Leaving the USA ... Bad Luck and Trouble

This post covers the period from from when we took out of the Boundary Waters on Wednesday September 4, until we camped at Terrace Bay Ontario on Tuesday September 10.  I wish I could report that that period was uneventful, but I would be lying.  Read on for the gruesome details. 

After taking out of the wilderness we had four nights to spend in Ely before moving north into Canada.  The day we took out of the wilderness we moved the motor home to site #3 at Fall Lake Campground.  Faithful readers will remember that that task was a bit distressful after finding our coach batteries were totally dead and our food was spoiled.  We spent the first day at camp cleaning out the fridge and drying our camping gear.  Then we crashed. It was good to sleep in a soft warm bed again.

The next day we went to town and poked through some of the shops. At the Piragis Outlet we found this bear bag kit for sale.  It was ridiculous.  It was a stuff sack about the size of a sandwich with about 50 feet of 1/8" paracord and 2 tiny carabiners no larger than a key ring.  All for the amazingly low price of $34.95, on sale.  We couldn't have hoisted our dog food in that rig.  The bear bag kit I have assembled consists of 75' of 5/8" Spectra line, a 50' 3/8" nylon haul line, a half dozen prussic loops of various sizes, a climbing pulley and 4 stout climbing carabiners, all stuffed in two stuff sacks, each about the size of a loaf of bread.  Now that's a bear bag kit!

A seriously inadequate bear bag kit

Ely is a canoe heaven; one of the few places in the world where canoes still outnumber kayaks. There are about a dozen canoe outfitters on the main drag through town and perhaps another couple of dozen outfitters at lodges and resorts out in the woods.  All have a ton of boats for rent and sale.  Following are some photos showing a few of these outfitters.

Colorful boats at Piragis Northwoods

Most boats we see are a non-colored kevlar layup

Occasionally you see some aluminum boats, which are much heavier than the kevlar boats

Cyndi, this one is for you

On the weekend after Labor Day each year Ely hosts their Harvest Moon Festival. The festival is held in their downtown city park and consists of a number of vendors selling crafts, jewelry, food etc.   There was live music,  a petting zoo, pony rides and folks promoting different political views, particularly about mining in the Boundary Waters.  We went particularly to see the All American Stunt Dog Challenge, a traveling show with about a half dozen rescued dogs performing various tricks and stunts. Some of these dog are apparently famous, appearing on various network talk shows.   It was lots of fun.  See below for a few video clips.

On our last night in Ely we ate at Sir G's Italian Restaurant, the place to get a fine pizza in Ely.  This is where things began to go bad; I should have seen the signs.  On this night they said it would take over an hour to prepare a pizza. They had a takeout order for 20 pizzas, and the pizza ovens were backed up. There were only about six other occupied tables in the restaurant, but still, over an hour for pizza.  DUH!  I asked if they could just slip a pizza into the queue for a loyal sit-down customer:  "No we have a takeout order for 20 pizzas".  "But just one pizza for a dining room customer?"  "No we have a takeout order for 20 pizzas".  DANG!  We would have left except we had already ordered our drinks.  Oh well, lasagna it is.  Unfortunately, the lasagna was not very good. Wayne and Lynda were particularly looking forward to pizza but settled for salad.

That was the first bad thing that happened.  By itself, no big deal.  But on the way out of the restaurant I picked up some wintergreen Lifesaver mints.  A few minutes later, while eating the very last mint I crunched down and broke a tooth.  Big time.  The major part of the tooth shard did not come loose from the tooth, but there were tiny tooth particles in the remainder of the mint.  When I put pressure on the tooth there was severe tooth pain and a different sharp pain as the shard cut into the gum.  DANG!

What was particularly upsetting about this is that it should never have ever happened.  I see a dentist once a year in Florida.  When I went to the dentist office in December last year for an exam and cleaning, the dentist was absent due to a family medical emergency.  I mentioned to the hygienist and dental assistant that I thought this tooth may be cracked and to take a look. Both took a look at the x-rays and the tooth and didn't see anything wrong.  OK, maybe I was wrong.  However, several months later, after returning to NC, that tooth did crack.  It wasn't a major fracture, but a small piece did come off.  Since I was 700 miles away from my regular dentist and the damage seemed minor, I let it go.  I expected it would hold on until the next December for my next appointment.  I was wrong.

