Victoria

I won’t be creating entries for my whole stay here. When we do something interesting or memorable I might create an entry – as in Wednesday night – we went to Spinnakers for dinner. We walked there – 40 minutes each way. I didn’t feel at all guilty having 2 beer with dinner.


There is a Tall Ship Festival going on in Victoria now. On Thursday we watched some the ships sail into the inner harbour. The most interesting, a replica of the Bounty, stayed too long way out in the outer harbour with her sails furled up, so I never got a good shot of her. The one at right is a smaller 2 masted ship called the Lady Washington. Ships are feminine it seems.


Friday we walked around the inner harbour. It was a maze of masts and rigging. We were all too frugal to pay $15 for a pass to visit the ships. The lineups were terrible anyway. This is a shot of a small part of the harbour where Bounty was moored.

Edmonton to Victoria

There’s not much to say about these two days. Day 1 (Monday) I drove to Kamloops – a 9 hour endurance run. I didn’t feel like looking for a campsite, so I called Maureen and got a recommendation for a motel. It was not too expensive, comfortable and had wireless internet. It was also close to an Earl’s Restaurant that was OK. By the time I had supper I was too tired to go online.

Day 2 was easier. I left at 9:00, made the 2 PM ferry and was at M&B’s place by 4:15. The drive from Kamloops down into the Fraser River valley is very scenic.

I guess I was still pretty tired on day 2. I managed to drive through a changing red light on Blanshard Street in downtown Victoria and just missed being clipped by a small car crossing the intersection. Man, I was pissed at myself. Just writing about it now, has tensed me up. Fortunately no one was hurt; nor was any damage done, other than to my ego.

Edmonton

My long, long overdue encounter with my (not so) new great-niece, Aoife has come to pass. In a more timely sense I also met my newer great-niece, Lucia. Fortunately, we have all agreed to drop the “great” and I am just Uncle Tom.



I took pictures, of course. Here's a couple of the girls.

Surprisingly (for me) Aoife was not at all shy and very quickly adopted me into her “sphere of influence” which already includes her parents and grandparents. Lucia is not is not making a lot of sounds yet (other than occasionally “making her needs known”) but lies quietly observing the world and occasionally smiling at anyone willing to act sufficiently foolishly.

The weekend visit involved shopping for food, preparing food (not so much by me but lots by Aidan and Ange), eating food (I did my part there), cleaning up after food, some drinking (not too much), some yoga, visiting relatives (Val and John – Aidan’s mum and Dad, where we did more eating), lots of playing with Aoife, lots and lots of holding and rocking Lucia (mainly by Ange, some Aidan and a little by me), a visit to the park and a visit to 2 restaurants – all squeezed into 3 days and 4 nights. I also went to Fort Saskatchewan to visit my Mom’s grave.

I would have stayed longer but I was exhausted and needed a rest. Just kidding – actually, Maureen called and tempted me with the possibility of seeing Dave Brubeck (jazz) on Tuesday night – so I deicided to leave Monday instead of Tuesday, as I had planned. Also, as I had chosen Tuesday arbitrarily on my own, I was feeling slightly guilty about it, as Ange and Aidan seemed so busy with their lives.

As I was leaving, I did briefly reconsider my decision to head to Victoria (plan B) and instead follow my original intention (plan A) to go to Prince Rupert and take a ferry down the Inside Passage. However, that would have taken the better part of a week and a lot of driving – basically 3 or 4 extra days that I then wouldn’t be able to spend with M&B. So, I finally went with Plan B. As a result, it’s doubtful that I will get to see the Inside Passage this trip. Maybe I’ll just have to fly back west and take a cruise – global warming be damned.

Fort Battleford

I should get to Edmonton today. But before I get back on the road, I want to visit the Fort Battleford Historic site. Members the the Northwest Mounted Police from this detachment were involved in quelling the Metis rebellion of the 1880s and also for subduing the Indian tribes in north western Saskatchewan. These actions were the precursor to the establishment of the residential schools for which Stephen Harper recently apologized. I had read some details about this when researching my trip and wanted to learn more.

