Shortly after we left Winnipeg, with me driving–yes we decided to let Curt’s shoulder relax a few more days. We came upon a marker on the side of the road–Center of Canada, in Landmark Canada, just southeast of Winnipeg. Curt was a little slow with the camera (he’s not used to sitting in the passenger seat), so we didn’t get a picture. This one is off of the internet. Landmark is actually the longitudinal center of Canada, or at least that is their claim to fame. If Curt were driving we may have made a U-turn and gone back to get a picture of the sign, but I was having no part of u-turning or even going around the block, which was really not a block but a farm or two. So you get what we got!
This was one of our longer drives in a while, 4.5 hours. We had reservations for Sunday at Thunder Bay and were planning a two stop before getting there, but had trouble with reservations so this leg was further with a two day stay. It was a little town named Ignace. When I say little town, I mean no stop sign and one restaurant, but the campground was pretty nice: Davy Lake Campground located right on Davy Lake. We had a nice tree by the site and an obstructed view of the lake. Again there was a nice trail for walking Daisy. We unhooked the camper and relaxed with a glass of wine. It was supposed to get down to 50 degrees tonight, so we agreed that it would be a good night for a campfire…unfortunately the camp store was all out of s’more kits…frowny face!
One of the things we like about camping is the friendly people you meet along the way. While we were enjoying our glass of wine, a lady came by walking her dog and of course her dog and Daisy had to say hello. We got to talking and she told us about a few good places to eat and visit in Montreal. I took some good notes so as to not forget.
Our next door neighbor came in rather late on Friday night in a travel trailer and walked over to say hello. He was from New Brunswick and was on his way to Manitoba to visit his son who at the age of 22 was a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and stationed over there. He had not seen him in over 6 months. He was very proud of his son and you could tell that he was looking forward to seeing him. He had a very strong accent and did not speak good English; I think French was his native tongue. He left early in the morning before I even got up to take Daisy for our morning walk.
The next day we decided we would go out for breakfast, since we ate all the eggs, so we ventured out to find the only “restaurant” which was in a hotel. It had a good breakfast and we did some exploring on the menu and had some “pea meal”. The waitress said it was a cross between bacon and ham with some corn meal around it. And she was right, that is exactly what it tasted like–Not bad at all.
There really wasn’t anything to do in this town so back to the campground for some more relaxation and catching up on the blog. Unfortunately, our cell service was terrible at the campground and they did not offer internet. We were truly off the grid. The hardest part about keeping up with the blog is the posting. The writing is one thing then you have to get the pictures from the 4 cameras and organize them into the right stop and then pick the best pictures to align with the story. But don’t get me wrong, I am glad to keep this account as we go all, of these places are running together, this will help us remember the trip.
The camp host was very friendly here and told us about a place we could pick wild blueberries. So later that afternoon we ventured out to go find us some blueberries!! This feat was a bit more difficult that we were led to believe. She directed us to a dirt road and said to follow it in. We did that and found ourselves looking up at a steep hill that I was afraid to drive the truck up. So we parked at the bottom and hoofed it up the hill all the while keeping a lookout for the blueberries. We actually had to google what a blueberry plant looked like, wondering if wild blueberries looked any different than the ones you buy at the grocery store. At the top of the hill we come upon this sign. It seems that Ignace is the beginning of a 48 km canoe trail that ends up at a “castle”.
But it is not a straight shot as you have to have several portages (that’s where you have to carry your canoe on land to get to the next lake or river)—so much for that canoe trip. We had found one blueberry plant on this trek that had 3 blueberries on it, big disappointment. So back to the truck we went and on the way out, Curt was driving now because I was freaking about the dirt road, I told Curt to go slow so I could look out and see if I could see any. Well, I’ll be darned about 100 feet in from the initial turn onto the dirt road, I saw a bush and then another.
There were quite a few blueberries, but most were still not ripe. See below the picture of the blueberries. No worries, I was going to mix them into my pancake mix tomorrow and enhance my blueberry pancake mix.
After the blueberry adventure, we headed back to the camper and ordered up another delivery of wood (you have to use local wood, due to some diseases they fear to be transported in the wood). We had dinner in and Curt started the fire while I walked Daisy—his shoulder still giving him some trouble. I guess I would be driving once again tomorrow, but only a 3 hour drive time this time—on to Thunder Bay!!