Did a bit of a driving tour of Thunder Bay on our way out of town this morning...saw Lake Superior in all her glory plus were awestruck by the grain terminals in the harbor...both by the sheer number of them and also their massive size. We read that at capacity they can hold 100 million bushels of grain!!! That's a heck of a lot of grain!!!
Passed by the local hostel on a country road and came upon a whole bunch of signs of places all over the world...made the assumption that these are some of the places that visitors to the hostel have come from.
Mostly bush and rock lined the highway from Thunder Bay to Nipigon. Lots and lots of Inukshuks everywhere along the rock outcroppings throughout Ontario thus far. Black and reddish rock, apparently about 2 billion years old, predominated. Numerous pristine lakes, many with islands i them, were visible from the road...when the sun was shining it sparkled on the water and was very picturesque as we tootled on by.
Lots of bridge construction all along the highway. We wondered if all the bridges replacements for the Ontario leg of the journey are on this year's "to do" list as it seems they are all being redone, which means traffic was often down to one lane both ways...which meant delays from time to time.
Now for the historical "first" ... Stopped at Timmy's in Nipigon for a bowl of soup. since I have never met a washroom I could pass up, headed there after lunch. To my ABSOLUTE shock I discovered FOUR men lined up waiting to use the men's room and NOT ONE woman lined up to use the ladies room. Just sailed in there like I owned the joint! Has anyone else ever had an experience like that? I was stunned...and am still smiling about it!
Next stop was at Aguasabon River Gorge and Falls...another breathtakingly beautiful natural wonder...and the site of the "small world" comment that entitles this post. As we were getting ready to get back on the bike we saw a woman I knew from Edmonton getting out of their vehicle! What are those odds I wonder?
At White River we stopped at the display honoring Winnie the Pooh! Those of you who are Pooh fans may already know that the local vet bought a bear cub for $20 from a trapper on the train platform in White River. The vet took the bear cub with him to England as he was in the army during the war...once in England he left the bear at the London Zoo where it became a popular attraction and a favorite of A.A. Milne's son Christopher...and thus the inspiration for the Winnie the Pooh stories.
The weather today was a strange mix of sun and cloud...up and down and up and down went the sunshades on our helmet visors. Temps ranged from 15 to 24'. We managed to avoid the rain until about ten minutes from our destination of Wawa...the downpour made it hard to see where our hotel was but after a couple of false starts we arrived safe and sound. Were glad we had reserved this place this morning as there are lots of no vacancies because of the long weekend.
Just returned from the hotel's restaurant where we had an amazing meal. The owners of this hotel are from Poland and their cook is Ukrainian....so we enjoyed borscht, cabbage rolls (with a mushroom vegetable gravy...sounds weird but it was delicious) and yummy perogies, accompanied by shredded pickled beets. We had several mouth watering dessert choices but settled on sharing a fruit and cheese crepe....yuuuummmmmm!!! Went for a short walk afterward in an attempt to walk off some of the calories! Probably should have jogged to our next destination instead! :)
Tomorrow we head for Espanola...more later. Warm thoughts to all ...
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