Oh Canada! We’re in Ottawa

Day 46.- We took an uncharted route from Tamworth to Parham, kumbucha and croissant at Sharbot Lake, then followed Hwy 38 through Crow’s Lake, Bolingbroke to Perth, home of 2 inde bookstores!  We visited Heidi and Peter at Spark Books, a really cool couple and their great bookstore on Foster St. for a visit, 

then over to The Book Nook, where we got one of their postcards and sent it back home to Amy at Totally Book-ish in Mission.  

I sat in the humongous Red Chair looking out to the Rideau Canal linking Perth to the Rideau Lakes system.  Perth is also home of the Mammoth Cheese, originally 22,000 pounds, 6 feet high and 28 feet in circumference, produced in Perth back in 1893 for an exhibit at Chicago’s World Fair.  It went from there to England, some of it made back to Ottawa, and the remaining 80lbs are in Perth!  Gotta love the landmarks that make these towns so unique!  I know people fall in love with Mission for our Post Office, Rocko’s, the Abby and other great things!

Ottawa - Hwy 40 to Ottawa to visit friends Bruce and Sandra.  We also met Bruce on our trip to Bangladesh back in 2014 and it was really nice to meet his wife Sandra, plus Duke 🐾 , Ernie 🐾, and cuddly cat who’s name I cannot remember 🐈‍⬛.  Also a very special young woman, Tania, is living with Bruce and Sandra - she fled from the Ukraine 1 year ago when Russia first attacked the Ukraine, and her family is still there.  Tania’s is working as a settlement worker for refugees in Ottawa.  She is also a lawyer in Ukraine, like Sivitha in India, and hopes to return home.  

Bruce is an excellent cook and they spoiled us royally!

We talked a lot with Bruce and Sandra about the take over of Ottawa by the Freedom Convoy last year when the entire city was held hostage by a convoy movement initially created to protest vaccine mandates for crossing the borders, then escalated to protest against COVID19 vaccines in Canada, then on to racism and hatred toward minorities.  People couldn’t got to work, malls and businesses were shut down, and home care providers couldn’t get to where they were needed.  What I didn’t know about was the Battle of Billing’s Bridge: - Sunday, Feb. 13 the flow of trucks going for supplies for the convoy were stopped by a few frustrated local residents to demonstrate the negative impact on the citizens of Ottawa - their city was being held hostage!  The protest started with enough volunteers to corral about 35 vehicles, mostly pick up trucks coming to get supplies (fuel and food) for the protesters downtown.  Dozens of volunteers showed up, then hundreds, eventually more than 1,000 people and they held back the convoy of suppporters for 9 hours.  Later that night drivers in the convoy were permitted a “negotiated retreat” - they were allowed to leave, one at a time, but only after their trucks had be stripped of flags and “Freedom Convoy” stickers, and surrendered any jerry cans.  It is estimated that more than 1,000 people stood strong, shoulder to shoulder. At this point the government and police finally got involved and it ended with no concessions given; the Emergencies Act was invoked from February 17-23.  Ah, the power of a few people who believe that they can make a difference ✊, thank you.

- Today is the day that underwater noises from the missing submersible exploring the Titanic were heard and the air supply is expected to run out within hours.  Sadly things did not turn out well.  

We spent hours with Bruce and Sandra searching for information about my Dad’s plane crash - they are both Veterans and have a keen interest in this kind of stuff.  I’ll have to send them stuff when I get home.  My Dad was a Squadron Leader in the RCAF and was in a military plane crash, in Canada, when I was a baby.  But on the Dowker side we did discover that both Bruce and Roger’s fathers served together in the 427 Lion Squadron during WWII. What a small world, we meet on a trip to Bangladesh, visit in Ottawa only to discover another connection in England.  While on a night operation on March 18, 1944 my (Roger’s) dad’s Halifax bomber was shot down by a night fighter. The pilot maintained control long enough for the crew to parachute to safety in doing so he was not able to save himself.  The plane crashed near Hillesheim Germany. The crew was captured, and my dad spent the remainder of the war as a POW. He was 22 years old.

