LAKE SAINT PETER PROVINCIAL PARK, ALGONQUIN PARK’S LOGGING MUSEUM AND EGAN CHUTES PROVINCIAL PARK, JULY 28-AUGUST 3, 2022

Lake Saint Peter Provincial Park, Ontario, Campsite number 14

For the first time in many years, I decided to book a campsite in a park that I had never visited before. After a perfunctory research, I found out that it was a small park, located on Lake St. Peter, north of Bancroft and relatively close to Algonquin Park. According to the map, some campsites offered a view of the lake and I almost manage to reserve one, but probably somebody else must have hit the button a second before me, so I booked the only remaining campsite number 14.

 

Lake Saint Peter Provincial Park, Ontario, Campsite number 14

When I left home, the traffic on Highway 401 East was moving relatively well, but after a while, I found out about an overturned trailer, blocking all lanes—and to avoid it, I took Highway 404 and then the 407, the toll highway, which, as always, was traffic-free and I could have probably drive 150 k/hr without any problems. I stopped in Peterborough at Bell Mobile, where I activated my first smartphone! I made another stop in Bancroft in Food Mart, got 2 steaks (they were delicious!) and arrived at the park. Indeed, the site was rather small and offered very little (none) privacy from the adjoining campsite and the one across the road. After setting up the tent, I drove back to Bancroft to get wood.

 

Campfire wood for sale in Bancroft, Ontario

Two years ago, while camping in nearby Silent Lake Provincial Park, I discovered a place in Bancroft selling wood. It was run on an 'honour system' and each time I went there, I did not see any owners. This year there was plenty of wood, too, and as I was loading it into the car, a lady walked from the house—and of course, we started chatting. Her husband had passed away not long ago and now she was running this business. I asked her if people ever took the wood without leaving the payment—she said never, which I found quite amazing: as I had already mentioned in my blog about Silent Lake, if she ran such a business in Toronto, in no time the money (and the wood) would be gone!

 

The Hasting Heritage Trail at the entrance to Lake Saint Peter Park. The trail is more suitable for dirt bikes and ATVs than bikes

Along road 27 there is an old rail trail, Hasting Heritage Trail. I had even thought about bringing my bike and riding on it, but some reviewers strongly advocated against it, claiming that the trail's surface was made up of dirt & gravel, very rough due to numerous ATVs using the trail. Indeed, they were right: it would probably take a mountain bike with very thick tires to ride that trail—and when I saw a group of ATV-ers and some motor-cross riders speeding on the trail and leaving a huge cloud of dust behind, I knew it was certainly NOT my kind of a bicycle trail!

 

The Alligator--a boat that could also move overland--in Algonquin Park's Logging Museum, Ontario

 

Algonquin Park's Logging Museum, Ontario. How the loggers lived

One day I drove to Algonquin Park's Logging Museum, which I had wanted to visit for a long time. Logging was probably one of the most important activities in Ontario at that time and I always admired the people who had worked there and the hardships they had faced. The outdoor museum, where I spent over 2 hours, brought that time to life. I hope that one day I will be able to write much more about logging and loggers.

 

Egan Chutes Provincial Park, Ontario

Last year, while staying in Silent Lake, I had driven to Egan Chutes Provincial Park. Unfortunately, the Garmin GPS had the location completely wrong and I ended up in a different place, many kilometers away from the park. I had to manually find the park on my GPS map and program the destination. Once I was close to the park, on road number 28, I could not find the entrance to the park—and to make the whole story short, I had not visited it.

 

Egan Chutes Provincial Park, Ontario

This year I was better prepared and entered the exact coordinates into my car's GPS. Indeed, there was a very small sign saying “Egan Chutes Provincial Park”, but it was only visible if approaching this entrance from the east—and even then it was very easy to miss. In fact, I met two girls on the trail who also had problems finding the park! The short road was quite rough and potholed, certainly impassable to cars with very low clearance. At the end of the road, there were several cars parked here and there.

 

Egan Chutes Provincial Park, Ontario

The first thing I noticed was the abutments of the old bridge, most likely once part of highway number 28. The trail leading to the chutes ran along the river and was quite easy, yet near the chutes it became rugged—and finally I had to walk across and on rocks—a very risky task if the rocks were wet. The chutes were quite scenic and I took a bunch of photos. On my way back I noticed a solid tree, partially chewed up by beavers—probably even beavers gave up at one point, realizing that the task was too challenging for them!

