What a long day! We woke up this morning a little after nine to house keeping. I didn't process the fact that we were no longer in Wisconsin, so I thought it was one of my residents knocking on the door needing something... And then I remembered we were in Canada. Today, our adventure began around 12:30 PM and we arrived in Toronto around 11:30 PM.
A few miles outside of Sault Saint Marie, we no longer had phone service which meant no more Google Maps. We were fine with it though because we had our Garmin. Just kidding. It didn't have a map for Canada. However, it was able to give us directions to go to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
As a result, we got lost a few times and resorted to getting help from several groups of Canatives (my invented word for native Canadians). One group actually let us follow them part of the way after asking for directions. Every now and then we would pull over for WiFi in hopes of getting some sense of guidance. Nothing like good ol'
Tim Horton's Café. Also, we decided that Canadians seem to be aggressive drivers. When the speed limit is 90, apparently going 115 still isn't enough. It was terrifying. Also, it's kilometers per hour. Not miles. That would be scary fast.
A few stops along the way in the province of Ontario:
Espanola: a small town, about 5500 people, where we utilized Tim Horton's WiFi. And got gas.
Sudbury: a town of about 130,000 where we utilized Tim Horton's WiFi. And made friends with the Canatives.
French River: A rest stop. That was closed. But, it was definitely worth exploring. The view was absolutely beautiful. Oh, and dad sunk in a snowbank. The path was a one way path and he tried moving aside for another group coming through, but missed the path... All you saw was flannel and his face sticking out of the snow. Talk about building a snowman.
Port Severn: We tried utilizing Tim Horton's WiFi here, but they had none. We at least got gas.
Toronto: FINAL DESTINATION (thus far). We're on the twelfth floor of a Hilton Hotel with a view overlooking the CN Tower (which we are exploring tomorrow) and like always, feeling pretty hungry. When you're on a mission while driving, food always seems to be forgotten. We each ate one slice of left over Dominoes, a few goldfish, some licorice, coffee, and Nutty Bars. YUMMM. Room service is not a service at this hour. So, we went down to their Pavilion Pantry, which consisted of Pringles, overpriced TV Dinners, tampons, keychains, chips, candy, and pop. We came back with nothing. However, we found free pastries in their lobby, so we each grabbed one of those. Upon looking through the food menu, thinking of all the food we couldn't have, we noticed the prices of their alcohol: $120/bottle of Absolut, $120/bottle of Captain Morgan, and $120/bottle of Jack. We resorted to drinking from dad's mason jars of booze (don't worry--the drinking age is 19).
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| international bridge |
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| old school gas pump |
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| rolling hills |
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| slowest speed we went |
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| sudbury |
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| rest stop that wasn't a rest stop |
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| french river (part of our rest stop) |
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| french river |
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| french river |
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| stud |
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| like father, like daughter |
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| hoodlum |
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| snowmobile bridge |
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| dad's foot hole from where he sunk |
Despite all the sarcasm, this trip really has been worthwhile. The car ride was even more beautiful than yesterday. Rolling hills covered in snow, pine trees, rivers, bridges, and a plethora of rivers. I'm so thankful for this time and wouldn't want to spend my spring break any other way! We have so much adventure ahead of us and we can't wait to see what the next few days bring!
-A & G
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