Owen Sound to Durham

One of Paul’s mother’s favourite singers was the contralto, Kathleen Ferrier, who sang “Blow the Wind Southerly”. Unfortunately, today,  we were not able to share the positive sentiments in the lyrics. There was a blustery south westerly which was a strong headwind for us. We left Owen Sound by a back way and the conditions were soon evident, as was the poor state of Highway 6/10. We passed a plaque relating to the old Toronto-Sydenham Road from the mid 19th C, noting  the sentence, “Most of this old Settlement Road is still in use as Highway 10”. We are inclined to think that there has been little maintenance since its construction. The road was extremely busy with holiday/weekend traffic. The skies were full of dark clouds, with the threat of thunder showers.

As we were making very slow progress, we strategized over coffee in Chatsworth, the birthplace of Nellie McClung. We had planned to get to Fergus, where our friends, John and Catherine, were expecting us. We decided to stay on the #6, which divided from the #10 at Chatsworth, and reassess things at Durham. The road did improve and much of the traffic stayed on the #10; however, the wind did not let up and it was 1:30 before we got to Durham, with still 65 km to Fergus. After lunch at Gloria’s restaurant, which included delicious homemade rice pudding, we decided to call it a day and booked a room at the Forestedge B&B.  The owner kindly offered us the use of his car to go out for dinner to the local Chinese restaurant. He apologized that it would not be the Cadillac, as his daughter was using that!

Young’s Garden Restaurant has been in existence since the 1930’s (the current owners bought it in 1986). It retains the original decor of the 30’s, with wooden booths and bevelled glass mirrors manufactured by the Toronto Storage Fixture Company. Before it was a restaurant, it was a bank. The original bank vault is used as a storage room. They offered  a good selection of vegetarian dishes and added tofu to a dish even though tofu wasn’t on the menu. The use of the car was particularly appreciated as it was pouring when we came out of the restaurant.

We learnt that when Tanya and Jocelyn were ahead of us, Jocelyn left a message on a rock by the side of the road outside of Nipigon. Unfortunately we missed it. She has now sent us a picture.

We are on the traditional territory of the First Nations of the Upper Canada Treaties Area 2.