Circle Tour -- Day 11

I woke up this morning with vertigo and nausea from a mold allergy.  Rain, humidity and heat bring clasdisporium molds that wipe me out.  So other than lunch with Chris, Tisha and Evan, I spent a lot of time napping.  Back to the tour.  Three days to go. 

July 23, 2013 

The wind was strong throughout the night.  At one point, I thought the tent would blow over, so I moved my sleeping mat against the side that was taking the force of the gusts.  My weight on the bottom of the tent plus the protection of the surrounding bushes kept us upright. Not so two other tents in the campgrounds. Those campers were gone by morning.  

I would stay two nights, so for the first time on the tour I didn't have to take down the tent. I could take off very soon after using one of the park's showers.  Hot showers are a pleasure on cold mornings. 

For an early lunch, I went to the Metropolitan Moose Beanery and Cafe in the village of Kakabeka Falls where I had a fabulous tomato and mushroom soup.  It was here that my notebook failed to connect with the internet. Getting this blog written is always a concern and I would struggle with that the rest of the day. 

Thunder Bay is cut into two parts, north and south.  I had three performances, two in the north, one in the south and locating them was not easy.  The first was Hillside Gardens in the north. I stopped for directions three times and only one of the women could give me decent instructions, complete with a map.  I made the performance on time.  Afterwards, the staff directed me to the local branch library.  There I had access to the library's computer where I did the day's posting. The librarian also furnished me with a good map of Thunder Bay and marked out my next destinations. It was invaluable.  

Later in the day, I worked out the connection problem.  The little computer worked well the rest of the trip. 

However, the trip was becoming a problem financially.  The activity directors were nowhere to be found when I arrived at my venues and neither were my payments. "The check will be in the mail." I was running low on Canadian money, though I still had American funds with me.  I didn't particularly want to change that money over since I would be crossing the border in two days.

At one point I used my credit card to buy gas in Marathon.  My bank immediately assumed that someone had stolen my card and put a stop on it .... even though I had made a point of notifying the bank of my travel plans before I left Seymour.  That happened on the weekend.  It was even more confusing because I was supposed to call or e-mail the bank, but straightening that out would take more time than I cared to put into it.  I dispatched Gary to the bank where he also has an account.  A few sharp words, and my credit card was being accepted again. 

The evening performance was supposed to be beside a campfire at a senior residence but the home could not get the permits in time.  I was relieved because telling stories in front of a smoky fires is not fun for someone who needs her voice. Again, no activity director to get me started in front of the fireplace in the lobby.  I had to arrange the seats, talk some residents passing by into sitting down.  I started with a noisy song on the autoharp and soon I had gathered a lovely little crowd.  

The activity director was supposed to be there by the end of the performance but once again, he wasn't and neither was the check.  I was asked to come back in the morning to pick it up here in the north section of Thunder Bay. The missing check from the morning's performance would be at the next afternoon's performance in the south section.  It meant a lot of running around just as I was going to be leaving the country. 

I returned to the campground to find my section of the park pretty much abandoned.  I would finally have the privacy I craved but it was to be another cold, cold night in Ontario.  

Circle Tour - Day 10 continued

I am home now but will be writing about the tour for a few more days.  The stomach flu/cold seems to be abating. 

July 22, 2013

Still at a McDonald's at Thunder Bay, I still needed to find a way to Kakabeka Provincial Park and get an up to date weather forecast. A group of senior citizens were having some kind of a meeting.  Two of the guys gave me excellent directions to the park and told me that at least for this night, the rain was over.

I was soon at Kakabeka.  I chose a camping site far away from the falls and pitched my tent.  I was watched by some people across the way.  They were flying American flags in front of their monster RVS and had Wisconsin plates.

I went over to find out what they were doing.  They were on the Circle Tour, too, but heading the other way. None of them had been in Canada before.  They wanted to know about touristy places.  I couldn't help them much there, but I told them about provincial parks and places they could park their monster RVs.  I suggested Glen Valley when they got to Sault Ste Marie and said Marathon was a good city for quick service and internet access.  I told them about Tim Horton and Robin restaurants for good soup and internet access.  I suggested Serenity Gardens in Rossport though how they would manage to turn their vehicles around in those narrow village streets I had no idea.

My real fear was that they were just another bunch of ugly Americans that come here with their loud voices to tell the Canadians that they were inferior.  If Americans take time to listen instead of spout off they would learn something, but knowledge is frightening to some.

My campsite set up, I went over to photograph the waterfall.  The water was high after so much rain.  The beach was closed with a warning sign.

