One more sleep!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

NORTH BAY, ON – Wind and more wind! Great gusts have buffeted us yet again this evening, as we strolled across the road to a restaurant from our hotel, situated next to the Dionne Quintuplets museum and North Bay Chamber of Commerce. That’s where we were allowed to leave the truck and fifth wheel for the night, visible to us from our hotel room window. The little museum is the original wooden homestead where the famous quints were born in 1934.

Despite the fact that the hotel in Sault Ste. Marie was full of kids involved in a hockey tournament last night, we got a good night’s rest and woke early. We waited till the breakfast room was open for our free meal, and then headed out into a steady downpour to resume our journey.

The low cloud ceiling and heavy rain made it quite dark for the first part of the morning. By the time we got to Espanola, though, it had lightened up, and the rain abated after a while. Val was delighted to catch sight of a Tim Hortons with enough parking space for the rig. I asked the attendant to wash out Val’s commuter mug well before filling it with Tim Hortons coffee, because we had been out of the country for two months drinking other types of coffee, and we didn’t want to adulterate that wonderful flavour with something else.

We bought our lunch to take along so we didn’t have to take a lunch break as we headed toward Sudbury and North Bay. It really felt like home to look at the great rocks of the pre-Cambrian shield by the side of the road, the tall, asymmetrical pine trees, and blue lakes and rivers that are so prevalent here in the north. When we stopped to refuel, the attendant told us to watch out for deer on the road ahead, but I guess they stayed in the woods to keep out of the rain, because we didn’t see any.

It was interesting to see the landscape around Sudbury, which in earlier years had resembled the surface of the moon because it was so barren. Now, there are lots of birch trees and poplars, with no impression of blight that used to epitomize this part of Ontario. The bypass highway didn’t allow us a glimpse of Sudbury’s giant nickel; one of these days we will take the time to visit the city’s science museum and learn a bit more about the giant meteor crater where Sudbury is situated.

Finally, we saw the first glimpse of Lake Nipissing and the outskirts of North Bay. We had a list of several hotels here that we were going to drive by, to see if the parking lots had room for us. But as soon as we saw the Holiday Inn here, we found what we needed and turned in.

Our return to familiar Canadian icons continued with supper at Don Cherry’s across from the hotel, complete with Stanley Cup playoffs on the TVs, Italian for Val and Chinese for me, ending with a cup of Red Rose tea. Only in Canada!

There’s only one more day to go on our fantastic trip. But being here in North Bay almost feels like home, considering the hundreds of times we have been through this area over the last 40 years.