Never Drive in a Straight Line When a Crooked One Will Do…

“Getting there is half the fun, isn’t it?” At least that’s what I believe, and I think I may even have convinced Judi. Take our trip to the Waterloo area for a Quilt Festival. We could have driven straight there, west on Highway 401 to Cambridge, north on Highway 8, through Kitchener-Waterloo and then on to St Jacobs. A two hour plus trip of driving and not much else! (Boring… boring) Instead, I (WE) decided to go the “scenic” route. It involved driving through Toronto on the 401 Highway to Milton. Then, just west of Milton, we left the 401 at Campbellville. We turned south on the Guelph Line into Campbellville. This is a picturesque little hamlet with a number of quaint stores. We got out of the car and explored the shops. Pretty neat, eh! Once we were finished looking around, we continued on our journey. This time we traveled north on the Guelph Line. On our way, we passed the Mohawk Raceway. Had we been later in the day, we could have stopped and taken in a Standardbred race or two. (Website: http://www.woodbineentertainment.com/mohawk/) Since it was early in the day we continued on. Further on, we passed the Streetcar & Electric Rail Road Museum. (Website: http://hcry.org/) We didn’t exactly pass, we stopped to take photos. Unfortunately we were traveling on a week day and the Museum was only open on weekends! Still, plenty of fun! We continued on the Guelph Line until we came to Highway 7. This we followed west right into the heart of Downtown Guelph. Guelph is the home of Canada’s agricultural university, Ontario Agricultural College (OAC). OAC is the oldest part of the University of Guelph (1873). Guelph is also one of the first planned towns in Canada. Driving through Downtown Guelph is both an interesting and challenging experience. Interesting because the all the historical architecture, challenging because of the road system! We finally left “The Royal City” (aka Guelph) and headed north. We were now in beautiful Mennonite Country! Our route was “serendipitous”. We were traveling the back roads of Waterloo County. We passed numerous Mennonite farms along the way. These well maintained farms are beautiful and fascinating. In a world gone mad for modern conveniences, Mennonite farms and lifestyle take us back to the days of our forefather, where hard work required strength and endurance. We also passed through 2 more charming villages, Maryhill and Conestoga. After 3 ½ hours “on the road”, we reached our final destination of St. Jacobs. Was the extra hour or so worth it? Quaint villages, horse racing, museums, historic architecture, scenic landscape, magnificent farms, winding roads… you be the judge! And, we hadn’t even visited the festival yet! NOT BORING!!! So, when you embark on your next festival trip, “go crooked”!