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| Neys Provincial Park |
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| Please ignore the clutter on the dashboard. That's just the way we roll. |
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| Site 13 at Neys Provincial Park |
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| Sunset on Lake Superior |
Neys Provincial Park is located on the site of a WWII POW camp. Click HERE to read more about the history of the park.
The Group of Seven visited the Algoma region 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.
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| Lake trout sculpture |
The following photos show the beach at Neyes Provincial Park
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| "Clean Up Station": Canadians are very tidy. They provide a broom to clean your campsite |
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| Mouth of the Pic River |
On Friday the 13th we moved 30 miles to Pukaskwa National Park. It was a rare sunny day and we survived Friday the 13th without any more bad luck.
At Pukaskwa NP we scored the only pull-through site in the campground. Ironically, it was the same site we stayed on in September 2015. This time the electrical power was so bad it was practically unusable. Anytime we cut on an appliance the voltage would drop to 102V. We were finally able to run the coffee maker by cutting off every other 120V device in the coach. We learned the next day that in the north loop all the electrical pedestals are brand new and the power there is great.
We arrived at camp early and it was a rare dry day so Dorcas and I took a hike on the Southern Headland Trail, which took us to a point between Hattie Cove and Horseshoe Bay.
Following are photos from that hike.
A pair of iconic red Adirondack chairs are placed at a number of scenic and out of the way spots all through Ontario. We frequently stumble onto some of them.
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| Another of many monuments to the Group of Seven |
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| Horseshoe Bay |
On Saturday we left Pukaskwa NP headed south and east towards Sault Ste. Marie. It was again raining, and we had a terrible cross wind.
We stopped for lunch at White River ON, which as it turns out was the origin of Winnie the Pooh. A Canadian soldier was waiting for a train at the White River station and bought a black bear cub from a trapper. He named the cub Winnipeg or Winnie, after his home town. The soldier carried the bear to Quebec and then to London. Eventually he gave the bear to the London Zoo, where it became a favorite attraction. It was at the zoo where A.A. Milne and his son Christopher Robin Milne met the bear, and it became the inspiration for the Winnie the Pooh stories. You can read the whole story HERE.
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| Winnie the Pooh in White River ON |
We stopped for a while in Wawa. Wawa means “Wild Goose” in Ojibway, and the big goose was built to lure tourists up the hill and into town, about a mile off the highway. You can read more about the big goose HERE. Somehow I can't think of "Wawa" without thinking of Gilda Radner. I loved Gilda Radner.
Wawa is also the site of the final link completing the Trans-Canada Highway.
I didn't stop much this day, but took some windshield photos on the fly. Dorcas did a lot of sucking and hissing with every one. The drive across the Superior north shore and the Canadian Shield is spectacular.
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| We are starting to see a little fall color on the Superior shore |
Finally, after 258 soggy and windy miles we arrived at Sault Ste. Marie.
We parked at The Gateway Casinos, a place where we have camped twice before. In this case another coach, an MCI bus with Ontario plates, was parked in our spot. Of all the nerve! With 20 acres of parking they were parked in the exact space where we usually park. We like that spot because it is the farthest corner of the parking lot and is the closest space to the Ontario Travel visitor center, which has free wifi.
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| Camp Gateway Casinos Sault Ste. Marie |
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| We are not alone |
While traveling in Canada internet access is always a challenge. Several months ago I switched my cell plan the Spectrum Mobile, which is significantly cheaper than it was on our Verizon plan. Unfortunately Spectrum does not support free use in Canada. Dorcas' phone is still on Verizon, which allows free calling, text and data in Canada, but is limited to 0.5 GB/day of data before her bandwidth is throttled. When throttled, the internet is basically useless. That's why it is nice to be able to park with free wifi access. Actually, even though we are parked about 60 feet farther from the wifi at Ontario Travel than before, their wifi signal is still quite strong. Also, we are parked just across the river from Michigan and the USA. We are picking up US TV stations, and our cellular data service is good ol' Verizon (which also provides the signal to my Spectrum phone), and which is less restrictive for us than the Canadian carriers. Surf's up! Blog on!
On Saturday we ate breakfast at the Westside Cafe, just one block from our camp. I know it is cliche to take pictures of our meals, but I have never had a patty of homemade Italian sausage like this for breakfast. The leftovers fed me for two more breakfasts.
It rained early, on Saturday but the rain ended, and then it was merely overcast, windy and cold for the remainder of the day, so we took a walk. Our camp is within walking distance of the St Marys river and the historic Sault Ste. Marie Canal and locks.
The Canadian locks are used primarily for pleasure craft, tour boats and other smaller vessels. The large lake freighters use the "Soo Locks" operated by the US Army Corps of Engineers on the American side of the river.
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| The Saulte Ste. Marie Canal with the international bridge to Michigan in the background |
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| More iconic red Adirondack chairs |
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| A gate valve like this one is used to drain and fill the locks |
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| Who pulled the plug? |
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| The original electric gear and cable mechanisms driving the lock gates |
We seem to have survived Friday the 13th and all our recent bad luck. Just to be safe Dorcas and Matilda visited the "Lucky Moose" at the Gateways Casinos.
On Sunday it was raining early, but cleared by daybreak. At 9:00 we broke camp and continued our trek east and south across Ontario.