The guided tour of the fort took about 1 1/2 hours and I won't bore you with the details. I'll just say that the latter half of the 1800s is not a period of which we can be proud as far as our treatment of our first nations and Metis is concerned. It's very sad. I'm just not sure what we as individuals can do about these past sins- perhaps support government actions to address the wrongs in the future.

Getting to Edmonton from Battleford was uneventful, other than my arrival 2 hours earlier than I thought I would. It turns out my GPS is not able to use local time and was giving me the arrival time as Eastern Standard Time. Oh well, Ange and Aidan seemed to cope with my precipitous arrival.

Grain Elevator

Ever since Manitoba, I have been driving by these grain elevators. For some reason, I like them. Most seem to be falling into disuse. Anyway, this one screamed out to me to be shown in black and white. So I did.

Kandahar

Earlier, when I went through Spanish, ON, David wondered what direction I was heading in. Just to confuse David further, here is a shot of my van as I stopped in Kandahar. There was no sign of Taliban. I was shooting into the sun on a bright day, so the image is not the best.

The Battlefords

Day 12 starts out windy. Windy enough to wake me at 5:30AM and to get me out of bed shortly after to take down the van's pop-top. I wasn't sure what was going to happen and after hearing of all the tornadoes in the US mid-west, I wasn't taking any chances. However, by the time I was finished breakfast the wind had died and it was a beautiful day.


The upside was that I was on the road by 7:30AM - the earliest start yet on this trip. That allowed me to reach North Battleford by early afternoon, so I decided to visit the Western Development Museum that I had visited on a previous trip west, many years ago. I spent several hours there and took a fre pictures. Right is a shot of a tractor I liked.


Here's a shot of part of a tractor wheel. I liked its colour and texture. I know...borrrrrrring!!!

That night I stayed at the Eling-Kramer campground in Battleford. It's a city run campground, but wasn't too bad - fairly busy, but quiet and right next door to the Fort Battleford National Historic Site, that I had planned to visit the next day.

Winyard

Day 11 of my trip started in Riding Mountain National Park. In the morning I was still debating whether to stay another day here or not. I could have done some more walking - as well as updating my blog if I stayed. However, I finally decided to leave and take Highway 10 north through the park - a scenic route.

Taking down the camper and leaving was quick and easy and I was on the road by 10:00, despite my indecision. I had thought I might stop along the way to walk a trail or two, but I ended up driving right out of the park without stopping. Once out of the park I headed west out of Manitoba, into Saskatchewan and onto the Yellowhead Highway that will take me to Edmonton and beyond. The urge to keep going seems to be in charge,

Actually, the Yellowhead goes all the way to Prince Rupert BC, where I had originally decided to head. However, my 2 week delay starting out and the resulting time pressure I feel have caused me to reconsider my decision to head that way. Maybe we'll be able to take this route back.

I ended the day in Winyard, SK at a modest regional park. It is inexpensive and my site had free firewood. I had my first campfire of the trip. They're definitely more fun when shared.

Riding Mountain

Since I left Thunder Bay 2 days ago, I have been driving 6 hours per day. I felt the need for a whole day out of the van soon, so I decided to make the short drive to Riding Mountain National Park and stay at least 2 nights.

I used my GPS to direct me past Winnipeg and get me to my destination. In the past I have questioned some of the directions the GPS had given me and realized later that it was I who was confused and the GPS was right. So, this time I decided to what the GPS said, and ignore my instincts even when it told me to not take the Winnipeg by-pass ring road. However, by the time I realized I was right at Portage and Main in downtown Winnipeg, I was convinced something was wrong and my instincts had been right. By then it was pointless to do anything but continue to do what I was told, and eventually I was out of the city and on my way to Riding Mountain. I figured out later that I had changed the GPS to select the shortest route rather than the quickest route – hence the direct line through the city. That’s now fixed.

Today was the first decent day of my trip. When I arrived I found that I had my pick of campsites and chose a nice one, got set up had a beer and started some overdue relaxation.

