MeAnd’Er-ing into Ontario

 

5000 km since we left Mission, and 77hrs driving time.  

Day 28 & 29 - 

We crossed the Centre point of Canada’s longitude. 96* 48’ 35” between Winnipeg and Kenora.  The actual centre of point of Canada latitude and longitude is just south of Yathkyed Lake in Nunavut, west of Hudson Bay at 62* 24’ N and 96* 28’ W.  We crossed between Winnipeg and Kenora.

There had to be 10km of road closure cones coming out of Manitoba - Roger asks, where do they get that many?

We stopped at Sioux Narrows for lunch - Northern Ontario Sportfishing Centre.  I’m really struggling with this “Northern Ontario” thing when we are only 5 miles north of the 49!  Sounds pretty south to me!

Ontario is beautiful - everyone kept saying to us “rocks, trees and road, that’s all you’ll see” but we think it’s quite lovely.  We’ll see how we feel about that in a few days!  A long day on the road today.

 

Fort Frances - 

We are in Fort Frances - we posted a news flash the other day about the International Falls here, or more accurately, not here!  

Back in 1873 a treaty was negotiated with the Ojibwa for the cession of 5,000 square miles of territory including much of this part of Ontario.  

We’re at the Bayview Motel, the 1st self check-in we’ve ever seen, quite slick actually.  We are on Rainy Lake, across the lake from Minnesota, and an apparent resting spot for pelicans - about 100 of them!  Still 32* so it’s nice being across the street from the lake.  

Fort Frances has a population of 8,000 and is like a step back in time: $7.50 breakfast, $1. postcards, and plug the car in for free at the motel.  But no bakery, no coffee shop, no falls, and no fort!  They do have a Walmart, Tim Hortons, Canadian Tire, and the Annual Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship though! Throw in a gazillion fishermen and free pelican show and its all worth it.  Lisa at the Harbourage Restaurant told us to look for the flower pot rocks in PEI, the Halifax City Tour and the changing of the guards at the fort where they wear kilts and flash when they spin!

Day 30 & 31- On to Thunder Bay, quoted as “A wonderful place to drive through”.  So not true!

We passed a point at Kashabowie, ele. 1660ft. where posted is the Atlantic Watershed - From here all streams flow south into the Atlantic Ocean and Arctic Watershed - From here all streams flow north into the Arctic Ocean.  This is so cool - like the Continental Divide only east to west, Atlantic to Pacific.  It’s fun seeing Canada divided up this way, longitude/latitude, north/south, east west.

Along the Hwy 11 & Hwy 17 we have seen a couple of people cycling, and a couple of people walking what appears to be across Canada?  There was one cyclist accompanied by a truck but couldn’t make out what the sign was, the others appear to be on their own.  Our friend Neil cycled across Canada a few years ago, we’ll have to ask him about that.  

Thunder Bay - we are staying upstairs in a really old house on Pearl St. in an area that reminds us of Kitsilano when it was undergoing some changes in the early 70’s.  Old places being repurposed and small businesses setting down roots, great places to eat, The Cheese Encounter, and right next to them the Entershine Bookshop - a great independent bookstore on Algoma Street.  I bought a book by Maude Barlow, one of my hero’s, called Still Hopeful, Lessons from a Lifetime of Activism, published in 2022.  I’ll let you know how that goes.  

Canada’s Best Trips Guide suggested Tomlin’s for dinner but there was an hour wait (we got there at opening) and we had the car plugged in at the government building so wanted something a little faster, so we chose a Thai restaurant -  a far stretch from Bee Thai at home, that’s for sure. Oh well, we had a fantastic share bowl salad and pizza at Nook last night so that makes up for it.

It’s hard to eat when you’re on the road like this - anything affordable comes with an oversized amount of fries and hardly anything fresh.  We always have fresh fruit and cheese on hand and often that’s our midday meal.  

We’re a short walk to the waterfront of Lake Superior!!!  

Did I mention -      We’re on Lake Superior!!!

I can’t believe it.

At one time there were 29 grain elevators on this waterfront and the City of Thunder Bay - as Port Arthur and Fort William, was the grain-handling capital of the world.  One steamer loaded 555,000 bushels of wheat in 7 hours and 20 minutes! They still have the largest grain storage capacity in North America and the fastest grain ship turnaround time of all western Canadian ports.  There is still coal, grain and potash shipped out of Thunder Bay, 7.5 million tonnes of grain annually -   Does anybody reading this know what happened to all the grain elevators?  There are only 8 of them now.

Here’s a funny Thunder Bay story: 

Back in 1925 there was the Co-operative Dairy which was established when pasteurization laws came into effect.  They prohibited farmers from selling milk directly to the public, so the dairy became the middle-man.  In those days, skim milk was considered waste, but not much was wasted in early Port Arthur, so in the winter the dairy used the skim milk to flood an ice rink.  Those who skated on it say it was as white as a sheet of paper.

Update from the Maritimes: Our friend Sharon is visiting Newfoundland and she said that “ice bits” or “ice pans” from Labrador have come into the bay and the ferry is stopped for a week.  Between that and the fires burning in Ontario and Nova Scotia it looks like from here on east might be a bit of a challenge.

Kakabeka Falls the “Niagara of the North” are amazing, and we could get right up close.  They are on the Kaministiquia River (The Kam) 30km west of Thunder Bay and have a drop of 40m, or 130’.  The name comes from the Ojibwa word Gakaabikaa “Waterfall over a cliff”, and flows into western Lake Superior at Thunder Bay.  Not many tourists around at this time, but I’m sure we’ll start to see more toward the end of the month.  

I wish I could figure out how to post a video!

  

Hey, there’s a story back home about us in the Mission City Record!  Thank you Karen, Kevin and Dillon!  

As well as this blog I am also keeping a travel journal (a gift to Roger from my Rotary club) and a personal journal (thank you Cyndi).  For the travel journal I have been trying to use stickers from places we have visited but it’s hard to find them - especially provincial ones.  

There used to be a time when you could plaster the entire back of your car with them! 

I’m going to close here because tomorrow morning I want to start a new page.