The Last 3 Travel Days

The last leg of our Western Epic Canadian Journey involved 3 full days of driving. I was a bit concerned that it would be incredibly tedious, but I was pleasantly surprised. We took the North route along the Trans-Canada Highway this time, to help change up the scenery. And we made sure to stop at more of the sights along the way. Starting with the highly touted Max the Moose (and some random eagle). Just outside of Winnipeg, Max stands quite tall, right on the side of the road...in anticipation of weary travelers needing a perfect spot for a quick lunch. So of course we obliged.

All along our travels we had spotted numerous stacks of rocks, called inuksuk (or the plural being inuksuit). All I knew was it was some sort of Inuit symbol.

When we saw this "larger than truck sized" version, I decided to google it and find out more. These human like figures are made of piled stones or boulders constructed to communicate with humans throughout the Arctic.

Traditionally constructed by the Inuit, inuksuit are integral to Inuit culture and are often intertwined with representations of Canada and the North. They signify safety, hope and friendship. I like the idea that maybe these structures helped us safely through our journey.


As we drove through Thunder Bay, we stopped at the Terry Fox Memorial and Lookout. This was a sobering moment, as Terry's story cannot help but tug at your heart and bring a lump to your throat. Terry Fox, born 12 days before David, was one of the most influential athletes in Canadian history. As a young cancer sufferer and amputee, he attempted to run across Canada with an artificial leg, in the hopes of raising money and awareness for cancer research.  His 'Marathon of Hope' came to an abrupt end after traveling 26 miles per day, from St. John's, Newfoundland to Thunder Bay, Ontario.



Terry is the youngest person (he lived to be 22 years old) to have been appointed a companion of the Order of Canada, which is the country's highest civilian honour.

Today over $750 million has been raised worldwide for cancer research in Terry’s name through the annual Terry Fox Run, held across Canada and around the world.

We had originally planned to spend the night in Thunder Bay, but Dave found a free "campsite" at a marina a little further down the road in a town called Nipigon. This was basically a parking lot next to a boat ramp on a small lake, but it actually had electricity and water hookups, so it turned out to be a pretty good deal.


We got up early and had a shorter drive the next day and made it to a beautiful
provincial park called Kettle Lakes. We even got in a bike ride before we started
up our last campfire and delicious turkey dog dinner!

We saw a lot of these purple and pink flowers along the road. I'm not sure what they are called but had to get a picture because they were so striking!


Our last day of driving was fairly uneventful so I will conclude with some road signs we saw along the way that were new to me. I honestly do not think I have ever seen these in Texas.  I know some of these are not unique to Canada but I still found them all interesting. I hope you do too.




I hope you have enjoyed following along with me on our cross Canada adventure. I will continue the blog with our on-going exploration of our new city and everything that it has in store for us.