2 blogs in 1 because I was too absorbed by Little House on the Prairie to blog last night!

Yesterday we woke up in Ivanhoe after a cool clear night. Oh the stars!!!

And the tent was DRY! We packed the tent AND the tent rain fly in the original tent bag! That hasn’t happened too often!

The road from Matheson, through Timmins, to Chapleau and Wawa is in great shape and not busy at all. Not a lot to look at, but nice to drive.

By the time we got to Chapleau, it was raining. And it continued to rain all the way to Wawa.

Jeff, you’d love what they sell in the Chapleau grocery store!

Once we got to Wawa I was looking all over for the goose. I haven’t arrived from the Chapleau way too often so I was momentarily tricked by the two fake, wannabe geese at other establishments until we spotted the real one!

By this point, though, my cold was getting pretty miserable. I wasn’t thinking a sleep in the cold rain with the wind off Lake Superior was going to help my longevity, so we went to a motel.

But that motel has no vacancy, and he said there was only one place left in town with any rooms. Ahhhhhhhh! And it wasn’t even 3pm yet!

So we zipped over there, to the Highway 17 motel on the highway, and secured one of the last rooms in town! It wasn’t cleaned yet so we went to explore town.

Like the general store where Jeff’s brother said we could buy pickles out of a barrel!

Only as it turned out, neither of us really wanted a pickle out of a barrel?

I had no memory of the beach on Wawa Lake! Or even that there was a Wawa Lake!

We picked up a grab and go special pizza at A.J.’s pizza place to take back to our motel room and we hung out all night watching the Little House on the Prairie channel, eating pizza and candy, while it poured rain and thunderstormed.

It was difficult being back in a motel. I felt itchy everywhere and am pretty bug phobic, but we did the necessary checks and it was all clean. Whew!

This morning I was feeling better and I think my cold is on the mend.

We headed south along Lake Superior, stopping at the beaches.

And we stopped at the Canadian Carver too. No, it is not the same as the good old days, but I’m glad it is open again.

Before long we were at Chippewa Falls and with a bit of a cell signal we started piecing together a stop in the Sault.

I used to live in the Sault. I even owned a house here. I met Jeff here. So many memories, yet this isn’t one of the towns or cities I’ve lived in where I feel a strong connection? I’ve never really figured out why that is. In all the planning I did for this trip, spending any time here didn’t cross my mind.

But here we are! In that Chippewa Falls parking lot north of town, we saw an advertisement for a boat tour through both of the locks/canals so we spontaneously booked it for tomorrow morning! That led us to book another motel for tonight so we will be able to get to the boat in time for sailing in the morning.

One we landed in the Sault, we realized it was already 2pm and we hadn’t had lunch so we stopped at a Tim Horton’s. I never eat here so I dove into a donut and sandwich, but the quencher froze my brain and I couldn’t drink it.

Then we drove by my old house. It looks more overgrown, but the house was re-sided with vinyl siding at some point.

We then tried to get downtown but the street was closed. Soon we found ourselves stopped by a train crossing at a side street near where Jeff once lived. Since we just passed a car wash I used to use, I made a u-turn and finally started washing three weeks of road grime off my sexy truck.

And then we found ourselves at the Canadian locks. It was fun to show them to Cathy, once I could find our way there again! I swear my brain forgets street navigation patterns first after I move away.

Tomorrow we will be on a boat going through these locks!!

When we checked into the hotel we booked online, I realized this was the place mom and Grandma Stock used to stay!

I think they built a new arena? Because that grey thing used to be part of the arena, right Jeff?

Tonight was walked along the waterfront and wandered through the mall.

Tomorrow’s boat!

What a nice evening!

Good night!