Toronto to Tobermory, Ontario

Sunday morning began with the somewhat disconcerting experience of getting locked in my bedroom at the Sumner-Wright residence. Around 7am Eliot decided it was time to get up. I’d been in bed relatively early the night before so it didn’t seem like a bad idea. However, when I turned the doorknob to open the bedroom door, the knob came off in my hand. And it wasn’t about to be reattached. So what to do? Wake the whole household? Which would be Wayne and Heather as I suspect their boys, Nathan and Nick, would sleep through anything. I was finally rescued around 8am when Wayne arose and confessed that he’d been meaning to tighten that doorknob.

I’d decided that we would leave Toronto after lunch and head up to Tobermory where there is a ferry that travels to Manitoulin Island. This route avoids quite a bit of highway travel. But before leaving, Heather and I shopped for groceries at Sobey’s over on Mount Pleasant Road. Actually Heather shopped and Eliot and I stood outside people watching.

Wayne had gone off to watch his grand-daughter(?) play soccer so Heather and I had lunch. After lunch I did a final check and packed up the van. Heather also equipped me with a water flask with water (since I’d left my nalgene in N.S.), blueberries and a couple of chucks of dark chocolate.

The drive to Tobermory involved getting out of Toronto in one piece. And another short run on the 401 and over to Hwy 400 which heads up Barrie way. The drive was mostly uneventful except when I noticed a factory outlet when I exited the 400 near Barrie. The signs indicated that there was a Villeroy and Boch outlet. Since the Victoria store had closed since I’d bought some dishes I dashed in to replace the mug that has since been chipped. And I picked up two more dessert plates and two soup bowls.

Waiting to turn left at Yonge and Eglinton

The rest of the drive was uneventful but a bit long and tedious. When we finally arrived at the campground at Bruce Peninsula National Park there was not a park employee in sight. The park struck me as rather odd. The campground is on a lake and not the shores of Georgian Bay. It’s also rather gloomy with campsites crammed up against one another. In any event, arriving late we couldn’t be picky. The next morning no one turned up to ask for a fee so we rolled out around 10:30am having camped yet again for free.