Day 47 - Downtown Ottawa!!

- By Ward Market

- Old Ottawa along Sussex Street (Sylvia, the story of the lumberjacks collecting their pay and setting out to have some fun reminds me of the Moose Jaw Saturday $2.00 bills) 

- Majors Hill Park (thank you Laurie), and we watched a boat going through the manually operated locks, right downtown!

- the Parliament buildings are being renovated and all business is being done in other wings so we took a pass.  We did tour them a few years ago when we passed through on our way to Nunavut.

- York Steps and the giant Ottawa letters with strangers taking pictures of strangers, so we took pictures of strangers taking pictures of strangers!  

- lots of really old and beautiful stuff to see, and everything is so green!  But it’s hot!

The Canadian War Museum - we spent hours in Gallery 4 - From the Cold War to Present, reliving a lot of memories of growing up with under the desk drills in school and lots of talk of bomb shelters.  Most meaningful for me was the live film from Afghanistan; we could see what some of our soldiers saw - not all of course, but I have much more of an understanding than we had before we went in there.  I’m so proud of my son 💕 and all those who chose to serve in the Canadian military - Thank you. 

The Memorial Hall holds the headstone from the grave of Canada’s Unknown Soldier on a concrete wall in a minimalist, dimly lit space. On Remembrance Day, at exactly 11:00am, sunlight shines through a single window to frame perfectly the headstone.

Lest We Forget

MeAnd’er-ing slowly to the Capital City of Ottawa

8,000km and 127.06 hours in the car together (but who’s counting!)

Day 41 & 42 - After leaving Roger’s childhood home in Toronto we drove west to visit our friend Barbara in St. George, township of Brant. Beautiful rolling hills and small towns, Roger managed to map out charging stations to give us great comfort to veer off wherever we wanted to do things such as pick up fresh butter tarts from a bakery on a country backroad that is only open Friday, Saturday and Sundays.  Lucky us!  Through Waterdown, Carlisle, Peters Corners and Hespeler.

People probably wonder about these weird travellers in a car marked Meand’er Across Canada pulling over to the side of the road to take pictures of their homes, and they are right, we are weird in that we stop and appreciate the individuals that make up our Canada. 

St. George is tagged as “Canada’s friendliest town”, population 3,354, outside Brantford where Jean and Donna of Wawa Goose fame live, but they’re in Newfoundland right now so we’ll have to drop in on our way home.  

We met Barbara in Bangladesh when we went to learn about the Amarok Society schools for women.  

A bit of background here - 

Amarok Society - In 2005, Dr. Tanyss and Gem Munro were invited to Bangladesh by an international organization to make improvements in the country’s education system, so they packed up their 4 children and moved from Vancouver, Canada to Dhaka, Bangladesh.  Within the existing school system there it turned out the biggest threat to education in the developing world isn’t a deficient school system; it’s that even those deficient schools are out of reach for millions of children.  So they helped by opening free schools to teach mothers to teach others.  Each mother takes the responsibility to teach 5 children.  Now they have people with an education in English and Bhangli and are able to get jobs in some of the offices in the clothing factories rather than in the factory itself, because they can read and write!  Our Rotary Club in Mission sponsored one of the schools in Dhaka and Roger continues to support one of the mothers.  

Please read more. https://www.amarok society.org 

We had a very fond journey down memory lane with Barbara’s photos of Bangladesh and our trip with Gem, Bruce, Barbara, Nick, Carmella, Nikki, Angela, Jackie, Judy, Roger and me, all put together as an Amarok trip by Nick.  

Back in Canada Barbara continues to care for people and to give a hand up to people moving here and helping them settle.  Right now she is sharing her home with a young family from Kerela Province in India who have come to Canada, until they settle in their own apartment in Brantford.  Anoop and Sivitha are well educated in India and have come to Canada with their young daughter Nashua, willing to work at one of the multiple, low entry jobs to start from scratch in a new country for a better life.  That takes a lot of courage, and they are blessed to have found Barbara!  

