Hi everyone,
Not sure when you’ll get this because we’re out of Internet range again.
Today (the 11th) was the highlight of the trip for me as I accomplished another of my bucket list goals. Today we visited the town where my hero Winnie the Pooh came from! The sign under his statue reads:
“On August 24, 1914 Lieutenant Harry Colebourn of the 34th Fort Garry Horse & Canadian Veterinary Corps purchased a black bear cub while passing through White River, ON while enroute overseas. He named her Winnie after his hometown Winnipeg. Winnie became the soldier’s mascot and was left in care of the London Zoo on December 9, 1914 while Lieut. Colebourn served in France. In 1919, he gave her to the zoo for permanent keeping where she was loved and watched by many, including author A.A. Milne and his son Christopher.
In 1926, A.A. Milne and illustrator E. H. Shepherd gave the fictional character Winnie-the-Pooh to Christopher and the world for posterity. Winnie entertained visitors to the London Zoo for almost 20 years, and lives on in the hearts of children of all ages.”
I have always loved Winnie-the-Pooh and all the great characters in the stories though I always thought a ‘Miss Ewe” would have added greatly to the cast.
Today turned out to be a long drive and the weather was overcast and again windy on Lake Superior. The scenery continued to be beautiful though and it was a pleasant drive. The Man’s moose count is up to four now (not counting Mr. Road Kill) but so far no great photo ops. The moose seem to pop out of nowhere and it is hard to stop soon enough.
The Man figures that they have learned the sound of a car driving down the Trans Canada backwards at 60 kms/hr and make a run for it.
We have ended up in quite a wonderful spot which we found by a fluke. It is called the Lake Shore Salzburger Hof Resort at Batchawana Bay, Ontario. It is six kilometres off the highway, perched on a high bank with sweeping views of Lake Superior. The accommodations are a pan abode motel-like building with an Austrian design to it. It is situated on 32 hectares (80 acres) of gardens (lilacs all abloom right now) with tennis courts, shuffleboard, horseshoes and plenty of lounge chairs. There is a separate chalet with a great restaurant. We’re stuffed tonight with good German food. We may stay another night and take a break from driving but we will decide that after breakfast tomorrow. If so I will be way behind in my updates but you’ll get them eventually.
Just north of where we are staying are lots of Provincial Parks. About the closest one to us is Pancake Bay, so named because the voyageurs would stop here and would have just enough flour before restocking supplies in Sault Ste. Marie. From there you can see where the ore ship, The Edmund Fitzgerald, (remember Gordon Lightfoot’s song) sank in a fierce November storm attesting to how violent conditions can get on the lake.
We found out that sometime on the highway today we passed the halfway mark between the Atlantic and Pacific. Day 19 so we think we are doing alright time wise. We are close to Sault Ste. Marie (45 minutes) and once we get past it we will head east for a bit and then south through Manitoulin Island, ferry to the Bruce Peninsula (Lake Huron/Georgian Bay). We’ll have to choose a route at that time to get to old family haunts around Galt (Cambridge) and Mulmur, Ontario.
By the way – after driving over 3000 kilometres, the Man passed his first car today!
Today the 12th – Well, we didn’t stay a second night at the Lake Shore Salzburger Hof Resort after all. The weather was cloudy and we didn’t think we could stand another delicious but RICH German meal. We had a leisurely breakfast with our hosts and then headed out. We continued to travel east and once we got past Sault Ste. Marie headed east again along the shores of the North Channel of Lake Huron. The surroundings almost immediately changed from the rugged coastline to sugar maples and rolling farmland. This is old mining country and we thought it wouldn’t be that attractive but again it is quite beautiful. Tonight we are staying in Espanola which is ½ hour from Manitoulin Island. Tomorrow we will explore around the Island and then decide where and when we’ll proceed from there.
This afternoon was a little upsetting as the Man hit a turtle that was lunging across the highway! I sometimes wonder. We did see a black bear run across the highway this morning but he did manage to miss it.
Til later,
Miss Ewe
Miss Ewe's Big Holiday 