They should make Ontario smaller

I woke up to what seemed to be no rain, thankfully. my gear was dry from yesterday's rain, thanks to the baseboard heater and a fan pointed at it. I left the motel at 7am. I was actually awake at 3am or so, but decided to sleep in until 6.

There was a bit of rain, but the gear kept me dry. I didn't even get the rain suit out yet. I kept heading east and stopped at a truck stop near Wawa for breakfast. greasy goodness.

It seemed like I was making good time. I guess it was too good. OPP clocked me at 125 in a 90 zone. Is the whole transcanada 90?? It's probably the longest highway in the world, and the slowest! At any rate, the officer was VERY nice and knocked it down to 105. I owe him one.

I essentially blasted through most of the day... by blasting meaning keeping it under 105 the whole way. Cruise control helped a lot there except it's quite hilly. I think the cop did me a expensive favour by reminding me to slow down. It helps me save gas, and with all the construction going on, all the cars/trucks have to wait at several points along the highway (i'm sure i'm not done yet)

In Sault Ste. Marie i stopped for a coffee and relaxed for a few minutes. flying overhead i saw three crows (or ravens) fighting over a piece of food. One swooped in and tried to grab it from another and the food fell 20 feet away from me. It wasn't 'food'. It was a dead grey bird. what would blackbirds want to do with a dead bird?? odd. they left the dead bird there and flew away.

if you go anywhere they've blasted the rock to put the road through, scan them for inukshuks. I saw so many and piles of rock that were inukshuks, it's unreal. I wonder who took the time to put them up. I find these so soothing as i ride along the highway. don't know why.

I realized today that ontario does a pretty shitty job at tourism. There's not a whole lot of places to pull over for a picnic, no real attractions and any scenic outlook is given minimal thought. If you are on the trans-can, you're going 90. If you're going 90, there's no way you can see the scenic outlook sign that's AT the scenic outlook and make the turnoff in time. bah.

Speaking of which, i saw a very small sign that said "terry fox highway, next 100km". only then did i remember that terry fox ended his cross canada 1 legged hop skip run at Thunder Bay due to the re-occurance of cancer. I knew there was a memorial there, but even when i got near thunder bay, no signs. Had i not beed looking for it, i would have missed the sign for the turnoff for the memorial.

Terry fox is a hero.

terry fox porn:

I didn't feel like stopping in thunder bay for the night (was 3:30) so i decided to keep going, hoping to get a decent motel and internet access. more on that later.

I passed the Artic watershed signpost where all the water goes to the artic ocean from this point. This was near the town of Raith. again, no advanced warning or else i would have stopped to take a picture. More info here

I continued on where i saw a little sign about the timezone. There was a turnoff and a sign stating i was entering Central timezone (the opposite side said entering Eastern timezone).

there were public outhouses there. Essentially, i pissed on the timezone. heh.

On I went west and needed to get up and stretch my legs... i was on the bike a while and needed a smoke bad so i was on the lookout for any kind of rest area on the side of the road.

I got lucky that the next rest stop was the site of Raleigh falls. I'm a sucker for falls. i like them

water porn:

Whichs leaves us with where i am right now. Dryden, ontario. I picked the first cheap motel i could find which didn't look gross and had a few cars parked outside. I took a chance to see if it had internet access (which i doubted) and lo and behold there is access! a bit slow, but it's free :)

I like the name of the place... reminds me a little of the forum on motorcycle-journal.com heh.

GPS kms to date: 1876 (996 today)