With apologies

Sorry for not having posted yet. There was no wifi signal in the second room I was in at the motel I stayed at last night.  I gave up the first room after the lady at reception desk came to ask if I would do so to accommodate a family that needed more beds. So I told a room with a king size bed instead of two queens and lost wifi coverage and a cable/tv combo that worked.  Well that meant early to bed.

I left Orléans at around 8:30 just as the sun was burning through an early morning cloud cover.  As the weather was perfect for riding and since there was a total absence of roadwork, a first for me on this stretch of Highway 17, I made it to Sturgeon Falls for lunch.  I stopped at one of, if not the, finest dining venues there.  Larry's Chip Stand has been in business since 1953, and I bet I've been going there since shortly after that. Right next to the chip stand is a monument, a stone cross in effect, dedicated to Jacques Cartier -"DÉCOUVREUR DU CANADA 1534-1934". One has to wonder why this monument is there. Was it erected by some homesick settler from Gaspésie, like my parents, as it bears a striking resemblance on a somewhat smaller scale to the cross in Gaspé that marks the spot where Cartier erected a wood cross in 1534?

After visiting my father and mother's gravesite I had a great dinner with my young brother, Jean-Yves, his wonderful wife Candace, and my beautiful niece Tanya. Their home is conveniently located very close to the route that I take as I head west.  I am hoping to drop in on my older brother in Garson on my return trip.

Yesterday was another great day for riding; the sun was shining and the temperature, between 18 next  to Lake Superior and as high as 25 in the interior, was ideal.  Again there was little road construction and that which there was west of Sault Ste-Marie hardly slowed down the trip.  Lake Superior along which Highway 17 runs for long stretches is the largest fresh water body in the world, and holds 10 per cent of the planet's fresh surface water.  It is an amazing body of water and its shoreline of rocky coves and cliffs, and sand beaches is truly impressive. I chatted with a couple from Wyoming who were circumnavigating the whole lake, he on a 2003 BMW, and she in a sidecar that he had purchased three years ago.  I can't imagine how sitting in a plexiglass covered mini tub attached to a speeding motorcycle could be fun. But she, a quiet diminutive woman,  professed that she liked it, especially since with their Bluetooth enabled helmets she and her husband were able to communicate constantly.

I arrived in Wawa (you've got to love a town that has the same name as your granddaughter, and has 3 huge geese statues)  around 4:30.  After finding the Mystic Isle Motel, unpacking and changing out of my riding gear, I walked across the highway and had dinner at "Best Northern Restaurant". I personally cannot confirm the claim of "Best" but the fresh pickerel on a bed of wilted spinach with matched potatoes, cauliflower and two small helpings of cabbage salad, ore purple and the other green, was very good; and the cold Tyskie, a Polish beer, was pretty fine.

This morning it's off to Thunder Bay. I hope to sort out the computer/camera situation so that I can include pictures in my next posts.