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Written by Jane
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Tuesday, 25 September 2007 |
Our theme song for this leg: Tom Petty’s “Breakdown Honey Go ahead and give it to me, breakdown in the middle of the night.” 
Well we made it a mere 400 miles when our check engine light when back on again and our truck went back into limp mode. This time, in the fog and rain and once again on the narrow two-lane trans-Canada highway. We dutifully followed the GM instructions for trying to clear the false code – while we hung out next the the compressed Gas plant on the highway. But to no avail. We were 35 miles from Kenora so once again, we limped into the nearest campsite. Tomorrow, we’ll be back at the dealer raising holy hell about why they can’t figure this out and how the hell we’re supposed to continue to travel with this unresolved condition. GRRRRR!
The prior leg of our trip, from Wawa to Thunder Bay was thankfully uneventful. We began to get a solid look at the amazing beaches of Lake Superior and what the guidebook meant about the Carribean look of the waters.   We stopped en route in a speck of a town called White River which had the cutest rest stop on the Trans-Canada – complete with Whinnie the Pooh playground. We soon learned that White River is reputedly the home of the really Whinnie – a brown bear bought in White River by a Canadian sergeant from Winnipeg (hence the name “Whinnie”). Whinne quickly became the mascot for his battalion and so was brought to England upon their deployment. But when they were sent to France to fight in the war, Whinnie was left in the care of a British zoo, where she lived for 10 yers and was visited often by A.A. Milne and his son, Christopher Robin.   
This was a huge thrill for Kell, as we have been studiously reading from all the A.A. Milne stories we have on hand. We brought with us the whole set of Pooh books that Miles had growing up. I’ve totally nailed the accents for Eeyore, Christopher Robin, Kanga, Roo, Rabit and Owl – but am dreadfully deficient in replicating the Pooh and Piglet accents. Kell is especially enamored with the Pooh story about the “Expotition” – I guess he relates to the sense of aimless wondering without any real goal in sight.
What’s sad about the Pooh story is that Disney, like any good conglomerate, has found a way of monopolizing on the Pooh popularity despite Milne’s decision, upon his death, to leave the copyright to the Pooh stories to his son and the children of the world. Well I’m sure it didn’t take Disney long to slap on the red shirt and find the right voice and thereby monopolize the creative potential of Pooh. Even White River, Pooh’s hometown, had to show the Disney copyright everywhere. Oh bother!
We spent a day and half in Thunder Bay checking out the strange suburban sprawl perched in one of the most beautiful bays I’ve ever seen. To the east and extending southward about 35 k lies Sleeping Giant – a large provincial park set onto this long peninsula that forms the eastern shore of the Bay. To the west the mainland curves southward through large cliff faces and hump-like mountains.
On our way in, we stopped at Ouimet Canyon to check out one of the few Canyons of any significance in the area. It was deep and somewhat wide for this region but the coolest thing about it was the fact that at the bottom of the canyon, there are flora that are native to the arctic regions – apparently due to the constantly cool temperatures way down beneath the layers of boulders strewn at the bottom, there are even moss-covered patches that harbor ice patches left from the glacier that carved the canyon. Wild indeed. Unfortunately, access to the Canyon floor is restricted due to the rarity of the species there. We were left to hover above on “viewing pods” that scared the bejesus out of me – and served to highlight my growing distrust of all man-made structures of any height whatsoever, which has recently worsened since the recent Mpls. Bridge collapse.     
We also got a brief hike in at Kakeba Falls – the biggest Kell has seen so far, but somewhat tainted by the hordes of people ambling on the boardwalks perched on the cliffs just downstream of the falls. No matter. Kell loved it. The falls are said to be haunted by the spirit of Greenmantle, the daughter of a native American chief (I forget the tribe). After being captured by rival Sioux warriors, they forced her to lead them by canoe to a place where more of her people could be ambushed. The legend holds that she deftly steered them to the falls (which when viewed from upstream can barely be detected except for the sound) and sacrificed her life over the falls along with those of her Sioux captors to save her people.   
As for me, I’m barely holding up my game face these days. Having these truck problems has gotten me down a bit and has also made us realize that the dream of seeing Jasper must be let go. We checked the weather this morning and realized that if we forge on ahead, we’ll quickly be dealing with freezing temperatures and we still have a bit of work to do on winterizing issues. I have a list of materials that we need to buy and some of those need to be ready to use as soon as we hit the freezing mark. And Miles has his heart set on a catalytic heater that we can use instead of the forced air from the furnace. Anyway, now, with the truck issues, we can’t attempt any really mountainous terrain. In a way, I guess it’s lucky we realized what a problem we have on hand before getting out there. A reason for everything? I’m still mad as hell about it though.
Instead, we’ll stay nearer the border, maybe passing through Banff depending on weather, and then head to Seattle, where we’ll leave in a little more than a week to fly back to New York. In part, we’re all going for the casting of Mom’s ashes. Not a happy occasion, but it will be good to have closure on that too.
I’m so excited to get to see my “peeps” and spend time in a house for a few days. While Kell and I luxuriate in the loveliness of a Hamptons fall, Miles will fly down to D.C. to work with the Brookings folks for a few days and then back to Seattle to pick up where we left off. My big dilemma prior to departure is – what to do about Miles’ 40th – coming up on Oct. 1. I know he’s not seeing it as any big deal but I really want to find some way of makring the occasion. Hard to do with a five year old in tow. It may have to wait until we’re New York bound and then maybe we’ll sneak off to the Big City for a night or two.
Check back for more truck troubles if you’re interested… I’m sure there’s more to come.
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