So here we are in St. George, over 8,000km into our journey, and Barbara is only the 3rd person that we know!  Cal and Sharon back in Kelowna, Sylvia in Buena Vista, and now Barbara.  That’s a lot of space between friends, but we are making new ones along the way.

The blog thing is interesting - Lori and Ray have done them on each trip and it seems so relaxed, but it’s not!  I am writing to you about things we did last week - we’re talking St. George but we’re in Quebec City!  For those who know me, I am always taking notes so I have a clip of scratch paper in by bag, which gets transposed when I sit with the map and pictures into a travel notebook (thanks Cyndi), and from there to here.  So I get behind when we are visiting with people!  I try not to get too stressed about it because this is a lot of fun, but my goodness has my memory ever had to work overtime!!  Please excuse me if I repeat myself - it’s all part of the story, and we hope you are enjoying reading it as much as we are enjoying writing it.

Day 42 - Lunch in Paris!  A quaint little town at the junction of the Grand and Nith Rivers with streets lined with cafes, boutiques and specialty shops - but most important - The Dog-Eared Cafe, a wonderful independent bookstore/cafe with cool things like “All books are created equal, but some books are more equal than others” - George Orwell, probably”.  And cell phone etiquette reminder such as “We’ve worked hard to curate an ideal and relaxing environment for all to enjoy.  Please do your part in being respectful of other patrons by keeping your calls, tik-toks, wedding fails, and other unwelcome emittances on silent.” 

There was a fantastic photo exhibit of men called The Bro Show! by Sarah Evans.

Day 43 - Back into Aurora for lunch with Roger’s cousin Dilys , I don’t think they have seen each other for 20 years so they had lots to catch up on, then overnight in Newmarket to get ready for our trip to Ottawa. via Mount Albert, Uxbridge, 7A to Port Perry to visit Bill Minor at Books Galore, as recommended by the ladies in the post office in Mount Albert.  Bill knew all about Billy Miner because people have told him there is something on the menu in a restaurant chain by that name!  Who knew our very own train robber was a national dish!!

Also in Port Perry …

Sorry Bill, didn’t mean to put you in the same picture but I’m trying to keep this short!

There is a lot of Rotary presence in some of these towns : Rotary Charity Ride, Rotary Red Shoes Walk, Rotary Rail tracks to name a few.  

Charging the car has been a breeze, sometimes we just find chargers without even planning to.

Hwy. 7 East toward to Peterborough through Omemee - Home of Neil Young!!  Had a long chat with  Lorna, a lady who stopped while I was taking this photo and she told me all about his family, which house they lived in down the road, the move to the farm, and also that Lady Eaton lived in town too (as in Eatons  Department Store).  I told her we should put her in the back of the car and she can show us around! 

Further on down Hwy. 5 we stopped at the Trent-Severn Waterway Lock 21 in Peterborough, used mostly by recreational folks.  There are 45 locks in this waterway system, 386km from Trenton to Port Severn, connecting Lake Ontario to Georgian Bay. Lock 21 is 19.8 metres, the highest hydraulic lock in the world.  That’s a lot of work and a lot of water for letting paddlers and power boats through, but that seems to be what they do here.  In BC we just leave people to fend for themselves in the rapids!!  (right Lori?)

Also in the North York Region we passed the Sharon Temple, a National Historic Site constructed in 1825 by the Children of Peace - an Upper Canada Quaker Sect.  The Children of Peace established a co-operative credit union and land sharing system, and also built the Province’s 1st Homeless Shelter.  Ground breakers in my book for sure.

Day 44 & 45 - We made it!  We’re in Tamworth, home of Angela and Roger.  Angela is another friend we met back in 2014 in Bangladesh and she and Roger live on 300 acres in a very rural part of Ontario south of Kaladar on Hwy 7 and north of Napanee on Hwy. 401, in Stone Mills Township, Lennox and Addington Country, or for some, cottage country.  Not what I pictured to be “cottage country” and I had been told by my Ontario friends that there is nothing else like it. I pictured more a number of homes focused on a lake, or mountain, but here it seems to be anywhere out of the city where you would come to get away.  Needless to say with that much land you’re rural, and this is definitely their own piece of paradise. 

