June 6 – Our first real day in Canada Pete and Jane were to pick us up at 8:30 but they were a bit early and had to wait for us to finish breakfast and getting ready.  The plan was to be in St Jacobs by 10 and after some directional corrections we made it pretty much on time.  We did try to find a “town” called Punkey Doodle’s Corner.  We stopped to ask a lady where it was and she told us 6 miles up the road but we never saw a sign or village or anything.  So for the time being we gave up that mission.

 

The area of St Jacobs has a large Amish and Mennonite population and every Thursday there is a big Farmer’s Market.  Some is inside and some is outside.  The Amish park their buggies in the parking lot and put their horses in a corral as they set up their sales stalls.  There was an abundance of maple syrup and other maple products as well as cheeses, meats, hand crafts, rhubarb, and all kinds of prepared foods.  I had my first taste of peameal.  It’s cured pork loin that has a think coating of cornmeal and then you slice it like Canadian bacon and quick fry for breakfast bacon.  Yummy!  We got some for breakfast one morning and some really squeaky cheese curds and a 2 pound log of summer sausage.  Bill got some syrup and a couple of maple sugar candies.  There were lots of food samples but not much in local fresh veggies and fruit since it’s a little early in the season.  I didn’t try much but Bill enjoyed his samples along the way.  Jane had an early snack of poutine which is French fries with brown gravy over it and melting cheese.  It is a fat wad waiting to happen.  Bill and I had it when we’d been in Canada before.  The guys took the purchases to the car while Jane and I checked out the upstairs of the main building which was crafts and home décor type stuff.  She got an adorable fur headband and I found a short chili pepper table runner for my kitchen table.

 

We all checked out the other large building and Bill got some maple butter.  I’m not much of a maple person.  Then we headed over to the outlet mall across the street and did some browsing there.  Jane and Pete bought some dishes so all was not lost.  Even though everyone had eaten some snacks and samples we were all pretty hungry by then so we went into town to Stone Crock for lunch.  There was a 15 minute wait even at 2:00 but the food was excellent.  Bill had a peameal, cheese and apple sandwich with sides and I had the soup and salad bar.  The veggie soup had too much cabbage for my taste and I’m not a big curry fan, but the turkey and rice cream curry soup was excellent and I had 2 bowls.  We stopped in a couple of shops on the way back to the car and one was a kitchen shop.  They had the neatest silicone lids that look like a flower and you put them on a dish to cover it and it seals so tight you can pick up the dish with the seal.  I got one that looks like a sunflower.  Jane got one too.  It they weren’t so expensive we would both have gotten more.

 

The mission for the ride home was once again to find the evasive Punkey Doodle’s Corner.  We met a guy at the market who told us exactly where it was and that it isn’t more than 3 houses but that there is definitely a sign there.  It started raining about as soon as we got in the car but that wasn’t as bad as we got lost more than once trying to get on a road that cut over to the road to get to PDC.  After many twists and turns we FINALLY found Punkey Doodle’s Corner, and it was 3 houses and on the tree in the yard of one house was the sign.  Mission Accomplished!

 

Pete and Jane dropped us off at the RV close to 6 and I had no idea it was that late.  It was getting pretty cold out and just about as cold inside the RV.  We got the heat going and warming it up and around 7:30 we had a small snack type dinner due to the late large lunch.  There was a bit of rain later as we watched TV.