Day 60 – Take Me Home, Country Roads…

The Brothers Jacobs

Our last full day of the road trip began with breakfast at the Ash Grove Inn in Barry’s Bay, right down the road from the Pinewood. Overlooking Kamaniskeg Lake, the restaurant serves not only hotel guests but local folks as well.

A beautiful quiet drive brought us to vibrant little Maynooth, where we were sad to discover the Sun Run Café was closed on Mondays. We made up for it though by spending a good long while perusing the overflowing shelves of the Old Peterson Road Gallery & Antiques and coming away with quite a few little treasures.

The historic Peterson Road, one of the best riding roads in Southern Ontario, begins in Maynooth. The long sweeping tree-lined curves meet the sparkling blue waves of Baptiste Lake and continues as Elephant Lake Road for another 15km to the small town of Harcourt. We’d thought the two roads would be the last of the great riding on the trip, but the beautiful new discovery of Regional Road 48/Dyno Road between highways 118 and 28 added another five kilometres of sweet, low, tight little bends, a sun-dappled green canopy overhead and tucked right up to the pavement, ending right at Silent Lake Provincial Park. We almost turned around and did it again, but we were already late for our rendez-vous with Daniel Jacobs of Bare Knuckle Records – the composer of much of the music for the Road Show.

At Dan’s cozy little studio on a quiet road in Peterborough, the Road Trip Band recorded our very own song, a Northern Ontario-themed cover of John Denver’s classic, Take Me Home, Country Roads. Figuring out the lyrics brought about a rapid-fire reminiscence of all of the great places we’d visited, the good food we’d eaten, and all the fun we’d had. With each take, and each reminiscence, it became necessary to include an additional verse. Although afterwards we were devastated to realize we’d forgotten to include the experience we’d rhapsodized about so many times – Alexe even dreamed of it one night – the spectacular, one of a kind, delectable poutine at Elk Lake Eco-Resort with the inimitable Pam Hamel. If anything, it deserves its own verse.

Dan invited us over to his backyard for a picnic of a few racks of the amazing smoked ribs from Muddy’s Pit BBQ in Keene. Each side is smoked for 24 hours, presided over by the owner himself. It was a perfectly messy and satisfying finale to all the great eating we’ve done on this trip, and there couldn’t have been better dinner companions than Dan and his lovely lady Emma.

Stuffed to the brim, we headed home to the Best Western Otanabee on the river for our last night of sharing hotel rooms!

Tomorrow – The last haul south…

Photos by Alexandra Sawicki

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