We arrived in Thunder Bay at the KOA on Wednesday the 29th. This is a very well done park with all the amenities and a super view out the window of a small fishing pond and Lake Superior in the far distance.

We went to the Fort William Historical Park on the outskirts of town and enjoyed the afternoon in a 1815 recreation of a Great Northern Company fur trading post; one of many that stretched across Canada to supply England with beaver for the hat business. Jo-Anne checking the quality of a wolf pelt. At the time beaver was the standard at one pelt for one pound stirling; all others being measured against it.

There is also the memorial for the favorite son Terry Fox, the runner who ran from the east coast to here with one artificial leg and garnered a lot of support for cancer research.

While Thunder Bay is a big city of 110000 folks, it appears to be well past its heyday of ore and lumber shipping. Other than a new mall, it seems to be frozen in 1950. The cities of Fort William and Port Arthur were combined several years ago into this one. There is a really nice marina and park area in what used to be the Port Arthur area butthe waterfront is really dominated by many huge grain elevators and industrial areas that have been abandoned.

Right now the plan is to break camp in Thunder Bay on Saturday, tomorrow morning, the 1st aiming for Dryden, then a night in Kenora, then the 3rd and 4th in Selkirk, MB, and off to Moose Jay, SK on the 6th. We will see how all that plays out, especially on this holiday weekend.

I'm fighting local wi-fi tonight and it is painfully slow so I've had to resort to publishing fewer pics than I wanted and have had to break up the input into chunks.


After the White Lake park we headed for Thunder Bay. The scenery was very rocky and hilly and spectacular in parts. This one is between Marathon and Terrace Bay with Lake Superior in the window. Here we are going down a 7% slope so the Flying Scotsman is doing about 70 and I'm just touching the brakes ... practice for the Rockies.

After Sault Ste Marie, we were off on the 28th to White Lake Provincial Park, Ontario. We made reservations on the internet, which was very easy through the Ontario Provincial Parks System. We got to the park and wound our way the 3 miles or so back into the woods; fortunately on a paved road for most of the way. Getting near the campsite, it turned to a dirt road though and was quite hilly. The best description is taking a Greyhound bus with a trailer on a 4-wheel adventure in the back woods. Our site was definitely in the deep woods, in the dirt, and surrounded by huge pine trees and I didn’t get any pictures of the place; I guess I thought it might be too dark in the forest. Obviously none of the satellite stuff would work so it was a quiet game of scrabble by the fire for the two of us that night. Just electric hookup there, no dump or water so we were mostly self-contained. Still no bugs! On the way out, Jo-Anne followed me in the car until we could get to pavement and a level place to hook up the rig.

Oh yeah, the little town of White River which is about 20 miles south of the park where we stayed is the location where the Winnie the Pooh name and story began and they have a statue on highway 17 depicting the little guy. You really need to look up the story on the net ... I had no idea.

Somedays I just can't remember which RV to come home to ... the white one or the brown one ...

Still in the Soo we visited the Bushplane Museum and Heritage Center. This is a collection of the older bush planes used to fight fires and really keep communication and medical supplies to the north of Canada. The museum, movie, and displays are really first rate. One of the early stalwarts of the bushplane era was the Beaver, of which hundreds were built and are still flying with the huge Wright engine.

While this is a float version of the Bell 47 helicopter, I flew the one with skid type landing gear during a tour at Fort Knox Kentucky in 1968 and 69. Yes, the throttles were made by Harley-Davidson.

Today in the KOA in Sault Ste Marie ... yes folks it is fall!


Colors and the nickel outcroppings on the route from Sudbury to Sault Ste Marie

Below is the park at Sudbury on Saturday night. We spent Saturday for 3 hours in driving rain from Parry Sound to Sudbury and had to both leave Parry Sound and set up in Sudbury in a steady downpour. This park was a pretty small place on a lake at the edge of town for $25. Sudbury is a large, bustling, town, with a few interesting tourist things but mostly an industrial city.

After a couple hour trip up the Georgian Bay coastline we came to rest in Parry Sound on Friday. Whoa Nellie, is the Deep Woods Off handy? What a change from the beaches in Meaford to this.

Once settled into the woods, we went down to the Parry Sound harbor area. They operate a couple of cruise ships out of here to tour the 30,000 island area ... and they say it's quite remote and spectacular. The little tug boats are converted commercial ones and some are very uniquely tricked out ...

and check out this little guy behind the tall masted ones.

Well it's Thursday and I promised a couple more pics before we head out tomorrow for the Cross-Canada run. Here's the Flying Scotsman with its tail almost in Georgian Bay. Unfortunately the view then is from the back bedroom ... which in some situations, I guess, isn't all bad.

The result is that when you look aft it looks like you are on a cruise ship with the porthole view.