The word "water" had been taped over some other word that was probably "bacterial" so in any case I wouldn't have been able to swim.  In the entire trip, I'd gone swimming just once, in Michigan.

The high water meant that the waterfall was spectacular. It has been called the Niagara Falls of the North.

I went back to my campsite, set up my folding chair and read until it began to get dark. I wore my warmest clothes as once again, the night grew colder.

I had set my tent back toward the trees for privacy, but that night I was happy that those bushes provided a windbreak.

Circle Tour- Day 10

Rossport. to Kakabekka

I woke to the loud slapping of waves on the rocky shore. I thought about Stan Roger's "White Squall".
     I tell these kids a hundred times
     Don't take the lakes for granted.
     They go from calm to a hundred knots
     So fast they seem enchanted. 
The wind was kicking up, forcing white caps on the shore.  I looked at the sea and got moving.  I can take a camp apart in fifteen minutes while boiling water for tea and oatmeal.

Bad weather was beginning to seriously annoy me.

It began to rain as I drove out of the Rossport campground.  I had planned on spending several hours hiking up and down the trails at Rainbow Falls, but never mind.  I was on the road again.

At Npigon, it was still raining.  I parked the car in front of the library. It was closed but the wi fi was running. I read my e-mail for a while when the service suddenly stopped.  I looked at the windows in the offices beside the library. Municipal clerks were peering at me through the rain, suspicious I suppose.  I started the car and drove off.

Just up the road was the visitors' centre.  Gary asked me to take another photo of the big wood carving "Paddle to the Sea" from the children's book he loved as a child.  It had been on the deck a year ago, but it wasn't there now.

I went in to check it out with the two teenagers running the place:  Cassidy and Charlie.

Cassidy is a senior in high school and Charlie is a university student. When I came in Cassidy was playing with the computer and Charlie had his feet up on the desk with his Tim Horton coffee and snacks at the ready.  They were fun to talk to and really very informative. Cassidy seemed to be in charge.  She got me the latest weather report:  rain.  Big surprise.  

The "Paddle to the Sea" wood carving is put in the basement for the winter. It is far too heavy for the teens to bring up.  The city crew were supposed to haul it up but still hadn't gotten around to it.  July 22 was probably a bit late.  I bought a copy of the book for Evan.

On I went.  With so much rain it made sense to drive rather than sit around.  I almost skipped Sleeping Giant Provincial Park entirely.  It would be too wet to camp there, but I thought I would take a look anyhow for future reference.

I was almost into the park when a gangly big wolf came out of the mist and crossed the road.  I am never good at having a camera ready and it went to fast anyhow.  The park is full of deer so he likely ate well.

I explored back roads, getting the car muddy.  The sides of the roads were tree lined with spruce and pine. The campsites are nicely secluded.  Gary would love these little hideaways.  I took photos to show him.

A couple of hours later I came out of the park.  The wolf was there again.  This time he stood his ground looking at me. Again, I forgot about taking a photo. I was lost in those golden eyes. I felt I should get out and pet him and give him an ear scratch.  But that wouldn't be smart.  We stared at each other for a few minutes until he dismissed me by turning and melting into the forest.

At Thunder Bay, I stopped at a McDonalds to get my bearings.  Thunder Bay is divided into two section separated by countryside.  I was confused.  I decided to catch up on e-mail and get this blog written.

I sat in a booth facing an old man who seemed to be a street person with all of his belongings in a back pack. Every so often he laughed maniacally. In the booth behind me, a kid was impressing his girlfriend by telling her about the times he'd cut himself.  He showed her the scars. He also had opinions about the stupidity of is parents and is teachers.  They counted up their combined change several times to see if they could get a hamburger.  The amount remained the same.

The boy started to make fun of the old guy and me as if we couldn't hear him.  His girlfriend chimed in.  Little did they know I was typing up their dialogue for use in a future short story.  It occurred to me that the boy and the old man were the same person.  As for the girl, she must have been desperate for a boy friend to stick with someone that crazy.

It was stereo insanity. Grist for the writing mill.

Circle Tour - Day 9

For only the sixth time since I established this blog, I failed to post.  You will learn about that later. 

I woke up at 6:00 a.m. It was so, so cold but I had lined the medium sized bag with the flannel bag and slept well enough. Getting out of the slleeping bag was the problem. When I checked the temperature in the car it read 42 degrees F. I had been told it would be 8 degrees C but that would have been equal to 47 degrees F. In other words, it was very, very cold.

