Spur -of-the-Moment Trip to Ontario - July 2008

The last week of June 2008 sister Pat purposed a trip to visit us and we all go to ON to visit Val & Dennis at jungle camp. Our interest in jungle camp had already been stimulated by Val's blogging all about the preparations for it. The suggestion to go visit with Pat, was easily accepted and our availability was easy to arrange.

Pat, had a very long day on Mon. June 30 riding the bus from Omaha to Winnipeg. She had planned a day with us here in Wpg. to rest up and also visit our family.

June 2 at about 6:40 am we left home making the first stop at Tim Horton's about half a mile away where Helmut and Pat got their first fill-up of coffee. Around 8:15 we crossed the border of MB & ON - both rest stops were closed which was rather inconvenient so we drove on to the first gift shop/restaurant that seemed to be open where we stopped to use the facilities, buy a post card & more coffee for the driver. I was quite surprised when the clerk ( a young woman) asked me if I was Ruth's Mother. She turned out to be Jillian Thornton who knew us from her years at camp - we have known her parents and both sets of grandparents for many years.

Near Dryden, ON we saw a semi trailer upside down and badly burnt in the ditch on the north side of the road. Lots of emergency equipment still around it.

This was a very cool morning and cloudy as well .

In Dryden we took another stop so that Pat could get to the bank to change some US money into Canadian currency.

We had our lunch in a way side rest area where there were lots of wild flowers - we took a couple of pictures. The reddish flowers are Indian Paintbrush, the white ones are Daises, the yellow ones I do not know their name.

As we neared Thunder Bay area in the late afternoon we saw many areas of Lupines in the ditches. They vary in color from white, pink, yellow, orange, blue and violet.

We stopped at an overlook area to view lake Superior but the undergrowth in the immediate area was too high to see over so Helmut climbed on a railing post to see if he could take a decent picture for Pat and one on our camera - I can't tell which picture was taken from this vantage point but I got one of him on the post and of Pat all wrapped up in a blanket because of the crisp Canadian air.

We spent the night in Schreiber, ON at a Nor-West Motel it was very reasonable.
















































This last photo looks just like you might drive right into lake Superior if you aren't careful.