For those of you who haven't seen some views of the inside of the bus, here's the living area. The freestanding dining table has two drop sides that open up nicely and we have a couple more chairs so four can dine very comfortably. The three bins over the front seats (which can be turned around) hold all the electronic stuff for the various TV inputs; cable, satellite, DVD, and crank-up off-air antenna. The home theater system is in the bin between the TV and the fireplace.

The master blogger still at work. We've worked the desktop PC into a nice little office space that holds the computer, printer and shredder. With the slides out the living room is 12 feet 2 inches wide.

The kitchen area is really workable and quite open and great for entertaining . There's a gas cooktop and a combo convection-microwave oven. We took out the normal oven and that space below the cooktop is more storage. Both the cooktop and sink have matching corian inserts so that you have a smooth counter top when they are in place. On the opposite wall is a double door fridge and slide out pantry cupboard.

Part of the fun of the RV experience is being able to pack up and move pretty much at will; as long as you can find a 40 foot generally level spot. We were frustrated by the quality of the internet service, and the lack of water and sewer hook-ups at the marina so we packed up the bus and moved back to the city park on the beach where we will be until the 24th. On Friday we will pull the chocks out and begin the next phase of the Great Adventure. We will take the Trans Canadian Higway or route 17 across the country to the west coast. Our first stop on Friday will be Parry Sound on the eastern shore of Georgian Bay.

Here's how close we are to the beach. I know this is dark, but I just wanted to show the new location and how we have to butt into the site. It is a dark and rather dreary day today and will be 67 for the high ... I'll get better pics when it gets sunny.

On the way from one park to the other I got a lube job for the RV which was about $40 and not bad for a monster truck engine ... then filled up the gas tank ... gulp ... with about 60 gallons for $240.

Speaking of the weather ... surf's up!

At the marina this is a restored Coast Guard boat they have on display.

Last weekend we took the Flying Scotsman down to Niagara Falls for three nights. We needed to pop over the border to get prescriptions filled at Wal Mart and hit the closest Camping World for some supplies that we didn’t initially have with us. We stayed in a Campark park which was very nice. We had decent water pressure which makes a shower more enjoyable. Here in Meaford at the marina, we don’t have water hookup so must rely on the onboard pump which generates an adequate stream … but that’s about it, so a full pressure water hookup is super. The park had lots of things to do for the kiddies, as usual, but an additional perk was a breakfast buffet for $5.50. This is a shot of Niagara on the lake a little village of about 14000 about 10 miles north of Niagra Falls. While Niagara Falls represents the honeymoon and kitsch capital of the north like Vegas, NOTL as it is known is an upscale wine region with an affluent clientele.

We are always looking at the other means of RV'ing and naturally comparing our rig to others. This one did better than most however. Here’s a rig that’s a bit over 40 feet long, pulling a trailer which is about 25 feet long. In the trailer was the white SUV you can see behind it after the guy lowered the ramp and off-loaded the car. He then proceeded to pressure wash the car from a hookup inside the “garage.” The inside of the trailer had tool bays all around and had a neat space for the stainless outdoor grill you see beside the RV. Now that’s camping!

Here's a couple more shots of NOTL on a pretty Saturday. There's folks selling cowboy hats ...

There was an old functional steam tractor that chugged and steamed and must have weighed 50000 pounds ... by the way it sank into the street.

This is Fort Niagara on the US side as seen from the Canadian side and shows why because it was so close that the Canadians moved their capital up to Toronto to be out of gun range of these guys.

Bottom line is that Niagra on the lake is a wonderful place with some really great scenery and once you have seen the falls, then you can branch out to places like this. Difference .... hotels in the Falls are around a normal 100-150 a night and here they are 300 or so ... the price for quaint. Our campsite was 30 bucks.

We're back in the marina in Meaford now until next Thursday when we think we will pull up the jacks and move west across Canada.

Yes, I know, we haven't been very active on the blog lately but are still winding down from the big European adventure ... adding up the receipts and stuff!

We've been pretty busy organizing the RV and getting it to act like a home, which for us it is. We didn't have much time before the trip, but now life is settling down into a more manageable routine.

Actually tomorrow we'll be off to Niagra Falls until Sunday to explore the Niagra-on-the-Lake region and pop across the border to hit some familiar stores and maybe the Air Guard Base in Niagra for prescriptions, etc.

This is postcard stuff here ... eat your hearts out Leigh and Brooks!

Here's the camp with Jo-Anne walking the cat on a leash ... would I kid you, naa! We are backed up to the woods with the marina view out of the RV front windows. We were getting ready to have Jo's parents and brother over for a few BBQ burgers on the new grill.

This is Meaford habor ... or harbour ... shot from our RV and the building in the center is the old city hall now converted into a theater with many live performances. I think you have already seen one like this, but the sailboats were a nice addition to the view.

If you look really close at this one, yup that's a rainbow trout I believe ... beautiful!