 

Egan Chutes Provincial Park, Ontario. Even the beavers must have given up at one point!

Bancroft still had its old train station, converted into municipal offices; the Hastings Trail ran next to it, in the former railway's right-of-way, and there were a number of ATV-ers and dirt motorcycle riders on it.

 

Nearby was a very interesting museum; I spoke for quite a while to the lady inside the museum—she used to be a nurse in Toronto, but also had a degree in Canadian History and Native Studies—so was very knowledgeable on topics relevant to the local history—I wished I could have spoken with her longer! The museum had a lot of really fascinating exhibits related to the Bancroft area pioneer and native history.

 

The bear trap

One of the exhibits was a simple, yet effective bear trap, made of an old barrel spiked with nails. I remember a similar contraption, probably from the 17th or 18th century, in an old church in Poland—but it was not meant to trap bears, but thieves who had attempted to steal money from collection boxes: once they put their hand down into the bottom of the wooden box to grab money, the spikes made it virtually impossible to withdraw it without having the spikes impaled all over the hand.

 

Perhaps by today's standards such devices appear to be cruel, but I have always been against judging our ancestors' actions by the current standards, as has become so trendy recently. Besides, considering extremely lenient or even non-existent penalties for petty crime, many people would probably be quite content to see such an antiquated anti-thief device make a comeback!

 

 I left Bancroft and headed back home, taking various back roads and hoping to stop at various towns and other places. Unfortunately, it soon started raining and I only stopped in Barrie, where even a quick run from my car to the store caused me to get quite wet! Amazingly, the sky was blue over the Toronto area and it had not had any rain for weeks! 

Algonquin Park's Logging Museums. Reproductions of Tom Thompson's paintings on logging. By the way, today they're worth several millions of dollars!

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SILENT LAKE PROVINCIAL PARK, ONTARIO, CANADA. SEPTEMBER, 2021

Lakefield, Ontario

On my way to the park I stopped in the town of Lakefield and then drove to the site of the former farm of Susanna Moodie farm, a very well-known Canadian writer (incidentally, Catherine’s very close relatives reside nearby, on Moodie Drive) and as I was heading north, I spotted a historical plaque commemorating the 1885 dynamite explosion [N 44° 22.151 W 078° 13.454]:

Lakefield, Ontario. The site of Suzanna Moodie's farm

 

1885 DYNAMITE EXPLOSION

On September 4, 1885, James Simmons and George Morton were hauling a load of dynamite from Tweed to Burleigh Falls Ontario with a horse drawn steel rimmed wagon. The dynamite was to be used for opening the Trent-Severn Lock at Burleigh Falls. They stayed overnight at a hotel in Indian River, Ontario and proceeded the next day toward Burleigh Falls via the Douro-Otonabee Township line and current Hwy# 28. At approximately 9:45 AM the area residents and the entire area were alarmed by a large dynamite explosion on Highway 28 approximately 4.1 km North of County Rd#4.

Messer's Morton and Simmons were never seen again. Ten-foot deep craters were found at the site of the explosion and the horses and wagon were found lying 50 feet on each side of the craters. Only fragments of the men, horses and wagon remained. They were described as 'mangled beyond description'. Pieces of wood and steel from the wagon were found 100 to 200 yards away.

The blast was heard in Lakefield and at distant places including Peterborough, Warsaw, Young's Point and Madoc. Large crowds soon gathered around the explosion site some searching for remnants of the victims. 'Every few minutes something more fresh and sickening befell them'. More than 1000 people and 300 carriages visited the site.

 

Silent Lake Provincial Park, Ontario. Campsite number 40

 

Upon my arrival at Silent Lake Provincial Park, I set up my tent on campsite #40 [N44° 55.067' W78° 03.326']. It turned out I was the only camper in the whole campground and did not see any other campers. Over the weekend, the park became quite busy. Yet it always remained very SILENT!

 

Silent Lake Provincial Park, Ontario. Campsite number 40--in 2009!

I had camped on this very campsite in 2009 with a bunch of friends from a MeetUp group; its main feature was a large rock and at that time I had several photos taken of me sitting on the rock. I decided to take similar photos again—I guess that whereas the rock had not changed much, I had!

