Day 3: Nipigon, Ontario to Portage la Prairie, Manitoba



So today was a "short" nine hour drive that felt longer.... Ontario is just so big!!!! But made it to Portage la Prairie, where my Mom was born! Too lazy to go into town this trip... but I have done a driveway of the house where she lived in a trip a few years ago....

Day 3 by the numbers:

Km driven: 906
Hours on the road: 9 and a bit
Provincial borders crossed: 1 (and boy was I happy to hit Manitoba with a decent speed limit and divided highways)
Time zones crossed: 1 (and my car updated automatically - fancy!)
Wildlife: Canadian geese, 1 partridge, passed a deer farm
Tim Horton's visited: 1
Number of times cursed the snow: once, when I cleaned the car off in the bitter cold with no mittens, socks or boots

Some observations:

Ontarians drive slow, even below the speed limit. I find that weird.
Manitoba drivers of a certain age do not understand that if you are not passing cars you should stay in the right hand lane.
All men of a certain age hate being passed by a woman in a cute red car!
Please note, I do not drive fast, I drive the speed limit the road would be in BC (or Manitoba or Alberta) - which is not the speed limit it is in Ontario.

The day started with zero degrees and a car to desnow! Super glad I did not take my brush out. No matter it is MAY - it snowed last night and transformed the first part of my drive into a winter wonderland!

Snow and ice to scrap off this morning!

A long drive ahead...
Thunder Bay..... see, even after nearly 2 hours on the road there is ice on the side mirrors!

Northern Ontario winter wonderland - yours to enjoy 10 months of the year!

Loaded with logs for a sawmill that might not need them... 

ANOTHER overturned tracter trailer... obviously some people are driving who shouldn't be

Lots of logging trucks today... the logs are so small compared to Vancouver Island. The first time I saw small logs like this I thought it was so weird... but the trees don;t get very big in the East.

Love the granite... 
So happy to see this! Faster speed limit, divided highways and cheap gas :)

From zero degrees and dark cloud in the morning to sunshine, big skies and 20 degrees!

I didn't want a sunroof, but it came with the model with the big engine (which I did want). I opened it for the first time today and this photo is for my friend Lina who is an excellent road trip buddy and who I know would have made me stop a million times to take photos of derelict buildings and other things I drove too fast by to take photos of! (Sorry)

LOVE in the prairies how you can see for miles and see it rain... 
So a pretty good day - the scenery in Ontario gets tedious, but it is beautiful. I do love the prairies though which I have driven through a lot in the past few years. All in all, Canada is a stunning country. If you don't live here, you really must visit!

Comments

  1. Unknown5 May 2017 at 01:01

    Totally! And being on schedule would have been mission impossible!!
    Enjoy your adventure to the max! And maybe one day I'll join you in a very slow open roof drive :))

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dr. Connie5 May 2017 at 20:53

      Open roof and taking photos of run down buildings! Our only schedule is set by an almost never setting sun :)

      Delete
  2. Vicki6 May 2017 at 04:34

    I love reading about the landscapes and the people across our country! ❤

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dr. Connie6 May 2017 at 08:51

      Thank you Vicki! I am enjoying writing this and taking the photos :) Looking forward to my East Coast leg as well!

      Delete

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