Saturday, June 30, 2012

Day 2 Summer 2012 Road Trip


We had to set the alarm to get us up this morning.  We have to depart the hotel by 7am because we have a long 711 KM drive ahead of us.  Today we will drive as far as Thunder Bay Ontario.

Before we leave Sault Ste. Marie we have a few roadside attractions to visit.  I have an app on my iPhone called “Roadside America”.  It is a guide to uniquely odd roadside attractions.  The app will tell me what is nearby that is worth checking out.   Since installing the app, we have visited 112 locations.
So first up today is the “Three Goofy Cows in a Pile”  located in front of a local dairy.

7813 Ontario Sault Ste Marie Lock City Dairies

Next is the “Worlds Largest Baseball”  It is made of steel and is 2000 times as big as a normal baseball.

7819 Ontario Sault Ste Marie - World's Largest Baseball

And last was the “Man vs Moose, Moose Wins” statue.

7820 Ontario Sault Ste Marie - Moose with captured hunter at The Totem Pole in Frontier Village Trading Post

And so we depart Sault Ste. Marie on Hwy 17.  Every few KM’s or so there is a warning sign to be aware of moose.  This would be a dangerous drive at night, a lot of accidents must happen despite the warnings.

7838 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 moose crossing warning sign 7839 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 moose crossing warning sign 7840 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 moose crossing sign

Hwy 17 across the top of Lake Superior is considered one of the most scenic drives in Ontario, around each bend is another spectacular view.

7848 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 - Lake Superior 7855 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 - Lake Superior 7867 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 - Lake Superior

We stopped at one of the many overlooks.

7860 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 - Lake Superior scenic overlook 7861 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 - Lake Superior scenic overlook 7862 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 - Lake Superior scenic overlook

We stopped in Wawa at another roadside attraction.  The “Largest Canada Goose”.   Wawa means “goose” in a native language.  The goose is 27 ft tall.

7886 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 - Wawa Tourist Information Centre - Wawa Goose 7887 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 - Wawa Tourist Information Centre - Wawa Goose
 7896 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 - Wawa Tourist Information Centre - Wawa Goose

Highway 17 crosses through some of the most remote regions of Ontario.  If you are a Bell Mobility subscriber, there is no connectivity along this part of the route.  Gas stations are few and far between, and you can drive 200 or more KM before finding a station. 

We fuelled up back in Sault Ste. Marie, but by the time we got to Wind River our gauge said 1/2 so we stopped to fill up again.  While I filled up the car, Karen walked down the road a bit to take photos of this colourful childrens playground featuring Winnie the Pooh.

7908 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 - Wind River - Winnie the Pooh 7909 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 - Wind River - Winnie the Pooh 7911 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 - Wind River - Winnie the Pooh

Back on the road again and more stunning scenery.

7922 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 7924 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 7935 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 - scenic overlook - Ripple Lake

There are many rock cuts along the way.

7853 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 - Lake Superior 7877 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 - Lake Superior 7945 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17

And the scenery just gets better and better.

7956 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 - Lake Superior 7958 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 - Lake Superior 7962 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17

We arrived in Thunder Bay around 4:30 pm.

7971 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 (Trans-Canada Hwy 11) - Terry Fox Courage Highway - Thunder Bay Welcome sign

We checked into our hotel and then went back out for dinner at Pizza Pizza, then back to the hotel to work on the photos and blog.

Tomorrow we can sleep in a bit, we don’t have to leave quite as early in the morning.

To see all of the photos from today, you can find them all on FLICKR.

Friday, June 29, 2012

Day 1 Summer 2012 Road Trip


We are beginning our Summer 2012 Road Trip.  We left the house around 9am and headed North on the 400.  Our destination today is Sault Ste. Marie Ontario.  This is about a 575 KM drive.

7668 Ontario Hwy 400 North 7669 Ontario Hwy 400 North

This is a familiar part of Ontario for us as we drove this route in the opposite direction at the end of last summers vacation on our way back from Sault Ste. Marie.

Perched in many high places along the route are rock “Inuksuk's”.  Road travellers have gathered enough rocks and then climbed up to place the carefully.

7670 Ontario Hwy 400 North - inukshuk 7675 Ontario Hwy 400 North - inukshuk 7676 Ontario Hwy 400 North - inukshuk

Something else we noticed were Canadian Flags attached to the face of the rock walls.

7678 Ontario Hwy 400 North - Canadian Flag 7680 Ontario Hwy 400 North - Canadian Flag

Once past Parry Sound, the 400 Highway becomes Hwy 69.

7681 Ontario, Parry Sound Trans-Canada Hwy 69 North 7686 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 69 North

We stopped at the French River Trading Post for lunch at the Hungry Bear Restaurant.  The food is good and it is a nice convenient place to stop for a break.

