On Monday morning, October 2, we took Bubba to the Ypsilanti, Michigan Camping World for an oil change then hit the road around noon heading for Canada.  We crossed the border into Windsor, Ontario via Highway 96 then took Canada Highway 3 southeast to Leamington along the Lake Erie coast. We stopped at the Canada Tourist Office just inside the border and picked up a map and some other materials to help us find our way around.  We also purchased Niagara Falls Adventure Passes there, which included tickets and discount coupons for the major attractions on the Canadian side.  Since we had visited the American side on two earlier occasions (Ann visited a third time with her mom and dad when she was only 19) we decided to see what the Canadian side was all about.

We spent our first night in Canada at the Rondeau Provincial Park south of Morpeth.  It was a nice park but, again, not up to the standards we are used to in Arkansas.  The site had electricity but no water but we were prepared, having added water to Bubba’s freshwater tank before we left the Ypsilanti KOA.  We had a big campfire that night - it was a beautiful evening and I stayed up long after Jerry had gone to bed, enjoying the fire.  Rondeau had a number of hiking trails and we planned to take a hike the next morning but we awoke to rain, foiling our plans.  We packed up in the rain and continued our journey east.  One thing that we found in the park that is unusual to Southerners is the black squirrel.  We also saw them in Michigan, around Traverse City, and they are absolutely beautiful.  There were hundreds of them in Rondeau Park but the weather kept me from capturing more than a couple of photos of them.

The secondary roads in Ontario were pretty rough so, at Iona, we decided to cut over to 401, a four-lane divided highway.  We followed it to its junction with 403 and continued our journey.  We stopped at the Brant Conservation Area campground, near Brantford, for the evening.  It was the strangest public campground in which we have ever stayed!  Private campgrounds often have “seasonal” campers, those folks who stay there for several months during the year.  However, we’ve never seen a public park that allows seasonal campers.  Brant was full of them.  There were only a couple of areas that were set aside for overnight campers - the park was full of people who had lived there all summer.  They had built patios, underpinned their campers, planted grass and flowers - just like home.  It seemed really strange to us.  But it was still raining and we were tired so we decided to find a spot and stay since it would just be for one night.  However, this would not have been our choice under different circumstances.

We settled into our campsite and it continued to rain all night.  Needless to say, we slept like babies with raindrops falling on Bubba’s roof.  We left Wednesday morning following 403 to the QEW (Queen Elizabeth Way), a freeway that runs along Lake Ontario, into Niagara Falls.  Ontario completes all the Great Lakes for us on this trip - we’ve seen Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior.  We are both thankful to our early teachers who taught us the “HOMES” acronym that, to this day, enables us to remember all of them.

We had made a reservation for three nights at Campark Resorts Best Holiday Trav-L-Park in Niagara Falls.  It was an OK park but not very visually appealing.  If we had known then what we know now, we would have stayed at Scotty’s instead. 

We spent Thursday and Friday, October 5 and 6, doing all the Niagara stuff.  We began by visiting the Butterfly Conservatory and absolutely loved it.  With our entrance fee, we received an audio tour which explained the life of a butterfly.  It was shocking and sad to learn that most butterflies only live about 3 weeks after their metamorphosis. The conservatory has over 2,000 butterflies of varying types, living in a sub-tropical setting filled with plants, flowers and waterfalls, and is maintained at 80 degrees with 70% humidity.  The butterflies were not at all afraid of humans and would land on you and fly all around you.  In fact, you had to be careful when you left the conservatory that you didn’t have a hitchhiker on you!  It was a very peaceful place and we agreed that we thoroughly enjoyed our visit there.