Another Ontario surprise to me was our visit to a “sugarbush” - a forest of maple trees where the syrup is extracted.  It is nothing like the drawings I have seen in social studies books - no taps, no buckets, and no row upon row of maple trees!  It’s a forest with a mix of trees and underbrush, and if I didn’t now what i was looking at I probably would have driven right by - except that there is an umbilical cord of tubing connecting the trees to larger lines, gravity fed and collected in vats sitting there on the forest floor!  Quite breathtaking actually, and very, very exciting for me!

Rural Ontario is quite exciting and lots of stuff happening, like the Tamworth Hotel built in 1840 and painstakingly being restored for the past 6 years by Kevin and Carol.  If you are ever looking for the best b & b, this is the place!  

We plugged into Roger’s shop and were fired up and ready to go!  Speaking of Roger’s shop, eat your heart out my woodworking friends …

We are biding a fond farewell to our friends Angela and Roger and heading back to a city -

next stop - Ottawa!  and another Amarok friend :) 

 

MeAnd’Er-ing from the country to the city

7000km / 107.5 driving time (and still talking!)

Day 37 & 38 - 

We left the Soo heading to Sudbury and a herd of dairy cows were there to say goodbye! 

We continue to travel backroads (Hwy. 17 to 12S to 48S) through beautiful farmsteads, stone house, wild turkeys, swans, and the summer place of Glen Gould in Uptergrove, ON.  This is what people here call “Cottage Country”, and the small towns are lovely.  And almost every one has a Home Decor and/or Kitchen store!  I so wish Mission would get something like that.  

I’m so excited - I get to turn the map over because we are finally out of Northern Ontario!  It drives me crazy to call the 49th “North”, and even crazier to have one province on 2 pages of the map!  Sudbury is on both sides so away we go….       

We stopped in Echo Bay, a town “Worth Repeating”: for a photo of the 1987 Loonie, the year of the launch.  This one was erected to celebrate the year the Canadian Loonie played a good luck role at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics when a loonie was frozen into the surface of centre ice.  Both of Canada’s hockey teams won gold and the legend continues.  Somehow The Lucky Loonie showed up embedded in the floor in a Tim Hortons where we stopped on our way out of Ottawa!  Go figure 🤔

Towns along the way like Thessalon, with a pink bridge called the Red Bridge, have loads of history with fur traders and the such, with a lot of colonial street names and architecture.  We passed a few groups of Amish people in horse drawn buggies; the Espanola food bank is for rent - maybe they don’t need it any more???  I wish! And arrived at the Giant 1951 Nickle in Sudbury in the pouring rain.  We arrived at the Dynamic Earth Science Museum just as it closed but still did our photo op - with a picture taken for us by a family from Surrey.  Sudbury was once a major lumber centre and a world leader in nickel mining, but now is less resource-based economy and emerged as the major retail, economic, health and educational centre for Northeastern Ontario.  We just stopped for the night - we have friends to see!

Today is the day Nick Taylor won the RBC Canadian Open - 1st Canadian to win since 1954, and 1st Canadian born to win since 1914.   Kinda reminds me of the World Series - how come it’s World Series if only North Americans play?  (There’s an answer to that)

Day 38 - We chose Hwy 38 out of Sudbury and travelled along the east coast of Lake Huron through Parry Sound - there was a cruise ship in the harbour!  Visited Parry Sound Books, another lovely independent bookstore.  Every town we have stopped in is small and has beautifully restored shops and buildings, much like we’re doing in Mission.  

Through Muskoka and on to our hotel in Orillia, Champlain Waterfront Hotel, a short walk to the waterfront and an amazing park and walkway, Rotary miniature train through the park, Rotary Aqua theatre, playing fields, playground and a mysterious missing statue in the centre.  Turns out the statue of Champlain was removed in 2017 for restoration and the return of it is still under consideration!  Stay tuned orilliamatters.com .  Also came upon a monument acknowledging the 1919 service Quota Club of Orillia Inc., a service club for women similar to that of all-male clubs, (Rotary was started in 1905) providing basic needs to women, children, deaf and hard of hearing.  This is a group I have never heard of so I had to look it up, you can too if you want.  Orillia really is a pretty lakeside town with quite a vibrant downtown.

