the drive up to Canada

The drive up to Canada wasn’t without a hitch. First, after switching the time ahead for daylight savings time and realizing I’d lost some valuable time from updating and checking emails on the internet while I was still at Chula Vista in the Dells – I scrambled to get packed and loaded up and begin the trek up through the rest of Wisconsin, into Michigan and then onto Canada.

The drive has been so amazingly beautiful…I haven’t had the radio on at all. I have just been amazed at everything I’ve been looking at – the thriving farms with their livestock, and the farms that are fading with their delapitated buildings; sometimes boarded up businesses …just so much to take in. I would inhale sharply and say to myself oh…! Look at that! and oh…! Look at THAT! There is just so much to see.

Ah, but I was the same way about Mexico…the same way about the Dells, the same way about Door County…about Harlingen, Texas….just about every place I’ve ever been to…!

As I was driving on Sunday I began to get a horrible headache…and as darkness drew near, I realized I wasn’t even going to make it to Canada – and grabbed a room in one of the hotels that is still open along the lake shore. That was at about 9:00 pm. I got up at about 9:00 am after a restless night, and took some tylenol as I was drinking my coffee in the morning, eating a donut-and getting ready to take off again.

There is a really great scenic route around the Great Lakes along Wisconsin, Michigan and Ontario Canada – which includes Route 41…and there was so much worth taking pictures of that I whizzed by with a feeling of regret that I didn’t have the luxury of more time- but I was on a mission to get to Canada in a day (and not pay for a hotel room). Needless to say, I missed that…but on the way back it’s going to take me longer than the trip up because I’m going to try and capture some of what I saw on the way up here.

There are numerous businesses along the lakeshores that have done terribly this year. In Michigan, the temperature today hit 60 degrees, and it has been not only unseasonably warm for them – but they haven’t had the usual amount of snowfall. Because of that, the tourism season was only about one month as opposed to the usual three or four months. Because of the unseasonably warm temperatures, many businesses have boarded up, or are on their way to boarding up.

In Wisconsin, they were unseasonably cold this season – and that’s why the crops did so poorly, not having matured well enough to harvest at harvest season. That includes corn, apples, and cranberries.

Coming into Canada I came through Sault St. Marie, and the bridges were awesome and impressive. I’m always amazed at these large structures and what an amazing feat of engineeering they are.

You gotta remember, I don’t do much traveling at all – even inside the United States, let alone outside the country; even though I was prepared with my passport and jumped through the necessary hoops to make my way in, I wasn’t prepared for the awesome sights the distracted me from driving!

Going against my usual policy of never picking up hitch hikers-I picked up a Cree Native from Edmonton who’s been hitch hiking from Edmonton, Alberta (for the second time, I understand) – and is on his way to Toronto. He was very nice, helped me figure out the signs with a very helpful tip; multiply the kilometers by 6 – and remove the last digit from the end product, and you have it pretty well. Signs that say the speed limit is 90 have taken some getting used to. His name was Mel, and he was a sweet and delightful man. Yet, as many of these brief acquaintances go, he hopped out at a stop light, after shaking my hand and wishing me a safe trip…He really knew his way around; struck me as very sharp, and helped me get onto the Internet in Espanola’s library to take care of some business. When we were in Espanola’s library, we noticed a picture of Mike Cywink in a newspaper clipping on the counter, and it was Mel that noticed it.

Hopefully I can make good use of the time here…because the scenery is absolutely breathtaking, and I gather there is a lot of wildlife. I’ve seen deer running across my path, and what Mel said was evidence in the road that a moose had been hit. I’ve been told that there isn’t moose up here…but I’m not so sure about that…that was fresh red evidence all over the road…and too much to be a deer.

Yet, I haven’t sat still long enough to look for any birds…except I’ve noticed some very vocal CROWS all over the place, and at a couple of points turkey vultures soaring overhead.

I wanted to rent a cottage and got sucked into driving a trail that was very harrowing. It said “bear lodge” or something, but when I got there, it appeared to be some very well manicured homes on the lake front and I saw no lodge where I could grab a night’s sleep. So then I tried to get out of there, and ended up on an even worse trail having to do with a QUARRY. There were warning signs that I had gotten onto private property, but the trail wasn’t wide enough to turn the car around.

Luckily, I made it out of there, but I thought…this is no good, I’ll just have to go somewhere else for the night.

And what do you know…I run across some young bucks that know Nick Cywink.

Meanwhile…the car is starting to make some worrisome noises and I’m thinking I’ll have to be starting the trek homeward bound soon.

But hopefully, I’ll return with an entire library of wonderful photos at the end.

This post will probably end up being updated with more photos as time permits…or…if I have enough time to write more, I will create a new one.