OK, now what do.  I definitely needed urgent dental care.  It is Saturday night in Ely MN population 3387.  There is one dentist in town, and he won't be open until Monday. We were planning to move north to Canada on Sunday. The closest big town is Virginia MN, population 8488, about 50 miles back to the south, not exactly a metropolis.  To the the north is Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, population 121,621, with dozens of dental clinics. What would you do?  In the end, I guess it was a no brainer. It seemed that there were more options for quality dental care in Thunder Bay, treatment would likely occur just as quickly there as it would be if we stayed in the US, we would not lose a day of travel, and the cost of care might be a bargain, considering the very favorable currency exchange rate. The conclusion to this story will follow below, after I describe disaster number 3 and 4.

On Sunday we met Wayne and Lynda at Britton's for breakfast and then parted, they heading south towards NC and we heading north  to Canada.  I topped off the tank in Ely with relatively cheap diesel; fuel will be much more expensive in Canada, notwithstanding the favorable exchange rate.  We headed east cross country on MN 1, a very crooked and hilly road, from Ely to MN 61 on the Superior north shore.  In Grand Marais MN we again topped off with diesel so we would have a full tank going into Canada.

Cross River Falls near Schroeder MN

Our last stop in the US was at Grand Portage National Monument, 7 miles south of the Canadian Border. We have stopped here twice before on past trips and could just have easily passed it by. In hind site that is exactly what we should have done.  BIG MISTAKE.  I could have blamed it on the pain and distraction of my broken tooth, or on our excitement and/or anxiety about crossing the border into Canada, or the way the other car was sticking out into the parking lot, but frankly I just plain screwed up.

Visitor Center at Grand Portage National Monument

I entered the parking lot where cars were angle parked on either side, and headed for the RV parking area along the curb beyond the last car space on the right side.  I pulled right to the curb, parked, then Dorcas and I ate lunch in the coach.  When I got out and walked back to the car, I couldn't believe my eyes!  There was a major scrape along the whole right side of the Pilot. How did this happen?  This is the kind of damage one might see if scraping the islands posts when leaving a fuel lane. I had fueled twice this day, but both times it was on the other side from the damage, and I was sure the damage had not occurred then.  We had not heard or felt anything whenever it happened. That's when I saw the red Ford Fusion at the end of the parked cars with a mashed left rear quarter panel and broken red parts on the ground.  CRAP.  I had apparently cut too close when pulling right in the parking space. Normally the towed vehicle will actually swing a bit to the left when the coach turns to the right, due to tail swing, but when I turned back to the left to line up with the curb the Pilot swung to the right, just enough to clip the Ford.

Stay in your lane, Bro!

What's wrong with parking at the cub and not out in the road?

It took over an hour to locate the owners of the car.  In the meantime the Sheriff was called.  A girl from Ashland WI was the owner of the car, and was understandably upset, but her boyfriend was extremely ugly and rude.  He cursed and fumed and asked what the hell I was doing in the parking lot to begin with.  I kept my calm and said I was parking in the designated RV space, but that if the car had not been 3 feet out into the roadway and 3 feet over the line into the RV space, this perhaps might not have happened.  I don't think that statement helped his attitude at all.  I politely suggested we all should be calm and civil and try to get through this without a fight.  After another hour the Sheriff's deputy arrived and asked questions and wrote down the pertinant information.  I never spoke to the guy again; he stayed in the car for the 2 hours it took to straighten things out. The girl calmed down pretty quickly and was very civil.

Poor Pilot!

There was no damage to our lights and the only practical issue is the front right door buckles and pops whenever it is opened. A constant reminder of my stupidity, that we must live with for the next month or so until we can make repairs.

View of Lake Superior from Grand Portage National Monument

And now for disaster No. 4.  Well actually not a disaster but more like adding insult to injury, like a turd in the swimming pool, after what has gone on in the past 24 hours.  Dorcas and I have crossed the Canadian border about a dozen times throughout the years, always without any issues. In every crossing prior to this day we have declared about 3-4 times more beer, liquor and wine than allowed.  On every previous occasion the agent ignored this breech of rule and waved us on through.  Of course,  this didn't happen today. The agent added up our overages and directed me to come in and pay the tariff.  He also wanted to see our bear spray canisters, which we admitted to having, to prove they were not pepper spray for personal defense, which is a no-no.  The agent actually gave us a break on the quantity and value of our alcohol.  I paid $25 in tariff, but a more accurate inventory and valuation would have resulted in a tariff 3-4 times that much.

