Day 2 and 3...

Yesterday we left Sault Ste. Marie in good time. We didn't have a very good sleep due to the heat and the noisy air conditioner. However, we woke up to an overcast day. The temperature at 7:30 was already 16 deg C. though. After checking out, we had a quick bite to eat and filled up our travel mugs with coffee to sip while driving, oh yeah!!

We got onto Hwy 17 right away and started off our travelling day. There was quite a bit of cloud but that didn't diminish the grandeur of the scenery. The first stretch of the Lake Superior route from Sault Ste. Marie to Wawa was just spectacular. The terrain is rugged and mountainous with the road twisting and turning. Although lake Superior is not always visible, when it is, it just adds to the beauty of the landscape. As we went on, the weather started to clear up and soon the temperature also started to go up. It reached 29 deg C. eventually by noon. We stopped at a few look-out points to just drink in the vistas. One look-out point was called Old Woman's Bay. We met a guy there who was travelling from Alaska on a motor bike. He was going to Virginia and then via the southern states to California and back up to Alaska. He was going to take 2 months to do the trip. I told him that 2 years ago, we did a good part of his trip as well, albeit going the other way. He was an interesting character to talk to and after a while we wished him a great and safe trip and continued on.

We made good time going to our final destination, Thunder Bay. On a side note, when we left Acton, the gas prices were anywhere from 93.9 to 95.9c/L. Here in northern Ontario we had to pay usually 107.9c/L which was a bit of a shock to us.

The section from Wawa to Marathon was ok but a bit monotonous. This section of road goes inland away from the lake. However, from Marathon to Thunder Bay, the road gets close to lake again and the scenery became quite spectacular again. Finally we arrived at Brian and Yvonne's home around 4:30 thanks to our trusty GPS (we call it "Chicky"). We were warmly welcomed like long lost relatives. After feeding us a fantastic meal, we took a nice walk and relaxed. Brian showed us some of the sights in Thunder Bay which we thoroughly enjoyed. We had an enjoyable evening with Brian, Yvonne, Alexis, Adam and his girlfriend Megan. After getting up to snuff about what was happening with our families, we hit the hay.

This morning Brian and Yvonne took us to a Finnish restaurant called the Hoito. Apparently it's a landmark restaurant that has been there for 100 years. It served the loggers and other workmen in those those early times well and continues to do so today. We had a great time sharing breakfast. Adam also joined us before heading off to work. We said goodbye to the Schenks around 9:30 and were on our way.

A couple of blocks after we got onto Hwy 17 we had to brake sharply because a deer was running across the busy highway right in front of us. Unfortunately, a car going the opposite direction from us hit the deer. We were a little rattled and missed our turn. This was fortunate however, since we had to detour a bit and then saw the sign for old Fort William. Being a bit of a history buff, I had read about Fort William and thought it would be neat to pay it a visit. Annie was all for it as well since we had decided only to go as far as Kenora today anyway. Unfortunately, it started to drizzle a bit and as you can see in our pictures, it was pretty grey and cloudy. We took a guided tour together with a couple from France and an American from Michigan. Our guide was dressed as a voyageur and she really made it fun. I played right along and pretended to be a spy from the rival Honourable Hudson Bay Company. She was very knowledgeable and it proved very difficult to get her out of her historical role. I think she had a lot of fun with me as well trying to recruit me for the North West Company. We kibitsed quite a bit together. Unfortunately we had to reluctantly cut the visit short after a couple of hours in order to get going again if we wanted to make Kenora in good time.

About 20 km out of Thunder Bay, the weather started to clear and the sun came out. The weather today is in the low 20's and the humidity is gone, in other words, just about perfect. We crossed the dateline and set our watches and car clock back an hour. The highway was very good mostly and we made good time. There was road work going on at quite a few sections of Hwy 17. This was often very frustration to us since we usually had to wait 5 or more minutes at the flag person before we were allowed to proceed along the single lane that was open. This happened about 6 or 7 times on the stretch from Ignace to Kenora. I guess the summertime road repair season is now in full swing and we better get used to it since nearly all the roads that we will be travelling on are 2-lane highways. Oh well, we'll take a happy pill and try to ignore these small bumps on the road (pun intended).

We arrived in Kenora in decent time and found us a hotel. The hotel prices are not cheap though here in northern Ontario just like the gas prices. It's hard to find a decent room under $100.00. Anyway, after a nice dinner we're relaxing in our room watching the finale of American Idol. We just found out that Lee is the winner. Congrats to Lee!!