Leaving the Soo and the Agawa Canyon

We left our motel early this morning for our return home.
A quick trip to Timmies for coffee, a bagel and a muffin and we are off.

We set the GPS for home and started to drive. The next thing we know we are on the bridge to the USA. I think maybe "The Donald" wanted to have a word with us. Probably to see how we enjoyed the Agawa Canyon.
A quick turn around, a reset of the GPS and we were on our way.

Our friends Bob and Sharon Briscoe had mentioned a spot just east of Blind River that they often visit and called it "their place"
After a lot of interesting searching, we think we found it. Well, maybe.

We did take some photos that we will send them to see if this is the spot

We left Blind River and through numerous road closures, finally arrived home around 6:00 PM.
All in all, a wonderful 3 days.

The Agawa Canyon Train Ride

We left our motel room early in the morning and headed for the Agawa Canyon Train Tour.

The tour is an unending mix of forests of the Canadian Shield.
It skirts the shores of northern lakes and rivers, crosses towering trestles and looks on the same rugged landscapes and majestic views that inspired the Group of Seven to create some of Canada's most notable works of art.

The bedrock underlying this area, formed 2.5 billion years ago, is among the oldest rock in the world.
The ice sheets in that area created the present terraced surface above the Agawa River and below the Canyon walls.

The train ride is 114 miles to the Canyon and hopefully the same on the return.

Why is it miles you may say, we are Canadians and we are metric.
Well, the mile markers were established prior to Canada going metric, and have remained ever since.

Enough of that history. Where are the pictures?

The 1st group show the fall colours as we headed towards the Agawa Canyon.

We probably need to add a few waterfall pictures as there are numerous waterfalls throughout the Canyon Tour.

We will show more waterfalls when we reach the Canyon.

Earlier we noted that the ride was 114 miles. It takes just over 4 hours to reach the canyon, so we arrived just after noon.

The stop at the Canyon is 90 minutes, and there are various hikes that you can take while you are there. Of course we opted for a couple of walking tours.
The 1st one was to the Black Beaver Falls. How to get to the top of the falls?
Your fearless adventurers were up for the challenge.
These pictures are Bonnie and I after we climbed down from the top of the falls. Unfortunately no photographs are allowed during the ascent or descent as it is too dangerous.

We do need a picture of our train that took us on the tour. There are 16 cars on the train.

I think a few more pictures of the fall colours on the tour are in order. (since I took so many).

The last photo was quite difficult to take as the train was crossing a trestle but the Engineer was willing to wait at the top for me after I took the picture. Quite civil of him I thought. He was Italian of course, so a very nice fellow.

Tomorrow morning we head for home, and tomorrow nights blog will be the last one of our Agawa Canyon Adventure.

Off to the Soo

We left early this morning for our drive to Sault Ste Marie.
As y'all know, the Agawa Canyon Train leaves from Sault Ste Marie.

The trip up was quite easy as there was little traffic on the roads on a Sunday morning.
We got to Sudbury in the later morning and headed west in Hwy 17.

We were looking for signs of the fall colours and did find some.

The 2 pictures below were taken around Spanish, Ontario.

This picture was near the town of Massey.

The 2 pictures below were taken of the fall colours around the serpent river.

Next we were off to meet our friends Bob and Sue for lunch at Blind River.
Bob and Sue drove down from Elliot Lake and we were meeting them at the 17 restaurant.
Lucky for us we saw a sign on the side of the road and knew we had arrived in Blind River.

Not sure what the sign said but we figured it wasn't "go home", so we looked for the restaurant.

Not sure who these folk are but they wanted their picture taken, so we obliged.

A couple of pictures of your fearless adventurers, and then Bob and Sue headed home and Bonnie and I headed for "The Soo"

On our way out of Blind River, Bonnie said to "flip a Uie" and turn right on to 17 to get to The Soo.

However, we were on a one way street and are now heading the wrong way approaching a paramedic van who was going the correct way. Oh well, we needed a bit of excitement today and that was it.

We arrived at our motel (The Catalina), around 4:30, checked in, and we are ready for tomorrow's train ride. Hopefully the fall colours will be good. 

Stay tuned.

Home again, Home again

We checked out of the Wawa Inn, but could not leave Wawa without a few pictures.
Wawa is situated about 250 kilometres north of Sault Ste Marie, and is the home of the famous goose.

For those of you with poor eyesight, yes there are 2 different geese. The 2nd one is the real deal, but they were working on him and we could not get close.

Not as well known are the totem poles and the moose, but we knew you were interested, so we took a couple of pictures.

We finally headed out on the last leg of the journey to Elliot Lake.
The scenery along Lake Superior is spectacular in a lot of places.
If you haven't travelled the Canadian side of the Lake Superior Circle, it is well worth the trip.
My last time through this "neck of the woods" was 1966. Of course I remembered nothing of that trip, so it was like "seeing it again for the very 1st time".

We finally arrived at Elliot Lake in time for happy hour on Bob and Sue's back deck.

A good night's sleep and Bonnie and I were off to Mount Hope. We arrived home safe and sound around 2:00 PM. All in all, a wonderful 10 days with our friends, Bob and Sue and Wayne and Marcella.
Until the next time.

