Leaving the campground this morning I couldn’t believe that when I posted my blog yesterday I forgot to mention the groves of fake palm tree folks have placed around their RV decks. Some even light up. Not kidding, groves of fake palm trees!!! Time to move on!
Just as we were about to leave, in record time I might add, the heavens opened and we did our final hook-up in teeming rain. No matter though. It seemed like little inconvenience compared with finding gas in northern Ontario!! Armed with two GPS units (David also has an app on his phone) the only station we could find was a PetroPass that wouldn’t take cash, credit nor promise of our first born (sorry Jeffrey we were desperate!). We now know where Whitefish, Ontario is and we can tell you they charge $1.41/l for gas. By the time we found the guy though, chugging along on fumes, we happily paid him. He assured us we had enough to get us to Sault Saint Marie and after that we’d be OK. He said it’s a problem just on that stretch of highway and informed us, “You guys are lucky, at least you made it.” The implication was pretty clear. From now on a half tank is considered empty – just in case!
We continued a conversation we had started yesterday about how great it was to head out on vacation the minute school was out. Not a luxury I imagine to continue now that I have entered the administrative world, but awesome how quickly I can completely shift gears. Of all the things I am not good at, I am very good at being present to the moment. By the time we were halfway to Sudbury yesterday work felt like a world away. Realizing that I had been at my desk only 24 hours before was startling! If I claim to be able to shift gears while battling traffic out of Toronto, today I have to admit that it would have been impossible not to leave it all behind as we traveled the shores of majestic Lake Superior.
Life truly is about the journey, not the destination and today was a perfect example. The trip today was, in a practical sense, about getting from point A to point B. The voyage though was magnificent! The stretch of highway from Sault Saint Marie to Wawa is full of treasures for the attentive traveler.
- Serpent River – home of a large highway billboard that advertises “ARTS & CRAFTS by INDIAN PEOPLE”! No sensitivity personnel on duty here folks!
- Malton may have Our Lady of the Airways but we passed Our Lady of the Highways Catholic Church today. Our Lady has it all covered!
- A little later another billboard advertised, “CRAFTS & SMOKES”
- We passed Mom Lake which seemed like an unusual name until we then passed Baby Lake and Dad Lake.
- Devil’s Paintbrush (Hawkweed) grows so abundantly here that at first I thought it was red clay soil patches along the highway. Mixed with bright white daisies, God’s highway garden was in spectacular bloom!
- Although we are quite cut off up here in the North, at the top of a hill I managed to get enough cell phone ticks to call Grant in Newfoundland for his birthday! While the natural beauty all around is magnificent, the technology that allows me to call my brother from the wilderness is pretty brilliant too!
- Our first glimpse of Lake Superior was breathtaking. They really are “great” lakes. I did manage to get a picture of that. While I’ve included it, I don’t believe it does justice to the vista that presented itself. By the time this trip has ended we will have camped on the shores of all five great lakes. We will have explored all 10 provinces (and a good many – 24 I think, states). Canada really is an incredible country. Each time I discover a new place I experience renewed awe in its diversity and splendor. We are so very blessed that this is home!
First glimps of Superior
We did a little hiking before being driven from the forest by ravenous blackflies. Our plan tomorrow is to head out early to hike the coastal trail along the shores of Lake Superior. I sit here now at the end of it all to record my memories of a day too wonderful to let slip away to the ravages of an appalling memory. The loons are making their haunting cry as night settles over the park. Life is grand!
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