July 9, 2025 (Wednesday)

Another travel day... Left South Algonquin Roots RV heading east. Made it to Montreal South KOA. About 300 miles mostly on 2 lane roads with top speed at 55mph but mostly 40-45mph. Except when you get behind a line painting crew. We traveled for two hours at 5 to 10 miles per hour. They were very concerned that paint would get smeared. There were 3 vehicles: 1: the paint truck paint both the center line and right edge, 2: the first following truck to stop anyone entering the road in front of 3: following truck 2. If someone tried to pass following truck 2 that truck blocked the way. If  car came on to the road before following truck 2 following truck 1 stopped until truck 2 caught up. Truck 2 pulled in front of the car that Truck 1 stopped and we proceeded to move forward at 5-10mph again. A wonderful relaxing drive.

Gas is about $4.75/gal in Ontario. Typical fill up $150. ca.( About $120. US).

Note: McDonald's App issued in US does not work in Canada and you can't get a Canadian McD app. Same for Irving gas rewards card.

July 8, 2025 (Tuesday)

Today started with doing laundry in Bancroft. Once we had clean clothes for the next week we continued our exploration of the area. Our first stop was a Lakeside Gem. After checking out the "imported" stones, I asked the young lady if they had any local rocks; "Oh yeah, they're in those draws under the displays of the imported stuff"... we picked out a few pieces of beryl and headed up to pay. I asked her if there were any public access area nearby. She immediately pull out a cardboard box of beautiful specimens that she had collect yesterday.  Seems there was a guided tour an area called  Titanite Hill. She consulted with another employee to see if she could share the information. I guess we had spent enough and we were given the info. Next stop: Titanite Hill. During the info disclosure we were told the higher we go up the better chance of finding good stuff. Bob and I headed up the hill. ( I should mention that we had no plans to dig so we were in shorts, sneakers and golf shirts). I think we were a third of the way up the hill when we met Santana. She was digging a little to the right of out path. We asked if she was finding anything good. She told us she had spent 5 hours yesterday and found a lot. We must have looked like two old guys struggling up the hill and told us that there was a area further up that had good specimens. An without another word she took off up the hill. About 5 minutes later she came back with a handful of really nice specimens for us. A few minutes later her husband (Luke) and son (Aldon) joined us.

Aldon had a toad inside his mosquito head gear. Guess to get any mosquitoes that got through the netting. Great 🤔. 

After they left we of course headed up to the top. We spent another hour or two on the hill and collect an amazing collection of  minerals. Photos to be added later...

Later that afternoon two hurting old guys finally got back to the truck covered with mud but happy for a remarkable day. Thanks to the two young ladies at Lakeside Gem and especially Santana. 

July 7, 2025 (Monday)

We got an early start heading to the Princess Sodalite Mine. The "mine" is a gift shop with a rock dump in the back that you a pick thru and pay $2(ca)/ lb. We spent a few hours picking thru rock very large rocks. Some with Sodalite but required sledgehammer to break a piece off. We finally gave up and returned to the gift shop and bought some.

After leaving there we he

aded to the Beryl Pit in Quadeville, ON. In order to get to the pit you have to register at the Kauffeldt's Grocery and pay $20 ea. Bob asked if they had examples of what we'd find: " Nope! Don't know why people look for rock. If we find some don't bring them back here. Im not interested just take them and head down the road".

Got directions and headed "up the road". We hiked in about 3/4 of a mile and started the our search for beryl. Some of you may have heard of  blue beryl: aquamarine. We had a good time looking found some interesting rock but no beryl. After a few hours in the rain we headed " down the road" with our finds (not stopping at Kauffeldt's to share).

The last photo is Amazonite one of the finds at the Beryl Pit.