Two (long) days of driving

Who knew Canada was so big? Well, I did, but even still...

We left Brandon early -- 8 AM -- and scooted across the lower part of Manitoba. We passed Holland (hi, Edwin!)...

The have a windmill, but we didn't get its picture

...and crossed into the USA on the MOM Highway (short for Mantoba - Ontario - Minnesota). It's less than an hour's drive (including stopping for gas that is 20% cheaper) through the US. How this little border abberation at the Lake of the Woods came to be is the subject of an interesting video, but suffice to say, we went under the LOTW instead of over it, saving... well nothing. We actually added about 30 min to the drive, but it was fun anyway.

Back into Canada

We stopped in Rainy River just inside the border for a picnic on the river, looking at the USA, and watching the bald eagles.

The USA from Canada 

An eagle

We saw a cool seaplane base just outside of Ft. Francis, but didn't stop.

Turbo Otters

We did make one stop on Rainy Lake to stretch our legs.

Still water 

Quiet bays 

Cool shorelines 

Dramatic shadows 

Playing in boats

But mostly, the afternoon looked like this:

Trees

There were moose warning signs everywhere, but we saw no animals at all. At least Manitoba was full of road kill (skunks, coyote and deer).

It was an 10.5 hr drive, plus stops and border crossings, making it 11.5 hrs -- plus a time change. We left Brandon at 0800, and arrived in Thunder Bay at 2015 in the dark. We raced to Swiss Chalet and just got in (it was Sunday and everything else in town appeared closed).

Today was an early wake up, because we had to stop for groceries, and had another 8 hrs of driving (plus lunch plus breaks).  

Sunrise over Lake Superior

We rolled into Nipigon and into fog, which was cool.

One of the most important bridges in Canada

That bridge is the only thing that connects east and west Canada. About a year ago, it broke. For 5 days, the only way to get between east and west Canada was to drive WAY south through the USA.

Then it was just bags and bags and bags of northern Ontario lakes and nothingness.

Nice colours 

Beardmore and their big snowman 

A lake. One of many 

Another

There's a town up here called Greenstone. It's 2,757 square kilometres in size. Seriously. There's a lake that's 67 km long but probably never more than 2 km wide.

We stopped for lunch at a pretty roadside picnic stop called Klotz Lake...

What it looked like 

What it felt like 

More shore line

...which was home to a loon.

They swim under water really well

A lot of the drive was this:

Can you see the 4 cars in the picture?

We rolled into Cochrane at 6 PM after leaving Thunder Bay at 9 AM.

Sunset

Tomorrow: Day 5, and the train to nowhere...