Canada

After visiting lower section of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Medora, ND and the upper park approximately 60 miles north we headed straight north on HW85 to Canada and crossed the border at Fortuna, North Dakota, population 31. Crossing the border into Canada was like trying to break into Fort Knox. The poor guy riffled through our coach like we were smuggling rum into the states during the prohibition. We didn’t complain we just sit there and they eventually let us go on our way. I guess it was hard for the guy to comprehend 2 dumb country bumpkins coming from Southern Indiana to Fortuna, ND to cross the US/Canadian Border.
After the crossing we went on a side journey to Rouleau, Saskatchewan. If you ever saw the Canadian sitcom Dog River, Rouleau was the town used to represent Dog River. Yelp it looked just like it did on TV, police station, grocery, town hall, hotel/bar the whole nine yards with the exception of the diner & gas station which was built for the program. We walked into the bar to buy souvenirs the door was wide open but no one was there. We could have walked out with a table or chair; it was funny in a way. We stopped by the gas station and took a few photos, we could not drive up to the pumps, which were removed and replace with props, because tourist would stop by thinking it was an actual gas station. They even had to put barricades up on the drive way to keep people from pulling in; this was done after the filming had stopped. The grain silo was the same. It was a real hoot.
After our departure from DOG RIVER we set across Saskatchewan heading east, boy is it ever flat. Nothing but wheat and grain for hundreds of miles. We spent the night at Kings RV Park east of Regina on Trans Can 1, a nice stop for a night or two but no destination place. We drove on to Falcon Lake Provincial Park in Manitoba, a real nice park, clean and well appointed and would highly recommend it for anyone crossing Manitoba. Coming east into Ontario we stayed 2 nights in the Sleeping Giant Provincial Park east of Thunder Bay, another cool park. Silver Islet is a neat plce it was reported to be the largest grossing siver mine in the 1800's. This silver vein was discovered by a fisherman while fishing on a rock a few meters off the shoreline. Once it was determined to be silver the miners set pilings around the outcrop of rocks to form an artificial island and set up a large mining operation. The visitor's center at the park has a replica of the mining operation. Really neat. From Sleeping Giant we headed east until we arrived at Neys (NAYS) Provincial Park. Neys Provincial Park, west of Marathon, on Can 17. Neys is right on Lake Superior and during WWII it was a War Prisoner Camp for ranking German Officers. The visitor center host told us after the war 80% of the former prisoners returned to Canada after the war and applied for citizenship. I can understand why it was so peaceful and beautiful on the lake. In this region of Ontario wild Woodland Caribou roam freely, but we did not see any. We did see a skull & a pelt at the visitor's center. While at the center I was put to the challange of identifying animal poop of the region. I was 100% successful, so the host had me do a consulation round where I did 80% not bad for a non-native.
We are now in Wawa, Ontario visiting old friends; Wawa has been our primary vacation spot for 10 years, we love it here. Peaceful, quiet, great fishing, and so much for a photographer’s eye; my wife just has a ball here shooting photos. We’ll be here a day or 2 then we are off down Michigan’s western shoreline making our way back home. As soon as I can get a chance I’ll load up photos of our trip for you to enjoy. Wawa has always been our place for peace & quiet, fishing and mushroom hunting has always been out thing here. This year we did not fish but we did gather about 30 pounds on edibile mushrooms. We brought home about 10 pounds.

A few photos of our trip so far. Please excuse some none related photos because I'm sort of new at this stuff.