When we announced we were driving out to Vancouver in December, our friends immediately divided into two camps. The first camp thought we were crazy, had lost our minds, and weren't fit to make decisions about our life. The second camp thought that we were about to embark on a great adventure and offered up all kinds of safety advice like take lots of candles and matches, and if you have to stop keep the engine running; and another....if your engine is running make sure your exhaust is not burried in a snow bank otherwise you will die from carbon monoxide poisoning. All very positive coments. Which camp is right, remains to be seen!!
We set off today around 11:30 this morning ....-14C ....and at the tail end of probably the season's first major snow storm in our area. Needless to say, driving up through Barrie and on to Sudbury was not much fun. Can you imagine being in a tub heaving in the rough ocean? This is what our drive was like. The ice packed rutty road, the snow streamers blowing over it, and the gale force wind made it tough to keep the car on the road. We were held up half way between Parry Sound and Sudbury while a tow truck pulled a car out of the ditch. But we did manage to keep the car on the road, and after Sudbury, it all started to smooth out. Around Massey, we spotted an enormous red triangle in front of us,then another in front of that....can you think what it was? It was two Mennonite horses and carriages. I just can't imagine how the passengers were keeping warm. At this point, the temperature was -18C and with the wind chill it felt like -29C....according to the local weather station. Now, you can blame the wind chill factor on our friend Randall since he invented it....but you can't deny the coldness of the weather. IT WAS FREEZING!! Tam - thanks for the chocolates. We ate some around tea time and they were delicious! We decided to keep driving and around 8:30 p.m. headed into Sault Ste Marie. This is a town of about 75,000 and we are staying close to the water front (St. Mary's River I believe). We had a lovely dinner in The Docks, a unique restaurant overlooking the river and the bridge to the US.
Before we left home our Internet had been down for 2 days....Xplornet....so we cursed and swore, and finally got over being frustrated as we knew we would be on the road and a pre-requisite of a hotel for the night was WiFi. Can you believe when we got into the room and tore our computers out of their bags and plugged them in and turned them on.....that the Internet wasn't working ....this time it was Shaw....so ....maybe Xplornet isn't alone in trying to tackle the weather conditions in winter Canada.....but really guys......you know where we live......it snows, it rains, it gets cold..... Anyway, it seems to be working now, so hopefully I will get this posted. We will take tomorrow as it comes and plough on as best we can. I note that in the summer, our first night was spent in Wawa. No idea how far that is from Sault Ste Marie, but let me tell you the winter is a whole different story. The country side is still pretty flat and uninteresting, but now the side of the highways are covered with dirty brown snow, and the granite shield is highlighted by the waterfalls of pecan coloured frozen water. Some, but not many, of the houses are lit up with Christmas lights, and the towns are adorned with santas, and bright stars, and manger scenes. I am looking forward to seing Sault Ste Marie tomorrow before we head off to our next destination.
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