The owner of the Ambassador Motel who made sure to give me a spot that had the bike right outside the room and not visible from the road. "Haven't had anything taken in nineteen years, but why take a chance."
July 11 - Sault Ste. Marie, ON to Marathon, ON
There was a high school student staffing the information booth in Wawa (home of the largest Canada Goose Sculpture)
. When I asked my usual question of "What does your future hold?" She was a little nonplussed. She was about to start grade 12 and handled really started thinking about it yet. "Maybe a doctor or a lawyer. Something where I could help people."July 12 - Marathon, ON to Ignace, ON
Definitely the pipeline guys (although I appreciated the guys in the laundromat who gave me some detergent). They were out from eastern Ontario and they were just waiting. They'd been out to do some work on the pipeline, and now had to wait for some other work to be done. They went to check in at 7:00 AM and once they signed in they were done for the day. 8 hours for doing nothing. And they HATED it. They had done all the fishing they wanted to do. They were tired of the mosquitoes. They just wanted to get to work. In the meantime, they were in a large fifth wheel trailer that one of them towed behind a highly customized tractor (as in tractor-trailer). We talked a lot about motorcycles and motorcycle trips. They shared their rye (would you rather have a double or a triple).
July 13 & 14 Ignace, ON to Kenora, ON
Staying with Bruce and Helen Williams. They have both had to deal with some physical challenges that they handle with great aplomb. The view from their living room across Longbow Lake was spectacular.
I got the full tour of Kenora including seeing Husky the Muskie. Bruce has a substantial collection of single malt Scotch whiskey. We did a horizontal of Glenmorangie and I definitely preferred the version done from the sherry casks. Bruce had manystories of his life in and around western Ontario and I'll have to get back for more of them one day.
July 15 Kenora, ON to Estevan, SK
This was the day I crossed an entire time zone and was in three provinces and one state. The star of the day was a retired farmer in Battineau, ND. He'd worked his whole life. "I was too busy working to ever have a hobby or anything. My son runs the farm now and I help out sometimes. But I really don't know what to do with myself. I had a Cessna Cardinal (airplane) for a while, but then I had a little heart attack and the FAA won't give me a medical anymore. We go down south in the winter in the RV, but really, I don't know what to do with my time any more."
July 16 Estevan, SK to Taber, AT
Tempted by the young people who helped with the pie search at the Alberta information booth, but it's got to be the young Sikh guy at the motel. "You know why there are so many Indians in the hotel/motel business? It's easy money. Of course, the only reason I'm here is my sister. She's in Connecticut and the rest of the family is back in Mumbai. Life is a lot easier in Mumbai. I didn't have to work as hard. I didn't even have to put on my own socks. I had a maid. But my sister was in the US already and my parents wanted there to be someone else in North America. It's a lot easier to get a Canadian visa so I came here to work for my uncle until I can afford to get my own place. I'll go back to Mumbai to get married in a year or two. My parents will have matched me up, but it's not like the old days. We'll go out a couple of times and if it doesn't feel right, I don't have to marry her."
July 17 Taber, AT to St. Mary, MT
The Cobblestone Manor in Cardston, AT had a truly unique apple pie. I was there at 10:45 AM so no one else was in the dining room. The female half of the ownership couple sort of marveled at her success. "The Globe & Mail sent out anonymous reviewers. We had no idea until they wrote us up. We've had someone try to bribe our kitchen help to get the recipe, but they won't tell. And they don't know some of the ingredients anyway."
July 18 St. Mary, MT
The adjacent campsite was occupied by two young women from Denver. One of them had attended Central School in Stirling, NJ (as I had) and we figured out that her mom was probably three years behind me at Central. They had both chosen, at least in part out of religious conviction, to have lives of service. One did clinical social work with at risk youth who had been released from a psychiatric facility while they other organized tutoring/mentoring relationships for at risk youth (after having been a property manage in Fresno). "You just have to get out into nature. You can't just stay in town and work." "The best part of Fresno was you were only two hours from the floor of Yosemite. But finally I just couldn't take Fresno any more."
July 19 St. Mary, MT to Superior, MT
John & Patty Woodland made me very welcome to their incredible location on a bluff above a bank of the Clark Fork. John and I hadn't seen each other since about 1975, but we had more in common than I think either of us expected. Patty had had to cope with enormous physical challenges. Part of her way of coping was keeping goats and chickens. You can get her goat's milk soap in her Etsy shop.
July 20 Superior, MT to Four Lakes, WA
John and I went for a hike on the State Line trail. As we reflected on where life had taken us, we were more similar than not in being more comfortable keeping the favor bank in our favor, not asking for much, and soldiering on with whatever came. John had become a student of Buddhism. His meditations and retreats had led him to a commitment to work actively to change the course of climate change. What matters was taking the thought and making it action. "Once I'd sorted out the fire department, they asked me to take on the hospital." It will be better when he's done.
July 21 Four Lakes, WA to Crescent, OR
There was a married couple in the motel parking lot as I was getting ready to leave. "We sold the mechanic business and the house and bought a truck. We're going to do this for a few years and then move back to Rome, NY. I had a DUI when I was a dumb kid so I can't drive a truck in Canada. Right now we're waiting for some repairs. I paid for a DOT inspection check nine days ago, and then I hit a Class 1 inspection and failed nine ways. The guy was OK, he only gave me a ticket for one, and he let me deliver my load. I'm going to go back to the guys who did the pre-inspection and get them to pay for the ticket though."
Next time I'll try and add these as I go, but it's a lot easier doing this on a full keyboard than it is on a phone!
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