We woke up to a clear morning, but a bit chilly early on. We pack up and roll by 7 am. We both are wearing our jackets and gloves to start off, but I opt to still wear my riding shorts – big mistake. Although it was ok, at our first gas stop I wised up and added the lowers on the convertible pants.
Todays ride takes us west still with a northern tilt. It was a freeway in Ottawa it quickly became a two lane road but not as crowed as yesterday. It was more like riding around on country roads but did have to pass once in awhile, making it a very enjoyable ride for the day.
We pass lots of lakes today, along with farms of farms and small towns. One farm had some bright yellow crop growing that was quite a visual site to see in this green landscape in Canada. Buy about 12:30 we find ourselves in city traffic in Sudbury navigating to the Big Nickle.
Again, we did not know anything about this checkpoint till the day we traveled there. At gas stops conversing with people asking us about our journey, we find out that we are going to a large Nickle mine with a giant Nickle and a discovery center. I assume the mining company running this center as it is right next to the mine and you can do mine tours if you wish.
We get through town and find the giant nickel and take our picture and decided to check out the center and get our receipt while we are at it.
The discover center shows films, has a rock exhibit showing you what minerals come from what rock, a cafĂ©, mine tours and lots of old mining photos. While observing the gems and stones, you forget how much of our daily items are minerals and come from mining. After spending about an hour milling around the center, we decided to stay in this town and call it a day, so we head to the Hamptons Inn, and while we wait for our ground floor room to be cleaned, we walk to the restaurant “Shoeless Joe’s Sports Grill” in the same parking lot to have a dessert of ice cream and cookie.
Loved the poses with the giant nickel! The mine sounds like an interesting place to visit and learn something too!