In our last post we left you as we were northbound, having left the hostages behind to fend for themselves.  We aim to go as far north as we can in a more-or-less straight line.  Having to plan around some weather, our first planned stop for the night was somewhere in the North Bay area.

You may have noticed that lately we’ve had two streams: COVID19 updates from the farm with the hostages, and parallel catch-up posts of our now-not-so-recent travels.  These posts were at a collision course and are finally colliding here now.  We are now travelling (well, sort of), AND talking about current events at the same time. Novelty.

First though, a quick stop to say hello to old friends who now live in the Huntsville area.

Just to step back to Covid for a second, we hesitated taking this trip once Ontario Parks opened up.  Ontario seems to be on the road to recovery with Stage 2 opening up of businesses and campgrounds.  One can venture out with proper social distancing, mandatory masks in indoor places, and some common sense.  It seemed safe going on this trip, but we were still a bit conflicted.  This would be our first social interaction since the pandemic started.

Our friends, Mihály and Fátima from Trailers and cigarettes share many talents between them, but we enjoyed their warm hospitality the most!  Fátima is a fiber artist and you can catch up with some of her fiber knowledge in Fiber Nut.

I just love these vibrant rugs!

Mihály does some amazing leather work out of his Tailgate Cafe, where he creates spectacular bespoke leathercraft.

Together , they built Earthbase, a small haven in the woods.

No, it didn’t snow when we were there, the picture is from their website 🙂

So we kept our social distance, or so we thought.  When I watched the video I noticed the distance shrink the more time we spent together.  Yet, another thing to get used to… keeping your distance consistently over a long period of time and not letting your guard down as you get comfortable.  More things to consider.

We planned to stop for a quick hello, but there was the lure of lunch, an invitation for an ATV tour of the property, and a suggestion to collaborate on a video about the van.  How could we refuse?

First off, a tour of the property on this go-anywhere ATV.  We checked out the bush,

the waterfall,

and the beaver dam.

Back to the house after we checked out the “She Shed” and the Airstream, both works in progress you can read about on their blog.

my favourite is the vespa on the deck by the bedroom

And lunch!

Fátima is originally from Brazil, and not only did we enjoy an amazing lunch, we also learned a lot about Portuguese cuisine and butchery techniques! We had barbecued picanha steaks that kept us full for four days…

She also supplied us with some delicious Portuguese pastries for the way (those ended up being our dinner after getting to the campground really late that night).

Next on the agenda was a video shoot of the van. It was a first for all of us, but Mihály did a great job making us comfortable.  It was fun to do and we think he also did a great job with the video.

and it’s a wrap!

Thank you Fátima and Mihály for a lovely day of creativity and friendship.

Take that Covid!

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