September 27 - 2017, Willow Lake, Scotland - Ontario, Canada

We spent some of the afternoon driving around the Hamilton area.

Turtle crossing coming up

Turtle crossing

Ran across an unusual sign (for us at least).










Spent some time around the harbor.

 


In the evening we met up with one of my former co-workers.
Peter Krohn is currently CFO (finansdirektør) in DHL Global Forwarding in Canada. Good to see him again. We spend a nice evening right on Lake Ontario.Talked about pretty much everything: work, travel, politics etc. etc.
Like (almost) everybody else we know, Peter has seen more of the U.S. than we have, so we got some good travel tips for our future trip.

Written by JJ

September 27 - 2017, Willow Lake, Scotland - Ontario, Canada

I went for a walk today, around the camp ground. It is a large one, with 380 sites. Only 60 of them are for overnight campers, like us.

The rest are for “seasonal” campers. That means, that they park their camper on the site, and leave it there. Most of them look like they don’t ever move them. Some have sheds, landscaping, built up decks, terraces with pavers (terasser med fliser), and even built-on additions. 

Many of the "seasonals" have golf carts for driving around this "mini town". I took some pictures on my walk. Thought it might be interesting – especially for our readers, who camp in Denmark.

  

Our swimming lake

Lake side property

Terrace with pavers

Build-on with fence, trees and bushes

 

Golf cart for transportation in this
"mini town"



 

Written by Mary

September 25-26 - 2017 Willow Lake, Scotland - Ontario, Canada

On Monday we moved again.
This time we went off the map.
We are at Willow Lake in
a little town called Scotland
 in Ontario, Canada.
About 75 miles ( 120 km)
southwest of Toronto

Tuesday we went to Niagara Falls.
This spring we took a tour to southern Germany.
We came across a sign that pointed to the highest waterfall in Germany.
After we had walked for half an hour we thought we could hear it, but it turned out to be a lawnmower 😊.
We said to each other that the next waterfall we are going to see is Niagara Falls and if we can’t find that we will not tell anybody. Well, WE FOUND IT  😊

We had perfect weather – a good day to get wet. 95 degrees ( 35 celcius). That is record-breaking for this part of the world at this time of the year (October 1st is on Sunday!).
(We have actually gone swimming in the lake the last two evenings).

 

The Niagara Falls are amazing. We took hundreds of pictures (many of them looked the same 😊). 34 million gallons (ca. 154 millioner liter) flows over the edge - EVERY MINUTE.

We took a couple of short videos too. They really give an idea about how massive the whole thing is.
They may take a while to load though.

 

 

By the way: 10.000 years ago the area, including all of the great lakes, was covered with ice,
and no water flowing. Then the ice started to melt, the lakes were created and water began to flow towards Niagara and the falls were born.
All because of global warming. Man made? Probably!!!

Written by JJ

 

September 21-25 - 2017 Jackson, Michigan

The past few days have been spent with my brother Joe and his wife Debbie and their family, in Jackson, Michigan. It was nice to spend a few days with family again, do some laundry, get some home cooked meals. (We have been cooking in the camper, but it has been very simple meals.)

Joe and JJ did some repairs and improvements on the car and camper. So, we left Jackson “new and improved”.

Here are a couple of pictures from our activities.

Visit to the local micro brewery

Family bonfire

 

 

It was fun to be in the middle of Lions country, watching the Lions lose to the Falcons and at the same time watch the Vikings beat the Buccaneers 😊

The weather has been abnormally warm for late September. Ever since we left Minnesota, the temperatures have been in the high 80’s – low 90’s F (ca. 30 grader Celsius). We have also had sunshine and blue skies most of the time. This weekend in Jackson was VERY warm.

Written by Mary 

September 20 - 2017 Detroit, Michigan

Wednesday we went to Detroit: Motortown.
We toured one of Fords factories. The truck factory in Dearborn.
The factory is over a hundred years old and was Henry Ford’s ultimate dream: A factory where you
put iron ore (jernmalm) in at one end and got a car at the other end. Everything was produced on site.
Not so anymore, but nevertheless an amazing factory.
We saw some interesting movies about the Ford history, a gallery of old cars and last but not least got
to see a part of the factory where they are today making the F-150 Ford truck. One every minute!!

From pickup trucks to real trucks:
Saw this one on our way out of town: 11 axles !!

Detroit has been a wealthy town since the early 20^th century, because of the auto industry. However, the past many years – and especially after the financial crisis in 2008, the American auto industry has been going downhill. This is very evident in the downtown Detroit area.

We saw many abandoned buildings – public buildings, private houses, industry….

Michigan Central Station - abandoned

 

Abandoned  house

 
 
 


Packard Automotive Plant

 
Luckily the auto industry is starting to come back, and Detroit is starting to revive. There are many new buildings going up downtown, and people are able to buy and renovate the abandoned houses. We drove through neighborhoods, where most of the houses looked kept up, and then there would be 1 or 2 that were not. We also found one area, where most of the houses looked run down or abandoned. But it looks like Detroit will be able to come back after its fall.

 

 

Written by JJ and Mary

 

September 18-19 - 2017 Ottawa Lake, Michigan

Monday the 18^th we spend in transit.
We moved from Illinois to Ottawa Lake, Michigan.
We are about an hour south of Detroit (see map).

Tuesday we went on a long road trip.

First stop was NFL Hall Of Fame in Canton, Ohio
A very exciting place, with lots of history, statistics, pride and glory.

 

We also picked a good year to come, as Morten Andersen from Denmark,
was inducted to the hall of fame only a little over a month ago. Number two from the left.

 

The Vikings history started with the Duluth Eskimos (1923-1925).
When the owner sold the team to the football league, he got first right of any future pro football team in Minnesota. Hense the connection to the Vikings.(He got 10%).
Duluth played 29 games one year. 28 away, because  nobody wanted to go to freezing cold Minnesota !! 😊



The Vince Lombardi Trophy

 

The Vince Lombardi Trophy. (Mesterskabspokalen).
The trophy is on display in Canton throughout the season,
awaiting the Super Bowl winner of the season.

 

The day was a day of total contrasts. We went from the Football Hall of Fame, with all its glitz and glory, to an area of Ohio, where the Amish people have a large community, where they live a more humble and simple life.

For those of you, who do not know about the Amish, they are a conservative religious group, descending from Dutch-Swiss immigrants in the 18^th century. They have rules called “ordnung” (way of life), that prohibit the use of telephones, electricity, motorized vehicles,…. They wear traditional clothing, farm the land by hand, and transport themselves with bicycles and horse-drawn carriages.

Here are some images from Amish land….    

An Amish department store

Amish washing machines

 

Amish gardening tools

 



Children on their way home from school


 

Transportation 

 

Written by JJ and Mary.