Kenora ... finally

Today felt a lot longer than yesterday and was definitely more frustrating!

We travelled from Marathon to Kenora, which according to Google maps is 770km, but since we took a couple side trips, like the Sleeping Giant, it seemed a lot longer than that. We left Marathon at 6am and headed for Kenora, planning on stopping at the Ouimet Canyon, the Sleeping Giant and the Terry Fox Memorial. We managed to hit all three.

The sun was just rising when we left Marathon and the view was beautiful. A light fog had settled over most of the lakes and an orange glow from the rising sun made the early morning drive pretty enjoyable. Well, I enjoyed it, Jasper slept through most of it. I also saw a couple foxes and a bald eagle that morning, but thankfully, no moose. I was pretty glad that I was heading west as the sun was rising behind me and it was BRIGHT! Also, in my sleep deprived state, I discovered that the shadow of my car looked like Shrek. At that point, after I stopped giggling, I decided it was time to stop for caffeine.

Our first stop was Ouimet Canyon. It was beautiful, and made all the more amazing by the fact that we were there at 9am and were the only people there. Its a long steep drive up to the canyon and then a short walk out to the cliff face. Its pretty amazing that these kind of places exist. next we were going to go to Eagle Canyon and walk across Canada's longest suspension bridge but when we got there, the guy was incredibly rude to us so we left ... ass!

Next we headed to the Sleeping Giant which was about 30km off the Trans-Canada. We saw three deer, one of them about 2 feet from the car. Luckily they looked pretty used to seeing cars and didn't make any attempt to jump out in front of me. The Sleeping Giant was cool and we went down to the beach and Jasper made some new friends. We were just standing by the edge of the lake and these two ducks came over and walked right up to him then proceeded to follow him around for the next 10 minutes. It was really very strange, but cute at the same time.

Our final tourist stop was the Terry Fox Memorial ... I did another full post on it so you should really read that.

After, we headed straight for Kenora with a short stop in Dryden for a stretch and to introduce Jasper to Dairy Queen. He was in heaven. I proceeded to have ice cream melt all over me ... sigh!

Tomorrow we are off to Winnipeg! I'm super excited to finally be out of Ontario! YAY!!!

Inukshuks

So, as I've been driving along the Trans-Canada, I've noticed a ridiculous amount of inukshuks along the highway. Now, I've been told that inukshuks are supposedly used by native people to mark a path, or a good fishing or hunting site, etc. I'm kinda wondering where these inukshuks came from, who put them there and why. Cause I'm pretty sure that the rocks that line the Trans-Canada are not very good fishing or hunting sights... unless you are hunting moose in the middle of the night with your car. Which thankfully I am not :)

Any insights fellow Trans-Canada travellers??

Terry Fox

I'm standing at the Terry Fox memorial and feeling a bit emotional. Its just amazing what he did, and at the age of 18. At 18 I was at university and partying, not raising millions of dollars for cancer research by running across Canada. I know we can't all be Terry Fox, but we can all do our part, and his memorial reminded me of that. So courageous, so inspiring and so humble. I hope to be half the human being he was one day. And I'm definitely not going to whine anymore about being tired from driving.

Thanks Terry!

I see why they call it Superior

All I can say is WOW, talk about beautiful scenery. This morning we started out just before dawn so I was a little wary of moose. There were no moose sightings thankfully but I did see two foxes and a bald eagle. Jasper missed them cause he was sleeping. When dawn broke, the view was amazing! We are driving along Lake Superior right now and there is a fog covering a lot of the lakes, its not too thick that you can't see, but thick enough to be eerily beautiful. The mountains are amazing and the biggest I've seen as I haven't been to Alberta or BC yet. We're on our way to Ouimet Canyon and Thunder Bay right now.

On the road again

Well, it is 5.30am and I am up and ready to go again. I can't wait until I get to Constance's in Edmonton and I can sleep in for once. I have a feeling I won't be starting any day later than 6am on this trip.

We're heading to Kenora today, passing through Thunder Bay and hopefully stopping at Ouimet Canyon, the Sleeping Giant and the Terry Fox Monument. I also hope that there are more ridiculous giant statues along the side of the road ... they make me laugh :)

Let me know if you know of any cool things I should see along my trip. I am always open to suggestion!

Marathon at last!

We finally made it to marathon after over 12 hours of driving! I'm so glad to finally be out of the car and in the hotel.

We managed to see a lot in between taking our scenic tour and arriving in Marathon. We saw a giant goose in Wawa, a giant skidoo, a giant RV, a giant thermometer, lots of giant things! We also met a family that had 7 cocker spaniel puppies! They were so unbelievably cute, I wanted to keep one.

Tomorrow we are heading to kenora which will be about a 10 hour drive. We're in for another long haul. Stupid enormous Ontario!

GPS 1, Kristen 0

My dad bought me a GPS when I moved to burlington and though I find it extremely useful a lot, sometimes it goes a bit mental and sends me on a wild goose chase. When that happens I usually curse the British lady that gives me my directions. We decided to follow the GPS instead of the map and found ourselves on what seemed to be a very country back road. The cursing began. Then we came around a corner and saw the view... I officially apologize to my British lady. We may have missed Sault Ste Marie but we saw some amazing vistas while driving along the Mississagi river. The GPS wins this round.

Before we went on our scenic route, we were following the Trans-Canada. We saw two very awesome things. The first was an Amish cart crossing sign (I'll post pics later). The second awesome thing was we actually saw the Amish carts driving along the side of the road!!

After our Amish adventure, we drove through the town of Cutler which made me miss Jen and all my hamilton folks. Love you guys!

espanola

We've hit espanola in pretty good time. We missed the big nickel in sudbury but decided it wasn't too much of a loss. Tomorrow will be a better sight seeing day. We hope to be in Marathon by 6 tonight. Then heading out in the morning probably at 6. No moose sightings yet, i'm not even sure I want to see one at all!

almost ready

I'm about to head to bed to get a little shut eye before I get up at 3 am to start my road trip from TO to yellowknife. I'm hoping to blog at least once a day so everyone knows how my journey is going.

Stay tuned!