I also had time to make the first half decent camp meal that I’ve made in a while.

There is a small town in the park (vaguely like a Banf or Jasper, only smaller) and walking trails nearby – all within walking distance. The town has a bakery and internet, among other things. Maybe I'll get to read some email and update the blog,

Reaching Manitoba

From Caliper Lake, I decided I could make it to the Winnipeg area. The Birds Hill provincial campground looked like a possible place to stop - just north of the city.

When entering Manitoba I realized I could get off the Trans-Canada onto a more scenic route by first heading north through Whiteshell Provincial Park and then west. When I inquired at the Whiteshell park gate about the roads, the lady at the gate said, skeptically, that the roads were very rough. When I asked how rough, she said very rough and gave me the “look”. I decided to go that way anyway. There was only one point where a huge bump threw everything off my dash – coffee mug, water bottle, GPS, and cell phone. The greater concern I realized with that route occurred to me after I drove over 40 Km. without seeing another car – what if Morris broke down?

Anyway, I finally got to Birds Hill OK. I didn’t have high hopes about staying at a campground so close to such a big city, but it turned out that Birds Hill is very nice. My campsite was a bit wet, but given the rain we’d had the past week, that was understandable. Camping was half the price of Ontario and the showers and toilets were clean. Since it was the weekend, the place was busy, but still quiet – a good stop for one night. I’m beginning to feel a time crunch and have to keep moving.

Still no pictures. Next post will have some, I promise.

The End of Ontario

My last stop in Ontario (except for my regular stops for Gas, of course) was at Caliper Lake Provincial Campground. It is certainly worth visiting again, if I’m in the area. The only remarkable thing about this area of the world(other than scenic beauty, which it has in spades) is the vast number of pickup trucks pulling boats in trailers. They travel singly and in convoys. I pulled over several times to let a convoy pass me. The fishing must be great here. However, other than stopping for gas and to sleep, I'm moving on - no time for pictures.

Steep Rock

Although I was born in Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay), my dad worked at Steep Rock Iron Mine – about 200 Km west. Steep Rock was a lake that had the misfortune to be situated over a large iron ore body. To get at the iron ore, miners dug a tunnel up underneath the lake, blasted out the last bit and drained all the water, exposing the ore and starting a huge open pit mine. Somewhere in my family pictures is a shot of the final explosion in the lake as it is being drained. I’ll have to find that someday.

As I neared Steep Rock I stopped in Atikokan for some groceries. After getting groceries, on a whim I went into what I thought was an art gallery. It turned out to be a mall – one of the mustiest smelling buildings I’ve ever been in. However, as I wandered this little mall, I did find an art gallery and went in. Luckily for me the woman who was running the gallery was able to tell me how to find Steep Rock, and in fact her father worked there and she was able to tell me a little bit about the mine.

Atikokan is very close to Steep Rock, so I may have actually lived there with my parents – the information is lost now, but I do remember my Mom mentioning the name. I’m sure they would at least have occasionally gone into Atikokan for entertainment. I do recall my Dad liking beer – after all he was Irish.


Anyway, with that help I was able to easily find Steep Rock Lake. The shot at right was inspired by the similarity of Morris' colour and the road and soil in the area. The ground is red because of iron oxide in the soil. There is definitely no iron oxide (rust) on Morris, after all the money I've spent on fixing him up!

There are remnants of the mine and the open pit. The “drain” has been plugged and the lake is slowly filling up, but you can still see the effects of the open pit mining. Although the area is slowly returning to nature (except for the areas that have been used for dumping refuse), there are still roads and concrete structures. It was strange to imagine my dad working in that space 65 years ago. The picture of the pit/lake below is a composite of 2 shots that I put together with Photoshop.

