We packed up and left the Anchor Inn and Kenora behind by 6:30 a.m. (which felt SO very early), but it's still a long drive to Thunder Bay from Kenora.
We passed through Wabigoon (which, for some reason, still sounds much funnier than Saskatoon), pointed out the Wild Man of Vermilion Bay to Joseph, then paused to purchase our traditional 7-11 breakfast in Dryden. It looked like the Weyerhauser plant in Dryden might be shut down? I seem to recall it had a Weyerhauser logo the last time we passed through, but now it's painted over without any identifiers (it also wasn't belching any smoke). If so, that was probably quite a hard hit to Dryden's local economy.
Most of the morning, it was overcast skies and rain. There were several stretches of road construction, but it was more of the stop-and-wait variety than the wagon-train-of-the-damned caravans over clumps of stone and gravel, so that's something. The road crews were blasting rockfaces on the side of the road to widen the road and maybe add more passing lanes (which are definitely needed, since highway twinning is an impossibility). As we went on, the rain got worse - a few times, we had to reduce speeds and put the wipers on high, but visibility was still poor. When we were approaching Thunder Bay, it was still raining, with fog rolling over the road; the treeline was all misty and gray, and you couldn't see Mount McKay at all.
Anyway, it was about noon when we got to Monica's. She gave Stephen and Joseph the tour of her house (first time they've seen it), and her new home improvements. After that, we went out for lunch at a chinese restaurant. Stopped at Safeway to buy a few groceries (which consisted of Persians, Chocolate cake, bread and some Limey - the essentials).
We drove out to Kakabeka, but it was raining out there AND the admission fee was $5 for two hours. I wasn't inclined to spend $5 to stand in the rain, so we turned around and drove all the way back to cloudy-but-rain-free Thunder Bay, and walked around their downtown to look at a street fair. They were advertising a Zombie Walk for tomorrow - I think a Zombie walk sounds spectacular! Then down into the harbour park, where we watched some sailboats zipping around in a strong, cold wind, and tried to think of good names for boats (if we owned one). We HATE the cutesy ones like "Change of Latitude". Stephen wanted something like "Krom's Mighty Hammer". I guess we won't have to worry about it, though, since none of us own a boat (nor are we likely to).
Since the weather seemed to be holding, we followed a 5K trail around Boulevard Park. There were a lot of dog-walkers and joggers out in spite of the weather - it seems to be a popular trail. It winds around a man-made lake, with a dam and fish steps (cool!). We made it all the way around without getting rained on. Woot!
After that, it was back home to watch telly. We watched "Til Debt Do Us Part," which is a reality show dealing with couples in debt, who get counselling. Will they do what they're told and get out of debt? Or will they implode? Most of them seem to learn their lessons, but the last episode we watched had a spoiled-brat couple who was doomed to debt implosion and eventual divorce because they were so damned spoiled and dumb. Ah, reality TV. What would we do without you?
;-)
We passed through Wabigoon (which, for some reason, still sounds much funnier than Saskatoon), pointed out the Wild Man of Vermilion Bay to Joseph, then paused to purchase our traditional 7-11 breakfast in Dryden. It looked like the Weyerhauser plant in Dryden might be shut down? I seem to recall it had a Weyerhauser logo the last time we passed through, but now it's painted over without any identifiers (it also wasn't belching any smoke). If so, that was probably quite a hard hit to Dryden's local economy.
Most of the morning, it was overcast skies and rain. There were several stretches of road construction, but it was more of the stop-and-wait variety than the wagon-train-of-the-damned caravans over clumps of stone and gravel, so that's something. The road crews were blasting rockfaces on the side of the road to widen the road and maybe add more passing lanes (which are definitely needed, since highway twinning is an impossibility). As we went on, the rain got worse - a few times, we had to reduce speeds and put the wipers on high, but visibility was still poor. When we were approaching Thunder Bay, it was still raining, with fog rolling over the road; the treeline was all misty and gray, and you couldn't see Mount McKay at all.
Anyway, it was about noon when we got to Monica's. She gave Stephen and Joseph the tour of her house (first time they've seen it), and her new home improvements. After that, we went out for lunch at a chinese restaurant. Stopped at Safeway to buy a few groceries (which consisted of Persians, Chocolate cake, bread and some Limey - the essentials).
We drove out to Kakabeka, but it was raining out there AND the admission fee was $5 for two hours. I wasn't inclined to spend $5 to stand in the rain, so we turned around and drove all the way back to cloudy-but-rain-free Thunder Bay, and walked around their downtown to look at a street fair. They were advertising a Zombie Walk for tomorrow - I think a Zombie walk sounds spectacular! Then down into the harbour park, where we watched some sailboats zipping around in a strong, cold wind, and tried to think of good names for boats (if we owned one). We HATE the cutesy ones like "Change of Latitude". Stephen wanted something like "Krom's Mighty Hammer". I guess we won't have to worry about it, though, since none of us own a boat (nor are we likely to).
Since the weather seemed to be holding, we followed a 5K trail around Boulevard Park. There were a lot of dog-walkers and joggers out in spite of the weather - it seems to be a popular trail. It winds around a man-made lake, with a dam and fish steps (cool!). We made it all the way around without getting rained on. Woot!
After that, it was back home to watch telly. We watched "Til Debt Do Us Part," which is a reality show dealing with couples in debt, who get counselling. Will they do what they're told and get out of debt? Or will they implode? Most of them seem to learn their lessons, but the last episode we watched had a spoiled-brat couple who was doomed to debt implosion and eventual divorce because they were so damned spoiled and dumb. Ah, reality TV. What would we do without you?
;-)
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