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.

A few days in Manitoba

Manitoba is a province bordered by Ontario on the east, Saskatchewan on the west, and North Dakota and Minnesota on the south. Much of the wilderness is protected by 80 provincial parks. The population is 1.3 million people and the capital is Winnipeg.
Y'all probably knew all that information but did you know the provincial flower is the Pasqueflower?
Of course the provincial animal is the bison and bird is the great grey owl.

Enough of this boring information and let's see some pictures.

We met Wayne and Marcella at their place early in the morning. Well, early was 11:00 AM and we had to wake Marcella up at that time.
With Marcella finally awake, and at the wheel of the van, we went to Pelican Lake.
There was to be a sail boat race that day and of course we entered.

Despite Marcella sleeping in, we arrived in time only to discover the race was cancelled.
As you can see below Captain Bob was quite disappointed as was the whole team.
Wayne threatened to boycott the race next year, but we explained that the rest of the team would not be here next year, so Wayne seemed to calm down after that.
And to think we were the favourites to capture the "Pelican Lake Sailboat Race" and the big trophy.

After such a disappointment we went up to Brandon to check out the mall. A "scrumptious" lunch at Timmies, and the girls headed shopping. The boys looked for a bar. No bars in the Brandon Mall. It was almost as annoying as the cancelled sailboat race at Pelican Lake.
The only purchases were made by Sue and it seemed Captain Bob was impressed by all her purchases.

Time to go to dinner. There is wonderful steakhouse right at the Canada/USA border.
We hope it is a wonderful steakhouse, because the first impression is the place is a dump.
We crossed into the USA and about 50 feet along we were at the steakhouse.

The food actually was excellent, in direct contrast to the decor of the place.
The ribeye steak was cooked to perfection.
You can see the happy faces of the customers leaving the joint.
I don't know who these folks are, but they sure looked happy.

Another 50 feet north and we were back in Canada.
On our way back we decided to hit the Killarney Hotel and Pub. Another upscale establishment in Killarney.
They had a bud light tap at the front of the bar. Most of us ordered a bud light draft.
We were informed they don't have draft at this pub. Oh well, bud light bottles will have to do.
Lots of slot machines to play here but we managed to keep Sue from playing by promising another game of "pass the ace" tonight.

Most of your fearless adventurers are pictured below waiting for Joe to carry all the drinks to the table.
He struggled with all the drinks but did make it.

We went back to the Wilderness Inn for some drinks and a couple of games of "pass the ace" or as Bonnie told her sister Jacquie, we played "pass the ass'. That's quite a difference.

Another exciting day tomorrow is promised for our last day in Manitoba.

Arriving at Killarney, Manitoba

We had a good night at the Best Western, breakfast over, we are on our way to Killarney.

A stop along the way and a couple of pictures of the fearless adventurers.

We arrived at Killarney in the early afternoon, and after circling the town a couple of times, the navigator finally got his bearings and we were headed for lunch.

We found the Wilderness Inn and checked in, before going to Wayne and Marcella's.

Once checked in, it was off to Wayne and Marcella's. We spent the afternoon with them, had a few cocktails and Marcella provided an excellent dinner. Time for an early night at the Wilderness Inn.

Up early and off to Boissevain, the home of Tommy Turtle a 10,000 lb, 28 ft turtle that is the city mascot. The turtle was built to show the importance of the Turtle Derby as an international event.
Of course we have some pictures.

We left Boissevain and headed for the turtle mountains and the International Peace Gardens.
The International Peace Gardens is at the heart of the turtle mountains. The peace gardens was dedicated on July 14, 1932 saying, "To God in his glory, we two nations dedicate this garden, and pledge ourselves, that as long as men shall live, we will not take arms against one another" To bad we all can't live like that.

Apparently 150,000 plants are planted each year. Here are some of them.

For the folks who have poor eyesight like your fearless adventurers, the plaque says. "A promise of peace"

A picture of the group in front of the gardens

So far we have been on turtle mountain for about 2 hours and have not seen hide nor hair of a turtle.
With no turtles in sight we thought we would look at the cactus gardens.

Still, we never saw one damn turtle on turtle mountain

Back to the Wilderness Inn for Marcella's wonderful lasagna and we were going to have a chocolate peanut pie for dessert, but apparently Bob ate most of it, and hid the rest for himself later in the evening.

Oh well, we ended the night with an exciting game of "pass the ace" and then off to bed.
It seems that there is a mammoth parade in Killarney tomorrow. Stay tuned.

The Southern Lake Superior Circle Tour

An excellent continental breakfast at the Comfort Inn, and we are on our way west.
"Go west young man", someone said and Bob and I thought he was talking to us. The girls wanted to come along as well, so, Sue, Bonnie, Bob and I headed west.
Now if you think travelling west along the southern part of the "Lake Superior Circle Tour" equates to our forefathers heading west, well we all agree. Your fearless adventurers were up to it.

The Southern section of the Lake Superior Circle Tour encompasses Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

These pictures are on the shores of Lake Superior in the state of Michigan.
Not sure who the girls in the pictures are, but Bob and I thought we would take them along for the rest of the tour.

A picture of the boats on the Lake Superior shore in Wisconsin.

This plaque talks about a Sioux uprising in 1862 that appeared to come to an end when the Wisconsin brigade was needed during the civil war. That seemed to end the Wisconsin stockade.

We now come to the highlite of the trip up to this point. I almost missed the joint, but Sue spotted it, and we all agreed it was time to stop. A bar called "Happy Joe's". What could be better.
I was all for calling it a day, finding a Hotel room and spending the rest of the time in Happy Joe's.
Unfortunately, my 'former friends' reminded me that it was only 10:00 AM and we needed to cover more ground today if we wanted to reach Manitoba tomorrow.
Off we went.

We eventually arrived in Grand Forks, North Dakota and looked for a hotel. Grand Forks is a lot bigger than we thought, but eventually we found a great spot at the Best Western.
Bob and I headed for the local gas station to buy some beer for the night. (Where else would you buy beer but at a gas station!!!) Apparently North Dakota has other ideas. A friendly resident directed us to "Happy Harry's" to buy beer, wine and spirits.
A short visit to Happy Harry's and back to our hotel for happy hour.

We discovered an old favourite from our Texas days for dinner.

Hopefully you can all see the 3 folks on the lower right. Sue, Bonnie and Bob.
Joe ran in earlier to look for the peanuts and see if they had any Shiner Bock.

Back to the room for an early night, as we want to be well rested when we see our friends, Wayne and Marcella tomorrow.