Arrive in Sudbury

June 25^th – arrive Sudbury

A significant run today, ensuring we are within striking distance of the nation’s capital for our four-day booking over the July 1^st long weekend. Ottawa for June 28^th through July 1^st and the full celebration deal. National Gallery of Canada, Rideau Canal, parliament buildings, Canadian War Museum, Diefenbunker, Royal Canadian Mint (a Sven must), the Byward Market and so much more. Four days won’t be enough.

We ran 350 km today and stopped in at Bruce Mines for a couple hours. The Bavarian Inn served up a delicious pizza, some excellent sandwiches and lots of local lore from the gracious host. She related that she was passing through town four years previously and stopped for breakfast at the Inn. She and her husband never left. They are now the only establishment to provide alcohol and entertainment on Friday evenings.

The Marina sign at Bruce Mines

The museum is housed in an old Presbyterian Church that was abandoned once they joined with Methodists to form the United Church. It still has stained glass windows, but the rest of the space is taken up with over 40,000 different artefacts from first nations’ stone tools to World War I Prussian army uniforms. Our guide was a teacher, bought one of Sven’s books and happens to be the sister of a BC Supreme Court judge. Quite a small world really.

This tiny burg advertises it’s attractions as the marina, the museum, the mine;  the first in Canada, discovered by Europeans via first nations in 1846; and the library.

All across Canada so far, but particularly in Ontario, ravens patrol the highways. We can’t go more than a kilometer without seeing at least one on the side of the road. I suspect they have plenty of opportunity for scavenging roadkill without expending too much energy. On the other hand, they may be special guardians who are keeping an eye on travelers and reporting miscreants to a special accountant.

We pass through Blind River, a town little known but for Neil Young’s hearse blowing its transmission and dying, giving rise to ‘Long May You Run’. Funnily enough I’m now onto ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ wherein Neil is castigated for dissing the South on two of his tunes; Southern Man and Alabama.

We arrive at our campsite just east of the city of Sudbury just about 18:00. Located on Richard Lake, Carol’s Campsite is, well, kinda ‘Trailer Park Boys’. But the washrooms are clean, and the showers are free. Some cottonwood ‘puffs’ are floating in the air and the weather is sunny and warm. Giant puddles remain as testament to the heavy rainfall of the past day or so.  Folks around here are calling this a ‘late spring’.

Sven goes for a swim in the lake and claims its warmer than the pools at the KOA.

Dinner is grilled chicken, Spanish rice, grilled asparagus drizzled with butter and a fresh garden salad. Larry’s excellent red vin ordinaire if you wish. We eat well.

This morning I wake about 07:00 and go for a walk about the campgrounds. A child’s yellow boots are lying on top a small hill of sand on the lake shore. I see this as a very cool reminiscence of a carefree childhood, or more ominously, a reminder of the vulnerability of children. My volunteer time with Child Find BC has left me deeply aware of how easily young children can disappear. One very positive aspect of modern smart phone technology is a significant reduction in the number of cases of missing children.  Yay!

I prefer to see these yellow boots as a child’s great fun by the lake….