Leaving Manatoba, entering Ontario and no bloody animals....

 We drove most of the day, through really boring countryside, we stopped at the sadest little Gas station, in the middle of nowhere, with a sad little attendant.  But Mary Ann did find a friend in the car park, a lovely native American, who gave us some tips and her husband got some smokes off Mary Ann and we continued on our boring way, there is really nothing to see in Manatoba at all. 

                    Really sad oasis, motel and diner where closed and just really run down

Once we were on the road again we started getting storm warning messages and I was fine with it, until Mary Ann said the storms can lead to tornados, then I got a little concerned.  She drove and I was on tornado watch, great plan, as I had no idea what I was looking for.... The storm just raged around us and it got worse and worse.  We had to pull over at one point and then once we could continue it got less frightening until we drove onto Ontario.  The scenery in Ontario is beautiful, more fir trees and lots of water, but it does become repetative.  We got caught up in a traffic jam for about 45 minutes as an RV had slid partially off the road, and Canadian roads are a nightmare.  They are not very wide, there is not options if there is a problem and you can only do 90 kilometres an hour.  It makes travelling through repetative scenery quite boring.  We stayed in a really dodgy Travel lodge in Thunder Bay,  Mary Ann booked ahead and they charged her card, but when we got there, they had no room for us.  Well she wasn't happy.... We decided to wait there until the manager arrived at 11pm.  Well surprise, surprise before he arrived, they found a room for us. 

Really smelly gross room, but we had a clean bed each and we had a good breakfast.  

The start of the storm, while I was still not concerned and taking pics

We left Thunder Bay for Marathon and what a day in turned out to be. My elastic was stretched in my trousers somewhere along the way, so I had to hold onto them most of the time, until I forgot.  We got into our second traffic back up due to an accident on the road.  Sadly this one was a fatality and it was going to be between 6 to 8 hours delay.  It was really awful for the people involved, but to hold up all of the traffic, including the Semi's was ridiculous, they have no B plan when things go south.  Mary Ann got talking to a local girl in a car two up from us and she said she was going to go back and take a side road, it would take about an hour to get back onto the road the other side of the accident, but we were welcome to follow her if we wished.  She was really lovely and she had the sweetest little daughter.  So we did that, Mary Ann did a great job following her through the bush, it was so dusty and it was really hard to see.  At one point there was about 7 cars in our little convoy, we just caught up to them on the bush track.  It was actually a really nice drive, if we were just meandering, as we were going across little bridges over creeks, it was quite pretty, but with the dust and having to keep up with our guide it was quite stressful for Mary Ann. 

We finally made it back onto the road, the other side of the accident, and the road was still full of people trying to get across the block onto the other side.  They had put up signs that the trucks were not to use the road we did, but I am surprised more cars didn't.  It was about then we decided we had had enough of Canada, it is expensive and the roads are stupid.  So we drove to Marathon and we have managed to find a room for the night, everything is expensive and they add tax to everything so you pay a lot more, 13% plus 8% plus 3.5%, it is ridiculous.  A $150 hotel room becomes a $187 hotel room etc.  It's ridiculous.  I don't understand why they don't have more coffee shops or cafes etc, along the lake side or things for tourists to see and do.  They are missing out on a lot of custom and people just get fed up of the high costs and leave. 

We are leaving Canada tomorrow and heading to one of Mary Ann's friends for a visit, then the following day we will relax and drive home to hers on Sunday.  That is the plan so far, it may change, it often does. 

We thought it would be nice to relax with a wine and some snacks, the local bottle shop closed at 6pm, we were informed at 6.15 pm.  So no wine for us.  Mary Ann has some beers and I had a small amount of wine in a container, so we sat outside and chatted to a couple of young Canadians, fortunatly they headed inside before I stood up and my trousers landed around my ankles... OMG.. I almost wet myself laughing, and Mary Ann was in hysterics, I quickly gathered myself together and we came back to the room.  I have had enough for today and plan to retire early.  

I have had my shower, getting rid of all the dust.  It felt like I was back in the mallee. It is a long time since I have seen dust like that.  We had to buy some armor all for the van, the thing is covered in dust inside and out. Tomorrow we will find a car wash, hopefully in the USA, it is a lot cheaper than Canada. 

That's all for today... 

Lones