Playing Catchup on the Road

Survived all those doctor appointments and a final weekend of eyedrops. By the time I finally got on the road at 5 AM Wednesday, September 8th I was more than eager to get off. My first surprise was the fact that the gas station on Oakville’s busiest highway closes nights. Traffic on 403, 401 and 400 was busy but moved at the limit. The headlights from the river of cars coming down 400 toward Toronto even at that hour was blinding. Just before dawn it started raining near Barrie. Made a stop at the Sudbury Travel Centre to pick their brains about highways west. Highway 69 gave way to 17 West. The stretch north of Lake Huron passes through the La Cloche Mountains with their white quartzite and pink granite. Stopped at a picnic site near Thessalon for lunch. Made Sault Ste Marie just as my display indicated an empty gas tank. The Finnish family who owned the Sault KOA retired and sold to a couple from Georgetown. Spent a quiet layover while I recovered.

On Friday the 10th I set out from the Sault for Thunder Bay. That stretch of highway traverses some of the most scenic vistas east of the Rockies. At the Algoma Trading Post, one of many such agglomerations along this highway, I stopped and picked up at last a pair of rubber sandals on an end of season table and a locally assembled dream catcher. I made the whimsical decision to acquire a dream catcher over a year ago but until this point all that I had seen bore the mark of having been Made in Taiwan. Were I a more ‘crafty’ person I should have assembled my own but dyed feathers, coloured beads, and plastic rings somehow detract from what should be a rustic look. Whether by mystic intervention or the power of suggestion I have had no nightmares since I hung it above my bed. Drove into Wawa to stop at Foodland for store baked and custom sliced raisin and cheese bread plus some coffee cream and had lunch while I was stopped. Highway construction became a major pain once I approached Thunder Bay and the stretch west of town saw the Trans Canada Highway reduced to gravel road. When I finally caught sight of the campground sign I was more than thankful to pull in.

That campsite near Kakabaka Falls had a healthy crop of Amanita Muscaria, Fly Agarics, mushrooms growing beside my RV. There was a crop of mushrooms at my last site as well but these were 6 inches across and the variety once favoured by hippies for the purpose of getting ‘high’. Spent another day resting while I looked out at thundershowers that passed in bands all day. Sunday morning I set out along the lonely stretch of highway headed west through granite and black spruce. Aside from a few rock cuts there is little to relieve the eye as the miles click by. Near Ignace I stopped at a quiet picnic rest stop where a young native couple were having lunch. The ‘decorations’ in the vault toilet were somewhat off-putting. As luck would have it I passed a beautiful rest area beside a small lake twenty minutes later. After passing through the middle of Dryden completed the drive to Kenora.

Drove into and out of town to visit Casey’s just west of Husky the Muskie. This meal did not live up to the memory of the last one I had there. Over-cooked pasta and soggy apple crisp are not a turn-on but at least I didn’t have to cook it or clean up after. Found the town campground on the shores of Lake of the Woods and settled in for the night after a walk about the park. I felt I deserved the rest.

Monday morning got gas--full service and expensive--before setting out for Brandon Manitoba. The stretch of highway to the border was repaved a year ago last spring. At the Manitoba Welcome Centre both the maps and the coffee are still free. The roads were another matter. From that point until I reached Brandon most of the highway was under construction. As soon as I resumed driving I hit a 14-km section of grooved pavement and even more later. The Winnipeg bypass is reduced to one lane in each direction and that at Portage La Prairie is closed entirely forcing one to drive through downtown. The rest area east of town was in such appalling condition I was moved to stop at the visitors centre I drove by in town and report it. Oakville Manitoba is just east of town as well. In the days before Postal Codes we handled quite a few pieces of their mail back home especially at Christmas. How can gasoline in Manitoba be 11¢ a litre cheaper than in Ontario?

After all that having reached my campground I drove another 10 miles through in-town construction rush hour traffic to get an oil change and sit in a waiting room. Sure hope synthetic oil is worth the price they charge for it. The rest of my two-day stay in Brandon involved quiet walks along the Assinoboine listening to the rattles of the Kingfishers by day and the call of a Great-Horned Owl by night along with the nightly fly-in of Canada Geese at dusk.

September 15th saw me heading west along the open prairie toward Regina on Highway ONE. The roads are straight with only the occasional gentle curve and flat save for almost imperceptible grades. It seems to take forever to reach the towering grain elevators and the only significant land-forms are the rare river valleys that cut a swarth across the landscape. When I finally reached Saskatoon Saskatchewan I discovered the address I had for Gordon Howe Campsite was that of city hall. The people at the grocery store I stopped at shortly after claimed no knowledge of the park only 5 miles distant so I had to find it on my own. It came complete with autographed photos of Mr. Elbow under glass. The heavily treed lots were nearby an elementary school and multiple sports stadia and parkland.

Before leaving Saskatoon got my water heater repaired and filled up my gas tank shaking my head at a sign down the highway that read 6¢ a litre cheaper. I counted myself fortunate there were no crosswinds during the next two days as I drove North-West across the prairies. At Lloydminster discovered activity in the Oil Sands has every possible living space including campgrounds filled to overloading. Learned in a town spanning the Saskatchewan/Alberta border businesses on the Saskatchewan side get to forgo provincial sales tax, the schools are Saskatchewan but the bars are all on the Ablerta side of town. Drove west of town to the hamlet of Vermillion and self-registered at the Provinical Park of the same name. The place had the water turned off but the 30 AMP power worked. The relocated Vermillion Train Station now acts as a cross country ski centre and nearby sits a forlorn caboose doing duty as the park library. Vermillion Lake is an impoundment water body.

After a quiet night without online access resumed driving making it past West Edmonton Mall without a second glance and on up Highway 43, the start of the Alaska Highway. After a stop at the Valleyview Visitor’s Centre drove into the farm to be greeted by Dozer, the Rottweiler.