Oil Wells, Smoking Tobacco and The RedBull Flying Circus!

Southern Ontario Oil

Who knew that the worlds first commercial oil well was registered in Oil Springs, Southern Ontario by a carriage maker named JamesWilliams back in 1858. The local First Nations peoples had been waterproofing their canoes and clothes for centuries with the stuff found in gum beds, pools of oil that seeped to the surface. Saturday morning, bound for the Red Bull Air race, we came upon some of the 1100 remaining wells from the worlds first oil boom that spurned the beginning of the motor industry in neaby Detroit just a few miles away. (read more about Ontario Oil here and here)

Leaving the main highway 401 out of Toronto, we took Route 2 (Major Talbot Road0, along the shores of Lake Erie (a lonely looking lake, with rough blustery shorelines) through the farming belt famous for its Peaches and Cream Corn.

Quickly noticing tall windowless barns clustered together, all with woodpiles of spit logs in front, we set to wondering what these could be. Pip suggested smoke houses, due to the little hooded chimneys ranged along the apex of each roof. Finally stopping at Maw and Paws diner, an unprepossessing looking greasy spoon, for a late lunch, after exhausting all hope of finding a kiwi style country cafe serving healthy fodder or great coffee, we chatted to some local farmers while chowing down on the best BLT I've ever had!!!

Turns out this is tobacco country, known as the Ontario Tobacco Belt!! The barns were smoke barns, for smoking tobacco. It's a declining practice but fired cured tobacco is still being produced along the northern shores of Lake Erie. They layer the leaves up on racks in these tall buidings, build a fire in a pit and smoke away. Our friendly farmer suggested we come back in fall when this'll be happening and to pick cherries which the area is renowned for. Cherry pie is to Canadians what Apple Pie is the Americans. Bit like Pav to a Kiwi I think!

Hurtling along the highway we spotted four DeLoreans and the original DMC-12  used in the Back to Future movie!! Now that's not something you expect to see in the countryside, they were heading for a car show near London.

Rolling into Windsor, Ontario, the site of round 4 of the Red Bull Air Race we checked into our hotel and then headed for the airport for a gander at the race planes and a Lancasater Bomber being restored to flight.

Red Bull Airport at Windsor

Later we headed a few miles upriver to the mouth of Lake St Clair for dinner at Lizzie Kazilly's, a crab shack at the Marina there. King crab was my dish de jour and whilst merrilly cracking long orange legs a tiny little Hummingbird flew onto the hanging basket above our table. I'd never seen one before and was amazed at how tiny these cute little birds are.

 Hummingbirds at Lizzie Kazilly's

The National anthems of Canada and USA were sung as skydivers descended with huge flags over the Detriot River.

During the night a Tornado rolled through just a few miles away in Leamington, a quiet rural town where we'd filled up with gas just hours before. You can watch the news cast about it here. Regardless of the nights devastation the day cleared and the Air Race went on to schedule. First up was an air show which included F18's from the US Navy, Canadian fighters, a Corsair and stunt Helicopter display which was mind boggling as the copter pilot had his chopper doing loops, flying upside down and literally falling out of the sky in spins that had the crowd on its feet.

Red Bull stunt Helicopter.

The race was almost an anticlimax after that!! Almost but not quite! Seeing these nippy little planes....equivilent of Formula one race cars....doing their radical turns pulling 12Gs, flying knife edge through the red gates and wings level through the blues was amazing. Won by the Austria Hannas Arch the race had not been without drama. Matt Hall, the Aussie pilot, G stalled on turn 13, dropped both wings and wheels in the water during qualifying but managed to pull his plane up and out safely..due to his expertise and the sheer grunt of these little machines. You can watch this here.

All this capped a cool weekend which started with a do at the Legion club Friday night, put on by one of the companies at Pips office. We sampled Serbian delicacies like Kajimak, a cream cheese made by boiling full cream milk, skimming off the top and stacking the skimmed milk into a container which is then strained and chilled, this was smeared on specialty buns, rather like large soft baps and served with a delicious Serbian sausage, which was grilled while being misted with water every few minutes, then added to finely chopped onions to steam. The whole thing was delicious, especially as we were lakeside on the patio above a sailing school.