I'm Alberta bound

After a teary farewell at the pharmacy where I've worked for the past 2 years, we finished off our last day in Timmins by visiting a good friend of ours and having a wonderful glass of wine. Our super-neighbors, Bob and Janie, then had us over for barbecued T-bones, potatoes, casserole, and rhubarb torte. We chatted for awhile and then went to the house to do a couple last minute things, like fix the bannister that the movers didn't put back together, and the door sweep they broke, and clean up the cigarette butts they flicked onto my neighbors driveway...classy. Finally at 10:30pm we checked in at Cedar Meadows, a wonderful resort hotel in Timmins.

6:00am we were up having breakfast at CM and then were out of Timmins by 7:30. I am driving the Prius with my father-in-law. Not only is it going to be a nice drive, but it gives me a chance to put my Prius gas mileage to the test. I will update you on each leg of the trip of some things we saw, how long the trip took, and what kind of mileage I got with each tank.

Day 1: Timmins to Thunder Bay (See the map)

I decided to take the Lake Superior route instead of the Hearst route because it runs all along Lake Superior and is much more scenic. Although the day started out very dreary and foggy, obscuring any views, we did see a lot of the beautiful Superior. I can see why the old explorers thought they'd reached the Pacific when they hit Superior. It's massive.

After Timmins, the first major town we passed was Wawa. There is a huge Canada Goose there, keeping with the small-town Canadian tradition of building oversized objects to attract tourists. It is, however, a charming little town lying on the shores of Wawa Lake.
Shortly after that was White River, a small town where A.A. Milne met the bear that inspired his classic Winnie the Pooh stories.


We continued on along the shores of Lake Superior, where we eventually had to stop for gas.

We stopped in a little place called Terrace Bay for lunch and then continued west. Finally the sun came out and we could see remarkable views of Lake Superior. It was amazing.







Outside of Terrace Bay is a place known as Aguasabon Gorge, a waterfall that drains into Lake Superior. It was only a short trip off the road, so we decided to check it out. It was worth it.
The only real snag in the trip was about 50 km outside Thunder Bay where we hit 2okm of heavy construction. It must be damn expensive to build roads in the Canadian Shield. They were literally blasting the rock off the side of the road just to expand it. But the views were worth it!
The final tally for the day:

MPG on first tank of gas: 52
Total km driven: 811
Total driving time: 8hr 37min 45sec
Total travel time: 10 hrs
Average speed: 94km/hr
Coffees drank: 2 cups breakfast, 1 XL DBL-DBL, 2 L DBL-DBL=5 coffees
Total metal albums tolerated by father-in-law: 3
Total Goodies candies eaten: lost count