As we have made it to the Lake areas, the weather has changed; we are getting more rain, more humidity and cooler temperatures in the evening. Leaving Thunder Bay, the forecast was for rain all day the following day. It is really a pain to pack up your camper to move when it is raining. Everything gets wet, the inside of the camper, the dog, the car and YOU! So we tried to be proactive the night before and put everything away, emptied the tanks and hooked up the truck to the camper.
In the morning it was that misty rain, so not too bad, but not much to get us on the road.
We split the driving. Curt took first leg, I took the second and Curt finished up for the end. The drive was supposed to be a pretty one as it was along the water—Lake Superior, but the rain did roll in and there was not much to see. Also we hit lots of construction along this route.
They were blasting the rocks so at times it was dead stop and flag man and one lane throughways. The drive was supposed to be 5.5 hour drive, but with the construction, rain and our stop in White River it was closer to 7 hours.
So did you know that the Winnie the Pooh story starts in White River, Ontario? As the story goes, Captain Harry Colebourn, a Canadian Army Veterinarian, was on his way back home and had a stopover on the train in White River, Ontario. He got off the train and was walking around and folks would come to the train stop to sell their wares and he noticed that someone was selling a bear for $20. He bought the bear, got back on the train and took the bear home to his hometown. He named him “Winnie” after his hometown of Winnipeg; we missed visiting his home there while we were in that town. When the Captain returned to the war, Winnie traveled with him to the United Kingdom and he left him at the London Zoo for safe keeping while the troops went to France for active duty. After his service, Capt. Colebourn returned to London to pick up Winnie, but when he saw how happy Winnie and the children that visited to zoo were, he decided to leave him there. It was Winnie at the London Zoo that gave A.A.Milne the inspiration for Winnie the Pooh stories. When we arrived at White River, Ontario it was raining quite hard, but we battled the rain to visit the visitor’s center. The Visitor’s Center staff was all outside under a huge white tent readying for tomorrow’s start of the Winnie the Pooh festival that would start the next day—darn we just missed it.
An hour or so down the road and we arrived at Wawa. As we arrived, the rain was trailing off and we were able to set up quickly. Curt went to check in and found that the lady didn’t have our reservation (we called ahead and gave them the wrong dates), but no worries, she was nice enough to find us a site for overnight. We left early this morning (for us), on the road by 0930, so despite the long drive we still arrived at the site relatively early and received a site that was not flooded. The family that came in a few hours after us got the site right next to ours and it was flooded with several inches of puddles. We kept everything hooked up and attached our electric and water and settled in for another night of zero TV reception and terrible internet reception, despite the claims of free Wi-Fi. We truly are roughing it!! I can hear all of the tiny violins playing out there.
The drive from Wawa was another miserable drive. We started out with fog, more construction and rain. This also was supposed to be a pretty drive as well since it hugged the coastline of Upper Lake Superior. On the way we followed the signs that announced the upcoming Agawa Indian Crafts Center. For those who have driven the I95 corridor through the Carolinas, it would remind you of the signs announcing the South of the Border tourist trap. This was a very similar attraction. They sold gas, which we needed!! So we decided to park and check it out.
The store had craft times and art that were made by local artists. Unfortunately, there was no art that would go with “beach theme”, so we got out of there relatively cheaply, just picking up an Ontario Christmas Ornament.
With only another hour down the road, we arrived at our next stop—Saulte Ste Marie (pronounced Soo Saint Marie)—I probably should have known that as I have taken several years of French in high school and college.