Road Trip

It's rather an iconic summer thing to do, isn't it, the road trip? Tomorrow, Sprout and I depart in the wee smalls toward Thunder Bay. If you don't know Ontario, our province is huge! It easily takes 3 full days of driving to get from one end of it to the other. GoogleMaps says Thunder Bay is only (!?) 18 hours away, and while we are road warriors and easily able to do 13 hours in a car without blinking, that is usually because P is doing the driving. This trip is just mother and son. I've never done a road trip on my own before and while Sprout can do some of the driving, this is as much a personal challenge for me, as a way of getting to Lakehead and Laurentian universities for tours.

Let's talk about the vehicle of choice for the adventure. (I'm about to sound like a Top Gear episode - move over Jeremy Clarkson). Cruising across a sunny summertime northern Ontario in a Mercedes Benz convertible sounds divine. She would be a great little car except for a few things, and that's why we have chosen instead to take the VW Jetta.
Reason 1: gas mileage - the SLK requires high octane premium gas, and she guzzles it. The Jetta is a diesel. 'Nuff said.
Reason 2: Mod cons - the SLK is a 2002. She was made before blue tooth, GPS, or satellite radio. The Jetta, on the other hand, has sat nav should we need it, and Sirius.
Reason 3: rain. Hard to drive with the top down when it's pouring. And according to the Weather Network, not only are we in for wet, we're also in for cold. The Jetta's sunroof will have to do, should the rain stop long enough to open it.

I have been told that a uniquely Canadian thing is measuring distance in time (see length of Ontario example above). Don't ask me how many miles or kilometres we'll be covering, but I can tell you estimated drive times. Tomorrow, we have 10 hours to Wawa homeoftheGoose. Sunday, there's 5-6 hours to Thunder Bay. Monday, after our morning tour of Lakehead, we have 8 hours back east to Sault Ste. Marie. Tuesday morning early, we leave the Sault for the beautiful drive alongside Lake Superior. We have to make it to Sudbury for noon, because the Laurentian tour is at 1pm. After that, we continue on home, which is another 5 hours.

All told, that looks like 34 hours of driving over 4 days, broken up by lakes, rocks, trees, the Terry Fox memorial, scenic lookouts over Lake Superior and Sleeping Giant, a trip to Fort William (I hope), and a picture in front of the Wawa Goose. And likely, lots of stops at Tim Hortons.

Look out Gitchigoomie
- here we come!