7696 Ontario, French River Trans-Canada Hwy 69 - Trading Post, Motel, Restaurant 7697 Ontario, French River Trans-Canada Hwy 69 - Hungry Bear Restaurant

The Trading Post has been in operation since 1956.

7702 Ontario, French River Trans-Canada Hwy 69 - Hungry Bear Restaurant 7699 Ontario, French River Trans-Canada Hwy 69 - Hungry Bear Restaurant 7698 Ontario, French River Trans-Canada Hwy 69 - Hungry Bear Restaurant

Continuing North we got onto Hwy 17 (The Trans Canada Highway) and by-passed around Sudbury and continued on towards Sault Ste. Marie.

7711 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 69 - Sudbury 7715 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 - Sudbury

In the town of Massey ON.  we stopped for fuel and while I was putting fuel in the tank, Karen took photos of this life-sized horse made of metal.

7720 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 - Massey life size metal horse sculpture 7721 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 - Massey life size metal horse sculpture

Further North, we drove through the Blind River area.

7723 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 - Blind River 7726 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 - Blind River

And then we saw a rather odd sight… a horse and buggy.  We did not know that there were any Amish or Mennonite people in this part of Ontario.  We also saw road signs to be aware of horse and buggies on the highway.

7727 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 - Amish buggy  7730 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 - Amish buggy warning sign

Another Canadian Flag on the rock face.

7732 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 - Canada Flag

We arrived in Sault Ste. Marie Ontario around 4:30 pm.  We drove through town to get to our hotel. 

7734 Ontario Trans-Canada Hwy 17 - Sault Ste Marie 7738 Ontario Queen St - Sault Ste Marie 7739 Ontario Queen St - Sault Ste Marie

On our last visit, we stayed at the Super 8, but this time we checked into the Sleep Inn.  This is a nicer hotel, and it is located a short walking distance to the waterfront.

We got checked in and then I checked my iPhone to see if there were any lake freighters close by.  The app I have is called “Marine Traffic”   It will give me real time locations of any ship anywhere in the world but it will also show me what ships are close by in the area.  I could see that the American Integrity was Northbound on the St Mary’s River and headed for the locks.  So we went to get some photos.

7744 Ontario  - Sault Ste Marie - American Integrity self unloading bulk carrier 7745 Ontario  - Sault Ste Marie - American Integrity self unloading bulk carrier 7746 Ontario  - Sault Ste Marie - American Integrity self unloading bulk carrier

We then went and had dinner at the Swiss Chalet, then came back to the waterfront to watch the tugboat races.

7769 Ontario  - Sault Ste Marie - The Great Tugboat Race 7779 Ontario  - Sault Ste Marie - The Great Tugboat Race 7780 Ontario  - Sault Ste Marie - The Great Tugboat Race

This year Sault Ste. Marie is celebrating its 100th Anniversary as a City.  There is a garden in the waterfront park commemorating this occasion.

7758 Ontario  - Sault Ste Marie - 100 years 7759 Ontario  - Sault Ste Marie - 100 years

There was also a large steel table and chairs nearby so we took some fun photos of Karen sitting at the table, and of me standing under the Sault Ste. Marie Arch.

7752 Ontario  - Sault Ste Marie - giant table & chairs 7753 Ontario  - Sault Ste Marie - giant table & chairs 7761 Ontario  - Sault Ste Marie Algoma's Friendliest City arch - Bill

We then watched as the Mesabi Miner, another lake freighter, proceeded Southbound on the St Mary’s River after passing through the Sault Locks.  This ship is so long, it fills the whole picture frame with the camera zoomed right out.

7795 Ontario  - Sault Ste Marie - Mesabi Miner freighter 7803 Ontario  - Sault Ste Marie - Mesabi Miner freighter 7808 Ontario  - Sault Ste Marie - Mesabi Miner freighter

There is also a water fountain on the shore of the St Mary’s river.  I am trying to capture the rainbows in the spray blowing off from the fountain.

7766 Ontario  - Sault Ste Marie - Millenium Fountain 7781 Ontario  - Sault Ste Marie - Millenium Fountain rainbow 7771 Ontario  - Sault Ste Marie - Millenium Fountain

Before we left to go back to our hotel, a family of geese swam up to where we were, I suppose they thought we would throw them some food.

7787 Ontario  - Sault Ste Marie - Canada Geese 7789 Ontario  - Sault Ste Marie - Canada Geese

We have to get up at 6am because tomorrow we will drive from Sault Ste. Marie to Thunder Bay.

To see all of our photos from today, you can find them on our FLICKR site.