ontari-ari-ario!

Last month, I got to scratch TWO items off my travel bucket list: touching the southern-most inhabited point in Canada and driving the world’s longest road (albeit, this fact is contested).  All this because we cancelled our Egypt trip. …wait, I didn’t tell you we cancelled?  Or that we were even going?  Boy, I have been away.  Let’s get caught up.

(Egypt: we booked this last December, when it was cheap and everything relatively quiet.  Egypt has been a military dictatorship for a long time and the Arab Spring just seemed to be another bump in its turbulent history.  Fast forward to August (14th, specifically) and we balked.  A thousand people dead?  Trains cancelled?  Closing of the Pyramids?  Why even GO to Egypt at that point.  So, we cashed in our travel insurance and stayed in (nice, safe) North America.)

West Dock

Pelee Island: Our first stop for two nights.  It was everything I thought it would be and then some.  Small enough to circumnavigate (by car) in about two hours and friendly as all heck, we had a great time there.  Fabulous sunsets, delicious local wine, and even the crippling walk to Fish Point were real highlights.  It has really become a competitive spot for my retirement plans (displacing the established frontrunner, Stratford).  Of course, we’ll have to return a few times to make sure the enchantment doesn’t fade, but there you have it.  We left reluctantly.

A quick dart through the US to get us back to Ontario.  Lowlights include: Scary Gary, Indiana.  I have never been so uncomfortable in a first-world country in my life.  Terrible.  And so very sad.  Chicago traffic… ugh.  But the sunset drive into Minneapolis almost made up for it all.

Rainy River

Yonge Street: used to be known as the longest road in the world.  The stupid Ontario Highways Act stripped that title on a technicality.  It’s still the longest contiguous road (not highway).
- Rainy River: km-marker 1896.  The water wasn’t drinkable, but the motel was cute and the service was good.
- Day-long drive to Thunder Bay: two nights in TBay, a surprisingly large city (108,000 people!) where amethyst is so plentiful they give it away (literally, our B&B hosts just hauled out a buckets and told us to take a piece). Sleeping Giant National Park, Terry Fox Memorial, and delicious well water – what a great stop.
- Kapuskasing/Moonbeam: a halfway stop to our next destination.  We went there for the strange lights.  It was so dead dark, we played the “where’s my hand game” and marvelled at the amazing stars.  Thankfully GiPpS was lit up, or we may have lost our black beast of a car (Bruce… or BRWS).

North Bay, Sunset Inn Dock

- North Bay: a surprisingly beautiful spot that was so typical cottage country, every picture looked like a CanLit book cover.  It truly tugged at my heartstrings and was poignant enough to displace Turtle Bay from my iPhone.
- Queen’s Quay: km-marker 0.  The last 23 kms took as long as the previous 323 to cover.  But we made it.  Plaques were climbed; pictures were taken; plaid shirts were worn proudly.  We got home in one piece, exhausted but happy.



Ontario is one beautiful province.  I think I forget, living in the Golden Horseshoe, just how gorgeous this land of many lakes can be and how welcoming its people are.  Alberta has the Rockies, BC has the Pacific, Maritimes have the Atlantic, Yukon has Kluane, NWT has Northern Lights, Nunavut has polar bears and Quebec… well, Quebec has a je-ne-sais-quoi.  Ontario?  Ontario is what Canada is all about: loons, beavers, moose, lakes, rivers, pristine beauty and friendly people.   Come visit.

just around the bend