Lunar Bovine - Jason Cobill’s Weblog

We’re in Thunder Bay, safe and sound, despite a harrowing after-dark drive through a torrential downpour an hour outside of our destination… it was a pretty low point in my decision-making history and left us both a little frazzled, so we’re spending an extra day here just to get some proper sleep and recover.

We got out of Winnipeg a little later than planned, and right out of the gate we hit bad weather (The remnants of the hurricane). Despite our efforts to make up time on the dry stretches, it seemed like every time we started catching up we’d end up getting caught in another rainstorm or stuck in construction. As dusk approached we decided we’d gun it for Thunder Bay, but because it was so cloudy it was pitch black at almost 7:00pm, an hour earlier than expected.

We were cruising toward the finish line in the dark when -another- torrential rainstorm dropped on us, and through the mess a logging truck nearly drove us off the road. We decided it was getting so stupid that we pulled over in a snowplow turning area in the middle of nowhere and just slept in the car for two hours while we waited for the rain to pass over and watched the lights of the huge trucks blowing past in the storm - it was a crazy experience that I never want to repeat. We ended up getting into Thunder Bay at 2:30am last night, feeling rotten and desperate to get off the road and into a bed.

Tomorrow the weather’s supposed to be sunny and warm, I can see the clouds opening up already. So we’re planning to leave at sunrise and take advantage of a few extra hours of sunshine, with a better contingency plan in case we get behind again.

So much for being stoked about the Canadian Shield. Rotten poop. I hope the rest of the trip is easier.

Wet Trees and Rocks on the Canadian Shield

Oh! Bonus road story: We pulled over right at the Ontario border (at the top of a huge rise) to grab some snacks out of the back seat, and while we were poking around in the mist and watching an old guy walking his dog, a lightning bolt out of nowhere struck no more than 100 feet away from us - there was a huge flah of light and a CRACKAAAAHHH!!! on the other side of the treeline and we scrambled back into the car and got the heck out of there. Crazy.