’s Cove Campground it was raining hard, windy and absolutely freezing.  We had a bit of a hard time getting the RV in place as the ground was muddy and slippery, so it was hard to get traction.  At one stage we also hit a tree on the right side and lost the vent cover of our dryer – luckily nothing more.

The next day – 1st May, was our 30th Anniversary.  Time has just flown.  We wanted to do something special but restaurants in the area were very limited and restaurants in nearby Kingsville, were closed as it was Monday.  So instead we visited one of our customers – an Esso gas station in Kingsville Ontario.   They had set the dog wash up in one of the car wash bays. Customer was not available to meet so we just took videos. After that we made our way to Aleksanderestate winery for some charcuterie washed down with a sampling of wines.  We were the only ones at the winery so had the undivided attention of the owner  – lovely wines and a great way to celebrate another year together.

We enjoyed the interesting scenery of the Chatham-Kent municipality.  It has a huge farming community with fields of bright orange crops – gorgeous, though I still haven’t worked out what that crop is. There were also hundreds of very tall Wind Turbines all moving seemingly synchronously.  Wheatley has an interesting history. It was originally known as “Pegtown” Some say this was because the houses at that time were built on stilts or pegs due to the low lying marshland near the lake. Others say that local cobblers used to repair travellers’ boots quickly with pegs. The name was quickly changed once people started referring to it instead as “Pigtown” and around 1865 it was renamed after its first settler – Richard Wheatley. Wheatley’s sign proclaims it as the “Freshwater Fish Capital of the World” and it home to a large fishing port located on Lake Erie. As such, Wheatley is home to many fisheries owned and operated by local families. On the way home we passed a large statue of Captain Wheatley carved out of a poplar tree at the start of the Grant Bowman trail.

The following day was overcast but we decided to go to Point Pelee National Park,  which is the Southern most point of Canada. The name Point Pelee comes from French Explorers who called it ‘Bald Point’, due to the bald eastern shores. Pelée in French means bald. Point Pelee consists of a peninsula of land, mainly marsh and woodland that tapers to a sharp point as it extends into Lake Erie. Point Pelee is home to a lot of wildlife including about 300 species of birds, with thousands of birds migrating here every year in the Summer. We walked from the Visitors Centre to the tip about a 7.5 km round trip. Great views of Lake Erie.  

Wednesday we visited another customers who had a car wash in Wallaceburg. Wallaceburg was about an hour’s drive from Wheatley. Their dog wash set up was very similar to Esso but situated in a small pet room alongside the car wash. We met with the owner Mir who very graciously took us out for dinner in restaurant across from his business.  Again a great opportunity to take business videos and photos.

On the way home we stopped in at the Kopegaron Woods Conservation Area for an early evening stroll. There was a wooden boardwalk around most of the area which was surrounded by marshes. There were a number of umbrella type green plants all over the forests. Apparently these are really toxic.