You may recall a connection to Stephen King from my blog post on 7-3-23. Somewhat improbably, I brushed up against Mr. King again in today’s travel. I’ll explain how that came about in just a moment.

This was an easy day of biking, only about 25 miles, which is how far I needed to go to get to a convenient stopping place with available lodging. My wet clothes from yesterday had mostly dried out by this morning, and the sun was out by this afternoon. My route was again along Lake Erie, and here is the view I had from a picnic table I stopped at for lunch in Lowbanks, Ontario.

Tonight, I am staying at the Riverview Motel in Dunnville, Ontario (pop. 5,686), which I learned was used in 2015 to shoot several scenes for an eight-episode TV miniseries adaptation of Stephen King’s 2011 book 11/22/63. In the series, James Franco plays Jake Epping, an English teacher who is given the opportunity to travel back in time and seek to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy. King co-produced the mini-series and was on site during the filming. According to Wikipedia, the series generally received positive reviews.

I had a chance to visit with CJ, who owns and operates the motel with his wife Meena. He said the filming of the series was an exciting time not only at the motel but all over the city. The town of Dunnville was overrun with people from the area who wanted to see what was going on. Churches allowed their parking lots to be used for all the cars, and they were all full. CJ said there were 22 police cars on site to maintain order. In the midst of all this craziness, however, CJ said he had a number of opportunities to meet actors and others involved in the production, including Stephen King. He seemed to really enjoy talking about the experience and I think was glad I was interested in it. Since then, he has had additional opportunities to have the motel property used in other film productions, some of which he turned down because the motel already had a number of bookings during the time the filming was to take place.

In the film version, the motel is called the Tamarack Motor Lodge. I asked CJ if he considered rebranding Riverview to make use of the Tamarack name. He said he wasn’t interested in doing that and besides, the filmmakers had only changed one side of his sign for the shoot. Here is CJ in the lobby of the motel.

Here is “Crew Call” information that was issued during the filming for June 12, 2015. CJ has this pinned on a bulletin board in the motel lobby. Otherwise, there is no evidence on site of the motel’s role in the series.

The website for the motel includes a three-minute clip from the film that shows the motel, and it also shows room 8, where some of the action takes place. Interestingly, I am in room 9, right next door. I will attempt to post a link to the film clip below if you’re interested in checking it out.

Tomorrow’s ride will be about 40 miles long, to Port Dover, Ontario, also on the north shore of Lake Erie. It’s supposed to be sunny all day tomorrow, but there’s a 70% chance of rain again on Thursday.