Day 3 & 4 Sunday May 30 & Monday May 31 We had breakfast at the Scandanavian Home Society in ThunderBay. It was a Sunday Fundraiser. Their breakfast of Scandanavian Pancakes and Sausage relieved our hunger and hangover while replenishing their Church Coffers. After a short detour to Sunshine Baits - 614 West Frederico St., Thunder Bay (sunshinebaits@shaw.ca) - we then headed north to Lake Nipgon. After having lunch at Pisspoint we stopped to buy licences and gas in Beardmore. In Jellicoe they had a wonderful T-Shirt, “Confidience is the feeling you have before you fully understand the situation”. We stayed at Pennocks in Nakinia, a very comfortable Motel. Nakinia is the home of the fighting Mosquitos. It is also the place where the road goes to die. We ate at the new restraurant (& only) ... read more

Day 2 Saturday May 29 The Wagonmaster had carefully planned our trip, after 40 years he has it nailed. The next morning we were joined by Tom Miller (TIII). Tommy is one of those poor souls still contributing to our Social Security. At least two others in the party are also contributing to our SS. Johnboy because of his lack of age and Glenn because of his lack of good sense. We stopped in Two Harbors, MN for breakfast at the Vanilla Bean Café. We then bravely headed north to the Kingsway Motel in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The Kingsway has benefited by a significant physical upgrade but has been unable to upgrade its’ clientel. The fast track boys, Glen (2N), Chuck (dawgfish) & Kermit (The Frog) arrived a little after 8 PM. Fortunately the Liquor Store ... read more

The Saga of Onaman 2010 Day One Friday May 28 The purpose of fishing is to destroy our brooding over the past while limiting our fear of the future. The advance party made a fast trip north traveling 750 miles over four days of renewing old friendships, painfully deep political discussions laced with BS and some outright lies. The rookie pulled out of Richfield, Minnesota filled with excitement and apprehension, He headed north to Camp Round in Hayward, Wisconsin. The Wagon Master met the Rookie with open arms and a bottle of great homemade beer. Our hosts, Dan (Roundbuff) & Cathy Manders provided us with garlic-beer brats and excellent potato salad and more homemade beer. John Manders (Johnboy) was also available for fishing advice and supervising his father Roundbuff. Johnboy is an excellent fisherman who begin ... read more

All in Fourteen Days By: Jim Collins On June 8, fourteen people meet at the Kings Hotel in Budapest. A few knew each other casually but many had never met. Two weeks later we were dear friends having shared the beauty and majesty of Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna and Prague. But most important we developed wonderful friendships, had a lot of laughs, good times and really got to know and appreciate each other. It would be boring to travel with normal people. You want to travel with interesting people to interesting places. Budapest is an absolutely beautiful city in which every other street is being dug up. As one Hungarian said, the last major update to the infrastructure was 1880. Having spent time in Hungary six years ago when no one could speak English, it seemed that ... read more

Mary Anne -Prague, Czech Republic Last two days of our three week tour of four countries. We took the train from Vienna to Prague and found that our hotel accommodations were just a little bit less then perfect. After being picked up from the train station by bus we were taken to our hotel in a questionable neighborhood. Our room was the attic of the hotel. There were no wall windows only ceiling windows. I felt like maybe I was Anne Frank. It was the 4th floor and that means not 4 sets of stairs but 8 sets. They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger but I can’t say that. Anyway as long as I was careful and didn’t bump my head when I sat up in bed, I did OK. On the first ... read more

Jim - Write Up 7 Mary Anne did a great job of writing up everything on Vienna. I thought I would just add some pictures today. They include: 1. Monastery near our host’s house. It is Augustine and dates from the 13th century 2. House of Irmgard & Gunter 3. Irmgard’s son Dietmar and their house (all glass). The daughter in law Andrea gave us a ride to the train station. Andrea is a dress designer and teaches at a University. Dietmar is in IT and does CAD/CAM. Their 2 kids are beautiful, sorry I did not get a picture of the kids. 4. Automated Tamping Machine 5. Trams 6. Flea Market 7. Mary Anne ... read more

Jim - Write up 5 -5/11 We arrived at in Bratislava at 4 PM and took the bus to the hotel. It was warm, almost hot, and our tour leader, Ben (Carol) Szyplinski discovered we did not have Air Conditioning in the hotel rooms. This was something she specified with our travel agent. We now refer to Ben as our “Polish unguided missile”. It was not pretty. Needless to say, we moved to the Executive suites which have AC, Refrigerators, Digital TV and post Soviet Furniture. The only thing we don’t have is in-room internet access. Yesterday afternoon I walked down the street and they had a beautiful church they built in 2001 (St. Vincent de Paul). I stopped in and it reminded me that their first priority after the Soviet occupation was to rebuild/build their ... read more