Blogs from Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, North America

Day 3. 1519Km. Knowing I had a long drive today I was up early and on the road by seven. Unlike the night before I had fuel’d up before I stopped so there were no delays. The drive across the top of Superior is… long. That’s true but it’s pretty too. Lots of rock cuts, elevation changes and of course Lake Superior popping out of the trees on occasion. This marks the third time I’ve done it. Twice from the East and until I return, only once from the West. A few years ago I drove all the way around but without camping. I forgot about the fact that all you see in the North is evergreen trees, and mostly small ones at that. After I had set up camp I saw a van I recognized ... read more

I spent the winter preparing for the ride east by "bulking up" - the all important procedure of adding about 50 lbs of blubber in order to make it harder to ride up hills so as to strengthen my leg muscles. This extra fat would also come in handy in case Michele and I lost track of each other: I would have the physical reserves to survive at least one day without my lunch (granted an unhappy day). So on June 1, thus conditioned, I set off from SI to Nipigon. I had done a few pre-rides of 100 km each to prove I could still go that far and also to prove that I could surmount the 10% hill where highway 587 meets the TC. I could... albeit just barely and with much huffing and ... read more

After another late start - having stayed up all night plus half the morning and finally hitting the hay at 5am, we (actually Guy - because he's the pilot) decided that the weather was fine for flying. Gathering up our things we head off first to collect the keys to the plane. It was quite funny to us - you don't expect to see plane keys hanging up on the hook alongside the car keys. We picked up the keys labeled "plane", and headed off to the airport. Soon after we arrived at the airport, Guy was inspecting the plane, then we were climbing aboard to take to the air. The clouds had rolled back in by the time we were taxiing down the runway but nevertheless, we continued on towards our first landmark - Mount ... read more

Today is the day! Rick dropped us off at the airport and our journey begins! First flight is on time – yeah! We had time in Pearson for cider and something to eat. Next plane. Off to Montreal – where there was rainstorm that delayed our arrival. Thankfully, it was only 15 minutes which left us just enough time to get to our gate. Third plane. I love Air Canada (not). Our seats were not all together (as we so carefully chose seats that were supposed to be). With some open seats were able to move, but everyone seemed to need to shift. By 9:00 pm we were in the air. By 9:30 pm we were served drinks. Then there was movie time and dinner. I was ready to be in France. I checked my watch. ... read more

Today we left Winnipeg, bound for Thunder Bay. Winnipeg was shrouded in early morning fog and when we finally emerged from it, we were in a new landscape of rocky outcroppings and boreal forests. Northern Ontario is cottage country, dotted with pretty lakes sparkling like jewels in the sun. Cabins, referred to as cottages here, line the lake shores. We drove through Kenora, a busy summer tourist town which was hopping with sunny-faced tourists, lattes and floaties in hand. People love their lakes here. We continued on, passing forests of Jack Pines with their twisted, gnarled trunks. They reminded me of the famous Tom Thompson painting. We also passed a reindeer farm. We knew they were reindeer because they were playing reindeer games. Richard, our Couchsurfing host in Thunder Bay, greeted us with his dog Jasper. ... read more