Rural Road Rambling (Mostly but not exclusive to Southwest Ontario)

From Vienna I continued south to Port Burwell where I stopped at the historic Trinity church for some photos. I think the one with the stained glass illuminated by the sun coming through the windows on the opposite wall is my favourite from this set.













On the way out of town I stopped at the wind generator interpretive centre for a few last pics and then went home for supper and a cold beer.







That's all for now. Thanks for tagging along.....Dave

All good stuff. I liked the info on the Quaker town, as my ancestors are from the US East coast and I believe Quakers. I also noticed your info on Burwell,we have a good friend from Minnesota named Bill Burwell. Only about a 100 km from a town by my name, Hallock ,Mn. Never made it there yet!
And yes, we need to ride when the weather is good, I am looking to buy some Hippo Hands for winter, can't go south yet. Steve

Was that a record back then for longest number of years lived?

Impressive.

I don't mind cemeteries. Keep them coming.

Brian; I don't know if it is a record but he certainly lived a long full life. I see many cemeteries in my area and will slow down on pictures. However there a a few very old ones with famous (in Canadian history) people buried in them and in the interest of history I will record them. One project I have in mind is to visit and take pictures of all the historical plaques and signs in my home county. I believe there are somewhere around 100 so it will take some time and enjoyable rides.

It has been just over a month since I last posted in this thread. Although our riding season is over until at least late March 2021 I will post some of my rides from years ago just to keep it semi active.This ride took place August 28th 2011. I do not seem to have any pics of my motorcycle in these pics but I would have been riding my 1978 Kawasaki KZ400C1 at that time. I headed north from home and rode up near the town of St Mary's and stopped in front of Fawcett used tractor parts yard for a picture.Take note of the Ford tractor atop the silo behind the main building. It has been there for many years.



From St Mary's I rode southeast down to Ingersoll where the annual Harvest Fest show was going on. It is held in a park where there is plenty of room to display "old stuff". They have an antique car show as part of the festivities. There were two Hupmobiles from the same owner on display along with about a hundred other cars and the Ingersoll fire department's restored Stewart fire truck. Stewart trucks were made in NY state, I think in the Buffalo area.

Also at the show were various tractors and old farm machinery and someone had a display of antique clothes washing machines.















Also in the park is the Ingersoll Cheese and Dairy Museum



From Ingersoll I rode south on Hwy 19 through Tillsonburg and Vienna to Port Burwell to look at the lighthoue. I have posted pics of it earlier in this thread.



continued..

From Port Burwell I went west along the Lake Erie road to Copenhagen to the chip truck in front of the General store and stopped for a perch and chips lunch.



From there I went further west through Port Bruce and over to Port Stanley for a visit to the harbour. Back in 2011 the harbour was still controlled by the federal government. The responsibility for it has since been downloaded to the Municipality of Central Elgin. The grain silos in the pictures no longer exist and that land has been redeveloped more for tourism.North of the lift bridge is mostly pleasure boats and the commercial use of the harbour now consists of mostly fishing tugs. It is no longer dredged deep enough for the lake freighters to dock. The large tank with the mural contains liquid asphalt and even that commodity is now trucked into and out of Port and no longer arrives by ship.









From Port I went back east on the Lake Road to a vegetable stand and bought some corn to go with supper. Then to the Sparta Store for ice cream before heading home for the day. A most pleasant late August ride.







I will try to post a different ride every so often so you don't forget me and my "Rambling"......hope you enjoyed the trip....Dave

I like the Beemer. Not sure how I missed this. The pics are OK too! Very nice!

All the food pics in different threads are killing me. Trying to lose 10#'s put on due to working from home since Covid.

Good stuff, Dave. Appreciate it!

Awesome thread...

I cant wait too hit the Ontario Pan Handle...

Every 4 too 5 years too hang out with Relitives at Harley /// Wood Stock...

Lots of them...

Ill throw up some kool photos too if you don't mind...

And we could link up for a coffee ride,,, ride or coffee,,, coffee or just a short ride...

Of course we would have too do a Chapman's lce cream /// Coca a Cola float,,, at least 3 of them reach... Ha...

I heard they are healthy...

Can wait too get some pavement and gravel down there,,,

Yes,,, link up since id be there for a strech of a month,,, and looking for shade...

Us western packer heads dont handle the heat that well...

Talking about my self that is... Ha...

Ill do a 1 month heads up next year before i head yours way...

Live in run about,,, pack the bike in the box...
Get the unit unloaded and pin-it... Ha...

Western'er Canada Don

Chapman's is a great Canadian ice cream brand to be sure, but when I'm out in that area of Ontario, I'm looking for Shaw's Ice Cream, out of St. Thomas. It's pretty damn fantastic.

https://www.shawsicecream.com/

The following RR was from a ride on June 23rd 2019. I left home and headed somewhat northeast to the southern limits of Brantford Ontario where I picked up Old Hwy. 54 over to Caledonia. From Caledonia I continued on 54 towards Cayuga. Just before Cayuga I stopped in at Ruthven Park. This is the site of the Ruthven Mansion. Here are some pictures of the house and grounds. Along with being a historic site this venue is used for weddings, conferences,antique car shows and various other gatherings.



















continued.....

