Road Trip Day 4: Thunder Bay to Winnipeg

After my shower this morning I was feeling good and ready for another day of driving.  The same cannot be said about my companions.  Barb hasn’t been feeling great ever since her back spasm and Sarah had been feeling a little off since the beginning of the trip and this morning was the pinnacle of her suffering.  This morning they both had pretty bad nausea, among other things.

They were in pretty rough shape but I was able to enjoy the delicious gluten free pancakes made by Aranka’s mom.  After I ate, Barb and Sarah chilled and tried to prepare themselves for the drive while I reorganized my stuff in the back of Stan so the middle seats had room to recline.

It took us longer to get out the door than planned but we made sure to thank our lovely hosts before we left.  We even grabbed a picture with Aranka before leaving.

This morning was the first time I really wished I could drive Stan.  Stupid rental rules!  I’m 22 – that’s plenty old enough to drive a minivan in my opinion. 

I don’t think I have ever felt so powerless as I did this morning.  I couldn’t drive and I couldn’t magically heal Barb and Sarah.  We were basically stranded in Thunder Bay until they felt better.

We stopped at a Starbucks attached to a Safeway so we could grab some coffee (apparently Tim’s coffee isn’t good enough for Sarah) as well as some anti-nausea remedies.  In other words I picked up more gravol and some ginger ale.

We hung out for a little while until Barb was feeling well enough to drive.  Sarah crashed in the back waiting for the medicine to kick in.  Surprisingly enough within an hour or so she was like an entirely different person – the wonderfully sweet Sarah we all know and love was back.

About an hour into our drive a cop car drove past us driving in the opposite direction.  Barb noticed in the rearview mirror that he did a u-turn to follow us.  Yeah we got pulled over.  According to him we were going 114km/h in a 90km/h zone.  I don’t know how he could tell how fast we were going since he was in a moving vehicle.  Oh well, he ended up letting us off with only an informal warning.  We were luckY!  Needless to say we were very conscience of our speed for the rest of the day.  Barb and Sarah opted to use the cruise control for a good portion of the day.

Not long after that we stopped at a rest area near a lake to use the washrooms and for me to make lunch.  I had the pleasure of discovering a couple inches of water at the bottom of the cooler from the melted ice.  Since I was the only one feeling well enough to eat I cleaned out the cooler, made a sandwich and then brought it with me to eat in the van so we could continue on.

Sarah took over driving since she was feeling significantly better and while I was eating we had a good conversation about different types of learning and the flaws within our current education system. 

From there we moved on to the topic of health and nutrition.  I’ve decided that when I get home I am going to work on developing a workout schedule and eating plan for the summer.  I do so much better when I have a plan or routine to follow.  You just have to compare my two semesters this year.  In the Fall I had a workout routine that has me running and swimming 5 or 6 times a week.  That helped improve my eating and my moods; and I even did pretty well in school.  This past semester I failed to develop a new workout routine that fit my new semester schedule.  My laziness resulted in weight gain, poor sleeping and eating habits, and being super stressed out by schoolwork.  Yep I think developing a workout routine for the summer is wise.  Don’t you?

The rest of the drive from that point until Kenora was pretty uneventful.  All three of us just kind of chilled and did our own thing.  I decided to start writing this post while in the van to save time.  I’m glad I did because I am absolutely exhausted and now I have less to write about before I can crash.

Kenora was our favourite small town in Ontario so far.  It was quaint and had a nice aesthetic.  I took a few pics as we were leaving.

Shortly past Kenora we reached the Manitoba-Ontario border.  It was kind of crazy how almost immediately you could notice a difference in the landscape.  At first there were still a few trees but later you could definitely tell we had entered the Prairies.  Right around then Sarah and I fell into a conversation about the Hunger Games.  Barb tuned out since she hasn’t watched the movie or read the book but she might someday so she didn’t want us to ruin it for her.  I found Sarah’s perspective on the storyline quite interesting since she had only seen the movie.  Plus she was able to relate her theological studies to the story, which I found kind of fascinating.  The only trouble is the movie tends to be to subtle about certain aspects of the plotline that were much more clear in the books so Sarah saw things quite differently than how they were portrayed in the books.  I really want her to read the books so we can discuss the series on a whole different level. 

About half an hour away from Winnipeg we noticed we could see the city pretty clearly.  It was kind of amusing.  I guess that’s the Prairies for you.

When we arrived Cam was in the middle of preparing supper and it was only then that I started to notice just how drained was.  A few days in a row with less than 8 hours of sleep and lots of time spent in a van will eventually take a toll.  As the only fully healthy one and the navigator/music selector I felt like I couldn’t sleep in the car, like I needed to stay awake so we didn’t get lost or so I didn’t miss anything.

My fatigue was made obvious when I said, “Sarah, I would be so excited if you left the continent!”  It sounds really bad but I definitely didn’t mean it the way it sounds.  I meant to say I would be happy for her to have the opportunity to travel abroad.  Travelling is one of the best experiences in my opinion.  You may have already guessed that though, eh?

Cam took us to visit some of her oldest and dearest friends after dinner.  They were going to have a bonfire but it turns out there is a ban on fires currently, which makes sense since it is incredibly dry and rather warm here.  Ever since I got here my lips have been really chapped and my throat has felt like it is perpetually dry.  Instead of a bonfire we ended up watching a movie called Chronicle.  I found it kind of strange and at times annoying.  The others seemed to enjoy it.  Near the end, one of my contacts folded in my eye and I had to take it out and put it back in.  It was kind of painful since my contacts were super dry, yet another side effect of the warm, dry weather here.

I’m really looking forward to having Cam join us.  He is quite the character.  I think he will provide some much needed entertainment through the flat Prairies.  Plus I think Barb and Sarah are looking forward to having him split the driving duties with them.