Listening to a guest on a CBC program the other day talk about her experience at a US airport with the new body scanners, or more accurately how she was treated when she refused to use one, Chris and I both agreed our way was a better way to travel. Of course, we're not on a business trip and we don't have to be back to work in a week or two. There's no doubt such constraints impose themselves in ways we don't have to deal with.
But, if your goal is to get to know a place, region, or country getting out from under those constraints as best you can is a must. For one thing, you meet people and hear stories you won't hear on a guided tour or a more rushed trip planned to a fare-thee-well. The story of our two Keiths makes our point. We told you about the Keith we met in the Rockies in our May 20th post. We met Keith number two at Godson Lake south of Dryden, Ontario during our brief stay there the night of May 24th.
Keith 2 used to work at the paper mill in Dryden, but between modernization and the recession, the mill went from approximately 1,200 employees a few years back to little more than 200 now; a huge hit for a small, remote town in northwestern Ontario like Dryden. Keith had his trailer set up just off the road in a camp on crown lands typically used by local fisherman spending a day or two on Godson Lake, about 30 km south of Dryden. Unlike Keith number one, this Keith hasn't lost his home and was able to escape the paper mill with a severance package, but like Keith number one in the Rockies, Keith two isn't sure what he's going to do next and is just making it up as he goes. As a man in his mid 50s from northern Ontario, he doesn't see a lot of options out there.
That said, our experience with Keiths so far makes us believe there really is something in a name. Chris says she used to work with one, and he was a nice guy too. Keith two had me over for a couple of beers and played ball with Zeus. Spending as much time as he does living out of his trailer on crown land (that's public land to our American readers), he enjoys the opportunity to meet people passing through. But Keith's story isn't one you'll hear on a typical vacation.
Then, of course, there's the local environment. Another aspect of place typically flown over or simply passed through without much comment these days. How many of us take the time to really look into the night sky, for example? Godson Lake, being as remote as it was, didn't have a hint of light pollution. When it finally got really dark near midnight, the moonless sky was full of stars from horizon to horizon. The lake was so calm, the stars looked like tiny glowing stones laying on the bottom of the lake. One could almost as easily have enjoyed the night sky by sitting and staring at the surface of the water as by craning their neck to see what the heavens had on display.
The night was also regularly interrupted by the plaintive sound of the loons living nearby. By morning the loons were silent and the lake was shrouded in a low fog that burned off within an hour or so, but the hour spent watching the fog slowly retreat across the lake revealing each of the lakes three small islands, one after another, was not a wasted hour by any stretch of the imagination.
Now we sit in a small, some might say "cheap" motel called the Rongie Lake Motel about midway between Thunder Bay and Sault Ste Marie on the northern shore of Lake Superior. The owners run a restaurant below the motel's five or so rooms, and it was fun eating and actually feeling a bit like a part of this small community while doing so. We were the only ones at the restaurant last night beside the owners and two locals, and so we were often invited to join in the conversation and felt right at home. But again, this place wouldn't even get a second look on a tour or thoroughly planned vacation.
Finally, driving across the second largest country on earth is, outside walking or riding a bicycle, the best way to get a sense of its enormity. Ontario alone takes at least two or three days of solid driving just to get across, to say nothing of experiencing what it has to offer. While the transition from the Rockies to the prairies to boreal forest can be witnessed from a plane window, if you're lucky enough to have a flight taking you over all three, the transition can only truly be experienced on the ground. Likewise, driving through the record flooding along the Assiniboine River between a canyon of sandbags holding back the water on either side of you is a unique experience that we will likely never be able to repeat.
Chris, Zeus, and I are all looking forward to a relaxing weekend, with little to no automobile travel. We'll let you know what's coming next soon. We will also share with you some of Zeus' adaptions to life on the road in an upcoming post, and all of us are looking forward to watching the Stanley Cup finals with some Canadians - GO CANUCKS!!. That's all for now.
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