A couple of travel days. It was a very cold night, but we were fairly comfortable in our sleeping bags on the bed but I didn’t want to get out of bed. I cooked up some pancakes and before breaking down camp Carol decided to dip her toes into Lake Superior. She said her feet instantly froze and she though her toes were going to fall off. We packed up everything and headed out, again at the crack of 11. Leaving Leys Provincial Park we continued our way West on the Trans-Canada Highway, Route 17 in Ontario. Smartly, we had made reservations in a warm hotel in Thunder Bay for the night. We figure the next few nights will be in hotels as we move west across the country. At least that’s the plan right now, things can change. So it was a day of driving and stopping to see things.
We found another gorge, huge waterfall spilling down through a cleft in the rocks. Very cool and from the viewing point we were engulfed in a fine mist. The roadside scenery was quite varied, sometimes very rugged and sometimes gentle hills but always beautiful and then there is Lake Superior darting in and out of sight along the left hand side of the highway. Simply spectacularL Somewhere and sometime in the early afternoon we took a side road off of Route 17 to Ouimet Gorge Provincial Park, the ‘Grand Canyon of Canada’ — this is our second Grand Canyon so far on this trip. It was about a mile round trip from the parking area to the viewing station which was called a ‘viewing pod’, but it was just a platform, but with a spectacular view. We made lunch here at Ouimet Park, BLT’s and chips and Lemonade, and maybe someone had some wine too. This was well worth the side trip.
Just before Thunder Bay we stopped at the Terry Fox memorial. Terry Fox was a cancer survivor who had lost a leg to cancer. He decided to run across cancer to promote cancer awareness and cancer research. Leaving from Labrador he ran a marathon a day, 26 miles, and ran over 3,300 miles. It was here, at this spot, that his journey ended, his cancer had returned. Terry Fox raised over 3.5 million dollars for the Canadian Cancer Society. What an inspiration. We arrived in Thunder Bay around six and drove around town a bit. Thunder Bay is a true seaport full of railroads, ships and grain storage. An industrial town if ever there was one…the western most seaport of the Great Lakes.
The next morning we were back on the road early after a good breakfast at the hotel. Rolling westward through Ontario toward Winnipeg. The scenery went from rugged to a land of lesser hills and many many smaller lakes. You can envision the trappers and the voyagers from long ago traveling through this land looking for furs and trading with the native people. There was a timezone change and out phones both changes but the clock in the car didn’t, then our phones changed back again, then they all changed, including the clock in the car…strange happenings. We stopped in the town of Kenora and made lunch gain at a park on the shore of the Lake Of The Woods. It was a beautiful but very windy dayalong the lake. Where we ate there was a seaplane dock and a small marina and a large tour boat was tied to the dock. Leaving Kenore we did find an ice cream stand…
We had a few delays due to road construction and a stop for gas but continues our westward progress. We crossed into Manitoba (Ontario was really long) and stopped at the welcome center where we got books and maps and such. Our decision was to stay in Winnipeg for at least two nights giving ourselves a day to explore this capitol city. Suddenly we left the forest and entered the prairie - within a couple of miles we went from pine forest to dead flat and cultivated prairie - what a shock. It was a very abrupt change of scenery. So here we are in Winnipeg, in the flat land, eager to explore. Below are some pix from these less exciting days.
Click any image for a larger view.
