Thunder Bay to Sault-Ste-Marie

Day 8: Thunder Bay to Sault-Ste-Marie

Rounding the top of Lake Superior, the road gets a bit more interesting

Up and down, side and side you go, over hills and through valleys, bending bays and coves, and the occasional cloud too

The community signs are pretty too: White River, home of Winnie the Pooh

and in the Northern Ontario wilderness, the advance signs to Schreiber help pass the time – no town motto, but the train and the trees look like a professional job

140Km ahead! Can’t wait!

16Km to go. Another train on the sign – they must sure love their trains

And there they are, the trains – double-decker container cars, everything from “COSCO” to “China Shipping” – though I must’ve missed the town itself. Oh well.

The passing lanes are there every 10Km or so

but, alas, never when you need it… Sign of the road raging driver in me starting to show (I’m sure everyone has one): it actually is starting to get annoying stuck behind traffic running at random speeds – not 120, or 115, but like 117 or something, and you have to either pass, or figure out their speed and reset your cruise control. I think cars should have external speedometers, in the rear window, so when there’s a car ahead you can see exactly how fast they’re going and choose to pass or adjust your cruise accordingly, without having to creep up, watch your distance and have to figure it out. (It would also make the police’s job way easier too – until people start to mess with the speedometer reading, anyway.)

But worst are people not using their cruise control – even if they’re running slow it wouldn’t be so bad if you could just match speed and relax and draft, but when they’re all over the speedometer and you have to dance all over the pedals to keep your distance… If it’s an old car and doesn’t have one, fine; but if it’s anything within the last 10 years, please break out your manual and learn how to use it!

Following this car for 10Km to the next passing lane was awful

You’ve got the exact same car as I do – I know you definitely have cruise control, and I know you can run at least at a steady 130Km/h no problem. What’s the hold-up? Geez.

A little while later I had to get down with the OPP – traffic stop

Random spot checks for alcohol. If you pass, you get this info card about their RAID “Report All Impaired Drivers” programme – ring them up if you spot a suspect drink driver

There’s a handy list on the back so you know what to look for:

10 signs of a suspected impaired driver
1. Driving unreasonably fast, slow or at an inconsistent speed
2. Drifting in and out of lanes
3. Tailgating and changing lanes frequently
4. Making exceptionally wide turns
5. Changing lanes or passing without sufficient clearance
6. Overshooting or stopping well before stop signs or stop lights
7. Disregarding signals and lights
8. Approaching signals or leaving intersections too quickly or slowly
9. Driving without headlights on, failing to lower high beams or leaving turn signals on
10. Driving with windows open in cold or inclement weather

Tonight, it’s the Holiday Inn. Horrors – only one nightstand, and only one lamp!

But, you do get your choice of pillows – which is more useful than redundant lamps, I say

and they’ve even colour-coded soaps: white for the face, green for the bath

which is good, because I can never keep them straight – and you know how I turned out. No wonder I look like this! Alas, too late for me now.

Looking out the window, I guess this is what they mean by “Northern Ontario”

And the development signs remind you where you are

“Prosperity for the North” – it’s one of those government programme position lines that, by extolling the virtues of what it’s going to bring, emphasises what is currently lacking, and only reinforces the isolated state of mind that leads to the programme in the first place. “The North”… I still can’t get over the pretense of it (especially remembering the other North)… it’s all relative, I guess.

The American border is a quick drive across the bridge, to Sault-Ste-Marie – Michigan, that is

Customs and Inland Revenue is an on-your-honour system around here – it’s a toll-free call, so you really have no excuse not to report in

Despite the border, I guess they’re really buddy-buddy and neighbourly about it. They share the same name, after all, so I guess it’s like popping next door and visiting family.