From Ruthven Mansion & Park I continued south on Hwy. 54 into Cayuga and the junction of Hwy 3. I turned west on 3 and went over through Nelles Corners to Balmoral where I turned south on Regional Rd. 53 and rode down to the historic Cottonwood Mansion where I stopped for some pictures.













I have toured the mansion a few years ago and it is quite interesting. As the signage says from 1911 to 1988 only the back portion of the house was occupied. In 1988 the property was purchased by Larry Hamilton from Boston who is related to the original owners/builders of the property. He built the rear addition of garage and living space so he would have a home while he restored the main house to it's former glory. From here I went further south to Selkirk where I turned west and rode a series of back roads over to the Aylmer area where I turned north for home. Thanks for following and I will post more rides from the past until the 2021 riding season arrives here in southern Ontario.........Dave

Hope your stayin' warm up there Dave...

Happy New Year...

Happy New Year back to you Rudy. Yes; I'm staying warm and our weather hasn't been too bad so far this winter. I have blown out the driveway twice but it is clear right now and temps are hovering around the freezing level so thankfully very little snow still on the ground here. I just came from your thread and reading about your new camera setup. I hope the US and Canadian vaccination programs can do their job and give us some normality and an open border sometime in the spring. As "seniors" my wife and I should be able to get the vaccine as soon as the care workers, doctors, first responders, residents of care facilities etc. are done. Hopefully sometime in the late spring/early summer. Enjoy the Florida weather that I won't get to this year. Stay safe and healthy and enjoy your trip planning and day tripping.

Here are some pictures from a nice day trip I took in August 2016. I didn't take any pictures til I reached my first destination that day as I didn't know I would be posting it here at a later date. I left home and made my way westwards on back roads to Chatham Ont. and from there up Hwy 40 to Wallaceburg. From there it was further northwest over to Mitchell's Bay on Lake St. Clair for their annual car and tractor show. I took lots of pictures but I of course will only post some of them in this ride report.



It was a bit overcast and very hot that day. Pics from the little point and shoot I was using that day are just okay but they will have to do.





The blue Dodge had a very appropriate engine.





This one also.



The '64 Comet has a reworked 5 Liter. I owned a Canary Yellow example back in the late 60's with a 4 spd. and 289 CI with 225 HP.





continued.....

Uh, Dave, don't feel as if you have to hold back on pics of this. We can handle it.

Here are some of the tractors also on display that day.









From Mitchell's Bay I rode up the St Clair Parkway and took some shipping pics. The land you see in the background is the State of Michigan. The St. Clair river is a very busy waterway that serves both Canada and the US as a border and major transportation link to the upper Great Lakes.



The Algoscotia was built in 2002 as a double hull 488ft. long petroleum tanker. It is "upbound" heading for Sarnia/Port Huron and on into Lake Huron.



The John J Carrick is 407 ft. barge built in 2008 and usually pushed by the tug Victorious. In this picture it is "down bound" towards Lake St Clair and Lake Erie.



In this last picture the Carrick is meeting the "up bound" Algoma Olympic. This was a 730 ft. self unloader built in 1976. It is empty in this photo as can be seen by how high in the water it is riding. I said was a sentence ago because this ship was scrapped in Turkey in 2018.

continued.....

When I reached the intersection of the St Clair Parkway and Hwy 80, I turned right and headed east to the town of Glencoe where the downtown merchants had a Craft Festival and car show going on. Part of the main street was closed off for the car show and the craft festival vendors were set up in front of the restored C.N. train station. Some of the cars.











I parked near the train station which is located beside an active track. To the west of town an eastbound ViaRail passenger train was waiting on a siding for the westbound train to pass before continuing on to London and on to Toronto.






Here is a pic of the restored Station and my bike in the foreground. You can see the craft vendors set up in front of the station.



My daughter is a "quilter" and she and my wife were set up in the craft area. Too hot for me to hang around so I continued on east via backroads to go home for some shade and a cold beer or three. Thanks for tagging along and I hope you enjoyed this "Ramble".

Time for a report of another day trip I made on Nov. 15th 2015. The London Ontario area has quite a few bridges both railway and roadway over the railroads. Both Canadian National and Canadian Pacific have main lines that run through London. On this day I set out to photograph some of these area bridges. The first pictures are of a disused former farmer's bridge over the CP tracks in west London. This bridge is not used anymore because the land on both sides of the track have been bought by developers and are being made into residential subdivisions.







Continuing west you come to Wonderland Rd. which has recently been rebuilt and widened so CP had to build a new bridge over it. The bridge was built a couple of years before the planned roadworks.



A little bit more to the west is an older bridge that has been reinforced to handle the weight of the newer six axle locomotives and the heavier trains they pull.



When you come to the south end of Denfield road, which is the next one west of Wonderland, there is an old wooden bridge which only serves 4 houses to the south of the tracks. At this point the CN and CP are close enough together that this bridge spans both tracks.







CP track to the left and CN to the right. This view is to the east back towards London.



Continued...........