Page 66 - USA ROAD TRIP SUMMER of 2000

THUNDER BAY to SAULT STE. MARIE

Tuesday - It would be presumptuous to characterize a city after
spending only a few hours in it. This should be particularly true for

those of us who were totally ignorant of the fact that Thunder Bay
is a large city of over 100,000. We thought it was a small town – a

leftover of more prosperous times.

Having said that, it was our superficial impression that Thunder
Bay is a cold town in more than just the sense of the weather. The

homes we saw in the downtown area were colorless and looked

hunkered down for the winter even in the summer. The buildings
have that closed up, small double-paned windowed, inward

looking, defensive character of structures warily waiting for the
first onslaught of arctic wind and snow. The sun shone brightly but

the wind blew off the lake and the air stayed very cool. A nice day.
But if this is August --------.

We decided to go on to the east. Just outside of town, we stopped

at an overlook and information center. We inquired how far it was

to Sault Ste Marie and were astonished to hear it was over 700
kilometers and would take us 8 to 10 hours to make the drive.

Ontario is huge!

Lois got out her reading and we set off. She’s reading aloud the
book, “Independent People” by the Icelandic, 1955 Nobel Prize

laureate in literature, Haldor Laxness. She was able to read almost
non-stop for over 9 hours. They don’t call her leather lungs for

nothing.

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