 

Silent Lake Provincial Park, Ontario. Campsite number 40--in 2021!

 

The weather was perfect, and there were no mosquitoes—which was quite amazing, since there were plenty of swampy areas all over the campground. There were many eye-catching mushrooms growing everywhere. I easily identified very brilliant Chicken mushrooms and Oysters mushrooms. 

 

The Oyster Mushrooms

Both are edible, yet I much prefer to just admire and photograph the Chicken Mushroom in the wilderness! Except for numerous chipmunks, I did not spot any raccoons or foxes. I was told there were black bear sightings this summer along the park’s trails, but not in campgrounds. On several occasions, I spotted blue jays which were curiously observing me, but later flew away.

 

The Chicken Mushrooms

 

At night it was sometimes possible to pick up distant loon calls, but more often the very distinctive sounds made by barred owls were heard! On one occasion a barred owl must have been just meters from my tent, as the sound was so deafening (and for novices, probably scary, too) that it woke me up. Even though for years I had tried to locate barred owls by following their calls, I never succeeded—until now. As I was walking at night to the comfort station, I saw a movement between trees—it was a barred owl flying soundlessly from one tree branch to another. I shone my flashlight—and there it was, sitting on a tree branch! I even managed to take a few photographs, albeit out of focus.

 

The Barred Owl

 

The firewood sold in parks was quite expensive. Fortunately, last year I found a place in Bancroft [N45° 05.374' W77° 52.555'] that sold firewood much cheaper and I brought so much that each night I enjoyed sitting around the fire until midnight or later.

 

Wood near Bancroft, Ontario--you just leave an envelope with money

 

The campfire wood at my campsite-I was able to have large campfires every night!

I always enjoy driving on various roads while staying in parks and exploring the area. One day I took Highway 28 south to Apsley, then drove east on Highway 620, reaching the hamlet of Coe Hill, which was originally settled by miners and loggers, as well as farmers.

 

Old Hastings Mercantile and Gallery

In 1884, a spur line from the Central Ontario Railway was built to Ormsby, to support the newly opened iron ore mines in the area. After a while, I proceeded to the tiny settlement of Ormsby. It used to have 2 hotels, 2 stores, 2 churches and a school—and when the railway reached Ormsby, in 1893, it had a population of 225. Today its population is 20 and it is considered to be a “Ghost Town”. The main “intersection” of this settlement consists of Highway 620 and Old Hastings Colonization Road. The nearby historical plaque provides the following information:

HASTINGS ROAD

 

This road was begun in 1854 as part of a network of "Colonization Roads" planned by the government to open the southern fringe of the Precambrian Shield to settlement. Under the supervision of Robert Bird, construction began at the northern boundary of Madoc Township and within a year 40 miles of summer road had been built northward to a point near present-day Bancroft. The road, when completed, was about 100 miles in length. The free-grant lots along its course were quickly taken up but poor soil prevented the development of a prosperous agricultural settlement. When the decline of lumbering in the region removed a market for produce and a source of employment, the settlers abandoned their farms and the road fell into disuse.

 

I was planning to drive on this road, yet there was a bridge construction, making the road temporarily impassable. On my way back, I took Highway 62 north to Bancroft and then again Highway 28 south to the park.

 

Inside the Old Hastings Mercantile and Gallery

 

Just at the corner of that crossroad was the Old Hastings Mercantile and Gallery , located in the former Ormsby General Store, and owned and operated by Lillian Oakley Pattison and Gary Pattison [44°52'53.4"N 77°45'01.1"W / 44.881488, -77.750297].

 

Lillian Oakley's CD, "Seasonings". The music is wonderful!

I had met Lillian a couple of times in Wilno, Ontario, where she ran the Wilno Craft Gallery. Approximately 19 years ago, while in the gallery, I got captivated by the music that was playing in the store—it turned out that the name of the CD was called “Seasoning” and she was the singer! I immediately bought the CD and since then I have been regularly listening to the wonderful tunes—paraphrasing the Swedish group ABBA, I should say, “Thank you for the music!”

 

Inside the Old Hastings Mercantile and Gallery

 

Gary is also a very accomplished musician, playing the French Horn for leading Canadian orchestras. Although I cannot play any instruments (I tried to learn, but it was so hopeless), I love listening to music! It was such a pleasure to chat with Gary about his accomplishments, the French Horn, music in general and of course, the gallery itself.

