Day 1 - Whitby, Ontario to Hawkesbury, Ontario - July 13, 2010

July 13th, we left our home at 8:44 am. We had a lot of miles ahead of us in the next thirteen days so we decided not to rent a car, and took the Crapalier. It's what my mechanic husband named the Cavalier he bought for $300. No thats not a typo. Three hundred dollars!! Check out the photo below and see the emblem our friend Chuck did for us.

We also joined the Canadian Tire Roadside Assistance plan, which about paid for itself in the Choice hotel chain special rates. Or Crappy Tire as most Canadians call it. No one will give it a second thought if you forget and call it "Crappy Tire" as I did when making a reservation with choice hotels.

Our first stop was for lunch in Cornwall, Ontario at St-Hubert Rotisserie. It's a chicken and rib restaurant chain that is mostly located in Quebec, with very few left in Ontario. Nine years ago my husband (John) wanted to take me to the last one in the Scarborough, Ontario area, as it was his favorite, but when we pulled into the parking lot we saw it was closed and all boarded up.

John ordered his favorite, ribs and chicken and I ordered his second favorite, a hot chicken sandwich. He said it wasn't as good as he remembered, but I thought the food was good. The sauce wasn't the same, and the roll was just a grilled hamburg bun.

I thought it was cool with all the pea's on top of the sandwich, but I'm not a pea lover and they got to be a little too much. You get your choice of cole slaw, creamy or vinegar. The creamy was very good.

We are starting to see a lot of French speaking people as we are getting closer to the Quebec border.

We then ran into some torrential rain on Hwy 401 and decided to take the next exit. Many people were pulling over on the 401, but thats not really a safe thing to do with the crazy drivers around here. Luckily the next exit was our exit to Country Road 34 on our way to Hawkesbury, Ontario. a nice little town on the Ottawa River. Had to pull over again because of the rain and visibility and found the perfect place, Glengarry Fine Cheese an Artisan Cheesemaking shop. It was our lucky day, they were making cheese.





I purchased some of their aged Lankaaster cheese and Lankaaster Onion. The Lankaaster was named after the Dutch word kaas meaning cheese and a tribute to the town of Lancaster where Glengarry is located. It is a gouda cheese, but not like any I have ever tasted. If thats what an aged gouda tastes like, then I love it. I'm a cheddar lover, and to me it was like a good buttery cheddar.

We started seeing our first signs that said "Danger - Moose Crossing" and we were still in Ontario. I was hopeful that we would see a moose on our trip.

Checked into the Hawkesbury Best Western L'Heritage at 3:44 pm. We booked this hotel because it was still in Ontario, without us having to venture into French speaking only land, and it had a restaurant and lounge so we wouldn't have to drive any more. Well just our luck the restaurant was closed.


It was a 2 room King Suite and I liked the idea that the bathroom had a door to each room. We didn't want to drive to a restaurant and decided to just relax and fill up on all the snacks I brought along. We were disappointed that the hotel failed to tell us the restaurant was closed and they still advertise this on their website and brochures.

I had booked all our rooms in advance with all having a same day cancellation policy in case our plans changed. We are also smokers and there are very few hotel chains that cater to smokers. We were glad to get a smoking room, but it was in the worst location in the hotel, near an entrance and stairwell that was noisy all night. Paper thin walls and the breakfast buffet was pretty pathetic. There were 25 cars in the parking lot that night, so you think they would have had enough stuff. I went for a second cup of coffee and there was none left.

DAY 1 - 5 hours driving time.