Day 3: September 26, 2016

We left Thunder Bay at 11:30 am and it was about six hours east until we reached the end of the Ontario boarder. Ontario is really really big! We’re travelling west with about 22 hours driving time from Ottawa to the Ontario border.  Today’s destination was Winnipeg, Manitoba, which was about eight hours away. I was excited as I had never traveled north west of Thunder Bay, hitting towns like Kenora and Dryden. I had never been to Manitoba. It was a day of firsts!

Today’s theme is more light-hearted and playful as we did a lot of soul searching over the past two days. And it’s raining, actually 6.5 hours of the drive was in rain, so it’s fitting that today’s theme relates to one of Angela’s favourite sayings by Vivian Greene…

“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass… it’s about learning to dance in the rain”

She has a mug with this saying and I’ve inherited it with her move so I will I will think of her and our time together on this trip in particular when I drink from it.

The landscape just past Thunder Bay is in full autumn mode with the yellows and oranges,  interspersed with the green from the fir trees. There is none of the vibrant red and oranges I am used to from the maples in Ottawa and Toronto and it’s a few weeks ahead in the colour changing. Angela says this is the usual fall colours out west. But nonetheless beautiful, just different.

Games we’re playing on the road to Calgary to keep us occupied and the driver alert:

1. The license plates we’ve seen so far: Michigan, Nfld and Labrador, Manitoba, Ontario of course, New Mexico, Washington, Quebec, NY State, NWT (love the polar bear!), Manitoba, Alberta, New Brunswick, British Columbia, Minnesota, Saskatchewan, Wisconsin…

2. We’ve came across a lot of fun names of places, mostly lakes, rivers and creeks. Here’s some so far:

Mom Lake, Dad Lake (right after Mom Lake), Rabbit Blanket Lake, Old Woman Lake, Mystic Isle Motel, White Fang Motel, Magpie Lake, Catfish Lake, Desolation Lake, Cotton Lake, Henry Lake, Fungus Lake (not sure I’d want to swim in this one), Knife Cream Lake, Crocker Lake, Cigar Lake, Little Pick River, Rainbow Falls, Happy Land  Camp Ground, West Hawke Meteor Crater Lake, Dog River Road, Sunshine town (not sunny there today), Rest Creek, Little Rest Creek, Raven Lake Road, Pickle Lake, Bee Lake, Gulliver River…

3. Angela did 22 push ups and a headstand at a group of over sized bears. A friend asked her to do the push ups at over sized things. I tried to take a video of this but failed as a videographer 🙂

4. We gave up on counting animals.

5 to 8: Questions that I came up with for both of us to answer. Please play along with us if you are inspired.

5. Things that bring you joy:

Angela: Popcorn, cycling, friends and family, yoga, holidays, wine, laughter, nature, baths, dark chocolate, art

Caroline: Nature, water, yoga, writing, meditation, good food, love to and from my friends, latte, sunshine, swimming, skiing

6. Favourite movies:

Angela: Frida, Dirty Dancing, Shawshank Redemption, The Mission, Footloose,  Les Miserables, Sound of Music, Notting Hill

Caroline: Cinema Paradiso, Breakfast at Tiffanys, Dr. Zhivago, To Sir With Love, Tempopo (Japanse), Sleepless in Seattle, Bridget Jones Diary

7. What were you like in high school, what group were you part of?

Angela: I loved ballet dancing and was really busy because I practiced dance every night of the week.  On Fridays at midnight, I loved going to the Saskatoon Soaps with my friends, which was an improve theatre at the Broadway Theatre.

In terms of groups, I was a bridger and hung out with artsy people for the most part. I was part of the band geeks though I wasn’t in the band. I played the piano and oboe in elementary school and when I reached high school I had to decide between French immersion and band. I chose French immersion. I was in theatre. I joined the choir so I could go on the trips. I have good memories related to musicals. Because of my dancing background, I would be asked to do the dancing roles in musicals like Oklahoma.

Caroline: I got bored easily and didn’t like being in class. I had my first “older” boyfriend (two years in those seemed like a lot!) when I was in grade 10 and we went out for years so he was my best friend and support system. I was fascinated by the food and entertainment industry and had my first job as a teenager at Baskin-Robbins scooping ice cream. I served part-time at the CN Tower revolving Restaurant for about three years. I was born in Toronto and lived near Jane and St. Clair. My mom enrolled me in private piano lessons at the Royal Conservatory and Japanese language lessons on Saturday. She had very high expectations of me.

I was part of many groups. I was part of a mostly brainy group that were in the band and in theatre. I was in neither. I think I was perceived as cool because I was a bit of a rebel, had an older boyfriend, and started working  as soon as I could. I was one of the few Asians in the whole high school of over 1000 students. Even though my marks weren’t that great, the teachers and students would assume I was smart because I was Japanese.  I even had a high school guidance counselor who told me that I should go into physics. This was based on the stereotype of Asian students at the time of being smart in math and sciences. I was not but still got the sticker. I’m not complaining, it worked in my favour because everyone thought I was studious and obedient though I wasn’t.

8. What was your favourite subjects:

Angela: Math, English, Biology, Chemistry.

Caroline: Art, English, History, Phys Ed, and the other subjects I liked depended on the teacher’s ability to make the subject interesting and engaging. I liked Phys Ed ed though none of my friends did. I wasn’t great at it, but I liked it. We had a pool in our high school and I learned how to swim.

9. Lessons form our drive through northern Ontario:

• GPS navigation is often wrong. It’s still good to follow your instincts and read the road signs.
• Ontario is really really big.
• Don’t worry about ever finding a place for alcohol.  There are as many LCBOs as lakes in northern Ontario, and there are a lot of lakes.
• Many people in small towns we asked for directions don’t really know how far the next destination is. They often thought we were much further away than we actually were. However, everyone we met were super friendly and warm.
• It’s good to have a more powerful car if possible because of the steep inclines and declines and having to pass slow moving vehicles and large trucks. And there are a lot of trucks the farther north and west you travel! The Mazda Cx5 has been good on gas and the roads, with one tank a day, and we are putting in about eight hours of driving a day.
• There is a time zone change about 60 kms west of Thunder Bay, from Eastern Time Zone to the Central Time Zone, so you go one hour back.  So this begs the question, if you did or said something you didn’t like, could you start over?
• There are a lot of towns, lakes, creeks and rivers with interesting names
• There are many areas with no cell access especially between the Soo and Thunder Bay
• Bring a long a fun play list and a good road buddy

Caroline’s notes: As we started approaching Winnipeg, the rain finally stopped.. hallelujah!  At one point the Canadian Shield ends, the land is flat, and it seems like the skies open up. Angela explained, “the landscape settles you can see the expansive skies.” It’s such a nice way to put it because it does.  It was awesome to be surrounded by so much blue sky and large billowy clouds. It was clear and sunny when we arrived in Winnipeg so we were able to walk around town and then ordered from Spicy Noodle House, which specializes in Chinese northern cuisine. Angela has been raving for a long time, or at least the time of the trip, which seems like weeks in a good way, about the spicy peanut soup with noodles she had here in her student activism days. She has tried to replicate the soup, which much success, and longed to try it again. We had take out from there. The soup was wonderful and it was great to see her happy that the soup matched her memory and the soup she makes at home. It’s interesting how long taste memories linger in our hearts, long after events and people have vanished from our minds. The power of food made with love.