 

Inside the Old Hastings Mercantile and Gallery

The gallery had 11 rooms, each offering different gifts and merchandise. Exploring the rooms was akin to exploring a history museum! I was fascinated by vintage posters and postcards, books, paintings, cottage & Christmas ornaments, unique clothing, ceramics, glassware, sauces, spices, jams and thousands more original items. There was even a tiny room for children.

 

Inside the Old Hastings Mercantile and Gallery

 

Certainly, the Old Hastings Mercantile and Gallery is a gem that should be visited while travelling in the area—and such a visit will be an unforgettable experience! Besides, after you meet Gary and Lillian, you can brag that you have personally met 10% of Ormsby’s residents!

 

Eagle’s Nest Park & Lookout in Bancroft

 

Another place worth visiting is Eagle’s Nest Park & Lookout in Bancroft. Eagle’s Nest (Migizi Wazoson) is a special and sacred place to Algonquin people. According to interpretive signs, eagles have been present on the hilltops overlooking the York River in both a spiritual or physical sense. Eagles were very sacred to the Algonquin and it was believed that they carried prayers to the Creator and the spirit realm.

 

View from Eagle’s Nest Park & Lookout in Bancroft. Can you spot the Tim Horton's restaurant and a long line-up of cars?

 

Thousands of years ago the entire valley seen from the top of the Eagle’s Nest was filled with water and the hilltops were just islands in the very deep water known as the Shawashkong Basin due to the melting of the Laurentide ice sheet. The York River, which can be seen below, is all that is left of the massive post-glacial drainages of ancient times.

 

View from Eagle’s Nest Park & Lookout in Bancroft. Can you spot the small airport and eagles planes?

 

There is a good, but sloping road leading to the Eagle’s Nest parking, as well as several trails from the parking lots. Reaching the lookout requires an easy hike of about 6 minutes. The view is certainly breathtaking! Unfortunately, instead of seeing Algonquins canoeing, portaging and camping throughout their territory, you can see a Tim Horton’s store and a small airport… In the fall the view must be spectacular! As to the eagles, they continued to be seen until 1918, when a young man shot an American Eagle…

 

View from Eagle’s Nest Park & Lookout in Bancroft

There is also a wooden cross on top of the Eagle Nest. An inscription on the granite plaque says that the cross was dedicated by the honourable Pauline M. McGibbon, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, on the occasion of the interdenominational Church Service Bancroft Centennial year, August 5, 1979.

 

Bancroft’s West Wind Gallery & Gifts

I also visited Bancroft’s West Wind Gallery & Gifts, which had a lot of original and unique gifts and souvenirs. I especially loved a set of 4 cups with the Group of Seven paintings, which would certainly make a perfect present on any occasion.

 

Bancroft’s West Wind Gallery & Gifts

While in Bancroft, quite fortuitously I went to a gallery called “A Place for the Arts” and was amazed by all the beautiful paintings and other remarkable pieces of artwork! I also spoke to the lady working there, who was very helpful and provided plenty of useful information. I wish I could have spent more time in this remarkable place. When I come to Bancroft again, it will certainly be the first place I am going to visit.

 

St. George's Cemetery

I had heard before my trip that Egan Chutes Provincial Park had very scenic falls and I had planned to visit it in 2020, yet the very rainy weather caused my plans to change. This time it was on my “must-see” list!

 

St. George's Cemetery

 

Before I was about to program my Garmin GPS, it turned out that the park had already been factory-pre-programmed and all I had to do was press “Go”. After driving on Highway 62, I turned into Old L’Amble Road and indeed, there was a parking lot, a small beach, a dock and a small dam, but no chutes of any kind! I took another look at my GPS and immediately realized that the location provided by the GPS was WRONG, and Egan Chutes Park was north from here, on Highway 28, some 25 km away! The only good thing about this was that I spotted an old burial ground, St. George's Cemetery [45°01'16.8"N 77°47'31.4"W / 45.021323, -77.792041], quite overgrown, with many old and crumbling monuments. The inscriptions on the gravestones indicated that burials took place from about the 1860s to the 1920s.