Morris – the continuing struggle against entropy

I alluded earlier to an update about Morris’ health. Here it is. As Bonnie will recall Morris occasionally won’t giddy-up after a short stop. I have a work-around, but it is still annoying. He doesn’t do it often, but can do it when “he senses” an inopportune moment. Anyway, he did it 2 or 3 times in one day this past week and hasn’t done it since. The good news is that I have a theory as to what the problem is. I think it’s an intermittent break in the wire going from the ignition key to the starter. Unfortunately I’ll have to get under the van to fix it, so unless it becomes more urgent, I’ll wait till I get home to do that.

The other problem I’ve had is that the water pump has died. I must have left water in it over winter and the frost cracked it. Anyway it leaks and makes funny noises. The local RV shop didn’t have quite the right replacement. They did have a much more expensive one that I can adapt. It’s really inconvenient without water, so I guess they win. The pump is the black thing with the hose sticking out of it in the picture. A little bit of wiring and plumbing and we’ll be back in business.

On the positive side, the overheating problem I had to deal with before I left, seems to be fixed – I have not had to add any coolant since I left. I have had to add a bit of oil, more than at home, but I’m doing a lot more driving.

Speaking of adding, I’ve had to add gas – lots of gas. So far (Thunder Bay – about 1600 Km.), I’ve spent over $250 on gas – definitely my biggest expense.

Thunder Bay – 2 days wasted

As I sit and write this I realize that it is day 10 and I am writing about day 6. I need to catch up. My visit to the Bay (as I have heard people here call it) was not what I had hoped. The weather was miserable, the city is sprawling and not as interesting as I had hoped. The one site I had hoped to see – Old Fort William – was closed because of flooding. I did find a lookout and fired to take a panoramic shot of Port Arthur. Unfortunately the pano software I have is not the greatest posting the shot will have to wait till I get home. Who’ll care then – just me probably. Instead, here’s another shot of a Bowater pulp mill in the Fort William of the Bay. That’s as about as interesting as it got.

In the Bay I stayed in a motel and ate in restaurants. The Super 8 motel I stayed at was the cheapest I code find, except for the flea-bags. It did have wireless internet – yeay!!! I got partly caught with my blog.

Foodwise, the first night I ate at the Hoito restaurant – a 75 year old establishment that is part of the Finlandia club. It started in the 30s as a cooperative restaurant established to feed single men who were in town on leave from their logging jobs. The second night I tried the local Thai restaurant. The Tom Yum Gai was very good, as was the pork satay. The main course was something new to me and was bland and soupy – probably the wrong choice. Despite the weak main course, I thought the restaurant not bad for a small city off in the boonies.

Day 5 - Still More Hiking at Sleeping Giant

Before I headed off to Thunder Bay I decided to take another short hike. This involved a 30 minute detour on a gravel road to a lookout over the bay towards the city of Thunder Bay. The lookout was also an entry point to the Kabeyun trail - the major backpacking trail down the wet coast of the peninsula. There was a metal and wood platform projecting out from the cliff at the lookout. I should have taken a shot of the platform. I didn't. Instead I went out to its end - somewhat unnerving, given the 100 or so feet drop below, and took a picture of the cliff to the south. It is a composite of six shots. Not a perfect composite because I don't have the right software with me. That's it on the right.

Below is a shot of Morris waiting for me as I went off for a walk on the Kabeyun trail. It would have been a great walk, except for the bear poop I saw on the road in to the lookout and also for the really difficult (for my poor knee) climbing up and down cliffs and over fallen trees. I lasted about a half hour and then returned.

More Hiking at Sleeping Giant

On my way back to the camp site, I found a more secluded parking lot for another recommended trail - to Middlebrun Bay. I didn't feel like I had done the kind of hiking I'd hoped to, so I decided to take a chance that Morris wouldn't be ransacked by marauding backpackers and the bears were elsewhere, maybe their eating porridge.

This walk was a bit more of a trail rather than an old road. The bay was pretty, lot of red sand with a few streams flowing into the bay. One unusual aspect of Middlebrun bay are these sticky gum cedars. I got my hand stuck to one. Fortunately some other hikers came a long and took a picture and then helped me get free. Here's the picture.

