A BALANCED LIFE

Being my trip, I’m entitled to change my mind, so today I travelled to Sault Ste. Marie instead of Timmins.  Had a quick breakfast at the hotel and saw the first "bag" of milk I have seen since I was a kid!

The morning was cool, overcast and threatening rain, so I swapped out the gear for the warmer, waterproof stuff.   About an hour down the road, I arrived in White River.  It was in 1914, at the train station in White River, that a trapper, who had found an orphaned cub and rescued it, sold the cub to British soldier Lt. Harry Colebourn.  Lt. Colebourn, having come to Canada and eventually ended up in Winnipeg, named the bear cub Winnipeg.  He soon became “Winnie”, for short.  When sent to France, he left Winnie with the London zoo to care for while he was away.  Five years later, the cub was hugely popular with the children in London.  Frequent visitors were A.A. Milne and his son, Christopher Robin.  And so were inspired the stories of Winnie the Pooh.  So, to make a long story short, White River is where it all began.  I took a little tour through the town to see the original brick train station where the transaction took place before heading back onto the highway. 
 
The landscape did not vary much from the previous days, so while I continued to enjoy its beauty, I didn’t take many photos.  Arriving in Wawa about lunch time, I stopped at the visitor centre.  Can’t go by Wawa without having a picture of the giant goose!  The grounds are really nice and have some neat story boards about locals who have influenced the town’s development.  Four young buddies from Minnesota were doing “the Lake Superior loop” and I took a picture of them with the goose.  On my way back to the bike, I noticed that one of the bolts on my license plate had fallen off and the plate was hanging on by the remaining plastic nut and bolt.  Found a Home Hardware up the road and got two proper bolts and locking nuts to secure it again.  Right beside the hardware store was a gas station and Young’s General Store.   A haberdashery of all sorts of things on the outside was an effective tool for getting me to go in!  Proudly, I managed not to buy a thing, but it was sure full of all kinds of goodies. 
 
Topped up with gas and, since the day had warmed and rain had only been the odd spit, I shed my rain gear pants.  A quick grilled cheese sandwich and a coffee at Tim’s and I was back on the road towards Sault Ste. Marie.  About half an hour out of Wawa, it began to rain…..of course.   Not too seriously though, so I didn’t bother to stop and put the rain pants back on.  Soon I was riding through Lake Superior Provincial Park, which was beautiful and full of pretty little lake spots.  The rain increased as I moved south, obscuring the views of Lake Superior in mist and giving it an air of mystery. 
 
The rain eased up about 40 kms out of Sault Ste. Marie and I rode in wet, but not cold.  Checked into the Holiday Motel, parked and unloaded Fury.  Less than five minutes later, it began to POUR outside!  The Holiday Motel is a small hotel with very good rates.  The room is very comfortable and I can recommend it in good conscience.   
 
With the rain hammering down outside, I decided it was a pizza night and ordered from Pizza Hut.  I must have been hungry, because I ordered dessert too – the chocolate chip cookie.  When it arrived, the cookie was bigger than the pizza!  Finally, my life is in balance…. 😊
 
Going to try again to make an early night tonight and try to get started earlier tomorrow.  So much more adventuring to do!

P.S.  Today’s pictures have a bonus picture of cousin Patrick that I forgot to post from my day in Winnipeg.  I blinked, but he looks great!