The Butterfly Effect of My Day

How this day didn’t turn out at all the way we planned

1513 MOUNTAIN GROVE ROAD (Photo by COLDWELL BANKER SETTLEMENT REALTY in Perth, ON.)

It started with a church for sale in Mountain Grove, which we went past a couple of weeks ago by chance. On Friday morning, we looked it up on Realtor.ca, and it’s pretty inside, already converted to a residence in the most obvious ways, and affordable too. But there’s a catch. Two pretty big catches. No water, no septic. No wonder the price is so good.

The big joke in the family right now is that we’re going to buy it and set up a Lebanese kafta restaurant there, the middle of nowhere at a former church, and call it “Cheeses and Pita”.

No? Because it sounds like “Jesus and Peter”. And it’s a church. And … oh, nevermind.

Whether that’s objectively amusing or not, we decided to go and drive by, because of an open schedule that day, along with nice weather — cloudy and not as hot as recent days have been.

So we dithered for half an hour on Maps, considering various routes. A scenic picnic spot? A bakery in Glen Tay?

One small complication was that we needed to gas up. The tank holds 42 liters, and we were at half-full. BUT we’ve gone 450 km on that half tank when a full tank takes us 650–700 km. So is the gauge faulty? Is the halfway mark not accurate? Who knows!

The gas station in the village was busy, so we thought we’d gas up in Kaladar, along Highway 7, or else go all the way to Perth to fill up, because it is only just further away than Glen Tay, and then meander back with a full tank.

At Kaladar the highway was closed due to an unspecified emergency. Nothing was visible on the road beyond the emergency vehicles blocking the way.

Now, you may not know the area, but this is no small inconvenience. This is the Land of Lakes, and bogs, and great mounds of stone sticking out of the Canadian Shield, and there aren’t as many roads as you’re maybe used to.

It’s a 12 minute and 18 km drive along the highway to the next road, near Arden. The detour to the north is 58 minutes and 76 km, via Northbrook, Harlow, and Henderson. The detour to the south is via Erinsville, Tamworth, and “downtown” Arden, and takes 50 minutes and 60 km. And I’m not “avoiding highways” or anything, these are the most direct routes. There are simply no other roads.

So maybe we WOULDN’T go to Perth or Glen Tay. And maybe we wouldn’t even see our church in Mountain Grove. Destiny had intervened.

But maybe that dithering before we left had spared us from being involved in the unknown road-closing emergency north-east of Kaladar.

SIDEBAR

The emergency was later posted online:

“ROAD CLOSURE: Highway 7 is closed in both directions between Arden Road and Mountain Grove Road near Sharbot Lake for a single vehicle collision. Emergency crews are at the scene. Motorists should avoid the area.

UPDATE (12:09 p.m.): Highway 7 remains closed in both directions between Arden Road and Mountain Grove Road in the Sharbot Lake area due a serious collision. Motorists should expect a lengthy closure and plan an alternate route for the time being.

UPDATE (6:35 p.m.): Highway 7 has reopened.”

So it was a bigger (and longer) disruption than we realized, and fortunately we avoided it.

END OF SIDEBAR

We went north from Kaladar, missing the gas station that was right there in the middle of all the traffic and hoopla. So many vehicles were diverted that the gas stations in Northbrook and Cloyne were all busy too, so we drove on, past lakes, through hilly valleys. We didn’t even stop at the little gas station in Griffith beside the picturesque Madawaska River (it really is picturesque, too!) because by then we realized we could get to Eganville or Renfrew.

You might be wondering what the heck we’re thinking. The original plan was to head somewhere about ONE hour away from home, and then meander back from it, and here we were almost AT a destination TWO hours from home, and with no idea whether the initial “goals” of the trip would be met.

At some point on that stretch, before or after Griffith, we hit a butterfly. It came out of nowhere. We couldn’t swerve to miss it. And that’s when we realized that our whole day had been one big Butterfly Effect, and how our plans for a short and quite specific trip had taken us so far from home, heading in the wrong direction, and running into a butterfly that would have still been alive if not for that emergency down on Highway 7.

At least we brought a picnic. “Just in case.”

And the gauge wasn’t stuck, even if it is inaccurate, because when we found a pleasingly-deserted gas station in Renfrew, with plenty of shade, we were down to between a quarter and a third of a tank, so the 32 liters that went in seemed to make complete mathematical sense.

We’d thought to head south from Renfrew to Perth, via Calabogie, and get “back on track” that way, but we missed the turn in Renfrew (which I blame on poor signage rather than a distracted navigator, ahem) and we decided to stop in the Park & Ride lot, mainly because we were hungry and ready for the picnic we’d brought, and because it was the prettiest alternative at that time. Thermos flasks of coffee, still too hot after a couple of hours on the road, some stuffed dough triangles (made in preparation for such a road trip), and some cheesecake (which we’d just happened to have handy …). Not bad for a spontaneous road-trip picnic!