The border crossing at Pigeon River

About 45 minutes after crossing the border we arrived in Thunder Bay. We proceeded to the North Walmart Supercentre and parked for the night.  I began researching dental clinics, identifying those I would call first thing Monday morning.

Our camp at Wally World in Thunder Bay

We have seen these stores throughout Ontario.  Folks go in and come out, often with brown paper bags. LCBO stands for Liquor Control Board of Ontario.  Just like our ABC stores back home.  Good to know.

I started calling dentists at 8:00.  My primary criteria in choosing a dentist was their review ratings on Google. I had nothing else to go on. By 9:00 I found a clinic that said they could get us in and to come by at 10:30.  ABA Dental Clinic had pretty good reviews, so I was feeling lucky. Since I was not a regular patient and had no dental insurance, they wanted payment up front for the exam and x-rays, and then there would be another payment after whatever treatment was performed.  I knew the tooth was destroyed, and I hoped I could get a crown. The clinic advertised same-day crown delivery.  Unfortunately, the tooth was broken well below the gum line and was not a good candidate for a crown.  That would have required gum surgery and would likely cause problems with adjacent teeth down the road.  Extraction was the only reasonable choice given the circumstances. DANG!

Since I had had knee replacement surgery about 12 months prior, a dose of antibiotics was in order. I took that prescription to another Walmart Supercentre with instructions to take the capsules at noon and return at 1:00.  Shortly after 1:00 I was back in the chair, and after a dose of Lidocaine the dentist went at it.  The tooth did not give up without a good fight. I heard a loud crack that did not sound like a tooth pulling free from the gum, and the dentist sighed and I sighed. He went at it again for another try, and another piece broke off. Finally, he started grinding around the lower remaining part of the tooth, presumably on the root, I assume to get a better purchase on some solid material. The remainder finally popped out, and when done there were at least five pieces, not counting those I had swallowed since Saturday and those the dentist did not recover.  The dentist complemented my strong roots.

Now I look like all my other southern Appalachian brethren with no teeth

It was after 3:00 by the time we got back to the coach, and I didn't feel like moving along, so we signed up for another night at Walmart.  While in Thunder Bay it rained off and on the whole time we were there. On Tuesday we didn't think we would drive very far, so we piddled around and broke camp just before the crack of noon and headed north.

Along the Superior shore

Dorcas hates it when I take windshield shots while driving

The Nipigon River Bridge.  Remember, I love bridges. 

Observation tower at Nipigon River

A view of the coach from the observation tower 

The  Group of Seven visited this area as they traveled and painted all through the Algoma region and the North Shore of Lake Superior in the 1920-30s.  We have seen several monuments such as this one, documenting a site where one of the artists painted one of his works.

I wonder if they are bringing this seating with them to use, or looking for a place to dump it?

We stopped for a break at Terrace Bay, a small scenic community on Lake Superior. We had thought we would spend this night at either Neys Provincial Park or Pukaskwa National Park, an hour or so further down the road.  However, at the Terrace Bay Visitor Center the lady advised us that the city allowed free camping at Terrace Bay Beach.  We drove to the beach and found it to be a very nice spot at the mouth of the Aguasabon River, so we made camp. By dark there were about 6 other RVs and campers in the lot. We drove only 132 miles today. 

Camp Terrace Bay Beach

Dorcas and Matilda on the beach

The sand at the beach here is very coarse and contains beautiful red, gray and brown particles

Lower Aguasabon Falls at Terrace Bay Beach

56 Chevy

Every now and then Matilda shows a spurt of energy after being cooped up in the coach

Upper Aguasabon Falls

The faux lighthouse lookout tower at Terrace Bay

We ate a fine Italian dinner at the Drifters in Terrace Bay.

Note faux lighthouse in the background

Canada geese at Terrace Bay Beach

View from above Lower Aguasabon Falls

The weather remains cool, cloudy and wet.  The daytime highs are near 60 and the lows are in the mid forties.  While it has not rained hard since leaving Thunder Bay, it has misted some most every day, and we haven't seen the sun in about a week.  It looks like we may see some sun today, and tomorrow, but rain will return Thursday night and Friday.  Wayne and Lynda are currently driving through Kentucky on their way home and report temperatures in the mid nineties.  I'll take the weather here.

Friday the 13th comes up in two days.  I'm not overly superstitious, but with my luck recently you can bet I'll be looking out for black cats and ladders.