Rolls Around the World 2007: 3 - Nipigon to North Bay, Ontario

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Miles for the day - 233 (375 km) Mile to date: 2,489 (4,006 km)

We woke up this morning to crashing thunder and flashing lightening, followed by heavy rain. As if by unanimous consent, we both rolled over and went back to sleep. What we thought was a 9:30 AM start was 10:30 - in talking with the motel owner we found there had been a time change between Kenora and Thunder Bay. The skies were leadened grey, but the road had dried, so yesterday's car wash was not in vain.

The highway was good, but with frequent road kills - porcupines, skunks, a deer and two big moose - one with an amazing rack of antlers. Apparently they run onto the road at night, and being very dark in colour are difficult to see. As we proceeded around the north side of Lake Superior we were in fog for a while, but the forested countryside with its many lakes is absolutely beautiful.

Lunch and gas was in the tiny town of Schreiber, where the car attracted quite a crowd. In White River Marilynn visited a Christmas Store, and we stopped to visit the park and statue dedicated to Winnie the Pooh. According to the plaque, a stuffed bear was purchased here by an army officer in the early 1900s, named Winnie after his hometown of Winnipeg, and taken to London when he was posted there in 1914. He donated Winnie to the London Zoo, where it resided for many years. A.A. Milne saw Winnie at the zoo, and created the story of Winnie the Pooh. White River hosts a big Pooh festival each year for you Pooh fans - that could be a real Pooh adventure!

We decided to call it a day at Wawa, where we found an excellent motel. The unusual name is from the Ojibwa Indian language, and means "wild goose". During migration the area hosted thousands of them. Huge statues of geese honour these birds.

While unpacking the car in front of our room, a brand new Bentley pulled up, the driver having come to look at our car. It seems the father of the driver had been a logger in the area, and then a prospector. He purchased some parcels of land where diamonds were discovered. Now an instant multi-millionaire, he bought both a brand new Bentley and a brand new Rolls Royce Phantom - neither has more than a couple of thousand miles on it. We drove over to look at the Phantom, and to have the two cars photographed together - there are 50 years between them. It was a great visit, but we can't get over finding these two expensive cars in such a small, backcountry town.

The Wawa Motor Inn turned out to be quite a find, with a comfortable bar where before dinner drinks were enjoyed, and a nice dining room where dinner was superb and the wine not bad either! We climbed into bed to the sounds of another thunder and lightening storm, accompanied by torrential rain.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Wawa to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
Miles for the day - 161 (259 km) Mile to date: 2,650 (4,265 km)

Another late start on dry roads in clear, hot weather. The car has been running hot when the temperature rose above 28C, so I called Scott Harrison, who worked with Ron White in readying the car for the trip, and after discussion decided to remove an electric fan installed in front of the radiator. The concept of having the fan to cool the engine when the car was stopped or moving slowly was good, but the reality is that it raised the normal operating temperature to where it was blowing out between 4 and 6 litres of water per tank of gas.

We travelled along the shore of Lake Superior again. This trip has dramatically changed my idea of Lake Superior, literally a fresh water sea. The lake has crystal clear water and miles of beautiful sand beaches, frequently cut by sparkling rivers and streams.

Once in Sault Ste. Marie and checked into a hotel, I left Marilynn downloading photos onto her laptop and took off in search of a mechanic. When I found myself at customs before the bridge to the US side of Sault Ste. Marie, I swung the car into a U turn and travelled back down the one-way street the wrong way, encountering a radiator shop in the process. They were too busy to do the job, but the owner got onto the phone and found someone who could do it. A customer was kind enough to guide me to the shop in his car. It was necessary to remove the grill and front skid plate to get at the fan, but they soon had it off and pronounced the radiator in good shape - the abnormal amount of water used was expelled from the overflow vent. They sorted out a couple of other small things, and charged me only $40, so I presented them with the fan as well. Tonight's email came bearing good news on a couple of fronts. The shipping problem to get the car to England, had been sorted out, and Charles Veley - currently the world's most travelled person - contacted me about his plan to drive across Russia from Moscow to Vladivostok. He'll be a few weeks ahead of us, and promised to report on road conditions. He will certainly have challenges on the Irkutsk to Vladivostok section. Information I came up with shows the road is almost impassable - we will opt to turn right at Lake Baikal and cross Mongolia instead. Arrangements are being made for his Russian friend and guide to meet up us, as he will be returning across Siberia along after dropping Charles off in Vladivostok at the time we are going the other way.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Sault Ste. Marie to North Bay, Ontario
Miles for the day - 293 (472 km) Mile to date: 2,943 (4,736 km)

An early start today, which is just as well as I promptly missed the highway out of Sault Ste. Marie, and we did a lovely scenic loop which after half an hour brought us back to pretty much where we started. The Trans Canada Highway out of Sault Ste. Marie is a bad joke - it is impossible to tell apart from any poorly maintained two-lane country road. It did begin to improve about 30 km into the trip, though. One thing has become clear - Canada's "National Highway" is pretty low in the order of importance for allocation of funds by Ottawa!

In some stretches the road was good four-lane highway, particularly in the area of Sudbury. We tried Sturgeon Falls for accommodation, but didn't find anything interesting until we had passed through North Bay and came across a delightful inn on the sandy shore of Lake Nipissing. Our large, comfortable room at the Sunset Inn overlooks the lake from a private balcony, has high speed internet and a superb bistro with outside tables near the lake. The lake is already surprisingly warm, and a short walk after dinner led us to a park where the water was full of swimmers. We like the place so well we have decided to take tomorrow off and relax here.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Today was our first really easy day. We washed the car, explored the town and got caught up on our respective computers. Marilynn got some amazing photos of birds at the lake, and we ended up with beer and a pub dinner at an English style pub across the street.