On The Road

The move from Kirkland Lake to Sioux Lookout took us 3 days and about 16 hours of travel (minus pit-stops).

Day 1: We left Kirkland Lake around 1:30pm and drove until dinner - stopping in Kapuskasing. My grade 6 teacher (Mme. Grezla) was from this town - she once made us run around the field at Westminster Public School until we had run the distance between Brockville and Kapuskasing - it was "fun".

Day 2: We drove from Kapuskasing to Thunder Bay - about a 6 hour trip. Unfortunately we had an incident with our trailer in a small town called Beardmore. As we went over a particularly harsh set of train tracks our trailer came off its hitch and started dragging along the ground. Turns out we bought a too skinny "pin" to fit the trailer hitch and the constant bumping and banging caused too much heat from friction - eventually snapping the metal and breaking the connection between the trailer and the hitch. See the picture below.

Fortunately we only dragged the trailer about 50 feet - no damage was done - and a very nice couple of men named Jerry and Richard helped us find a new part and they even brought their own tools and helped us install the new (properly fitting) pin and ball. Two hours later we were safe and sound in Thunder Bay.

Day Three: Well obviously I had to go shopping, Thunder Bay is the closest "metropolitan" area until, like, Winnipeg. I hit up American Eagle, Bluenotes and La Senza - spent $100 - and got out of the mall all within 30 minutes. A record for anyone who's gone shopping with me (I'm thinking of you Ang). We checked out of the hotel and headed for Sioux Lookout.

It took us about 4ish hours to get to Sioux Lookout. I started phoning hotels about 60km from the town, and guess what? EVERY hotel in town was fully booked. Which is totally weird since the population in Sioux Lookout is 5,500 and they have like 5 major hotels. It must be a popular spot. Luckily we found a lodge normally reserved for a fishing outpost for American tourists to come and fish their hearts out. It was a beautiful spot - right on a lake - with exposed logs and 12 foot ceilings. I slept super-duper well.

And now what? We're in the Forest Inn and Conference Centre where Chris is attending his Professional Development conference and learning about Slate Falls and meeting all his new co-workers. I'm just hanging out. I'm also freaking out since Plato has tapeworms from eating too many wild animals over the summer - and there are exactly zero pet supply stores (except one which is closed until Monday). Looks like I'm going to Dryden (about an hour away) tomorrow or Saturday to cure my little boy.

Until then take a look at some road pictures. Northern Ontario towns love to have giant monuments so we tried to take pictures of all the ones we saw on the trip. For those who like nature - check out the beautiful views of jack pine, black and white spruce and trembling aspen forests. Also, we drugged our cats with tranquilizers for the trip since Newton in particular hates to travel - so there's some awesome drugged-out cat pictures too.

Moonbeam, ON. Space themed town - seriously.

I think this was Kapuskasing - they also had a giant wolf but we weren't quick with the camera.

An awesome giant moose and wolf battle in Hearst, ON.

Giant fishing snowman with top hat and sunglasses in Beardmore - right before the trailer incident.

View of the Lake Superior mountains on the way to Thunder Bay, ON.

Drugged up Newton - very drugged

Long road ahead

Grumpy Plato - also drugged

Our beast "LaQuanda" packed to exploding.