The lake was perfectly still and clear. I can't imagine being a college student and calling this 'work' for the summer. Sorry, up here there aren't college students, only people that go to university after grade 13.
Once on the road, we only made it about 10 minutes and ran into this.
Two separate times we sat on the road at a complete stop, totaling over 45 minutes. When we got word at a gas station what had happened, and then drove past the scene a bit later, it was chilling. I won't go into detail, but it was a fatal accident and we were a bit more understanding of the delay after that.
Acting on yet another tip from our buddy Dallas, we stopped at a roadside Provincial Park called Rainbow Falls. It was the perfect break from our drive and stoppages, and we had one seriously antsy 7 yr old. Case in point.
A short hike down revealed multiple levels of falls, each one being explored more intently than the last.
Enjoying her time out of the big truck, Jordan was scampering all over everything. Ultimately I asked her to pose by the sign, and we all got a good laugh when she tried to brace herself against it and discovered it was swinging from hinges at the top and almost hit her in the face. Yes, we were a bit stir crazy.
While this was happening, Kimberly was heading back across the bridge, leading to this photo op.
We then worked our way back up the stairs to the big truck, knowing that any energy burned now would be repaid with momentary silence when we got back on the road. I also had a full sandal blowout, and am now essentially employing one of these whenever donning the Keens.
Over the past 3 nights we had nearly exhausted our supply of Michigan beers, so we starting searching for the nearest Beer Store along our route. I was determined to drink some local Canadian microbrews, but the beer scene in Canada is still dominated by the big guys.
We found a Beer Store on the way, and I stopped with the full intention of buying whatever was made closest to that region. Then I met Bev, which may be the most occupation-appropriate name ever.
Bev explained to me that down by Sleeping Giant (where we were headed), there was a place that made their own beer. She then went in the back to rummage around and show me what kind of bottle they sold. It was a growler. God bless Bev. Only after we got on the road did we realize that Sleeping Giant Brewery was more than an hour away from our campground, and was closer to Thunder Bay. Either way, thanks Bev.
Once we made it to Sleeping Giant, we found out again that a site denoted as 'electric' just means that there is power in the general vicinity. After C$250 in deposit, we had the required 200 metres of 30amp extension cords for our site with electricity. It did not matter, as the site was more than worth it.
Not only was site 218-e large enough to turn around the big truck, but it was also lakeside and had the following view of the Sleeping Giant rock formation.
We set up camp and headed for the playground. Jordan had somehow gone multiple vacation days without a sniff of a playground. Likely a record, but these aren't things we are interested in tracking. Once we got to the playground, we discovered a beach as well, although it looked like they trucked in some sand and dragged the beach with a tractor. Either way, it wasn't rocks.
Now we both had our playground. I got to ride around on the beach, she got to chase seagulls.
We then found the elusive 'giant wooden single swingset', something that seems insanely impractical, but made for a cool picture.
Next up was another oddity, something I'll call the 'infant swing cleverly fashioned to resemble an old jock strap'. You be the judge. Also, any time you can mix in a few chains, rivets, and galvanized brackets into a toddler swing, you do it, don't you? In the States someone's lawyer would own this entire park. We're moving to Canada.
We retired to the campsite, which to this point is definitely in our top 5 sites ever (something we also do not track, so there could be 27 sites in our top 5). Here are a few shots of life at 218-e.
We played on the rocks (Jordan invented an obstacle course game, it ended when I fell in) for as long as we wanted. Pretty tough to beat this playground.
Then it was time to bust out Slayer, Jordan's aptly named fishing rod.
Our jalapeno brat/bobber combo proved unsuccessful, prompting me to have this internal dialogue with Slayer.
We capped off the night with a few sunset shots of Sleeping Giant, then chased a few bats around the site, encouraging them to eat the hummingbird-sized mosquitos that ingest DEET like PEDs.
Day 5 takes us out of Canada, back to the States and on to Tettegouche State Park in Minnesota. Farewell Canada, we will miss thee.
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