Where's Canada, eh?: Day 3 - Manistique,MI to Pembroke, ON

Yay, we're in Canada, eh!

Tim writes: OK - readers... tonight it's my turn to write something more than just a smart-assed comment! We didn't hit the sack until 1:00 am so couldn't make tracks until after 9:00 this morning. That, plus slow Ontario speed limits and bad weather, getting - uh -misplaced in Sault Saint Marie [a town that doesn't waste much time and money on road signs], and much traffic put us into Pembroke behind schedule - but what the hey, as this voice keeps nagging at me: "Nur keine Hetze, wir sind doch im Urlaub"! [I have to add that that nagging voice helped with much of the driving today!]

Impressions from Canada: having worked up here, I remembered it as clean and tidy. I once worked south of here, down near London, Ontario so they might be clean and tidier there, but sure aren't up here in Northern Ontario... lots of weeds, scrub brush, and Kentucky-like houses and mobile homes complete with junk cars and washing machines - plus snowmobiles, lots of junk snowmobiles, in the yards. It did seem to improve some as we neared Ottawa so we're anxiously awaiting tomorrow and our forey into La Belle Quebec. After finding our motel [which thanks to an erroneus Google map we found to be on the other side of this fair-sized city], we were treated to a rack of fresh baked cookies by our humorous landlord Adam and his wife Lynn. Never had that happen to me at a Holiday Inn! We checked in and found the room to be o.k. - it included a little kitchen and a wallpapered bathroom. The furniture was old and well-worn, but the matresses very comfortable and we have wifi!. We do have to watch out for vertigo though, the floors are up to three inches out of plane [Alpen Tussi and Mr. D, how aboot a fixer-upper in Ontaario, heh?]. With some notable F-250 exceptions, the people so far on this trip have been as expected - friendly and helpful, and that includes of course - Canada!

Highlights from today: Finding Canada! [Hell, all we had to do was follow the arrows!] The wind-and-rain-swept beach/boardwalk/lighthouse of Manistique, on the shores of Lake Michigan, lying to the Canadian border guard this morning: "no sir: no alcohol on board" [a case of wine wouldn't really be an alcoholic product, would it?], a very impressive bridge-work over the Sault Ste. Marie locks, introducing Alice to the popular Tim Horton's coffee shops, and a return to the metric system!

Downers from today: the extremely high prices with an exchange rate almost at par, the afore mentioned down-at-the-heels look of upper Ontario [and upper Michigan too, for that matter - [but then, perhaps we've been spoiled by Iowa and Wisconsin], and getting ripped-off by the local Pembroke McDonald's [shorted two fajitas]. We'll live through it and are looking forward to a dejune' tomorrow in Montreal, and a safe landing in Mont-peel-yer Vermont tomorrow evening!

Alice wrote: that's what you get when you support part of the evil empire (Micky Dee's), hehe.