12 August 2016, Friday

The sunrise paints the sky across Marie Louise Lake a brilliant red as we strike the tent and repack the tarp. We arrive at Tina’s Breakfast and Lunch restaurant in Thunder Bay before 9 and eat a rather substantial breakfast. We are soon back on the road westward. There is still a large expanse of Ontario to cover before we arrive in Manitoba. We pass many lakes and rivers, and more granite road cuts.   O and I trade off driving every 100 km or so in an attempt to avoid fatigue.

As O takes his turn, I find a brew pub/restaurant in Kenora, Ontario on Lake of the Woods. Lake of the Woods Brewery becomes our mid-afternoon lunch goal. We arrive uneventfully, have two very good beers and share a breaded dilled fish BLT with a large spinach mushroom salad. Shortly after lunch we cross into Manitoba.

Manitoba is flat… very flat, but the green of the fields and of the pine trees, combined with the broad blue sky with its varying layers of great white clouds compensate for the uninteresting terrain. The GPS is reading just shy of 800 km when we arrive at La Chaumiere B&B. Celine (pronounced Say-Lynn), our hostess is very welcoming and shows us around the cozy house. We have the whole B&B to ourselves as no other guests are due until Sunday.

O and I go for a walk around the neighborhood to stretch our legs. We find a small cafe called Choco-Berry and share a fresh-baked waffle topped with strawberries and dark chocolate ganache. We crossed into the central time zone soon after leaving Thunder Bay earlier today, so although the clock tells me it is only 9 pm, I am ready for bed by the time we return to the B&B.