I made oatmeal and tea as usual and packed up everything except the tent which was wet with dew. I drove over to the convenience area, started a load of laundry, took a shower, and went back to throw the clothes in the dryer. The attendant chatted with me for a while as the clothes dried. I admired her blue camping hat with the Ontario Parks decal and asked where I could buy one for Gary but she said they were official attire and were never sold. He would have loved it, too.

Laundry done, it was back to take the tent down and I was on my way west. At Terrace Bay, I stopped at the visitors center and was able to catch up with my e-mail. The attendants did their best to convince me to go down to the lake for Superior Days but I was on my way to another festival ten miles away, the Schreiber Heritage Days.

When I arrived, I ran around to find out what was happening. First of all, there was a parade of fire engines followed by antique cars. That took about ten minutes. There was another parade, too, but I was using the bathroom in the in the community center and missed it. In other words, Schreiber is a small town, much like Seymour.

There was a hamburger fry going on but I never got back to that. There were tables with vendors of all kinds of things, including a big display of Tupperware. I spent some time getting stickers from the emergency squad for my autoharp case. There was a writer and his editor, who was also his wife. They, too were self-publishing using Create Space so we compared notes on that.

I appreciated the art show going on in the gym. There were some fine paintings but all were out of my price range.

Then I found out that my 2:00 pm slot had been moved back to 3:00 because someone had hired a magician at the last minute. By the time the kids were done with that show, they were brought to the gym to listen to my stories, but they were either wired or tuckered out. I told stories to three wiggly boys and felt good that I held their attention for 25 minutes. At that point they skedaddled and I was left with adults, so I switched gears with a half hour adult performance. I had to end then because the helpers arrived to help take down the paintings. Not my best work, but what can you do?

Donna, the librarian who hired me, must have felt bad about that so she took me to the library so I could write my blog. Then she asked me if I would like to go out to eat. I asked her to give me a half hour.

I drove to the Rossport campground (part of the Rainbow Falls Provincial Park), signed in and set up the tent on a site that looked over Lake Superior. It was the same site Gary and I camped in a year before. I planned on sitting in the sun there the next morning, maybe even go for a swim. Setting up a campsite takes me fifteen minutes so I had time for a few photos.

A loan rununculus had worked it's way into the cracks of the rocks.

I drove to the nearby village of Rossport and met Donna at Serendipity Gardens, a lovely restaurant on the side of the hill with flowers all around.

 We split an order of fish caught that afternoon in the lake, delicious. While we ate, Donna told me about raising her kids in the forest in a house with no plumbing....just an outhouse and an outdoor pump. If the creek flooded, she had to canoe the children across to get them to school.

We finished off with giant sundaes.

I returned to the campground but this time I would sleep in my fleece clothes so I would stay warm the whole night.  

Circle Tour - Day 8 conclusion

Note to readers:  Today my little traveling computer is not cooperating.  I am working at a Thunder Bay Public Library computer station but it will not allow me to post photos.  So I am going to make this a short post and try to get photos on tomorrow. 

Neys Provincial Park:

There was a program at the visitors centre this night.  A naturalist would be talking about the animals in Ontario.  It would be a two hour talk, but I needed to get up early in the morning, so I would stay for an hour.

The naturalist was really a sort of game warden.  He and his partner had a huge territory, from Sault Ste Marie to Npigon, from Lake Superior all the way to the Arctic Circle...and they were the only two covering that huge expanse.  He pointed to his sidearm and said that the two of them were given special permission to carry guns by the Canadian Police.  This nation is not heavy with guns, though rifles and shotguns are allowed.  

He and his partner had a truck, two snowmobiles, two ATVs, and access to helicopters and planes as needed.  They manage to get around.

What he is particularly in charge of is fur bearing animals, the kind that trappers are allowed by license to catch.  He had a bag of furs with him from animals that had been trapped illegally.  We were to guess the animals.  He had so many! Wolves, lynx, skunks, mink, ermine, muskrats, beaver fox, seal,and more.  In some cases, there were more than one kind.  There were red and silver foxes, for example.  There was one boy in the audience who knew many of the species because he had been in the park a year ago and heard the same talk.  As for me, I knew two that no one else did.  The badger is the state symbol of Wisconsin so that was easy.  Thanks to Gary and a sighting we had along Highway 2 in Wisconsin, I knew the fisher. 

There was one unusual fur...or rather skin.  It was a piece of an albino moose.

I pointed out that I had never seen a moose and claimed the animal was a figment of their imagination.

The warden said that there are no live animal exhibits in Canada.  They are not allowed.  I rather liked that. 

I finally left and went back to my campsite to climb into my tent.  I tucked the flannel bag inside the medium size bag.  The rangers had warned me that tonight the temperature would drop to 8 degrees C. which  translates to about 47 degrees F.   In fact, it was lower than that. 