Travelling through Northern Ontario

We left Dryden, under a warm and sunny sky. A great start to the day.
The road was free of accidents, and most important, construction.

You may think that this portends to a very good day. Stay tuned.

Our 1st stop was in Thunder Bay and the Terry Fox Memorial.
Terry Fox was diagnosed with cancer at age 18. He lost his right leg, but was determined to raise money for cancer research. Running across Canada was Terry's idea to help the cause.
So in 1980, at the age of 21, and with his cancer in remission, Terry started his "Marathon of Hope"
On his journey across Canada, Terry ran 5,373 km in 143 days doing a marathon on most days.
His journey ended in Thunder Bay where the cancer finally ended his marathon, and eventually his life. A memorial was erected to honour Terry at the point his journey ended.

These pictures below show the "sleeping giant" in the background, (hard to see I know) and were taken from the Terry Fox Memorial, looking out over Lake Superior.

A couple of scenes as we headed east from Thunder Bay towards Marathon.

You remember the "stay tuned" comment earlier, well, our intent was to spend the night in Marathon, Ontario. We arrived around 5:00 PM. Apparently there are only 3 motels in Marathon and we checked them all. As Mary and Joseph discovered in Bethlehem all those years ago, there was "no room at the inn".

An hour east was White River with all of 2 hotels. Again, all full when we called.

A couple of hours further east was Wawa.

I reckon driving to Wawa was slightly better then sleeping in the car.

Your fearless adventurers, tired as they were, set off for Wawa.

We stopped at the Wawa Motor Inn, only because Bob noted they had a lounge, and happy hour was fast disappearing.

Terrific decision Bob. Sue and I went in and grabbed the last place at the Inn. (sorry Mary and Joseph but we were thirsty and a little tired). It was a 2 bedroom chalet with a full kitchen, lounging area and a fireplace. 

More important, was the lounge was still open, as happy hour was not quite done.

The interior picture does not do justice to the chalet, but it was the best I could do.

An outside look at the chalet.

Stay tuned as tomorrow we hope to make it to Elliot Lake.

On our way home

We left the Wilderness Inn around 8:00 AM on our way home.

Our 1st stop was Glenboro, Manitoba. This, apparently is the home of Sara the camel. Sara is 17' tall, and weighs over 2,000 lbs. Sara was adopted into Glenboro as the mascot, to celebrate the Spirit Sands, a part of the Manitoba Desert a few kilometres to the North.

Unfazed by the size of the camel, your fearless adventurers moved in for a picture.

Back on the road on our way to Dryden, Ontario.
The next thing we see is the road sign below.

Our navigator tried to explain that there is a town called Holland in Manitoba. I agreed, but the girls in the back thought we were in Amsterdam. How the hell did we get here they said. Bob and I were too busy looking for the red light district to listen to them.

Eventually we all realized that we were in Holland Manitoba. The town was founded in 1881 by Arthur Charles Holland.
Is there a windmill in Holland you say? Of course there is.

Enough of this leisurely living, we had to be in Dryden by 4:00 PM. (cocktail hour in central time)

Off we went.

The rest of the day went from bad to worse.
A quick stop for lunch, and as we headed back to the Trans Canada, we realized it was closed at our exit. Well, we figured your fearless adventurers could find a route around the closure. After driving around the University of Manitoba 2 or 3 times, we had to ask Sam, our GPS how "to get out of town".
Sam got us back to the Trans Canada a few miles east of the trouble. For you directionally challenged folks, that's closer to Dryden.

On our way you say. Well, a few miles down the road, we hit construction which slowed us down, but then the traffic stopped completely.
We were stopped on the Trans Canada for almost 3 hours. (Sue still thinks it was closer to 8 hours)
Eventually we were on our way. We almost made it to Dryden, but a few kilometres before Dryden the traffic stopped dead again. About an hour later we were on our way again. Ten minutes later, we reached our destination.
Checked into the hotel, headed for the nearest bar for some needed libations. Our 4:00 happy hour was now 8:00.

We are hoping for better roads tomorrow as we would like to get to Marathon, Ontario.

Our Last Day in Killarney

A bit of a sad day today, as this is the last day we get to spend with our friends, Wayne and Marcella.
They have been perfect hosts the whole time. The food that Marcella made for us during our visit was excellent. I think Bob is in love with the chocolate peanut pie.

The boys were going to get in some golf, but the weather never co-operated. Either too wet or too cold.
This afternoon we decided on a round robin game of ladder golf. The weather was still a little cool, but at least the sun was out some of the time.

As you can see we still had that perfect form even if the results left a little to be desired.
Marcella (at 4-0) was the grand champion. We did suspect she had been practicing for the last couple of weeks.
Hey Norm, do you recognize the ladder golf game? I think it was made by the "Good Enough Construction Company".

As today was our last day, we needed a group picture at the front of Wayne and Marcella's site.

Tomorrow morning we leave beautiful, but lousy weather, Manitoba for Ontario. We hope to reach Dryden Monday night.