We woke up to cloudy skies and the weather outlook was clearing locally and sunny where we were heading. Rick already made reservations in Wawa Ontario as it was our halfway point to Kakabeka Falls and he found a unique looking lodge with an attached restaurant and bar.
We left at 6:30 am after filling up our tanks. We left town on Trans-Canadian highway 17, which is a freeway here in Sudbury. Canadians sure make large interchanges for thier freeways. Google was barking instructions and the on ramp was 1/2 mile long before merging on the freeway!
We leave everyone behind on the freeway as the freeways are empty this morning and we traveling just a bit faster than everyone else . The freeway turns into a two lane highway shortly after it leaves its city limits and traffic is light on this smooth pavement. We make good time as we do not top till we had about 120 miles clicked off. I pulled over at a gas station by the lake shore to take our fist break.
We noticed a lot of our gas stations have Tim Horton’s restaurants attached or next door. At this one I had to check it our as I wanted some strong coffee. Turns out these Tim Horton’s are really like our Starbucks but with a bit more offering on the food side. That is why we saw so many of them. After my fix we take off again and we soon approach the shoreline of Lake Superior.
All day the weather was clearing as we ticked off the miles. The air became crisper and cleaner. The skies bluer. The few clouds in the sky were white as cotton and almost appear to hang low. I felt as though we were slowly climbing all morning. In the big scheme of things, perhaps we were. After all, the great lakes all eventually have to drain through Niagara Falls and the St. Laurence Seaway
We continue along the lake shore, getting glimpses every once in awhile where there is some tree clearings. The terrain in this part is more rolling hills. By 2p.m. we reach Wawa. We were told Wawa has a unique monument just outside of town. We see it as we arrive. We also see more in town.
We find our hotel, The Wawa Motor Inn, and call it a day. Tomorrow we will try and get checkpoints 10 and 11!