ACCRT Days 4 and 5

So I’m super behind on my blogging right now. The end of the trip brought many things including a bit of the stomach flu and I just wasn’t up for blogging. I’m going to do two quick recaps of the last four days and post some pictures.

Day 4 of ACCRT was the trip from Sault Ste. Marie to Thunder Bay. Jaime had commented earlier that she had hoped we had made it to the waterfront in Sault Ste. Marie because it was beautiful. Unfortunately, with the brake problems from day 3 and the long drive we had we didn’t arrive from the hotel until 9 pm, we were exhausted and just didn’t have the energy to go out.

Day 4 was the most beautiful drive we had but also the worst day for me. I was uncomfortable, my body was getting sore from driving and I was getting a touch of the stomach flu. Also, to top it all off our camera battery died so we didn’t get very many pictures even thought we could have taken pictures all day long.

My eats of day 4 are un-photographed due to the lack of battery but I do know there was a salad for lunch and maybe a sub for dinner?? Not sure about dinner, without the pictures it’s all starting to blur together.

The drive to Thunder Bay is through the mountains beside Lake Superior and it gorgeous. Here are a few pictures we took before the battery died:

The mountains were so high up and the clouds were so low that we were driving right through them.

Please don’t might the dirty windshield. We were finally able to find a car wash in Thunder Bay.

A few more of Lake Superior from a ‘scenic lookout’

Day 5 of the trip was much better in terms of driving. I had done some yoga when arriving at the hotel in Thunder Bay so I was able to stretch out my body a little and was feeling a lot less sore. I was still having stomach problems but it was coming and going throughout the day.

Breakfast started with a coffee from MacDonald’s.

And two hash browns.

The drive through the rest of Ontario really started to flatten out during this time.

And the trees started to thin out.

Around lunch we hit Kenora and grabbed MacDonald’s (again). I’m not a big fan of it but there wasn’t much to choose from and since my belly was still upset I figured I’d just have a little bit of something so I really didn’t care what it was.

I had a couple of nuggets.

And a few fries.

Just after leaving Kenora we hit the Manitoba border. Too bad the picture didn’t turn out.

Here where things started to really flatten out.

Once we arrived in Winnipeg we dropped off our stuff at the hotel and headed to what we heard was the ‘must see’ of Winnipeg: The Forks. This is the place that the Red River and the Assiniboine River meet.

Here are some pictures.

This is a pedestrian only bridge going over the river.

In the center of the bridge is a restaurant in the centre of the bridge where we ate dinner.

 

Here was our view while we were eating.

This was the second restaurant that had a vehicle hanging from its ceiling.

 

When deciding what to order for dinner I was feeling better (or I thought I was) so I decided on chicken strips and fries. I knew our trip was almost over and I was going back to healthy eating so I made my fries a poutine.

BIG MISTAKE.

Just looking at my dinner makes me feel gross. I didn’t even eat any of the poutine and just some of the chicken. I was also wrong about feeling better (this happened a couple of times on the trip) and this dinner just made my stomach worse.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel for the night.

I’m going to leave you with a picture of Charlie enjoying another hotel room.

~ Katie :)

ACCRT Day 3

Evening bloggies. I hope everyone had a good hump day.

I’m a day behind on blogging and I will probably only get one post in tonight as well. They’ve been very long days and I just don’t have the energy to write two posts.

Before I get started a couple of people asked about how my GPS knew about about the traffic problems in Montreal in yesterday’s post. Our GPS came with a FM receiver and when we’re in major cities it picks up traffic updates and plans routes accordingly. It’s actually a pretty cool feature. When we got the GPS last week we didn’t think the traffic feature would be that useful but so far the Garmin is proving us wrong.

Breakfast on Tuesday was from Tim Horton’s – a blueberry muffin and oj (un-pictured).

Day 3 started out with great intentions. We got up very early in order to get an early start. Unfortunately as soon as we got in the car we knew something was wrong with the brakes. We stopped at the closest repair shop – Speedy – and waited 3 hours to get new rear brakes. To add insult to injury, one of the callipers was seized and had to be replaced as well. We sat around for almost 3 hours waiting for everything to get fixed before we could hit the road.

This didn’t put us on the road until after 10 and we knew we had a 10 hour drive ahead of us on a very hot day. We planned ahead this time and bought some ice for the cooler so Charlie had a place to stay cool and be happy.

Since we were leaving from Ottawa and heading to Sault Ste. Marie we were driving through central Ontario. It was a long, painful and very hot day.

Around lunch time we were starving and had no idea where to stop. We found a small town – Pembroke and decided to stop at Subway for lunch. As we pulled into the Subway we saw a sign on the door that said, ‘Coming Soon’. SERIOUSLY!!! We didn’t have many options so Wendy’s it was.

I got a single hamburger with bacon.

 

Fries – I only ate about a quarter of them.

And an ice-tea – what’s with medium drink? Mediums are not this big in Halifax!

Some point in the afternoon we stopped at Tim’s again and this time I grabbed and ice-capp with chocolate milk. I forgot to take a before shot so I figured an after shot would work as well :P

During this drive the majority of the highways were not divided and there were many people travelling very slow. We did encounter some beautiful scenery though.

Here are some of the pictures.

 

 

 

After a very hot and sticky day we made it to Sault Ste. Marie. The days are becoming more painful (physically) so we decided not to stop for dinner and we went for the last 4 hours without stopping. We figured we’d grab something when we got to town.

Dinner was Subway! After the lack of subs for lunch we decided to grab some for dinner. I was starving by this point and decided to go with a footlong turkey with bacon.

I’m now sitting in the hotel room in Thunder Bay watching SYTYCD. We have another long drive tomorrow to Winnipeg.

Stay tuned for an update on the trip from Sault Ste. Marie to Thunder Bay tomorrow.

~ Katie :)