Got up bright and early, and Stephen, Joseph and I hit the road before 7 a.m. All throughout Saskatchewan, all was well, and people were happy as they travelled over the land. Then came Manitoba. We are welcomed by a sign warning of 38 kms of road construction ahead. But it was 38 kms of cheese-grater road, which, combined with the reduced speed limit of 60 kph, was a long teeth-jarring, tire-grinding, car-rattling misadventure. "Damn you, Friendly Manitoba!" I shouted (as soon as I hit good road and could hear myself think again). "You suck!"
But, after a while, the lovely pastoral scenes of green hills and trees and happy cows and horses mollified me somewhat, and I forgave Manitoba. By the time I got to Winnipeg, I thought we were making pretty good time. However, no sooner had we left the bypass, and we hit another bout of construction. Another endless road of bumpy gravelling slow moving traffic (and by "endless", I mean "about thirty minutes"). And I note that almost all of the road construction is ONLY on MY side of the road. No doubt, by the time we head home, they'll have started ripping up the other side of the road. Stupid Manitoba - I spit on them! I spit on them and their bad roads! I would boycott them completely, but that would make returning home problematic since none of us brought our passports.
What with all the construction delays, we're not making such good time anymore. But we finally escape Manitoba, screaming curses out the window as we go (because we're from Unfriendly Saskatchewan). Woot! Ontario. And, well, maybe we're still not doing too bad for time.
Bam. Guess who looked over at Manitoba and thought, "hey, we should tear up our roads, too?" You guessed it: Stinking Ontario. When Manitoba tears up their road, at least it's a twinned road, so you still have a tiny terrible strip to travel on. Ontario doesn't seem to have any twinned roads out here. So when they tear it up, you get to wait in terrible long lineups. Traffic gets to move in one direction for a while, then it's cut off. Then the other direction gets to go (and by that time, there's a long lineup there too). Even when we finally started moving, we were trapped behind a bunch of semis, and there were no passing lanes for a very long time. Stephen began to crave toast, because we were following a Wonder Bread truck forever.
The minute we got to the passing lane, I was all ZOOM! Whoosh, I've passed the semis. What the hell? There's a whole line of cars behind me - why am I the only one who passed the semis?!? Stephen points out that this is Ontario, and Ontario drivers are weird. They don't have the prairie mentality of +10.
So, after that last traffic snafu (I'm not looking forward to hitting that on the way back home), we're on our way to Kenora. We finally arrive, and thought we'd check out the hotel we stayed at the last time. Except we can't find it. It's only a giant round glass column building, so you'd think that would stick out, but we keep driving and somehow miss it and are suddenly headed towards Dryden.
So we U-ball, go back, finally find the Best Western Lakeshore Hotel - no rooms for 3, though, and at $130 a night, Stephen isn't inclined to share a bed with Joseph. So, we head back along the lake, looking for other accommodations. There are these big beautiful palatial buildings on a hill overlooking the lake, and a sign saying rooms for $69/night. So we go there. No rooms for three people, but they've got a two-person cabin and a single available. Just drive down the hill to the cabins.
So the cabins are these small, crudtacular looking buildings down by the shore below the beautiful palatial buildings. LOL! That makes more sense. On the outside, they really look a bit ratty - some siding is missing, the screen doors are rusty, and it's all very rustic. On the inside, though, they're really quite cute. Clean, with spruce walls and ceilings through the whole place. Looks like the guy who owns it has been doing the work himself. Very homey little spaces, with A/C, a TV, fridge, microwave, toaster oven. Mine even has a couch. All the comforts of home! They're right on the lake, too (although this seems to be the not so rich side of town?).
With accommodations found, we (being predictable creatures of habit) went to eat at Boston Pizza downtown. We had pizza with a multigrain crust (which I don't think they've ever offered us at home). Yummy! Then we went to walk around downtown. I wanted to find the bear. Stephen was certain he knew where the bear was, and with his keen sense of direction, he lead us straight to the laundromat. No bear.
I saw a man out walking his dog, so I was going to ask him. Stephen was mortified at the idea, so I relented and didn't ask. We wandered aimlessly, then headed back to Boston Pizza, then through the downtown, and then saw the park where the bear was. I got my picture taken with the bear.
That done, I wanted to find the giant fish I'd seen while driving. Stephen didn't believe there was a giant fish. I went up to a woman in the park and asked where the giant fish was. "Husky the Muskie? He's right over there - follow that path." You see? People know where their giant ornaments are. So we went to see Husky the Muskie. And he is fricking huge.
It was a long trek back to our car - when we got there, I drove around the side streets because I wanted to see the church on the hill overlooking downtown. It is REALLY hilly in Kenora. When you go through the main drags, it's kind of winding and a bit hilly, but in the neighbourhoods, they're quite steep. We wondered what the good areas of town were, and where the bad areas were, because when you're an outsider, you don't usually know these things. And then we drove through an area, and realized we'd just found Kenora's "hood".
