Timmons, Ontario, Canada

Monday, September 11, 2023

Our day began in Foleyet, Ontario at Ivanhoe Lake. This is the day we planned to go fishing with a guide at Horwood Lake in Northern Ontario, but unfortunately the excursion has been cancelled due to the weather. The forecast predicts 45-degree highs for most of this week and measurable rain for the area. I suppose we could have still gone fishing, but that’s not a fun environment to be in all day— especially for the kids. The fishing guide suggested we try for an outing on Friday when the weather looks more favorable, but Andi and I don’t want to wait around Northern Ontario that long. It’s a bummer that our plans changed, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. Andi is the most upset of all of us — fishing in Canada is one of his favorite pastimes and he put a lot of planning into this portion of our trip. I think he was really looking forward to sharing the experience with Tory and Aden.

We brought our Starlink satellite internet along on this trip which has been working well to keep us connected in the remote wilderness of Ontario. Our internet was set up and working well at Ivanhoe, so we stayed put for the morning and did schoolwork in the RV.

While the kids and I worked on book studies, Andi worked on his computer, and then put away his fishing supplies. He struck up a conversation with the owner of the fishing resort who said he's got a second home in Ecuador. We traveled to the same area where his house is during our time in Ecuador a few years ago. It’s interesting how time and time again, our travels connect us with so many people around the world.

By the time the kids and I finished school, it was almost Noon — a much later start to traveling than Andi and I would normally have liked. We left Ivanhoe Lake and drove about 20 minutes to the closest town of Timmons, Ontario. The city of Timmons was much bigger than Andi and I expected. Once there, we decided to grab something to eat for lunch, and do a load of laundry at the laundromat. Andi figured it’d be a lot easier to work laundry machines in English-speaking Ontario than it would in the French-speaking providence of Quebec.

In order to do laundry, we first needed to get some Canadian currency. Andi drove to ScotiaBank and asked to exchange $300 worth of US bills to Canadian dollars. The bank clerk was very helpful, and allowed us to exchange money there even though we didn’t have an account with the bank. She was curious as to why we were traveling in Timmons, Ontario of all places (you won’t believe the number of times someone has asked, “… and you’re traveling here? Why?” during our various travels). The clerk also gave Andi a few tips for the area including a high-end grocery store around the corner.

With Canadian Loonies and Toonies in hand (those are the nicknames for Canadian $1 and $2 coins), we started two loads of wash into machines at the laundromat. Then, the four of us drove to the Pita Pit down the street for lunch. The minute we entered the door of the Pita Pit, I questioned whether we should turn around and pick somewhere else to eat. First of all, there weren’t any other customers in the restaurant which is always a bad sign. The employee was sitting down at one of the tables looking at his phone when we walked in which likely means he hasn’t waited on a customer in a while. Also, the restaurant wasn’t very clean which also threw up a red flag.

Nonetheless, we ordered two wraps and two rice bowl with chicken and toppings. There were only three two-person tables in the restaurant, so Andi and Tory sat at a table and Aden and I sat at another. The employee seemed surprised that stayed to eat in the restaurant at all.

The four of us quickly ate our food and then returned to the laundromat to move our clothes from the washing machines to the dryers. We had another 45-minutes to occupy ourselves while our waited for our laundry to finish. As we visited different businesses in town, we saw a lot of people walking around downtown Timmons. Many of the people looked homeless or severely high on drugs. There were also some younger people walking around with backpacks (maybe a university nearby?), a few businessmen, elderly people, and a lot of Arabic men wearing turbans on their heads. Andi and I didn’t feel unsafe walking along the sidewalks, per se, but there was a seriously weird vibe happening around town. We couldn’t quite identify it.

We stopped by the high-end grocery store that the bank clerk suggested, and were puzzled once again. This place was amazing with tons of pre-made, healthy meals and fantastic-looking produce. Such a juxtaposition to the people high-as-a-kite sitting outside on the curb. Inside the grocery store, we selected a few meals to-go and a container of house-made cinnamon buns as big as our heads. We paid for our groceries and then returned to the laundromat to pick up our clothing.

All four of us were ready to get out of this town — it’s an odd place — when Andi suggested we stop by the battery store to do a test on our RV batteries. Our batteries haven’t been holding a charge since we left Wisconsin last week, and Andi thought it’d be easier to buy new batteries in Ontario vs. Quebec (again with the English vs. French-speaking providences). We’d already wasted way too much time in Timmons to make much ground in traveling somewhere new today, so I agreed we should stop. We spent another hour at the battery store testing our RV batteries. The owner of the battery store was very friendly and helpful in determining the problem and giving Andi tips for replacing the RV batteries. Unfortunately, he didn’t sell the batteries we needed for the RV, so we had to go to Napa Auto Parts in town to buy them there. We spent another 30 minutes driving there and purchasing the batteries we needed.

Our original plan had been to drive to a provincial park in Quebec about two hours from Timmons, but it was getting too late in the day to travel now. Instead, Andi found a provincial park (which is kinda like a Canadian state park) about 20 minutes east of Timmons. We decided to camp for the night, and get an earlier jumpstart on driving to Quebec tomorrow.

Kettle Lakes provincial park is a beautiful park in the Canadian wilderness. It felt like a world away from the city of Timmons. We found an electric site and set up our RV for the night, and then spent the rest of the evening replacing the RV batteries. It was a two-sometimes-three person job holding the wires back while we fit the batteries snug into their compartment. As sucky as a job like this is to do, Andi, Tory, and I also shared a few laughs together while we worked.

Finally around 8:00pm, we finished and the new batteries were operational. Andi grilled chicken for dinner while we cooked broccoli in the air fryer. We bought a small air fryer to keep in the RV, and it’s been a great way to cook vegetables, potatoes, or egg rolls when we’re hooked up to power. For dessert, we enjoyed a pint of Ben & Jerry’s “O’ Cone-ada” flavored ice cream.

Now that our battery issue is remedied, we’ll be ready in better shape for camping off the grid during the remainder of our trip. Since it’s suppose to rain for the next few days, our plan is to make some miles toward Quebec City — about 12 hours away from where we are now in Northern Ontario.