Last night we arrived in Thunder Bay at 10:00 PM Pacific Time or 1:00 AM Eastern; we were cross-eyed from exhaustion and ready for bed. Earlier in the day, I had called Jamie with our projected time of arrival and to see if he and Mary could give us a place to sleep for the night. Unfortunately Mary worked until 2:00 AM and Jamie had an overnight flight to Sault Ste. Marie so though we had a place to sleep, we didn’t get to see them. It was almost a year ago when we passed through Thunder Bay last, with Chris and Fred in the Moho on our way to BC.

This morning we were on the road by 8:00 AM Eastern Time again with perfect weather in the forecast, though we did cross under some overcast skies (but no rain) for about an hour just east of Thunder Bay. We have traveled this route several times so it was one we are very familiar with. Jamie took his aviation education at Confederation College in T-Bay for 2 ½ years so we’ve been back and forth more than once. It is still one of our favourite drives for scenery and every traveler owes it to themselves to make the trip at least once in their lifetime to enjoy the beauty of the Northern Ontario wilderness. Aside from glorious, Great Lake Superior, there are hundreds of smaller ones with names like Mom Lake, Dad Lake, Baby Lake, Orphan Lake and Rabbit Blanket Lake to name a few. We took photographs as we traveled around the top of Lake Superior but without stopping for still shots, through the windshield is the best we could get.

There are warnings of night time danger of moose crossing the highway and most truckers have moose guards on them in the event they come across one. We made excellent time traveling along the TransCanada Highway, even with construction, and at one point a truck pulled out of a rest area in front of us, forcing me to slow down considerably. Just as we were approaching a passing zone, I accelerated to pass him when all of a sudden a moose cow and her calf casually came out of the bush and proceeded to cross in front of us. Fortunately because Mr. Trucker hadn’t gained any speed and neither had I, we both put on our brakes to let Big Mamma and her baby cross the highway safely. In our excitement to see this duo, we didn’t get a picture of them which we easily could have.

Tonight we will be arriving in Barrie at Gayle and Graham’s house where we will be staying for three nights before heading west once again. We’ve been lucky; we’ve had great driving conditions, clear weather, our XM stereo and each other for company. A trek across Canada in such a short time doesn’t get much better than that!