Day 39 - We left Orillia - Stopped at Wilkie’s Bakery for a Chelsea Bun (he’s been working this place since he was 10!), heading down Hwy 17S past a sign leading to Avro Arrow Rd., just north of Parry Sound, it was a testing site for Orenda Engines, a subsidiary of A.V. Roe Canada, the aerospace giant who designed and built the Avro Arrow, and also used as a munitions plant.  In 1959 the Arrow program was suddenly cancelled and 6 completed planes were destroyed, pieces of which have been recovered from Lake Superior.  Hmmm 🤔 

Outside Queensville in Gwillimbury we drove past an enormous wall - I thought immediately of the Trump border wall it was so big.  Turns out to be a 1.2 million square foot distribution facility for Loblaw - this place is huge!  They boast 1000 jobs but no mention of jobs that will be lost at the 27 smaller distribution centres across Canada.

Into Aurora, home of a huge mural “Canadian Moment Mural” with everything from QEII signing Canada’s 1982 Constitution, Rick Hansen, Roberta Bondar, even Mr. Dressup - but whoops - no Terry Fox!  There is another mural in Aurora, Diversity and Inclusion depicting hands of various ethnicities and genders sewing a quilted blanket that contains patches reflective of the many groups that call Aurora home.  

Stopped at Bookworms & Co. outside of Newmarket, a fabulous bookstore and great women.  The owner was so excited when I told her of our venture to visit independent bookstores across Canada, we really have met some wonderful people!  

Wish we had bought rolls of lifesavers from Shaun at Candy Shack back home, we’re having to scoop them from restaurants!

Day 40 - We’re in Toronto!!!  Arrived last night at John and Siobhan’s, eagerly greeted by Grace the Schnauzer 🐾  They live in the North York area of Toronto so we hopped on the subway at Shepard West and headed into the city.  We walked and walked and walked to try to get in as much as we could: The Legislative Building, Queen’s Park (with a boxed in and cloaked statue of Sir John A. MacDonald),  The statue was damaged during a protest in 2020 and “continues to be covered until a decision can be made regarding its future”, which apparently is up to the Speaker of the House.  We found this on the grounds of the Legislature, acknowledging Canada’s efforts in Afghanistan. 

We walked through the University and Grange Park leading to old downtown.  I loved Grange Park with its inlay quotes from Margaret Atwood and David Suzuki (to name a few), lots of big shade trees, bordered by brick row houses built predominately by Eastern European Jewish Immigrants.  We chose to stay outdoors rather than go inside and spend hours in museums and galleries because we wanted to do as much as we could in one visit.  Amazing street art of VanGogh that can only be appreciated by video, and as I haven’t mastered posting them yet you’ll have to wait until we get home!  And a great street band.  Blue Jays stadium, CN Tower, all of that was there - but Huge disappointment in the CBC.  There was nothing inside to look at - no archives, no studios, nothing except for a really nice wall honouring Barbara Frum.  What about The Beachcombers? Peter Gzowski? Stuart McLean? Royal Canadian Air Farce? Peter Mansbridge?  Don’t let the smiles fool you - I am really pissed off!  We’ve been cheated - no pictures, no footage, no studios, nothing!  

But we really enjoyed our time with John and Siobhan, and I thought of you each morning Karen when I made coffee in “Karen’s coffee pot”, Thank You, 

Day 41 - We left Toronto today but first visited the house where Roger lived as a kid!!  It was so exciting, so many of them have been torn down and replaced with cookie cutter style 3 story things, but his was still there - with the tree he and his Dad planted in the front yard ❤️

And a visit to York Cemetery to visit the site where Roger’s parents are buried.  This cemetery is huge, and old!  I discovered a cross I have never seen before, that of the Russian Orthodox with 3 horizontal cross beams, the lowest slanted downwards.

We left Toronto and doubled back to visit our friend Barbara in St. George, back country the entire way through Campbellville, Carlisle, Waterdown and Peters Corners.

