Driving Northern Ontario August 2008

I drove across Northern Ontario in late August 2008. The Trans-Canada splits and turns into a rather rustic back-country road in some sections. In BC I am used to secondary highway driving in the mountains. But considering that these Ontario roads are a vital lifeline in Canada's richest province; I was surprised to discover a highway that in many places has not even gravel shoulders, is often badly pot-holed, is rarely marked as the Trans-Canada and often seems as a rural afterthought. The worst sections were the furthest from Toronto. Near Kenora the "highway" rarely runs straight for as much as 50 metres as it winds between the local lakes and hills. 

The trip from the Manitoba border to north of Toronto took 2 1/2 days. I knew Ontario was big but had forgotten that it was that big!

North of the vast Lake Superior there is some road improvement.
As I sat in the sunshine beside a Thunder Bay marina I could easily imagine that I was sitting beside a vast salty ocean... it would be interesting to see when it is frozen in winter ice.

After Thunder Bay there are many miles where the road overlooks the great lake. The many bays and rocky beaches seem designed for a kayak or canoe. The beaches consist largely of rounded red pebbles.

The second night I was camped in my trailer beside the highway between White River and Wawa. I caught this sunrise in the morning.

Beautiful Wawa Ontario! home of giant Canada geese

I drove across Northern Ontario in mid-August 2008. I was looking forward to visiting that den of iniquity known as Wawa, Ontario. This is a small town on the Trans-Canada Highway that was known in the seventies as being a place where hitch-hikers would apparently spend weeks waiting for the next ride. I never got caught there myself but I heard plenty of stories.

It is also famous as being a boring place where there was nothing to do except look at the great Canadian goose that overlooks the highway. When I arrived on the morning of August 16th I was surprised that there was plenty to see and plenty to photograph. To my surprise, Wawa has not just one giant goose but three! All are on the way into town on the short detour from the highway. According to the informative information signs, the first goose was built in 1960 but eventually fell into disrepair at a place called Fort Friendship, Ontario. In the year 2000 it was restored and given a new place of honour outside the old-fashioned Young's General Store gas station. This creature weighs 150,000 lbs and stands 27 feet high.

The second goose is made of steel and overlooks the highway beside the local tourist information centre. This one was dedicated upon the highway completion in 1963. It is 28 feet high and weighs 4,400 lbs.

The third great goose is perched nearby on the roof of the Wawa Motor Inn. This one was built in 1961 at the same time as the motel.  

There was much more to photograph here, but I will leave something for my next blog.

Wawa Ontario (Part Two) Grandma Doors

As I said in my previous blog, my short trip to Wawa, Ontario last August 16th was a big surprise. I found an interesting northern town with plenty of things to photograph.

The whole of the town's main street was done up into a massive temporary art project. Apparently the students of the local elementary school created 200 decorated doors based dedicated to the grandmothers of Wawa. Some of them are the student's grannies and some are historic ladies of the town.

According to my reading at Wawa-news.com; this was a temporary project from May to September 2008.

The students used paint, paper and multimedia materials. The results were glued onto cheap interior doors. The city took on the project of installation and removal.

I could find almost nothing online about this project. I have no idea where they got their idea. There is a similar project at GrandmaDoors.org but that is an extremely strange web site with no information about when, where or how that web site was created.

Dropping 2 Blogs (ActiveAlertWorld and ActiveAlertData)

When I started this blogging thing I thought that I would keep the different sizes of my personality in different blogs. (Just like I once had several web sites for different purposes). 

Instead I am reverting to just two blogs. If you want to keep track of me in the future then please here and my travel blog: ActiveAlertTravel.blogspot.com 

 The blogs that I am dropping should remain online with the old blogs. 

For the curious the old efforts can be found at ActiveAlertWorld.blogspot.com and ActiveAlertData.blogspot.com