Back to the Anchors Inn cabin motel. Time for a bath and bed. There's no Internet here - I think it's kind of a fishing nook - so I'm writing now and posting later.
And that was our day. Starting out early tomorrow, so it's time for bed.
But, after a while, the lovely pastoral scenes of green hills and trees and happy cows and horses mollified me somewhat, and I forgave Manitoba. By the time I got to Winnipeg, I thought we were making pretty good time. However, no sooner had we left the bypass, and we hit another bout of construction. Another endless road of bumpy gravelling slow moving traffic (and by "endless", I mean "about thirty minutes"). And I note that almost all of the road construction is ONLY on MY side of the road. No doubt, by the time we head home, they'll have started ripping up the other side of the road. Stupid Manitoba - I spit on them! I spit on them and their bad roads! I would boycott them completely, but that would make returning home problematic since none of us brought our passports.
What with all the construction delays, we're not making such good time anymore. But we finally escape Manitoba, screaming curses out the window as we go (because we're from Unfriendly Saskatchewan). Woot! Ontario. And, well, maybe we're still not doing too bad for time.
Bam. Guess who looked over at Manitoba and thought, "hey, we should tear up our roads, too?" You guessed it: Stinking Ontario. When Manitoba tears up their road, at least it's a twinned road, so you still have a tiny terrible strip to travel on. Ontario doesn't seem to have any twinned roads out here. So when they tear it up, you get to wait in terrible long lineups. Traffic gets to move in one direction for a while, then it's cut off. Then the other direction gets to go (and by that time, there's a long lineup there too). Even when we finally started moving, we were trapped behind a bunch of semis, and there were no passing lanes for a very long time. Stephen began to crave toast, because we were following a Wonder Bread truck forever.
The minute we got to the passing lane, I was all ZOOM! Whoosh, I've passed the semis. What the hell? There's a whole line of cars behind me - why am I the only one who passed the semis?!? Stephen points out that this is Ontario, and Ontario drivers are weird. They don't have the prairie mentality of +10.
So, after that last traffic snafu (I'm not looking forward to hitting that on the way back home), we're on our way to Kenora. We finally arrive, and thought we'd check out the hotel we stayed at the last time. Except we can't find it. It's only a giant round glass column building, so you'd think that would stick out, but we keep driving and somehow miss it and are suddenly headed towards Dryden.
So we U-ball, go back, finally find the Best Western Lakeshore Hotel - no rooms for 3, though, and at $130 a night, Stephen isn't inclined to share a bed with Joseph. So, we head back along the lake, looking for other accommodations. There are these big beautiful palatial buildings on a hill overlooking the lake, and a sign saying rooms for $69/night. So we go there. No rooms for three people, but they've got a two-person cabin and a single available. Just drive down the hill to the cabins.
So the cabins are these small, crudtacular looking buildings down by the shore below the beautiful palatial buildings. LOL! That makes more sense. On the outside, they really look a bit ratty - some siding is missing, the screen doors are rusty, and it's all very rustic. On the inside, though, they're really quite cute. Clean, with spruce walls and ceilings through the whole place. Looks like the guy who owns it has been doing the work himself. Very homey little spaces, with A/C, a TV, fridge, microwave, toaster oven. Mine even has a couch. All the comforts of home! They're right on the lake, too (although this seems to be the not so rich side of town?).
With accommodations found, we (being predictable creatures of habit) went to eat at Boston Pizza downtown. We had pizza with a multigrain crust (which I don't think they've ever offered us at home). Yummy! Then we went to walk around downtown. I wanted to find the bear. Stephen was certain he knew where the bear was, and with his keen sense of direction, he lead us straight to the laundromat. No bear.
I saw a man out walking his dog, so I was going to ask him. Stephen was mortified at the idea, so I relented and didn't ask. We wandered aimlessly, then headed back to Boston Pizza, then through the downtown, and then saw the park where the bear was. I got my picture taken with the bear.
That done, I wanted to find the giant fish I'd seen while driving. Stephen didn't believe there was a giant fish. I went up to a woman in the park and asked where the giant fish was. "Husky the Muskie? He's right over there - follow that path." You see? People know where their giant ornaments are. So we went to see Husky the Muskie. And he is fricking huge.
It was a long trek back to our car - when we got there, I drove around the side streets because I wanted to see the church on the hill overlooking downtown. It is REALLY hilly in Kenora. When you go through the main drags, it's kind of winding and a bit hilly, but in the neighbourhoods, they're quite steep. We wondered what the good areas of town were, and where the bad areas were, because when you're an outsider, you don't usually know these things. And then we drove through an area, and realized we'd just found Kenora's "hood".
Back to the Anchors Inn cabin motel. Time for a bath and bed. There's no Internet here - I think it's kind of a fishing nook - so I'm writing now and posting later.
And that was our day. Starting out early tomorrow, so it's time for bed.
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