 

St. George's Cemetery

 

After taking a bunch of photos at the cemetery, I programmed my GPS to the actual location of Egan Chutes Park and drove there. Unfortunately, once I was on Highway 28, I was unable to establish which side road I should turn into to get to the park. Eventually, I made a U-turn and again was looking for any signs. Granted, there were several side roads leading in the direction of the park, but there were no signs whatsoever. Having driven for a while, I decided to head back to Silent Lake Park, as it was getting late. I can add the actual road leading to the park is north of Highway 28, just west of L’Amable Creek: 45°04'01.3"N 77°44'11.1"W / 45.067021, -77.736423.

 

St. George's Cemetery

Of course, I was quite disappointed—could not the park post a simple sign? Normally there are plenty of road signs showing directions to parks. I almost wondered if somebody had been deliberately removing such signs to prevent tourists from going to the park… However, I did find and visit the park in 2022, and I wrote about my visit in another blog.

 

Whetung Ojibwa Art and Craft Gallery

 

On my way home I decided to re-visit an exceptional, one-of-a-kind place to shop for and admire Native art: namely, Whetung Ojibwa Art and Craft Gallery [44°27'44.5"N 78°22'18.6"W / 44.462371, -78.371832].

 

Whetung Ojibwa Art and Craft Gallery

 

Located on the Curve Lake First Nation, the Whetung Ojibwa Center offers an astonishing assortment of Native crafts—jewelry, moccasins, masks, sculptures, paintings, dream-catchers, carvings, mugs, calendars, postcards and much, much more! All the items are truly unique and will make a perfect gift or souvenir that can be given to anyone-from friends to heads of state! In fact, exploring this gallery is akin to exploring a museum. Unfortunately, I was in a hurry and was able to spend just under one hour there, but still managed to purchase very original cards, calendars and cups featuring the works of Norval Morrisseau, Maxine Noel, Rick Beaver and Benjamin Chee Chee. One of my friends was going to celebrate her 100th birthday in October 2021, and I just found the perfect card to mail her for this exceptional anniversary.

 

Whetung Ojibwa Art and Craft Gallery

I especially love the art of Benjamin Chee Chee (1944-1977), as it is so simple and minimalist, yet so powerful! About 10 years ago, while in Temagami, we paddled to Bear Island and visited the studio where Benjamin Chee Chee had once worked.

 

Whetung Ojibwa Art and Craft Gallery

One of the artists whose works are featured at the gallery is Freddy Taylor. Moreover, he has a corner reserved there and usually he comes there three days a week, where he paints. He is 76 and as he said in a recent (June 2021) interview on CBC radio, “painting has brought purpose back into his life, giving him a way to heal from the trauma he experienced as a child while attending an Indian residential school in Ontario for 10 years.” I had been looking forward to meeting and talking to him, but unfortunately, he was not in the gallery that day.

 

Whetung Ojibwa Art and Craft Gallery. Freddy Taylor's Corner.

 

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Arrowhead Provincial Park, Ontario, Campsite #337, August 30-September 4, 2021

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Campsite #337-fortunately, only the entrance turned into a small 'lake', but the campsite was dry! 

 

So, I'm again in Arrowhead Provincial Park! I was lucky to get campsite #337—it was spacious, private and quiet. I hardly saw any mosquitoes. About 20 meters behind the campsite there was a cliff, leading to an oxbow lake, once part of the Big East River (since it is a meandering river, there are plenty of such oxbow lakes everywhere).

 

The site was spacious and private

 

Besides, I befriended a very amiable chipmunk, quite tame and (as always) hungry. In no time it was literally jumping all over me, looking for food. Some people do not like those creatures, but I have always enjoyed their company, even if it is a little bit too annoying. Judging upon huge puddles here and there, it must have rained a lot before my arrival, yet I did not see any mushrooms-another mystery!

 

Campsite #254, where we camped in 2020. I'm so glad it did not rain then!

 

During my stay, it poured overnight. My Eureka tent once again proved to be totally waterproof. A huge puddle formed in front of my campsite and I had to use a different path to leave the campsite. Yet it was nothing in comparison to what happened on campsite number 254, on which Guy and I had camped last year: at least half of it got flooded, including the areas where our tents had been! I also visited campsites #223 and 224, where I had stayed in 2001, 2002 and 2006. Unfortunately, they were gone, or rather converted into “Roofed Accommodation”--probably the park could earn more money by renting them vs. campsites! Well, some years ago Bon Echo Provincial Park also erected log houses on former group campsites.