Although the sandy beach would have been great for swimming (on a warmer day), the most interesting looking part was this large flat rocky area strewn with boulders. See picture below:

Hiking Sleeping Giant Park

My first hike was a short one to the Sea Lion. Not what you'd think, the Sea Lion used to resemble a lion sitting on its haunches looking out over the lake. Today, after the lion's head has fallen off, it's just an interesting rock formation. After visiting sea lion, I continued onward for about a half hour, but then concerns over bears and wondering whether Morris and his contents would be safe in the parking lot, made me turn back.

If you'd like to see an explanation of how such a formation could have occurred, have a look at the image below. Of course, I probably have broken our new copyright laws by publishing this image online.

Days 3 and 4 - Sleeping Giant Provincial Park

On Tuesday (day 3) I continued along Highway 17 to the Sibley Peninsula just east of Thunder Bay. Along the way I stopped in Marathon to gas up and get some supplies (most importantly, peanut butter, that I had forgotten to bring - I was having withdrawal symptoms). Sleeping Giant Provincial Park is at the bottom of the Sibley Peninsula. It's 30Km from all the Highway 17 traffic and very quiet. It seemed to have a lot of trails of varying difficulty. I hoped to spend to nights there. That would give me a day or so to do some hiking.

I didn't register for 2 nights right off, because the weather forecast was for a low of 6°C on Tuesday night and 3° on on Wednesday. If survived Tuesday night OK, after spending the morning fixing some Morris problems (more on these later), I would register for another night and then do some hiking.

Day 2 - Lake Superior Provincial Park

The second day of my trip is mainly uneventful. I drive for most of the day, with a brief stopover in Sault Ste Marie for supplies, finally ending up at Lake Superior Provincial Park. The park is scenic, but is way too close to the highway. There are tractor-trailers continually zooming up and down Highway 17 all night, passing within 30 metres of my campsite. I finally was able to sleep through the noise though. No internet at that campground. I've noticed an odd correlation - when I don't have internet access, I go to bed earlier - strange, isn't it? I was asleep by 10:30.

You will notice I've added a map to the blog. What may not be so obvious is that I've also placed markers for my various stopping points. What I haven't figured out is how to indicate a route or to label the markers. Perhaps the Moore Technical Department (David) can figure that out and let me know.

No pictures that day, hence this boring text only entry.

First camp site

We are a little west of Sudbury. I had hoped to get to Spanish, ON, bit that was another 50 Km and Mini wanted me to stop and have a beer. We are near Espanola, though. Tomorrow I'll have to find out what's with the Spanish names here.

Being the first time camping this trip, I figured there would be some kinks to work out with setting up camp and cooking. There were some kinks, but nothing too major. The beer was cold and the BBQ didn't explode.

I am at Silver Maple Campground. Not too picturesque (see picture), but there's wireless internet via satellite. I love roughing it in nature...

Day 1

We left around noon today. A bit later than I planned, but better than not getting away at all. The picture is Mini leading us onto the bridge and off the island out into the wide world.

I should introduce my co-pilot, Mini-Morris, or Mini for short. He's usually pretty intently focused on the road ahead.

This shot is from our stop for Morris' 333,333 KM celebration.

Major Milestone

On the way to Toronto (2 weeks ago) Morris had a birthday - the odometer rolled past 333,333 KM. We had to stop to capture this on film. OK, not really film and not really a birthday, but wow! Will we get to 444,444?

What's in a name?

My van needs a name. I'm thinking Morris - as in Van Morrison. I am open to better suggestions.

So, here's a flashback pic of Morris ready to leave 2 weeks ago. Little did I know...

Of course, little do I know now.... we'll see.

Departure Redux

I did leave 2 weeks ago, I swear. But, it was a false start for the van. It decided to overheat. I decided to fix it in Ottawa. Good thing because it has taken 2 weeks for the part to arrive.

But, it arrived today. I installed it and we tested the cooling system and it looks good. Good enough to leave anyway. I'll use tomorrow to get ready and leave early Saturday. There on the right is the new part safely ensconced in its new home. It will probably outlast the rest of the van (and me).