It was a chilly night.  I wished I had brought a knit had and gloves along.  But I survived.  



 

Circle Tour - Day 8

In the middle of the night I woke up to hear the rain pounding on the tent. I figured there would be no hurry letting the tent dry in the morning but clouds gathered again again in the morning.  I quickly boiled water but when I began to pour it into my cup a dead earwig floated out.  Damn.  I rinsed out the pot and stated again but all I could eke out was 1 and a half cups of water enough for a cup of tea and a bowl of oatmeal.

I took the oatmeal over to the beach and there I noticed a red-breasted merganser swimming across the beach area with her six newly hatched ducklings, little walnut sized bundles of fluff.  They got as far as the ropes surrounding the area and panicked, breaking formation. They turned toward me and there was more confusion.

"Mommy, mommy, what is that big ugly thing there."

She steered them away from me to a corner of the beach where the rope dropped.  They all slipped over and were gone.  As usual, it was then that I remembered I had a camera.  Never mind, it was an enchanting moment that i'll hold in my memory.

As it had all night, the Canadian Pacific Railroad came through with a roar and broke the mood.

For that, I had a camera.

The rain began.  I whipped the tent down and left  by 7:00 a.m.

I was soon at Marathon, had toast at the A&W. There was a choice of white or brown toast.  I gathered that brown toast was whole wheat. A&Ws have wi fi.  I got the blog out.

In the mall across the way, I found some granola bars plus the Canada tee-shirt \Gary asked me to buy for him.  A postcard mailed to Evan at the post office.  Th city park that I thought might be an alternative camping place but no, I wanted to see Neys Provincial Park. I went on.

By now the extreme heat of the day before had changed to a chill.  Once my tent was set up, I put on my flannel jacket and looked for a place to read.  I hadn't much time for that on this trip.  I found solitude in the children's playground.  There were two benches that looked down at Lake Superior.

It was fall, or felt like it. 

When I tired of reading, I walked on the beach as far as Prisoner's Cove but we campers weren't allowed there.  There was a wedding in progress.  Later I would run across a park ranger whose job that afternoon was to pick up all the cigarette butts that had been dropped there.  Always the same, he said. 

I walked onto the trails for a bit.  Bunchberries are still in bloom here though they finished up in Wisconsin in mid-June.  

And I walked again on the beach, this time with a camera.

Tomorrow:  Neys to Rossport.

Circle Tour - Day 7 continued

I planned on staying at Crescent Lake in Lake Superior Provincial Park but there was standing water everywhere after the rain.  I would be pitching my tent in puddles and hiking in ankle deep mud. I looked at the Rabbit Blanket Lake campground, too.  It was on higher ground so the ground was dryer, but when I opened the car door, swarms of mosquitoes and deer fly tried to fly in.  Again, not an option.

Besides, the sky was overcast.  If I stayed at Lake Superior Provincial Park, I would be stuck in either a very small tent or the front seat of my car.  On a rainy day, it made more sense to drive to the sun. I had a quick stop at Old Woman Bay to pay homage to that great canoeist Bill Mason and drove on.

At Wawa, I filled up with gas because the Canadian radio networks were talking about rising prices, due to America's economy improving.  People are working, they are buying gas to get to their jobs, and gas prices are rising.  Not what American networks are saying, of course. I used my charge card at the Esso station and that started my bank worrying that someone had stolen my card, even though I had explained the trip to my local banker who had made a note on the account that I would be in Canada.  It will take until Monday or Tuesday to get that straightened out and until then I can't use the charge card.  Good thing I am making money on the road!

Also at Wawa, I went to the local Subway.  All the way into town, Subway promised wi fi.  It didn't work when I was here with Gary a year ago and it didn't work now.  After struggling for a bit, I went on to the Tim Horton restaurant.   A year ago, no wi fi, but now it is in all the stores in the chain.  It is as reliable as the McDonald wi fi system.  I got my blog done there.

I finally came to the White Sand Provincial Park and signed in.  The campsite was lovely, right on the smaller of the two beaches.  It was quiet and serene.   I set my lawn chair on the beach and wallowed in the beauty of the place.

There was only one problem.  I went to fill my water jug and found out that due to e coli the water had to be boiled.  I realized that with my little pots, if I boiled the water the requisite five minutes, it would all have evaporated.  I had only about a quart of water left in my jug from the last stay.

I thought about moving on but I was so tired.  I had been driving all day. I figured I had enough water for a couple of cups of tea in the morning.  By 8:30 my tent was up and I was crawling in.  By 9:00, lights out.