The 42canoe needed some gas....

Jeff here. Now in Saskatoon at Campland RV Resort, a brand new campground just west of Saskatoon. Great site, staff and owners!

Got an early start yesterday morning and hit the highway to grab a bite. Okay, once again, not camping fare...we grabbed a solid breakfast at a Perkins just east of Regina. Then decided to head a short distance south to the town of Rouleau. If you are a true Canadian, you will know that was the filming site of the highly popular sitcom Corner Gas.

Now get this, my brother and I park on the main street of the town and start walking down to the police building from the show. Another car pulls up and two people get out. The man looks really familiar to me. But the car is not from Ontario, so it can't be him. But I look again and low and behold it is one of my former bosses, the director of the Ontario Geological Survey, Andy Fyon, and his wife. How weird is that???!!! We chatted for a while and bought some souvenirs at the gift shop (which is the police station on the outside).

On the road again and heading north. We swung around Regina via Moose Jaw as the road leaving Rouleau was in a northwest direction back to the trans-Canada highway. Got in to Saskatoon early and set up camp. We visited with our uncle's brother and his wife and son for a supper. Great meal! Thanks to John, Joyce and Quinten Attwater for their welcome to the area! And to cap it off, Saskatchewan beat Montreal! Great night!

I can see for milles and miles and miles and miles and miles

Cool night last night. Coldest one so far this trip. Might have been 12C, which is a bit below the rating for the small sleeping bags we initially brought. Luckily Jeff picked up his mummy bag in Sudbury and I used his smaller bag as a blanket. A cozy night despite the chill.

Got an opportunity to do some laundry while we waited for a reporter from the Brandon Sun to call us. She was right on time and came out to the campground to do an interview, the cameraman arriving about 10 minutes later. Great interview Tory! Thanks for taking an interest in our story. Hope you got some nice shots Bruce. We look forward to seeing the finished article.

After the interview we hit the road to Regina. Drove through some rain on the way there, but nice weather once we arrived.

Got a chance to talk to some people we are meeting tomorrow. Our uncle Mike's brother and wife will be having us over for supper once we reach Saskatoon. We will have to catch up on calls and emails tomorrow, but we should get an early start.

Roxy Music

Woke this morning at 0430 so we could be at the CityTV station in Winnipeg for 6am. Packed everything up, brushed our teeth and we were on the road at 5.

We arrived at the station at The Forks in Winnipeg about 10 minutes early and were greeted by their great staff. We were on the air from the front of the building, with the canoe in the background, at 0615.

Brian Campbell, the ALS Manitoba PR rep, took us to Smitty's for breakfast and we enjoyed his company while we enjoyed the service and the meal. Spent the morning at the ALS Manitoba office and had a reporter from the weekly local paper stop by to get our story and take some pictures.

Once that was complete we went to meet our ride to Brandon. We transferred our canoe to the Rav4 driven by Joel and Danielle Grenier and hit the road for Brandon. Shortly after arriving we had an interview with CBC Radio 1 host John Updike. Another great experience and one more chance to spread the word about ALS.

We then grabbed a bite to eat with Joel and Danielle at the local Montana's. I know I won't be any lighter when I get home. Sorry Babe.

We are setting up the tent now and Jeff is organizing the back of our car. It's taken on a life of it's own and it we don't get it under control feel that it may start the car and drive away in the middle of the night.

It's going to be a cool night. We are bundling up for the worst.

Just like Willie Nelson sang....On the Road Again....

Got on the road by 11:30 after the Honda dealership fixed the axle - an early start despite the car repair issue.  Could have been a lot worse though (example? Being stranded in NW Ontario with a broken cv joint/axle!) Stopped at the timezone sign to take some photos....now in the Central Time Zone!  Woohoo! Gained an hour, which helps us to make Winnipeg and get back on schedule.

As Frank said in the previous post, we have to get up early and make the 6 am tv show/interview in the morning. This will mean an early rise tomorrow!

