Day 3: August 1, 2010
Despite out plans to hit the road early like true adventurers, we slept right through the wee morning hours and took our time packing up. With a quick run in the bush and a morning dip, followed by bacon and cheese toasted sandwiches, I couldn’t have asked for a better morning. The car is packed up, the people loaded in, and Storm says:
Next stop: Vancouver!
The views continue to be breathtaking- almost exotic. And this is all ours... what an awesome landscape. We rolled into Thunder Bay with little fanfare, and took the turnoff into the downtown area. While getting some ‘morning’ coffee (it was 3pm) we realized we hadn’t seen any signs directing us to the Terry Fox memorial statue. This was a must-see, not only because it’s an oversized Terry (unless he actually was that tall, in which case it’s no wonder he could cover a marathon distance each day), but because of what it meant to each of us as Canadians. I approached some locals to inquire,
“Hi, are you from Thunder Bay?” I ask.
“Yes, yes we are,” replies the middle-aged couple.
“We’re looking to get to the Terry Fox statue, what would be the best way to get there from here?”
“Are you coming from east or west?” the wife asks.
I hadn’t yet bought my coffee and was clearly struggling for a brief moment.
“Are you from Toronto... or Alberta?” she tries again.
“Toronto. Yes, Toronto.” I laugh. What made her guess Toronto? That unto itself is a reminder of why I’m headed westward and abroad...
That’s two for two on getting reliable directions at a Tim Horton’s. While in Sudbury and looking for the giant nickel (which didn’t make the cut under “attractions” on the Garmin, our GPS), we got directions from the Tim Horton’s lady, Shirley. She said we should turn out the driveway and take a left, meanwhile we spotted a local City sign pointing us right. We made the mistake of doubting Shirley and turned right. The Sudbury Sign Committee fooled us.... we were taken on a curvy route through the town centre only to find ourselves a mere 50m from where we started, headed what would have been “left.” Trust Shirley.
With directions to Terry in hand (turns out we had missed the statue completely and had to backtrack eastward to visit this awe-inspiring monument), we found the Terry Fox Memorial viewpoint.
As we loaded up on groceries for the long-weekend closures on Monday, we sketched together a high level plan for the next 24 hours. This was unusual. There is something to be said for waking up, getting into the car, and just seeing where you end up. Stay if you like it. Hit the road if you’ve seen enough. I won’t pretend like this wasn’t a challenge for me, but so far it’s worked in our favour. We’re able to appreciate the drive, the music, the roads, the scenery, and the animals. We did have out first moose spotting today- between Rainbow Falls and Thunder Bay. He traipsed through the field no more than 40m from the highway. No we only need to see one more to say we’ve seen Meese.
Once back on the road from Thunder Bay, we felt the temperatures climb... and it was cloudy. With Lake Superior fading behind us, we anxiously watched for the prairie transition. While we missed the arctic watershed sign (where water starts to flow north instead of south) we did make it to the Time-Zone- Change-rest area. It was 4:30pm when we pulled in and we had another 5-6 hours ‘til Winnipeg... so the extra hour was the golden ticket we needed as far as this day’s “schedule” goes.
Storm is learning new tricks on the manual stick shift (namely not holding down the clutch when sitting and stopped), Smith is reading up on the CAA atlas (our only ally when the Garmin GPS becomes a Gremlin), and I’m playing DJ while on moose-watch.
Winnipeg- here we come!
Great Pics!
ReplyDelete-Dave