Tuesday, June 26, 2018 – We started this day at a Sudbury, Ontario
Comfort Inn. We had a six-hour travel day ahead of us, so we got up early,
packed, ate our breakfast, loaded up the car and hit the road. This seems so redundant - it's our every-day-travel-routine! We needed to get
gas right away and struggled a bit to find a station, but soon enough we were
on our way. We enjoyed the scenery and even a road sign for a town on our
route; we thought the “Echo Bay – Worth Repeating” slogan was worthy of a
mention! We got gas again in Sault Ste Marie around noon. We looked ahead
and saw that there were not many opportunities to get gas between Sault Ste
Marie and Wawa, our destination for the night, so we decided not to wait. We
found a nice park in Sault Ste Marie and ate our lunch there, with a view of
the United States. We waved and told the US it would have to wait until tomorrow to get us
back. It was a fabulous day to eat a picnic lunch outdoors. I had picked up
some Tim Hortons earlier in the day and had a couple of “Wrap Snackers” for lunch.
They were yummy! A seagull impatiently watched us eat, wanting the crumbs we
had dropped. We restarted our journey and headed through some beautiful, largely
unpopulated country. We got our first glimpses of the Canadian side of Lake Superior along the way
as well! That was exciting! We pulled into a Provincial Park and took a walk
down to a Superior beach to take a look up close. It wasn’t long before we
arrived at the High Falls Motel and Cabins, where we had reserved a cabin
for the night. It looked charming online, and it did not disappoint. We had a
king-sized bed, a full kitchen, a couch, a TV, and a full bathroom. And the fact that it was a log cabin, inside and out, definitely added to the cuteness factor! We watched a
little television and then crashed for the night, as driving all day is
exhausting!
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| Just keep driving, driving, driving..... |
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| Driving into Sault Ste Marie |
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| The view across to the USA |
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| R.J., finding his lunch |
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| The gull, waiting for his lunch |
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| Our cabin at High Falls |
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| Another view of the cabin |
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| The cabin, from outside |
Wednesday, June 27, 2018 – We woke up in our charming little cabin just outside of Wawa, Ontario. I finished up some blogging and R.J. decided to shave. He had
been planning to “not shave until we get home” and declared, “I’m scruffy, and
I’m pugnacious!” We decided to combine the words and call him a scruffnacious
puguffy. Wordplay can be an entertaining way to pass time while driving long distances. In the end, he decided he wanted to look more like his passport picture for the border crossing, so he relented and shaved. Anyway, he loaded the car while I finished uploading
pictures for my blog, and then we headed into town to get gas (again, not sure where the
next gas would be found) and explore Wawa. It is a charming little town with
the Canada goose as its mascot. It could be Rochester’s sister city! We talked as
we traveled, discussing what has worked well on this trip and what hasn’t, how
much driving in a day is too much, what kind of driving is most tiring, and what destinations would be good for
future trips. We kept driving for a while then took a side trip into Marathon,
Ontario. We saw a small lake there, and then found our way to Pebble Beach on Lake
Superior. It was an amazing side trip and a stunningly beautiful beach. Just wow!
It wasn’t quite lunch time, so we kept going a bit longer. Right after Marathon, the
road got even more beautiful than it had been up to that point. There were huge, rolling hills, lots
of cliff faces, and dramatic views of Lake Superior. R.J. pulled off at a
scenic overlook where I could scrabble around a bit to take some pictures and
then we could eat lunch. He started lunch without me. Ha! I took a while, taking
pictures of the amazing view. The rest of the day was kind of long, with a lot
of driving before we hit the border (6.5 hours total driving time today). It's hard to complain, though, when the scenery is so beautiful! I highly
recommend this drive, especially the area from Marathon to a little past
Terrace Bay. I had no idea how amazing that area was. You should just go.
Seriously.
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| Wawa, Ontario |
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| A Wawa goose |
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| Marathon was our surprise treat of the day. |
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| Pebble Beach was amazing |
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| Here is R.J. on Pebble Beach |
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| Our view at lunch |
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| Amazing view |
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| And another |
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| It took some work to get this road constructed. |
So, we crossed the border from Canada to the US with no
problems, and we made it to Grand Marais. Our usual place that we stay in this
area (The Outpost Motel) was booked by the time we decided we wanted to spend a
few days here at the end of our trip, so we are trying a new place. It is called the "Downtown Treehouse" and is located on the
upper floor of a building that has an accounting firm below (so pretty quiet).
It is a regular apartment, with a deck, a full kitchen, and a separate bedroom.
We were tired, so after a quick trip to Gene’s Foods, we were ready to stay put
for the night. Ahh!
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| Minnesota, and the United States, welcome us! |
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| Our "Downtown Treehouse" is pretty nice! |
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| R.J., checking messages, as his phone was suddenly a phone again! |
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| The bedroom |
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