day 135
across northern ontario

"Those people in that bus shelter are drinking Listerine.
I'm ready to go." -a.
home...    map...    photos...    contact us...      visit our giftshop!
The Bay to the 'Peg:
Distance: 708km
Cities: 2
Towns: 12
Highways: 1
Frequently: Closed

Claim to Fame: Our destination today is a province where you can drink when you're only 18. A very popular destination with the American teenagers.

Insecticide of the Day
Above and Beyond:
Somewhere in this direction lies the Northernmost Point in the Continental United States. The roads were closed, so we couldn't drive right up, but we should get some credit for taking this photo from the north of the Northernmost Point.

If you look closely, you may see bunnies waving at you from the other side of the lake.

For your trivial pleasure:
The Easternmost Point
The Southernmost Point
Centrepoint of the 48
Centrepoint of the 50
...only one more to go!
Visit Beautiful Kakabeka Falls
The Niagara of the North

The Moose Is Loose!
Jan 8 - There's something to be said for the anatomically correct signs in Canada. Wait a sec... hey, that's magic marker!

Well, nevertheless, we've finally left Thunder Bay. Under cover of darkness, we packed up Mel and escaped the city, onward and upward, so on and so forth. One might consider using the phrase "on to bigger and better things", but only if one hadn't looked at the map to see where one was headed that day. The route across Northern Ontario can only be described as "on to smaller and less convenient things", which sounds rather rude, which is why we left it out.

This seems like a good spot to mention why we chose a cross-America trip over a cross-Canada trip. In a single (yet cryptic) sentence: Canada is about passive greatness, where America is about active greatness.

What do we mean by that? Here's an example... if you've ever flown over Canada, you'll see vast untouched areas of forest, plain, mountains and so forth, acres and acres of it (or should I say hectares and hectares). The cities are isolated, few and far between, surrounded in all directions by wide open spaces, unfathomably huge. If you took the entire population of Canada and spread them out equally, each person would have two square kilometers of wide open, beautiful, picturesque space. That, my friends, is passive greatness.


Who can truly compare the beauty of the Gaspe Peninsula with that of Nash Dinosaur Tracks in Massachusetts?
Active greatness, on the other hand, is what America does best. To be actively great, this involves a task, an achievement, or an action on the part of the common man. It's about banding the town together, building the largest foam mammal or ball of aluminum foil or chicken wire chicken in the world, for the sole purpose of sticking a big sign out the front of town that says "Come see why our town is on the map!" Active greatness is a self-made, self-serving greatness that, whether or not the effort is necessary, or even aesthetically pleasing, it sure as hell is fun.

Not to say that America isn't passively great as well. On the contrary, many times during this trip have we been awed by a sight or a view from the top of a hill. Both Canada and America are naturally beautiful on their own. It's simply that while Canada is content with her natural beauty, America chooses to go above and beyond the call of duty, to make itself even greater, bigger, wider, taller, and, in some cases, more colourful with a healthy dose of active greatness.

So, while Canada is an extremely beautiful drive, it doesn't lend itself to the unpredictability of an American road trip. While places like Quebec City or Grand Manan Island were some of the most fascinating parts of our trip, they lacked the entertainment value of, say the Space Farms Zoo and Museum in Beemerville, New Jersey or the Largest Ball of Twine in Darwin, Minnesota. Active greatness is just so damn funny that, frankly, the website would have been a whole lot less amusing without it.

God bless America!


plaque build-up...

Screw from a Plaque

Corner of a Plaque

Side of a Plaque

Bottom of a Plaque
more photos in the archive...
Current Location
(get out your push pins)

Northern Ontario

Next Stop: Win a Pig!

see the full map...

Today's Weather:
Slushy

Holiday Stats
Distance:534.7km
Gas:$59.00
Movies:7
Fast Food Runs:3
Late Nights:15
Diablo Level:24


Daily Stats
Distance:731.1km
Gas:$26.00
Creepy People:12
Location:Kenora

Sleeping Quarters
Steve's Sanitorium

Nothing like giving Steve a few minutes notice before we arrive for the evening! We got the comfiest futon in the place!

Bkfast: 
Robin's near Kmart
Thunder Bay
K's Order:Chocolate Glazed Donut, Coffee
A's Order:Chocolate Chip Muffin, Coffee
Cost:$3.08
Lunch: 
Subway
Kenora Market Square
K's Order:Southwest Chicken
A's Order:Subway Melt
Cost:$14.89
Dessert: 
Baked Expectations
Winnipeg
Kevin:Schmoo Cake
Aimee:Banana Cake
Steve:Tia Maria Torte
Cost:Kev's Treat!

Mom & Pop's
Road Stops


The Grand Canyon
They had such a great time at the Grand Canyon, that National Geographic did a feature spread on their experience there!
We lived life on
the edge on Day 173.

Your email address...

© 2002. Kevin Beimers and Aimee Lingman. Fender Booger Flickers.