MeAnd’Er - ing from Thunder Bay to Sault Ste. Marie

 

Day 32 -

6,000km and 93 hours driving time.

Heading east again / still, and the drive out of Thunder Bay was beautiful, as promised by the guy in The Cheese Encounter a cheese store on Algoma St. in Thunder Bay.  I think this is how I will remember Ontario - trees, rocks, roads, and Lake Superior!

Turned off the road here for a drive through a treed park up to the Terry Fox Memorial, and it was breathtaking.  Terry’s journey is marked all along his route on Hwy. 11-17, right up to Shuniah, Ontario where he had to end his Marathon of Hope when his cancer returned in 1980 - 5,373km, 143 straight days.

Next stop was Amethyst Mine Panorama, over 1,000 acres of quarry owned and operated by 2nd generation Lukinuk family, Steve and Lorna.  Amethyst was discovered there by accident when crews were working their way through the area to erect a forest fire lookout.  3 miners laid claim and it was later bought by Steve’s parents.  There are pieces of amethyst all over the place that we are encouraged to collect and purchase for $5. at pound, but we’re not buying anything larger than stickers on this trip.  I was swarmed by small black flies there and still have the welts on my neck to prove it!  They got caught in the soft hair around my neck and tried to chew their way out.

Stopped in Terrace Bay for a charge and lunch - they have a big lighthouse in the parking lot!  It’s been a long day but one more stop at White River for a photo with Winnie the Pooh, yes, another one.  This is where the little black bear was bought from a trapper for $20. by Lieutenant Colbourn back in 1914.

Day 33-34

Catfish Lake

We’re nestled quite comfortably in Cabin #6 at Catfish Lakefront Cabins, about 15 minutes west of Wawa on Hwy. 17.  Very Eagan Lake-ish and lovely.  I never did figure out how to get a ride in the float plane!  Roger’s blog about ‘being stuck in the middle’ & EV charging fits in here.

It’s much colder here so a bit of suitcase shuffling to pull out the jeans again.  It’s about 20* compared to the 31* we’ve been having.  No cell service, which is good and not so good, but we have lots of great books we have picked up at the many independent bookstores we have visited!

Newfoundland update from Sharon: it’s cool and rainy there too.

We met a kid on our walk who is graduating this year and he told us that the Willys Jeep in this picture belongs to his friend Dave and it still runs!  

Day 35

It’s raining!  We haven’t had rain since Lake Louise.

Wow, it’s really nice to be getting caught up with this blog, we were reminded yesterday that we’re a tad behind!

Thank you again to Natalie and Lee at Catfish Lake for letting us plug in the car - the charging station in Wawa is still down and it’s 240km to Sault Ste. Marie.  We left Catfish with a range of 325km, plenty to get us there. 

We stopped in Wawa anyway because we needed the picture with the Canada Goose!  It is there for the same reason as Sara the Camel in Glenboro!  Concerned that when plans were finalizing for the Trans Canada Lake Superior route that it would not be built through the community, Al Turcott and a group of businessmen came up with the idea of the Wawa Goose to attract tourists on their trans Canada travels, and it works!  

Al also opened Fort Friendship on the banks of the Michipicoten River upstream of the old Hudsons’ Bay Co. Post.  It comes complete with log palisade walls, a museum, gift shop, wishing well, tower of Prime Ministers, and a small church made out of glass bottles.  (Maybe the people in Treherne had some left over!)

We didn’t visit Fort Friendship in Wauwatosa because it was raining so badly, but friendship did grace our stop at the Wawa Goose.  There we met two lovely ladies, Jean and Donna, travelling from Brantford and following much the same path as we are - in particular taking pictures at landmarks and roadside attractions.  They filled us in on some we missed including the giant mosquito in Upsalla, travel tips for points and perks, and if you are planning a trip to Portugal - Madeira is a must! They even have tickets for Come From Away in Gander! that puts them high up on my well organized travellers list.  We had a great visit in the Tourist Information Centre, again the reason we are taking this trip slow and easy so we can enjoy meeting people. These two travel a lot - both retired, one navigates and the other drives the Honda Civic.  Back home they do a lot of volunteer work with seniors, including bringing their Support Cat in to visit!  How do you train a cat to be a Support Cat you might ask?  You don’t!  She just naturally purrs, gives love and snuggles, no training involved, and she even has a Service vest like their canine colleagues.  Same as Gus does when Katie brings him to work with her.
I’m sure we’ll meet Jean and Donna again throughout this trip, in fact they are at the same hotel in Sault Ste. Marie that we’re at! 

