Endless Trees and Sleeping Giants

We have busted our way from Winnipeg all the way to Thunder Bay. It has been a good few days since leaving the Peg. Our last night in Manitoba was spent at a highway rest station. It was a pretty good spot: flush bathrooms and free. It was not that great a spot: non-stop trucks going by in the night and enough mosquitoes to last me until next summer. We went swimming in Falcon Lake on our last day in Manitoba. It was a wicked dip in the water and a nice little time at the beach. We got some lunch at the resort there, but the service was terribly slow. Then we entered Ontario! Our biggest province and challenge lay ahead of us. The road dissolved in front of our eyes into a cracked and shoulderless problem. Construction lasted about 25 km, but it wasn't as bad as we expected. Some dude gave us free gatorade at the Ontario tourist centre. We have heard that there are only two seasons, here in northern Ontario: winter and construction. In places the shoulder was excellent and in others it was pretty small. However, it is all together better than the roads in Manitoba. We do spend many hours a day though with trucks passing us, often with a wide birth, but sometimes we could easily reach our arms out and pat them as they crash on by. Really, I think the thing that has affected us the most is the return of trees and lakes! It is awesome. All of us feel a lot more at home now. The prairies were like a foreign country to us. Seas of grass are nice. The sky was awesome. But really, I like this Ontario scenery a lot more. We roll up and down hills and get to gaze at beautiful lakes with loons. There was one lake we passed where a family of loons, two adults, and two babies, were about 2 meters from the shore, where we stood. It was awesome. We have seen some other wild life. The deer remain a constant presence. Quite excitingly we have seen some bigger animals. On our second day into Ontario we saw a moose! It was huge! It also stunk worse than most things I've smelled. The clouds of flies covering it were pretty crazy too. Even the 4 or 5 vultures that were eating it's decaying body were awesome. Ok, so the first moose we saw was a big pile of dead. We have seen 4 more moose since. Two the evening before camping beside a side of the highway sand mountain and two the next morning. Each time it was a mother and a calf. Very awesome! I am not sure what else has happened. We bike a lot, I know that. Oh, while in Kenora we all got some sweet new T-shirts. We're going to look pretty good now. We made it to Thunder Bay on Saturday and took yesterday off. We did not do much. It was good though. We have been able to gaze out at Lake Superior. We have seen the Sleeping Giant. For breakfast yesterday we went to a place called the Hoito. Previously we met some girls from T Bay and they said the only thing we should do is to get breakfast there. It was a Finnish restaurant and the breakfast was awesome. The pancakes rocked. Well, I guess we should get going. I think our next rest day is going to be in Espanola, which is a little bit west of Sudbury. Patrick has a friend there, so it seems like a good spot to rest. Hopefully everyone is happy and well back home. Until next time...Willem, Neal and Patrick.