A Drive in the Rain

Today hubby and I decided we'd go for a drive to Port Dover, get a burger and enjoy getting away from the house. Just as we were about to leave, it started to sprinkle rain. We decided to go anyway. This summer has been so wet that if you stayed home because of the rain, you'd never go anywhere. We headed out, went and got our burger and then drove further down Lake Erie.

Along the way, we saw these. They are tobacco kilns. They used to be plentiful in the area. Tobacco farming was the way to make money. Not anymore. These are testimony to days gone by.

I had hubby turn off the main road onto a country road. It was narrow, gravel and in many places the trees made a canopy over the road. It was pouring and the above photo was taken from inside the van.

The pouring rain didn't stop the produce farmers. We saw workers picking cucumbers and this man with a load of them taking them to a truck in a different field.

We ended up at Turkey Point, a small village where there are many cottages. At this time of year the crowds are usually huge. Not so today. The only crowd we saw was this crowd of seagulls.

The beach was deserted. If you notice in the right of this picture, there is a boat coming in off the lake, which was very wise. Lake Erie can be really nasty during a storm.

Then we happened across an old pioneer cemetery. I had hubby pull in beside the church. I love exploring cemeteries and this one looked interesting. I wasn't going to let a little rain stop me. People probably thought I was crazy walking through this cemetery taking pictures in the rain.

The tombstones are in disrepair and in need of a good cleaning.

These three are all from one family. The far one had extremely beautiful engravings.

Jane Douglass, wife of Levi. She died in 1846, at the age of 26 years. It made me pause and wonder why she died so young. Her daughter, Mary, is also buried here. Did she die in childbirth?

This tombstone stood out because it seemed to be all by itself. Were other plots reserved for relatives that didn't use them?

Beautiful old tombstones and behind them, newer ones. A great representation of the old and the new.

This is a beautiful spot. The engraving on the tombstone was so worn that I couldn't tell what it said. I found it most interesting that it is enclosed by a wrought iron fence and the tree is just outside the fence. Was the tree planted as a memorial?

When we left the cemetery, we drove into Simcoe to get some gas. We drove around the ponds in the center of town. In the lower portion of the photo, toward the left, is a Canada goose. This area has always had many geese, ducks and swans. When Michelle was little, I used to take her here to feed the waterfowl. Then they banned feeding.

We struck out for home and stopped at this farmer's market. We bought sweet corn, tomatoes and plums. When we got home, we weren't hungry, but later on I cooked some corn and we had tomato, cheese and cucumber sandwiches.

Even though it rained, we enjoyed getting away and doing things that we haven't done for a long time. It must be ten years or more since we've been to Turkey Point and hubby had a good laugh about me wandering around the cemetery in the rain with my camera and red and white Canada umbrella.