The Long Drive Back

Our time in Ontario had come to an end so it was time to "hot the road!" We had planned our trip back and planned on 8 days to drive the 4568 kilometres. Our stops were going to be pretty similar to our stops heading East with a few exceptions. Day one was Toronto to Sault Ste Marie. We entrusted our trip to our TomTom. He decided to take us on a tiki tour around Lake Simcoe. This added another 2 hours of scenic, small town scenes to our journey. Lucky it was Day 1 or the scenic little town would have felt our wrath! After 5 hours of drivng, our first stop was in CopperCliffe to see our first house we lived in when my family immigrated to Canada 44 years ago.

After that short reminice we headed to The Soo, as they call it. It was a long day and we knew the windy, Northern Ontario roads were still ahead so after a feed and a splash in the pool, we headed to bed. Day 2 was from Sault Ste Marie to Thunder Bay. The roads were slick black and the skies were grey. Just as I remembered it from the last trip. There was quite a lot of road construction which added to our time but all was good. On our entry into Thunder Bay we stopped at the Terry Fox Monument. This was one of the most important roadside stops of our trip. My kiwi kids heard about Terry Fox in passing and had been training for the run but had no real idea of who he was and why. When we got to the monument we were in awe of how beautiful it is. It had a real presence about it. We met an older couple who had actually met Terry on his run and they had shaken is hand. They were so proud to have met some kids from New Zealand and that my kids now knew about "their" hero. As we walked away we could hear the older man say, "Wow. All the way from New Zealand!" What a day.

Day 3 saw us heading out of Ontario and ending up in Winnipeg. This was the leg of the trip I was dreading. These turns and rocky ridges were the things of nightmares...especially in the rain. We started off, in the rain, and were well on our way. The traffic was heavy coming in the opposite direction. Long, speedy logging trucks barrelled down the hills past us while I silently prayed for the driver to maintain full control of his truck at all times. I knew these guys knew the roads, but they sure looked like they were going a wee bit too fast for my liking! We crossed the Ontario border and I felt a pang of sadness...perhaps realising that this was probably one of the last times I will be in Ontario, but definitley the last time I will ever drive the length on Ontario! HAHA!

Day 4 took us from Winnipeg to Moose Jaw. We didn't want to revisit Regina so we thought we'd give Moose Jaw a try. Who knew that it would be slim pickings for a hotel in Moose Jaw...I mean...why were there all these people here? Filo drove today as it was nice and straight and I could be a non-carsick passenger. The yellow canola fields and the green fields juxtaposed with one another were beautiful and I was so thankful to be able to take it all in. A lot of people pitied us for having to drive through the Prairies as they're boring and the roads go on forever...well the Prairies are beautiful and the only road that doesn't go on forever is a dead end one! I loved the poetry of the long road ahead and how you could see your journey ahead of you as opposed to the windy, North Ontario road, or the mountain roads, where every corner holds a surprise...not bad, just different! We spent the night in our budget hotel but at least our room had a door that led directly to the pool. We had lots of suggestions of what to do and see in Moose Jaw but when put to a vote, the kids just wanted to get home. We had hit the halfway mark and just wanted to make the last leg home a fast one.