 

Tom Thomson monument in Huntsville, Ontario

 

I also visited the nearby city of Huntsville a couple of times—Patrizia, who drove a Tesla, was happy to discover there was a Tesla charging station just 10 minutes from the park, at the Metro's parking lot—we hardly finished shopping when her car was charged! In the evening we attended mass in town.

 

One of the murals in Huntsville, Ontario

 

I was quite impressed the sizable reproductions of paintings by the Group of Seven and Tom Thomson, placed on buildings all over Huntsville. Whoever had this idea should certainly be applauded and congratulated! This free and open-air gallery was an excellent way to show off and promote the amazing artwork of Canada’s famous artists, who had been able to depict the Canadian scenery uniquely. Even those not interested in art or visiting museums/galleries had no choice but to become familiar with the paintings! In addition, I loved the Tom Thomson statue, unveiled in 2005, which also featured one of his most famous paintings, “The West Wind”.

 

One of the murals in Huntsville, Ontario

In 2002, while camping in Arrowhead Park, I had driven a lot on often narrow and remote roads, exploring the area. One such trip took me to the town of Novar, just north of the park, and then, while driving on Maws Hill Road, I saw a farm and a canoe-making shop, Northland Canoes (67 Maws Hill, Novar, ON P0A 1R0)—and a minute later I met Mr. Albert Maw, the canoe maker! I spent a while talking to him about canoes and canoe making—I had always been fascinated by canoes made of wood, and admired those able to make such canoes! Mr. Maw said that in the past he had made well over 100 canoes per year.

 

Mr. Albert Maw's canoe workshop

 

During my next visit to the park, in 2006, I again visited Mr. Maw. While chatting with him, his neighbor, Mr. N. arrived. He lived several kilometers from Mr. Maw—a private, narrow road in the forest led to his home. He told me that he had retired from his job in Toronto and decided to move here along with his wife. As the road was impassable in the winter, he was using a special 6-wheel vehicle to reach “the civilization”. Since I told him that I liked foraging wild mushrooms, he invited me to go mushroom hunting on his property and I even found some edible fungi.

 

 

I decided to visit Mr. Maw again in 2021—as well as pay a visit to Mr. N. and finally see his home. After passing by Mr. Maw's farm, I continued driving on the rather rough road and finally saw a driveway leading to his property. After a minute or so I arrived at his house, surrounded by the forest, and facing a very picturesque lake. A dog started to bark and soon a lady came out of the house. I quickly explained the reason for my unexpected visit. She was the wife of Mr. N.—or rather his widow—regrettably, her husband had passed away of cancer in 2014. We talked for a while—I told her that I would love to live like that, surrounded by wilderness and animals (she said that sometimes black bears visited her property). Many people say that they would like to leave the city and move to more remote locations, but very few of them do so—well, Mr. and Mrs. N. had realized their dreams! Only one other individual was living along the lake, farther up the road—and since he plowed the snow in the winter, she sold the 6-wheel vehicle and was able to just drive in the winter.

 

Narrow road in the forest

Afterward, I drove back, stopped at Mr. Maw's farm and walked to his home. I was glad that despite some unfortunate predicaments and his age (86 years old!), he was still very active and in good health. Not only was he still making canoes, but also running a small farm and even selling eggs. He showed me HUGE onions he grew in his garden! He told me about his family from Scotland that had originally settled here—he was born in this very house, his property had 1000 acres and his sons were logging some of the trees. I wish he could write a brief history of his family and his life, I am sure it would be quite intriguing!

 

As always, I brought several books with me to read. “The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine and the Miracle that Set Them Free” by Hector Tobar gave a very detailed account of the mining accident in Chile, quite an enjoyable reading. Then I read a book that I had bought quite a long ago, “Es Cuba. Life and Love on an Illegal Island” by Lea Aschkenas. Since I had been to Cuba 15 times, I found this book quite absorbing and very relevant to my own experiences in this country. By the way, the expression, “Es Cuba” is quite used when referring to the way things are in Cuba: if your hotel room has no hot or cold water, if the food is somehow substandard, if the hotel restaurant runs out of beer, wine or whiskey, or is the bus is late or never arrives—instead of wondering why it happened and complaining, just say, “Es Cuba”—it's Cuba, meaning that it's normal that things never work the way they're expected to work!

 

Tom Thomson's Mural in Huntsville, ON

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