Thunder Bay to Winnipeg

  Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada
Sunday, May 11, 2008

8:00 am:  After a quick stop at Starbucks for some travelling beveages, we left Thunder Bay, Ontario with our Mitsubishi Endeavor packed to the roof and our son S squished in the back beside all his important possessions (including a unicycle and 3 guitars) -- everything else had been sent on ahead of him. A few minutes outside of the city we encountered rain which rapidly changed to snow... Left aligned photo tag:

Highway 102 outside Thunder Bay

very unusual for our part of Northwestern Ontario.  By the time we reached the junction of Highway 102 and Highway 11/17, it was snowing heavily. And it kept on snowing, and snowing, and snowing! Right aligned photo tag:

Highway 11/17 convoy

    At times, we were driving through whiteout conditions, just one in a chain of transport trucks and private vehicles. Right aligned photo tag:

Northwestern Ontario spring

Snowplows and sanders were out. Finally, after 2 hours and white knuckles on my part (I'm a bad passenger in bad weather) we reached the hamlet of Upsala.  The further west we travelled, the less snow we saw. By Ignace, there was no snow left,

Memories of Last Year

 and by Dryden the sun was making an appearance.

Near Dryden, Highway 17

By Kenora, it was sunny and beautiful... the morning snowstorm a distant memory.

Almost out of Ontario

   

Manitoba Seagull Farming?

By late afternoon we were in Winnipeg and getting S settled into his new apartment.  About 8 pm we called it a night and left S on his own. S declined to join us for dinner, so hubby N and I chose a nearby Italian restaurant in Osborne Village (Winnipeg's eclectic entertainment sector). Exhausted from a long day, we were enjoying refreshing beverages (a pinot grigio for me, and a Russell's Lemon Ale for N) while we were waiting for our meal.
I chose lobster and crab ravioli and N chose a gourmet pizza.  [blog note:  you'll notice my food fixation as I travel... and, while in Winnipeg, my sister K got me combining this with my photo hobby. Result: I am now taking pics of our vacation food:) ]  All of a sudden, N began to laugh .... our son S had just ridden his unicyle by our restaurant window! Yup, Osborne Village was officially his new home!
Our plans for the next couple of days: finish helping S get settled, do a little Winnipeg sightseeing, and on Wednesday morning head westward to our next stop:  Regina.