Retreat from Moscow

I was going to narrate this drive home (from our trip to Smiths Falls and Napanee), but hubby wrote a note to a friend, and it truly befits the post.

I should preface this, by stating that when Jen wants us to get directly from A to B, with the aid of our friendly GPS, it tends to be straight forward. HOWEVER, Jen loves her back country roads, especially gravel, and not always maintained by the county. So, we do often, more or less, intentionally wander about. An eastern Ontario road map or google earth might help follow this narrative. 

     So, on Wednesday we went from Smith Falls to Napanee for lunch at a favourite restaurant on the water. It was about 12:30 , we were hungry, so the fast boring way, highway #15 to 401 to Napanee, arriving about 14:15 ( hope you are ok with 24-hour clock, Jen isn't).

     We finished lunch/dinner at 15:30, and started a more slow paced drive home. This would take us from Napanee to Yarker and east to either 38 north or further east to 10 north (Perth road at about Sydenham). But instead of right turn east at Yarker on 4, we turned north west on 6 to Colebank, then further north west again to, guess where, Moscow. 

I, being a European history major, was quite excited but alas, no Kremlin, no Bolshoi, just the houses of the some 65 residents, and sign promising ice cream at the church on Saturday.

     It turns out that the hamlet was one of many with the same good old Anglo Saxon name. This confused the postal service, which I'm thinking, in 1800 didn't have the codes yet. So in honour of Russia stopping Napoleon in Moscow in 1812 (you know, the 1812 overture) they renamed the hamlet Moscow. OK, so we have, unlike Napoleon, good weather, full tummies, wheeled transport, and GPS navigation. We are heading north, great, but west, not great. Time to, as did Napoleon, turn about. After a short move further up 6 northwest, we turned back through Moscow, and turned North EAST, on Huffman road by the Church with the promised Saturday ice cream.

     All is good. We are rolling east on pavement. BUT then comes our bonding with Napoleon. Huffmann turns into the appropriately named Long Swamp Road, "no winter use, not maintained by the county."
     We start off on gravel, (no big deal), then for what seemed  a scene from the Grand Army's Retreat, it went to some crushed large rocks. We have an SUV with good clearance, 4 wheel drive, and large tires, nevertheless, we had to zip along, so as not to sink into the alleged road bed.

Jen tells me that it was nice scenery.

     Finally, Long Swamp Road ends at Bellrock  Rd, which if we had turned right would have taken us east to 38, but you guessed it, we did a left and headed north West, to Chippewa. No, not, thank goodness, the famous one, just the hamlet in what was still Eastern Ontario. From Chippewa, we went more or less north to Second Lake Road, (are there less than 100 second lake roads around us?) to Oak Flats road...

then south not north, to Arena Boundary Road (no arena was evident) east to Piccadilly. (And, yes, apparently, it is a long, long way to Piccadilly) and on to 38, up to the Westport Road, and from there home.

     All this adventure, really only added about an hour to an hour and half trip. But how else do you go from Moscow to  Piccadilly through Chippawa on a Wednesday afternoon? 

Take care, No elephants were spotted tin the air for the duration of the trip.

I hope you liked his narration! His friend is ill and he sends her tales about our trips. He forgot about this part. The sign is small, but important! "Share the road!"

The dashcam isn't the best, but you can see how quickly the deer appear, as well as the lovely lakes we pass on the drive.

I spotted them and called out, JB was just trying to avoid potholes!


Despite this scenery, we are in a mild drought.


It is definitely cottage country! These signs are so typical.


Ah, but the lakes! And on through Westport. I love this approach, the lake just gets bigger and bigger.


This guy was interesting. The sign on his back says "I am carrying myself to Montreal."


Home again!

turkey toms from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.