F 1 D 0 -- 02 08 09 at 01 00 Central Daylight Time

Kenora.

Here we are in Beautiful Kenora
Ontario. This place would be five
hours from Thunder Bay if we took
no rests at all. 

But we are doing this for the opportunity
to see the places along the way. 

I'll do this backwards. I just saw 
Kenora, and can tell you about it.

This place has the main streets
that every other town and city 
should have. It has bright street
lamps and pedestrians. It has young
people walking and laughing aloud.

I like this place so far.

We just passed a hardware store which
is a hundred years old. The owner is
retiring, and so he's only open on 
Fridays and Saturdays now.

But it has a 16 foot high ceiling. It
has shelves and drawers to the top. And
it has two tracks along the ceiling for
running the ladders along. 

We arrived here at 10pm-ish. Oh! Oh!
When you travel this far, the time
zone clicks from Eastern Daylight to
Central Daylight time. So my watch
says 1am, but the local time is just
midnight. Cool!

I'll pay for this on the way back home.

So, anyway. It was late when we came here,
so we'll drop into the store tomorrow when
it is open.

Our hosts, Barbara and Kurt will be 
going to Yard Sales and Garage Sales 
in the morning. If I can rouse myself from 
bed and be ready to leave by 730am, then 
I'll be able to join them.

Kendall House Information
kendallhouse@gokenora.com

I've not done this in *ages*. So now you
know I'll be thinking of waking up early.

Stop laughing! I know you know how hard
this will be for me. For the last week or
so, it has been hot. So hot I seem to be
awake until 4am. 

This place is called Kendall House. It
is a *wonderful* bed and breakfast. And
they're friends of Ann's since forever.

And I'm able to write to you today because
they not only have a computer, and not only
have a network connection, but have a high
speed ADSL through the cable TV. Coool.


Dryden is about 90 minutes from here. That
is a Mill Town. It is divided by the train
tracks. On one side is the highway, with
the big stores, like Canadian Tire, and 
the Subway (sandwich) place, the McD, the
hotels, the other fast food joints. On the
other side of the tracks it has the old
downtown. Investments, Banks, shopping.

We went into the Subway because I was
had this sticky sweat. It happens to me
when I'm under certain kinds of stress.
The roads are good. But as we travel
the hills, people drive fast. And sometimes
without sufficient attention.

"Look at this guy. He's coming right
for us." He was passing some truck, and
I was watching him driving straight
into me. Yes, I pulled into the spacious
paved shoulder.

Also there are all of the "Night
Danger: Moose". This is most likely
to happen at dusk, during the sunset
period. So while I don't mind driving
quickly, I kept very safe when the sun
was going down. Moose and deer don't wear
reflective clothing.

Our first stop was Upsala. (I almost
said Ignace, and you wouldn't have
known better)

We were going to just go into the 
gas station, and use the facilities.
Instead, I opted to find out what 
they sold at the General Store.

This one was an LCBO agency (sold
liquor), a Brewer's Retail facility
(sold beer), a Post Office, and of 
course, a store for everything else.

We stopped for ice cream. But I liked
how we could buy meat, cellular phones,
fishing supplies - a bit of anything.

This was just a couple who ran the store.
I'll bet they do enough business. I just
watched the people who come and go. The
man seemed like someone I'd seen before,
but cannot say where. He was like a caricature
of someone else.

Trains play a big role along the entire
trip. I kept seeing freight trains doing
runs, or just stopping for a while. In Upsala,
they have a track with trailers along them.
I think this is for staff who are waiting 
for a chance to get work back to their home
city. I have a friend who works from Upsala
to Kenora and back. So I guess he stays in
the trailers overnight as needed.

I'll try to reply to your notes. So far so
good.

That's all I know.