Motivated Motion

Here Is A Slideshow Of A Roadtrip of Newmarket and the Surrounding Areas





WE WILL START HERE AT FAIRY LAKE
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I have broken this slideshow up to help you have an idea of where you are travelling.
Each photograph on this page is a link to a piece of the slideshow.
Each map above the photograph shows you the area you will travel in the slideshow.
This will give you an idea of howmuch area we covered.

Alex and I did this road trip in the daytime, of the day two tornados touched down here after dark.

If you pay careful attention you will notice a place or two where the trees are in tact, and in our after storm pictures you saw last week, the trees were sheered off by the tornado.

I will put one before and after picture below this post so you can say, "OOOO Look at that!"

I also have created many links for your interest. Everything underlined is a reference link. I actually was really psyched after reading some of the links I researched. I learned alot about my area that I did not know. Make sure you back page your way back to the blog after looking at the links.

I left a couple of blurry shots in here just to remind you that all of the road shots were taken from a moving car doing the speed limit. Remember that a few of speed limit signs you see are in km/hr.

I hope you enjoy your virtual tour of our area. I suggest that when the slideshows come up that you go to the top right corner of the black box and adjust the speed to be fast, like 1 or 2 seconds. That will give you a more realistic feel like being in the car. After each slideshow use the back page button to go back to the blog.





This map shows you where you are heading






















Click on the photo for the first slideshow

We will travel just North of the Downtown following the river.












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Click on photo to resume slideshow

This is the Old Davis Tannery. One of the Original businesses of the area.
The tannery itself was closed for years.
Then it was transformed into a beautiful indoor mall with marble facades and indoor waterfalls.

We will head back up Main Street, to see how quickly the area becomes rural.













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Now we are at Rogers Reservoir.
This used to be a large pond, but for environmental reasons, this man-made reservoir has been allowed to flow to its natural state.
It is now a small creek with a marsh area around it.
This area is protected to preserve rare plants and birds that migrate to this area.


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Now we are turning onto the Queensville Side Road.
This is approximately an 14 minute drive from the Newmarket Downtown area. We have travelled through alot of farmland since the reservoir and now we are at the bottom of the tributaries of Lake Simcoe. You could call it the delta of Lake Simcoe.






All of these tributaries you see in the farmland called the Holland Marsh come from the Holland River and the Humber River. The Holland River joins up with the Highland Creek that goes to Lake Ontario. The Humber River also goes directly to Lake Ontario. Two ways to head North from Toronto(or 'Muddy' York as it was called in pioneer days).
We will now head into the Marsh to see the produce in the fields.


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The Holland Marsh is legendary in the agricultural world. It is a dark silt and black loam farmland surrounded by canals created by burms and dikes like in Holland.
The Dutch were the first settlers in this area. We have a large population of Dutch families here.
The DUCA credit union was one of the first money lenders around here.
Our population has a high Christian Reform base, because of the Dutch families here.


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Today the closest town to the Marsh is Bradford. After the Dutch settled here, the Portuguese began to purchace the drier fields and what was left of the Marshland, so they could grow produce on the Marsh and grain in the drier fields. Bradford is pretty much split in population by the Dutch and the Portuguese. There are Dutch and Portuguese cultural centres in Bradford, both ensuring that the pride of their residents' heritage is honoured.

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Click this link for historical burial references for the area














We are at the townline between East Gwillimbury and Bradford here.
Crossing over Yonge Street in Rush Hour Traffic.
(Yep this is rush hour here)



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This wide area of the river breaks up into canals around the Holland Marsh.

It is deep enough in the canals to take a small boat.

Beyond the bridge ahead the delta area before Lake Simcoe begins and you will see the masts of larger sail boats moored in the distance.
Alot of folks in the area have sail boats and yahts they drive up river through the delta, into Lake Simcoe.





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This is a bridge over one of the canals.
We just saw a fisherman catching dinner.

We will head North again. Through the last of rural area.


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The wooden buildings you have seen, and will see are more of the Dutch influence, and the brick buildings are more of the Portuguese influence.

You will notice how quickly the rural area is taken over by the town's more urban setting.










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That sign is what every Canadian looks for. Tim Horton's Coffee. Canadians are probably the #1 consumer of coffee. There is literally a Tim Horton's coffee shop on every intersection of Urban Canada. We call it "Timmy's". Tim Horton was an NHL Hockey Player who decided to open a chain of Coffee and Doughnut shops. They have been a hit with Canadians since I was a small child.


Tim Horton's went big this year when they began selling public shares in their empire.

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Click here for the last part of the slideshow

This corn field is walking distance from my house. We live in a subdivision that was built in the early 1980's. Until a few years ago a large farm Estate of the late Dr. Ballard was across from us. Now it is developed into the Big Box outlet stores like Walmart, Home Depot and Costco. They moved the home to preserve it.



We end our tour back at the edge of the urban sprawl of Newmarket. Oh yes, and we are still in Rush Hour!


It is very quiet here in our area. Most of the town is asleep by 10:00PM each night. There is so little traffic that some of the town's traffic lights blink amber lights (turning them into yield intersections after midnight) to save energy.

We have little crime here. There are enough Moms at home in the day to deter criminals from tryin to break-in while folks are at work. The folks at home don't miss a thing. Everyone knows their neighbours here. They are all friendly and we could turn to any of them for help if we needed to. Some neighbourhoods have folks that have lived on the same street together since the streets have been created. The towns will often let these folks close their street for a day to have neighbourhood celebrations like BBQ's and fun days.

Only Newmarket has a paid Fire Department. The areas around have volunteer fire departments. The East Gwillimbury volunteer fire department has one of the best repell rescue teams in Canada. That is dedication. Newmarket's Police have a helicopter. We have a drug enforcement, an anti crime unit and a traffic unit that make use of the helicopter. They have heat sensors to spot grow-houses, Search lights to chase criminals, and we have alot of our larger roads monitored by the helicopter for speeders.

We have Timber Wolves and Coyotes that eat the Calves at times and give the farmers misery. We have alot of Deer here and alot of Birds of Prey. Once in a while a Black Bear, or a Moose will make news here when they follow the Morraine Southward and come out of their territory North of Lake Simcoe and end up in our backyards.

Until recently Timber Wolves' territory was 200 km North of here, but the search for game has them travelling south getting closer and closer to the city.
Until recently Possums were not found in Ontario. Eventhough Michigan has the same forests as us it seemed that the Possum(also Opossum) population stayed on the USA side of the Great Lakes. Now we have small numbers of Possum migrating as far north as our area. We are still getting used to the idea we have Possum. They are protected here because they are so rare. Our annoying pests are the Raccoons. Ontario is riddled with them. The urban sprawl has not reduced their numbers. They have learned how to adapt to the setting and create a ruccus when they try to nest in our rooves.

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BEFORE AND AFTER THE TORNADO

















"Ooooo, Look at that!"









I hope you enjoyed the Road Trip.
So did you ever expect an area so close to the City of Toronto would be like this?
Did you notice all the Canadian Flags? Our towns are so proud of being Canadian.





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