I have decided that, even though most of the road trip is still in point-form, I will begin posting the accounts of my experiences on my recent trip around North America. Many of the entries at the start of the trip are quite detailed and the full text of the message was written shortly after they happened. As the trip progressed, the logs became point-form lists of happenings ranging from highly detailed to bare-bones. I will revise, add photos, and edit as necessary so consider it a work in progress for the time being; as I get to the point-form entries I will attempt to re-create the events as accurately as I can. I have started by putting up Day 1 in its unedited and long-winded original text typed reluctantly in the wee hours of the morning after failing to sleep in the car on the way across Ontario. Be gentle.

2:16am
Poplar Grove Motel
100km outside of Wawa
Day 1 of the road trip sputtered, kicked, and has come to a close here at the Cedar Grove Motel after leaving Waterloo this afternoon. I am a little concerned about the budget at this point, gas is at the high end of the estimated average and other expenses are higher than expected; throw in deciding to get a motel on the very first night on the road and you?re looking at some potential trouble.

Last night was a party night and this morning was all about getting things done in Waterloo. I woke up at around 7:00, 7:30, 8:00, and 9:00 and eventually went to campus at around 10 to meet with my prof and give him the final versions of my graphics projects. Curtis managed to get all of his grad school applications in and Ernie collected his rent money for the term without having to resort to breaking limbs or even threatening to (this is good since the guy he had to collect from his HUGE). We were supposed to meet back at the house at noon to hit Sobeys, Radio Shack, and Canadian Tire before starting the trip at around 1:00 or 1:30. Ernie was 15 minutes late, I was 20 minutes late, and Curtis, not to be out done, moseyed on in a full hour late. Moreover, both Ernie and Curtis had things they still needed to do on campus so we were even later getting out than our already fairly late starting time.

3:43pm had me taking the car out of Waterloo and pointing it back towards Barrie. The first 2 hours of the trip were basically just backtracking the route we took yesterday to get to Waterloo. The first change came when we stayed with hwy 400 after it splits with 11 outside of Barrie. 400 loses a lot of its traffic and becomes more of a pleasant drive. It didn?t take long for the geography to change a fair bit and we entered some deep rock cuts and came across a number of nice lakes and rivers. At Parry Sound we lost the 400 (well, it ended so we couldn?t really do much more with it) and picked up 69 North to Sudbury. Once again the drive involved looking at increasingly impressive rock cuts and increasingly beautiful lakes and rivers. By the time we hit Sudbury the sun had set but that did not stop us from trying to find the Big Nickel. Surprisingly, the clerk at the convenience store had no idea where the Nickel was located; luckily, the folks at a near-by Subway restaurant were able to give us good directions. As it turns out, if we had just gotten on 17 instead of going into town to find it, we would have come across it much faster and easier.

After a brief stop to see the giant King George on the back of the ?51 nickel, it was off to the Sault Ste. Marie and the great beyond. When we stopped for gas, Ernie moved the cooler and the water jug to the floor so he could sleep and prepare for the long night of driving. I was still feeling pretty fresh at the time, so I told Curtis to grab some shut-eye to prepare for his shift or to be able to stay awake with Ernie in the middle of the night. After that, it was just me and the road. It occurs to me that travelling through Northern Ontario has to be similar to what it was like to travel around the United States before the Inter-State system was built. For the most part, there are no chain restaurants and no brand-name motels out in this part of the province and the one road that can get you from point a to point b takes you through many small towns with privately owned motels and their own small tourist attractions to entice the weary traveller off of the road and spend a few of their dollars in their small town. On my own, I saw sights like Calabogie and Mississauga though neither were the ones I am familiar with.

At Sault Ste. Marie I decided that I was weary enough to give up the wheel and catch a bit of sleep. I pulled into a Husky truck stop and handed the car over to Ernie to take us into the night. As we left the Sault, Ernie noticed a motel that said: ?Are you sure you want to drive any further tonight?? and he was pretty sure that he didn?t. I figured that Ernie could drive for a little while and, if nobody felt up to continuing, we could pull off to the side and sleep in one of the wide shoulder areas that are often used by sleepy truckers.; Ernie wanted to get a good night?s sleep and see Northern Ontario in the daylight so he wound up pulling at several motels to find one that looked open. We settled on the Poplar Grove motel about 140km east of Wawa and took a room for the night.