Day 12 began at 9:17 am with 55160 miles on the odometer as I headed westward towards Thunder Bay, Ontario. There were no music radio stations on, but there was a station where two people were speaking French.
On a whim, I decided to take a dirt road, Highway 801, going north to see where that would lead. As the Highway officially ended, the dirt road continued. There was nothing except trees which have cut down. I was hoping I could catch a sighting of sasquatch or something unusual out here, but no luck. I was worried about how much gas I had left; so I turned back. For every mile I drove deeper into the country, a mile had to be accounted for coming back out in case the road ended abruptedly. One day, I'll be back to check this road out.
Towards the city of Joliette, Ontario, the scene from Highway 11 was so beautiful. On the left, ice melted and water ran down the side of the cliff while on the right there was a nice view of a big lake. This is one of those times you wish there was no one behind you as you cruise at half the speed limit and just enjoy the drive.
When I stopped at a roadside park to take a whiz, the men's room had a bunch of gay messages on the walls. That is, guys writing messages on the wall about gay anal or oral sex. Just out of curiousity, the women's bathroom door was open, so I peeked inside, and it was much cleaner. Since the door was already open, I didn't feel like I violated any principals. Yeah, whatever. Guys can be so immature, but then I can relate about acting immature; as long as you know when to be serious.
Before entering the city of Thunder Bay, I stopped at a KOA campground to use the phone to check up on my credit cards. As I finished up, a man named Joe Tremblay came up to me and asked if I ran the camp. Joe was selling some sort of device for mobile homes. We ended up talking about places to go in Thunder Bay, and he gave me some advice on restaurants to eat at. Before we parted ways, Joe handed me a map of Thunder Bay which his realstate company produces.
One interesting thing Joe mentioned was Thunder Bay had a slum section on Simpson Street. He said that was the poor part of town, and mainly houses native Canadians. We discussed gangs and other bad things in Canada, and I told him it's the same way in large cities in the United States. Anyways, I didn't realize Canadian cities, especially a city which isn't quite a metropolitian, would have slums. Joe suggested I avoid the area, and I obliged.
I didn't get anything to eat in Thunder Bay, but I did drive through the city. Ended up eating at a cafe out in the middle of nowhere where a man and his mother ran the place. The cafe was a few miles before Highway 11 and Highway 17 divided.
The standard of living in Canada is a little lower than the United States; so if you don't mind paying for higher gasoline prices, you could drive into Canada and eat and stay at rooms for less money than places just right across the border in the United States. And Canada is safer and possibly cleaner.
I did stop at a general store in a tiny town to send some postcards. The lady behind the counter gave a 1.4:1 exchange rate on the Canadian to American dollar. This was the best rate anyone has offered other than a bank. I really appreciated her honesty, and wished her the best of luck...she deserved it.
I stopped at a public Ontario hunting and fishing lake and went to bed. There were two houses nearby, but that didn't make staying at the lake any less frightening. The night brought a lot of noises and made me real jumpy; I took off west for about an hour until I ran into a Husky reststop and slept until morning.
During the drive to the Husky, I went through the intersection city of Oxfield. There wasn't really anything noticible about the quarter mile city except an animal got ran over and there was blood all over the road. Possibly a deer since there was another deer hanging around off the side of the road. It seemed to me deers recognize death.
