Day 6 : May 7, 2011 Grand Bend - Niagara-on-the-Lake

Day 6 : May 7, 2011 Grand Bend - Niagara-on-the-Lake

What a fantastic day, sunny !!!, no rain in the forecast, dry roads, and a pleasant ride back to Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Karen and I decide to have breakfast next door to the motel at Aunt Gussies, I would recommend this place, we had dinner here on my first night.

Got underway right at 9am, I have 7 letters to get to finish my MOAZ (Motorcycle Ontario A to Z), and I have come up with an "x", is in "x marks the spot", I will add an additional photo from the collection which I did not use in the main set as the "x" photo.

First stop in about 45 minutes is Exeter, just East of Grand Bend, again a thriving farm town with a fair bit of traffic for a Saturday AM.  After Exeter, I let the GPS route me to St. Mary's, now this might not seem wise, but the GPS took me down some fantastic motorcycle roads, with ZERO cars, paved, and tree lined, the trees even formed an canopy over the road - is this Ontario ?? - YES  - GET OUT AND EXPLORE.  (I will post the GPS Tracks so one can duplicate this trip if you want).

St. Mary's has a very old VIA (xCNR) railway station, well worth the stop, also the cleanest washroom I have ever used, plus a good location for the "x" marks the spot photo.

After St. Mary's it off to Beachville, via Ingersoll.  Other than the "B" in Beachville and the numerious open Lime Mines, Beachville is famous for the first ever game of Baseball in 1838, a year before the America's, see the link: [http://www.beachvilledistrictmuseum.ca/baseball.shtml].

After a very brief stop in Beachville it was cross country to Norwich, Delhi and Simcoe.  Simcoe was a good place for lunch at Tim Horton's before a very short run to Jarvis on Highway 3, and  my "J", photo.  Jarvis is the junction of Hwy 3 and 6, and most know it as the last town before Port Dover on Hwy 6.  But if you head North on 6, you will come to Hagersville.

I wanted a shot of the old New York Central railroad station, still standing, as the background for the Hagersville shot, but NO sign saying Hagersville, so I will make due with the towns wine red sign, which is very attractive.

From Hagersville to my next stop at York, on the Grand River.  Not much in York (just south of Caladonia), just a no-name gas station and a few well maintained homes, I am not sure it even has a Post Office, so the highway sign will have to do.

Well with York being my final location, all that remains is "Q", so I have located one about 167km from Niagara in Queensville, which is just North of Newmarket, leave that for another day.

I arrive home at 15:45, not bad for a less than straight line from Grand Bend.  What I remember most is that Ontario has a lot of very neat places to visit, eat in and ride a motorcycle to.  In fact I visited a few that I have never been to before - and that is WOW!!.

Some statistics:
6 days on the road
All within Ontario
Distance: 1,298km (about 811 miles)