Thunder Road

Aug 5th
Just a restful day today. Plan on moving on down the road tomorrow, so just lay around and rest up. Bill out spitting some more wood.
That is his past time. All his neighbors drop of their cut up logs and Bill splits them and piles them. He is the only one in the near proximity that has a splitter. Bill, being a mechanic, by trade, built his own and it works like a dream. Wood has no scarcity here. Pine, Spruce, Cottonwood, and Birch is all plentiful here. Bill has enough piled up to last what he says is for a full years cooking and heating, but it seems to me to be enough for, lets just say "A long Time!!"
Aug 4th
W all go into Thunder Bay at about 3:00PM to tour the Bounty, but when we got there found thousands of people lined up. Parking was non-existent, and we could see a several hour wait in line. None of us were agreeable to that so just decided to tour the city instead. And what better tour guides than Bill and Laverne who have lived here all there short lives. We found the city quite depressed, with all but about three of the huge grain elevators shut down and abandoned, as well as several pulp mills in the area.
A shame to see that type of thing happening in "Our Canada." Even the huge harbor was very quiet for a week day. Nary a ship in site!!
Stopped at "The Prospector" for dinner. Now that was good!! The owners were originally ranchers outside of the city and still raise their own beef. It was "All most" as good as Alberta Beef!!! I had Prime rib. Medium Rare, outside cut. To Die for!!
Aug 3rd
Today the "Bounty" is coming to town!! For those that do not recognize the name, The "Bounty" is a replica of the famous ship of "The Mutiny on the Bounty" fame. This was one reconstructed as per the original design. It was scheduled to sail in from Duluth at about noon today, so we decided to go into Thunder Bay for some groceries, stop along the way for the Terry Fox Memorial, and the watch to Bounty sail in. We did stop at Terry's statue.

This is the point where his famous "Cross Country" run came to the tragic end. Where cancer overcame him rendering him unable to finish his dream. While there several antique cars pulling various types of RV trailers pulled in. Some of these were in exceptional condition, and were traveling Coast to Coast. If you are interested in their trip, you can follow their progress at: http://www.coasters2010.com/
Then we went into Thunder Bay and up to a viewing point above the city with a good open view of the harbor to watch the Bounty come in. At this point you can see many, many miles out into Lake Superior, but no tall sailing ship was in sight.
We wandered around the parks "Sunken Gardens" for a while and took some pictures of flowers, but now it was noon so at Lavernes advise went down into the inner city to the Hoito for lunch. Nothing fancy, but a great lunch. After grocery shopping at Super Store, drove down the the Marina where Bounty was supposed to dock, and Voila, there in the far distance was a mirage of a tall ship. Bounty was on its way!!. Now Bounty only travels at about 4 knots, and was still eight or ten knots out. We waited and were gifted with some great shots of her entering the harbor. She was not under sail, but was still very impressive, especially with "The Sleeping Giant" in the background.

Tomorrow plans are to go on-board for $3 a head.
Aug 2nd
Today was a nice calm day so Bill and Laverne wanted to take us boating on Lake Superior. We pushed of at about 10:00AM and followed the shoreline for a few miles to the north-west, admiring all the expensive luxury homes along the shoreline.
Bill has a "Fish-finder" so it gives a reading of the depth to the bottom as well as any fish we passed over. I found it interesting, then at some places as much as 1/4 mile off the shore that there was only less than ten feet of water, and then a little further on it may be over one hundred feet of water. Must be a rugged bottom!! Then we headed across the Bay to Cariboo Island.


This is an Island about one and one half miles long by one half mile wide, and rises a couple of hundred feet above the lake. It is uninhabited, and has some great scenery along the shoreline. Some places nice spruce forests, others, sheer rock walls jutting out of the water. Along these sections, we found the water up to two hundred feet deep, and we were only one hundred feet from the shore. We took some pictures of a huge eagle nest, but saw no eagle near it. We landed and tied up near the east end of the Island and walked a short distance across to the other side to a beautiful beach with unique flat rocks instead of sand.

The solid rock of the Canadian Shield gave us a great place to take some photos and enjoy a picnic lunch the girls had prepared.

Then was time to head home across the bay again, and to enjoy a beer and then dinner.

Aug 1st
Decided to go for a short drive around the local area so, Bill and Laverne took us to Karen's Country Restaurant, for lunch. They advised us we should be there early as it is a very popular place for lunch and it may take a little time to get seated. However when we drove up nary a soul was in site. The owner, Karen, saw us and came out to welcome us, and explain. The power had been out for a couple of hours, and was still out. But if we chose from a much reduced menu, she would try to accommodate us, We agreed. Well we had great soup and salad lunches. More than we could have ever hoped to have in a full service restaurant!! After lunch we drove a little further east and off the the left for a few miles to the Largest Amethyst Mine in Canada. We were able to pick up lots of loose amethysts from the overburden dump. Needed to pay for them but only $3/lb




History
Amethyst Mine was established in 1960. It is the largest amethyst deposit in North America. It was discovered in 1955 as a result of a road being built to the forest fire lookout tower visible from the mine site.

Amethyst production started in 1960 and the mine has produced continuously since then.

The mine produces 40% usable amethyst by volume. A large digging area, open to the public, contains 20% usable amethyst and is the main source of “pick your own” amethysts.

Large amounts of amethyst are mined each year to replenish the digging area, provide landscape and garden stone and to supply the Amethyst Gift Centre, located in Thunder Bay. Amethyst Mine Panorama has 60-70 years of reserves and will be providing amethyst for years to come. The exceptional variety of amethyst crystals makes Amethyst Mine Panorama well worth visiting!
July 31
Short traveling day today. Drove east on Highway 11 to Kakabecca Falls.
Stopped and took a bunch of photos. A very photogenic 40 meter water falls. Took pictures from each side of the river. While Denice went to the Info shop, I walked to another view point further down stream. I thought that it was only a short distance, but it turned out to be 1 1/4 km, Denice was waiting when I got back as I said I was only going to be 10 minutes. ---- Should never make those kind of promises --- Then continued on through Thunder Bay and to Birch Beach Road and to Bill and Lavernes private RV Park right on the edge of Lake Superior. Just a great spot with a fantastic view of the lake. After renewing acquittance's, we went out for supper with them just a few miles down the road. I had some Great Liver and Onions, then returned to their home for some Blueberry pie and general chit chat until 10:00PM