We stopped at Harmony Beach because Roger wanted to see the 3km of sandy beach just north of S.S.M.  He must be craving BC, because when we first arrived in Ontario and I mentioned the pebbles and rocks on the beaches alongside Lake Superior he said “sand’s for sissies”, and here we are, on sandy Harmony Beach!  You can take the man away from the Coast, but you can’t take the Coast away from the man.  Did I mention that it’s raining?

We went past Old Woman Bay, Rabbit Blanket Lake, Mom Lake, Baby Lake, Orphan Lake (no idea where Dad Lake is). and finally got to see Lake Superior with an uninterrupted horizon. nothing for as far as the eye can see.  There’s a formula for figuring out how far that is: height in metres x 13 and take the root of that.  For me it’s about 4.8km and for Roger about 5km (he can reach higher too).

Day 36 

Another trip across the border, this time to Michigan, on purpose.  We took a tour boat through the Soo Locks and it was amazing!  The difference is 21 feet, and you go from the boat sitting well below the lock to walking right off the deck in 15 minutes.  It uses 10 million gallons of water to make this happen, and we got to see a freighter 246 meters long and 23 meters wide go through.  The locks are on the St. Mary’s River connecting Lake Huron and Lake Superior, north side is Canadian, south is American.  You can see in this picture our little boat on the Lake Superior side and coming out on the Lake Huron side.  It is a feat nothing short of amazing.  Prior to the locks there was a 21 foot drop through rapids!  

Lots of coal going through there and Alcoma has a huge steel manufacturing plant on the waterfront.  

We were told that next time we should go further down the Michigan side to Whitefish where the historical site is for the Edmund Fitzgerald., the further down to Paradise Beach and the best fudge!

Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan is a cool little town, but I really liked this litter notice posted on our tour boat - 

Michele, wouldn’t you love to see this in Mission!

Lovely dinner at Fluid on the waterfront beside the Roberta Bondar Park - Sault Ste. Marie is hometown to Dr. Bondar, Canada’s first woman astronaut .  The park is in the area historically known as Bawating, or “meeting place”. 

Finally broke down and got some cortisone cream for my neck, those flies at Amethyst really did a number on me!

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.

EV Update - So here’s the plan ….

 

  

So here’s the plan. We will charge in Thunder Bay the night before we drive 462 km to Catfish Lake.

It’s about a 5 hour drive so we can take turns driving. We can charge the car in Nipigon and again in Terrace Bay at Drifters Motel while we have some lunch. We do not need to worry about range when we get to Catfish Lakefront Cabins (https://www.catfishlakefrontcabins.ca/) where we are staying for 3 days because it is only 17 km to Wawa where we can charge at the Petro Can before we drive the 240 km to Sault Ste. Marie, our next stop. 

Things are going well; we pull into Catfish Lakefront Cabins with 102 kms left in the battery. We get settled in and I start the planning for the Sault Ste Marie trip and discover that the only charging station in Wawa is out of service! Not enough juice to get to the Sault and not enough to back track to Terrance Bay. The song ‘Stuck in the middle with you’ pops into my head.

Not to worry, remember Level 3, Level 2, Level 1 charging? 

We talked with the owners Natalie and there is not a problem, her husband Lee will move his truck and we can plug in at their place overnight and will have the range for the Sault Ste. Marie trip covered. Thank you, Natalie and Lee, and Level 1 charging!

And a shout out again to Sylvia in Buena Vista for letting us plug in there as well!  Thank You!

“Range Anxiety” is not exclusive to electric cars!