With regards to our day....had a nice day driving from Thunder Bay to Ste Anne just outside of Winnipeg. A little over 700 km today to make up the lost time. We are staying at the Lilac Campground and water park; very nice park! Only thing about today's trip was the wind, which pushed the canoe and car around a little on the highway. Must have been gusting at 50 or 60 kph! Canoe was solid though.

Went into Kenora for supper (Chinese food). Now hungry again ;)

A day in Thunder Bay....

Wednesday, July 20 entry:

We've been hearing an interesting clicking noise coming from the driver's side wheel so we decided to take the Fit into the local Honda dealer. They had a look and decided that a new axle was required. They ordered the part from Toronto and it should be here tomorrow morning. Not sure what we'll do if it doesn't arrive.

We have to be in Winnipeg on Friday morning since we have an interview with Breakfast Television on CityTV at 0600. Really need to get there so here's to a speedy and competent repair tomorrow.

After hearing about the delay we decided to see a movie to kill some time. First we stopped at Futureshop where I bought a keyboard for the iPad. I'm using it now. Then went over to Chapters where I refrained from buying anything. This in itself is a minor miracle.

After the movie we had lunch at the Mongo Grill. A good, healthy meal.

Decided to check back into the campground we left this morning and we've been waiting for the thunder and rain to stop ever since. Might go see another movie this evening if things don't dry up. Might also take a cabin if the rain continues.

Yep, stayed in a cabin in Thunder Bay's KOA as the weather was highly uncooperative on Wednesday night.  High winds, lightning, and thunder.  The city lived up to it's name today!  The airport suffered some roof damage as part of it was torn off in the 115km high winds last night.  Damaged some cars there too.

Wings and Ribs

Hit the highway and once again, enjoyed the scenery along the north shore of Superior. I (Jeff) drove this leg as I had done it before and I wanted Frank to have a full access to the beauty of the road while I concentrated on driving. We had a lift set up from Nipigon to just outside Thunder Bay - a old friend of dad's from the Sudbury area, Carl White. We picked up some breakfast grub and a coffee in Marathon, and proceed onwards. Stopped at the Aguasabon River Gorge, just outside of Terrace Bay. Nice scenery there! Met up with Carl at Timmy's in Nipigon and transferred the canoe over to his truck. It was another Ford Ranger! The 42canoe loves those trucks!

Had an amazing meal at the White's beautiful home on the shoreline of Superior. Thank you very much for everthing Carl, Marriette, and Kevin!
Frank and I pulled in to Thunder Bay about 4:30ish and set up camp at KOA there. Fantastic service and help there. One of the staff, Aleks, has an uncle with ALS and we wish him and his family all the best.

Went for a swim here and now just catching up with stuff while we can...

There is a Black Hole north of Lake Superior

Met a retired military gentleman at our campground in the Sault. He offered us a ride to White Lake (he was heading to Calgary) but we had to decline as we were heading back into town to have breakfast with mom and Jannette.

Got on the road around 10pm and took our time heading to the White Lake Provincial Park. Don't drive this highway too often so we wanted to stop and take some nice photos on the way. Of course that meant stopping in Wawa to get a shot of one of the many Geese populating the town. This is either a snow goose or they ran out of paint when they were painting a Canada goose. Natacha, we're going to need a bigger oven!

Got some nice shots of waterfalls and beaches on the drive and pulled in to the park at about 6:30pm. Actual camping site is over 4km from the highway! Glad we didn't have to portage the canoe in that far (then back out again the next day!). Went for a swim at the northernmost beach - shallow water and warm. Very refreshing after a day on the road. Tossed around a football Jeff bought, we both had some quality spirals there! Caught up on some other stuff at the campsite and we were a little worried that we would get a repeat of the storm we saw the night before in the Soo as there was some thunder booms echoing around for a while. But only some pitter-patter rain fell and we were able to make a delicious supper at the site....some gourmet canned chili! Yum!

Slept until 7:30am. We were on the road by 8.