Monday, June 26, 2006
Mine and Dine!
June 25 2006
This update is brought to you by, yes you guessed it, Burger King!
Another day, another 200 kms. We bid a sad farewell to the Champlain Provincial Park and made a mental note to return there with friends next year. We were off to Sudbury today but we did make a pitstop at the Dionne Quintuplets tourist trap in North Bay on our way. For those of you not familiar with them, the Dionne Quints are five identical twin girls who were born just outside of North Bay way back in 1934, in the depths of the depression. It was considered a miracle that the five survived birth let alone beyond 3 years old and apparently this has never happened again with 5 "natural" identical quintupletsts. It is a long and actually very interesting story that I am sure you can look up on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionne_quintuplets) however the reason I have had more of an interest in them is because my mother was born on exactly the same day they were and not too far from there either. We always joked that there were actually six babies that day but they separated mom from the others to help her avoid the crazy existence the rest of the quints had to endure.
We also partook in our first "pull over and eat lunch in the MoHo" episode and it lived up to my expectations. I don't know why but I just love that. Anyway, we then continued on to Sudbury in the afternoon. Everything seemed to be going well until we stopped for gas and I noticed that the electrical cord connecting the MoHo lights to the Matrix lights had been dragging along the ground and had about half of the plug "sanded" off. Oh well, live and learn.
The good news was that the guy at the gas station told me where there was a Starbucks, or in other words, free internet access. If you read yesterday's entry you know that didn't turn out to be true and it was Burger King to the rescue! We then proceed to Carol's Campground
just south of Sudbury and ended up getting one of the nicest sites in what appeared from the highway to be a less than stellar MoHo park. And it is cheap to boot so that is a bonus. We have an unobstructed view of the lake and we are as far as possible from the highway. But it is nothing like the provincial park we just came from. No problem though as we plan to spend the day doing tourist things in Sudbury. I really want to go on a tour of the huge nickel mine that Sudbury is known for. Don't worry I'll tell you all about it. Well, I've gotta go get some sleep. See ya later.
June 26 2006
Today kind of felt like our first day of vacation. Probably because we spent most of the day doing vacation-like things. We started off by heading over to The "Big Nickel" and took a tour of the nickel mines there. The underground tour was cool but the movie about how the whole nickel mine came to be and what it has gone through since was arguably more interesting. And in case anyone was wondering, no, we didn't take any wooden nickels.
After that it was off to Science North, the big science museum there. We couldn't resist as we get in for free with our annual pass to the Ottawa science centre. There was some pretty cool stuff there. Morgan patted a porcupine and contrary to popular belief, they do NOT throw their quills. We saw
some snakes and turtles and even a hawk. We also got a chance to flying in a flight simulator, have a virtual race on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, and I even successfully "rested" on a bed on nails ... for about 10 seconds. And if you look closely you might be able to see me in space!
One thing I must comment on is the landscape around Sudbury. Over 100 years ago they started cutting trees to fuel the fires for the smelters. As you might extrapolate, for a place that supplied over 90% of the world's nickel, now the trees are missing from all around Sudbury for miles (or kilometers). And another thing you might extrapolate from this is that all the smoke and residue from these smelters was less than environmentally friendly for new growth where the trees once were. The resulting view in and around the city, as of the 1970's, was described as a moonscape
made up of blackend rock and ground with not a tree in sight for about as far as the eye can see. In the late 70's the town, the university, and the mines all got together and started a reforestation effort that is just now starting to reap some results. They have managed to plant more than 12 million trees in the last 25 or so years and now the hills surrounding Sudbury are green again. Morgan commented that it looks like a forest fire went through a few years ago as none of the trees are very tall or thick but it is a start. So, in summary, if you like trees, Sudbury is not that interesting. If you like rocks, Sudbury is definitely your kind of place!
So tomorrow it is off to swanky Sault Ste. Marie. Stay tuned!
This update is brought to you by, yes you guessed it, Burger King!
Another day, another 200 kms. We bid a sad farewell to the Champlain Provincial Park and made a mental note to return there with friends next year. We were off to Sudbury today but we did make a pitstop at the Dionne Quintuplets tourist trap in North Bay on our way. For those of you not familiar with them, the Dionne Quints are five identical twin girls who were born just outside of North Bay way back in 1934, in the depths of the depression. It was considered a miracle that the five survived birth let alone beyond 3 years old and apparently this has never happened again with 5 "natural" identical quintupletsts. It is a long and actually very interesting story that I am sure you can look up on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionne_quintuplets) however the reason I have had more of an interest in them is because my mother was born on exactly the same day they were and not too far from there either. We always joked that there were actually six babies that day but they separated mom from the others to help her avoid the crazy existence the rest of the quints had to endure.We also partook in our first "pull over and eat lunch in the MoHo" episode and it lived up to my expectations. I don't know why but I just love that. Anyway, we then continued on to Sudbury in the afternoon. Everything seemed to be going well until we stopped for gas and I noticed that the electrical cord connecting the MoHo lights to the Matrix lights had been dragging along the ground and had about half of the plug "sanded" off. Oh well, live and learn.
The good news was that the guy at the gas station told me where there was a Starbucks, or in other words, free internet access. If you read yesterday's entry you know that didn't turn out to be true and it was Burger King to the rescue! We then proceed to Carol's Campground
just south of Sudbury and ended up getting one of the nicest sites in what appeared from the highway to be a less than stellar MoHo park. And it is cheap to boot so that is a bonus. We have an unobstructed view of the lake and we are as far as possible from the highway. But it is nothing like the provincial park we just came from. No problem though as we plan to spend the day doing tourist things in Sudbury. I really want to go on a tour of the huge nickel mine that Sudbury is known for. Don't worry I'll tell you all about it. Well, I've gotta go get some sleep. See ya later.June 26 2006
Today kind of felt like our first day of vacation. Probably because we spent most of the day doing vacation-like things. We started off by heading over to The "Big Nickel" and took a tour of the nickel mines there. The underground tour was cool but the movie about how the whole nickel mine came to be and what it has gone through since was arguably more interesting. And in case anyone was wondering, no, we didn't take any wooden nickels.
After that it was off to Science North, the big science museum there. We couldn't resist as we get in for free with our annual pass to the Ottawa science centre. There was some pretty cool stuff there. Morgan patted a porcupine and contrary to popular belief, they do NOT throw their quills. We saw
some snakes and turtles and even a hawk. We also got a chance to flying in a flight simulator, have a virtual race on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, and I even successfully "rested" on a bed on nails ... for about 10 seconds. And if you look closely you might be able to see me in space!One thing I must comment on is the landscape around Sudbury. Over 100 years ago they started cutting trees to fuel the fires for the smelters. As you might extrapolate, for a place that supplied over 90% of the world's nickel, now the trees are missing from all around Sudbury for miles (or kilometers). And another thing you might extrapolate from this is that all the smoke and residue from these smelters was less than environmentally friendly for new growth where the trees once were. The resulting view in and around the city, as of the 1970's, was described as a moonscape
made up of blackend rock and ground with not a tree in sight for about as far as the eye can see. In the late 70's the town, the university, and the mines all got together and started a reforestation effort that is just now starting to reap some results. They have managed to plant more than 12 million trees in the last 25 or so years and now the hills surrounding Sudbury are green again. Morgan commented that it looks like a forest fire went through a few years ago as none of the trees are very tall or thick but it is a start. So, in summary, if you like trees, Sudbury is not that interesting. If you like rocks, Sudbury is definitely your kind of place!So tomorrow it is off to swanky Sault Ste. Marie. Stay tuned!