SIDEBAR

The dough triangles are called fatoyr (singular fateeri), although they’re called that no matter what kind of stuffing is inside. It’s just regular dough, like a pizza pocket, the size of a cornish pasty, or a Costco ciabatta. Ours were cheese, and also spicy cheese & greens (bitter lettuce that had gone to seed, if I recall).

END OF SIDEBAR

We decided to head to Arnprior, because we’d never been, and then head south to Perth and pick up where we were “supposed” to have gone. When we hit Highway 17 we realized our error. It wasn’t some country highway, but a major artery leading into the 417 before too long. Not slow, not relaxing, and not what we were looking for.

Belatedly, we decided to exit, and see if it was nice along the Ottawa River. We headed through Lochwinnoch and Braeside, and we were rewarded by beautiful fields, and then the grand view of the mighty river, with Quebec on the other side.

A strange red mountain caught our eye on the far shore. It stuck out like a sore thumb, and surely couldn’t be natural. It had a steep slope on one side, the colour of red ore or rust, and sporadic tree or bush cover on its summit. It was quite pretty, to be honest. It looked so out of place, it had me thinking of fantasy stories, like it was the haunt of a tribe of gnolls or kobolds, or that it should have a castle on top of it, or a wizard’s tower.

Turns out, it’s a slag heap from the Bristol Mines. Nothing like my romantic ideas, but that’s reality for you.

Arnprior was pretty forgettable (sorry, Arnprior!) except for the interesting clock tower on the museum building at the main intersection in the heart of the town, but to be fair it’s not a very big place and we just drove down the main street without exploring at all. We crossed the river (also the Madawaska, where it joins the Ottawa) and promptly lost our bearings. We reached the 417 and crossed it, but it was a while before we were sure we’d gone the right way.

The road south followed the Mississippi River flowing north from Almonte (aka Mississippi Mills). I know, that was pretty confusing for me too. It’s not that Mississippi. I don’t know how or why the two rivers share a name and sit thousands of kilometers apart with no physical connection between them. If you know, please tell me.

But the skies cleared, and the sun beat down, and two hours from home is not the ideal place to realize you’ve had enough. We didn’t stop in Almonte, although it’s a nice place that we’ve visited a bunch of times. They have a nice textiles museum there. And there was a famous train derailment there a hundred years ago.

The road skirts Almonte, and took us back towards farmland. We decided to pass through Fallbrook and head directly to Glen Tay after all, because it had the advantage of being close to Highway 7 for our anticipated direct drive home.

Little Stream Bakery (Photo by Barry Mayer)

The bakery was closed, even though it wasn’t quite 4pm. But we found it. So that’s something. And we achieved the first of our goals for the day, four hours late. Apparently, it’s only open Thursdays and Saturdays. That’s something we should have checked beforehand ….

The clouds had returned, a little, and we thought that the country roads to Mountain Grove would be nicer than the highway. We were right. We passed lakes and climbed hills and followed country roads past secluded farm stands and homesteads. Rustic and peaceful. We passed Christie Lake, Crow Lake, and Long Lake to get to Mountain Grove and our church.

After so much anticipation and build-up, the reality was underwhelming. We saw exactly how small the lot was, which is why there is no room for a septic system (it’s currently got one composting toilet), although the realtor had suggested their “might” be room for a well. The lot is barely bigger than the building, though, so there aren’t many options. And as a kafta place it wouldn’t work, in all seriousness, because there’s no parking. It’s completely impractical and silly. Which won’t stop us thinking about it, of course.

All told, we couldn’t have been stopped in front of it for more than 10 seconds. We were already some distance away before I realized I’d wanted to see if some damaged brickwork we’d seen on older pictures had really been fixed. Because this is just another one of our fantasies, we didn’t bother going back again to check.

We passed the south end of Big Clear Lake, and decided, again, that the country roads would be better than the highway, and more shaded. We also worried, vaguely, that the earlier emergency might not be cleared, but we still had no idea that it was on the part of the highway right at Arden, where we were at that point.

The rest of the way back is a route we take often, via Tamworth and Erinsville, and it’s comforting and familiar. There’s a young tree grafted into the stump of an old tree that was cut before we discovered the road, and over the years we’ve watched it grow and thrive. We had no idea such a thing was possible, so we get a kick out of seeing it, each and every time.

Our two hour road trip lasted six hours, and took us to places we hadn’t planned and didn’t expect. It was a hot day, but pretty, and the drive blew the cobwebs out of our brains. And, against all odds, massive detours, and almost getting lost several times, we took in BOTH of the places we’d planned to see.

Take a look at the listing for the church, and let me know what you think!

Thanks for reading!