Retirement Rides 2019 II - Retrouvailles.

So, the second episode of Retirement Rides 2019 involves a trip to Lake Lauzon Resort, a spot some 10 kilometres east of Blind River Ontario just accross from the North Channel of Lake Huron. The channel itself seperates mainland Ontario and Manitoulin Island.

A bit of background to this trip may be of interest. A few months ago a former high school (Collège du Sacré Coeur de Sudbury) buddy, who had run into another mutual friend of ours, contacted me to ask if I thought a reunion of our 1967 graduation class would be a good idea. I readily agreed and we set out to locate as many former classmates as we could and set a date and location for a rendez-vous. One of the first to agree lives in Blind River and he agreed to be our host at the Lake Lauzon Resort. After some intense sleuthing we (mostly he - Richard (Press) Carrière) were able to locate about two dozen classmates, and 14 have accepted the invitation to attend Retrouvailles 2019 which is happening this weekend.

A motorcycle trip to a class reunion, what a good idea! And if I am going to ride to Blind River, why not make the journey as interesting as possible. Rather than taking the Trans Canada Highway through North Bay and Sudbury, a route I have traveled many, many times in my life, I decided I would take the opportunity to revisit Manitoulin Island. And as everyone one knows the best way to reach manitoulin Island is via Peterborough, Port Perry, Uxbridge, Newmarket, Shelburne, Flesherton, Wiarton, and Tobermory. If you do not believe me check out a map of Ontario. Once in Tobermory at the tip of the Bruce Peninsula why you are only a pleasant two hour ferry ride to South Bay Mouth; voilà you have arrived on Manitoulin Island and you`re just 30 or so kilometres from My Friends Inn in Manitowaning, which itself is about the same distance to Little Current, the gateway town at the eastern end of the island that one reaches by crossing an honest to goodness swinging bridge.

Manitoulin Island, which I had last seen nearly fifty years ago when I visited a girlfriend, who coincidentally was my date at my collège graduation and was the daughter of a guy that my dad was best man for, and who with his wife owned and operated the Anchor Inn which is still a going concern in Little Current and where I had a very nice pan seared filet of whitefish for lunch today.

I am looking forward to exploring the island tomorrow and will report on my journey in future blog posts.