3 Ginger Snaps

An excellent first day on the road – by all accounts. Well behaved children. Smooth roads. Good music in the car. And a spectacular finish at Lake Superior Provincial Park.

A few reflections from the day. First – on my friend Craig. As we traveled through small towns, marvelled at rock formations, wondered about what it looks like inside and RV, and felt humbled by the hardcores who are traveling Hwy 17 on bicycle, it was the motorcycles that held my attention on the road. Craig loved a road trip more than anyone I’ve ever known. He had stories from roads all over North America, and I imagine that if I’d been able to talk our plans for this trip over with him, he would have had some excellent tips about where to stop, where not to stop and what to look out for along the way. I’ve never ridden a motorcycle – but I missed him on all the curves on the road – I know that he loved the twisties.

At one point yesterday, we passed through Española, a small town north west of Sudbury. And while I had been to Espanola before, I hadn’t been north of Espanola before. None of us had. And that realization left me thinking about how fortunate the five of us are to be experiencing this set of firsts together. Be it the first time in Sault St Marie. The first time swimming in Lake Superior. Or the first time in a while that it’s just been the five of us together with one shared purpose and no distractions other than the next interesting thing to come along.

After a full day on the toad we arrived in Lake Superior Provincial Park. We were treated to an astonishing late afternoon swim on the spectacular beach at the Agawa Bay campground. The best part of the day for Hil and me was watching the girls play and swim together in Lake Superior.

There were some humorous moments as well – such as Arden getting her hair caught in the tent zipper.

She didn’t think it was funny. The rest of us had a chuckle. Most of the time when she makes us laugh it’s with a great deal of intent.

Finally – Hil and I remarked that one of the things that we have realized that we both enjoy about camping is checking out other people’s gear. We saw dinner tents of all shapes and sizes. Deluxe pop up tent trailers. Tent trailers that get pulled behind a motorcycle. Baking racks, bike racks and towel racks. Solar panels. Dog tents. And on and on it goes. This guy was chopping kindling with a very large axe.

Amazing first day on the road. Lake Superior is gorgeous.